Ep36 Sean Murray - Olympic Secrets Reveal the Ultimate Teamwork Formula

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:03:22
Sean Murray
that's how people learn is they connect through story.

00:00:03:22 - 00:00:04:18
Sean Murray
I wanted to write

00:00:04:18 - 00:00:08:03
Sean Murray
a book that would help my clients help anyone

00:00:08:03 - 00:00:14:04
Sean Murray
get better at being a leader, get better at building a high performing team, and a positive culture,

00:00:14:04 - 00:00:40:10
Suzanne Taylor-King
Hey, hey. Welcome to a podcast where dreams meet. Determination and success is just around the corner. I'm your host, Suzanne Taylor King. And I'm here to help you unlock the full potential of your business and your life. Welcome to Unlock Your Way with SDK. Let's unlock your path to success together.

00:00:40:10 - 00:01:11:00
Suzanne Taylor-King
Good morning. Good morning everyone. Suzanne Taylor King here for another episode of Unlock Your Way with SDK. Can't wait for today's conversation. Sean Murray is a high performance coach to leaders and executives. Also, a culture innovator and more importantly, a athlete and Olympic athlete. Welcome, Sean.

00:01:11:02 - 00:01:48:06
Sean Murray
Thanks, Suzanne. I'm happy to be here. And, I appreciate the introduction. Although I do want to say I, I wrote a book about Olympic athletes, but I don't know if I can put myself in the category of an Olympic athlete, just, you know. Although I like to run and do some things, I, I did write a book about an Olympic team, which I hope we talk about today because, you know, just coming off of the Olympics, I think people are, still will be, that kind of glow of of watching the Paris Olympics coming up, the LA Olympics coming up, and, and, yeah, I, I, I share I

00:01:48:06 - 00:01:51:08
Sean Murray
learned a few things about what it takes to win a gold medal.

00:01:51:10 - 00:02:22:22
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah. Well, and, I wanted to say, I want to explain how we met, because the synergies and the commonalities I often explain to my clients and my tribe doing things outside of your work, meaning, outside of networking, outside of posting on social media is where you're going to meet the best people that are in alignment. We can do.

00:02:23:00 - 00:03:00:18
Suzanne Taylor-King
I talk often about the learning community latticework and how there's not really it's not a networking thing. And we met in one section of that, and I looked into you and then asked you to be on the podcast where we were scheduled because of my surgery. Well, total other story, right? But what was incredible to me is the similarities in the two of us as coaches, as athletes.

00:03:00:20 - 00:03:22:06
Suzanne Taylor-King
My son's name is Sean. We were sort of choice in volleyball. That's his or of choice. And when I mentioned to you about him trying out the volleyball law book. He. The day he made the team to my house.

00:03:22:08 - 00:03:23:16
Sean Murray
That's great.

00:03:23:18 - 00:03:47:07
Suzanne Taylor-King
And when I showed it to him, he was like, oh, well, it's funny that it came today. I said, oh, not funny. Look at the guy's name who wrote it. And he was like, whoa, I guess I have to read it. And I handed him the book and I said, do you read it first and tell me what you thought?

00:03:47:09 - 00:03:53:05
Suzanne Taylor-King
Then he actually crafted a couple questions for you, even though he's still sleeping.

00:03:53:07 - 00:03:54:09
Sean Murray
Right?

00:03:54:11 - 00:03:57:17
Suzanne Taylor-King
A couple questions for you. You're open to that.

00:03:57:19 - 00:03:59:23
Sean Murray
Oh that's wonderful. I can't wait to hear.

00:04:00:01 - 00:04:15:01
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah, it's, I tell us a little bit about. We'll skip volleyball for now, but tell us a little bit about how that led you to the career of coaching and high performance habits.

00:04:15:03 - 00:04:44:07
Sean Murray
Well, the connection, my connection to volleyball actually comes through my father. And, so it's kind of neat that you're telling me the story about your son and. Yeah, which showed up on on the day he made the team and everything. And because there is an element of this book about, you know, fathers, mothers and fathers and sons and, because it is a book about the men's volleyball team, and it's the 1984 team.

00:04:44:07 - 00:05:15:03
Sean Murray
And so the connection to the story is that my father was the team psychologist for the 1984 team, along with, a colleague of his and and we went to the Olympics in 84. I was young, I was, 13 years old. The Olympics were in Los Angeles, and I got to see a team up close, go through the course of the Olympics and eventually win a gold medal.

00:05:15:05 - 00:05:39:01
Sean Murray
And I knew a little bit behind the scenes about what was happening around building a team, building a culture alignment, you know, getting a team to play at the highest level. Didn't fully understand it at the time. I was pretty young. But being inspired by that team, being inspired by my father and his work, I ended up going into this field that that you and I are in.

