Surrounding Yourself With the Right People: Culture, Delegation, and Empathy
Leadership · From Student of the Game
Surrounding Yourself With the Right People: Culture, Delegation, and Empathy
After his conversation with Dustin McKibben, owner of Art Home Photo, Brad Noll recorded a Huddle to share his own take. Listeners told him the episode felt natural and organic, and one theme stood out to Brad: culture. "You are a leader if you're listening to this," he says. Whether you lead a family, a classroom, or a company, the people around you shape everything.
Culture Is Built in the Locker Room
People often ask Brad about his favorite memories from playing Division I basketball. He remembers the games, but he remembers the trips, the flights, and the inside jokes even more. "You don't build culture during the game. You build it in the locker room," he says.
For Dustin, the culture that matters most is one of compassion. In college he was not the most talented photographer, but nobody was going to out-serve him. He kept loving on his roommate, the best photographer in the class, asking questions and staying curious, and that is how he developed his eye.
Brad believes compassion for others is what takes a person or a team to the next level. While on vacation with a book, he finally found an answer for people who ask how he built his business: how stands for helping others win. There was no magic formula, just a question of how many other people he could help. It is why he tells his team that his job is to make them famous, the way a music producer works to make the artists on the label famous.
“You don't build culture during the game. You build it in the locker room.”
Brad Noll
Relationships as a Business Cornerstone
Brad's first takeaway from the episode is relationships as a business cornerstone. If we are honest, he says, most of us want relationships for what we will get from them. He asks listeners to step back and see connecting with others as part of being a decent human being.
For a salesperson, he explains, it works like this. You connect with people. Some of those connections turn into conversations. Some conversations lead to introductions for the product or service you represent, and some introductions become sales. Not everyone will be ready for your message, but if you keep the connection top of mind, the rest follows. Fittingly, connections is his family's word of the year.
He offers a simple way to practice. If an episode impacted you, or you know one would help someone else, send it to them. "It's not about what you get, right? It's about what you're giving out."
Are You Delegating or Abdicating?
The second takeaway is growth through delegation. Many people think delegating means taking something off your plate and handing it to someone else. Brad calls that abdication. Abdication is a straight line: I do not have time for this, so you do it.
He uses a household example. Telling his kids to do the dishes and walking away is abdication. But what if they did not do it right, or needed a little coaching? Coming back to check is delegation, and delegation is a loop. That ties to one of his team's core values, earn everything. If something you handed off did not get done, Brad says, look at whether you closed the feedback loop. "Delegation is leadership. Abdication is not leadership."
A quick self-check for your own delegating:
- After you hand something off, come back and ask how it is going.
- Ask whether the person has questions or needs your help.
- Coach and equip rather than simply assigning tasks.
- When a delegated task falls through, look first at your own follow-up.
Finding Joy in Serving
The third takeaway is the joy of serving. On the surface, Dustin takes pictures of homes, but what sets him apart is empathy. He understands that selling a home is stressful. Brad explains that every move carries two stresses: the reason for the move and the move itself. Everyone has stress triggers, whether it is pens arriving late for an event or books not ready for the accountant, and understanding them changes how you serve.
Brad describes himself as high on empathy and low on sympathy. He can feel what you are feeling and wants to walk through it with you, but sympathy can sound like excuses to him. Even so, he recently missed the mark.
Are You Being Transactional Without Realizing It?
Brad sent a seller a listing video he was proud of, a couple of weeks before her home went on the market. She never responded. When he finally asked what she thought, she told him she had not been able to watch it, because she knew she would miss the home where they had raised their kids.
It stopped him. "I was being transactional," Brad says. He was serving her transactional needs and forgetting her emotional ones. There is real joy in serving people, he says, but there is also an art to deepening relationships, and he asks listeners whether there is anything in their own lives they are simply going through the motions on.
Dustin's business is growing fast, and Brad notes that the challenge of fast growth is keeping and improving your culture while showing compassion along the way. Surround yourself with people who do that well, and relationships win.
▶ Listen to the full episode
The Huddle with Brad Noll: Surrounding Yourself with The Right People, on Student of the Game.
Work with the Noll Team
Ready to make your move?
Since 2003, Noll Team Real Estate has been helping people in the Fort Wayne area find the freedom to live the lifestyle they want. Tell us where you are headed and we will build the plan around your life.