Wake Up Eager Workforce 
Episode 119 Transcript

Suzie Price: The title of today's episode is Wise Advice from HUB International Employee Success Manager Rene Critelli. Tune in if you want practical and actionable leadership advice. If you're curious about how other companies and organizations create a strong culture, strong teams keep the entrepreneurial spirit in a bigger business. And if you want to just get some specifics on things that they do as a company to create a great business and have continual growth and success. Rene is a great representative of what is happening within this organization, and I know you'll learn a lot. I can't wait to share it with you. Michael. Hit it!

Intro/Outro: Welcome to the Wake Up Eager Workforce podcast, a show designed for leaders, trainers and consultants who are responsible for employee selection and professional development. Each episode is packed full with insider tips, best practices, expert interviews and inspiration. Please welcome the host who is helping leaders, trainers and consultants everywhere Suzie Price.

Suzie Price: Hi there, I'm Suzie Price and you're listening to the Wake Up Eager Workforce podcast, where we cover everything related to helping you and the employees in your organization build a high commitment, low drama, wake up eager workforce. Bottom line, we're focused on helping leaders in organizations make good decisions about their people. We want to see a wake up eager workforce in every organization that we interact with and that we work with, and I do think that is possible. We have people like who I'm interviewing today, Rene, out there doing the good work, helping people put people first and using that to create an incredible organization and business. So this is Episode 119 and again, the title is Wise advice from HUB International Employee Success Manager Rene Critelli. The tracker link, so if you want to get the show notes and links to all the things that we talk about, you'll go to pricelessprofessional.com/employeesuccess. Pricelessprofessional.com/employeesuccess all one word, all lowercase. Here's what we're going to cover today. We're going to start out with Rene's journey to becoming an employee success manager at her company. She's going to share five leadership actions that lead to employee success. She's going to talk about how and why they use Trimetrix in hiring, coaching, and team building. We give some specific examples, and then we're going to talk about the one thing leaders can do that makes the biggest difference in employee success. Let me tell you a little bit about Rene. And then we will jump into our discussion. So Rene is an accomplished employee success manager at HUB International Mountain States, where she is dedicated to fostering a positive and productive work environment. She, as she mentions in the interview, is in Billings, Montana, and she's got a great experience in her background with strong commitment to employee development and organizational success and we talk a little bit about her track record. And as I mentioned, HUB is the fifth largest insurance broker in the world. She's a proud graduate of Montana State University out of Billings. She had her bachelor's degree in business administration, and she earned her professional human resource certification from SHRM. So her father, she is also actively involved in community service. She was the district president elect for the Yellowstone District of the National Exchange Club, and she talks a little bit about that in our discussion, where she contributes to various philanthropic and community focused initiatives. She's the chair of the Food Truck Battle on the Yellowstone event and showcases her passion for local community engagement and event management. She is committed to employee success and community service. She's fun. She's smart. I first met Rene in November of 2015. It was my first training Trimetrix training class at HUB International was in Chicago. There were about 10 or 15 of us in the room and it was snowing and freezing cold. And if you know me, I'm from the south, so I was frozen like a popsicle. But I was thrilled because I was new. That was the first year I began working with HUB International. So in a little bit, this is a tribute to HUB featuring Rene, because I first met her in that first year that I started working with them, and this coming year it will be ten years that we've been working with this wonderful company, so I can't wait to share the episode. Let's just go to it now. All right, Rene, it's good to see you. I'm so glad you're here.

[00:04:50] Rene Critelli: Thank you. Good to see you, too.

Suzie Price: Appreciate you taking the time. We're going to start with your role as an employee success manager. And I was thinking as we were starting, I don't see that title that often, but I did just do a lookup on Indeed. And it said there were 89,000 employee success manager roles. So you hear employee relations and you hear, I've known that I did that 20 years ago, but I never really heard employee success. So I think everybody ought to put that behind their name, no matter whether it's their official title or not.

Rene Critelli: Yeah, I agree.

Suzie Price: But how cool is that? You have that official title at HUB International. So tell us a little bit about what led you to have this role and a little bit about your career journey.

[00:05:32] Rene Critelli: Yeah. So when I started at HUB nine years ago, I started as a recruiter. I had a staffing background, so I came in just as recruiting. Something that is the culture at HUB is that we're always encouraged to keep learning and growing where they really invest a lot in education and development. So I decided I wanted to learn more about the human resources function. So I obtained my PHR. You know, they helped me with that. And I started taking on more of the HR generalist type of duties. The part of HR that I really enjoyed the most was that employee relations and the leadership development and the employee retention as well, and finding that so much of the employee relations has to do with the leadership development. I started honing some of my skills on that leadership development portion, so we were able to take some of the best parts of that job and create that employee success manager title. It was kind of fun because I was able to sit down with my manager, and we kind of came up with that on our own, so, and built that around the skills that I wanted to hone in on. So that's where that where we came up with that. Yeah. That's I also in doing all that too, I found with what I like to do with leadership development, I really enjoyed facilitating. So I also started facilitating managing with impact, which is a leadership development course that they've developed at HUB that we do for all of our leaders all across HUB. So I help with that as well.

Suzie Price: That's amazing. Facilitation is such a cool skill to have.

Rene Critelli: Yeah it is. It's not something I ever thought that I would do. And somebody at corporate, you know, they were looking for people to do it. And somebody asked me if I would be interested. And I tried it out. And I really do love it a lot.

Suzie Price: Yeah, I can totally see being very effective as we go to the wake up your strengths section in a little bit, we'll see how great your strengths are and how they apply to that role and the work you're doing. Um, yeah. And facilitation. It literally means to make easy. You know, you pave the way, you know, by processes and procedures and tools and learning. So that's very cool. Now as employee success manager in your region, how many people are in your area that you cover for this role?

Rene Critelli: We have about 480 in our region.

Suzie Price: In your region. Okay. And so and your region is called the mountain region within HUB.

Rene Critelli: Yes, it's Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

Suzie Price: Okay, great. Okay. So how do you figure out what objectives? I mean, because people could look at this that are listening. You might not be part of a large company. You may be having a smaller company with less than 500 employees or so, you know, how do you decide what objectives you're going to cover? Of course, you have some of the corporate things that they recommend, like the managing with impact, but how do you decide what you're doing within your region, and how do you figure out what your day to day activities are, what your quarterly actions are going to be, and so on?

[00:08:25] Rene Critelli: So I think with my role my top focus has always been on that leadership development portion, because that's really where the most of that employee experience and retention trickles down from. If you have poor leadership the culture is going to suffer. You know, they say that people don't leave companies. They leave managers a lot of times. So we look at really quantifiable data for that, like turnover rate, and we use employee engagement surveys to really enable us to focus on certain areas and maybe identify some leaders that might need a little bit more training or a little bit more attention.Suzie Price: And what is your employee survey that you use?

Rene Critelli: We use Work Tango.

Suzie Price: Work Tango. What do you like about it?

