Activate Your Audience!
Welcome to Activate Your Audience podcast! Here, you'll find a range of episodes discussing all aspects of brand activation and audience engagement, from the latest industry trends to expert insights and best practices.We will delve into topics such as events and experiential marketing, business tips and tricks, and creating experiences, all with the goal of helping you achieve your goals and drive customer engagement.Tune in to learn from the experts and get inspiration for your own brand activation strategies. Subscribe to stay up-to-date on new episodes and join the conversation on @BeImperial on Instagram. Let's activate you, your brand, and your audience together! Learn more about how IBA can support your even'ts team at your brand activations https://iba.imperialbrandingagency.com/i3ba
Activate Your Audience!
Tavar James - Unveiling the Secrets to Successful Leadership in Events
On this episode of Activate Your Audience podcast, Join us as Tavar James unfurls his incredible narrative, a chronicle of seizing chances, valuing mentorship, and a commitment to perpetual growth. His story, rich with lessons from orchestrating NBA team events to behind-the-scenes of American Idol, is a powerful reminder of how every role can be instrumental in honing one's expertise in event management, relationship building, and transformative leadership.
As our conversation unfolds, Tavar sheds light on the indispensable role events play within organizations, elucidating their capacity to catalyze business advancement, forge genuine connections, and push deals across the finish line. Post-pandemic, the events industry has blossomed anew with a reinforced appreciation for in-person gatherings, prompting a strategic reimagining of their role in corporate operations. Tavar's insights into the symbiosis of creativity and strategy in event planning offer rich fodder for those keen on navigating the complex tapestry of crafting engaging, meaningful experiences.
The episode culminates in a deep dive into the artistry of leadership and team dynamics. Tavar champions the principle of balance in nurturing innovation while maintaining a clear-eyed focus on business goals. He discusses the essentiality of well-defined roles and the cultivation of a team-oriented culture, reflecting on how these elements contribute to individual fulfillment and collective triumph. For an infusion of personal anecdotes and industry wisdom, connect with Tavar on LinkedIn for a blend of uplifting content and practical advice that can enrich both personal and professional landscapes.
Tune in now to transform your approach to event management and leadership!
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All right. So today we're delighted to have Tavar James join us. Tavar is a seasoned expert in marketing, events field marketing and experiential, With a proven track record of developing high performing teams and creating strategies that resonate cross-functionally. Tavar has become a passionate champion of events as a powerful marketing and engagement channel. His work with various stakeholders, specifically at the C-suite level, combined with his knack for balancing strategic impact and creativity, make him a leading voice in the industry. Welcome to the Activate your Audience podcast, Tavar. Thanks. Thanks so much. Our pleasure, so good having you. We'll kick it right off. So, if you don't mind, within your current role, I guess let's go back. Could you give us a sort of cliff notes of how you got to where you are now at this current role?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I started my career in hospitality when I was in school and I was a front desk night auditor, just picked up a hotel job just wanting to make some extra money while I was in school and fast forward a few months into my front desk role, the general manager and the director of sales at the hotel pretty much saw something in me. They loved how I was working with the different guests. They loved my ability to just kind of take on projects and, just you know, do things to make the front desk better, and so they asked me to be their sales and events admin up in the executive office and from there I fell in love with events. And I didn't realize I was going to fall in love with events. I took the job just saying, hey, sure, why not More money, I'll take it. But little did I know that with some mentoring and with some strong leadership I ended up loving it and so I started to just follow this path of events in hospitality, which is where I've learned a lot of my skill set and events working across different verticals in the hospitality industry, because I was able to work with so many different groups and so many different clients and so many different partnerships. So I climbed the ranks pretty quickly in hospitality.
