[00:00:00] Speaker A: Leadership isn't about titles. It's about vision, resilience, and growth. I'm Erica Butler, and on the Go Hire show, we talk about the tools and strategies that help you lead with impact, grow your business, and build teams that thrive. From real estate to cultural agility, from managing diverse teams to creating work life harmony, Go Higher helps you rise above challenges and step into your next level. Catch Go Higher. Every week on Now Media Television, we're streaming on Roku, Apple TV Sports, Sirius XM, iHeartRadio and all other major platforms. Let's Go Higher together.
Hi, everyone, and welcome to our show, Go Higher. I'm your host, Erica Butler, CEO of Higher International and the host of Higher. And I have someone very special as a guest today. Her name is Maggie Abdel Noor. She is an HR expert and organizational development director within our organization, but she also is a business owner and very involved in ministry as well. So when I think of Go Higher, she's like, just perfect for this show, and she lives it every day. And I truly learned so much from her. So welcome to the show, Maggie. I'm so honored and happy to have you.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Thank you so much, Erica. It's a pleasure to be here, and I'm very grateful to have an opportunity to connect with you.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Well, there's one quick story I want to share to kick this off in our first segment. So I want to focus a lot on your organization with your husband, Soccer Shots.
One thing you've been for our team is just this force of drive, positivity, belief in everything we're building. And there's something you shared last year at our last company retreat, and it meant so much to me. We shared this huge vision we have for our organization. It sometimes seems daunting, but that's what it is. And you said, nope, I'm part of an organization started 25 years ago. And look at it's like blown up in 25 years. And when you keep doing something that's making an impact and you believe in it, it's possible, and you just run at that.
You're just living proof of it. So I just want to tell you how much that meant to me, and I thought it'd be cool to start with that in the spirit of what we're talking about today. So tell us the story about Soccer Shots, how you and your husband got involved and how it's gone from this small startup in a college dorm room or something like that to this wonderful organization with momentum impacting families, impacting kids, overflowing into communities so take it away.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, it's really a beautiful thing.
Soccer Shots was started by some of my husband's friends from college. My husband went to Messiah University, and I don't know if some of you know, but they have an amazing soccer team.
My husband did not play on that soccer team, but he was really good friends with some of the folks who were.
And funny story, he was almost recruited by their coach because he would play intramural with their coach. And he was like, why don't you join the team? And he's like, no, no. Like, you know, he was just doing college kids stuff, and he didn't want to do that. He wanted to find a wife. Turns out by senior year, everybody on the soccer team was at least engaged, and he was not. So I guess God was saving him for me, who knows? But that was a funny story there.
Long story.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Good thing he waited for the. I won.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: But long story short, you know, some of his friends started this little business. It started in Charlotte and in York, Pennsylvania, between the two of them, two locations, two buddies just started doing soccer clinics for little kids. It started to really catch on, and some of their other friends said, hey, this seems like it actually has legs. I want to get involved. So it started by just two buddies working out of a coffee shop, trying to make some extra bucks and doing something they really love, which is play soccer and teach it to little kids. And in these 25 years, it has become just such a force for so much good. We have over 100 franchises. My husband was one of the first 20 of them. He has now had his franchise for 18 years that he has been owning the business. And now recently, more recently, I have left my career to help support him in this business and help him to build this, because we're seeing that there's a positive impact in every community that Soccer Shots is operating in. We are in schools. We are in public parks. We are kind of everywhere helping to teach us what I was.
Not just the sport of soccer, but really, more importantly, values and character. And how do you be a member of a team really well, from a young age.
So how do they believe in themselves? How do they build that strong character? So I'm just really excited about this season.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: My goodness. Well, it's so amazing that you joined their team as well, because you're a force when it comes to building amazing teams, and you're an expert in that. So I'm sure Bass really appreciates that. That was a bonus.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: It's been a really exciting.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: It's a very known fact out there that, so, you know, lots of ideas, lots of startups, but most of them unfortunately over 75% don't make it to five years. So what do you think was different about soccer shots starting out? So with a small goal turning into now 100 franchises and just exploding from there. Even from everything I hear, what's the difference? Like what did they do differently?
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Well, I think that they sought wise counsel, think that they took something that they really, really knew how to do and then they, they did as much as they could with it. They really planned, they ran it as a business from the get go. They didn't get ahead of themselves and they pulled in people who really know what they're doing. So one of the other, one of their other friends, I believe he went to Messiah as well. So I think there's a theme here.
But he is, he used to work at Annie Ann's and Annie Ann's Pretzels is a major franchise. And so he was able to take all of the information that he learned there and help to apply it to soccer shots. So they pulled in resources. They weren't afraid to say, hey, we don't actually know what's going on. We're going to invest in bringing someone in who does not. And so I understand not every organization or group is going to have the resources to maybe pull something like that as a full time asset to the company.
But you can certainly get involved in groups and networking and, you know, programs that can help you with that expertise in that area. If you want to be, you know, a franchisor, right Then you need to be connecting with people who know how to do that business model because it's, it's not the same as just like a mom of business.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: I couldn't agree more with that being your first point of, of advice of what helped them to get to this point.
