S3 E102: The Blind Spot: A Fresh Start

In the first episode featuring first-draft audio chapters from his new book, “Team Love: 28 Ways to Demonstrate Caring at Work”, Winston shares the introductory chapter, reflecting on his journey as an executive leader and the pivotal moments that led him to prioritize team love over merely focusing on solutions and client satisfaction.  

The discussion highlights the stages of a visionary leader's journey, the challenges of maintaining a visionary path, and the importance of nurturing a team-centric culture. Winston emphasizes that loving and prioritizing teams ultimately accelerates vision and supports client care. Listeners are invited to join Winston in exploring innovative approaches to fostering team love. 

00:00 Introduction to Season Three 

00:31 Chapter Zero: The Blind Spot 

02:12 The Visionary Leader's Journey 

06:33 The Importance of Team Love 

07:59 Conclusion and Invitation 

#TeamLOVE Book. Join the bold book writing journey as we write and share our first draft chapters from our upcoming book - Team Love: 28 Ways to Demonstrate Caring at Work here in season 3 of the For Love of Team podcast.

Be notified each week about a new episode and follow our journey at TeamLoveBook.com

Transcript

Blind Spot 

[00:00:00]  

Judith: Welcome to the premiere of season three of the For Love of Team podcast. 

This season, we are taking you behind the curtain as Winston Faircloth writes his new book, Team Love, 28 Ways to Demonstrate Caring at Work. [long pause] Each week, we will share excerpts from a new chapter, sharing the key concepts and takeaways to help you support your team as a visionary leader. 

Today, Winston shares the introductory chapter of the book, covering a bit of his story becoming a Team Love leader.  

Now here is your host, Winston Faircloth.  

Chapter zero, the blind spot. Now, why would anyone ever write a book called Team Love? After serving as an executive leader for over 40 years, I never thought I would write, much less read a book about loving your team. I also never thought I'd be looking [00:01:00] back over the pinnacle of my career and wonder how in the world would I be willingly step away from the organization that I imagined...built? and grew to become our sector's leading technology provider? 15 years of sweat, equity, and focus gone in an instant. All because I had a massive blind spot. Well visionary leaders like us can have an inner compass, an inner knowing. We can innately sense opportunities way before others. Sometimes our experiences come together. 

To meet a need no one else sees. Other times we're thrust into a gap in the marketplace that must be addressed. We can become laser focused, passionate about uniquely solving big problems. For years we can chase this adventure, making small bets that turn into big solutions. And when those first customers try it [00:02:00] and excitedly tell others, there's no better feeling. 

Winning deals, helping clients, growing the team. It's amazing. when your visionary idea finally comes to life. Yet, we also inwardly know well before others when it's our time to move on. When what was an adventure feels like a burden, when systems and processes seem to squeeze out innovation and agility, when growth outstrips quality and complaints begin to mount, you can begin to question, am I still the right person to lead? 

Or even worse, we can begin to see our people as an impediment to our vision, always telling us why we cannot or should not do things this way. These are the moments that define our legacy, our career. Do we hold on to a [00:03:00] position where we're misaligned? Do we fight through challenges, even when the time for change is clear? 

Or do we take a leap, especially when the future is uncertain? How we see our identity as a visionary leader colors everything. Some of us are starters. We see a gap, we have inspiration to fill it, and the fortitude to bring it to life. Others of us are builders. We can take an existing idea to the next level because we see opportunities founders miss. 

And others are optimizers. We see growth and opportunity in scaling through repeatable processes and a focus on excellence. Knowing our strengths and where we thrive is part of the calculation on when to stay and when to leave our roles as founders. But change, even for those who embrace it, is still very hard. 

At the very beginning of my journey, at this moment in [00:04:00] time, I clearly saw myself as a starter. I've been frustrated by prior attempts at the national level to solve a key problem for local affiliates. After spending 18 months working at the national level on national level solutions, only to see it unravel due to conflicts between some of the largest members, I made a bet going forward. 

I'd only work with those willing, creating a solution that rose from my practical need as a nonprofit executive. Who struggled with having affordable access to cutting edge technology and more importantly, the talent to bring it to life. After working with another affiliate, I began to reach out to sister organizations to see if they had similar needs. 

And gradually, six others raised their hand to purchase a service that did not exist and would be co-created over time. And expanding from that handful of brave pilot customers to a nation, and [00:05:00] eventually to a nationwide technology partner. For more information visit www. FEMA. gov 15 years in that journey, one fateful day, at our quarterly board meeting, I gave it all away. 

I resigned my role as founder of the organization. It was the absolutely right thing to do for the organization. And more importantly, it transformed my leadership journey. Over the months that followed. I really wrestled with why I had become so disillusioned being the founder of a technology services organization that served non profit affiliates that I'd spent my whole career fighting for. 

When did that start, and what went so wrong? It took a couple years, but after a couple years of wrestling with this, I had one of those moments of clarity I'll never forget. As I retraced [00:06:00] my journey as a visionary leader, perhaps you can relate to this progression as well. I call this the visionary leader's journey. 

Step number one, love solving a big problem, creating solutions and involving others. Step number two, loving clients who pay you for solving their big problems. Yet in my former role, this is where it stopped. I'd never fully made it to the next level of love within our organization. Now perhaps you're one of many visionary leaders who takes a client first approach, like me. 

Because I was so focused on serving our clients, I often took their side against the better advice of my team. And as you might imagine, this caused lots of problems within our culture. Our subject matter experts and team leads often felt disrespected, [00:07:00] unseen, unheard. I was so focused on revenue because I knew it would be the catalyst to hiring or retaining even more team members as we were trying to grow the organization into a national force. 

I forgot this critical truth, which is love number three. Loving and focusing on the teams and individuals who can bring our vision to life. How could I have been so blind? A simple truth right in plain sight. Well, since that moment of clarity, I've been collecting and curating innovative approaches to team love. 

And this book is my invitation to you as a visionary leader. So that you do not make the same mistake I did by only focusing on solution creation and client satisfaction. Loving your team and prioritizing their role accelerates your vision, supports client care, and It makes everything else [00:08:00] possible. In the chapters that follow, I'll share some concepts to build a more loving and cohesive team culture. 

Most have come, honestly, through the school of hard knocks. Others I've enjoyed bringing and co creating with my clients and their teams. Each chapter represents a thought experiment. Namely, how would our team love culture be transformed by giving this particular idea a trial for just six months? See, I believe visionary leaders can fundamentally change work for the better. 

Not only do we solve problems for our clients, we can create an impactful, dynamic culture that works for our team members as  

Judith: Thanks, Winston!  

We invite you to share your feedback and biggest takeaways on our website at for love of team dot com slash blog and look for today’s chapter episode. 

Thanks for listening.  

Remember that by loving our people who love our [00:09:00] customers, your visionary leadership comes to life.  

We hope to see you next time on the For Love of Team podcast.