Rene Critelli: You know, it really allows you to drill down on. You can look at an overall picture, but then drill down further into by manager. You can drill in by line of business, and it still allows you to cut into that data but still remain anonymous. You know, you can't drill down so far as you're figuring out who said what, but it does allow you to slice and dice that information so that it really allows you to come up with some action plans. And we really get our people involved in those action plans. You know, I think it was one of the main complaints that we saw years ago was we do these surveys and then nothing comes of it. So we want to make sure that when they are giving their input, that we are including them in that action and really getting their buy in when we're coming together as a team to find out what the best next plan of action is.

Suzie Price: So you not only make sure they hear about the results, but then you get them involved in. Okay, this I'm interpreting, you correct me. This area score is something you're least satisfied around. We might want to take this action. What do you think? What other actions is it that kind of involvement or?

Rene Critelli: Yeah. Or like seeing come to us with solutions. You know it's one thing to identify a problem. So I think that's pretty easy for anybody to identify problems. But can we identify what the solutions are. And I think when we also get their buy in with it, people are more likely to be engaged in that process too.

Suzie Price: Yeah. And you hit on a key point. If you're going to do an engagement survey of any sort, you want to make sure there is follow up. If it's a 360, the leaders that receive the 360 feedback should do a sanitized version, but they come back and say, hey, thank you for the feedback. Here's what I learned. Here's what I'm working on. And then with the organization, another version of that. So it's important. Otherwise as you know people think okay, somebody asked for my feedback and then you didn't do anything with it. Makes everything worse.

Rene Critelli: Questions too can be left, you know, there's different interpretations of them. So instead of just assuming what you think they meant. To really ask the question. You know, we had we scored lower in this area, can we get some input? What does that mean to you? And it can mean different things to different people.

[00:11:27] Suzie Price: That is super smart too. Yes. So you're able to go in and have the right conversation because something's been identified. But now let's shine it up or clear it up or refine it to get their true perspective. That's great. That's great. That's I like that you can slice and dice that survey to not reveal who said it, but where are the challenges? And then you can go in and lend specific support to managers who may be struggling to kind of flag that before it becomes all out chaos.

Rene Critelli: Yeah. And the one question we've used other platforms in the past, but the one thing that remains the same is that NPS score, which is would you recommend a friend to work for your company? So that's one gauge that we can use every year to show over time, as well as how many employee referrals we're getting. I think employee referrals are one of our largest sources at HUB for new hires, and that's not just for our region, but all across HUB. So that really says something to HUB's culture.

Suzie Price: Yeah, yeah. Talk a little bit about HUB's culture because it's an interesting company. So it's very I'll just throw a few words as someone from the outside, but worked with you all for a while. Very entrepreneurial, very high energy. Lots of learning, lots of changing. Lots of growing. Talk about your experience. You've been there. How many years now? Is it 10?

[00:12:51] Rene Critelli: Nine years. And we've more than doubled in size since I started. So we were right on 8000 employees when I started. And I think now we're close to 20 grand. We're in over over 20,000. So that's a ton of growth in a very little amount of time. I mean, HUB was just founded in 1998, so that really wasn't that long ago to be now they're the fifth largest broker in the world. And so very growth oriented. I think there's always a ton of focus put on growth and development of our leaders and everyone. And they have, you know, we have a learning engagement platform that our LMS that has so much opportunities for people to go out there and find, you know, you look up any topic and it's out there, there's something there for you, either through audiobooks or courses. So much opportunity for people to learn and grow. And I think, you know, that really says something to that entrepreneurship that you're talking about. That's actually one of our, you know, main HUB values. I too, I also talk about integrity. That's another one of our values that I think that's probably a value that maybe is on every wall of every company, you know, and you kind of just oh yeah, we have integrity that's big, you know, hot word or whatever. But where I saw it really come into life for real was during 2020 when COVID happened and our CEO, Marc Cohen came to company wide and we saw other of our competitors laying people off. And I think we were starting to get a little bit scared. You know, we were nobody knew what the future was going to hold. And he was adamant that he didn't want to have to lay off any people top to bottom. He didn't want to have to lay off a single person. So what he did at that time was every single person in the company was to take a 3% decrease in salary, and then it would be reinstated in the spring of 2021. I think everybody was kind of had that team kind of, you know, togetherness where we were okay with that. It was going to be reinstated and everybody was okay taking one for the team at that time. Well, then fall came around and we had fared better than we had projected. And out of nowhere he came out and said, we're giving you guys back the 3%. We're doing better than projected, and we're also going to pay you retroactively for what you lost during that time. That was never something that was on the table. Like, that wasn't even something we ever thought we would get back. We were willing to make that, you know, sacrifice at the time. And for them to do that really, to me, spoke truly to the integrity of the company. I think our leaders could have easily said, we're just going to keep that money, you know, um, that nobody would have been any the wiser. You know, we weren't expecting to get it back, but they did the right thing. And, um, when Marc was on an HR call with the HR team after that one point, I had mentioned that in the asked in when he was doing a Q&A and he said there was never any question that they would give that back. He said there was no question they would do that. So to me, that just just spoke that they're actually walking the walk, you know.

Suzie Price: Yes, I just see so much energy within the company to have such a large company. And it's not doesn't feel and it's the insurance industry. And I worked for a large insurance company. So I had an idea when I first started working with y'all. Oh, it's going to be very, you know, kind of cumbersome. And it's good. It's a good cumbersome. And I'm excited about it. But I mean, no, you keep your entrepreneurial fever. And I guess part of that is, is that related to all the mergers and acquisitions, sometimes you're buying these brokerage firms that come into the company, and so their leaders come and they bring that entrepreneurial spirit?

Rene Critelli: A little bit of that too. I've always really appreciated HUB's decentralized approach that they have, where each region kind of operates autonomously from the corporate region. So we each region has their own leadership, their own budgets. So we're allowed to make decisions on more of a local level about what works for our market. And so, you know, obviously, what works in New York City is not going to be the same thing that works in Glendive, Montana. And they allow us to make those decisions on that local level. And I think, too, when we talk about acquiring some of these companies, um, you know, we've had recent acquisitions in our region like Hobson, Montana, Libby, Montana. These are really small communities where it means a lot to them to be involved at that community level, and they want to know they're not going to lose their identity through an acquisition. And it really does allow them to kind of keep that local feel while they do gain so much clout through the HUB name and through all the different carrier partners that they are able to bring to their clients. So I see it as a win for those small agencies. When they do get acquired by HUB, they can bring a little bit of them with it, but then gain so much more in return too. It's always been ever since the beginning. I came from a position before where I felt like I was really being micromanaged, and since the beginning at HUB, it's always been, you know, if you have ideas, if it's going to work, let's try it out. Let's do it. Go ahead and do what you want to do kind of thing. And that's been an environment that I've really thrived in. I don't like being under somebody's thumb. I like to use my imagination and my creativity and and try new things all the time. And it's always been an environment that's allowed me to do that. And I think that's been great.