I, I have found that so much of people not making it is a fear of even asking for help.
And sometimes you don't know what you don't know. But like I was looking this morning, Maggie, at just our, our client, like who our clients are and where they came from just to, to take a look at that. And do you know that almost a half of them came from other HR mentors and other HR consultants who built businesses before I did? And they were so generous and willing and I was terrified to reach out. It took me, I knew for about three to four months. I needed to reach out and ask, can I do this? What do I do first? I don't know what to do to start an HR consulting company. And I couldn't. I was blown away. Every single one of them, there was three in particular, jumped in right away. They shared everything. They shared. They didn't hold back. And they literally helped me build our business. And I think that there's no way I would be here without them. Their kindness and generosity. I think people who are on the other side, they know the challenges and they're going to walk. They get joy in walking alongside you, and then you pour it back to the next generation. So I think for those out there that don't know where to start, go ask. And if you don't know where to ask, go to your Chamber of Commerce, go to your We Use Entrepreneurs organization. They're so amazing people willing to lift you up together. Go hire together. So I love that that was your first point, Maggie.
[00:08:34] Speaker B: Well done.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: Well done.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: Yeah, And I love that. And if I could add very quickly, you know, one of my husband's mentors mentioned to him as they were talking through some of these business challenges that, you know, not to operate out of a scarcity mindset. I think it's so easy to be like, hey, I don't want to ask for help. I don't want to kind of branch out, because then people are going to know what's going on. They might take up all the clients, or they might use my weakness against me. And I would just love to say that, like, that is not a thing. You know, this. There is no such thing as scarcity in this. In this capacity.
The way that my husband's mentor mentioned it to him, he's like, listen, you've got to leave some meat on the bones. Don't be afraid that a competitor or somebody else is going to take all the business. Like, you have a thriving organization, you have the clients that you can handle now. Leave some meat on the bones for others, because you don't know how you can either partner in the future together or if the clients you have right now are really your niche, and then you can leave that space for other people to lean in. So I thought that was really wise, and it helped us step out of kind of the fear of other people coming in and taking business from us. It's more about how do we share out and how do we, you know, help move forward. The whole. The whole.
[00:09:57] Speaker A: You're so right, because especially what you're doing. And our business, too. There's just so many people that would want that, need that. And most of the time, it's just they don't know where to find you don't know about it. And when you find your people, you find your audience, more people are interested. It's almost more than you can even hope, you know. So you're right. It is, it. The world is so big. There's so many people who would want to do soccer shots or, or need help with people culture training.
So I completely agree. And I once I saw that early on seven years ago, I was like, oh my gosh, none. Because I thought they would not like that I was starting the business like I was competing with them. Little old me, I didn't have anything to compete with. I had no clients.
So I just didn't feel like that at all, obviously. But it's not that. And now even I meet other HR companies. I'm telling you, every month or two months I get introduced to a new one. And I always want to talk to them and hear what, how can we share ideas? What are you seeing in the market? How can I help you? And they help me too. And I. It's not. I don't see the next competition at all. I say let's idea share and be better together because most of them are out there doing a lot of good work and helping many companies and we can really help each other to grow together. That's I, I love that. That's such good advice.
So, Maggie, we only have like one more minute in the segment, believe it or not. Where can people find Soccer Shots and you and Bass if they want to join, collaborate, learn about franchise opportunities? Where, where can they find you guys?
[00:11:20] Speaker B: Well, if they're interested in learning about franchise opportunities, they can go to soccer shots.com if they are interested in something Lehigh Valley, they can follow us on Instagram or Facebook at Soccer Shots Lehigh Valley. Or they can go to our website, which is soccer shots.com Lehigh and that would have all of the opportunity if they want to work with us, if they want to be a coach, if they want to get in on helping to shape our next generation and helping to get into communities and helping them be healthy and happy and active, then we're looking for you. That would be great.
Awesome.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Love it. So for those of you out there that think that would be the right fit for you or interested in franchise, obviously it's a proven organization that continues to grow and impact people. And it's so beautiful because it's not just about the sport, which is great in itself, but it's just how you can really pour over and bring such joy and goodness and connection to the community and it's wonderful. So thank you, Maggie. Look forward to our next segment. We're going to dive even deeper into the story, the challenges that have been overcome, even what you're dealing with today.
So thank you and we'll talk in a moment after the commercial. We'll be right back with more stories, lessons and practical tools to help you rise in leadership, business and life. This is Go Higher on NOW Media Television.
And we're back. I'm Erica Butler and you're watching Go Higher on NOW Media Television. Let's continue the conversation that helps you lead live and love with purpose.
Welcome back to Go Higher with Erica Butler. Stay connected to this show and every NOW MEDIA TV favorite. You can find us live or on demand anytime you like. You can download the Free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS to unlock non stop bilingual programming in both English and Spanish. If you're on the move, you can even catch the podcast version at www.nowmedia tv.