00:05:39:01 - 00:06:13:08
Sean Murray
Suzanne, of whatever we want to call it, organization development, leadership development. And and that's what, inspired me into the career I am today. And then later, you know, in life, about six years ago, I was inspired to write the book about that team through some other events and everything. So. So, yes, this volleyball did play a role in me getting into, organizational consulting and leadership development and coaching, and I was inspired by by my parents in some way.

00:06:13:08 - 00:06:17:08
Sean Murray
And, and it's been it's been a wonderful journey.

00:06:17:10 - 00:06:49:02
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah. I think what stood out for me, and my sons first question was, how did your dad and the connection to volleyball influence you seeing it as a leadership opportunity or the skills that are involved in volleyball are the skills that are involved in business and that connection. My son saw it, and I saw it when I was reading the book.

00:06:49:04 - 00:06:53:19
Suzanne Taylor-King
How did that inspire you?

00:06:53:21 - 00:07:26:21
Sean Murray
Yeah. So. It's interesting how these things develop. Early on in the early 1980s, before the Olympics, 2 or 3 years before the Olympics, about two years before the Olympics, this, this Olympic volleyball team had went on what was called an Outward Bound course. It was through a mountainous region in southeastern Utah, near Moab, the Abajo Mountains, in the middle of winter.

00:07:26:23 - 00:07:49:00
Sean Murray
And that made a big impression on me. I at the again, at the time, I didn't really know why a volleyball team was going hiking in the snow in the middle of winter, snowshoeing and yeah, you know, my and my father told me about this. He was part of the working with the coaches and the players, and a series of decisions were made that this was a good step towards winning a gold medal.

00:07:49:02 - 00:08:13:14
Sean Murray
Well, you know, they didn't know they're going to get a gold medal, but a good step towards, building team cohesion and getting this team to play at the highest level. And so in the in the back of my mind that I always wondered, well, what is, what's the connection there? You know, why are you taking a team and taking them through a wilderness course when they're trying to get better volleyball?

00:08:13:14 - 00:08:43:04
Sean Murray
You know, Volleyball's inside, most of the players were from Southern California. They grew up on the beach. They didn't particularly want to be out trudging around in the snow in the middle of winter. Yet somehow I believe that that that event helped them in some way. And the coaches thought the same thing. And so that that that little experience, you know, got me thinking about, well, what is it that gets a team to its highest level?

00:08:43:04 - 00:09:07:06
Sean Murray
And, and so, so later, you know, as I go through my career, I'm doing a lot of work in this field. And I started to understand more about their story. I didn't didn't do I hadn't done all the research yet. But when when it came time to, you know, later, I the reason I wrote the book is my wife gave me another book called boys in the boat, which.

00:09:07:11 - 00:09:08:03
Suzanne Taylor-King
Oh.

00:09:08:05 - 00:09:32:17
Sean Murray
You're, you're, you're, you're network or those listening may are probably familiar with boys in the boat because George Clooney produced the movie that was made in the book is everywhere. I mean, you go into an airport bookstore and you can't get away from the book. It's a great book. It's about the University of Washington crew team in 1936 that eventually wins a gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

00:09:32:17 - 00:10:12:04
Sean Murray
That so so-called Nazi Olympics were working, presiding and all that. And, it's just a wonderful book, but it got me thinking about the power of story and how in the in the in what we do, Suzanne, you know, that that story is so important that that's how people learn is they connect through story. And it occurred to me, I wanted to write a book that would help my clients help anyone get better at being a leader, get better at building a high performing team, and a positive culture, and become the best possible team they can become.

00:10:12:09 - 00:10:29:20
Sean Murray
Maybe even the best team in the world at what they do. And so what better way to do that than to study a team that had actually done it? And because of my father's connection, and because of that little fact I had buried deep down inside, that I knew they'd gone on this Outward Bound trip, which which was a three.

00:10:29:20 - 00:10:33:17
Sean Murray
And course, you know, this was not just a 2 or 3 day.

00:10:33:18 - 00:10:42:08
Suzanne Taylor-King
You know, they were no joke. I had friends that did that in high school and college, but it was like, no, no, thank you. I'm glad to do that.

00:10:42:09 - 00:11:01:15
Sean Murray
Yeah. Not everybody wants to step into that and know you often grow. Right. So yeah. Anyway, so that that's sort of the roundabout way about how I came to write the book, My Father's Connection, and just a little bit about the very fascinating journey that this team went on to, to, where the gold medal.

00:11:01:17 - 00:11:23:03
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah. And and how did that affect your athleticism, being exposed to that at a young age. Did it give you a love of I mean, maybe not just volleyball but other sports being there, being active. How did that affect you growing up? Having that exposure?

00:11:23:05 - 00:11:29:03
Sean Murray
You know, I think it did. You know, I've always been very active and.

