Understanding Communication Styles in the Workplace

Transcript - Understanding Communication Styles in the Workplace

Rich, Host: On this episode of Team Building Saves the World.

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: How do we create an atmosphere that allows them to feel accomplished in more ways than just earning money?

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: I don’t think anyone’s trying to be evil and not communicate with each other.

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: And I think Kit actually does such an amazing job with this.

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: We’ll get to meetings, no meetings.I don’t want meetings, just email me everything. Even if you was trying to send a message but you didn’t press send and….

Rich, Host: Oh, it’s like you’re talking right to me, Kit.

Hello, team. It’s me, your old friend, Rich Rininsland, host of Team Building Saves the World. The show where I speak to thought leaders from around the world discussing variable strategies and tools to help you and your team build a better work environment. And today, we’re talking about team communication with the COO of BostonSpeaks, Hayleigh Bailey, and the founder of BostonSpeaks and returning friend of the show, Kit Pang.

But first, I have to share some love with my supporters at TeamBonding. If your team is ready to experience teamwork through the power of play, then visit Teambonding.com to learn more. Now, team, join me in welcoming my guests, two members of a company that have specialized in public speaking training, whether it’s one on one or with Team Dynamics, Hayleigh Bailey and Kit Pang.

Hey gang!

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Hey!

Rich, Host: Hayleigh, so much. Thank you both so much for coming on. Kit, so good to see you again. Especially so soon. How you been?

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: I’ve been good. I mean, good. I’m, uh, last time was such an enjoyable chat. We have to bring Hayleigh on this time.

Rich, Host: Well, that’s fantastic. Hayleigh, my team out there already knows Kit. I mean, we just had him on, you know, just a short while ago.

So let’s take this opportunity to get to know you a little bit better. Why don’t you start with just telling my team a little bit about yourself, like where, where you come from and how it was you got into this field.

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Yeah, absolutely. Um, I came into this field in kind of a roundabout way. I’m from Portland, Oregon, and I started traveling about seven and a half years ago, and I left my hometown for the first time to fly to India, where I went into my yoga teacher training.

And this led me down a path of discovering digital nomadism, getting into the online space, starting as a virtual assistant. Working my way up into online business management, team management, operations management. Here I am today, still traveling the world and working behind my computer. Uh, I’m currently in Bosnia and the Balkans, in Eastern Europe

Rich, Host: Wow.

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: And, um, yeah, here we are. Now I’m working with Kit and. That’s his COO and another client as well. And it’s been a fun journey.

Rich, Host: Fantastic. And being in Bosnia, that’s why it’s called Team Building Saves the World, not just the United States. Kit, let’s get into the topic here. Um, BostonSpeaks, uh, first off, how long has BostonSpeaks been in existence, Kit?

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: We started back in 2016. 

Rich, Host: Right. And we’re here today to talk about team communications. Now, when we talk about it, what is it, first off, and what does a good dynamic of it look like?

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Yeah, you know, I often go to do like the workshops in, of course, public speaking with organizations. Right. And one of the things I realized is that, most people in teams sometimes don’t have like an honest discussion with each other.

As an example, like they tell me things one on one, right? Oh, hey, this person is giving me anxiety or that person sort of said this, or that person is like this, that person’s communication style annoys me. Oh, I wish that person did this, but they don’t tell each other. So I think when it comes to team communication, as you probably know, in work settings is sometimes having a good discussion with each other and just being open. So that would be one way of, of, of saying what is team communication. Uh, yeah, I want to hit Hayleigh’s thoughts about this as well. 

Rich, Host: Yeah, please.

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Yeah, absolutely. When I think of team communication, I think of how do we navigate voicing our needs, boundaries, as well as ambitions. As a group as a to each other as a group. And how do we yeah, how do we communicate and navigate the the importance of a unified mission and unified team, in ways that lift everyone up as well as I guess, drive the team forward. Like it motivates us and it drives us forward. It feels, we feel seen, we feel represented and, uh, we’re communicating effectively to achieve a common goal.

Rich, Host: Okay. Now that’s the way it’s supposed to work. What have we been seeing though? I mean, people come to you for a reason. They come because it’s not functioning. So what have we seen with those team dynamics that besides the, this one person is, is causing me problems. What have we seen in malfunctioning?

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Either one of them. I’m going to use a personal example from us, and I’m going to say more from me. So one thing is..

