IT Leaders

Duane Weber: 00:00

Yeah. So as Doug mentioned, I lead the markets, the Midwest markets. So Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, and Northern Kentucky here. So I second the question of the day. Doug knows I ask some kind of uncomfortable questions every Monday morning, and sometimes they're fun.

Duane Weber: 00:22

You might wanna try I have six sided dice. So I'll write, what's your favorite? And I'll say, movie, whatever, And I'll throw and make them and then they throw the dice and answer the question. You can encourage them to be vulnerable. It encourages you to be be vulnerable.

Duane Weber: 00:36

It definitely builds a little bit of trust. There we go. And then to your point,

Duane Weber: 00:52

trust, right? Trust, it takes a lot

Duane Weber: 00:56

of time to build, takes effort to maintain, and it can be ruined in an instant. I like how you said it better. That was pretty good. But it's really important, and as a professional, it really sets a tone for your career. If you can build trust, you can be trusted, you'll go a long ways.

Duane Weber: 01:20

If you can't be trusted, you're not going to go very far. I want to play a little game and do a little word association. So I've got a couple words up here, and I want you to shout out the first thing that comes to mind when you see this word. Okay? Ready?

Duane Weber: 01:41

What was that? Ew. Ew. So sorry salespeople, we're going to have some fun with this. We'll get there.

Duane Weber: 01:48

Ew, okay, what else? What came to mind? Agenda. Agenda, okay. I like that.

Duane Weber: 01:56

Curiosity to learn.

Duane Weber: 01:59

Wow, you guys are actually being very kind. Cars. What's that? Cars. Cars.

Duane Weber: 02:06

Who said pushy? Thought, pushy? Thought persuasive. Persuasive. There you go.

Duane Weber: 02:13

You guys are being way too kind. Usually when I do this I get some really interesting feedback and it's usually not kind, okay? What about that one? You can hear the term partner. Trusted, yep.

Duane Weber: 02:29

What else?

Duane Weber: 02:31

Yeah. Buzzword for salesman. There we go. I love it.

Duane Weber: 02:41

But usually we think of salespeople. We think pushy, persistent, over the top. How can you tell a salesperson's lying? Their lips are moving. I think that's a lawyer joke too.

Duane Weber: 02:55

But partners, when we think of partners, especially in our business, and I look at Centric, Emirazon, Expedia, we pride ourselves on being partners more than being salespeople. And we do it because we want to build trust and we want to be trusted. So this presentation isn't about salespeople, but I think in terms of trusting and trusted advisors, it's that partner relationship that you as leaders have with them or your people have with the salespeople, the partners, that makes a big difference. Anybody ever read the book Trusted Advisor by David Maester? Doug has.

Duane Weber: 03:36

It's an awesome book. It's really meant for people in the service industry that want to build trust with the people that you work with, sorry, your clients, your partners. But I love the book from all perspective. Page 66, Divin Maeser came up with a formula for trust. And it's really the formula that I want to talk about for the rest of the day today.

Duane Weber: 04:05

So trust equals C plus R plus I all divided by SO. Does anybody want to take a stab at what C stands for?

Duane Weber: 04:21

Close.

Duane Weber: 04:24

Communication. It's part of it. Credibility. It's your words. It's what you say.

Duane Weber: 04:37

I could trust what you say. How about our? Close. Reliability? Yes.

Duane Weber: 04:47

I already gave you the other way. Reliability, right? What you do, your actions. Can I trust what you do? And as I go through this, think about it.

Duane Weber: 05:03

With your team, with your subordinates, are there ones that you can't trust because they aren't always reliable? They don't always do what they say? And then I flashed itself up there. Anybody see what that was? Integrity.

Duane Weber: 05:25

Close. Intimacy. Yep. Intimacy. It's your emotions.

Duane Weber: 05:32

Can I be comfortable talking to you about this? And then the last is SO. Let's take a stab. It's a tough one. Self orientation.