00:11:29:05 - 00:11:52:07
Sean Murray
We have been at the Olympics in 84 was a life changing experience. If you have an opportunity to go to an Olympics, it's it's a wonderful celebration, you know, bringing the world together. And you get a chance to see athletes performing at the highest level. It's very inspiring. I hope to take my family to the LA Olympics in 2028.

00:11:52:08 - 00:11:58:23
Sean Murray
You know, we in this country, we have an opportunity coming up. It's not easy to get to some of these countries for for Olympics and.

00:11:59:03 - 00:11:59:14
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yes.

00:11:59:17 - 00:12:23:05
Sean Murray
Financially, logistically. But every 30 years or so it seems to come back to the United States. And I'm really excited about 2028 in LA. And, you know, the closing ceremonies were just a few days ago in Paris, and they did a little montage of bringing the Olympics back across the land. And over here on the West Coast, I'm based in Seattle.

00:12:23:07 - 00:12:46:06
Sean Murray
But I do think I was inspired. I remember in, in 84 and being around this team that, I picked up running, after that as, maybe it was Carl Lewis and the track athletes of the 1984 Olympics, which were also who were also very inspiring. And, so I picked up running. I got very into, basketball.

00:12:46:06 - 00:13:17:07
Sean Murray
That sort of became my sport. I didn't I didn't end up becoming a volleyball player. That might be due to my height. I helps to be a little high d short. Yeah, but no, it's definitely inspiring. I I've always been athletic in some way because I, I believe in the, the the power of the body to if you to get energy and, out of your day and for me it's sort of meditative to have some kind of exercise and, I've always tried to keep that up.

00:13:17:07 - 00:13:21:17
Sean Murray
And yeah, it probably had something to do with that team and that exposure.

00:13:21:19 - 00:13:46:19
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah. And I really think, I was in high school in the 80s, but sometime in the 70s, I'm not sure. When he won all of his medals, there was a swimmer by the name of Mark Spitz, and I'm showing my age here, remembering him and he stood out to me. Not only was he handsome, but he had this mustache, right?

00:13:46:19 - 00:14:24:14
Suzanne Taylor-King
And it was like this Tom Selleck mustache. And my mom just thought he was dreamy. And so that was, like, contagious. But I was a swimmer, so I found inspiration in his performance at that highest level, you know, and watching it on TV. Made me want to go in the pool and do my best. And it's amazing how the Olympics do that, because we don't we don't watch those sports on TV, not like baseball and football and ice hockey right there.

00:14:24:14 - 00:14:41:20
Suzanne Taylor-King
The sports that are on in my house all the time. Well, I'm never playing one of those sports when I was younger. So it looks like, oh, this is a guy who's doing a sport that I do. And finding that inspiration was really cool.

00:14:41:22 - 00:15:06:09
Sean Murray
Definitely. I remember Mike, Michael or Mark Spitz and reminds me of Michael Phelps. He was the Michael Phelps of our generation, right? Yeah. And, and then we saw the French swimmer, martial. We had who looks like he he could maybe do something similar in LA and in 2028, but, Yeah, I love that story, Susie.

00:15:06:10 - 00:15:10:20
Sean Murray
And that's, that's very I, I definitely agree with that.

00:15:10:21 - 00:15:41:19
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah. I think it's always, you know, good to find inspiration in, in something. I think that, people are just so amazing and I'm always curious about other people and where they get their inspiration from. I think that what was really cool about meeting you and reading your book and the synergies involved, and I think one of the things that stood out in the book to me was communication.

00:15:41:20 - 00:16:05:13
Suzanne Taylor-King
Communication, to me is threefold. It's visual, it's auditory, but it's also a feeling in, in leadership that, you know, personally, I want to be the leader that people get to follow that they're lucky enough to hire. I don't want to be the one that they feel they have to.

00:16:05:15 - 00:16:28:19
Sean Murray
Yeah, well, good leaders earn that respect. Yeah, they earned the right to have followers because they're out there in front. They're they're doing it. They're living at they're accountable. They're responsible, and they're communicating and communicating. So critical, critical part of that, you know, when I did the research into this team, I learned a lot about the coach.

00:16:28:19 - 00:16:54:04
Sean Murray
I had known the coach a little bit before. His name was Doug Beal. And Doug Beal was a player in the 1970s, and he had and through very challenging, time at the U.S. national team, he was on the U.S. national team when, when my father and I started working with the team. And he really believed in some of the things that, the team psychologist was doing to try to build a team.

00:16:54:04 - 00:17:14:08
Sean Murray
But there were a lot of egos. A lot of individual players who were very good, but they weren't playing together as a team. I think we see this a lot in business and anywhere, you know, it's, a team requires a group of people to come together and put the success of the team above everything else. Yes.