Speaker 2:My last role was director of events at a Ritz Carlton here in New York City and then I transferred or transitioned, I should say into corporate event planning, where I was the head of events for a financial services firm and there I built a pretty robust corporate events team and was there for about six and a half years. It was a wonderful run. And then I was approached with a new challenge of managing a field marketing and events team globally. And that's where I was at my last company. It was a tech company, a SaaS company, and I was there for about two years and then I decided that I wanted to do what I do to do, which is events, but do it for a company where the mission and the work that the company is doing resonates a little bit closer to my heart. And that's where I'm at now. I'm the head of events for BetterUp, which is a human transformation company, and their mission and their objectives are just more in line with my day-to-day aspirations and just who I am as a person. So it's been great so far.
Speaker 1:I love that and, yeah, a lot of that. I think the trends that I'm picking up on and even eventually, from your inception, I would say, and going from hospitality to then events and corporate as well as globally, have there been any, I guess the lessons or part of that journey that in hindsight now you're sort of realizing like OK, that was perfect for what I'm doing now or perfect for the next level up of the scale, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think all of it. It's more recently, where I've been doing more public speaking and sharing my story, where I've really been able to realize that my career trajectory and my career path has been awesome. I owe a lot of my knowledge, my people skills, my ability to report up and out across different organizations, my ability to connect with the C-suite, my ability to manage and coach, but also my ability to learn. I've learned so much throughout my career and I can honestly say that every step that I've taken was worth it and was definitely needed. You know, I think what I love the most about my career is that it definitely wasn't one of those things where it was handed to me.
Speaker 2:You know, I didn't graduate from college and step right into like a leadership role because of my degree and then, you know, from there it went upwards.
Speaker 2:You know, I really started from the bottom with working at a hotel at the front desk and not to say that's the bottom of like a career. But when you look at the path that most people take in just corporate America, I started at a very junior level. I think that's the better way to put it. I started at a very junior level making beds at hotels, checking in guests, working the line in the kitchen with the chef for different events, checking in guests working the line in the kitchen with the chef for different events, and so I really feel like my people skills and my ability to relate and be empathetic, my vendor relationship skills, all of that I owe to every step in my path, and so I would say no, there's nothing that I would say I would change. All of it was necessary, all of it was worth it, and I would change All of it was necessary, all of it was worth it and I wouldn't change any of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's you bring up a good point of you know, whether it's the college degree in an MBA or specifically in hospitality or marketing, there are still sub skills, like you mentioned. To be able to learn is a skill right. To be able to teach, you could be a great event producer or a great strategist. That doesn't mean you know how to teach and coach and lead. That's its own skill. So it sounds like you were intentional in and had these opportunities. You mentioned mentors. You mentioned the landscape of cultivating sort of the nuanced skills that takes somebody being curious and open minded, as you mentioned, empathetic. We know in hospitality, we know in events, the most successful organizations and individuals are those that really care about all stakeholders the end consumer, the end, you know, the vendors, obviously partners, obviously your clients. So I think that's super powerful.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And I think you know a lot of people have been asking me, especially people that ask me to mentor them. A lot of them have been asking me you know where do I start. You know I'm graduating soon. Where do you think is the best place to start? Or, you know, I've realized I love doing events, so I want to start to do it more professionally. Where do I start? And I do.
Speaker 2:I direct all of them to hospitality. See if you can get an events role or an admin role in events team or a marketing team in a hotel or at a convention center, because it's there that you learn empathy. You learn how important it is to be a people-centric leader. You understand the relationship between vendors and how important that relationship is. And then also, what I loved about starting in the hospitality industry is that when you get into corporate event planning, you start to stick to a vertical right.
Speaker 2:I'm a corporate event planner in fashion. I'm a corporate event planner in sports. I'm a corporate event planner in whatever right In the hospitality industry, because of all the groups that come in and out of your hotel. One day you're working on an event for someone in the NBA, like Brooklyn Nets, for example, I'm using my own story as an example, working for the Brooklyn Nets one week. The next week, the next week, I'm working on a group for American Idol. The week after that, I'm working on a national dance competition, and so you really start to learn all the different nuances of all the different types of events, and so I think it's such a great starting point for anyone who wants to get their hands dirty in the events world.
