On today’s episode of No Bullshit with Alex Willis, you’ll be guided through the different ways power, position, and privilege show up on-site. Rather than challenging or ignoring them, Alex breaks down the ways you can leverage those existing dynamics, create a fair work environment, and create a culture of respect at your company. 03/04
What is Power? Who has it, and what does it look like?
When it comes to power, most people think of the rich and famous. However, not all power dynamics are self-evident. There are dozens of factors in play that influence the power we have over others. Even those with a leadership title must earn the respect of their peers before they are truly leading in their workplace.
On today’s episode of No Bullshit with Alex Willis, you’ll be guided through the different ways power, position, and privilege show up on-site. Rather than challenging or ignoring them, Alex breaks down the ways you can leverage those existing dynamics, create a fair work environment, and create a culture of respect at your company.
What to look out for in today’s episode:
In our third segment, The Foundation, we explore the question: “What is respect?”. Starting at basic human decency, Alex breaks down our “force-field of values” and why it’s important for high-performing teams to have a standard of respect for each other.
Tune into our final segment, The Frame Out, where you’ll sift through emotions that often come up during diversity and inclusion conversations. Alex will address how to tap into your teams’ unified standard of respect, and shift your team’s conversation towards “making awesome happen”!
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[00:00:00] Alex: Hey. Hey. What's up guys? Welcome back to episode five, no Bullshit with Alex Willis, the go-to source for leadership development in the construction industry, and this is the foundation, right? In our last segment, we begin to talk about the five levels of leadership in the pyramid. And man, we talked about the very, very bottom being position, then permission leader, then a production leader, then people developer.
[00:00:32] Alex: And at the very, very top, we ended that segment with this thing called respect. But what the hell is respect? If we're trying to get to the very, very top of the pinnacle, if it's all about trust and respect with others and creating trust and respect for a belonging environment, we have to clearly understand what the hell is respect now.
[00:00:50] Alex: As I do this segment, live in different training segments across the country. When I ask that question, I'm gonna be honest. That stops a lot of people. I had one guy say, well, Alice, uh, it means to, uh, respect others. It means to respect. So think about this. What is respect? What is it? Can you define it?
[00:01:07] Alex: Right? And so I try to broaden it. And so here's what I share with people. I say, listen, if we're being honest, respect, for all of us, it looks and means different things. And I just try to narrow it and simplify it like this. I try to say, Hey, listen, well, can we all agree that there are multiple levels of respect, right?
[00:01:27] Alex: And the very, very top level being admiration, right? Well, I respect this person so much that I admire them and I want to be like them right at the very, very top. Now, there are all of these different levels in between admiration and at the very, very bottom, I like to say just human decency. Respecting a person simply because they are a human being at the very, very bottom.
[00:01:55] Alex: All right? So very, very top admiration, very, very bottom human decency and all of these levels in between. Now understand this, my friends. People fall between their different levels depending on who you are and where they are and what they've done in your life, right? So when we talk about this and I say, Hey, define it, I try to clarify it that way.
[00:02:15] Alex: Oftentimes what people do is they say, Hey, listen. Well, to respect, Alex means to treat others the way you want to be treated. And I call bullshit on that because if we're being honest, my friends, does everyone wanna be treated the way you wanna be treated? Hell no they don't. Right? Treat people the way they want to be treated.
[00:02:33] Alex: True story. My wife and I look, when I'm on the phone with my wife, I don't want all the damn details. I'm like, Hey, what happened? What's the story? Give it to me. High level, right? She's like, Hey. And then the person had a red dress and then they, they turned on their blinker, and then, man, it was a brown car.
[00:02:50] Alex: And I'm like, Hey, hey, hey. What happened? For me, give it to me. Boom, boom. Right? Now I understand if I'm talking to her, Sabrina, I need to give her the details what happened. I need to go through all of that. But hey, to respect Alex, just say short it, give it to me short and sweet. Right? So understand everyone doesn't wanna be treated like you, right?
[00:03:08] Alex: Oftentimes when we try to define respect, people oftentimes talk about how to do it. And so sometimes I hear in our industry, in the construction industry, people say, give a firm handshake. Alex say, look, a person in the eyes. And I'm like, well, wait a minute. The further east you go in the world, that could be very disrespectful, shaking a leader's hand and looking them in the eyes, right?
[00:03:31] Alex: Oftentimes the further east you go, it's a bow and it's actually not looking a person in the eyes, which means showing a level of respect, right? So we have to understand different cultures mean different things, but for today's segment, we're just gonna say, Hey, listen, we're talking about a scale. At the very, very top of that scale, admiration at the very, very bottom of that scale, we have human decency.
[00:03:52] Alex: And so I ask people this question right here quite frequently, if a person's ideas are oppressive, should we still respect that person? And man, we're all over the board in our classes. When we talk about that. Some people are like, yeah, well, depends on how bad their idea is, depends on what their idea is.
[00:04:10] Alex: And then I take it even further and I ask this question. Is there anything that anyone could ever do that they fall below? Below its level of my scale of human decency, can someone do anything to fall below that where we disrespect them in such a way that we don't treat them like human beings? This is where my class struggles, my friends, and I'm gonna be honest, this is a problem to where you're gonna agree to disagree with me, and that's okay.