 Rich, Host: Oh, Kit’s calling himself out, Hayleigh. Hold on. 

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: I’ll call myself out. So let’s say me and Hayleigh, you know, like, we talk all the time. We have updates. We kind of know, we know what’s going on in the organization.So we’re doing stuff in marketing here, we’re doing, we’re doing updates all of the time. Right. But because we know so well, sometimes I might say, I will forget to update people with some of the things that we were talking about. So as an example, uh, we have our director of client services, Paulette. So we do a bunch of ads, right?

One time we were shutting off the ads and I did not update Paulette because we were doing this whole other thing. And because she didn’t know, she’s like, okay, what’s happening. I’m not getting as many calls. Right. So, so, you know, the intention is not to. Not update people because sometimes there are many things going on.

There could be miscommunication or communication that’s just left out. So a lot of the times I think in communication at work, we do a lot of things on our own and it’s just maybe it takes more time or we just have to update other people. I think that’s one of the, I don’t think anyone’s trying to be evil and not communicate with sometimes a, a, not a lack of communication, but it’s just, Oh, hey, there could be more communication as well.

Rich, Host: Hayleigh, do you agree or, or, or have you seen other things?

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Yeah, absolutely. I think we can lose each other in communication sometimes when we’re not updating each other. I also think that sometimes we rely on people a little bit too much when it comes to communication. And there’s a lot of really valuable tools, techniques, frameworks to rely more on systems than people, um, which would automate or create certain tasks that would instigate this kind of communication to happen.

So, you know, there’s always going to be human error. There’s always going to be a technical error, but when we have both together, we fill in those gaps. So I definitely think that, these types of communication can fall through the cracks. Like who do we let know when our core team here has made these decisions?

Now what happens next to make sure that the cascading messages reach the rest of the team?

Rich, Host: Okay. Hayleigh, I especially want to focus in on you for this one, talking about BostonSpeaks itself, let’s talk about the intercommunications with your own company. I mean, how do you handle. First off, such a wide diversity in the marketplace nowadays.

I’m sure on your own teams, you have such, you have disparate people from different backgrounds, different cultures, and you’re in different sections of the world, only talking via communication methods like Zoom here. How do you handle keep making sure that everybody keeps up to date with these team dynamics?

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: That’s a really good question. Um, a very dynamic question, actually. Um, as I have had a team of 30 women from around the world, 45 clients from around the world, how do you stay on top of that when you are juggling different time zones, different working schedules, especially in this remote work environment?

One of the reasons why we see a lot of people transitioning into freelancing and remote work is because they do want to make their own schedule. They don’t want to clock in at eight to five. And how do Kit and I support that and make that life available for them while also navigating time zones, different schedules and things like that.

So as I was saying previously, I think systems and technical tools are really what you need to rely on as a team. So we use Slack and also a project management tool inside of BostonSpeaks. These tools are integral to making everything work because it’s. We have ways of updating each other and communicating through these tools and we’re able to sign in at any time and we know that we’re always going to get a response within 24 hours, but 24 hours can be a different time zone for somebody else than it is for us, but we really heavily rely on these tools to make sure that we’re always communicating effectively to the whole team.

We keep channels open, um, for everyone to be involved that they want to be involved or not. And just making sure that everyone has access to the right information and the right channels where they can find that information.

Rich, Host: Kit, what do you do if tools, you know, fail in that regard? I mean, we, we’ve all know now just recently there was a, huge communications failure with a corporate entity with a computer entity that caused massive problems that we’re still all trying to recover from. These things don’t always function. So what do we do when those issues start to arise?

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: So I’m not sure if you or the listeners right now has the tech malfunction, or maybe even if you was trying to send a message, but you didn’t press send. And then, and then maybe the next day…

Rich, Host: Oh, it’s like you’re talking right to me, Kit.

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: is, is this happening to you all of the time, Rich? 

Rich, Host: Uh, as I get older, yes..

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Maybe we need to bring your team members on and then, then ask them about…

Rich, Host: No, it’s just one-on-one, buddy. It’s just one-on-one. 

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Uh, what, what we, uh, I would say is it depends on the person when tech fails, I think some people they, it is, it is the mindset people have around the tech failures.

