Podcast Episode 107 Transcript: Self-Reliance in the Workplace: Eliminating the People Problems That Cost You Hours, Dollars, and Momentum

Learn how separating people from performance creates self-reliant teams with less drama, more trust, and higher productivity.

Introduction: Self-Reliance in the Workplace

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this episode of the Self-Reliant Team. My name is Shane Jacob, your host, and I thank you for taking your time to be here with me today.

Today, we're talking about a big talk. Today, we're talking about self. We're actually talking about self-reliance in the workplace, what it actually means, what it means for you as a leader, as a manager, or an employee.

I want to be specific. I want to be clear about what I mean when I talk about self-reliance in the workplace. Okay. Cause I'm not talking about people working alone. Okay. I'm not talking about isolation or people just off doing their own thing or being self-directed.

My definition is, is that it's people who can, who work effectively with others, okay, with less emotional management. Okay. And fewer people problems. That's what I'm talking about. You're able to work with less emotional management.

Most companies have so many people problems, it just bogs down everything. We have lots of… Well, the reason is, well, we're people. That'd be why. Human beings are complicated, and companies and organizations are nothing more than groups of people. so that's the way it is. It's gonna be that way.

And so how do you minimize that?

The Cost of People Problems in Organizations

And so here's the thing. Let me just tell you this. Okay. I have been for a long time, 30 plus years, trying to get horses and human beings to do what I want them to do. Okay. And failing a lot.

Now, why would you care? Why would you give a damn about what I've been doing? Here's why. Because over that period of time, I found some solutions. Okay. Some stuff that really works and how to implement it and make changes that are substantial, that's going to make a big difference. And so you don't have to spend all that time. You can condense it down to what I've got here right here for you right now.

So the people problems that we have because we're people, they just cost so much time and money and momentum and every single day. So it's because as leaders and managers, we are trained and we are focused on the work.

Here's the job. All right. You do. Here's the job. Let me explain it and make sure you understand the expectation. Now go get it done. And it's supposed to be that simple, but it's not. It's never that spent.

They don't do it. Why do you think they don't do it? They do it for a lot of reasons. Okay. You can, we're focused as leaders on the outcome, on the goals, on the output, on the results. And we're trying to push all this stuff forward, but it's a big push. Okay.

So why is it such a struggle? And the reason is, is because half of the job of being a leader or manager, people are the other half. It's not just what we need to accomplish. Knowing that is helpful. Like I said, people aren't simple. They don't just do what you tell them to do. People get hurt feelings. They get defensive. We have conflict. We gossip. We have just poor performance, don't do it for one reason or another. I don't know. We just had a bad day. I don't know why I didn't do it. I didn't understand the expectation. We're not working together. The managers are constantly stepping in trying to be the mediator for who's not getting along with who and who's mad at this and that and the other and all the gossip and backbiting and back channeling.

And I refuse to work with them, period. I mean, after what they did, that's it. I'm done. So, and on and on and on it goes.

And so our leaders and our managers just end up managing the responses to the ask or people problems instead of trying to get the results, you know, to manage the results. Instead of that's what they end up doing is managing people instead of results more than half the time.

Why People Really Come to Work

The thing about it is, is that if you look at go all the way down or the big zoom out or go to the core, however you want to frame it, look at why the reality of why we're there. I mean, what are we, what the hell are we doing at this place anyway? Why are we coming to work?

And the reason is everybody from the top to the bottom, from the owner to the, to the most recent employee is just there to improve their quality of life.

And part of that's through the, the renumeration, through the money. And part of that, little bit of it, according to me, a little bit of it, part of it is through how we feel. We feel significant. It's important to us.

Now there's going to be a percentage of people that really don't need the money and don't care about the money. But those people, that percentage people can say that, but the reality of it is people care about money and that's why they're there. Okay.

But people also do care about, there'll be a small percentage, barely, maybe, I don't even know, 1% that are just there, not for money. They can care less about the money because money's not a thing for them. That's not a lot of percentage in our world.

Most everybody there needs the money, but they also need, they need to feel significant. They need to feel a sense of belonging. They need to feel a sense of connection, and they need to sell it. Significance meaning, am I contributing something in this world? Am I making a difference in the world, and am I important, and does what I'm doing have meaning?

If work feels bad, if you're there for all this time each and every week and it feels bad when you're there, the relationships inside the work are going to feel bad if people feel judged or threatened. When people feel judged, you're not going to get good results. Just isn't going to happen.