So welcome back. I am here with Maggie Abdel Noor, an OD organizational development exper consultant, also a business owner and extremely involved in growing ministry. So we're very fortunate to have her time today. So let's dive back in. Maggie, are you ready?
[00:13:33] Speaker B: I'm ready.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: You're always ready. You wake up, you're, you're on call, ready to go. So in this segment I want to talk about the biggest challenges you over came as a business owner recently or in the past and also dive into like life balance a bit and how do you navigate leading in so many, several like key organizations that you and your husband have large roles in. So let's dive in. Let's start with challenges. What, what, what's one challenge that was really like ah, how are we going to figure this out? And you've been able to get to oversight other side and what advice do you have for, for business owners out there going through similar situations?
[00:14:12] Speaker B: That's a really great question.
So I'm just gonna talk about staffing a little bit right now.
So my husband, I think I mentioned previously in the previous segment that he's had this business for 18 years and prior to Covid, he had a staff of like almost 10 people and his business was like rather large in our area in the Lehigh Valley. And he was, he was thriving, he was doing great. Then Covid hit and there were restrictions on gathering in public, there were restrictions on all of this stuff. So his business shut down for six months and like the rest of the world.
And at the time that people were starting to come back into business, his father became very ill and his father was ill for a number of years. And so he, my husband had to scale his business back and it became almost a one man show for a while. So when, you know, we started getting together and connecting, he. He was really it and he was taking care of his father. He didn't have a chance to staff back up after Covid. And so when I came into the business, I said, this is, you know, great that you've been able to maintain this and. But this is not sustainable. So a huge challenge for us has been getting on the same page. Me getting brought up to speed with 18 years of history with this business as I step into it.
We've also, they've rolled out a whole new erp so learning a whole new system and all new platforms and then saying, hey, how do we want to rebuild this culture? How do we want to be showing up for our community?
What is our ideal candidate? And so we're actually working through that and building out our training programs for those people. Like today we have like seven or eight coaches right now in progress.
I think three of them have started training. The other four are in kind of the interview phase. And if this is actually something for them and it's really exciting.
But I think that's like our biggest challenge is saying, hey, we need to wean your clients off of you being the only coach and start to incorporate more community, start to incorporate more of a team and culture mindset. So I've been able to pull from my professional history there and pull in some OD best practices. What are our values going to be? What are we striving for as a team? What is our culture going to look like? And so it's been an awesome opportunity to kind of learn to balance some of that
[00:16:53] Speaker A: from the ground up. Even though you are part of the franchise, you get a lot there. But like really from the ground up and where we're headed, you know, just going off of that. I do think one of the most challenging things we see small business owners run into is the hiring part and finding I'll call them a players, you can call them whatever you want. But those that are going to run at the mission with you and get it and be the right fit, we focus a lot about in that entrepreneur's organization. So how did you go from solo entrepreneur with bass than you to where did you find these amazing people that are the fit that are. It's hard to find this how did. Where did you find them? How did you find them?
[00:17:30] Speaker B: Right. Yeah. Some people might think that we're just going and trying to find soccer players, but I'll be honest with you, that is not the person that typically has the best profile for what we're looking for. We are working with children ages 2 through 8. So the joke is we teach them to walk and then we teach them soccer. But the reality is we do actually. Yeah, it's great. We have a lot of fun. It's a high energy program. And we're not trying to make them the next soccer star.
Right. We're trying to build like.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: We might be. And that would be great.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Guys are good.
Those guys are good. So they know what they're doing.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: They do. But we have found actually that there are people who are in like theater programs and the arts programs who really thrive in this environment. People who love to work with little kids, like, who can manage, you know, six to 10 small children with them and kind of keep them safe and engage with them.
Because we actually implement a lot of early childhood, like learning development concepts into our curriculum. So if you're someone who wants to help educate children, like, you get a great grounding in what does that look like? And we play a lot of games. We have a lot of fun.
So we had to actually kind of like build out the template of like, who is the person that we really want to have on our team, who's going to really be comfortable getting down to the kids level, having a good time with them, engaging with them. And so for us, it was identifying early the profile that we're looking for. What's the most important thing that we're looking for? And then really like holding that to a standard. And we are asking our people, hey, can you commit to at least two full seasons with us? Because we want consistency. We want to make sure that people are not just kind of a rotation. It takes people a long time to get trained up to do our curriculum. So it can take up to like six weeks or eight weeks. So we want to make sure that we're investing in the right people.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: It's like this beautiful, good snowball because they invite their friends, their referrals.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: And they really get it and know it and they are enjoying it. And also the kids are probably having such a better experience. That's genius. To hire from theater programs. I would have never put two and two together, but that's genius.