Suzie Price: That's amazing. Yeah, you all have cracked the code on how do you take a big company and make it. I know, I'm sure things aren't perfect all the time, but in general they work. And so much of mergers and acquisitions I've seen in the 20 years that I've been in this business, how they often don't work out. And then now within HUB, I've gotten to know a bunch of different regions that have been merged into and seen how they've just become a part of the culture. And the person who owned the business to start with stays. That doesn't happen either. So they feel the autonomy to yeah, it's a wonderful thing. Wow. What's the future for HUB? You do do you think or do you know.

Rene Critelli: I don't see growth stopping anytime soon. It's full bore ahead and I'm happy with it. They have adapted well to change. They've been very agile. I think we've been really fortunate of having strong leadership at the top that, you know, we didn't. You see sometimes companies grow too fast and that can be a bad thing sometimes that they're not keeping up with the growth. But I see us making good changes with that growth still remaining decentralized and keeping that autonomy, but also gaining some ground with we can do these things all the same and all together to be more efficient. So I see a lot more of that coming together. And that's, I think, really positive to see too.

Suzie Price: Yeah. So larger companies that years ago, before I started my business, I worked for a large technology company and it was challenging because you had everybody wanted to do it their way. Not many people wanted to do the corporate way, and they were trying to force that. I'm just, impressed. So with your experience, you get to see a lot of leadership from the executive level and within your region. And I know that you are someone who's focused on, you know, what is practical and what really gets results. So I'm really curious about what you'll share about advice that you would give leaders, everybody who's listening, you want to listen to Rene. She's very astute and she has her hands on a lot of things within a very successful company. So what do you see that leaders need to do? Your top tips to impact employee success, employee experience.

[00:20:43] Rene Critelli: I'd say the number one thing, and this sounds like very simple, but not all people do it, not all managers do it, but talk to your employees, you know, to really get to know them on a personal level. And don't shy away from building those relationships. Find out what makes them happy and find out what frustrates them. And hopefully finding what makes them happy can help you provide them a way to have that happiness at work. And then on top of that, I would say to learn that you're not going to necessarily make everyone happy all the time either. You as a leader have to choose to do the right thing. Not everybody's always going to agree with that, and that has to be okay. You know, focus on helping your team be respectful of one another and to be hard working and knowledgeable. And then things will line up and you might not always make everybody happy, but that's all right. I also am very big on feedback. I think it's important to find people doing things right and compliment and recognize them on the regular to really build that feedback culture.

Rene Critelli: You know, we talk about having the feedback piggy bank that you want to always be putting positive deposits in that piggy bank so that maybe if you do have to make a withdrawal of maybe some not so good feedback, that it might not sting as much because you have a good bank build up of positive feedback already. So we really encourage that all the time. That's something we constantly talk about at HUB is is giving feedback. We have platforms to give recognition and feedback as well. And the other thing I would say is just to have fun, to try to create a fun working environment. This doesn't necessarily have to mean that you're not focusing on business, you know? But we can have fun while we're focusing on business, too. I think that can be both things at one time. But if you can't have fun, I think there's something wrong. So I'm the type of person that I think I can find fun in just about anything I do. So I would say to find out what fun means for your people and then do more of that.

Suzie Price: Yeah, I like that customized what the fun is because for some groups this could be loud and noisy, and for other groups it's going to be kind of quiet. But it might be solving a problem or doing a puzzle or a challenge. I mean, so it just depends on the personality of the the culture of your team. That's great. That's great. And you know, your number one, sometimes people don't want to, they want to know their employees and they want their opinion, but they don't want to ask it because they know they're going to get an opinion that doesn't really match the action that's going to take. Yeah. So talk a little bit about that. The value of asking the opinion anyway.

Rene Critelli: Yeah. I think, you know, when you're having one on one meetings with people, ask them what they like to do in their free time. Ask them, you know, what they did over the weekend. What makes them tick? Maybe ask them what you can do differently> ask them what you can keep doing, what you should stop doing, what you should continue doing, and that can open up conversations as well for them to give you feedback. When we tell people that, we tell our leaders that we say, don't expect to get feedback from people right away. They might not give you anything. They might not give you anything for ten times that you ask them. But it's important to keep on asking that you're always keeping that door open for receiving feedback and then thanking people when you do get actual good feedback too.

Suzie Price: Yes, yes. Have you ever had anybody say that they did it and they were surprised? Have you had that? You know, you talk about it in training. A lot of times we talk about things in training and then, you know, does it actually happen in the office? Have you seen that?

Rene Critelli: Actually, I can't think of an example of that right off.

Suzie Price: It makes a difference, though, and I know you've probably experienced it because you probably are asking questions all the time of people. How's it Going, what's happening?

[00:24:31] Rene Critelli: Yeah. I think when you start asking people those questions, you know, what can I start doing? What can I stop doing? What should I continue doing? I think that they're kind of surprised, maybe at first, because that's not questions that they've maybe been asked in the past. So it might take some thought too. And I think it's important to always keep that door open where if you don't, might not have anything now, but if you have something, the door is open for you to come back and tell me or email me later too and to keep asking.

Suzie Price: What would you say is an ideal meeting cadence? Meet once with each employee on your team once a month.

Rene Critelli: We do quarterly. Quarterly at least. I think that looks different for different people too. I think there's some statistics around it and I don't have it with me, but there is a demographic that does need a lot more regular feedback than others. So I think when you're having those one on ones to find out what that preferred cadence is for that person. And I think we sometimes have a vision of this is going to be a half hour to an hour long meeting, and that doesn't need to be what feedback looks like. This can just be a five minute check in. It doesn't have to be a long, drawn out, you know, put on the calendar kind of meeting. So keep that in mind too, that it can mean just popping your head in a cubicle and say, how are you doing today? Is there anything I can help you with kind of thing? But it's definitely one of those things that you have to have the one on one conversation to find out what that person's preference is. If somebody doesn't want to be asked every single day how it's going, then you don't want to bug them every day. That's going to have a negative effect. Effect?

Suzie Price: Yes. Tuning in to the other person you.

Rene Critelli: Personally, I wouldn't like that. So yeah.

Suzie Price: Just somebody just checking in periodically is good. And you mentioned something about you have platforms that help people, you know, put deposits in the piggy bank. Are those specific tools that you command or know about.

Rene Critelli: Or we use a platform called Award Co, and it's kind of looks like a social media platform where we have different levels of recognition, where we have a thumbs up, a high five and a round of applause where you can give different levels of recognition to people for different things that they do. So like a thumbs up is kind of just a shout out for somebody doing something small or a thank you. High five recognition is what we have when it's peer to peer recognition. Usually for somebody that goes above and beyond the normal call of duty. And then we at the end of the month, we draw one person out from every everybody that got a high five nomination, and one person will get $250 to spend on the platform, which award is aligned with Amazon. So you can pretty much buy anything you want on Amazon or gift cards, or that'll be pretty much anything that you want. So but then you can see it all on a feed, just like any social media feed. And it's really cool, I think, to see, you know, when you're reading the recognition from other people, it always kind of puts a smile on your face. I enjoy reading them. I think everybody does. And then it kind of makes you think too like, oh yeah, I should tell this person and put it on Award Co. So yeah, it's fun.