00:17:14:13 - 00:17:42:20
Sean Murray
Mission in front of, you know, maybe their own, ego or their own personal goals. And, and, and so Doug was the kind of person, through communication and communication, he had to find his way. But through communication, dedication and and being very deliberate about getting the right people on the team, he was able to forge a team.

00:17:42:20 - 00:18:12:10
Sean Murray
And by saying the getting the right people on the team, I think another, another, element that that Doug Beal and USA volleyball discovered through their, I'd say, underperformance, severe underperformance, 1970s was the best volleyball team in America is not comprised of the necessarily the best volleyball players together on the corner. It's the best players that played together as a team.

00:18:12:12 - 00:18:13:02
Suzanne Taylor-King
Wow.

00:18:13:08 - 00:18:40:09
Sean Murray
Such a team sport. And you could go to LA on the beaches or to some of the great college programs at the time and find incredible players, talented players. They could jump higher, they could swing their arm faster, they could dig a ball or what have you. But not all of those players really knew how to play as a team.

00:18:40:11 - 00:19:05:12
Sean Murray
And so what what Doug and his assistant coaches, and through the help of my thought, what they had to do is figure out who can really buy into this system and find the best players that play together as a team. And that's the team that ended up going to the Olympics in 84, and communication was important. I'll just say one more thing about communication, I think, yeah, feedback is a is a critical part of communication.

00:19:05:12 - 00:19:26:15
Sean Murray
And it's it's it's often a part of communication that we, we don't lean into or embrace because it's sometimes hard. You have to have difficult conversations. Sometimes we don't want to hear feedback about our ourselves or sometimes as leaders, we we fear giving the feedback because we don't know how someone's going to take it. We don't want to hurt their feelings and so forth.

00:19:26:17 - 00:19:57:22
Sean Murray
And the same thing on athletic teams, often between, say, the coaches and the players, there's there needs to be feedback both ways. Of course, the coaches are conditioned to be giving feedback to the players often. And but what's not always standard is for the players to give feedback to the coaches. And what Doug and his team were open to was getting feedback from the players and what my father helped establish was a process where the players could give feedback.

00:19:57:22 - 00:20:20:17
Sean Murray
What what are the coaches doing? That's the those actually helping them, and what are the coaches doing that they feel is not helping them develop as a team. And and sometimes the coaches had to hear, that is, they'd often write it down on four by six cards. My father would have the players write down, you know, give, give some feedback to the coaches.

00:20:20:17 - 00:20:35:10
Sean Murray
And then he would read it and then feed it back to the coach. At first it was yeah, it was it felt uncomfortable. You know. It wasn't it wasn't something that they'd been through before. You know, it's like as a coach is like I give the players feedback. They don't give me feedback. Come on. You know.

00:20:35:12 - 00:20:36:20
Suzanne Taylor-King
Right. But they.

00:20:36:21 - 00:20:44:02
Sean Murray
They, they came around to it. It became an important part of the team. And it just feeds into what you were saying about communication.

00:20:44:04 - 00:21:34:22
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah. Well, I see the, the connection between you working with a company on this because I know feedback for me as a coach is number one. I beta test everything I do with a group of trusted people. People that I know, maybe not know super well, but I always have a group, or at least a couple individuals experience what I do, get feedback and it's interesting that you say the other way, because I just immediately thought of a group I had and I had feedback for two of the members how they could get more out of the groups that they are in.

00:21:35:00 - 00:21:59:11
Suzanne Taylor-King
And it could be as simple as, you know, don't multitask when you're in a group environment, take better notes and don't talk as much, but we don't give that feedback the other way so many times. How is that helped some of your clients today? Getting it in both directions?

00:21:59:13 - 00:22:29:17
Sean Murray
Well, an organization's where the where you often don't see is clear communication on the feedback channel is is leaders getting feedback on how how they're behavior, how their words, how their actions are impacting the organization. And, and so what what we try to do is establish a culture where it's okay for, for information to flow back through, to the leaders.

00:22:29:17 - 00:23:04:14
Sean Murray
And the leaders are open to it. You have to be aware enough and, and have enough humility to know that everything you're doing may not be having the impact you think it's. Yeah. And I'll be positive. And so I try to work with leaders to to be open to listening to their employees about what's working, what's not working, be open to adjusting, and trying new things and, and having the humility to know that it it there may be things that they're doing that are having some kind of a negative impact that they want to course correct.

00:23:04:14 - 00:23:29:04
Sean Murray
And good leaders want to know that and, and are willing to to listen and accept that. And not so, so tied up in their own ego that they can't listen and adjust and, and, and so that that's it, that's important that just, you know, organizations in general need feedback, need to be constantly, adjusting the feedback from their customers.

00:23:29:04 - 00:23:44:22
Sean Murray
Right? Feedback from their partners. If you're if you're a high performing company, you're going to you're going to have those channels, you're going to listen. It doesn't mean that everything that comes in is 100% valid, but having those channels open just makes you better.

