https://youtu.be/ZI8nMFLWOJQ
Thomas Rechtien, President of Nance Steel Sales LLC is driven by a passion to help people become the best versions of themselves and run great meetings that drive impactful results.
We learn about Thomas's framework, which helps leaders foster trust, improve communication, and drive results in their organizations. He emphasizes the importance of well-run meetings in achieving better team dynamics and organizational success, offering practical strategies for leaders looking to elevate their meetings and leadership practices.
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Run Great Meetings With Thomas Rechtien
Good day, dear listeners, Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast. And my guest today is Thomas Rechtien, who is a good friend of mine. He is the president of Nance Steel Sales LLC, and he is also a certified Summit OS guide. He's part of our guide community. Thomas, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me, Steve.
Well, it's great to have you. So, Thomas, let's start with what we start with on all recent conversations. What is your personal “Why” and what are you doing to manifest it?
My personal “Why” is I'm kind of at the point in my life and career where I want to give back based on some of the things that I have learned throughout my journey. And I really want to help people become the best versions of themselves.
Okay, that's huge, the best versions of themselves. What does it mean? How do you do that? How do you help people become the best versions of themselves?
Well, I've been through the co-active coaching training and some things I've picked up there are really, really like where, for example, it's, they call it level three listening. So you just sit, put your tongue to the roof of your mouth so you can't say anything and you just listen to people. And when I went through that, I really found out that I tend to interrupt people. So my wife is right when she blames me for that. And it's really a huge tool. Listen to them, address the whole person, kind of be in that very moment with everybody that you talk to and really pay attention to what's being said. And not only that, on a surface level, that what can be level one, level three is okay. Also, listen between the lines and listen to what's behind the words that are being said.
Yeah, I agree with you. This is huge, because the most important things are often left unsaid, and you kind of have to listen between the lines of what people say and tap into some sort of stuff that they might not even articulating mentally to themselves. And if you can reflect this back and help people see it, then this can be very, very powerful and life changing. So take a step back. So what's your general coaching philosophy? How do you look at coaching and what do you think makes for good coaching?
I think some of the stuff that we've talked about already, Steve, I think real good coaching is addressing the whole person when the agenda comes from the client and they come and whatever, they come with a symptom and they want you to put a band aid on. Real good coaching goes way beyond that and it fixes it for good, meaning you dig deep with the clients, you go through some powerful, painful, good and bad emotions usually in those processes. And yeah, you're always there for them the way they need it. But the client is in the driver's seat. So it's not about the coach advising all the time in the first place.
It's about the clients coming up with everything. Well, we also say that every person is naturally creative, resourceful, and whole. And what that means is that they have everything they need. Everybody has everything they need to fix their problems. They just don't know how to get to it. And that's what a coach or a guy does, kind of draw that out and help the client to draw it out and discover it themselves. And then there's a true accountability piece to that as well, that the clients in the end have to walk the talk on, right? Like you and I could talk forever and you say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll do this, Thomas. And two weeks later, I call you and you say, oh, I didn't get to it. I was so busy. So there's real wanting to change something that has to be there. Otherwise, it ends up being a waste of time and waste of money.
Yeah, I find it as well that the most important thing is for people, your mentees, to have the desire to do something. Then what you want is you want to remove the inhibitions. You want to remove the obstacles from them to be able to fulfill their own desires. How do you do that? How do you give them enough ownership so that they feel like these are their ideas? They came up with it and then they feel motivated to execute them. That's great stuff.
Yeah, I want to say that but also depends on obviously the client is different for everybody. You can't just say to everybody. Okay, put a reminder on your phone that works for some not for others You can't just say to everybody talk to the person that's closest to you and have them involved to hold you accountable. So it really depends on what kind of drives them and triggers them. I always compare it to losing weight. It's a very, very simple process. You got to take in less calories than you burn and you lose weight. If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. So although it's very simple, it's not easy. And that's the same with coaching. You really got to find, okay, this is the clear part, but how do I get there? So, and that's really what I love about it, too. It's very interesting. No conversation is like another. It's always something new.Share on X
Yeah. So talking about coaching, you are also a leadership team coach, and you work with companies. You have been running several companies, especially the sales sector, and you are teaching your clients how to run effective meetings. So what does it take to run a great Weekly Tactical Meeting for a leadership team?
Well, there is a secret sauce that's not really secret, Steve. I think it's an easy three to four step process. So for one, you have to kind of create a structure and define clear objectives of what you want to get out of the meeting. Everybody hates to get into a meeting that's scheduled for half an hour and then you have a two hour chit chat with no outcome whatsoever. Or if you have an outcome, there is no clear assignment of responsibilities, who does what afterwards, what is the timeline, when are you going to report back, when is it going to get done. So create a structure, define clear objectives.
Then also make it a safe space. I like to start every meeting with sharing good news. That's for one, to start the meeting out on a high note, and then people open up. They talk about themselves, they talk about something personal, and that kind of builds trust among the leadership team. Make space for vulnerability. It's very important that as part of being a safe space that everybody can share whatever they want, and it really stays in the room. And that goes back to kind of designing with everybody who is involved, how you want to run these meetings, what can go out, what can't go out. And as you go through this, people will start asking for help.
They'll openly share problems and it helps really to move forward. So then, yeah, well, the framework behind the framework, what you do, you create a safe space in the first place. You teach a structure, build peer accountability. So they also have to hold each other accountable. And the fourth point would be stimulate action, which means really, like we talked about before in the coaching side, really get people to walk the talk and end the meeting on time. If everybody knows, okay, this is really cool. We go in there, it takes an hour, hour and a half, whatever, 15 minutes, whatever the scheduled time is for a certain meeting, they know it ends then and we have a clear direction of what we're going to do afterwards.
Yeah, I mean, people get so frustrated and they just have to sit in a meeting that doesn't really have an agenda. It doesn't have an objective. People talk sharp. Everyone's trying to just promote their own agenda or try to look good at the bus. That can be super frustrating. It's a disruptive thing and it just prevents people from getting their work done.
Yeah. And then you see it too. When you look at the team and they start filling with their fingers, they start taking out their phones, you know that you're losing them. And all that goes back to the very basics of the meeting structure and creating the environment and the space that you need to conduct a successful meeting.
Okay, so you need a structure, you need an agenda, you need objectives for the meeting, that's clear. And then you talk about the safe space. How does one create a safe space? Is it just enough to share some personal stuff and listening to people or there are other things?
Well, I think like what's like Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team, you start with the trust space and that has to be there. And that's what at the end creates the safe space. You can't just go in there and say, hey, people, it's Monday morning, we have our first meeting, now this is a safe space. And everybody goes, yeah, Thomas, this is awesome. We love it. It feels so good. So that'll take some time and it really takes some work with the team. And I think that the first step is starting to share things. And in the beginning, it's like, usually you do this for the first time and you get into the meeting, okay, we'll share something personal, good news. Some people say something real meaningful.
Other people say something like, I woke up on the right side of the grass. I made it here on time. But then as you go, it just intensifies because they say, ooh, that person really shared something openly with us here in this group. So they bring something to the next meeting that's a step up from what they did in the first meeting. And as you go through this, it takes time. Usually,
