Traci Scherck: Welcome to talent optimization with Tracy Scherck today we are talking about how do you create your dream team and, specifically, how do you design them.

Traci Scherck: And so, with me today I have janine woynerr and janine is with black Hawk bank.

Traci Scherck: And she’s going to share with us a little bit about her journey with predictive index, and specifically how she has gone through some of the trials and tribulations of creating some really strong.

Traci Scherck: dream teams inside of the Bank so welcome, thank you very much i’m happy to be here, oh i’m thrilled you’re here.

Traci Scherck: So how do you define a dream team.

Traci Scherck: Well, when I think of a dream team I think of employees that need to work together and they need to be engaged, while they’re working, but that can be tricky right because.

Traci Scherck: Most teams are made up of people that are very different, they have different skill sets they have different backgrounds, they have different needs and.

Traci Scherck: Sometimes there can be conflict, so what you want to do is you want to create a team of people where you’re going to be picking people to be on that team, using the strengths their individual strengths, that they do have an order to make that better and strong that.

Traci Scherck: Great so what i’m hearing you say is you want to use individual strengths, but then we also know that when we put a team together that that team is stronger than any individual contributor absolutely.

Traci Scherck: yeah, how do you create that dream team, so that it’s actually executing on what the organization needs to execute on.

Traci Scherck: Well there’s there’s a few steps that I take the first thing I do is I will talk to the leader of that team.

Traci Scherck: And i’ll find out what their strategic vision is for the team of find out what their specific goals are for the team that’s a great place to start.

Traci Scherck: And then the next step is then you have to look at the current members of the team, and I do kind of a gap analysis I will use the PI tool.

Traci Scherck: and actually there’s a specific tool with pi that i’d love to use and it’s the team discovery tool.

Traci Scherck: Because it breaks there’s a circle and it breaks out to the people that you put into your team.

Traci Scherck: And it lets you know where their strengths are right, if you don’t focus on weaknesses, at this point we really don’t care about weakness it’s more about the strength.

Traci Scherck: And you want to make sure that there’s quadrants in the circle and you want to make sure that there’s good balance in that team, so that you have all those quadrants representative.

Traci Scherck: So that’s The next step, and then you go out and you search for people and, of course, you know, a black cock we do use the PI.

Traci Scherck: For hiring so i’m going to be able to anybody that is area with us is asked to take API.

Traci Scherck: Right and that’s how we get the basic knowledge about them and what their needs and behaviors are and what their work personalities, going to be like, and then we can see if they fit into that team.

Traci Scherck: And that’s really the very simplistic view of that process right so that makes a lot of sense, so what i’m hearing you saying is you’re essentially looking at and saying okay.

Traci Scherck: This team needs to execute xyz strategy, and then we make sure we have the right people in that team based on that specific strategy that we’re looking to execute.

Traci Scherck: And one of the things that you know you had just talked about is hey there’s these different quadrants and then within those different quadrants you’re looking at do we have the things there, so I thought I would just name what the different quadrants are.

Traci Scherck: So the first quadrant is innovation and agility and that’s essentially.

Traci Scherck: That individual that’s going to co kind of create the pathway they’re going to create the new product right and there, there are a lot of times or you’re out of the box thinkers yes and and really into that innovation and new ideas yeah absolutely.

Traci Scherck: And then you’ve got your results and discipline folks.

Traci Scherck: they’re your drivers they sure are and then you’ve got your process and precision people your detail people everything’s got to be done the right way rules have to be followed and yep those are those people.

Traci Scherck: And then we have our teamwork, and our employee experience folks those are warm fuzzy people I love warm fuzzy.

Traci Scherck: know I know every team has to have one they do, they do, and I think what’s so interesting with this when we look at it from this perspective.

Traci Scherck: is all right, based on the strategy that we need to implement, we need certain individuals within these and there’s times, where I think when you’re designing dream teams you’ve got that outlier.

Traci Scherck: doesn’t really fit what you do with them well sometimes you move them to a different team.

Traci Scherck: Sometimes you just work on them, so you can you can coach and you can mentor and try and improve some of those skills, but.

Traci Scherck: The one thing that i’ve learned through PI, I always tell my employees that you know their their pi’s are all beautiful because it’s who they are.

Traci Scherck: i’m not trying to change somebody right, but you can change tasks within your team.

Traci Scherck: That can speak to what that individual are outlier where their strengths are you a you can just change some of the tests and it really helps create.

Traci Scherck: Just a better working environment for everybody yeah.

Traci Scherck: And I think with that, so we have to be self aware right so based on what what is the task that needs to be executed, we need to be self aware and sometimes we need to.