Suzie Price: Yeah. It creates an appreciation culture.

Rene Critelli: Yes.

Suzie Price: And a lot of people leave because they don't feel appreciated. And it's such a simple thing to correct, you know, get. What does Gallup say? In the past seven days, I've received appreciation or been valued for my work, you know, so every week we need to hear something.

Rene Critelli: Yeah, yeah. It's actually in managing with impact, we encourage, I tell managers think about putting it on your Outlook calendar at the end of the week. Say you know, who can I give feedback to for the week? There was also another example of a manager that would start the day with six pennies in one pocket. And over the course of the day, every time he would give some feedback, he'd move one penny to one pocket to the other pocket. And the hope is to have all those pennies to the other pocket by the end of the day, and having the change in there was kind of a reminder to him that he should give feedback. So that's another just a little way that people can remind people.

Suzie Price: Yeah, I'm so happy you're there to remind folks. I mean, we have to have the strategy, we have to have all the tasks. But in order to get the strategy and the tasks done, the people need to kind of know what needs to be done and feel valued for the work.

Rene Critelli: Yes.

Suzie Price: So this is all what you're helping bring to light on a regular basis in your region. It's fantastic. That's great. Anything else you want to share about tips or ideas for leaders? I mean, you've got a great list here of just checking in before we move off specifically that topic.

Rene Critelli: Yeah, no, I don't think so.

Suzie Price: Okay. So you talk about in your tips about tuning into what makes someone happy. We're going to move now to Trimetrix, which you've become an expert in there at HUB, I refer people to you or talk about things that you're doing to other people on a regular basis. You and Denise, and you got trained in it in ten, almost ten years ago. And talk a little bit about how you use Trimetrix, why you use it?

[00:29:35] Rene Critelli: So we really like the Trimetrix tool because it's not just looking at a single dimension of a person. Like you're getting a lot of different perspectives that can offer you more places to look for answers and help people really understand themselves better, and also understand others better, and how to communicate with others better as a team. I've really gone full into all the tools and resources that you have provided on your website. I think everything out there is very valuable. I'm in there frequently, so we utilize everything that you have to offer there to its fullest extent. I think that a key to learning it and to having it stick is just continually using it. It's just like anything that if you're not continually utilizing it all the time that you can forget those things. Luckily, you have a lot of tools out there that are reminder cards and things that help you. You know you don't have to memorize everything. It's all out there for you. But just using it frequently is important, I think, to really become an expert, as you say. I think it was it's you know, it's been really part of our culture now using it for team building. We've done it with several offices, using it for team building, and it's been so well received. Like I say, I think it's just a part of it's really become a part of what we do. When I first started at HUB, it was pretty much strictly just a pre-employment tool, and it's gone leaps and bounds ahead now since then.

Suzie Price: And I think it was I don't know if I'm right or not if I remember right, but during COVID, maybe you were doing some of that too, because people were at home and you're like, okay, let's do a virtual team building thing here. That that was I don't know if that was some of your first forays into it or team building? I'm not sure.

Rene Critelli: Yeah. We started to roll out the team building right when that happened. So we did have to start doing it virtually when we were going to do it in person. But I think that helped during that time when we didn't have those connections in the office, that to bring that team together virtually was helpful during that time. And just to kind of build back some of that team. And, you know, that was just a weird time.

Suzie Price: Yes. It was. It was.

Rene Critelli: And so I think that was something that was really helpful during that time. And we continued I still do them virtually sometimes, you know, in in our region. I live in Billings, Montana, and we're scattered. The geography in our region is pretty vast, so it's sometimes hard for me to get face to face with everybody. So I do them virtually sometimes too. But I do them in person too.

Suzie Price: Yeah. And what is it about the tool? I know it's your facilitation. It's the people's involvement. It's not just the tool, but how does the tool play a part? I mean, what does it helping people see for someone maybe who hasn't taken Trimetrix, you mentioned about how it gives you different perspectives of a person. But can you kind of verbalize a little bit of that? What happens in the team building that gets people jazzed or continues to kind of meet that need?

Rene Critelli: As humans, I think we have a tendency to think that everybody is like us, that everybody, you know, we know how we want to be communicated with. So we think everybody likes to be communicated with that way. So when we take a look, when we put everybody on the wheel and show where they are and show how each different one likes to be communicated with, it's pretty eye opening to know, oh, that, you know, I have to give in a little bit when I talk to this person. I need to change the way that I'm communicating to suit that person's needs, instead of the way that I would then be communicated with. Something I've started saying in those team building exercises is, you know, when we grow up, we learn about the golden rule, you know, do unto others as you would want done to you type of thing. But we start talking about the platinum rule, which is treat others the way they want to be treated, not the way that you want to be treated. So it's kind of eye opening to see that not everybody is like you. Not everybody is motivated by the same things that you are. That was something that I wish I would have had these tools back when I was managing a lot of people way before that. I thought everybody was motivated by money, because I'm motivated by money. So I remember I was dangling these spiffs in front of people, and I couldn't understand why they weren't, you know, making the sales. And I didn't get it. And now I look back, I'm like, yeah, well, they weren't motivated by money. They were motivated by other things. They could have been motivated by pat on the back or you did a good job. Maybe they don't want that at all. So I was like, man, I wish I would have had that when I was a manager back in the day, it would have been so much better. Um, but I think it really is eye opening for people. You see a lot of light bulbs go off during those team building exercises sometimes. And when we talk about this is how this person likes to be communicated with, and you ask them, is this accurate? And they're like, yeah, that's that's pretty accurate. And you see some people like okay, I, I need to change my ways a little bit.

Suzie Price: Yeah, it gives like it gives self-awareness and then all of a sudden other awareness. Yeah, they'll put words to things we kind of know about ourselves and then there they are on paper, you know like oh.

[00:34:39] Rene Critelli: Yeah I always think it's funny too when people really giggle when we match up the DISC with the motivators and read those traits off from the list that you have. Those are always pretty spot on. And I think it kind of blows people's minds sometimes because they're pretty spot on. So that's always really I like to end with that. Like, you know, would anybody like to tell me we can match up your disc with your motivator and give these traits and you can tell me if it's accurate or not? So those are always kind of fun to do at the end to people get a kick out of those.

Suzie Price: Yeah. Yeah. And you know it really goes to the first point. The advice you gave to leaders is talk to your employees on a personal level. Basically, the tool helps us, helps you as a leader and helps them themselves put language to speak to. This is how I like to communicate. This is what really motivates me. This is how I want to spend my time. And then the whole conversation. It seems so obvious once you know it, but once you when you didn't know it, it's not obvious at all.