00:23:45:00 - 00:24:12:00
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yes. And it spurred a question within me, like the first time that's happening within an organization, do you find that it has to be anonymous feedback back to the leader the first couple times so that the team or the employees feel that psychological safety and being honest with the feedback.

00:24:12:02 - 00:24:31:13
Sean Murray
Yeah, you know, it's it's not a one size fits all. And there's so many organizations that have, you know, depends a lot on the context. And if you if you do have a leader that's built that culture and has the psychological safety and, you know, it's a lot easier for that information to come from a person that they know who is the job.

00:24:31:16 - 00:24:40:02
Sean Murray
Not not necessarily anonymous. Now there's there's 360 feedback, which is a popular method. And it often involves.

00:24:40:19 - 00:25:02:02
Sean Murray
Anonymity from the direct reports perspective. And I and I think there's a time and a place for that definitely depends on where your organizational culture is. On the spectrum of building trust. Are you a low trust or organization? Are you a high trust organization? And it depends on where where the leaders are from their own maturity level and all that.

00:25:02:04 - 00:25:26:18
Sean Murray
You should probably take into consideration. But definitely, you know, you have to find the right method, but there needs to be a, a channel for feedback and communication, for there to be a high performing team that that I truly believe. And and I saw that with this with this volleyball team and it wasn't there in the 70s when the teams were struggling, they started implementing it.

00:25:26:20 - 00:25:46:11
Sean Murray
It, it even came out well. Communication was further fostered and the Outward Bound experience and, and then other, other initiatives that they took on as they got closer to the Olympics to to increase the communication. And it helped them become a better team.

00:25:46:13 - 00:26:36:17
Suzanne Taylor-King
I think the Outward Bound experience stands out to me because when you put somebody through something that requires something outside of their comfort zone, you know, California kids in the mountains, in the snow, like immediately, resilience is going to kick in. There's going to be a little, toughness involved. I read a book not too long ago called Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter, and it was basically, you know, in today's society, we're so comfortable physically that it's hard to push out of your comfort zone emotionally, work wise, because physically we're so comfortable, you know, it's 90 degrees outside here today, and I'm standing here and it's 72 degrees.

00:26:36:17 - 00:27:01:23
Suzanne Taylor-King
And, you know, from my hot coffee that I warmed up before the call, like everything is so comfortable for us and that getting uncomfortable, I think is the conversation for teams because or and leaders really. What are your thoughts on that pushing out of that comfort zone.

00:27:02:01 - 00:27:31:21
Sean Murray
Well it's it's it's a great insight because what was happening with this team, one of the reasons they, the coaches decided that it was a good idea to go on this Outward Bound course was to make the players a little uncomfortable, to get them a comfort zone, to get them into an environment that's that's different, that's challenging to build resilience and, and go through a shared experience like that was that's an important part of the team.

00:27:31:23 - 00:27:52:05
Sean Murray
There's also, you know, you can look at it from an individual perspective, but maybe go try something you've never tried before, you know, a marathon or or, you know, some kind of endurance test for it for yourself. But for this team, it was a matter of of recognizing that they weren't playing together at the level that they could.

00:27:52:05 - 00:28:20:02
Sean Murray
And the diagnosis was trust, trust and resilience. They had a they had a history of being very competitive for the first few matches, but then not quite being able to win that final match and then spiraling down and losing the match. And volleyball, as you know, you've probably seen your son's game. There's a momentum swing. There's huge momentum swings during know you know, it's emotional.

00:28:20:04 - 00:28:37:10
Sean Murray
It's like one team is, you know, it just can't seem to make a mistake and the other team can't seem to do anything right and that it switches and yeah. And you have to be able to control that. It's it is about resilience. It's about toughness. It's about sticking together. The coaches didn't think they had enough of that.

00:28:37:10 - 00:28:54:19
Sean Murray
And they thought, well, what could we do. And the idea came up of a shared significant life experience. Yeah. And in fact the first idea was to have them go through boot camp together. You know, they actually went out and reached out to the Marines because there's a marine base not far from San Diego where this team was based.

00:28:54:21 - 00:29:12:17
Sean Murray
And, I don't know what would have happened in the alternative universe if they had gone to boot camp together, but they that didn't work. I think the Marines said, no, we're not in the business of, to ship, athletic teams through our boot camp. But they did find Outward Bound and Outward Bound a very interesting organization.

00:29:12:17 - 00:29:44:01
Sean Murray
That is what they're about. They're about building resilience and both personal and with team. And it, they designed a course. It's not so much that Outward Bound guides people through. That's not what it's about. It's about teaching people to survive, teaching them how on their own, through their their own knowledge and learning and toughness and building resilience, that they learn to survive in very inhospitable environments and challenging environments.