Well, yeah.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: And if you think about it, the athletes, they're all playing at the Times that we have our after school programs, like their practices are happening at the same time, we would need them. So as much as they love the game, it's, it's just a little bit different. We're looking for a different kind of candidate. And so, you know, really just identifying the kinds of person who's going to be able to do what you're asking them to do. Which for us is not so much playing like standard formal soccer. It's about how do we play games that also incorporate soccer and helps develop, develop children.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: And the kids are having an overall great experience with good energy and then leaving, telling the parents, I want to go back. So there you go, there's the growth. But I think this example is so special because it shows in small business the creativity it takes and thinking outside the box. And actually, you know, I always talk about EO with you. The biggest thing they talk about is hiring in adjacent organizations. And honestly, From Thermo Fisher, Fortune 100, our CEO Mark Casper, I learned this from him. He said, listen, I want people who are excellent in science, but that's not everything. We can teach them a lot depending in selling and there's a lot of functions that it's more about their, their history, their credential, not credentials. Sorry. Their attitude, their drive, their ability to solve problems.
They live the values. He always said hire for that first. And I thought that was amazing. And that company, just because excited exploded since I joined continues wasn't Fortune 100 when I joined and now, oh my gosh. So what you're doing, it just works. And the best of the best leaders I'm learning from and are getting, getting coached by, that's what they, they, they swear by. And it's, I think the most important thing we do is recruit the right people. Our company too. You're part of it, our team. Right. How amazing is our team?
[00:21:47] Speaker B: They are it really amazing cohesive group of people.
And I love that there are so many people even on our team that have such a breadth of experience and expertise that, you know, it's, it's just amazing. And I love what you said about hiring for the values and the drive and the attitude because that's stuff that you can't typically teach. You can't train someone into having that. They either do or they don't in the area that you're using them for. So that's really important. And I look for transferable skills as much as possible because that means that they have a unique perspective on something that maybe I'm not Aware of. And so I love that you've done that. You miss yes.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: With your plan. You, you really brought in the potential possibilities and it makes it a lot easier to fill these positions with the
[00:22:35] Speaker B: right people because you, you're.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: You've figured it out.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Yeah. It's amazing.
So cool.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Well, actually, it's funny timing. I was reading last night and I started the CEO, I really like Stephen Bartlett and his book and I read about bad apples and this saying bad people, by the way. But there was all these studies done about a bad apple on the team and like how much that actually spoils three people, four people, more people. And it impacts everybody because of attitude alone and that negativity. And he's like, hey, the sooner you can help that person or it's not a fit, it's not a values match. And even if there's three good apples, they're not going to get that bad apple. And again, not bad person. There might be challenges, who knows? There's reasons. But I was like, wow, the science behind this. And when you hire for values attitude, it truly works. So those leaders out there, if you are seeing even one or two on your team that are, you can just see they're, they're not on board. They're the one pulling down the energy at the meeting. You feel ick sometimes when you leave a conversation, why did I lose all my energy? Pay attention to that. And then your team's feeling that too likely. And you can love on that person. Try to help them. Right, Maggie? But in the end, it might not work. And you got to look out for the whole greater good of the mission and of the, the team that wants
[00:23:52] Speaker B: to be there, you know, Absolutely. We talk about how clarity is kindness and sometimes if someone's falling behind, if it is a performance issue, if it's an attitude issue, whatever it is, we owe them the feedback on that. So whether it is like, hey, it's just feedback, I'd like to coach you through how to handle some of these difficult situations or these difficult conversations that are maybe not being handled as well as they could.
We want to make sure we're doing that. If it truly is something that is like performance related, make sure that we're addressing it soon. Because I'll tell you what, I had somebody that I used to manage. She was really struggling. We, we helped her. We tried to get her through development, planning. We tried to get her skilled up. She just maybe didn't have that capacity at that time in her life with some of the things that were going on at home and what have you.
And I was very honest with her about, hey, this is where we need you to be, this is where you are. You know, this is kind of what I need to see in the increments. I need to see it in order for us to continue to move forward. And I'll tell you what, she ended up leaving the organization and afterwards she said, I, she says, maggie, you're the only manager I've ever had that took the time to explain to me where I needed to get better and showed me maybe how to get better at doing that. So even though she wasn't successful in that role long term, what she was able to do was take away some feedback and say, hey, I actually do want to get better and now I know where to start.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: This is actually really challenging for leaders to do and doesn't mean you're an expert at this right away, but you can get help. You can get a coach partner with your hr. You don't have to be alone in this. But you're right. I think as a leader, you owe it to your team to be clear, to be kind, to point out examples. Don't just say, oh, this give them the real example and then give them tools and how to, how to fix it and hopefully they are able to. And if not, maybe there's a better path. I love that example. Where can people find you and soccer shots and bass, Maggie?
[00:26:00] Speaker B: So they can find us on Facebook or Instagram at Soccer Shots Lehigh Valley or they can go to our webpage@soccer shots.com Lehigh
[00:26:11] Speaker A: There are so many good nuggets you shared in this segment. And next we're going to dive in more into the life balance. How do you manage leadership and personal life? And you talked about caring for a sick father as well and how you navigated all this. So tune in next and we'll dive into that.
We'll be right back with more stories, lessons and practical tools to help you rise in leadership, business and life. This is Go Higher on NOW Media Television.
And we're back. I'm Erica Butler and you're watching Go Higher on NOW Media Television. Let's continue the conversation that helps you lead live and love with purpose.