Duane Weber: 05:53

And it's the inverse of self orientation, right? So it's credibility, plus reliability, plus intimacy, all divided by self orientation, so basic math. Self orientation is making it about you sorry, making it about them. The reason we play that game on Monday mornings is I want to learn about them. I want to learn a little bit more about what motivates them, what they're passionate about, what they like to do.

Duane Weber: 06:25

Talk about this in terms of that partner relationship. I would say salespeople make it about them. I coached salespeople for about three and a half years. And when I first started coaching them, the biggest thing they'd say, you know what? If they would just shut up and listen to me, they'd be better off.

Duane Weber: 06:44

The best salespeople, one of my favorite rules about salespeople is people don't see you as an expert by the information you provide. They see you as an expert by the questions that you ask. And you're asking questions to understand, right? Be curious. I heard curious before.

Duane Weber: 07:04

That's self orientation. So let's talk a little bit about developing some of this trust. So how can you build credibility? Just be honest. In your world, when you talk to your subordinates, when

Duane Weber: 07:21

you talk to your boss, just

Duane Weber: 07:24

be honest. I sometimes I went around the table yesterday, one of my questions of the day, or we were talking about time management, one of the guys says, I'm perfect. I don't need to change my time management. My time management is perfect. But he fails to deliver some things on time a lot of times.

Duane Weber: 07:43

So is that credibility? Are you perfect in your time management? Probably not. Reliability. Keep your promises.

Duane Weber: 07:55

Even the little ones, I think sometimes we think, hey, I said I'd get it by noon, but if I get it by 03:00 today, that's okay. I still got it today. And then this intimacy piece. Ladies in the room, you got this nailed. Us guys struggle with that a little bit, right?

Duane Weber: 08:17

To having conversations with your team. I think there's a business intimacy. It's that ability to sit down and have honest conversations with people. And then finally, self orientation. Again, it's making it about you.

Duane Weber: 08:32

It's asking good questions. As a leader, understand. What's going on in your team? So I call self orientation the lost art of communication. We struggle, right?

Duane Weber: 08:56

If you think of your sales relationship with your salespeople, sometimes with your team, maybe with your boss, They speak, or you speak, but they don't hear. They're not really listening to what you're saying. We're preparing our response. While you're talking I'm already thinking about what I want to tell you, what I want to rebut. I'm not even listening to you.

Duane Weber: 09:29

And then we should on our subordinates. You should do this. You should just do that instead of truly understanding and truly helping them understand why they need to do what they're doing. We don't often understand how to communicate with the people across from us, with the people under us, with the people above us. So I missed a slide.

Duane Weber: 10:01

Anybody ever heard of DISC?

Duane Weber: 10:05

All right, a lot

Duane Weber: 10:06

of you have heard DISC. So I'm going to talk about this and then I'm going get into some things. D, I, S, and C, I call them behavior styles. A lot of people call them personality styles, but I don't think personality makes it fair. Behavior styles, it's how you're likely to behave in certain situations, certain environments, and it's how you act normally.

Duane Weber: 10:33

So high Ds, so those of you that understand, there's generally four styles. You can be different styles, and I'll correlate this to communication in a little bit, but Ds. Who understands a D? Dominant, forceful, leader? Cute, fun.

Duane Weber: 11:01

Wait, that's the other one. We'll get into that next. Right? So leaders, dominant, big picture, bottom line. Just the facts.

Duane Weber: 11:12

That's a high D. I, what was the last two things?

Duane Weber: 11:17

I have a DI.

Duane Weber: 11:18

Yep. Fun, conversational, chatty, love people, love parties. A couple here? Yeah. Okay.

Duane Weber: 11:32

So high I, people oriented. Low I, you know what, on a weekend, give me my games, give me my woodworking, give me anything but the people at the office. S's, steady, right? Our pace. They talk just a little bit slower.

Duane Weber: 11:54

I's, like S's, speed up, finish. I want to answer your Trust is really important to S's. Very strong people orientation. Probably have two really, really good friends. So that's S.

