Lean Legends | Marc Braun | Encouraging Leaders
Marc Braun is the CEO of Encouraging Leaders, an executive coach and a keynote speaker. His mission is to help successful leaders become even more successful by identifying and addressing the critical behaviours holding them and their teams back.
In this episode he talks about:
How the first improvement he made was on himself
Why he lost his “bathroom privileges”
(And how he got them back)
Being called out by a leader early on in his career
And the role coaching plays in becoming the leader you want to be
Check it out.
Links:
Marc’s website: https://www.encouragingleaders.com/
Book a Lean Made Simple Tour: https://www.leanmadesimple.com/book-a-tour
Welcome to Lean Made Simple: a podcast for people who want to change their business and their lives one step at a time. I’m Ryan Tierney from Seating Matters, a manufacturing company from Limavady, Northern Ireland that employs 60+ people. Almost ten years ago, I came across this thing called “lean” and it transformed my life… now I want to share this message with as many people as possible.
This podcast unpacks our learnings, lessons and principles developed over the last decade in a fun, conversational way that will hopefully empower you on your own business journey — whether you’ve been doing lean for years or are just starting out!
Check it out on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or any other podcast platform by searching “lean made simple.”
Thanks and all the best.
— Ryan Tierney
Magic Moment: "The First Improvement Was Me"
Full Transcription of Episode
Marc (00:00):
He said, "Marc, I like you." I said, "Thank God." And he said, "You're really smart." I said, "I'm so glad you noticed." And then he said, "If you don't change the way that you approach problems, you won't be here in six months."
Matt (00:11):
Hey, guys, welcome back to Lean Journeys, a podcast series we're recording live here at the 2 Second Lean Summit. Really, really excited to be sitting down with yourself, Marc. You are the founder of Encouraging Leaders. You're from Missouri, Marc Braun, and you have hosted this conference before. And Ryan speaks incredibly highly of you. We've had a connection before over WhatsApp and everything, and so I'm just delighted to have the opportunity to take a couple of minutes, we'll do a deep dive in another point, but to unpack some of your insights and some of your learnings. So good to see you. Thank you for being here.
Marc (00:42):
My pleasure.
Matt (00:43):
So Marc, first question, if you can cast your mind back to before Lean, what was your life like, what was your life like after, and how on earth did you discover this incredible thing?
Marc (00:55):
Yeah. Well, I was selfish, competitive, thought that I had to be the smartest guy in the room and have to have the answer for everything. So it was actually, I was 22 whenever I got introduced to Lean, so it's a long time ago. Somebody called me out, he said ... It was Bruce Varble, he was my first leader, he said, "Marc, I like you." I said, "Thank God." He said, "You're really smart." I said, "I'm so glad you noticed." And then he said, "If you don't change how you act around these operators, if you don't change the way that you approach problems, you won't be here in six months." And so I said, "Wow."
(01:34):
So that was the first human adult saying, "You can't do it this way, you have to do it this way." And that's how I got introduced to Lean.
Matt (01:41):
Wow, the first improvement.
Marc (01:43):
That's right, the first improvement was me. I needed to improve the way I interacted with people.
Matt (01:48):
Crazy. And so paint that picture for us. How were you treating people versus how you would approach operators now? I love that word.
Marc (01:54):
Yeah, yeah. I mean, so I would approach them as though I needed to beat them. I mean, I was going through school, literally. The tests that they gave you, if you got a higher grade than the other person, you got a better score. In college it was all graded on curves so I had to beat to everybody. And if I didn't, I got a B or a C or a D or an F, I just thought that's how life worked. I didn't know any differently.
(02:19):
And so I step into the work world and literally I was like, "Where's the test?" There's no test?" No, there's no test. You just have to keep on helping other people improve. You can use that mind of yours to help these other people get the things that they need in their life. And it's a beautiful different way to lead.
Matt (02:37):
Crazy.
Marc (02:37):
Yeah.
Matt (02:38):
When's the first time that you went to a Lean course or read a Lean book or officially started implementing this sort of thing in whether your personal life or your professional life?
Marc (02:52):
Well, I think I should share when 2 Second Lean came into my life-
Matt (02:52):
Let's do.
Marc (02:55):
... because that's actually ... There's so much beauty in the Simple Lean concepts that are taught there, and Lean Made Simple, I just love that term there. When did it become simple for me? Because it was complicated when I had to figure out how to care for other people more than me and all the stuff that came with.
(03:15):
So I'm sitting there, we're building a company back in St. Louis, Missouri. And some guys went out to see what Paul Akers was doing with 2 Second Lean. And they came back, they were on the flight back and they said, "You've got to see this, Marc." They sent a copy of the book. I read it that night, it was that simple. It's like written for fifth graders it's so simple. And I said, "This is it." It was like the iPhone for the Blackberry. I had the Blackberries and I'm trying to figure them all out. And I mean, I was good with them but I couldn't teach anybody how to do them.
(03:48):
And that's what Lean was for me. I couldn't help other people do it. And so we had to make it simple enough to be able to do that, and that's the key. And so that was only 10 years ago.
Matt (04:03):
Wow.
