Building Trust and Empowering Employees: The 40% Better Approach. In this episode Judith Germain speaks to Bill Lennan about leadership, team performance, and personal growth strategies. Bill shared his interest in and involvement with a regenerative farming project, explaining the historical shift towards industrial farming and the resulting depletion of soil quality and nutritional value in food. He discussed his motivations for pursuing this project to have more control over his food supply and improve the taste and quality.
You can listen to Episode 458 on any of the popular podcast platforms or apps (including Spotify, and Audible). If you prefer to listen to your browser you can do that below. Enjoy!
Key Takeaways
- Bill’s company, 40% Better, teaches behavioural leadership skills to improve team performance and trust
- Five pillars of effective team leadership: communication, emotional resilience, mental models, power dynamics, and habit formation
- Voluntary discomfort and gradual exposure to challenges can lead to personal growth and improved performance
- Building trust and focusing on intrinsic motivation are key to team success and productivity
Topics
Bill’s Background and Current Work
- 20+ years experience running software teams in various company sizes
- Founded 40% Better, a leadership training programme
- Focus on teaching specific behaviours and mental models for effective leadership
- Emphasis on building trust and intrinsic motivation within teams
The 40% Better Approach
- Five pillars of leadership:
- Communication (curiosity, inquisitiveness, persuasion)
- Emotional resilience
- Mental models
- Understanding power dynamics
- Habit formation
- Starts with scheduling weekly one-on-ones to identify and address team frictions
- Uses metaphors and personal experiences (e.g., water sports) to illustrate concepts
Voluntary Discomfort and Personal Growth
- Bill’s surfing experience in Hawaii taught him to manage fear and tackle challenges
- Applying this approach to workplace situations (e.g., overcoming social anxiety)
- Breaking down challenges into manageable steps for gradual improvement
- Importance of trust and intrinsic motivation in team settings for embracing challenges
Building Trust and Team Performance
- Focus on career advancement and aligning work with individual interests
- Advocating for team needs with executives
- Including team in decision-making processes
- Resulted in significant performance improvements (e.g., 40% increase in coding throughput)
Regenerative Farming Project
- Personal interest in sustainable agriculture
- Aims to improve soil quality and reduce reliance on petroleum-based fertilisers
- Provides better control over food supply and quality
In this conversation Bill detailed his specific strategies for building trust with his teams and keeping them motivated, including: helping team members advance their careers, allowing them to do work they’re intrinsically motivated by, advocating for them with executives, and creating a culture of voluntary discomfort to drive growth and improvement.
Bill Lennan was raised on islands and diversely educated. Bill has always been focused on solving human as well as technical problems.
Bill Lennan can be found on LinkedIn here. His website can be found here.
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