Emotions, Leadership, and Control

Okay. We have these emotional needs that I just discussed, and they are that, they are needs. You're not, if the needs aren't being met, then people aren't going to be happy.

Now here's the problem. Okay. If you're the leader, let me tell you this, that what it comes down to is how people feel when they're at work. We all do everything based on what we feel.

Right now you're either listening to this or tuning out based on how you everything that we do is based on how we feel. And if you're a leader and you know that people are performing, performing based on how they feel, well, how in the hell exactly are you going to control how people feel?

Because guess what? I've tried it. It's not happening. People are absolutely in complete control of how they feel, whether they like to blame it. A lot of times we like to take the emotional irresponsibility and blame how we feel on somebody else, but hey, we're the ones. That's just the way it is, and if you want to be on the other side of it trying to get people to feel a certain way, it doesn't always work well.

And by the way, most people don't like to feel controlled either, so yeah, try that one on. Doesn’t work well.

What Self-Reliance Really Means

So, what to do? So the question is, what the hell are going to do? When your progress depends on something you can't control, how's that going to roll for you? How's it working out right now?

Again, self-reliance means people, a person's ability to work with others effectively with less emotional management from their leaders and managers. So what I'm talking about is less defensiveness, less drama, less need for intervention, more ownership, more cooperation, more productivity.

And when people are more self-reliant, the leaders don't have to spend as much time managing all the people issues, and they can spend more time on the work, so productivity goes up. Progress, efficiency, performance goes up because we're not stuck in the mire dealing with sorting out all the people issues and HR and all the conflict and all this people drama and all that.

Creating the Right Workplace Environment

So what can we do? And here's the answer of what we can do. As leaders, we can do a couple of things. We can provide the environment where people can work together effectively.

What does that mean? How are going to create an environment, What that means is set the rules of how we do things here and set them clearly.

Culture is not a feeling. It's not like it, you can explain culture. People need to feel good in the culture. That's the goal, right? But culture is how you operate, okay? Culture isn't a feeling, although we want the culture that we have to feel good. If that makes sense, I hope it does if you're with me.

Zero Tolerance for Disrespect Without Repair

So what I'm talking about of creating is an environment where we have, for example, here's one of our rules of how we do things.

In my company and the companies that I talk to and what I recommend is that we have a zero tolerance policy for disrespect without repair.

So what exactly does that mean? That means that we want to have a zero tolerance policy for any disrespect or disregard of anybody at any time, but we know that that's not reality because we're human beings, you know, so there's that.

So there's going to be some disrespect or we're going to judge somebody at one time or another, hurt somebody's feelings, but we have a zero tolerance policy for disrespect without repair.

And that means a written apology. Okay. A written apology within two days and an in-person apology.

Maintaining Respect and Accountability in the Workplace

Also, in addition, where possible, where possible, meaning if you work in the same town or in the same building, if you're too far away, than a written apology suffices.

And the second part is no repeated violations in 30 days, not to the same person, but period ever.

The way we roll here is we always hold everybody in perfect high regard and with ultimate respect at all times. That's the way we do it. And we've established this, that we're all on an equal, that we're all equal. Period.

We know that we're going to make mistakes. We all are good with that. We know that that doesn't affect our value. And we know that we always hold everybody in perfect regard to the best of our ability and always give people perfect respect to the best of our ability.

And when we don't, we must repair almost immediately and then not repeat. We must repair and not repeat.

So that's the environment, okay? Because you're not going to, we're not going to totally eliminate all the problems, but we can control how they're handled.

How Leaders Show Up Shapes Everything

Now, the second thing that we can now, so we basically, we've created the environment. We've went to our people and said, here's how we roll and here's what we're going to do. It's a little bit more complicated than that, but we're creating a space where people can feel safe.

Okay. The next thing is, is how we show up as leaders.

Okay. What we do and how we show up has more impact on how people behave, on how employees do their job, than anything else, than all that we know about leadership and management.

You hearing me there? Okay.

Okay. The way that we show up as leaders and managers has more impact on the results that we get from our employees than everything we know about leadership and management. Think about that.

Okay. So the way that we're showing up in the world makes all the difference.

Self-Respect and Modeling High Regard

Okay, so my standard is, is that I begin with myself.

When we talk about treating everybody with full value, with ultimate regard, with the best respect at all times, with non-judgment about your personal self, your value is separate, we hold you in high regard at all times. And by the way, equally, all equal here.