Marc (04:04):
Yeah.
Matt (04:05):
Unbelievable.
Marc (04:05):
Yeah.
Matt (04:06):
And so what were some of the early wins that affirmed, "Oh, I'm on the right course here with this whole 2 Second Simple Lean stuff?"
Marc (04:14):
Yeah. Two of them, one, I went home ... It says to start in the bathroom, 2 Second Lean did. And I was like, "Ugh, I have not cleaned my bathroom." I had been married for 16 years by then. Hadn't cleaned the bathroom because I got fired year one, I couldn't do it well enough. And so I was like ... I mean, I'm running a company here and I can't clean my own bathroom. So I said, "What if I didn't do it for her, what if I did it for me? And what if I just cleaned it every single day, and to see if I could get good enough to gain the job back?"
(04:47):
And literally it took almost two weeks. But she came to me and she said ... My wife is Melanie, I love her dearly, we've been married for 25 years.
Matt (04:54):
Wow.
Marc (04:55):
And she said, "I love what you're doing in the bathroom." And so you think about that like, "What is that? Why is that matter?" You got to start somewhere that matters to people. And she had seen me clean and I wasn't very good at it. And she had been mainly in charge in leading the cleaning. And I got to shift from trying to do it to please her, to trying to just do it. Just do it. Just learn and clean. And I had the courage to do that because of the encouragement from Paul and the others to do it.
(05:26):
On the business side it was moving faster than that. That two weeks was hard. But on the business front we just had simple meetings every day and got to see some people that hadn't been really thriving, come in and making improvements and showing them on the screen. And I was looking up there and I just remember feeling this deep satisfaction, like chills. That is what I've been after for 27 years in leadership. That's what I've been after all my life, is to help unlock and unleash the potential of others. And I could see it right there.
(06:01):
And so that is the one I think that you might be thinking of.
Matt (06:05):
It's really, really interesting, isn't it, whenever there is that kind of unlock moment. But I like the bathroom story.
Marc (06:10):
Well, we have-
Matt (06:10):
Because if it's the way I love your wife, it's even better. Do you know what I mean?
Marc (06:14):
Yeah. Well, I think the point is that we have to keep on doing it. And so I was actually scared to clean the bathroom at my home because I had lost privileges. I hadn't done it well enough. And so there's actually fear behind all of our lack of growth as leaders. And so as soon as I realized I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. Like, really?"
(06:32):
And so don't take it home first. I wouldn't suggest that. I had been doing it a long time before I went there. But the idea is that there's always something that's holding us back and there's some step that you can take yourself. So it starts with you and it always does.
Matt (06:48):
Yeah. So we've kind of talked about the early benefits or the early wins. You start off on any journey, there is that amazing, "Yeah, the energy's [inaudible 00:06:59]," and then you hit the first hurdle, and then you hit a bigger hurdle, and then you hit a huge slump. Was there anything that slowed you down in your Lean journey?
Marc (07:08):
Oh, I mean, there's always setbacks. There's always times when people are saying, "I don't know if we're going to be able to continue." For me, by that time in my life I had already learned the harder lessons, which is that I have to have coaches in my life. I have to have people with real names that I call. And so, one of them ... It was so fun. Paul was a coach for one of our guys and they were struggling and they reached out to him and he just sent a message, a little message of encouragement, a coaching message, and said, "Keep going, you can do this. And you've got the right idea, just keep going." And that's all it took and they just kept going.
(07:47):
Well, I've had people in my life, Mark Thom was my coach at that point in time, and so calling him and saying, "Hey, listen, I'm struggling. I'm stuck." I know to call out and reach out for help. So many, many times, I've been stuck so many times in my life because I try things that I can't do, but I have people in my life that I can call. And so by that time I had had people in my life that I could call.
Matt (08:08):
Awesome. Beyond the bathroom, was there an improvement or is there an improvement that sticks out in your mind as being like, "Oh, baby, that is just so satisfying."
Marc (08:19):
When I asked the kids at home, because I love the home ones because they're so fun. When I asked them what their favorite one is of all, because we've done a ton of them, it's actually the top of the dishwasher. It's got a little tray for forks and knives and spoons, and we've got labels on it that have where the forks go and where the spoons go and where the knives were. That was the improvement. And so right now it takes about 10 seconds to empty the dishwasher with that because you don't have to sort them afterwards. You only sort them on the way in. And literally, they just grab those spoons and they put them in, they grab the ...
(08:53):
And so it's so crazy, it only saves a minute, but it saves a minute every single time you do it, every single time. And you get to remember that all the time. And it's so easy to train that our new ... We have exchange students coming into the house, we've had five of them, and they can do it because it's easy for them and that's their favorite one, can you believe it?
Matt (09:13):
But it's so satisfying whenever you can grab 10, 11, 12, 15 knives and just straight into the drawer. I'd said to you before recording, my wife's German. First few times I go to Germany, they've got the tray in the top of the dishwasher. And I'm just throwing the cutlery in anywhere and I'm getting Germaned hardcore.
Marc (09:29):
Germaned hard, oh boy.