Welcome back to Go higher. We have a wonderful guest today, Maggie Abdel Noor, who is a business owner. She is a HR organizational development consultant on the Haier team. So I'm so fortunate. I actually get to work with her regularly and do client work with her and business building work with her. And she also is extremely involved with ministry and with all of that, that is a lot for a person to manage in their life and a husband and a family, you know, it's a lot end to end. So we're going to dive in. Like what has she learned over the years? How does she. She doesn't miss a beat, I'll tell you that. I can personally. She doesn't miss a deadline. Her work is just so high quality. So Maggie, how do you do it?
[00:27:30] Speaker B: Let's start.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: How do you plan your weeks or where should we start? You tell me.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: Because you're good at this. I think that's a very good question. And you're right, there are a lot of balls in the air.
I think as someone who has an ID style with the disc, if you're familiar with the disc and working styles, that means that I am someone who's very creative and wants to talk about things, but I also have a very high drive to, to get things completed. And so one of the things that throughout my career I got very good at was planning ahead and making sure that I had everything perfectly fit into its boxes on the specific days I needed to be on at any given time. And when I got married and when we had some family issues come up, my, my father in law got rather ill and you know, I was working full time and my butt husband had this business and we were, we were
[00:28:25] Speaker A: really inundated two hours a day with, I'm sorry, commute, right?
[00:28:29] Speaker B: You, you have hours a day.
[00:28:31] Speaker A: I didn't mean to interrupt you but like that's huge. I mean that's a lot of hours in a month.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: It was a lot of hours in a month and I didn't have the time to really like think through and I actually had to.
You mentioned that, you know, we are very involved in ministry and so for me I had to give that control to God. So for me it started with surrendering and saying, God, I know that my schedule doesn't look the way I'm. I, it's used to looking that I'm not going to be able to have my color coded calendar all perfectly laid out at the beginning of every week.
That was, I'll tell you what, that was a really big thing for me to let go of.
And it really started with surrender and trust.
Trust that if I'm obedient to where he's calling me, that if I am obedient to where I'm supposed to be, the people who are calling on us, whether it's business or ministry or a meeting, that he Will help make sure that everything falls into place. And so I don't plan out my whole month anymore. Even though I have placeholders and I have days that I know I'll be working on, you know, maybe higher work or I'll be working on other client work. I know that, like, really I can only kind of solidify a week at a time, so. And that's okay. I have my, my big rocks, the things that I know I need to get done in that month and.
But I've stopped kind of having everything static. Everything is very movable now. And, you know, it's, it's really more every day. Okay, where is my time going to be best spent today and within this week? And how do I make sure I get that done?
Because there really is no semblance of a controlled plan. And I think that that level of flexibility has given me the agility that I need to navigate the circumstances as they come up. I'm not locked into it. It doesn't ruin my whole day. If there's an interruption or there's a change. I just am able to roll with it because I haven't created such a rigid structure that if one thing is thrown off, the rest of the plan is out the window.
Wow.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: I think that is so freeing. And I love that you shared. You were someone that liked everything color coded in a perfect box. So you're a real, real living example because a lot of people do get almost like so attached to that. And, and it doesn't work. And you're just going to be beating yourself up at the end of the day when you're having all these different priorities not done. And it's, you know, this rock thing, that's something I've been doing now for a few years. So I love that you said that.
[00:31:13] Speaker B: I pick three.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: And I, you know, we know where we stand. Like, I pray about it too. And I'm like, lord, what is today? What is this week? What is the month? And okay, these are the three. And those three. Sometimes it's like my kids have ortho appointments. That could be that one thing, one of the three. Because that was going to be a big commitment that day. And it's like, new in town. But I give freedom for that. Sometimes it could be like, hey, like, I really need to get back to, back to this, this exercise routine, whatever, and the hard stuff. And then those three hard things, I'm telling you, it's. And it could be bumped and moved and tomorrow's another day. But every day, if you Stay agile and like. And then, you know, you have good people around you too. Like, you have a really strong teams around you. And I think that the more we can do that also, like, we trust each other, catch each other. It gives you more flexibility in life as well.
[00:32:02] Speaker B: Absolutely. I could not have handled the last few years if I were on my own and I didn't have a community around me of people who could support me, who could. Even if it's like delegating to some things, like if I was able just to lean on a friend and say, hey, I don't have the capacity to take care of this right now, you know, can you lean in and can you help me?
You know, with the church, we have amazing leaders who support us, who guide us, who provide us resources. That is super helpful.
And in the business, because it's a franchise, we have our franchising organization that at least gives us the skeleton and the bones, even if they don't give us all of the policies and the meat around it.
So I'm just very grateful that we have such a good community. And at Haier, the community that you have created, it's amazing. If I need like an ear to listen or a second set of eyes, I know that the team is right there. Or I can reach out to you and you're able just to provide some really quick guidance. It's just an amazing team. Like our. The team at Haier is just phenomenal. And I know that I'm always getting really strong guidance when I reach out.