Speaker 1:That's a good call out, yeah, and especially because to sort of piggyback on that there are, it takes a certain curiosity especially say if you're a young person or just an ambitious or a caring person, right, most of the times it's a little bit of all right to have the energy and right in our youth or just to have the motivation and drive, no matter what stage of life you're at, to care that much to understand that nuance, to be that curious, to actually take that and then just not be a you know sort of checklist item.
Speaker 1:I did this, I did that but actually like use that, as you mentioned, to be people centric, to see how do I better serve my organization, the project and those involved. So I think that's a massive, massive point and to that point now, as you mentioned, even going into verticals and as a passionate advocate for how events actually drive the bottom line, especially recently, we are now seeing more of and I shouldn't say recently, but it's somewhat new of CEOs and the larger landscape, seeing the ROI of events that used to be a little bit foggy, murky in the past, a while of events that used to be a little bit foggy murky in the past With what have been some of the most effective ways that you've seen events directly impact organizations towards their key objectives, either for the project or for the marketing campaign or sales aspect of the organization in general.
Speaker 2:No, I think that people are realizing that you can only do so much behind the screen and that the hour of human connection in person is invaluable. You can't replace it, and I think the pandemic has heightened that realization. And so what I find is that your C-suite is not necessarily so focused on return. They want return. You know, if you're investing X amount of dollars into events, obviously they want to see a return. But I think, more importantly, they're looking at it as an avenue, a channel, a lever, and they're realizing how important that lever is. And so it's not a question of we're only doing events if there's ROI. I think the tone has changed to we need to do events. How do we make sure we're doing them in a way where it does produce ROI right? So it's not a question of should we do them, it's a matter of we are doing them. How do we make sure that we're doing them in a way that is productive to the business? And I think that's a very important angle that a lot of people are starting to realize.
Speaker 2:I think, pre-pandemic, a lot of C-suite people were asking the question of should we have events? When you talk about budget cuts, I think it's one of the first things that would go, whereas now I think everyone is beefing that up in their organizations, trying to find ways that they can better support that function. How do they build a centralized events function within their organization? Because they're realizing that so much more can be done Deals can be progressed, conversations can be had, impact can be had, impressions can be made. Marketing touch points can be had in such can be had, impressions can be made. Marketing touch points can be had in such a more robust manner when it's in person.
Speaker 2:You know, we just wrapped up a go-to-market all-hands call and one of the things that one of the sales leaders says we encourage you to get in front of your contacts. And when he said get in front, he specifically said you can only do so much behind zoom or behind a screen Right, and so I think that a lot of people are realizing that it's true and that there is so much that can be done in person. So, and I I'm happy to see that the C-suite is jumping on board. As an events person, I'm so happy to see that our industry is changing so much so rapidly, and I'm also happy to see that the conversation is shifting from do we to how do we do it Right. I think that's very important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the how aspect is really something that jumps out and even, as you said, obviously we're going to speak our own game right If you're like well, what's the best way?
Speaker 1:Well, marketing is going to save marketing, sales is going to save sales. Hr is HR. Everybody wants to sort of obviously champion their cause or their area of expertise or familiarity. But I think, yeah, as you mentioned now, from the collective, you do see this sort of aspect, and one of the collective, you do see this sort of aspect and one of the best, I think, comparisons is like the whole golf course days, right, like your C-suites, your high level, high leverage activities and high net worth individuals.
Speaker 1:You're at the golf course, you're at these places where there are these sort of nuanced ways to connect, there's also a way to learn about the person, and so events are almost like our landscape, corporate landscape, even outside corporate music, talent, entertainment. They've always had events, right, if you look at, say, like entertainment, there's always been events that have been the networking sessions. Well, it's the same thing where we're activating, whether it's the consumer, partnerships, different stakeholders who will either be part of a project, who are looking for a solution to some of their projects. So why wouldn't, like you know, the two good old boys at the golf course be able to sort of shoot it and connect and be like I like this person or you know what I don't like this person, and same thing. It's a bilateral communication.
