Creating a Workplace Culture that Embraces Accountability and Leadership

Creating a Workplace Culture that Embraces Accountability and Leadership with Megan Seaton & Katie Connatser.

In this conversation, Megan Seaton and Katie Connatser discuss the importance of fostering a culture of leadership and accountability in the workplace. They emphasize the need for clear communication, setting realistic expectations, and providing constructive feedback. They also highlight the importance of understanding each other's roles and responsibilities, promoting cross-functional collaboration, and being flexible and adaptable to change. They suggest that creating a culture of leadership and accountability can attract new talent and help employees grow professionally. They also discuss the challenges of fostering such a culture, including the need for constant communication, delegation, and making time for employee development.

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Transcript

Megan (00:01):

Hello everyone. Megan Seaton here today. I have a very special guest with me, Ms. Katie Connatser. She is a Senior PM. I know you guys have heard from her before, but today I thought it would be cool for her and I to have a conversation around fostering a culture of leadership and accountability in the workplace. I feel like Katie, you and I talk about this constantly when we have our conversations and it's an important topic and it's so important to grow our employees internally. So what does fostering a culture of accountability and leadership mean to you? Why is it important?Katie (00:41):

These are all really, that is a really good question. I could probably talk about that single question for hours, but I won't. But really a culture of leadership and accountability. I think leadership is a big buzzword that a lot of people use, especially in their organizations to talk about. But how do you effectively figure out what people's passions are and how do you hold them accountable so that they can achieve that? And so that's something that I'm passionate about as a senior manager and something that I think people don't know how to uncover themselves. Sometimes You have to work it out of 'em.Megan (01:28):

Yes, absolutely.Katie (01:30):

It's a very important topic to me. It has been for my entire career, and I think it's crucial to any organization.Megan (01:42):

It is. It is. And I'm sure you like me, I had those people when I was young and just starting out in the workforce, AV being one of them. But I had those people who sort of asked those questions and mentored me and gave me critical feedback that I needed to grow and to become a leader. So was that your same experience as well?Katie (02:06):

Yes. So I think it's really critical to have those mentors or just those people who will speak up for you, help you find your voice, and so I was very thankful to have a really awesome boss, or she was my boss, but she really wasn't my boss. And now that I don't work for her anymore, we're best friends and still talk to her on the daily. But having those people to advocate for you and to really push you and be like, Hey, you did this, do that again, or Why didn't you say anything? Why didn't you speak up in that meeting? Just really pushing you to do things out of your comfort zone to help you become a better version of yourself because sometimes it's really hard to see that potential inside of yourself and they help pull it out of you.Megan (03:09):

Absolutely. I call it having a board of directors. I had a mentor of mine tell me at a very young age, Hey, you need to have your own sort of board of directors both within your workplace and then outside of your workplace as well, because there are going to be some very hard life decisions that need to be made, and you need to have those accountability partners that you can run to in a time of need that are going to give you open and honest feedback and who are going to get you out of your comfort zone and say, Hey, Megan, Katie, whoever, think about this or think about that. Well, if you do this, this may happen. So you might want to think about those things. So I think it's so important to have that open and honest feedback both internally and externally.Katie (03:55):

Exactly.Megan (03:57):

So sorry. So in your opinion, what are some key attributes of a leader and how can we identify and develop these traits in our own employees?Katie (04:09):