[00:04:37] Alex: That's the beauty of our country, is that we can agree to disagree and still walk away and be friends, right? So I tend to decide that, truth be told, there should never be any action that a person can do that. We tend to treat them below the scale of human. Now people throw all kind of things out at me.
[00:04:58] Alex: Well, Alex, what about a mass murderer? Or what about a child molester? Someone who takes advantage of children, they deserve to be way down there and below. And I challenge 'em. As tough as that is very, very difficult. Very, very challenging. Here's how I challenge them, my friends, and here's what I want you to think about.
[00:05:14] Alex: All of us listening right now, we walk around the world with what I like to call a force feel of values around us. So Alex has his force fill of values around him and understand anytime someone steps outside of that force fill of values, that's when Alex decides if I'm going to show them respect or not, or show where they fall on my level or my scale of respect.
[00:05:39] Alex: Right? But here's what I'd like to show people. All of us have different force fields and different boundaries, and most of those things that we hold dear and tight to are not the same for one. Secondly, I love to show people that most times the values and the things that we hold tight to and we hold dear to truth be told my friends, we don't hold 'em as tightly as we say we do.
[00:06:04] Alex: What do I mean by that? Well, by that I mean truth be told, with most of us, the standard is not the standard for everyone. We tend to bend the, break the rules. What do you mean, Alex? Well, in that same scenario, when people say, well, Alex, what about a mass murderer? Or what about a child molester? They deserve to be below that scale.
[00:06:25] Alex: And then I turn it back on them and I say, okay, I understand. Hey, I commend you on your values and on your beliefs. I say to them, I agree with you. They should definitely be sentenced with the court of law. Uh, we have a system to handle that. And so whatever that sentence is, if it's the maximum sentence, we should do that.
[00:06:42] Alex: But I challenge people to understand we can do that and still do it with human decency. I can even take someone if they are sentenced to the death sentence. We can walk them even to that sentence in a humane way as we carry out that court case, right? So I'm gonna challenge you to think about that. Now, here's where I push the envelope a little bit, and here's where people in my class tense up a little bit at Paul.
[00:07:10] Alex: I ask them one question. I say, listen, would your opinion change if the person who did the molesting was your child? If the person who actually did the molesting was your child, would they fall below human decency? Oh man, you should see my classes tense up with that. People pause, say, oh, most times in my class people say yes.
[00:07:36] Alex: They will say now, now sentence, my child, if it's life in prison for their crime or for whatever they did do that, but please, please, please still treat them with human Jesus. I show people that truth to our values are very loose at times. We hold that standard to other people, but that standard across the board tends to be very flexible when it comes to our family, as well as when it comes to that hierarchy, that ladder we talked about in segment two, where we talk about money, power, and fame.
[00:08:13] Alex: People with a high network. Those type things, we tend to bend the rules for them. Why? Because the standard isn't the standard. Now, here's what we have to understand. My friends, if we're going to do a hell of a job of creating belonging environment where everyone feels as though they belong, we have to go over and beyond to make sure the standard is the standard, regardless of who you are, regardless of what you look like.
[00:08:39] Alex: Regardless of your connection to me, regardless of your level of productivity, the standard is the standard. And for a long time in the construction industry, we haven't done a hell of a job doing that. If someone's good, we let 'em off. I want you to think about it. The construction industry reminds me quite frequently of the sports industry.
[00:08:58] Alex: Why? Because if you can run fast enough, if you can jump high enough, if you could throw a ball far enough, you can damn near get away with anything. All right. But if you can't do that, we throw the book at you. It's the same thing in the construction industry. So if we're going to do a hell of a job, we have to really, really, really begin to wrestle with this concept of respect and understanding that it may be challenging, it may be difficult, but if we can do a hell of a job of making the standard, the standard, regardless of who it is, we can do a hell of a job creating high performing teams.
[00:09:36] Alex: That work together that's able to see each other for who they are, that's able to challenge assumptions, ask questions, stand up for each other, and ultimately create an environment that we begin to run through brick walls for each other. Right? So think about that my friends. How are you at holding the standard for everyone, making it the same regardless of who they are?
[00:09:59] Alex: We're gonna wrap this up in our next segment. We're gonna really begin to go and frame it out and show you how to do it, what emotions you have to overcome in order to really create these belonging environments, create a respectful environment, and challenge yourself in these areas. So I look forward to seeing you in the frame out.
[00:10:17] Alex: So I want to thank you for tuning in to No Bullshit with Alex Willis, the Goal two Source for leadership Development in the construction industry. Now, Be sure to subscribe to YouTube and your favorite podcasting platform so that you can be notified when we release new episodes right now. For those, I wanna challenge you to leave a comment.
[00:10:36] Alex: We want to hear what you think about the show. I also wanna challenge you to leave some comments of some leadership challenges you may be seeing and facing at work. Because remember, we are here for you. We want to help you be the best boat at work. And at home, my friends. So until next time, I'll see you later my friends.