On Wednesday 10, August 2022, I attended Loan Tran’s workshop at The Hive Co-Working Space in Thao Dien!
Loan is the author of the book “Powerful Leadership: How To Build Dream Teams” (more details below).
She shared some of her experience “as a company leader – how she turned around a multi million dollar company in Asia by focusing on People and Values.”
And you will read later that a lot of leaders also shared insightful things too!
The main topic of this workshop was to “Focus on People”. With my favorite part:
“When we started to focus on People – by connecting, motivating, delegating and developing people, we achieve the highest revenue growth and profitability!” _ Loan Tran Leadership Coach
This article is my humble review and summary of all the little nuggets of wisdom that I could grasp while attending her Leadership Workshop.
The leader’s role is to ignite the team’s fire and keep it alive
Happy teams start with you!
If you are not happy, how can you expect your employees to be happy…and joyful and loyal?
“Happy leaders, happy teams.”
With a happy team, opportunities are suddenly welcomed and chances to success as well!
Smile.
We (as leaders) set the standards
Her workshop started with a first very important lesson: “we set the standards”.
And it’s true. I could totally relate. As the leader, you set the framework and are the one who defines the limits.
Sky is the limit? Then it’s our mission to show it everyday and inspire our teams to reach the sky!
Where ever your team is heading to, it’s crucial that you start sharing that final image and spend more time with your team to help them embrace it and align with your standards.
Know thyself
To set the standards, your standards, you have to understand yourself. This is the starting point to connect with your team.
As you can see below I was quite intimidated but always smiling to introduce myself!
What gets measured gets managed [from Peter Drucker]
Create anonymous surveys
I guess this is more suitable for bigger teams, where it starts to be hard to sit your employees in the same room.
Surveys are a great way for all the employees to anonymously share their ideas, their opinions and concerns about their work, the team, the company and their personal situation.
Track the team’s satisfaction
Loan has mentioned that she would then be able to track progresses. For example, after asking many times the same question, she would start to see the change and see results.
The interesting thing in this process is that it is exactly like what I am doing with my review system everyday, every week/months/quarters and years.
Feedback to your team!
One of the keywords of the workshop: “connect”.
Collect the feedback, yes… but explain them how you will handle it!
One of the common way to handle this is to create a regular company gathering; a townhall, a trip, a party, a happy hour… and share what feedback was given and few of the ways the management expect to handle it.
I believe that this is the most efficient way to earn someone’s trust and be able to keep your team motivated and loyal.
Trust = transparency.
Last takeaways
Loan Tran’s energy is to the roof!
Thank you for sharing all your knowledge Loan.
Thank you for making others share their experiences too.
Loan was clear from the beginning: “I don’t know everything”. Smart people work together, learn from them you might not know everything it is ok.
And she knew that she was surrounded by super smart people (I mean I was in the room 😉 …). So she let others share and I learned a lot from the audience too.
The Audience’s amazing sharing
Someone said: “To be a good leader you have to be healthy, because leading teams take a lot of courage, a lot of energy.”
Another one: “I do my best to be a good colleague.”
And then: “Lead by example”. This is so true for anything.
And a good question: “what’s a good “why” (a good standard) that will make people follow me? Because my standard might be too personal, they might not have the same..?”
Loan’s answer: “The why must be bigger than us. It is not about our own why.”
To go further, read the following books:
To go further, she recommended a bunch of books that I will share here:
- Good leaders ask great questions
- Start with why
- 7 habits of effective people
Questions I have after this workshop, for you and for me:
- We set the standards… so what are your standards? What is the vision you have for your company?
- Who are you? #identitycrisis I mean, what are your core values that you could share with your team so that they better understand your standards and can connect with you…?
- What are great questions to ask when asking for feedback?
- How do you handle the feedback you collected and implement changes that will be impactful and helpful for the team?
If you have any answers to these questions please do comment below your thoughts! I am eager to share mines too in the future for sure… These questions deserves to be answered!
Listen to Loan Tran’s podcast episode on Creators in Vietnam
I e-met Loan Tran in an interview that Dana Drahos did. Back in the days when I was co-hosting Creators in Saigon (Now called Creators in Vietnam) during one of the lockdowns of the covid pandemic.
In that podcast, she shared a lot of values too about leadership. I highly recommend you to listen to it.
Read Loan Tran’s Book!
Then, I just learned that she wrote a book, so I invite you, if you like her work, to go read it: Link of her website
It’s a simple recommendation, it’s not a paid advertising.
And if you have the chance, go to one of her workshops to meet her in person.
What’s next for me?
If there is one thing I know about me, is that I am a natural enthusiastic person and since I started this journey of reclaiming my time, I’ve never felt more at “my place”. Whether it’s at work or at home.
So when Loan is saying that happy leaders build happy teams, I can only feel more confident in myself and in my team that we are going to shape a better future and make a real impact.
Now, it’s only about making it happen, connecting more, trusting them more and be more myself ;)! And also answer the questions above! 🤭
What’s next for YOU?
If you want to start reclaiming your time too so you can have more time to learn about leadership or do more meaningful things in your busy life, then I invite you to join my free challenge!
It is a fun way to start working on yourself, be more productive and aligned with your own goals in life.
It is also the way I got started. So I am more than happy to exchange with you and guide you during the process.
Check it out: https://nicolasthanh.com/starter-guide/