So I think that there are multiple, but some very, very basic kind of softer skills. So I think it's easy for anybody to have a hard skill. You can learn to code, you can learn excel, you can learn how to do business process mapping. You can do all of these things with software, but do you have the soft skills to do it? Do you have the soft skills to be a leader? And some of those small little things, very, very basic things are curiosity. Are you curious? Do you ask a lot of questions? If you don't know something, are you going to sit back in the corner and be quiet or are you going to ask why? So wanting to understand why you want to do something. Also being self-motivated. So being able to be a self-starter, a huge one, it is, that is a huge one because of your curiosity that you have in things, you are able to start yourself and pick up on tasks that maybe someone else didn't ask you to do or you took it upon yourself to figure out why on your own, being able to continue to learn and grow outside of maybe the workplace, but also just being able to get yourself started on the tasks that you need to do for the day and helping others do that too.
(05:42)
So those simple things. I also think that having creative problem solving, so being able to think on your feet, being able to take a problem and find a solution for it, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a textbook answer or a textbook solution, especially in the things that we do.
(06:11)
Every organization that we work with is completely different. Yes, they're the same. They're all local city county governments or housing authorities or transit authorities. They all have at the core of their business, they're the same, but they're all very, very different because of their people and their processes that they have internally. And so how do you make that a little more creative to fit their needs? So being able to creatively solve problems, ask questions, being self-motivated. Those are three probably very basic things that I can think of as far as attributes, but there are numerous others.Megan (06:50):

Yeah, I love that. I also, I'm a big one on communication. I know you said raise your hand, ask questions, hold yourself accountable, but it takes a good communicator to be able to do that, and it also takes vulnerability. I think that's a good one, good attribute to have. I mean, sometimes you have to be very vulnerable with yourself and with others to be able to be a good leader. So those are all great things. I love that answer.Katie (07:19):

Love vulnerability too, becauseMegan (07:20):

Yes.Katie (07:21):

you have to be vulnerable to give feedback, give and receive feedback. You have to put yourself in that place, and you have to be able to put yourself in a place to alter the way that you give feedback to certain people, especially in a leadership position. Some people really like hard direct feedback, and then others you may have to approach it a little bit of a different way. They may take that and not be able to deal with the way that it's been given, and so you have to really work on that delivery as well.Megan (07:57):

Yeah, absolutely. I love that. And I love vulnerability in the sense of learning more about yourself. Who are you as an individual, as a leader, as an employee? How do you communicate? How do you receive feedback? How do you give it? What are some of your strong attributes and what are some of your weak attributes and being vulnerable to that to be able to foster that leadership in the workplace. So I know you're an excellent leader. You've helped me a lot in my career alone. So tell our viewers, what are some of the things that you've implemented as a senior manager here at Aero to sort of foster this idea of workplace culture and leadership?Katie (08:43):

Yeah, I think that's hard to answer because there's so many different things that go into it, and I can probably say that about every question that you asked me today because it's really just depends. So I'm a really big proponent of here is this task, here are the details that you need to complete this because I've done it before. I know what it takes. Here are the details that I know you're going to need. Figure out how to do it and ask the questions that if you don't understand it, ask the questions. So I'm not talking about, here's this, go do this on your own, making them build and have the initiative to ask those questions. There are a lot of people that when you're given a task, they will just sit there and spin their wheels and not ask any questions, and then they turn it over to you and they're like, here is this, I know it's not where it needs to be.
(09:50)
I didn't get this, this, and this, but here it is. And then I'm turn around and go back to your desk and figure it out. Let me know what questions you have. So I think it's really setting those expectations. So having realistic expectations for people. I think that there's also a higher standard that you can hold to people. So having that, setting those realistic expectations, but making sure it's at a high standard and knowing that they can do it. A lot of people are like, I can't figure it out. I can't do this. Yeah, actually, you can take the time to sit down and ask the questions. You can figure it out or you can Google it, right? Yes. I tell people all the time, did you Google it? Anything you need to know. And now chat, GPT, it'll tell you anything you need to know. It will. There are multiple different ways. So just helping them and pushing them. I never answer the question for them. That's another big thing that I think I've brought to the team is not just telling them, okay, you're going to do X, Y, and Z because this is the methodology that we have and it's 1, 2, 3, and four. From there,
(11:11)
That kills creativity. Absolutely kills it. How do you foster a creativity, giving them the room to solve the problems creatively, of course, within framework? Within framework, but really pushing them to be creative and have that, some people aren't creative. Some people love numbers, and so how do you make them a little uncomfortable and pushing them to do that? So I would think creativity is a huge one. Not answering the questions as far as not giving them the answer to the questions, making them figure it out and giving them the tools they need to do that. And really just sending stuff back. If it's not right, do not do it for them.Megan (12:04):