00:29:44:01 - 00:30:02:05
Sean Murray
And that's exactly what, what this course was designed to do. You know, the players wanted to go to Malibu and camp out on the beach for a week. We go, yeah, go sailing in Hawaii because someone had to. And, you know, it's like, no, we want to get you out of the beach and into something totally different.

00:30:02:05 - 00:30:10:04
Sean Murray
And that's where and that's where I came. The idea of going to, to the, you know, when a winter type experience.

00:30:10:06 - 00:30:28:19
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah. Thanks, Khan, for your comment. Growth does not happen in the comfort zone that that for absolute truth. So now I'm curious, how you've used experiences like that with some of the teams that you've worked with?

00:30:28:21 - 00:30:35:09
Sean Murray
Yeah. You know, it's it that you can't often take a group of executives for three weeks out of their you.

00:30:35:11 - 00:30:38:01
Suzanne Taylor-King
No, three weeks is a long time.

00:30:38:02 - 00:31:20:07
Sean Murray
But but in the wilderness. So yeah. Come up with other ways of doing that. Right. Yeah. And so, you know, one one way that I've done that is through, business simulations. You know, I think that, okay, the a technique that you can take people out of their, day to day and maybe even elevate them into a role that, they're not familiar with, like a C level role and have their business and, and, we can also take leaders and if, if, let's say I'm working with, an HR leader and have them, go through a one day business simulation where they're part of a leadership team, but they're this they're

00:31:20:08 - 00:31:41:17
Sean Murray
the CFO that the chief financial officer instead of and then have the chief financial officer be the chief people officer and, you know, have them make decisions about, the finances or the something that's out of their comfort zone. And all of a sudden they have a different appreciation. It's challenging. They have to work together that to listen to one another.

00:31:41:17 - 00:31:58:14
Sean Murray
Coach one another. And, and that's been one, one way that we've done it, because you have to find ways to do to do things that are, you know, you can do in a day or two. But we often getting people out of the office, you know, for these off sites, you know, you I'm sure you do that kind of work too.

00:31:58:14 - 00:32:21:07
Sean Murray
And there's a reason why you want to get out of the office. Yes. And, you know, get out of that environment because you're just so comfortable, you immediately get into email, into your tasks and the tactical things. And so getting out of of the office, you can also get people out of their comfort zone by having them, you know, talk about can and building trust talk about, things personally.

00:32:21:09 - 00:32:44:21
Sean Murray
Where did they how did they build resilience in their life or what challenges did they overcome in their life and starting to share those things? That's sort of like emotionally. Yeah. Like out of their out of their comfort zone. And so there's there's various techniques I've done some, some, ropes courses and things like that to, you know, when, when I, when you can anytime you can get out in nature and just do a hike on an off site.

00:32:44:21 - 00:33:16:05
Sean Murray
I, I just take groups to Skamania Lodge and which is in southern Washington on the border to in Oregon, to Washington, the Columbia River Gorge. And there's all kinds of hikes around there. And just I find that getting them out, you know, on a hike and then debriefing it and talking about just being in nature, it's amazing the connections and what people will, how it will, will help them, you know, think differently and, and, hopefully have a refreshed look on their business when they just get out into nature.

00:33:16:07 - 00:33:45:07
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah. That and that's a beautiful spot there. You instantly took me back to being there and snowboarding at Mount Hood in the summertime. And, just how beautiful it was. And I can't imagine what that would be like to take a group of my clients on an adventure like that. I've dreamt of having a surf trip in Costa Rica, where we mastermind your business and we surf in the afternoon.

00:33:45:07 - 00:34:13:19
Suzanne Taylor-King
We mastermind in the morning and do yoga and mastermind and then go surfing in the afternoon and, like, sign me up. I need to figure this out because I want to do that. So I know if I want to do things like that, that other entrepreneurs, business owners need to, get out of the office, whether you work from home or not, and have fresh eyes on your business when you come back, which is always been key for me.

00:34:13:21 - 00:34:42:23
Suzanne Taylor-King
About five years ago, I was challenged by a coach that I had to go away on vacation without my phone, and I think I had an anxiety attack. I was like, what? No, can you do that? And, he said, you're not a surgeon. Nobody's going to die while you're away. Like, what would it take for you to go away without your phone?

00:34:43:01 - 00:35:20:11
Suzanne Taylor-King
And completely connect with your family without that device in your hand? And I said it would require me to delete social media and email off my phone. And that way, I could only access it on my computer. And that's been a gold standard for me moving forward. If I go away and when I go away, which is often there's no social media on my phone, and I still have not installed email back on my phone because it makes me distracted.

00:35:20:13 - 00:35:27:10
Suzanne Taylor-King
Who wants to stand in line at the grocery store and see an email come over? No thank you.