Okay. Of how they saw the attitude towards it. Right. Uh, I guess what it’s more important is, the message we’re trying to send, depending on what the tech is, how important is it? How urgent is it? Because we think the messages that we send all the time on the most urgent, most important thing, and we’re like, Oh my God, some tech went wrong.

And the other people we might think is 100 percent very important. The other people was like, okay, that’s like 20%, 30%, 40%. So I think when it comes to tech failure going wrong, you really have to ask yourself, can you take a step back and say, how important is this message really? And now how can we cope with it?

You know, unfortunately the bad thing happened. You can’t change it. So what number one, how can you refocus the attitude? And then number two, what’s the next action you’re going to take?

Rich, Host: What about the other end of the spectrum here? Do you, have you guys seen, or either within your own company or the clients that you deal with where somebody just goes overboard, where suddenly it’s, if it’s not happening on zoom or slack or what have you, then it doesn’t exist.

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Can you rephrase the question?

Rich, Host: Sure. Are we worried that just sticking with the overabundance of tech is causing people to just count on that tech? So much that they’re losing the human connection.

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Yeah. Great question. Really great question. I think, you know, especially as being a digital nomad, one of the first things that I’ve felt in that journey was loneliness because I no longer had the water cooler interactions. I no longer had the face to face time with people in person. I really was just me and my computer and I relied heavily. Like I looked forward to calls on zoom, uh, to connect with my team members, to connect to other people in general, um, until I found co working spaces. So, you know, for me, that’s my journey. And my story is how can I continue to connect with entrepreneurs and like minded people and still feel human connection in an office arena, and also still work online, and that’s what’s saved me and helped me and in my journey so far is finding co working spaces, finding little community hubs where as soon as I’m ready to take a break and go get a cup of coffee, I can have a nice conversation with another graphic designers, CEO, or something like that, where we might not all be working in the same business, but we all have similar mindsets, similar goals, um, and working in the online space. So there’s still ways to create community outside of just the business and then bring that into your, your business as well.

But as far as actually bringing that spirit into the company that you’re working with. I think this is also really important. And I think Kit actually does such an amazing job with this. Like this is my, one of my first clients I’ve ever worked with where I truly felt taken care of, uh, by my clients. Uh, so I’d love to hear maybe what Kit has to say about what he does to create this atmosphere for us, because, I know what it feels like on the receiving end, but I wonder what kind of guidelines he follows.

Rich, Host: Go, Kit

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Yeah, well, I’m going to give a different take to this, but let me answer Hayleigh’s first. I think it’s, uh, I really value that everyone’s on the team should be, should be welcomed. You know, if Hayleigh’s coming in right, or whoever’s coming in, everyone should be welcome and feel like they are part of the team.

And I think now this goes back to the technology, you know, like let’s say whether it’s on Slack, on Zoom, or in person, I think everyone has a different take on how they prefer to be communicated to on these different, uh, channels, right? So number one, I think, again, going back to what Hayleigh’s saying in, in the back of my mind, I’m just saying, hey, how can we create this environment where everyone feels welcome, safe, running power so they can, they, they just enjoy working here and do the best. Um, now, which I’m going to piggyback on what you said earlier. I, I think that when it comes to like the, um, the, the zoom communication or, or online communication, and let’s say the, let’s say the human touch.

I think this, this, again, this goes back and depends on the individual. Some people, they might just like, meessages. They don’t even want to see people on zoom. I just, this, this chat, this, this chat, this, we’ll get the, we’ll get the meetings, no meetings. I don’t want me to email me everything. And some people we want to connect more on zoom and build a relationship.

Uh, some people want to have a mix of everything. So I would have to say in your organization, how can you go back to understanding your people and learning more about them? So I’m bringing it back to defense. Personality communication styles. So working with the team, knowing that knowing how to adapt to that, like for example, myself and Hayleigh, we, I think we, most of the time, I think we have opposite styles in communication or the way that we think. And I think that is what makes us such a good team because we just think differently and we add everything in.

Rich, Host: Okay. I want to get deeper into this. Now we’re getting to the nitty gritty. I hope you guys don’t mind though.

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Now we’re talking about the, the individualization of it. Uh, does this fall largely onto the management team that they have to make sure that everybody gets that individual touch? Or is there some way to make it communal enough that everybody feels like they’re still getting what they want out of it?

Let’s give that one to Hayleigh.