Right. That's hard. That's hard sometimesKatie (12:06):

It's really hard sometimes, especially when as a leader, you have a very set budget on a project, and if you have newer staff, you've got to do it until it's right. And sometimes that's on the weekends.
(12:21)
One of the things that a few months ago, something wasn't right, and I, Saturday morning here, I was on Zoom with my team and we worked through it all weekend. We didn't have a weekend, but it had to be done. And there was a lot of learning that happened during that session or weekend, really. But I think pushing people to do more and to be more, and because they really can. And also creating, I think giving really direct and honest feedback often. Yes, that's huge. When I first came to a Avero, I'm not saying that I'm the person that brought that to Avero by any means, but helping bringMegan (13:08):

That, you probably are though you might.Katie (13:10):

No, no, AV and the rest of the executive team, they give great feedback. And so being able to help push that down into the team, because it's really great to see our project managers now giving bas really honest and direct feedback and often early and often. So that's a thing that you'll hear me say all the time early and often. If it's not going well, let's talk about it now. We don't want to waste any time and we want to move forward together as a team. Being able to cultivate good feedback, that's something that's really hard, especially when you have newer people on a team. They're like, whoa, I don't know if I like this or not. Then they get more comfortable with it like, oh, I can actually do this. I can actually do what she asked me to do and I didn't have to ask any questions because she told me the last time that I needed to do this and I did it. And so they're actually able to learn and grow that way. So very long answer to your question, bringing creativity, setting realistic expectations and holding them accountable at a higher standard, and then just giving good feedback,Katie (14:40):

Hard, goodKatie (14:41):

Feedback.Megan (14:42):

I would say I was one of those employees when I was hired on and I started getting this really constructive feedback of what my job role was and what I needed to do and what I needed to come in and do and what was expected of me. It was very clear, but my personality type, I took that as harsh initially, and I was like, oh my gosh, these people are being mean. AV's mean. And it's like I had to take a step back for a minute and think like, well, is he saying why is he giving me this feedback, this X, Y, and Z? What is it about me? How could I have come across where I maybe didn't do whatever he was asking me to do? So it really did, it allowed me to grow from a very different standpoint to where now I feel like I can give him the same feedback and it's a beautiful relationship and it's helped our department grow significantly, I think in the past two years.
(15:42)
So super excited about that. But I was that employee who was like, oh my gosh, we all were, he's being mean. He's being so mean. But there's a way you can go about giving very good feedback and then holding your employees accountable to that feedback. Feedback is one thing, but making sure they're doing something with that feedback is a whole nother thing. One thing I wanted to say about you, Katie, I know you're very humble, but you lead by example. You, your employees are always watching and what you do and how you do things and how you go about things, you lead the way you want others to lead, right? And I think you do a very good job at that. I'm going to share, one of the things that's actually helped me just in the last week is guys, Katie started a book club, and I know this sounds really dumb coming from me, but I have never been in a book club before.
(16:44)
I don't like to read. I don't like to sit still. I'm very energetic. So sitting still to read a book or to listen to a book is very hard for me. But she picked a book. She started a book club internally, and there's about four or five of us in it, and we, it's a book club. We read a chapter and we can go talk about it. That meeting last week where we talked about the intro in chapter one, empowered me to think creatively, and I would've never been able to think or to feel comfortable in reading a book and then sharing my ideas had it not been for you and me stepping into that vulnerability. So I appreciate you doing that. You didn't have to do that, but you did.Katie (17:31):

I'm super proud of you. No, I think it's critical. And that being able to do that, and maybe if you don't like reading, that's okay, but you're giving it a shot and that's all that matters. And I think as we continue, we can never stop learning. That's when we get stagnant. And so whether it's reading or talking to people, which you're amazing at, and that's not something that I seek out, but that's something that you empower me to do because I'm not great at it because I'm an introvert and I'm like, I'll be in the corner.Megan (18:13):

Come get me when you're done.Katie (18:16):

So no, see, these are all great things, and I think that that's something that we encourage in our organization is just the diversity of just different people and how their personalities, we come from all different backgrounds because I said it before, we can teach anybody a hard skill, but do you have those soft skills that it takes to do it?Megan (18:41):