[00:35:40] Rene Critelli: And we've started just this year using it after we hire new people, particularly with the producer and account manager relationship, because they do work so tightly together and they are usually polar opposites on every spectrum. So to have a sit down with them, do a side by side report and sit down with the two of them and let them know how each person, how to communicate with them, how not to communicate with them, to try to do that. You know, within the first six months that an account manager or a producer is on board so that they can get to know somebody right out of the gate. We're not waiting until issues arise to let them know how to communicate with them. So it really has become something we start doing. You know, we start at the pre-employment, but immediately after hire we're touching on it again and again.

Suzie Price: It's you know what they can see the side by side that Rene is talking about is you have maybe the producers. If it was you and I talking, it'd be Suzie's on one side and Rene on the other. And then we can just see where we're similar and where we're different. And it takes all the judgment out, you know, it takes all the judgment out. And we don't mean to be judgmental, but we do think that the way we do things is the best way to do them. I mean, it's human nature, you know? Yeah, you should be urgent or you should love making money or whatever, you know, so because we value it. So it does really talking about valuing diversity, it's another way to look at diversity.

Rene Critelli: Yeah, definitely.

Suzie Price: Individual preferences in helping people get that. One of the icebreakers, and I don't know if you've used this, but I found it very effective is it's really good for leadership assimilation when you have a new leader on a team. The team's been together for a while, and the new leader is coming in, is to use the side by sides. And a good icebreaker is 'Who's most influenced you?' And 99.5% of the time when they describe who's influenced them, it lines up with their motivators.

Rene Critelli: Yeah.

Suzie Price: You know, it's interesting. So then so you get to know something personal about them. But then later on when we go to the motivators, we say, well, when you said, like this one guy who was a chief operating officer and he was new and the team that he was, you know, their new leader, they've been together for years and years. His mother was the head of PTA, and she was always about they had to be in all the contests and they had to win. If they were selling cookies, her boys had to win. Well, you know, he was high utilitarian and high individualistic, political, you know. And so, you know, you could, you see a connection.

Rene Critelli: You know, it's funny because I used that icebreaker before, but I've never thought about coming back later and tying that in to that. So that's interesting. That's funny.

Suzie Price: And it's interesting too, when you have onboarding and you've got like a producer who might be new and an account manager who might be new, or they're new to each other, at least it's a way to personalize who they are. You know, this person influenced me because of this and this and get them to talk about it a little bit. And then. Yeah, and then I usually start with the motivators because it's while DISC is the style is easy to understand, the motivators kind of get to what really moves us.

Rene Critelli: Yeah.

Suzie Price: You know, so it's just interesting. I'm so glad you're using that. And I hope it continues to be successful for you.

Rene Critelli: Oh, yeah. I don't see it changing anytime soon. It's really, it's been successful for us. I think everybody enjoys it too.

Suzie Price: Yeah, it creates conversations that, you know. So for example, that one with the chief operating officer. You know, they were all worried about him and they weren't really happy that he was there. They wanted their other leader, you know, who became the CEO. You know, like we want the other guy, you know, we don't want this guy. And as soon as he shares stuff, you know, it personalized him.

Rene Critelli: Yeah.

Suzie Price: And then they shared something. I made him go first. And I told him, tell something personal, you know, I gave him a heads up. We want to build trust here with this team. With you.

Rene Critelli: Yeah. So I think that really can bring out some vulnerability in people, that portion, because you hear some people say some pretty deep things, sometimes that and you find out, you know, or somebody lost a parent when they were young or something that really affected them in their life, you know, and it's always really eye opening and insightful, I think.

Suzie Price: Yeah, that's part of that five Dysfunctions, where you talk about personal, what's a personal challenge that you've had that could be that a lot of times, and I've seen some amazing things happen in a room when oh yeah, people share. Well and they're like, oh, it makes a lot of sense now we understand each other. Yeah. That's wonderful. That kind of connection is what in my mind, you have at HUB. I know it's always something has to be worked on, but you all seem so connected. This doesn't appear like there's a lot of turnover And it's that connection I think.

Rene Critelli: Yeah I agree.

uzie Price: That's powerful. Anything else you want to share about metrics or any other? I love what you shared so far. Before we hop off of that subject and talk about you and your strengths, anything else or favorite story or anything about hiring?

[00:40:39] Rene Critelli: I would say something that I would strongly advise for managers when using the Trimetrix is if you're using it in the pre-employment process, to be sure you're setting those benchmarks for the position that you're filling and then gauge the person by those benchmarks. Everybody's not going to be good at everything, but we don't want to judge somebody harshly over a behavior or skill that's not even a requirement of the job. So I think that's really important to hone in on those skills. You know, the three behaviors, the seven personal skills and the three motivators for the position and compare them to that instead of looking at just every single thing. I think that's super important.

Suzie Price: Yeah ,if we don't have that hiring template or benchmark, people will get like, why is he not persistent? It's like, well, yeah, you didn't pick that one. It's really important for the job, you know? Doesn't mean we'll follow up on it, but let's make sure we hit the template first or the benchmark. Yes. And for anybody listening, if you're not aware and you're using Trimetrix, we've got all the worksheets for that to help people and complimentary training and stuff to help with that so that you can do that. But it does really guide it. And then the other thing I'll throw on top of it, which I know you're aware of, is it's less than 30% of decisions. So yeah, pick the areas for gap areas that are potential gap areas, use the interview questions and then pull back out after you've done all of that and look at the whole picture.

Rene Critelli: And that's something that we do from our HR team in our region is, you know, after the first interview, if the manager wants to order the assessment, we order it and then we do the benchmark comparison for the manager and say, this is the areas where they fell short, and then we provide them with those interview questions for the second interview. From your list of interview questions and say this is the areas that you should hone in on, more so then it would allow the manager to ask some behavioral based skills around those areas and really dig in deeper to find out if there is validity to it. You know, it's not always 100% correct. So give them a chance to talk about it. And it does to uncover sometimes if somebody's just going through something really difficult in their life, that can skew their results too. So it really can bring up a lot of things outside of just the job duties, you know?

Suzie Price: Yeah. It helps you, once again in a different way, because you have to follow all the guidelines that make it an effective and fair interview, but in a different way. You get to you have an opportunity to learn more about this person.

Rene Critelli: Yeah.

Suzie Price: Before you bring them on, but in a different way than the typical. You actually can find out some things that they decide to share based on you just asking competency behavior based interview questions. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. That's awesome. Well, now let's talk about you and how your wake up eager strengths based on Trimetrix. And lordy, do you have a lot of strengths. I just went back and looked at your assessment again before this call. And your personal skills. Every one of your 23 personal skills are above population scores. So you're and everybody's probably experiencing that in our conversation. You're a very clear thinker. And have you always been that way?