Traci Scherck: You know shift into that and I think that’s one of the beauties as we can see where do we need to shift based on a strategy that’s being executed.

Traci Scherck: The other thing that I see so often and i’m guessing you see this too is that individual that’s the outlier many times I find them as the balance or, for that team, but you’re right.

Traci Scherck: you’re absolutely right right, so you could have a team that’s all results and discipline and they’re super test focus, but if you didn’t have that like teamwork and employee experience person to kind of pull them all together, they would never know.

Traci Scherck: What anyone is doing outside of the office with WHO their kids are where they like to go on vacation because they’re so focused on the task absolutely absolutely and that’s you know when I do i’ve had teams like that and.

Traci Scherck: Very task driven people and then you’ve got my warm and fuzzy person and the test driven people will all tell you warm and fuzzy is my favorite person than Monday night.

Traci Scherck: bringing them all together air they truly care and it’s not that results in discipline folks don’t care at all right it’s just they’re driven.

Traci Scherck: in a different way, yes, absolutely.

Traci Scherck: And I think that there’s different teams, where you need lots more warm and fuzzy right or you need more results and discipline, or you need more individuals that are those innovation folks and that’s where hey where are we, what is our strategy.

Traci Scherck: And how does our team fit that that’s where the fun comes in, of creating that dream team, it does and in a lot of times it helps to you can have a team that’s just not functioning well because there’s.

Traci Scherck: animosity within the team and a lot of times you know by using the discovery tool, it does the team discovery tool, it helps you.

Traci Scherck: It helps you sometimes realign things so that you can make the team, more cohesive they’ll enjoy working together more they’ll be more efficient in their outcomes will be better yeah absolutely and have job, a story or a time where you’ve done what.

Traci Scherck: I do, I have a story it’s about our commercial banking team so we’re BlackHawk bank so we’re bank or Community bank so.

Traci Scherck: We have a very strong culture in the bank and our clients are actually part of our culture, so one of our favorite sayings is.

Traci Scherck: You know, we want to have a relationship for life, we want to be your bank for life so it’s not about just you know getting a deal done signing the paperwork.

Traci Scherck: pay your bill on time and everybody walks away happy it doesn’t work that way for us, we want a relationship with you.

Traci Scherck: So our commercial bankers it used to be just a big team so let’s say 16 commercial bankers.

Traci Scherck: And they were all pretty much housed in the same office and near each other and they got together once a week for meetings.

Traci Scherck: But there was a lot of competition in that team, there was a lot of infighting so when you think about commercial bankers they’re a lot like sales people and that’s a very typical type of personality.

Traci Scherck: For a salesperson right is to be very individually driven and a good salesperson is is driven and to get the sale and to get it done.

Traci Scherck: And I found that that’s what was happening there was so much competition everybody wanted to be number one on the list and have the most loans closed or the best loans closed.

Traci Scherck: That they were forgetting about our banks mission and our vision and our banks culture about doing what’s best for the client and making them a client for life.

Traci Scherck: So they weren’t focusing on the relationships which is number one priority for commercial bankers, they were just trying to get the deals done so, we came up with an idea of taking a big commercial banking group and breaking it up into smaller groups, so we started by.

Traci Scherck: Looking at everybody’s individual PI using the the team discovery tool to find out who would make you know a good team, because you wanted a warm and fuzzy person and they’re using.

Traci Scherck: You know the teamwork person who’s gonna really make the client feel welcome and happy and heard and valued and then you wanted.

Traci Scherck: The results in discipline person that was going to kind of drive the sale to the finish line.

Traci Scherck: And then you wanted the innovation and agility person, because not every deal is easy, some of them are complicated.

Traci Scherck: And so you need that person that’s willing to think outside the box and then of course you needed the process person who’s going to make sure that all paperwork is done right and.

Traci Scherck: You know, when you come in and get audited the fdic is going to be happy with all your paperwork, so we put together for teams like that, and they all got different names we named one person, a leader.

Traci Scherck: Again, through the API we determine who would make the best later and here’s the best part so when they were the big commercial team they had individual bonus goals, so they had a salary structure, plus a bonus.

Traci Scherck: well.

Traci Scherck: When we went to the pilot system, we made a big healthy portion of their bonus based on how well their individual pod was doing, not just on their individual right.

Traci Scherck: So it really made them focus on their team and supporting one another and using each individual person’s strengths to make that team better.

Traci Scherck: We didn’t care about their weaknesses and here’s the other great thing there’s two great things that came out of it, one is we saw that.