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Really think it has to do with the size of the company first. Like that’s the biggest thing, the size of the company matters and how you delegate the responsibility to make sure there’s cohesion and communication between each individual, as well as the team that’s important.

Uh, we have a smaller company, so we are able to individualize more. And I think Kit does a really good job with that. I remember when I first came in. He asked me a lot of questions about myself in regards to how he can support me as CEO and crush these questions were things like, what motivates you? How do you receive praise?

What is something that would inspire you to do, do better in that might, that response might be. I really like constructive feedback and Kit would probably come to me each time and give me some sort of constructive feedback to how I was performing. In my own situation, my personal situation, I really respond to when people value what I am doing in the business, when they find ways to compliment me and thank me for when I do a good job.

And he has done that since the beginning. Like he really listened to exactly what I requested and he made sure to include that in his communication with me. And because I was empowered to tell him exactly what I needed to perform well. And he listened and responded to that. And. And created a framework of how we communicate with each other and how to provide feedback For me, uh, I felt the difference in, in my, in the working environment that I was, I was involved in because I was actually receiving exactly what I requested.

So, and we somehow create individualism when, or an individualized approach when we’re onboarding..

Rich, Host: Right.

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: New team members. To understand them and then maybe create some archetypal template and how we communicate that with them, how we offer them feedback, how we offer them praise, how we give them space to speak up about their own boundaries, desires, hopes, dreams, all of those things, so that we’re hitting those, you know, Maslow hierarchy and not just creating a space for them to sign into work each day and do their job and get some money in return.

But how do we create an atmosphere that allows them to feel accomplished in more ways than just earning money?

Rich, Host: Kit, let me ask you, even with such an intimate company as yours, first off, how do you keep it all straight with all the disparate personalities you have under you? And how do you recommend this kind of approach to a client that is larger than your company?How do you help them to get what you do so well under their belt?

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: I’m going to tie this to just one, uh, like a framework that I’m thinking about. We’ve all taken personality tests. So the one that I’m talking about, uh, we just, we just call it communication styles. Uh, some people can call it DiSC, but you know, there’s someone that’s always, that’s very direct.

There’s, uh, when I say very direct. The way we write, write emails could be like one sentence or two sentence. Uh, just get that, let’s get down to the point kind of person, you know, then, then the other people that are more detail oriented here, the pros here, the cons, how do we write emails? One, it’s one to three paragraphs because we rather get the steps right the first time.

And then there are people that are more kind of like relationship building. So if you think of these different types of people, But for your colleagues or your leaders or the people that you manage, do you understand or try to understand this style? And I’m not saying you have to 100 percent adapt to this style, but can you understand how they like to receive communication?

So I think it’s really starts from that point of view, from everyone in the organization, try to understand how each other person likes to receive communication and adapt to that. Which I have a question for Hayleigh. Can I ask a question? 

Rich, Host: Yes! 

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: I wanted to ask, what do you think is different in our styles of communication, Hayleigh, and how were the things that are bad or good from resulting in that?

Rich, Host: Hayleigh, he did this the entire last episode too. 

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Yeah. I was asking you questions…

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: He does this in our meetings all the time

Rich, Host: Love it.

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Um, yeah, I would say that Um, you know, especially if you think of our roles as well, like I’m a COO, so I’m an operations officer and Kit is a CEO. And what I actually like to think of as the CEO is actually a CVO.

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this term, but the Central Visionary Officer, Chief Visionary Officer

Rich, Host: Got you..

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: And so his communication style is always very like forward thinking, very vision and idea. And it usually is pretty quick and direct. Sometimes there’s some explanation, but it’s usually short.

It’s very much like, here’s an idea. Quick start, let’s get it out there. What can we do? And I’m somebody that kind of breaks it all down. I was like, Hey, step one, step two, step three. And I create a bit more, um, of an explanation around logistics and navigating the whole, whole rhythm of the, the idea, right?

So really looking at it from a bird’s eye view and dishing out all the details so that we can analyze this before we move forward. I think sometimes this makes the quick start a little bit slower. Like we definitely move a bit slower through our projects, but we move through them with awareness and, uh, with attention to detail of how we’re moving our projects forward.

So I think it’s complimentary and he creates the inspiration, the fuel, the like what’s next and what I want to do, and I’m able to either say. You know, pump the brakes here. This isn’t actually a good idea. We might waste some money and time and, or I’m like, okay, this looks good and here’s, here’s the energy and effort it’s gonna require in order to do this.