Rene Critelli: You know, I don't think I have I think that's something that's come along with time. I know that when I did my first Trimetrix, there were a few areas that I saw as development areas. And it's sometimes it's hard to see that sometimes. But then when you do some really introspective. Look at yourself. Say, okay, that is something that I need to work on. I don't think we ever should stop working on ourselves. And that's that's something that I've always been big on, like constantly trying to improve myself. I'm very competitive with myself, not so much with other people. So I'm always trying to get better.

Suzie Price: Yeah, that's awesome. Well, a lot of strengths to talk about. But the on the motivator side, which is this according to the assessment, this is what puts gas in your tank. You scored extreme utilitarian, and extreme in a good way, meaning it's really important to you. So it's not you know, not everybody needs to score that. Not good like that way. But for you, it's nothing negative about extreme. It's just you scored it as a much stronger driver than the rest of the population scored it via the assessment. And that utilitarian is return on investment. Don't waste time. Use the resources efficiently. And then your second one. So that's a very objective focus. Your second is passionate/social altruistic. So I want to get these resources and be efficient, but I want to really help people. So I can't think of a better driver that five days a week you get to do that in the type of work that you're doing.

Rene Critelli: Yeah, definitely. And when I saw that, that social increase since my last Trimetrix assessment too, and I think that's highly due to my involvement with Exchange Club in my area. It's a service organization that I work with, in which we do fundraising to give back to our communities. And I have my own event that I created and it's called the Food Truck Battle on the Yellowstone. It's actually this Saturday. It's a fundraiser that all the proceeds go to veterans organizations. And since its inception, we've raised over $230,000 and housed over 120 homeless veterans in Montana. So something I'm very proud of. So I'm passionate about that. So that high social and that respect does not surprise me at all. I think that totally rings true. But also that utilitarian, that that is totally rings true for me too, because I've always been somebody highly motivated by money. I have that entrepreneurial spirit, constantly thinking about new businesses I could open or things I could do on the side. You know, I like to try new things, but my wheels are always turning. I'm like, there's going to be something someday that's going to make me a millionaire. I just know it.

Suzie Price: Yes, I see that, I see that, yes. Yes, you're going to do you're going to do good things. We do this exercise nowadays with the motivators we talk about, you know, your uncle died and you that you hadn't seen in a long time. He was 107 and he has been you were his only living relative and he gifted you his $25 million car collection, what will you do with it? And so we use that as a parlay into motivators because it's, you know, you know, each motivator would do something different with the collection for you. For you, what would you do? You'd catalog everything for its value, and then you'd use it for the good of things that you care about.

Rene Critelli: Yeah, I would definitely use it for good, but I would also use some of it for myself too. I am not Mother Teresa by any means.

Suzie Price: No, but you bring Mother teresa to the efficiency part. Which you were talking about that nonprofit that you have worked with. I mean, how many years have you been doing that?

Rene Critelli: So 2018 was our first.

Suzie Price: Yeah, it's really grown.

Rene Critelli: The sixth one this year.

Suzie Price: Anytime you're working with a nonprofit and it's volunteer, you are probably the organizer or the, um, efficiency expert in the room.

Rene Critelli: Yes. I have a tendency that if I'm called to be on a committee, I will usually end up leading said committee. Or if I'm on a committee where I see it derailing, it's just probably killing me inside. I want to take the committee over and like, okay, we got to get back on track. This is getting way off track. Just kills me inside. So yes.

Suzie Price: Yes, yes. I used to say I hate meetings because so many of the meetings were so inefficient. Yes, yes. So you help them be efficient. That is wonderful. And around your communication style, um, you scored the highest in the high influence. And that basically says that you, you talk to think, you are enthusiastic. You have a lot of ideas, but then you also have the problem solver piece. And then this very steady kind of not all the time working at a steady pace, but very much a team player, calm presence and like to work independently. When I look at your four DISC scores. So you're nodding your head.

[00:48:44] Rene Critelli: Yeah. So I'm the youngest of five children. My youngest sibling is 11 years older than me, so I think that started me off at a young age being pretty independent. Our dad passed away when I was only nine years old, so I watched my mom kind of have to rise up from being a stay at home mom to getting into the workforce and supporting us there where, you know, she had very little experience working and had to get out there and do it. So I think that was something that really drove me when I was younger. I always wanted the nice things when I was growing up, but, you know, things were kind of slim for with money for us, so we didn't get those nice things. So now I work hard so I can have all the pretty shiny things and travel to all the places that I want to go.

Suzie Price: Are you a big traveler?

Rene Critelli: I love to travel. Yeah.

Suzie Price: Favorite place so far?

Rene Critelli: So Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, is where me and my family go every year. That place has my heart for sure.

Suzie Price: So glad I asked you. My niece is getting married in Puerto Vallarta in February.

Rene Critelli: Oh, really?

Suzie Price: Yeah. So I'll be going for the first time, so that's great.

Rene Critelli: I hope you enjoy it. Yeah, I love the people there. The people are great.

Suzie Price: Oh that's fantastic. That's fantastic. So it's interesting how we can kind of we can have what you alluded to about things were slim at one point in your life. That can also be an influence on our motivators. When you said you scored a stronger than most people, we can kind of have a it's not an anti influence that makes it negative, but you can not have something and that becomes what becomes your driver. You know it's experience. We come in with these drivers or motivators and our life kind of helps shape them, you know as to what order they'll be in and the intensity. And I loved some of the when you talked about how you have your team, when you do team building or onboarding, have people look through their strengths, the combination of the style and the motivators. Some of the things that really stood out on yours in the assessment is sees the positive and resources. And you talked about, hey, we've used all your resources, you know. And so I wish everyone within HUB would say, oh, we've used those resources because I'm always concerned about people using it effectively. But so you see the positive in resources and you even talked about that leader in humanitarian issues. Well, that's your role. That's what you're doing in your free time. And you light up when you're talking about that. Uh, great, great at generating excitement. I'm all excited about what you do. Just having a conversation with entrepreneurial mindset decides based on saving time, resources, and efficiency and sees championing a worthy cause a challenge. Lots of good strengths there.

[00:51:22] Rene Critelli: Yeah, I think that all totally rings true. I'm a pretty self-reliant person. I'm not married, so I run my household and I'm the independent woman doing it on her own kind of thing. And I think, too, I always, you can guarantee I'm always going to find humor in everything I'm doing, maybe not even at appropriate times, but I can't help it.

Suzie Price: That's part of the high influencer style. When you score 96 on the I, you know.

Rene Critelli: It's just.

Suzie Price: Clever. You know, it could be said you're clever. On your LinkedIn profile you say sarcasm. What did you say something about love sarcasm, or bring sarcasm and movie quotes to you most likely.

Rene Critelli: Yeah, I speak in sarcasm and movie quotes is how I talk fluent in sarcasm, I guess.

Suzie Price: So who do you think has most influenced you?