Traci Scherck: The weaknesses I hate to talk about weaknesses, but we saw them slowly to climb, because when they’re working with a group of subject matter experts, if you will, in this group.

Traci Scherck: They were turning some of those weaknesses around they were writing every day, every month, they were learning more and more so, they were increasing their skill.

Traci Scherck: on those areas that they weren’t as strong So you see the team over time just getting stronger and stronger and feeding off of each other strengths, we also saw bonuses go way up.

Traci Scherck: Because they weren’t competing against individuals anymore there wasn’t infighting there wasn’t you know.

Traci Scherck: Sometimes I would even say bowing to each other yeah but there was teamwork and support and wanting the team succeed, and so we saw those two things happen, and it was amazing.

Traci Scherck: And it’s done so well that you know we’ve actually been able to add a fifth team now.

Traci Scherck: So it’s really, really working for us so that’s one great example Thank you so much for sharing that isn’t this fun from both an executive lens and an HR lens when you can look at it and say.

Traci Scherck: Our bonuses have gone beyond what our budget of plan is because our sales have absolutely so fantastic good problem to have it sure, is it sure is.

Traci Scherck: And I love how, when you created that team you’re specifically looking at what is the strategy that we need to implement, and you know what we’re not going to focus on weaknesses.

Traci Scherck: But we’re going to be that strength based organization we’re going to coach based on those strengths, because.

Traci Scherck: When we don’t have that that like grind that I got to do all these things, and you know what this is something that she loves to do, he needs, you want to do this thing you’re like yes, I love that and you’re like oh.

Traci Scherck: Good I hated that they know I can go focus on the thing I love that you hate, it was way and that’s what we saw happen, it was it was a really good transformation oh that’s fantastic.

Traci Scherck: And so, in a way you’ve kind of talked a little bit about this,

Traci Scherck: So do you do a gap analysis with staff and your organization to ensure that they are in the right fit for the right role and on the right team.

Traci Scherck: yeah so i’ve been with the organization about four and a half years and that’s something that i’ve started working on in the last year.

Traci Scherck: Is we’ve been because we’ve been growing at this exponential rate we’ve had to do a lot of restructuring, just because the old way the old departments than work, we had to create new departments and.

Traci Scherck: So you’re not always sure who’s going to fit in a new department or once you restructure and department.

Traci Scherck: Is it going to work so we’ve been working on that slowly department by department, looking at the gap analysis to make sure the teams are working.

Traci Scherck: And we’ve done some transfers we’ve transferred some people from one department to the other.

Traci Scherck: it’s very important to us that we retain our talent so we’re not looking to say Okay, if your strength does not work in this department.

Traci Scherck: It would work in this department, we much rather do that we don’t want to say you know you’re out the door it’s not that we are what we’re about.

Traci Scherck: So we’ve done a lot of that we I do hate to say it we’ve had a couple demotions than we’ve done we have people in leadership roles.

Traci Scherck: That really shouldn’t have been in leadership roles right now we’ve done it very respectfully.

Traci Scherck: And with generally no loss and income it’s really just a different world they have signed a question about that, yes, so when you did that movement, based on what their strengths are or they actually more engaged after the move.

Traci Scherck: not initially right there is it’s the opposite what’s the opposite of a honeymoon period right.

Traci Scherck: I don’t know what the word is but there’s about a mourning period right okay right it’s a more up area.

Traci Scherck: or about three months, I noticed and there’s a lot of coaching and mentoring and talking and positive feedback.

Traci Scherck: And just positive affirmation to that employee of why the move was made or why the change was made and so they’re not taking it personally they’re not internalizing that you want them to talk about your feelings, but after that mourning period was over, they just absolutely blossomed.

Traci Scherck: Both the cases that i’m thinking of in my mind, they absolutely blossom and they are so happy in their their new roles and.

Traci Scherck: I promised them, they would be so it makes me as a leader feels good that I was able.

Traci Scherck: To you know live up to the promise that I made them that they would ultimately be much happier, and they both are.

Traci Scherck: that’s fantastic that’s fantastic it’s painful though in the beginning, it is yeah it is, I think anyone listening in from an HR or executive standpoint knows that those dimensions are terminations are like the worst days ever.

Traci Scherck: Fantastic so it’s so good to hear how you’re utilizing that that gap analysis, you know and because every time we bring people into an organization there’s a cleanup period.

Traci Scherck: And I don’t mean that in a negative way it’s just Okay, we have this easy button now in this tool that’s really helping us see.