Speaker 1:This actually is a good partner. This actually is not the ideal client I would want to work with, so that aspect of it, I think, gives a lot of data points as well. As you mentioned, because of COVID a little bit more, even just the day that, the times that we're in of everything being digital, of everything being behind the screen, we thirst as humans for that human connection. And when it comes to ROI and just the bottom line, the companies, the organizations, the sales teams that know how to make a human feel, seen and heard, make decision makers who, at an organization, are still human beings, you know, understood. Then why wouldn't that be the best way to do business and why wouldn't that be a great channel for that?
Speaker 2:And it's redefining persona.
Speaker 2:I think in sales and marketing the word persona is used as a very, not specific, but a very general, I should say actually Like disassociated maybe Disassociated way to identify your buyer, whereas I think now, with the power of just remembering what events can do for you and how it really taps into behaviors, the word persona is looked at in a very different way.
Speaker 2:Right, like, for example. We are very specific in like, figuring out not just persona from a buyer's journey but persona from like. What are they like, what are they into? If I invite this person to this event, is it really going to make them tick? And that may be one way for one person in my ICP versus different for someone else in my ICP. Yet they may have the same title right and so typically. Yet they may have the same title right and so typically in sales and marketing the same title, you would assume, the same persona, same behaviors. But with the power of events, we are now starting to uncover that persona is a much more broad term used to that can be used to uncover behaviors for specific buyers in your journey and not necessarily just for specific titles part of your ICP.
Speaker 1:That's a great point. And again, even at a human level, it's just respectful to see people as not monoliths. Right, and yeah, we have to. You know we don't have the time or capacity, especially as an organization, to sort of have a specific profile, persona whatever we want to call it or a general ICP, you know, aim to look at or target.
Speaker 2:But it is more respectful to be like this is this individual and let's be a little bit more aware of who they are right and intentional with understanding who they are, so that way your journey mapping and your experience mapping makes sense. It's much easier to weave people into your event when you look at them more as a person or an individual persona versus a title or an ICP. So it's something that we all should be thinking about as event strategists. A thousand percent.
Speaker 1:And recently I saw you sort of discuss the idea of you know your personal activation right. You made a post where you called out something about you're not a tree, in terms of describing like you can move right and as individuals we go through faces physically, mentally, emotionally, career-wise where we sometimes forget the fact that we are. You know, we can leave this situation, this organization, this relationship, because we have that uh capability that freedom is humans. But it's very easy to sometimes lose track of that. For you, you're discovering that right as you progress in your career, as you sort of um learn and have this curiosity. But how do you reframe that sort of aspect activating others? How can you remind whether it's attendees or partners in event projects that they are not trees, that they can shift in, whether it's activating them for the campaign or activating them towards a change for the better, for a solution that you provide, for a cause and mission?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you know you have to look at events and people and the people attending your events. Everyone is on an evolution. You know people are evolving. I've evolved as a person, which is why I've made that statement, because I think a lot of people feel stuck when we're building our event strategy. Sometimes we feel stuck when we're building our new brand awareness play. Sometimes we feel stuck when we're thinking about our ICP, where sometimes we feel stuck. But you have to remember that, at the end of the day, you're still dealing with people and people are always evolving. People's perceptions 's, the way that the people receive things, the way that people look at uh, creativity and influence. It's always evolving. And so I think, as long as you remember that the world is always evolving, you'll want to make sure that the work you do and the people you partner with and the events that you're putting together is evolving as well. Um, me personally, I I use that analogy that you're not a tree, because I look at who I was when I was a hospitality events professional. I look at who I was when I was a financial services events professional. I look at who I am now as a tech events professional and I'm very different across all three stages of my career and I think that my growth and my change has been great. I don't regret it, I don't wish I didn't change. It's just part of life and because of those changes throughout my life, I've given myself the grace to try new things. I tried financial services, not thinking I would ever be able to do it because I had no financial services background. Financial services and not thinking I would ever be able to do it because I had no financial services background, and there I was exactly what they were looking for. I tried tech in the SaaS industry not thinking I would be able to do tech because I had no tech background. There I was exactly what they were looking for. And so I encourage people to not feel stuck or stagnant in their careers. The world is your oyster and you can grow yourself and develop yourself so much as a person when you are able to tap into many different verticals. There are certain things about events and planning events. That's very universal, right. It's like the events one-on-one playbook right. But if you really want to grow as a professional and you really want to grow as a person and try to be a holistic events person who can tap into different people and different audiences and different segments. You have to try different things. You have to challenge yourself to try different verticals, and so you know, if you're an events person working in the automobile industry or you're an events person working in sports and you want to try working in law or working on events in government, go for it. You know, flex those muscles, try to see if you can do it. It's only going to make you a much more well-rounded professional later on. And I think the same thing applies to when you're working through your event strategy and when you're working through your audience segmentation. Try not to put people in a box. Try not to put your strategy in a box. Try not to put your creativity in a box.