So we kind of have these complimentary, uh, communication styles and also the way that we approach projects.

Rich, Host: And a large part of it has to be the fact that he’s willing to listen. When you actually say things like you have this I because I’m sure, Kit, if you’re anything like my boss You get this steamroller effect going that when something excites you it excites you to go But then to be told okay, hold on a second, because you’re you’re missing the a B and C of it. You’re jumping right to F. So who how do you? allow that to influence you And give Hayley the space to make sure she is trusted and feels trusted enough and safe enough that she can even say those words to you.

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Yeah, well, I think it’s having conversations like this. So I’m going to pose a question back to both of you, both of you.

Let’s say, let’s say, let’s say, let’s say your boss or Hayleigh is working with me. Let’s say we have all these different ideas. Is that annoying sometimes, or like, not annoying, uh, the word, but like, how can that be better? Uh, what could be better about that? I guess I’m not sure what’s, what’s the question I’m trying to ask, but I’m trying to ask, how can that be, how can that be better for the team in a way?

Rich, Host: Let me, if you don’t mind, Hayleigh, let me step in and just tell you from my perspective, so you may feel a little more free as we get to you answering to your boss. My boss who does listen to this podcast, by the way, uh, he, there was a time in my corporate life with TeamBonding, especially where you would get that eye roll day, where it’s just, here he goes, okay, now we have to see what we need to do to make this function.

And that functionality, especially on my end, where I’m the one who’s face to face with the client that we’re dealing with, literally comes down to functionality. How can I make his vision the best product that we can put forth while also saying that these changes that I made in the moment were because something wasn’t working right, but it’s exactly how it was always supposed to go anyway.

So how, how do you handle Kit,  in that way? Good question. 

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Yeah, I think the, I think Kit’s pattern is, um, or how it kind of shows up in our business is, um, we have a project and it does kind of get down to the wire.

Rich, Host: Okay..

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: We’re just about to launch the project or, you know, push it through, get it started. And then he kind of comes in and it’s like, wait, wait, wait, wait.

How about we try this? Or like, what about this? And just kind of introduces a few more things. So he’s always kind of right when you’re about to really kick things off. He has some more questions. He wants to challenge you. He wants to look at things through a new lens So I think there’s that kind of operational part of me that really wants to just get things going and manage a project and get it done and see it through and then You know Kit just kind of the one that brings in the inspiration and has us look at different things in different angles, so it challenges me in unique ways because now I’m having to kind of build in systems that allow for that last minute stuff.

So I’m always kind of now I’m now I’m anticipating it, anticipating the last minute changes, anticipating the last minute questions that come up around if we’re going to make these changes or do something different, but it, it works out. And, uh, I absolutely love working with Kit and his brain and all of his ideas.

And he actually gives me a lot of freedom to create space and explore how I’m actually going to design or strategically plan a project, because he recognizes his own mind and how he likes to change things and try things out. And you know, Oh, maybe this didn’t work over here. So let’s make some adjustments over here.

So like he was saying before, it’s really just giving each other the space to understand the way that our brain works and how we communicate and how we push projects through or create projects or whatever that might be. And yeah, it’s just having that space in general and being valued for what you bring to the table gives, is what inspires me and my creativity and me to show up and give my best, my best results every, in every day in his business.

So, yeah.

Rich, Host: Was that a satisfactory answer for you, Kit?

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Well, that’s one thing that you said, uh, Rich, you used the word boss and I want to give you my thoughts on this. Uh, I really don’t see like I’m Hayleigh’s boss in a way. And I think she knows this, like I see her more as a partner. Right. So, and I, and I truly value that is because I feel like when we make decisions, she should have like a yes in that too.

So if our decisions don’t match up. Like in a way, we don’t kind of like move forward in a way, but I truly value, uh, Hayleigh’s, uh, everything that she does as a, as a true partner. And I think that is the mindset that I think people should have more when they’re in an organization, even though they’re not like the top, top, top CEO.

It’s like, how can everyone be a partner and work together? With the things that we’re trying to do. I think most people, um, yeah, I’ll leave it. I’ll leave it like that. 