[00:52:11] Rene Critelli: Well, I say at HUB, both Jack Patterson and Denise Metcalf have been really great advocates to help me learn and build my skills, and they've provided me with an environment that I've thrived in. Like I said earlier, there's never been a ceiling or saying, you can't do this. It's always been, you know, if you want to do this, I'll help you get there kind of thing. It's totally enlightening. I've not had that before in my past career experiences. So it's been an environment that I've really thrived in and I've enjoyed working. I've not had a time at HUB where I've felt so stressed out I couldn't handle it or and I've had that in past experience, you know, in my careers before. So I just really like it and I enjoy it and it's fun for me. It doesn't. It hasn't ever felt like a lot of work. It's just it's been great. So I think when you spend that much time at work and you're having fun, I feel so fortunate and grateful for that. And then in my personal life, of course, like I say, my mom, she's always been a great influence. She's a very giving and caring person. I think that's rubbed off on me, too. She's 87 years old and she does things for the elderly. She does things for the elderly that are in their 90s like. Yeah. So that's her love language is helping people. I think she is Mother Teresa though. She goes to daily mass and prays for all of us, so.

Suzie Price: Oh, that is wonderful. Wonderful. And I love what you shared about Jack Patterson and Denise Metcalf. Both of them I know on the periphery, but enough to know that they're really special people and good people. And I couldn't help but think about what you said about number one. Talk to your employees on a personal level. Well, they got to know you on a personal level and then helped you find job fit. And that's why I'm so passionate about all this stuff is, you know, look at the joy that you're having in the good life you're having because you're using who you are.

Rene Critelli: Yeah. I think it's been great that I've been able to find what I really love to do, and then I've been able to provide a value to HUB with what I love, because this wasn't a job before, you know, we created this. And so not only is it what I love to do, but I think it honestly is a great value to the company as well. So yeah, that's great.

Suzie Price: With them tuning into you. So if you're listening and you've not been asking your employees about who they are and what they want, what they care about, that's where it starts. That's fantastic. That's fantastic. Any special books that are important to you that you recommend, or that you're reading lately, or you've learned from that have helped you or programs. I think probably teaching management with managing with impact has been meaningful, I would guess.

Rene Critelli: Yeah, definitely. I've definitely gleaned a lot from that. I would like to say I took everything I know from my college education, but I honestly wish I could go back and do that again so that I could really actually learn something from that education. I would love to do that over again, but I'm constantly reading. I usually have at least six books going at one time. I think it's one of the the DISC styles compared with motivators, where it says they read one book at a time. Like I have no idea what that's like. I don't do one book at a time. So I always like personal development type of books. But, you know, I also read some fiction books as well, but I'm constantly reading. I love Brené Brown, Simon Sinek, Dan Pink, but I'm really always looking for any new books or recommendations from people. I just, I love to read and I love books.

Suzie Price: That's awesome. And you know, I looked at your assessment. Continuous learning was really strong. And so it's not your motivator. So seven days a week, according to the assessment, you wouldn't want to be in the kind of full professor mode, right?

Rene Critelli: Right. But you are doing, taking. So sometimes people get that confused. They think, well yeah, you're theoretical, which is one of the motivators for people who are listening, that it's about a drive to learn every day. You know, you want to spend your days doing that, but you are still learning. So it's not a measurement of some, you know, ability. It's about how you want to spend your time. And in your case, you still are doing this because it applies to it helps you get the efficiency that you want and the service to people.

Suzie Price: Makes sense to me. Yeah. Is there a particular book that stands out. I got the authors and I'll just put the link, I'll put the authors and some links to their websites on the notes page.

[00:56:40] Rene Critelli: Oh man I love all of Bernays books. Brené Brown is definitely my favorite. The Gifts of Imperfection is probably the one I think I've read that a few times. I just saw Dan Pink speak at a conference in May and he's a great speaker. I would look up anything of his on YouTube. He's a really entertaining, great speaker.

Suzie Price: Okay, I'll put those in the show notes. I'll put links to their website where I'll get our team to do that. And then the Gift of Imperfection for Brené Brown people just wanting a nudge of something that you would like. Okay. Awesome. When you think of the word successful, who's the first person that comes to mind?

Rene Critelli: I think Sarah Blakely, that's the inventor of Spanx.

Suzie Price: From Atlanta.

Rene Critelli: Oh, really? Yeah. So I think it's awesome that she became a billionaire. Maybe the world's youngest female self-made billionaire, because she had an idea and just believed in herself. She saw a need for it on a personal level, and it just came up with it. So, I mean Spanx is a household name like Kleenex now. So yeah, I think that's awesome.

Suzie Price: Yes, yes, they have great products.

Rene Critelli: Yeah yeah.

Suzie Price: Yeah. She's great. I've seen her around town and not like I know her at all. And I've seen people on her team. I've been in different places where, you know, different leaders of hers are there, and it's like Spanx, everybody loves spanx. Yeah, every woman loves Spanx. I don't know if men love Spanx.

Rene Critelli: Men are probably like, what? How is that a household name?

Suzie Price: It is very much so, trust me.

Suzie Price: Uh, yes. Um, okay, last few questions, and we'll let you get back to your busy, wonderful world. What advice would you give your 25 year old self?

[00:58:22] Rene Critelli: I would say to not worry so much about things that are outside of your control, but everything's going to work out in God's timing. So go to sleep. Quit worrying. I lost a lot of sleep when I was younger, just worrying about things I couldn't control. And it's like you have to let those things go. If there's something you can do about it, Do something about it. If not, you need to let it go.

Suzie Price: Yeah, let it go. And if you can put your attention on something you can control around it, which is the control might be I'm going to let it go. You know, that might help you control it. Yes. Very good. Wise advice. If you could put one billboard anywhere and you could use it to influence others, where would you put it and what would it say?

[00:59:07] Rene Critelli: So I was in New York City last week and stayed in Times Square. So I would put up a sign in Times Square to tell people to look up from their phones, but nobody would probably see it because they're all looking at their phones, because literally everybody was viewing life through their phones. It's everywhere, from concerts, went to a Yankees game, you see it at sporting events. Everybody is viewing everything with their phone. And I think we need to look up and take up those moments in real time to soak them in and actually be there in the moment. You're most likely not going to watch those videos on your phone again, but fireworks is another example. Just watch the fireworks. You don't need to record the fireworks.

That is true. I mean, like, really? Are you really going to go back?

Rene Critelli: They're beautiful. And I know you want other people to see it, but just enjoy it and soak it in.

Suzie Price: Yeah. Yeah. And so are you able to follow that you're not swept up into the 'I've got to share it on my Facebook feed' or anything?

Rene Critelli: I'm a lot better than I used to be. Yeah.

Suzie Price: There is something to be said about just enjoying the moment. I don't know if that's because I'm older now, but I'll find myself just like I'm in the moment. I'm a busy body, so I used to kind of be more. Um, but it does feel good. It's like, okay, you're just present.

Rene Critelli: Yeah, exactly.