I want to acknowledge to you that I not only make mistakes, like you, that I sometimes don't perform well, and sometimes I just don't get it done on purpose. Sometimes it's a lack of communication, it's an unclear expectation, it's all the same things that happen to you happen to me, and we're all equal here.

We don't judge the person, we judge the work.

Now when I believe that about me, when I practice perfect and when I have high regard for myself, when I love myself as close to unconditional as possible, I hold my, I have self-respect for myself, okay, and I don't judge myself, people see that, okay?

When I judge my own work and I protect my own person, the same is way I do with the rest of you, okay?

And when people see that it makes a difference and that impacts how that they they interact in these relationships at work with you and with each other.

Separating the Person from the Work

When people know that their value is not on the line, okay, when we have separated, when we've created the environment where you believe that I'm not going to judge you based on your work, your work is important, and by damn we're going to we are going to take a close look at that because it has it. We're going to judge the work. Of course we are. That's why we're here.

The work has to be as good as it can so that we can meet the goal of increasing our quality of life. And that's why we're showing up, all of us.

So we're going to take a look at the work, but you're willing to look at the work without all the people problems that come with it. When you feel like you're being judged, when you feel like you're being devalued, when you feel like you're being called deficiency, when you feel like it has something to do with you rather than doing what you did. Okay. So we separate what people do with who they are.

What you do is one thing and people are a mess and what they do, we just need to work on what we do over here. That's what we focus on.

We always hold you in perfect regard.

Building Trust and Driving Performance

What happens when people buy into that, buy in meaning when people begin to believe that that's the way that we roll here and they start to believe that when I model it and they see it and I treat people with respect at all times.

And when I don't, I repair with a written apology within immediately almost and then I we always work that way and when I Flat say that we're on equal playing ground here and nobody is more valuable than anybody else and that's the way I'm not just saying it, that's the way that we do things.

Okay, and I preface my comments with this isn't about you. I hold you I have perfect I have high respect for you we're gonna put you there and we're just now we just want to focus on the work.

When people believe that what happens is the trust goes up. The trust in the relationship shoots up. It doesn't take very long.

When the trust shoots up, performance, productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, whatever you want to call it, oh by the way, profitability shoots, goes up. Okay. And that's, that's what this is about.

Real Results from The Worth Work System

You know, when I first implemented The Worth Works System, and that's what I'm talking about, which is creates more self-reliant people in the workplace.

When I first implemented The Worth Work System at my own company, Jacob Livestock here, our hay delivery company in, in Las Vegas, you know what happened within just, well, almost immediately, but within a few days, everything had a different feel to it. Okay. It felt lighter. And by the way, people smile more. People smile more.

The interactions between people changed. They were more pleasant. Okay, and you could you could feel the trust going up.

Okay. Now I want to let I want to say one thing just to be clear. This isn't a one-time fix. You're not going to go implement a system and everything's going to be done.

This is an ongoing pursuit. This is a an ideal that we move towards but the the the the results are have been for me and for the companies that work with my system, incredible and fast.

So, and I've seen it over and over again in different companies, not just my own.

A Real Example: Handling Conflict Without Judgment

So let me just give you one example.

So at one point shortly after we had implemented The Work Worth System, judge the work, protect the person at my company.

I had to have a difficult conversation with my office manager. Okay. And let me just tell you something. I was not happy. I was upset. I was trying to control my, my voice and what I was saying and be aware because I was angry.

Okay. The work was not, not acceptable period. Flat ass, not acceptable. We don't do stuff like that. It was a big deal.

I was not happy and I was direct, I was critical. And then I said to myself, am I just judging? I want to make sure I'm just judging the work.

So I finished my, you know, here's what we need to have happen and this and that and the other. And I finished what I had to say about this conversation. And I said, okay. Now, Miss Office Manager, I didn't say Miss Office Manager, I said so, and then her name I said, “I want you to know," and she interrupted me.

Before I could even say it, you know what she said? She said, “I know this isn't about me.”

Okay. You know what that meant? That meant the fact that the work was unacceptable, she was, could be, that the trust was high is what it meant foundationally, that she had enough trust after a short period of time that she knew that I was not devaluing her, that I was not judging her person, her individual self.

I was only focused on the work, and thank goodness I was because I'm a human being who's judged plenty of people for most of my life.

Staying Focused on the Work, Not the Person

Okay, but in that moment, even though I was angry, which I'm not suggesting being angry is a good idea, I strictly focused on the work, and she was able to objectively look at the work, see the problem and know that it wasn't about her. That was a moment.