Rich, Host: I don’t know. It sounds amazing gang. I gotta be honest with you. It sounds absolutely fantastic, but what do you do when maybe there’s, uh, I don’t want to say a fly in the ointment, but it’s that. I’ll tell you a story before my TeamBonding days, back when I was doing, you know, uh, uh, third party security work for fortune 500 companies in Boston area. 

I had my client contact who I dealt with every day for years and he had to go out on a medical leave. So they asked me if I could step in and handle the things that he handled as a, as a mid-level manager that I was at the time. And I said, sure, absolutely. I thought we worked very well together. We had a, you know, great communication between the two of us. But it turned out he was, how to say this kindly, um, making certain that his job was secure by not giving all the information that I needed. So, what do you do when something that fundamentally negative, uh, that can literally stop the train moving in its tracks? How do you keep it from happening or what do you do when it’s already happened and you need to move past? 

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks:  I would love to answer this question.

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: You go first, Hayleigh. I guess sometimes…

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Okay.

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: That’s a good one, Rich. Thanks.

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: That’s a really good one. One of the things that has really surprised me about BostonSpeaks and Kit in general, as, as a CEO, is he has been one of the most transparent clients I have ever worked with.

Rich, Host: That’s great.

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: When we have our team meetings together, he will literally bring up his QuickBooks, like this is what’s happening in the back end, you know, like he lets us know when it’s not so good and when it’s really great.

Um, and there’s just this openness in, in the entirety of the business where you, it feels like none of us have secrets. Like we’re truly, on a mission together. And again, like I think when you can cultivate that kind of environment of how do you individualize growth for somebody? What does growth look like for that person?

What do they want to see in their future and how can we create that path for them so that they don’t feel hindered by any other team member or position in the business and that they have this unique path that has been designed for them? And they can see what steps they want to take to get there. So that’s one of the things that Kit and I are always working on is what are these paths for the different roles in our business and how do we have conversations with the people in those positions or in that role to, to look at what, what they want, what they’re, what they’re looking for in their future so that we can design something that inspires them to continue to work with the team, but also grow as an individual.

 

Rich, Host: Nice

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Yeah. I got a piggyback thought and question to that. And, and, and kind of like visually what you’re saying, it’s kind of like, maybe I’m not sure, like withholding information and I’m not giving, not giving all the information if the information maybe is not asked.

Okay. So, so, you know, Hayleigh talking about being transparent, but Hayleigh, aren’t there downsides to that transparency as well? What are your thoughts?

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Yeah, I think that sometimes there can be downsides in terms of morale, potentially, like if the business isn’t doing so good. Um, and there’s some concerns or questions, maybe their morale would go down, but I also feels like you’re sharing your pain with us.

In a way, like oftentimes in businesses, when we try to motivate a team, we’re always talking about our wins and what’s next, but what about the very human part of us that experiences pain? And as we look at a business entity is going through the roller coaster of entrepreneurship, that’s in a valley at that moment.

And instead of hiding away and putting on a smile and trying to push it through and not sharing with the team what is happening in the background. I think that there’s a lot of value and sharing that pain and and having everyone kind of be there for you in a sense and be with you and be inspired about the vulnerability of I mean, in front of your entire team and letting them know, hey, things aren’t actually that great this month.

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Yeah, thanks for that. 

Rich, Host: What about you, Kit?

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: I want to add, um, I think going back to what you said, which I think both sides needs to take ownership. 

Rich, Host: Okay. 

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: On what they can take ownership on. I don’t, I don’t know too much about that situation, but one could be, you know, from, from the upper management. There could be a lot of fear around what is happening, right?

If I give more information, then something could happen to them, right? So that’s, that’s one part. I think that’s the, that’s the human, that’s the human part. But you know, that individual, each individual, I think when things happen, we can take our own ownership into what we can do around it. So let’s say the leader does not share well, whatever. I think it also depends on the ownership of the other people in the team. Hey. It’s up to us to now say, you know, if, if my, if my, if this, let’s say my, let’s say I had a boss. My boss didn’t do something, I can’t blame them 100%. Right. Because I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on in their mind.

Exactly. There could be so many different things. Exactly. It’s up to me to take ownership and say, Hey, let me go have a conversation and address what I’m thinking. They might not even be thinking exactly what I’m thinking. And so how do you go back to that discussion of what’s, what’s going on?

Rich, Host: Gang, thank you so much for coming on.