Speaker 1:Try to continue to evolve because people are always evolving. Yeah, and you bring up a good point of it being a muscle right, and sometimes it's not as simple to connect the dots between you as an individual and also the individuals or the strategy in terms of the individuals that you're trying to activate. But I think having either, or once we have that awareness, can help inform that that both say from a creative lens. If you're designing an experience and you have this more robust idea of the humans there, then you're probably going to create these more unique or more igniting experiences. But in the same way, that person, maybe they also want to try their handed entrepreneurship. If they've only been in agency creatives, they could also expand that with that same sort of idea of remembering they're not treats. And on the other side too, like the corporate exec who is just sort of doing the strategy and the high-level planning at some point, understanding that will help him inform the people that he's leading and the trickle down again of that sort of perspective.
Speaker 2:So I love that. There's something I've been saying lately that kind of helps explain the events professional and a lot of people said I should trademark it but you know, kind of crosses across. It crosses many different verticals and many different experiences. But you know, I always say events professionals. We are master artists at connecting people and places and spaces that ignite a spectrum of experiences that could be anywhere, that could be any vertical, that could be for any company. So if you could just kind of remember that as what we do and why we do it, you'll realize that you have the wings to fly and do whatever you want. I love that.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. Now, with your diverse background again touching various aspects of events and teams and leadership, can you share maybe some aspects, or maybe some again high-level views, of key strategies that you've used to lead teams that result in successful projects?
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. First and foremost, you need to tap into your team's strengths and their weaknesses right when you join a new organization, you're leading a new team. Take the time to ask those questions what do you like to do? What do you not like to do? What are you currently doing that you wish you didn't have to do? What are you not currently doing that you wish you can do more of? What excites you about events? What really annoys you about events? Ask those questions to make sure that you're understanding what people like to do, because, at the end of the day, you want to have people doing the things they enjoy, first and foremost. I think the second thing is just being a true advocate for your team, making sure that they understand that you are an advocate for them and also a steward of the business, and striking a healthy balance between standing up for them and being at the front lines for them, but also being a true champion of the business and what the business needs. And I think third is continuing to challenge them to be innovative and support their personal and professional development.
Speaker 2:Now, all of these things are about managing people. I mean, I can get into a whole bunch of other things about managing your C-suite and all that stuff, but when you think about your team and managing your team, you want to make sure that you are challenging them to be innovative, to be creative, and sometimes that means by supporting them personally and professionally. Are you giving them the space to attend industry events? Are you giving them the space to take time off, to become inspired? Again, most events people at the core of who they are. They're creative people, and so you want to make sure that you're giving them the space to grow, to learn, to soak up things. And so you know, even if you have a very daunting and aggressive event season, make sure that you find the time to give your teams a space to become inspired and to recharge their battery, which usually means stepping away from the work and either attending something personally with family and friends, or attending an industry event. So those would be the three things I would focus on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that can be, I think, in today's landscape, a superpower with how busy we're getting. Obviously, event folks have always been just not traditional hours, crazy sometimes sprints of work, but now that the demand for events in general and the thirst for the public as well to just connect, there's been a bit more of a bandwidth sort of diminishing for these individuals. So I think leaders, as you mentioned, that sort of cultivate that fertile ground to expand creativity for them, do themselves a service that pay dividends both for their team, and that's hard right. Sometimes, again, if you're managing a smaller team or if you're really sort of bootstrapping, whether the department or the agency, finding that time sort of, is an art of sorts, oh for sure. Now event marketing, they require adaptability and resilience, as we know. Especially. You know everything is changing. There's always something that needs to be, you know, fixed or updated. How do you navigate these challenges to ensure a successful outcome, again from a leadership perspective?