Yeah, absolutely. And I think things like creating a book club or starting a book club, it has allowed my department to communicate more with the PMs who I may or may not get to communicate with on a daily basis. And I get to hear how they think and what they want and not only what they want in their careers, but what they want as an individual and what feedback they need and how I can help them just all from a book club. So I think that's the powerful message is that even though it's a book club, you're able to communicate with those in your workplace that you may or may not be able to communicate with on a daily basis. And not only communicate, but learn how you can better help them be successful in life.Katie (19:29):

Exactly. You get to foster those relationshipsMegan (19:32):

You do. It is really a beautiful thing. So I'm pumped about book club y'all. More to come on the book club. We might have to do just to record a video on our book club. So one question I did love is how can we promote cross-functional collaboration of leadership across departments? I know that's a struggle probably for every organization, especially in local government where we have these silos up, but I think it's easy for every organization to have silos. So how can we promote this idea of cross-functional collaboration as it relates to leadership?Katie (20:13):

I think that there's a few different ways for that. Something that we're doing actually next week is we're having a project manager retreat, and so business development is going to be a part of that. And so being able to pull people in for these sessions and understanding these are what the expectations are for a PM,Megan (20:44):

Right.Katie (20:44):

It helps them understand how they work on a day-to-day or what they're expected to do on the day-to-day and how they interact with clients. And I think it's a great, it's eyeopening and it gives you a different perspective of how to engage with them or how they have to engage with clients, but also you all giving pointers for how to foster relationships with people, what you do, you're great at it. And so being project manager, sometimes we're just in these little, we have to do all of these things and we're on Zoom calls or we're on a client site onsite with a client. So I mean just different ways to how to continually engage with people. And I think that that's a really cool thing that can happen across departments. So having those retreats, we have weekly executive calls and that consists of our operations manager and you, Megan is the business development manager, the senior managers and the Navy. So how do we do that? And then meeting even with the business analysts, having business analyst meetings on a weekly basis. So we try to, it's a lot of meetings, but it's necessary. You have to do the work. It's hard work and you have to do it. You have to make the time for it. And so that's really just the simplest part of that answer is making the time to do it. It doesn't have to be fancy.Megan (22:17):

YeahKatie (22:18):

You have to plan out this huge thing. It's just talking to each other and communicating at the very basis of that is just communicating with one another, making sure people understand what's going on in business development and on the client side, even on our techie side, even just understanding those sorts of things. Sometimes we cross paths with them as well and on projects. And so how do we continue to collaborate and communicate? But I think the biggest underlying thing is communication, making sure those lines of communication are open, giving people the space to do it. A book club is an example. Or really just when something's going wrong. I was in AV's office yesterday and I was like, Hey, I'm not really sure about this. Can we just talk it out? He's not necessarily in the day-to-day of project work, but I just needed somebody to bounce something off of. So we did that. So just really trying to foster that, asking questions, going to people, getting different ideas and perspectives, being able to do that.Megan (23:41):

And I think there's something very powerful about understanding each other's job role. Not only your job role, but your teammate's job role.
(23:51)
What does their day-to-day look like? What are the goals and expectations for the PMs, for the bas for business development? I say this all the time. I think people think I'm just in here recording videos all day, doing all the fun stuff, going out to ribbon cuttings and conferences and happy hours and whatnot. And a lot of times other people aren't able to see what all is going on in the background. Yes, it is, all of those things, but it's also a lot on the backend too. A lot of communication, a lot of follow-up a lot of brainstorming, lots of brainstorming. So lots of project planning. But on the flip side of that, maybe I think a PM is just at their desk, getting chips all day. That's a very bad example. But I think there is power in understanding each other's job roles. So then your team is not questioning what is Katie doing? What is Kaylee doing? What's AV doing every day? I don't see him ever in the office. What is he doing? So I think understanding job roles and the goals and expectations of each other's job role makes a very strong team. I mean it's just like any sport, any sport, any team oriented, anything. You need to know what third base is going to do if the ball is hit that way. Right, exactly. You need to know that. Yep, go ahead. Transparency, bestKatie (25:23):

