How to Create a Productive Team That Actually Gets Results

On this week’s episode of The Leadership Habit Podcast, Jenn DeWall talks to CEO Zach Montroy about how to create a productive team that actually gets results! If you are working on your organizational goals for 2024, you do not want to miss this episode! Tune in to find out how to build your team’s motivation, connect strategy to your vision, and get great results!

Meet Zach Montroy, Founder & CEO of The Intention Collective

Zach helps companies grow and evolve into high-functioning, high-impact organizations. He has 20 years of executive experience, as well as 5 years of implementing his expertise to help entrepreneurs.

Zach’s passion and knowledge of organizational strategy make him an ideal leader for businesses seeking to scale. He offers tried and true solutions to solve even the stickiest issues.

He lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife Jacki, who is a clinical therapist and helps lead Intentional Schools, and their three sons, Nyzire, Ahmir, and Sammy.

Accomplishing More in a Healthy Way

As the episode opens, Jenn and Zach dive right into the topic of productivity on teams. Zach explains that the mission of his work is to “help leaders focus their vision, focus their strategy, and actually accomplish it in a very healthy way.”

Zach goes on to explain, “You know, for years, I have heard you cannot grow and scale a company if you are going to also have a healthy team and healthy culture. That one comes at the cost of another. Like there are levers that you have to push and pull. And frankly, I didn’t find that to be true when I was embedded in a team.

And I don’t think that that’s the choice you have to make. I think healthy teams and healthy cultures come with great intentionality and really healthy leadership. You know, John Maxwell said, speed of the leader, speed of the team. When you have an unhealthy leader leading a team, oftentimes yeah, you do have an unhealthy culture.

So I think when you can be intentional about the habits that we put behind, values that we’re investing in people, I think absolutely you can have health and, you know, healthy teams, healthy cultures, and you can be growing and scaling as an organization all at the same time.”

Motivation and Team Productivity

Later in the episode, Zach talks about a leader’s role in motivating teams. Zach explains that burnout is a real barrier to productivity. It often starts with a lack of clarity around individual roles and a lack of communication.

He explains, “Oftentimes I see people being unproductive because they have no idea really what they should be doing, what they should be contributing. Or there’s a lack of alignment there with their unique genius, their unique ability. And so they’re just plain not motivated to do their job and believe that people don’t really care.

You’re just there to punch a clock and, you know, do what’s on your job description and leave. When we’re not motivated when we don’t find that intrinsic value behind the work that we produce, certainly there’s gonna be a lack of productivity. In psychology, we call that dithering. It’s just spinning our wheels.”

Company Culture and Team Performance

Jenn and Zach also discuss how company culture affects team performance. They discuss the importance of psychological safety in teams and how that starts with creating a positive work environment.

Zach elaborates, “I believe to the core of my being that culture always defaults to the worst behavior that we allow. And if as a leader on a team, I am allowing that behavior, my expectation should be that the rest of the culture is gonna follow.

Under no circumstance, if I allow you to treat other people like that– you know with shame, scarcity, and comparison as the norm– I can’t expect any positive behavior from other people.

Because if, as a leader, I’m trying to be courageous, I’m trying to be vulnerable. I’m trying to lead from a place of being others-focused, and I see you doing that. In my mind, that’s a lot easier. That requires no vulnerability. I can just treat people like cogs in a wheel and try to get done what I want to get done.

And shame is an effective management tool. I can get you to do whatever I want you to do. The problem is it’s very, very corrosive and hurtful and damaging, but culture’s gonna default to that.”

Radical Clarity for High-Performing Teams

Then, Zach and Jenn discuss strategies for creating productive teams that actually get results. Zach recommends creating radical clarity around a common goal for your organization and teams.

He explains, “If we want to create a productive workplace, we have to get really clear on how we’re gonna move as a team. So my job as a leader is to create the right structure and the right processes. And to make sure that as a team, we are in alignment with our destination. Right? You can’t get to control and breakthrough as a business if you don’t have clarity.

And as a leader, I should have great clarity on where we’re going, why we’re going there, and how we’re gonna get there. And, you know, really reverse engineer that into what is most important to us as a team right now for the next 90 days, for the next month, and how are we aligning everyone’s unique genius, unique ability to that vision?

And that requires, again, a great deal of vulnerability. We’re here as a team to figure out how we’re gonna do that. But when I have great clarity on where we’re going, what that destination is, what the vision for the company is, and what’s most important right now, I know how to be productive.

I know how to align the eight hours that I have, the 40 hours I have every week, um, to spend towards making progress on what’s most important. Because we’ve talked about it, we’ve aligned our resources on it, and we’re focused on the sprint that we’re in. We know how we’re gonna get to where we’re gonna go in that next mile marker that we need to hit.”

And More…

If you are wondering how to increase productivity in your team, you won’t want to miss out on the full podcast episode! Zach and Jenn get into:

Operationalizing values into habits
Peer-to-peer accountability
Assessing strengths and weaknesses
Transparency on teams

Where to Find More From Zach Montroy

Visit his website: intentioncollective.co
Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/zacharymontroy/

Thank You for Listening to The Leadership Habit!

It’s been a great 2023 for The Leadership Habit, and we thank you for being a part of our show! Jenn and the rest of the Crestcom team wish you a happy holiday season and a Successful and Happy New Year! We’ll be back with new episodes in January!