Speaker 2:successful outcome. Again, from a leadership perspective, I think the first thing is just to recognize the challenges that are in front of you and not try to just completely avoid them, and making sure that you're saving space within your bandwidth as a leader, but within your bandwidth as a team, to tackle those challenges. I think sometimes we fill our cups too full when we're working through event season or even when we're down season. We just tend to fill our cups too full when we're working through event season or even when we're down season. We just tend to fill our cups too full. We forget to leave space for the inevitable or for the things that we're not expecting.
Speaker 2:And so I think you know you're never going to know what's coming, you're never going to know when things take a shift, but the best thing that you can do for yourself is just leave space for you to be able to tackle those challenges, accept that they are a challenge and then put in place a game plan of how you're gonna overcome it. Those are like my high level suggestions, and I think the most important one is just that space. Save that space for those things that you know are coming, whether you like it or not, the unavoidable, the things that you can't predict. I've started to do that more frequently, I should should say, in the more recent years of my career, where I make sure my cup is not too full from a bandwidth perspective, and make sure that my cup is not too full, um, I make sure that I leave a little bit of space for the things that are unexpected, and I find that when I do that I'm more equipped and more ready to handle things that are thrown my way that I did not know were coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, personally, last year was sort of that. I called it, I forgot where I picked it up, but it was like the idea of white space, right, like leaving room of nothingness, of just a blank space, and for you personally, having the ability to say, if I'm going to work today or if I want to be creative today, I block this time out of nothing, space. And that really does, you know, obviously help the creative mind get to churning. But also, as an organization, this year, sort of realizing that.
Speaker 1:Back to again the previous question as well as just a time to like cross lateral understanding of you know, if we're dynamic in the way that we create space for our team or the individual is aware and dynamic in the way that we plan and leave that sort of buffer of white space, why wouldn't that allow sort of the room for growth? And, as you said, when things sometimes, you know, hit the fan, as sometimes tends to happen, you have that adaptability and you're also being realistic. Life is life. You can't control traffic, you can't control Wi-Fi connection, you can't control security, sometimes you can't control aspects of events or just life toddlers you know everything that you, we tend to think that we can Right.
Speaker 1:A lot of our culture, especially in our world, tells us that we're type A, we're drivers. We're going to change it and I think again, that sort of almost counter approach of the acceptance, the openness, lets you be a lot more adaptable to really serve the grander mission of that project or of the organization.
Speaker 2:Yeah, agree, totally agree.
Speaker 1:Now, while your work is obviously strategic and result focused and, as you mentioned earlier with that beautiful quote, we're both creatives and sort of activating these spaces, how do you balance that for yourself, being creative, being strategic and again from an energetic bandwidth, sort of creating obviously the memorable experiences and meeting the KPIs for these projects but sustaining that for yourself in the long term? You know, we're having sometimes a not even sometimes we all have a finite maybe level of gas for our day or for the season or in our career. How do you sustain those areas of strategic and creative thinking for yourself?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just make sure that I strike a balance, a healthy balance between personal and professional, and I try to stay inspired.
Speaker 2:You notice on my LinkedIn that I post a pretty healthy balance of industry stuff pertaining to events, but then I also post a lot about just personal well-being and positive psychology, and so I think it's just it's important to just have balance in your life.