00:35:27:12 - 00:35:53:03
Sean Murray
Yeah, that's. Yeah, getting away from that as well. He gets us out of our comfort zone, but it also forces us to be in the moment and. Yes. And, you know, it. You sometimes think back like, you know, to this volleyball team, say, in the 80s, going off on an Outward Bound day, a different time when they weren't as distracted, they they got to experience life in a way we all did back then.

00:35:53:03 - 00:35:59:00
Sean Murray
And that was less connected. And it's harder to get back to that. And I think there's something that I'll. Yeah.

00:35:59:02 - 00:36:29:14
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah, I talk about that a lot with friends, clients that, you know, it was just a different time for us back then, where if you were going away for three weeks and I drove across the country, I'm trying to think what year it was, 1990. Drove across the country with two girlfriends. We had all I graduated college in 89, and they they did in 90.

00:36:29:15 - 00:37:04:09
Suzanne Taylor-King
And we packed up my car and we drove across the country to snowboard in a bunch of different places, go to Las Vegas, see California, all the things. And my mom was panic stricken. Panic stricken. There was no no cell phone. We had a paper map in the car and the disconnection to her was frightening. Of course, you know, I was young and didn't think about that at all.

00:37:04:11 - 00:37:45:04
Suzanne Taylor-King
And today we don't have that issue. We're so we're hyper connected. And I think communication has gone down because of being over connected, because you can always talk to people, always, you know, everybody's just a text message away. How in the world do you improve communication when there's so many channels of communication within a team? I mean, there's there's email, there's boundaries that are needed with that.

00:37:45:07 - 00:37:54:21
Suzanne Taylor-King
Right. How do you improve it when there's all these different inputs of communication within a team?

00:37:54:23 - 00:38:23:18
Sean Murray
Well, it certainly makes it more challenging, you know. Oh, I guess double edged sword there because there's more opportunities to to communicate with people through different channels. But yeah, you have to make a decision about which channel to, to get to for and how do you, you know, but you know, I, I believe you just don't get away from the leader getting out in front and talking to people, whether it's on a zoom call like this or in person.

00:38:23:20 - 00:38:47:19
Sean Murray
There's a time for slack. There's a time for texting and, you know, sharing information in that way. But people crave connection, with other people and, and authentic connection and, and hearing what the leader has to say. Why are we doing this? Why is this a good idea? What thought process went into this decision? What's my role in this?

00:38:47:20 - 00:38:55:11
Sean Murray
Helping put together the whole picture of what this team is doing and why we're doing it? That's not going away. I don't think that's,

00:38:55:13 - 00:38:56:02
Suzanne Taylor-King
You know.

00:38:56:08 - 00:39:18:02
Sean Murray
Whatever technology or I we come up with in the future, we're going to need humans to connect other humans together to get things done. And it's it comes down to some of those basics and, and hopefully, you know, any, any good leader, we'll, we'll, we'll know there's lots of channels, but you can't get away from those basics.

00:39:18:04 - 00:39:51:19
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah. And now I'm going to ask a question for an anonymous giant company that I have awareness of and exposure to often. What would you say to a $30 trillion company whose company policy was all these meetings all the time? Zoom on teams, all the things, and nobody's ever on camera?

00:39:51:21 - 00:39:54:16
Sean Murray
Well, I would say it's a bad idea.

00:39:54:18 - 00:39:55:17
Suzanne Taylor-King
Thank you.

00:39:55:19 - 00:39:57:07
Sean Murray
I would say it's a bad idea.

00:39:57:11 - 00:40:02:23
Suzanne Taylor-King
Thank you. I didn't prep you before for that answer. So thank you for that.

00:40:03:01 - 00:40:45:13
Sean Murray
Yeah. There's there's something about humans connecting by looking at each other and looking at each other in the eye and seeing our facial expressions and understanding a little bit more about who we are from a human perspective. And not just, the words coming out of a, out of a box, and that. Yeah, I would I know there's a I've seen cultures like that and doing some training and work with organizations where you get on it, zoom call and all of a sudden the cameras are all off or they never even come up, you know, and, and, I always try to use a little humor to try to chip before they get

00:40:45:13 - 00:40:58:21
Sean Murray
back on the screen, because I know if if it's going to be an effective meeting, if we're going to really get a good use of the time that we have together, that we need to be present and otherwise, what are we doing here? You know?

00:40:58:22 - 00:41:23:13
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah, I even say that in in some workshops that I host, when people join and they're not on camera, I say, look, one of the magic things about what I do is I bring great people together. And if you're off camera, nobody can get to know you, nobody you can't meet anybody. So you're just here listening to me.

00:41:23:13 - 00:41:52:04
Suzanne Taylor-King
And part of the magic in what I do is the actual connection to other people. And I just, I just think it's so, so important. I wouldn't I wouldn't want to work with a client who I had never seen and experience their energy, body language and eye contact and all that. I couldn't help them as well. So to me, it just makes sense for human connection.