[00:33:13] Speaker A: Thanks for getting that part in the script. I wrote it and made sure you read that whole thing, so thank you.
[00:33:17] Speaker B: Just kidding.
Got you in the script.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: It's so true, though. But that doesn't happen overnight, you know, because over and also, I think it's experience. We've both been doing this, what, between 15 and 20 years?
[00:33:28] Speaker B: Ish.
[00:33:29] Speaker A: And I sometimes I didn't know what mattered most. I truly didn't. And I didn't. But I think you get a sense. One of the best pieces of advice I got about this I received was a woman, Christy. Right. You and I were at her conference.
Be where your feet are. Sometimes you might get a phone call from someone that's a member of your church, like, really need, like urgent. And you're like, okay, this project is going to go aside for this afternoon, but this person needs me right now, needs to listen. Same on our team. Sometimes we had a plan to talk about something project, but they needed to talk about something else and we needed to be there for them as a human being. And like, just. I think that was so freeing for me to be where my feet are because it's so easy, especially as women, to be like, oh, this person. People, please. Or fix everything, do everything. Dinner's not whatever it is. And oh my gosh, it's so freeing. Be like, nope, this is where I'm supposed to be right now. It's going to get. I'm going to rest in that moment. I'm going to give my full attention to that person or whatever it is that's in front of me right now.
[00:34:25] Speaker B: And I.
[00:34:25] Speaker A: You always have another moment to catch
[00:34:27] Speaker B: up, to relook, to follow up.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: And you know what? People are more understanding than I initially thought. Like, if you were not perfect. No one's perfect. If you're accountable and say, hey, sorry, I have to reschedule this meeting. No one. People get it. You normally show up, you know, so it's just like, don't be so hard on yourself. Telling myself that too. It's so freeing.
[00:34:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't take it so seriously.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: Like, it is serious. But I'm not a surgeon. I'm not a surgeon. If you're a surgeon, sorry, but.
[00:34:53] Speaker B: Right.
It's not a life or death situation. And what I have found in my years of experience is that if you can slow down, you know, Jesus spoke to everybody one on one. He was never too busy for an interruption. And I really think that that's a way to be most effective. So, for example, if I had an employee, we were going to talk about a project, we were going to talk about whatever it is, and they had an emotional need, need that needed to be addressed. If I didn't address that, guess what? Our other meeting about the project wouldn't be as effective because on their mind would be something completely different than what we're talking about, and we wouldn't be as effective. And so, you know, by taking that time and being where your feet are, being present with that person, you're able to get them to a better place, help them to regulate. And then you can move forward, clearer, faster, and in the place that you need to be. So, you know, dinner can wait, projects can wait. If you're dealing with making sure that people are healthy and whole, then you're able to be more effective when in your job totally.
[00:36:00] Speaker A: And just being realistic about the plans for the day. You know, sometimes they're a sick kid or. And it changes and you. The mind shifts. Oh, my gosh, I get today with this person that I wouldn't have had. And you know, it's just, I think it's a lot mindset too.
But I was going to share a really quick story about this recently that happened just to show that it's like an evolution and, and we're gonna still mess it up sometimes. But I felt really convicted about this. So we found, we're new in, in Tampa and we found these amazing, these three, this family that, that they have amazing cleaning business and they help us because we're both working, have kids, you know, and they come every Tuesday. And honestly I was just swamped that day, work wise. And I had some stuff happen with the kids and I, I was pleasant to them and I was kind, but normally I offer them coffee, I help. And they wanted to talk to me more and I'm like, honestly, I really, I. And I didn't know that when they were coming either. So I just felt icky when they left. I feel like I wasn't present and loving and kind. And they are people of faith and we share that and sometimes we talk about what Bible stories we're reading. Like, we have a really sweet relationship and I just feel called to like love on them too. And so next week I'm like, all right, I'm. This was recent. I'm like, I'm putting that as one of my top three when they're here and just because they're here for like three or four hours and there's a reason, I think there's a reason they're in my life. And they've had, they've had to move recently because they had flooding. They've had real challenges. They could use kindness and love right now. Do you know what I mean? So that's just one real life example. It might seem insignificant, but it really is. Who is God putting around you day to day? And I'm like, lord, let me love well today. Like if I can love well today. And I don't always, but I try. That's a good day. Do you know what I mean?
[00:37:34] Speaker B: Absolutely it is. Yes, absolutely it is. That's a wonderful example.
Oh, awesome.
[00:37:40] Speaker A: Well, all right. So we talked a lot about just life balance, a little bit of the work you do for hire. So can you tell us where to find you on LinkedIn or, you know, I can share the higher website if you ever want to work with Maggie, she's amazing. She's an organizational development leader and you can find her. I'll just say it because LinkedIn, she's active on LinkedIn also our company website ww.gohire.com and we get, you know, your comments in and we can work with you directly. And Maggie is so talented at org design, succession planning, like some of the hardest stuff, foundational stuff in the HR field. So yeah, we're really fortunate to work with Maggie and thank you. This is amazing. So our next segment, we'll continue the conversation and close with some last few points about how to go higher in your life and go higher together. Thank you. We'll be right back with more stories, lessons and practical tools to help you rise in leadership, business and life. This is Go Higher on NOW Media Television.