I still went and finished my thing and said, you this means a lot to me. I just, you know, I wrote back and reinforced that even though she said that she knew that this wasn't about her, I went back and reinforced and tried to validate her, that she was right, that this was not about her.

So that to maintain this trust that had been created, but you know, she didn't take it personally.

Okay, she stayed focused on the work.

And that one moment is, it's pretty much the way we roll here. And pretty much the way that, not pretty much, it's the way that the companies that implement The Worth Work System do things.

Okay, and it matters, it matters. I mean, could you imagine the other, before what it looked like? plenty of before used to happen.

The Result: Less Defensiveness, More Action

Okay. And that didn't get a good result. She went in and fixed problems. She probably won't go back doing it again.

Okay. But she was able to object, didn't get defensive, didn't start making up a bunch of excuses, didn't tune out and check out and leave mentally and all that.

How Employees Can Apply the Worth Work System

So, I want to say something about if you're not the leader. Let's just say you just got hired. You're just the beginning in your career and you're the employee in this situation.

Here's the thing. You can still operate The Worth Work System.

The key behavior is to separate your value from the work. To know that what you're doing is not who you are. It doesn't mean anything. It has no bearing or influence on your values as a soul, as a human being, as a person. It has nothing to do with that.

People do all kinds of stuff and you're a person, so you're gonna do some stuff, okay, that's gonna be great, it's gonna be amazing, it's gonna be spectacular. I mean, you're gonna surprise your own damn self, I can't believe you did that.

And you can't either, and you're gonna do some stuff on the other end of the spectrum, okay. That you, oh it was just a mistake, or you didn't get to understand, it was a communication breakdown, and this and that, and you're also gonna do stuff that was wrong on purpose.

That's right. You just didn't do it. Okay? Just made a bad decision.

And that has to be okay in your own mind. Not that it was a good idea to do it. Not that okay. That you're okay even though, okay? You're okay even though what you did, you wish you wouldn't have done.

And when you're able to separate that, you do less of those things that you, on purpose, that are wrong, okay, that you know that are wrong, they're going against your value system, okay.

You can take feedback. If you're the employee, you're open, you're not getting offensive and making up a bunch of excuses.

You can look at the work like my office manager said, say, “You bet, you, I got this for you, Shane, no problem. I can take care of that.” Okay?

Because you don't get defensive about what needs to change. You can adjust faster than everybody else and you people will recognize that you will become leadership material like that.

Growth and Opportunity for Self-Reliant Employees

Or, if they're not providing you the environment for you to grow, you're just going to leave and go somebody else because you're on your way to the top in a hurry if you have that mindset as an employee, just whatever stage of the game that you're in.

Final Recap: What Self-Reliance Really Means

Let me give a quick recap. Self-reliance does not mean anything about independence. It's interdependence. It's being able to work together with people effectively with less conflict and with less emotional management. So less people drama. Okay, less people problems. You don't have to have constant somebody, you know, babysitting basically is what it comes down to, so you're gonna have less conflict, less defensiveness, and therefore less wasted time where you can be moving the work forward, which guess what? Just so happens to get more in the end of why you're showing up, which is to improve your quality of life.

And if the company is successful, you're more likely to get more improvement of the quality of life of what you're coming for. Okay. You're to have more trust, more accountability, and more work getting done.

Call to Action: Build a Self-Reliant Team

Now, if you want a self-reliant team, a team that requires less management and contributes more, I have a free weekly video called the Self-Reliant Team, and you can sign up and get your free weekly video at shanejacob.com.

I also, if you didn't know, speak and train organizations, companies, corporations on this work to transform and fundamentally change the way that people think and the way that leaders think when we make this fundamental shift of the separation of work and behavior, magic happens.

And by the way, magic happens to the bottom line. And so that's why I get paid to speak and train on this. You can find out more at shanejacob.com.

Closing Message

Remember my friends, thank you for being with me. Remember your value is non-negotiable.

‍

How to Build a Self-Reliant Team That Requires Less Management

Most organizations struggle with performance not because of strategy or talent, but because leaders are forced to manage constant people problems. When employees become defensive, disengaged, or reactive, productivity slows and trust breaks down. The Worth Work System teaches leaders how to separate a person’s value from their work, creating an environment where feedback is accepted, conflict is reduced, and teams operate with greater ownership and efficiency. This approach helps build self-reliant teams that require less oversight while delivering stronger, more consistent results.