Duane Weber: 12:11

And then Cs. I bet a lot of this room is C because a lot of people in technology are Cs. Anybody here detail oriented?

Duane Weber: 12:21

Right? I see fingers pointing. Yes, you are. Okay? They're careful.

Duane Weber: 12:28

They're cautious. You're really good at your job because you check all the boxes.

Duane Weber: 12:36

But then now think about communication. I'm a high D. I'm big picture. I'm bottom line. I've got a subordinate that's a C, careful, cautious, worrisome, needs a lot of information.

Duane Weber: 12:50

They're a little bit skeptical, right? So now you're a Heidi. You're like, I'm just going to shoot on you. You just got to do this. And the C is like, why?

Duane Weber: 12:58

Tell me why. Give me the data. Okay? S's. Again, trust is really important.

Duane Weber: 13:06

So now let's get into how do we communicate with these folks? And I want to read some things. Full disclosure, I did use Chad GPT. I let it though, anybody that So I want to read these statements about each of these styles, and I want to see if any of this resonates with you, and then we can talk quickly about how this impacts others. When working with someone who exhibits a D, style, your approach must be crisp, direct, to the point.

Duane Weber: 13:42

These individuals value results over rhetoric. They appreciate when you cut through the noise and present clear solutions backed by confidence and competence. Don't be afraid to challenge them. Show that you respect their time and leadership by delivering on your promises swiftly and decisively. Actions speak louder than words, and respect is earned through efficiency and follow through.

Duane Weber: 14:06

So again, does that sound like anybody here? There. How about yourself? Do you recognize that D in you? Okay.

Duane Weber: 14:18

So now when you're building trust, understand this is me. So if your boss, your supervisor, this high D, this is how you can, I use the word honor them, right? Give them facts. Give them figures. I think that, I love the point in there that they don't take things personally.

Duane Weber: 14:40

Feel free to challenge them. It's okay. But then also think if this is you, again, if I'm dealing with a high S, a little slow, a little steady, trust is really important. A high D can bowl them over and you'll ruin that trust. Right?

Duane Weber: 14:58

Just get this done. I want this Tuesday at 02:00, period. And then it talks about don't be intimidated. Well, high eyes. Right?

Duane Weber: 15:07

That fun, playful person that's got to deal with this high D? Intimidated by that. Okay? Eyes. Here's what they say about eyes.

Duane Weber: 15:22

For those with the eye style, the energy in their actions should be warm, outgoing, downright enthusiastic. These are the folks who light up a room and thrive on positive connections. Engage them with stories, a bright smile, and a genuine interest in their ideas. Publicly recognize their contributions and foster open and friendly atmosphere. Building rapport with an eye is all about showing your own energy, optimism and willingness to connect.

Duane Weber: 15:49

So don't hold back. Those Ds? Can you imagine coming in on Monday morning? You just want to get down to work. You got stuff to do, even Cs.

Duane Weber: 16:01

And you got the high I that goes, oh my god, did I have a great weekend? Let me tell you all about it. And you're

Duane Weber: 16:05

like, just get away.

Duane Weber: 16:06

You want to talk about ruining trust? Right there. You just broke it down because you didn't take them a minute to listen to them. Smile about their weekend and work on that connection. I's in here.

Duane Weber: 16:23

Ever had a situation where your boss just never listened to you? You just felt like, Oh man, I'm on an island. I don't have that connection, this culture, trust. Okay? S's.

Duane Weber: 16:42

Your demeanor should radiate sincerity, steadiness, patience. These are the pillars of they, S's are the pillars of calm in any organization, preferring a predictable and consistent approach. Take time to listen deeply, let them set the pace, and offer reassurance during periods of change. Avoid rushing or pressing them. Steadiness thrives when people feel supported and committed, and commitments are kept.

Duane Weber: 17:09

Trust is built over time and reinforced through genuine care. So probably have some people on your team that are S's, are the thoughtful ones, the quiet ones. Need to handle them a little bit differently. And some of the others? Oh yeah, there we go.