[00:38:40] Speaker B: And we're back.
[00:38:40] Speaker A: I'm Erica Butler and you're watching Go Higher on NOW Media Television. Let's continue the conversation that helps you lead live and love with purpose.
Welcome back to Go Higher with Erica Butler. Stay connected to the show and every NOW Media TV favorite. We are live or on demand anytime you like. You can Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS and unlock non stop bilingual programming in both English and Spanish. Even if you're on the move, you can catch the podcast
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so believe it or not, we're in our final segment with Maggie Abdel Noor. It flew. I knew it would.
You know, it's so special when sometimes I get to interview people from all over the world. Some of them I know a little about, but I know they have an amazing story. But when I get to have someone that I get to work with every, almost every day, in touch with regularly and just know like she trul lives this out, it is such a privilege. So, Maggie, welcome back for our final segment.
[00:39:40] Speaker B: Thank you so much.
Yeah.
[00:39:43] Speaker A: So we're going to use this time to talk about something Maggie has lived and breathed for years as a director of organizational development at a pretty large company, you know, thousands of people. She did this for and I, we want to dig into this. And she also does this for clients as a consultant now for two years, Something like that, or more probably.
All that to say though, what for small businesses, maybe they can hire a consultant, maybe not. Where should owners and founders start on the O D journey? They don't know anything about this. Where should they start?
[00:40:17] Speaker B: Wow. You know, that's a really great question in terms of where to start. I think the reality is understanding what their needs are because I think that sometimes people are looking for a cookie cutter solution to say, hey, like, like, here's the template. All of the boxes are all the same for every organization. And so I just need to fill in those boxes and make sure that I have, you know, everything ready to go. You know, for example, there may be a really small organization and they're like, I need a succession plan. Do I need a succession plan?
Maybe, maybe you do, but maybe your business isn't at a place where you really need to focus on that. And where you really need to focus is on development planning or, you know, putting in place a performance management structure. Or maybe it's, you know, how do we onboard all the right people and make sure that not only are. Do we have the right paperwork, but they're onboarded into the culture and they understand who we are, they understand how they play a part in our organization.
You know, because I can tell you, for our organization with soccer shots, we don't. We don't need a succession plan right now. So it's not going to be our best use of time to be trying to focus on that. So I think it's really being honest in terms of a needs assessment of where are the gaps right now. Does everybody on our team have the skills that they need technically, but also in like a competence area? So are they being strategic thinkers, if that's what they need to be? Are they agile in their thinking? Do they have a mindset that is going to help them in their role and help the organization?
Or do we need to spend some time educating our people on what our expectations are and how they can meet those expectations for the organization,
[00:42:11] Speaker A: Determine those gaps. You notice, like, what are the problems, the red flags that come up in an organization to say, hey, we need
[00:42:16] Speaker B: to look at this.
[00:42:18] Speaker A: What do you notice when you're new in a client or something like that?
[00:42:22] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. So there's so many different little flags. I think a lot of it is being really engaged, active listening. You know, maybe your business isn't big enough to do like a formal engagement survey, but you can do kind of like a pulse survey or a quick meeting to talk through things, have, you know, an opportunity for you to step out of the room, call someone in and have them like, have kind of a focus group, if you will, and talk through things.
If you're seeing a lot of conflict around a certain area, you can know that there is something weird going on. And so one of the questions that we like, drama. Drama.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: Listen in.
[00:43:00] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like a skill thing, a will or a hill.
So is it a skill thing? Are they just not skilled in the area and we need to train people up?
Is it a will thing where people aren't motivated for some reason and we need to understand a little bit more about why.
Or is it a hill, meaning that there is some kind of barrier that as leaders we are called to move and it might be something really easy or it might be something where we need to jump in and do a little bit of process improvement.
So there's a few different things. So if I'm hearing things around will or a hill, I'm saying we need to lean in a little bit more. We need to understand and if we're hearing feedback from clients or customers that there's a specific issue, then of course we need to like come back to that very quickly and get our arms around what is really going on.
Go into the root cause of what's happening. Which means more than just what's happening and why.
We need to ask. There's a five why framework which is really helpful or a Fishbone model, if anyone's heard of this. But it is asking the question multiple times. Like a five year old, like why? Why? Why?
Because it helps you understand underneath really like what's actually happening, not just the surface level. And that's where you're going to have the most bang for your buck to kind of just get really plain. Right? That's where you're going to understand where you need.