Speaker 2:And you know, your life, um, and you know, striking a healthy balance equips you with the desire to be great in both of those areas, if that makes any sense, right? Knowing that you have a balanced mindset makes you want to be more creative. It makes you want to tap into that creative side more and it makes you want to be more strategic. It makes you want to be more focused on the business, because you know that you're so balanced, right, so it makes it, and you want to keep that balance. So it makes you pay more attention to both of those things to make sure that you are maintaining that balance. So my, my secret sauce which is not much of a secret, but it's really just to just stay balanced. Stay balanced in how much you are focusing on the things that drive you and light a fire under you and keep you creative and then also make sure you're focusing on business, business outcomes, your team, the company, just striking that healthy balance. That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:All right. So last question now, with your experience in developing teams cross-functionally, what are some of the best practices for managing expectations and influencing change while working with various stakeholders, maybe even various simultaneous projects?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think some of the best practices that I've always tried to implement is just making sure that your team has clear roles and responsibilities and making sure that everyone understands their swim lanes. For me, it's very important that my team wakes up and knows what they're supposed to be doing and what their job is and how they're impacting the business and how they're impacting the team. And while I know that a lot of teams have to work under ambiguity and scrappiness and sometimes lanes get blurred, I do think it's important to take the time to sometimes pause and make sure that your operations are refined and to make sure that there's clear lines of sight into people's roles, responsibilities, scopes of work, who drives who drives? You know, I think it's very easy to kind of get lost in the idea that you know everyone just helps everyone, which is great and that's how it should be, and that is that is the character that you look for in a team member. Right, when you're hiring someone, you look for that characteristic of teamwork and roll up my sleeves and help to get things done.
Speaker 2:But then, on the other side of that, when you think about developing your team and coaching your team and supporting their professional development and their professional goals.
Speaker 2:You really can't do that unless you understand their scope and their roles and responsibilities and unless that is clearly outlined for them. Reason being is because part of helping someone grow and develop and coaching them is accountability and making sure that you're holding them to a standard or holding them to a certain caliber of work, and it's harder to do that when someone doesn't have clear roles and responsibilities. And so I think one of the best things you can do as a leader to support cross-functional work, to support multiple work streams, to support your team and their growth, is making sure that your expectation of them is very clear and not in a dictatorship way, but it's very clear. In a sense of this is how you impact the business and when you are at peak potential in this space, here is how you drive or move the needle forward and just holding them to that level of accountability. So that's what I would say Clear rules and responsibilities, tight processes and then having a team full of people who have strong character around teamwork.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you touch on a lot of great points there and I think there's a beautiful way to sort of tie a ribbon on this, because the aspect of lacking uncertainty, as we talked about earlier, there's always going to be uncertainty, there is chaos. There's the right amount of order and chaos that you're introducing and also managing as a leader. But I I love that approach of having both the lack of ambiguity as best as you as a leader can support both from the individual team member as far as, like, there is no uncertainty on what they need to do in terms of, like, their, their priorities or even the roles, and then they can sort of be creative and fluid, step in but not step out of bounds in a distractive way, which often happens. When those lines are again, lines will be blurred. But when those lines and expectations are not clear and it's a disservice to them, right, it's a better way of leadership when you're like, you know when there needs to be a reprimand or praise.
Speaker 1:That is what every team member really wants, right? That's what every child wants, that's what every partner in any situation wants, right? Anybody who is being led and protected or protecting and leading needs to provide that. So I love how you frame that and also the aspect of character. We've been kind of on a trend on this podcast of this three-pronged approach of skill set. Right, and it's the technical skill set. If you're technical, creative, and your production side and your managerial side communication then there's a character skill set and so, as you mentioned, vetting for that in the interview process but also cultivating that character, and then obviously the mindset approach, which is fit with everything we've been talking about before, with balance, with, you know, belief, with just the human connection, and so I think like this is a great way to really focus those three areas of skills character, mindset and actual technical skill sets in a way that really does trickle top down from leadership and on the, you know, bigger version of the individual, the organization really does see progress, move along in a more refined way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and people feel like they have more of a sense of belonging, like they're part of a bigger purpose, like they know why they're here. They know their purpose. They just know how they contribute to the business in a very clear way, and sometimes, when swim lanes are too muddied or too integrated, it's harder for people to really recognize how they truly and individually impact the business. Now, again, I want to be clear. I'm not saying that cross-functional work and team collaboration and helping one another out and scrappiness is not good. It's good for all of us to grow.