I got to say Hayleigh,  Kit. Kit, always a pleasure. Hayleigh, so lovely to meet you. Thank you so much. My team out there, please give a huge round of applause. One more time for Hayleigh Bailey and Kit Pang.

Guys, did you have a good time? 

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Yes. 

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Yes. 

Rich, Host: Good, good, good, good. And I hope that continues to be the case. Cause it’s time for my speed round.

All right. Hayleigh, Kit’s done this before with me. So I’m going to explain this quickly for you. Um, this is a quick, simple Q and A, I got 60 seconds on a clock. That is some music that plays in my head. That just keeps me in charge and in track of how long we have to actually go. The objective here is to see how many of these very short, simple questions you can answer within 60 seconds.

It’s just a short little game that we love to play here. The objective is to see if you can get the most. So if you guys are feeling competitive, now I haven’t done a team yet this season, but individually we’ve gotten to 15 questions. So I, the way this will work, because it’s the pair of you, I’m going to either ask you specifically by name or I am going to leave it general and open and the first person to answer, that’s who gets the answer for that, for that question.

Sound good?

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Good.

Rich, Host: Alright. 

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Sounds good, let’s do it, Hayleigh. 

Rich, Host: Fantastic. Okay guys, I’m going to start playing some music as soon as I do, I will ask the first question, and away we go. 

Hayleigh, what’s your full name?

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Hayleigh Lynn Bailey.

Rich, Host: Do you have any children?

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: No.

Rich, Host: Do you have any pets?

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: No.

Rich, Host: See, that was for anybody, anybody could answer.

Now, uh, Kit, if you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be? 

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: I would stay at home. 

Rich, Host: Ha ha ha ha. What trait do you most admire about yourself?

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: I can walk a slack line.

Rich, Host: There you go. Hayleigh, what are you good at?

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: Communication. 

Rich, Host: For either of you, which fictional character would you love to meet?

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Whoa. That ..I don’t know. I would say Superman.

Rich, Host: There you go. Kit, what’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen? 

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Um, Scream. 

Rich, Host: Hayleigh, what’s your dream job?

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: What I have right now.

Rich, Host: There you go. Thirteen, my friends! That is not bad! 13 questions answered in 60 seconds. Fan. Fantastic job Hayleigh,  Kit. Well, let me ask you first, Hayleigh, um, where out there can my team go if they want to learn more about you and possibly even communicate with you about, uh, projects?

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: I’m not currently available taking on any other clients, but if they want to reach out to me, I do do some consulting on the side and they can find me on LinkedIn. So you’ll see my name in the episode, you can search that and you can find me on LinkedIn.

Rich, Host: H A Y L E I G H Bailey, B A I L E Y. I do have to ask, did your parents hate you with that name? What happened? 

Hayleigh, BostonSpeaks: I’m surprised it took you this long time. It’s too long of a story to tell, but I can tell you that they aren’t comedians. and it was somewhat of an accident and just had to do with my mom wanting a Hayleigh and ending up with a man she married with the last name Bailey.

Rich, Host: Nice. Kit, what about you? Where can we reach you?

Kit Pang, BostonSpeaks: Yeah, you can find out more about us at BostonSpeaks.com. If your team wants to work on the speaking, the communication, then you will be in the right place. All right, my friends,

Rich, Host: thank you so very much. Kit, always a pleasure. Hayleigh, thank you. We’d love to talk to you again sometime in the future.

But as for now, my team out there, that’s it. We’re wrapping up yet another episode of Team Building Saves the World. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, whether you’re new to the podcast or an old fan of the show, please share it with everyone that you know. Whether they’re a coworker, a friend, a family member, if they’re in the States or across the world, it just helps us share all this vital information.

You can find out all about us, including all past episode to TeamBonding.coms/podcast. Look specifically for Kit Pang’s episode. It’s fantastic. If you haven’t already heard it, you can also find this wherever you find your favorite podcast, Google podcasts, Apple podcasts, Spotify, wherever you go to listen, my friends, I promise you, we will be there and don’t forget to look for us in all the social medias at team bond podcast and leave me a message.

Tell me what you liked about the show. Tell me if there was a question you wanted more detail about, or even if you have an idea for future topics, I want to hear from you. So, before we say our farewells for this episode of Team Building Saves the World, please never forget, my friends, if you are within the sound of my voice, you’re on my team now, and I am forever going to be on yours.

So long, team! I’ll see you next time.

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