[00:44:40] Speaker A: I love that you talked about the quickness flow. I do think when you do see that issue, the sooner you attack it and communicate about it, the less damage it will do because sometimes these things kind of spread out and grow legs and the sooner we can react. And I want to also comment about your focus group advice. It sounds so simple, but oh my gosh, I think they're one of the most easiest, powerful tools. If you spend even you're having issues next day, call a focus group. You're right. Have someone maybe else lead it. That's trust it. Another leader in the organization. That's trust it and promise confidentiality and then actually do it unless it's a safety issue. But I can't believe you people think no one's going to be honest. But they will. They will. I mean I'm a total stranger sometimes going into these and I can't believe the information I learn. And the owners are a lot of times shocked and that no names are attached. Maybe there's eight people in the group say no, someone, but. But it's not attached. And people feel more freedom to share. I don't, because I don't want to get in trouble. I don't want to get fired. There is a lot of fear, even with good leaders. So I love that you called that out. That's a very quick solution to, to and then execute what you hear and follow up on the top two to three things right away. Otherwise you lose everybody.
[00:45:49] Speaker B: As you know you do. It's very easy to hear something and think, oh, it doesn't sound like a big deal right now. Like it's not on fire yet, but like smoke turns into fire and it can happen really quickly. And so kind of what you tolerate becomes your culture. And so if you hear something or see something that's not working and you allow it to continue and you don't interject when you have the opportunity, it can kind of get a life of its own. And that's really unhealthy for your culture because whether you mean to or not, you are creating the culture. We are either intentionally creating culture or unintentionally creating culture by the things that we allow or the things that we brush under the rug or the things that we don't want to look at because they're scary.
You know, some of it, in being a business owner is saying, yeah, I know this is a little bit scary. I know this is maybe not something that I am loving having to address, but it's more important to, to make sure that we're taking the time to address it for the health of the culture and the business.
Absolutely.
[00:46:53] Speaker A: Even if it's, we can't do anything and this is why, and it's temporary or whatever, even just having that communication. I see. And you know what's interesting? Even if a company has so many different values, so many different companies out there, but one thing we all have in common is trust. And if you can't, and that's one of the easiest ways to build trust, is really listen and hear and understand an issue and help them solve it and follow up. That follow up and that commitment and that, that level of integrity of trust and accountability as a leader, it's going to get you so much in the direction of the, of living the values for the company. Because trust, we all share that. And that's one of the most powerful, best things you can do, as simple as it sounds. But so many people don't do it. You and I see this. It's just like, it's crazy. It's also simple. But you know, it really is a real thing out there.
[00:47:40] Speaker B: It is absolutely foundational. And it's not just trust that like, hey, Erica, if I send you an email, I trust you're going to respond. It's no, hey, Erica, if I share something, I'm struggling with you, I trust that you're going to hold, hold it in confidence and you're going to do the best that you can to help me out. That's that vulnerability based trust that allows people to hold others accountable, share feedback. That's really important. Push someone to a higher level. If you don't have that trust, then it's going to be harder to do all of those things and it impacts everything else.
[00:48:15] Speaker A: If you want to row in a certain direction. It's just so foundational and you know, it's interesting. We'll, we'll close with this. But I think think a big reason this happens is people, leaders are so focused on the task and just in, in the business and the results and then they accidentally skip over this. They think we're good, they're good, everyone's good. Just because people maybe weren't comfortable to share and we just skip over it. I've been there. I got accountable early on in my career as a leader and you learn pretty darn fast once you see oops.
But you need a good leader to tell you that, you know, I think that's why it's not intentional most of the time. It's not intentional.
[00:48:47] Speaker B: Mm, you're right. It's not always intentional. And you know, silence always doesn't, doesn't always equal agreement. So, you know, being an active listener, building that trust, making sure that you're, you're digging in and asking those people who maybe are more silent in the room for their, for their take or their feedback, super important.
[00:49:04] Speaker A: And you know, as consultants is so interesting because some of the feedback we've gotten in focus groups, people we've never met, they were like, wow, it meant so much that their company was doing this, that their owners invested in this. It really did. And of course what the owners did with that was going to matter, but it was so, it's so cool that consistently to hear that they want to share, they feel grateful.
So this was amazing. Maggie. We could talk for a whole nother few hours.
Any last tidbit you want to leave the audience about OD scaling? Anything you want to share in closing?
[00:49:37] Speaker B: Well, I think if there's like anything that I could share, it is, you know, the, the importance of just paying attention, being mindful. And I mean that in the sense of like lifting your head up above maybe the fray of the everyday and what's going on, pulling yourself out of that intentionally to say, overall, if I could take a bird's eye view, a thousand foot view, you know, where are things, where are things going? What themes am I seeing pop up? What if I had to think ahead, you know, three months, what do I need to make sure is on my radar now? And that would just help you be a little bit of a step ahead. Because as a small business owner myself, it's very easy to get caught up in the day to day and make sure that you're just hitting the next deadline. And you know, that's helpful and there's a time and a place for that. But if we were, we're talking organizational development, we're talking about business ownership. It's, it's about steering the ship well. And you can't steer the ship well if you can't see where you're going. So that would be my, my advice.
[00:50:41] Speaker A: Couldn't agree more. This has been such a pleasure. So many golden nuggets. Maggie, just from your wisdom and experience, thank you for your time today. And so that's a wrap for go higher and keep growing with us and we'll continue to go higher together. Thanks, Maggie. Have a great day, everyone.