Duane Weber: 17:33

And then finally the C's. Details are their love language. They want logical, thorough explanations, and a lot of it. Data back up your recommendations. Walk in prepared, facts straight, analysis sharp, and your answers well organized.

Duane Weber: 17:53

Demonstrate respect for their need to process information at their own pace. Don't force a quick decision. Above all, we make a promise to a C, treat it as a matter of honor, and follow through precisely as agreed. Trust with a C is built in careful increments, one detail at a time. Who does that resonate with here?

Duane Weber: 18:17

My husband.

Duane Weber: 18:18

Your husband? My husband. We married our opposite. Right? I've got to imagine it resonates with a few of you in here.

Duane Weber: 18:27

And it probably drives you crazy when somebody who is in the C just brings you just high level stuff, wants to talk about their weekend, right? Maybe your boss is a C and you're not. So you can gain trust by honoring them and working with them in that style. It is challenging, and a lot of times people say, hey Duane, I feel fake. Like if I come in and I ask you about your weekend, so I'm a high D, right?

Duane Weber: 19:01

If I come in and ask you about your weekend, I feel kind of fake as a high D asking somebody about their weekend. Why? You're just honoring them by being more like them. You're not being dishonest or disingenuine. So trust goes many different directions.

Duane Weber: 19:27

Right? It goes up to your supervisor, your superior. It goes down to your subordinates. And I'd say it goes across to the peers, the people you work with, and I'd say in business, your partners. Now, I know a lot of salespeople who think they're more like subordinates than they are like partners, but I think we can agree that the best are the partners that treat themselves as equal to you.

Duane Weber: 19:58

Want to bring value to you, Your peers across the organization, there's a lot you can learn from. So now if you think of these principles, the D, the I, the S, and the C, who's your supervisor? What do they like? Anybody have, as I've explained the D, I, S, and C, anybody different, very different than your supervisor? How adjust?

Duane Weber: 20:30

Do

Duane Weber: 20:33

I feel like I've had to adjust working with a number of different supervisors.

Duane Weber: 20:37

Okay.

Duane Weber: 20:37

Very different than me. I'm an SI.

Duane Weber: 20:39

Okay.

Duane Weber: 20:39

So I'm a little bit of both. Got it. Typically have to kind of bow to how they wanna work. Mhmm. Lose your ego.

Duane Weber: 20:48

Right? And What? And work with them. You know, a high d is gonna look for I don't I don't wanna talk details. Give it to me right now.

Duane Weber: 20:56

Here's what we need. Right? And you're gonna work that way. So I found that I work well if I don't have the ego about it. Let's just move forward, right?

Duane Weber: 21:05

We don't need chitchat.

Duane Weber: 21:06

We don't

Duane Weber: 21:07

need any of that, right? That's worked for me.

Duane Weber: 21:11

Who do you work with the best? What do they do other than the people like you? You're in situations where you said you've had a bow to their ego. Ever had somebody who actually bowed to your ego as a leader?

Duane Weber: 21:28

Maybe. But I'm not a I'm not a d. So I'm not you know what I mean?

Duane Weber: 21:33

I'm not

Duane Weber: 21:33

tracking the web. I work with Chris Durham very well. She's a d. Yeah. And she and I work great together.

Duane Weber: 21:39

So maybe there's something to that. So I think it's maybe a little more of their personality. It's not just the d style. Right? It's True.

Duane Weber: 21:47

Their working personality as well. And building trust is the way that I work well with them. I'm thinking specifically of someone that I work with right now. I would consider them a high b, maybe a high c. Very demanding.

Duane Weber: 22:01

And I've built so much trust over the last three years that we work well together. Mhmm. And I don't have to really change the way that I work because we built that trust together. And it took a really long time.

Duane Weber: 22:14

That's awesome. It's really important. So in closing, trust is what's going to make or break you as a leader. Remember the trust equation? What's C?

Duane Weber: 22:35

Plus I? Plus R all over Self orientation. It about them. Thank you.