Traci Scherck: Individuals in ways we don’t have to wait years to do that, you know and we’ve got this beautiful match score that will tell us, based on the roles oh my gosh.

Traci Scherck: You know this person may be a great fit for this role and you’re like I never thought about that and then neither debate right.

Traci Scherck: You know another great way to use it is when I first came in and came into blackhawk there were some departments that had they weren’t exactly getting along.

Traci Scherck: So the PI, is a great tool I would do kind of like afternoon session where i’d get all the members of the team together.

Traci Scherck: And we would go through each other’s PIs and we wouldn’t talk about it, and we would kind of.

Traci Scherck: lay ourselves out on the table to show each other, who we were so that we could we could show each other what our needs were how you know Tracy this is how janine needs to hear things right.

Traci Scherck: And you don’t always deliver it that way, so when you’re talking to janine Maybe you can deliver it this way.

Traci Scherck: Right when you’re talking to susie you can just deliver it any way you want as susie it just rolls off your shoulder.

Traci Scherck: janine is a little more sensitive in this area so it’s about learning how to communicate with each other how they need to be communicated to.

Traci Scherck: And so that was another great way that we utilize the tool and it did help several teams work out some.

Traci Scherck: dilemmas that they had and just learn who each other were other than who their kids or and what their dog’s name was and it went a little Deeper.

Traci Scherck: Yeah absolutely and again, for you know who their kids are on their dogs names are teamwork and employee experience folks are going to do that, naturally, but you know our process and precision folks are not right.

Traci Scherck: And I think another thing that’s really fun, when we look at this is, you know when we create those dream teams.

Traci Scherck: If i’m bringing someone on that is a it’s a process and precision person and i’m an innovation and Julian person, which by the way, I am.

Traci Scherck: You know so i’m this innovation and agility person, but I know that I fall down on you know processes and details, and so I need someone on my team to ensure that that happens, that also means that there’s probably going to be some friction at first.

Traci Scherck: Because we communicate very differently so I mean I will pull out, you know.

Traci Scherck: My management strategy guide before I sit down, and we do it every three months, just to say how are things going, you know and more often if needed.

Traci Scherck: But he how am I doing on these areas with how you need to be communicated with.

Traci Scherck: And it completely changes the relationship, you know almost like that it’s just one of those things that.

Traci Scherck: is really fun in creating those dream teams, because they still need a little bit of maintenance, you know you’re absolutely right, and in my department, specifically, we still do an annual evaluation, but I do a quarterly.

Traci Scherck: Sit down with each of my team members, and those are the exact questions that I ask now, am I doing right how am I helping you be more successful.

Traci Scherck: Am I putting up any roadblocks for you, am I communicating the way you need me to communicate and I try and create this environment where they feel free.

Traci Scherck: To talk to me about it and not you know a lot of times, if your boss says something like that to you’re like I don’t want to be honest.

Traci Scherck: But over time it, they will trust you yeah you have to you have to do it gradually and slowly, but you as long as you establish trust.

Traci Scherck: Then you have this great relationship where you can have that given cake absolutely and that gets into that self awareness as well.

Traci Scherck: hey did you realize like you know what we’re talking about this on the back of your T shirt you really need to like be self-aware have to step into.

Traci Scherck: And I think you talked about self awareness now, we also have weekly meetings as a team and I noticed that sometimes if I say something I can actually.

Traci Scherck: So I have three TEAM members, and I can look at one of my team members face and realize Okay, they didn’t they just didn’t like what I said.

Traci Scherck: And I can think for a few seconds, what did I just say and how did that hurt that person or you know just by body language you actually over time you become more self aware.

Traci Scherck: The deeper you get to know your co workers your employees of your supervisor you do you just naturally become more self aware.

Traci Scherck: Thank you so much for this conversation and how we’re creating dream teams because it’s really the strategy to you know what’s the strategy that the team is going to execute on all right who do we already have, where do we need to shuffle the deck a bit to develop.

Traci Scherck: And really implement that strategy and we’re doing a distraction be self aware to do that.

Traci Scherck: So you know i’m super curious, because we always close our podcast with you know what’s one key takeaway for each our HR listeners, based on what we’ve talked about today.

Traci Scherck: Well um, I guess, one of the key takeaways that I think everybody should have is, you know that you hire people for their experience.

Traci Scherck: And their skills, but don’t forget about their needs don’t forget about what they need, as an individual to feel happy at work to feel fulfilled to.

Traci Scherck: Just look forward to coming into work every day so just remember that that’s really important and every but everybody has different needs yeah No two people are saying

Traci Scherck: no they’re not and we have to you know kind of create different pathways for them within that.