Speaker 2:Even the most seasoned professionals still grow through scrappiness and ambiguity. It's always going to be there. But what I fear is that some organizations fall into a place where the scrappiness and the ambiguity becomes norm, and that's where I would caution them, because that's not sustainable. And so we want to make sure that we're working in an environment or in a model where we are reducing the chance of we're reducing the risk of not having good luck right, because a lot of times when you're working like that, it works out, but it's pure luck that it worked out right. So you want to make sure that you have a model in place that really supports the work you're doing, so that way you're reducing the chance that shit falls apart.
Speaker 1:Sustainability in that aspect is definitely part of that. So I'll go sort of at a high level of everything that stood out for me and then just feel free to fill in anything that I might have missed in our conversation. But the first thing is just remembering the steps of our career journey, as you mentioned. You know from your beginnings in hospitality all of us and we know this on maybe intellectual level sometimes that everything is meant to be, everything happens for a purpose. But I think you point out a great example of just remembering the steps of your career, your journey, are often necessary in hindsight and so we can remember that 50 year old us, or maybe 30 year old us if we're in our twenties, and any version of us can sort of help truly operationalize, trusting the process with that mindset. Right, that was the first thing. The second is the mentorship tip. You know I love how you know you mentioned starting in a place, whether it's hospitality or anything, that lets you really be people centric, in order to leverage it into just being a better leader, a better part of a team. And I also think you know I wanted to interject the idea that people centricity, whether you're starting in service, business or sales sometimes can start at any moment at any level. But obviously if you know whether you're starting in service, business or sales sometimes can start at any moment at any level. But obviously if you're young and scrappy and just hungry and have that bandwidth, it's a great tip for mentorship, for development.
Speaker 1:The third thing that stood out is being aware of the evolution of ourselves and of others in terms of that being a key aspect for truly activating.
Speaker 1:You know, we're not a tree, as you mentioned. We can move, but also if we recognize that within the audiences we serve, within the stakeholders, we can, we can respect that evolution and be more impactful. And then the last one, I think, is just the idea of full engagement. You know, when we talk about not just work, life balance, but from a organizational as well as an individual point, the idea of full engagement is like not to overstress, right, like a muscle. If a muscle is being just beat, beat, beat and not rested, it's going to tear, it's going to have not a good tear, it will fall right. And same thing, if a muscle is not worked and it's just laid, you know, to do nothing, it will atrophy. So the full engagement of as a strategic thinker, leader, as well as a holistic human being. Having that sort of balance to fill your cup, I think, is a great call out Anything I missed or anything you might want to add.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, that's it. You noted, and I think you know, in a world of AI and automation and all that fun stuff you know AI and automation and all that fun stuff you know, the best thing we all can do, not only as leaders, but just as people who work with people, is just remember that we're people and remember that there's more to people than an employee number, there's more to people than a resume, there's more to people than you know their latest accomplishment, and there's more to people than their latest failure. Right, and so I think empathy and leading from a place of empathy and courage will go a long way, and I think, more than ever, we have to remember that. Which is why I love what I do and I love our industry is because we are always at the forefront of connecting people and reminding people that we are people and reminding people of the importance of human interaction, and there's no better profession than events, professionals that are lucky enough to be at the forefront of doing that every single day, and I love it.
Speaker 1:So true, well said. Well, thank you so much, tavar. Where can people learn more about you or sort of keep up with your journey? Anything you might want to plug in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, just follow me on LinkedIn. I usually do my four things on a Friday and I'm always dropping a lot of insights, both personally and professionally, and I tend to try to keep a good balance on LinkedIn because I feel like everyone on LinkedIn is a know-it-all, so I try to. I try to balance it between you know, positive psychology and just how you can just be a better person, while also balancing some good events, industry insights, and so if you need someone to follow and want to connect, feel free to just find my linkedin tomorrow, james thousand percent.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much, looking forward to our next combo. Thanks so much.