Transparency. Creating the transparency within the organization. And I think when you have silos or you're like, this is mine, some people think that knowledge is power, and then when they have these silos or they think, well, this is my job, this is what I do, no one else can do that. That's when things start to break apart a little bit and shake things up. And so having transparency across the organization, open communication about what's happening, it creates visibility. And people love that.Megan (26:03):

Yes, they need that. I mean, at the end of the day, we're all a team. You need to know that we have each other's back. If I'm out of the office, I need to know that AV is going to take care of the task I have planned that day. Right, exactly. So I love that transparency and visibility. That's great. That's great. So let me ask you this, in what ways can a culture of leadership and accountability help to attract newcomers or new hires or new talent?Katie (26:31):

So this is something that I have been really kind of diving into over the last six months, just personally and my professional career because outside of aero, I help teach a class that helps build businesses or a hypothetical business with a business plan and a marketing plan and all of that. And so I think that definitely as you continue to grow as an organization, there are different generations that you are trying to attract in your business as far as employees, and you have to cater to those,Megan (27:15):

You doKatie (27:16):

To be able to attract those. And so how do you still maintain your culture and your values, but continue to evolve to bring on new team members. So whether that is a younger demographic or an older demographic, someone who has a little more experience in the field, or even if they're older and they don't have any experience, how do you create a culture and a place for those people as well? So I think we talked about earlier, having those very core attributes in your culture, whether it's communication, accountability, realistic expectations, giving a space for vulnerability, but also making sure that you're cultivating learning in the organization and that you're nimble and flexible because myself, I'm going to have a completely different perspective than maybe someone who just graduated from college and they're trying to understand how they're going to work in a professional setting. So how do you foster those people to give them the space to do that? And how do you help them understand, well, this is what is expected of you here with us. We would love for you to be here with us, but these are the expectations that we have. We're not going to put you in a box, but this is your realm thatMegan (28:54):

Yeah, right.Katie (28:54):

This is It. So how do we continue to be nimble and flexible for our employees? And having a culture that fosters that is really critical because it's going to keep changing. It changes. I mean, within the last five years, it has drastically changed.Megan (29:11):

Yes.Katie (29:12):

Drastic, but of course comes covid and all of that when everything turns into the digital realm and everybody wants to work remote. So how do you become flexible and allow people to do that? You have to be quick on your feet. You have to have urgent change, and you have to be willing to do that.Megan (29:33):

I love that answer. Change and being nimble. That is very key. Very, very key. In your opinion, what challenges or obstacles come about when we're trying to foster a culture of leadership and accountability?Katie (29:51):

Oh man. One's another one that I can talk about all day long. So I love this question so much because yes, cultivating leadership and cultivating accountability is great, but I said it before, it is hard, hard work. So growing pains are like none other in an organization, and it is like you just got to do it.Megan (30:24):

Mhm.Katie (30:24):

You have to do the work. And if you don't do the work and you put off the work, that's when it really starts to show. And so every organization goes through it. We're fairly small, kind of not we're in that weird in-between stage.Megan (30:40):

We are, we are.Katie (30:41):

But I think it may be different now, but I think it's like it comes in threes. So every three to a certain number, you go through these growing pains because your culture continues to change and evolve, and there are lots of challenges. So how do you make sure that the vision is from the top down or really from the bottom up?Megan (31:04):

Well, and I think too, you've got to have a vision, right?Katie (31:11):