Traci Scherck: And so, how you know what’s one actionable takeaway for executives listening in today.

Traci Scherck: it’s kind of the same message yeah, it is the same message you know you again.

Traci Scherck: Make sure you’re talking make sure your people underneath you understand what your vision is what your strategic goals are make sure you’re doing a really good job communicating that.

Traci Scherck: and make sure they’re aligning their department or their team’s goals and vision to what the CEO or the President to what their vision is.

Traci Scherck: And then figure out how to get there together yeah don’t forget about those needs, those individual needs but everybody has.

Traci Scherck: That such great you know so essentially what I hear you saying is you’ve got to create a people strategy.

Traci Scherck: That is that bridge between the business strategy and the business results and that people strategy may be owned by HR but it’s really everyone on the leadership team that’s responsible for it, yes, absolutely.

Traci Scherck: I love it I love it, you know you mentioned earlier, a little bit about the culture at blackhawk bank and one of the things so i’ve been.

Traci Scherck: You know, a client of black Hawk bank and we actually switched from another bank because of that philosophy that you have.

Traci Scherck: And one of the things that I absolutely love, is how you’ve built that all throughout every single you know department head and lead, I know, when I first switched to black Hawk.

Traci Scherck: Your Director of marketing stephenie Meyer actually took two hours to walk through a marketing in a digital you know marketing plan with me and how to like what’s seo and how do I use it and.

Traci Scherck: I leverage what seo is so yeah so we have this philosophy, where you know when I talk about relationships and being your bank for life.

Traci Scherck: it’s not just about opening up an account or giving you alone it’s about making you as a business owner as successful as you can be.

Traci Scherck: So we’re doing something that, to my knowledge there’s no other Community banks doing, but we were we want to give you all the tools necessary to be successful.

Traci Scherck: So if you’re a small company and you don’t have an HR person you maybe have an office manager or somebody in the office who’s kind of performing those functions, but then, all of a sudden, you get faced with a tough issue.

Traci Scherck: And it happens every business owner goes through it with an employee something will happen, and you just don’t know what to do, and you go online and you Google it and there’s.

Traci Scherck: three different opinions well if your client of black Hawk bank you get me right, you get to call me up and I have over 20 years of experience i’m SP HR so I have a certification in hr.

Traci Scherck: And I can help you work through those problems and if I can’t solve it for you, I can get you the person that will solve you sometimes they’re bigger problems where you may need an attorney.

Traci Scherck: I have lots of peers in the Community, that I that are willing to help you and get you what you need but, for the most part, I can help you and it costs you nothing.

Traci Scherck: And all you have to do is send me an email or pick up the phone marketing does the same thing if you’re having a cash flow issue or you’re having.

Traci Scherck: A balance sheet issue you can talk to her chief credit officer, you can talk to our CFO and we come out and we can work out a strategy with you on how to improve things.

Traci Scherck: cost you nothing because we’re invested in your success, so the more successful you are.

Traci Scherck: The happier, we are and let’s be honest banks are in business to make money too right, so if you’re successful we’re successful right absolutely.

Traci Scherck: And that goes right back to we’re going to create this dream team and, at the core of that is what the culture is and we.

Traci Scherck: So often call that you know the heart right, because that is what is the individual’s personal values and does that align with the organizational values, you know when we’re hiring.

Traci Scherck: And guess what that doesn’t even need to have that person on your team that’s typically the teamwork quadrant right.

Traci Scherck: That will be able to go and do that because if you’re all results discipline they’re not going to want to spend extra time because that that doesn’t mean that they’re getting that additional sales so, and you know i’ll tell you something my President.

Traci Scherck: The bank often says he he says that he can teach anybody to do anything in the bank yeah but he can’t teach an employee how to care right.

Traci Scherck: that’s something you have, or you don’t and that’s a great way the PI, is a great tool to show us who’s coming in with that natural talent of actually caring about people.

Traci Scherck: Right Thank you so much for being with us today, and if you are looking to learn a little bit more about to me in the black Hawk bank her linkedin profile is in the show notes, along with.

Traci Scherck: The website link for black Hawk bank, and you know if you’re sitting here listening and going man Tracy I would love to have a one on one talent strategy session with you and I want to know what my P is.

Traci Scherck: We have links in the show notes for both of those so you can take your predictive index behavioral assessment learn about you you’re going to get your results immediately that takes about five minutes.

Traci Scherck: And then, if you’re interested in hey I want to know what what does our team look like there’s information on that as well, so janine Thank you so much for being with us today, thank you, having a great day.