00:41:52:04 - 00:42:11:19
Suzanne Taylor-King
And thank you for having me. Yeah. Opinion I appreciate that, I appreciate that. Well, thank you so much for being here. I want to dive into a little bit of what you're currently working on in your business and basically promote yourself and tell us how to get in touch with you.

00:42:11:21 - 00:42:44:05
Sean Murray
Yeah. So my company is called Real Time Performance. I work with organizations, you know, large and medium sized organizations, mostly around a building, a high performing culture, helping teams become high performing teams and also working with individual leaders and helping align culture with strategy and brand is another area I work in, and I have a number of leadership, experiences that I can bring to teams and to organizations.

00:42:44:05 - 00:43:08:21
Sean Murray
I mentioned one, this business simulation, there's a business simulation that I run. It's a 1 or 2, 1 to 2 day program where, people come together in teams of 4 or 5, and they, they run a business for a day, and they do the financial statements and they make decisions. And it's sort of like for airplane pilots, they have to get into the flight simulator every once with the FAA.

00:43:08:21 - 00:43:30:04
Sean Murray
But we we, we do that, you know, in a, in a business simulator. And they get to see what it's like. Because I do believe in learning by doing and and not just in a book or, or or theoretically that you get out and you learn and you based on your own actions, you come to an understanding of how the world works.

00:43:30:04 - 00:43:32:20
Sean Murray
And so getting leaders to do that.

00:43:32:22 - 00:44:06:09
Suzanne Taylor-King
I, I love that so much. And I can't wait to hear more about that and how to connect people to that experience, because the value in actually doing, you know, theories. Great. I've, I've read 100 books this year and 100 last year. In theory is wonderful. But if you don't put anything into action from all of that theory, and I need to practice things before I actually do it, it's it's genius on your part.

00:44:06:09 - 00:44:09:05
Suzanne Taylor-King
What you're what you've created.

00:44:09:07 - 00:44:44:07
Sean Murray
Yeah, it's a wonderful experience. And we've also developed a, a program on decision making, which I think is a very challenging skill in this environment that we're in, you know, in the technology we talked about earlier, the advent of AI, a fast moving environment that, that and that we find ourselves in. How do we make decisions. And decision making is an important part of leadership, an important part of culture for an organization to how culture, facilitates decision making.

00:44:44:07 - 00:44:47:12
Sean Murray
So we call that decision mojo. And, helping people.

00:44:47:12 - 00:44:48:08
Suzanne Taylor-King
Good, good.

00:44:48:10 - 00:45:13:22
Sean Murray
Go back. And, so that's another, area of expertise that I've developed over the years. So, yeah, thank you for for inviting me on the show. It's been wonderful. I think, you know, the writing the book and studying the team, Olympic team has helped me pull out some lessons of what it takes to really be the best in the world and to build a great organization.

00:45:14:00 - 00:45:36:02
Sean Murray
And, I'm applying those to the groups that I get the opportunity to work with. And it's really fulfilling and gratifying to see it, an organization, our team grow and develop and become better. And whatever little role I played in that, it's it's always nice to to, get an opportunity to do that. And I feel really blessed to be, you know, in this field that we're in.

00:45:36:02 - 00:45:37:06
Sean Murray
So thank you. Sam.

00:45:37:11 - 00:45:57:20
Suzanne Taylor-King
You're so welcome. You're so welcome. I look forward to future connections. And, make sure, I will share all of your links in the comments and in the show notes. And if anyone wants to get in touch, we can do that through LinkedIn or Sean's website. And thank you again for being here. Appreciate you.

00:45:57:22 - 00:45:59:14
Sean Murray
You're welcome. Thanks for having me on.

00:45:59:14 - 00:46:27:08
Suzanne Taylor-King
Thank you for tuning in to another empowering episode of Unlock Your Way. I hope you found today's discussion inspiring, and you're ready to take your business and personal growth to that next level. If you're feeling is fired up as I am and eager to unlock that full potential, I'm here to help you on your journey and provide that personalized guidance tailored to your unique goals and challenges.

00:46:27:10 - 00:46:54:03
Suzanne Taylor-King
Simply book a one on one coaching call with me, and we'll dive deep into your business aspirations and see how we could co-create a roadmap for your success. And whether you're striving to scale an enterprise size or just getting started. I'm here to support you every step of the way. To schedule your coaching call, simply visit the website and unlock your way with SI.com.

00:46:54:05 - 00:47:33:03
Suzanne Taylor-King
Click on the Book a Call button and we'll turn your dreams into that reality. Subscribe and review on your favorite podcast platform and on YouTube. Plus, you can join over 800 entrepreneurs in the Idea Lab, Facebook group. Let's make success as an entrepreneur happen together. Until next time, I'm AK. Keep dreaming big. Stay focused. And most of all, have fun while you're doing it.