Matt (09:30):
And then I have the fear, it's like, "Oh, I don't feel worthy to load the dishwasher." And then you go through the dip and now I own that job when I'm over there because I love the empty and at the end it's like boom, straight in.
Marc (09:39):
Yeah, I like the statement. So coaching is not just cheerleading, it's also correcting. And so the Germans are more better at the correcting part than the cheering part.
Matt (09:48):
They are excellent at correcting.
Marc (09:49):
They're better at that, right. And some of the Americans are better at the cheering part and you're like, "Listen, you got to have both of them." But all of it, if they can encourage, if you can be encouraged by the correction or by the cheerleading, that's the key for me.
(10:04):
So I'm watching that. We've had incredible people come through the plant. Ritsuo Shingo came through three times into the plant, and he hit me, as the president, he hit me on the arm to correct me like 16 times in one walk. We were there a couple of hours, and I'm like, "That is amazing." And it encouraged me, every slap. He was correcting, like he Germans are good at. He wasn't cheering, he was correcting, but it was so encouraging.
Matt (10:32):
Wow.
Marc (10:32):
He had an amazing humble way of doing it, and there was so much wisdom there. I mean, it's just like, "Yes, yes, that's what I want," and I left so encouraged.
Matt (10:42):
Wow.
Marc (10:43):
So you can do it. You can do it the German way or you can do it another way.
Matt (10:47):
Can we zoom into that just a little bit? So if you were delivering a coachable moment to me or someone on your team, what are some best practices for approaching that? If it is corrective and it needs to be said, how do you ... Because you say you walk away from that feeling encouraged and almost uplifted.
Marc (11:05):
Yeah.
Matt (11:06):
Give me a wee bit of that sauce.
Marc (11:07):
Well, I gave you one a little bit earlier, which is I care about you deeply. First of all, Matthew, I love what you're doing for this podcast and the Lean world. I also can see you as a father and a husband of two young girls, and I care about what you're doing. And I see that if you don't do this differently, this thing, you're not going to get what you want to do.
Matt (11:29):
Oh, that's good.
Marc (11:29):
I can see you and I know that you're going to make an impact in the world, I can feel ... You've said, you want to make an impact in the world, but you need to adjust this behavior or you're not going to do it. And so what does it for me. The first has to be unconditional care and support. You can use unconditional love. It's basically I have to see the humans inside and know there's beauty there. I know there's a lot more potential inside of you. And then when the correction comes, it's a lift up instead of a push down.
Matt (12:00):
I love how you align the correction to my vision of my own future that I want to have. That is just a game-changer.
Marc (12:08):
Well, you gave me the gift of hearing what your future that you want to see, and I got to listen to that so I have to be connected. And if I don't hear what you want in the future, I have no right to correct you. And so I get to earn that right by doing that.
Matt (12:26):
Awesome. Final question, and I like we've touched on this a little bit throughout. For someone who listen to this podcast, maybe they've just started their Lean Journey or they've maybe fallen off the bandwagon, how would you encourage them to become a part of this community? Because what I loved what you said earlier was, "I need to call somebody up. I need a coach, I need a mentor, I need an external voice in my life." If someone's feeling very isolated in their Lean Journey, how can they become a part of some of this amazing energy that we are experiencing here at this summit?
Marc (12:59):
Yeah. There's two things. First of all, I believe you need a coach and a community. You need a community. And so this work is too hard. Leadership, I just call it leadership, it's the leadership that I see that could transform the world, it's that kind of leadership. And that kind of leadership is too hard to do alone so you need a community. And so find one, it doesn't have to be a lot of people. It needs to be some, and it needs to be more than one.
(13:24):
And this Lean Made Simple community, the community, the 2 Second Lean community, that idea, that concept, that community that's here today is such an encouraging community. And so become part of it. Contribute, actually serve, and learn from it, get involved. I'm part of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, which many of these companies get to come and attend. In October we have a conference in Cleveland. You've got to have a community around you to do this kind of work. It's too hard. It is simple, but it's not easy.
Matt (13:57):
That's the truth, isn't it.
Marc (13:57):
And so you need a community. Yeah, and so come to that conference, get involved with this group. Just know that you have to find a community that's doing it in the business world, because that's where it's a self-funding area for growth of humans, including the owner and the president and the CEO, and also every single person inside of the organization. And so I just hope that they won't be alone.
Matt (14:23):
Awesome.
Marc (14:24):
Yeah.
Matt (14:24):
Where can people find you? How can people connect with you?
Marc (14:26):
Yeah, encouragingleaders.com is the brand and the best place to find me and the other coaches that work with me. And we'd love to sit down and hear from people that are wanting more out of business and we could help.
Matt (14:40):
Awesome. Marc, thank you so much for your time.
Marc (14:42):
My pleasure. Great to be with you, Matthew.
Matt (14:43):
Really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much for listening or watching or wherever you are, and really, really hope you have a great rest of your day. Check out the rest of the podcast if you're interested in finding out some more things about Lean and taking your leadership on a journey.
Marc (14:57):
Yeah.
Matt (14:57):
I've loved this, Marc. Thank you again.
Marc (14:58):
So good to be with you.
Matt (14:59):
Awesome.