Suzie Price: Yeah. Because that's really what you're going to remember. And like you said, you half the time you don't ever look back on the phone. Okay, everybody look up from your phone. That's your message today. One of your other messages from all the other wonderful messages from today. And we'll close with one bit of advice or wisdom that you'd like every leader or coach to take away from this discussion today.

[01:00:43] Rene Critelli: I would say, we said it before and I'll say it again, it's just prioritizing, getting to know your team outside of just emails. You know, just actually talking to them. Your biggest resources are your people and their potential engagement, productivity, profits. That's all going to rise when people feel valued. You know, everybody just wants to be heard and understood and feel like their voice matters. So prioritize getting to know your team.

Suzie Price: People before task, before strategy and rules. Yes. Amen. Yes. Thank you for sharing you today. Thank you for doing all the good work that you're doing, and for being a great representation of what a wake up, eager leader looks and feels like.

Rene Critelli: Thank you for having me.

[01:01:25] Suzie Price: So remember Rene's tips. Get to know your people. You're not going to make everyone happy, so just get comfortable with that. As you get to know people and you put positives in the piggy bank when they're not happy, you've got enough trust trusts that you can say, I heard you, but this is what we needed to do. Create the feedback culture. And she gave some good examples and tools and information that they use. And then have fun. And the really good point there is what is fun for your team. And it doesn't look like what it is for other teams. So all of that involves it's all people related information. So don't leave that out of the equation as you're trying to reach for your success as a leader, and you're trying to create employee success. And the tracker link to the show notes and everything that we share is at pricelessprofessional.com/employee success. During the discussion, Rene talked about how they're using side by side reports, and in the show notes, if you go to priceless professional.com/employeesuccess, you'll see a side by side agenda. We've updated it. So if you have the old version, we've got the 2024 version of an updated side by side report and an updated agenda. So, and if you're a current client and you have Trimetrix assessments with us, and you've never used the side by side report, give me a shout and I'll create one for you complimentary. They're relatively inexpensive anyway, but so so that you can see it. So reach out to me, Suzie@pricelessprofessional.com if you're currently using it, or if you have any questions or just want to see the example, go to the show notes. I liked when we talked about Rene's strengths. I'm really enjoying and I hope you're getting benefit of the wake up eager strengths section. I feel like it is a case study in each one where we get new insight. It's like you're being what both Rene and I get to do, which is see lots of assessments, and then you just learn so much from each one. And so you are able to understand your own results and other people's results and help them and use them for coaching. So first off, when we talked about Rene being extreme utilitarian, that means she scored two standard deviations above the rest of the population. So efficiency is the name of the game for Rene. And then she is passionate. That's also high. That's one standard deviation above how the rest of the population scores a social altruistic. And she talked about how her mom truly is Mother Teresa. So you get this mix of I want to get results and I want to serve people. And let me tell you, something sad that happened is we recorded this episode twice.

Suzie Price: First time we had a little technical snafu, and so I said, oh, we had, you know, the technical piece. It did not record and it wasn't really anybody's fault. It just something didn't work. And so I never had that happen, and I felt terrible, that it happened with Rene. One, because she's somebody I don't like to waste anybody's time, but when you score extreme utilitarian, you know, efficiency is the name of your game and it is not efficient to rerecord an episode. So kudos to Rene for being so gracious and immediately rerecording the next day or two after, and we had a great second discussion. I got to know her even better during that, and obviously some of her social altruistic goodness kicked in. Plus, of course, you know, when we think about motivators, they are what drive us. And then what also drives us is the other things that you don't see. So, for example, in our relationship, I've known Rene for a long time and I've not, as a habit, wasted her time. So maybe there was a little less tension around saying, okay, yeah, I'll rerecord. It's okay because of a lot of things. One, she intended to be on the episode two, we have a relationship, and three, maybe because she has a service orientation and wanted to provide this service.

Suzie Price: So I'm thankful to her for that, but just kind of wanted to tie it to Trimetrix. We talked a little bit about her skills. The 23 personal skills you Trimetrix is a tri modal tool. It measures three areas, and so all of her personal skills are really strong and they're far, meaning a lot of clarity, clear thinking. And that comes sometimes people naturally have it. Some people have naturally have learned to grow it by having taken Trimetrix and seen, well, you know, this area could be a little stronger. And you with awareness and readiness, focus on that. That's also the beauty of Trimetrix. And lastly, I wanted to mention about theoretical is not her top motivator. And a lot of times when we touched on this during the episode, people get that confused. It's one of her lower interests, so she's more instinctive day to day, in and out. She uses her instincts and she goes to learning and applies it, but doesn't necessarily have to get a degree in everything she learns. And yet she is a big learner. And so that's why we need to always keep in account all three sections of the assessment, because she scored really high in the personal skill. It's far above the rest of the population in the continuous learning. Is this the ability to take personal responsibility and action toward learning and implementing new ideas, methods and technologies. So she, you know, training for Trimetrix is not usually for the faint of heart. We've gotten better and better at teaching it. So it's a little less theory, and it's a lot more practicality than it was way back in 2015. But kudos to Rene for not being someone who's highly driven by being kind of the professor in the room, but taking Trimetrix and figuring out how to use it in a very practical and efficient way. And she's getting the ROI around it. And, you know, as it mentioned, her profile is she likes she makes productive use of resources. So you can just I just want to kind of understand the different parts of Trimetrix. The other things that we have in the show notes are, i'm not familiar with the survey that Rene uses, but I will mention it. I can't recommend it, but she definitely uses it, so she obviously recommends it. And it's a good one. It was called Tango was in the name, but I do want to give a link to our employee and opinion survey in 360 feedback. It also is customizable and you can see it by division and break it out by region and manager and get some granular, without ruining anonymity.

[01:07:47] Suzie Price: So check out the assessment that she recommended or discussed. You know that they use. And then also look at the link that we have. If I can ever help you with 360 feedback or opinion surveys. And we have links to hiring and coaching with Trimetrix in the show notes at pricelessprofessional.com/employeesuccess. So thank you for tuning in. Thank you, Rene for coming back and doing a take two with such grace. You are greatly appreciated. Be sure to subscribe to the Wake Up Eager Workforce podcast wherever you get your podcasts. If you leave us a review, we will send you a complimentary assessment. So let me know that you've done that. You can leave a review on Apple would be great. We'd love to know if you got something out of some of our episodes. Our directory for all our episodes is at WakeUpEagerWorkforce.com. And if I can ever help you with anything, reach out to me on LinkedIn. We're very active on LinkedIn. Connect there. But also you can email me at Susie@pricelessprofessional.com. Appreciate you. Look forward to we've got a good slate of cool episodes coming up, so check back in. We'll see you on the next go round. And the show notes again for today are pricelessprofessional.com/employeesuccess. Check it out there. Take care. Hope all is well.

[01:09:05] Intro/Outro: This episode of the Wake Up Eager Workforce podcast was brought to you by Priceless Professional Development. Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's show, head over to pricelessprofessional.com to gain access to more professional development resources.