Yeah, you do. It has to be communicated across the board. It has to be the same. And I think a lot of growing companies really struggle with that because you have people who have been there for a really long time, or you are changing how you're doing things in your organization. And some people maybe they're not on board for that. And then that's when you have to be like, okay, we do this for other people, but we have to do this for ourselves too.
(31:44)
We can't just sit back and let this happen. And so how do you create a vision that goes beyond just your executive level? How do you actually cultivate that to grow from the bottom up instead of from the top down where the real work happens? That's where the real work happens. And then also when if you're not continuing to teach people like delegation, especially with project managers, you would think that it's a very easy thing to do. No, because everybody, especially, it depends on their personality of course, but delegation's a hard thing. So how do you do that? How do you push people to delegate more? One of my personality traits is I'll just do it.
(32:39)
I have had to make myself over the last 10 years be like, no, Katie, you want to help these people. So in order to help them grow, you have to give them something to do. And so continuing to cultivate that in an organization. So the delegation piece is really hard. And then also just making sure that people understand how other people work and what their expectations are. So if you don't have clear expectations or if you have clear expectations and you're not holding people accountable, if everybody across the board isn't holding people accountable, that's when things get messy. And I've seen it over many, many times over the last 15 years, and it can wreak havoc on an organization. It can, if you do not stop it when it's like the snowball effect, once it going and it picks up speed, it's very, very hard to stop. So how do you stop it before it starts to pick up?Megan (33:49):

Well, I think it goes back to what you said before, you've got to do the work. And just to piggyback off of that statement, you've got to make the time to do the work. I think it's very easy in any organization to get so busy with business, growing the business with everything that you have to do in your day-to-day, it's like, I do not have time to go to a book club. I don't have time to read a book. I don't have the time. You have to make the time bothKatie (34:20):

ExactlyMegan (34:20):

For yourself and for your employees. You and I talk about all the time, these sweet babies that come in to Vero, we want them to leave better than they came in. We don't want 'em to leave. Let me put that out there. We do not want them to leave, but say,Katie (34:36):

If they do.Megan (34:38):

If they do, we want them to leave better than we found them. And it's our responsibility to do so. As a leader, you have to take that responsibility and make the time. Five to 10 minutes makes a huge difference, huge difference. We're talking 30 minutes, even bigger difference. Everyone at the end of the day wants to be loved and they want to feel appreciated, and they want to know that what their work or their work in the organization is doing something to better the organization. And it's our responsibility as leaders to foster that.Katie (35:15):

And they want to be heard.Megan (35:16):

Yeah!Katie (35:18):

They have great ideas too, a completely different perspective, and giving them the platform to be able to share and being able to, even if it's not necessarily work related, apparentlyMegan (35:32):

Yes.Katie (35:32):

A chair in my office and it's called the therapy chair, and people will come and sit in the therapy chair and we'll just be like, Hey, how's it going? I just needed to sit here for a minute.Megan (35:44):

And I think at this point, we're pushing for a therapy couch. So this therapy chair has grown in the last,Katie (35:50):

Yeah, just giving people, making sure that they're heard. It's a really critical piece is just giving them the space to do that. Of course, with boundaries, a professional setting, I'm not a therapist by any means, but they can come in and be like, God, this is really frustrating. Why is this happening? I can't figure this out. Or, man, I'm really struggling with managing this person, or this is just not, I'm over on my hours just talking through random things sometimes they're not even my, they're in my portfolio. So you just got to roll with it.Megan (36:34):

And I'll tell you what happens when you, in Katie's case, when she opened up the therapy chair, the therapy couch, or when you make time as a leader, what happens is you as the leader end up learning too, right? You learn from your mentee, from your employee, whomever, you learn from them. And it's a beautiful relationship. I think when I managed my first branch when I was in the financial realm, I didn't realize how much I would learn from my team. And it was so eyeopening because as Katie said, these people who work under us who are younger than us, they bring creative new ideas, new ways to do things that we have never thought of. So it is a beautiful thing when you make the time and you foster this idea of culture and leadership and accountability in the workplace. So Katie, thank you so much for joining me today.
(37:33)
I think this has been a great topic to talk about, and I know it was a great one for us because we talk about it all the time, and we could probably talk for hours. I think we're going on 37 minutes already, so yes, no, no, it's fine. It's fine. I think this is great. Great, great. And guys, remember to follow us on all of the social media platforms. If there's a topic that you want to hear from us about, please send me a message. My contact information is all over the internet, so please reach out. And Katie, thank you again for joining me today.Katie (38:07):

Thank you.Megan (38:08):

Thanks. Bye guys.