Robyn Benincasa Hilton Keynote P3

Great there's also Seek Synergy everywhere, all the time. Quick example. This shot right here looks like one team looking at maps. This is actually my top two navigators and the top two navigators from our biggest competitors in this race, the South Africans. In a race in Namibia, called the Bull of Africa, at the front of the pack, vying for first place, collaborating about where to go next with our biggest competitors. Why in the world did you do that? To go faster, to get a gap on the rest of the field. By the third day, we had a 12-hour lead on third through 60th place, because we got together with the other best and brightest people on the race course, and went exponentially faster for having worked together. Which is why this all-sweets leadership conference is so awesome! Yay! Right? Because you're with the other best and brightest GMs and sales directors, and you go exponentially faster for having played together for a couple days, right? Right. You guys play game with me real quick, say yes. Yay, very obedient. I love that about you guys. Alright, so this game involves grabbing a partner. You don't have to physically grab them. Unless you've been waiting a couple days to grab the person next to you, and this is your big moment. Am I so in trouble with HR right now? Yeah, they don't touch each other at Hilton, just FYI. I said, "Don't change partners when I tell you the game." Alright, I will preface this game by saying, "I swear and promise it has nothing to do with any of your muscle groups, but it is called reverse arm wrestling." And here's how it's played. When I say, "Go, you get into the official arm wrestling position with your teammate. It can be in the air, on a leg, on a chair, on the floor, wherever you want. You get into the official arm wrestling position with your teammate, your teammate." And upon the word, "Go, you're a goal in your teammate's goal is to each get your own arm down to the table as many times as you can in 20 seconds." So not the standard push the other guy's arm down. You're a goal in your teammate's goal is to each get your own arm down as many times as you can in 20 seconds. Everybody has to play against all of you. 100 marks, get set, go! Stop, give yourselves a hand. You guys are good. That was awesome you guys. No wonder you're so successful and happy. Yay! Alright, every game has a point, right? The point of that game is my amusement. Now I'm kidding you, Bubby, I'm a kidder. Alright, just had a curiosity, how many people got their own arm down five times or less? Five times or less, raise your hand. Ain't no shame in it. Alright, five times or less. Alright, a few. How many people got their own arm down more than 15 times in 20 seconds? Oh, the other 90%. Okay, if that second group, I'm going to have you two stand up and show us what you did. Yeah, because you're in the front so everybody can see you. Okay, ready, get set, go! Yay! Good job girls. My favorite part is when the five or less people go, "Oh, but I like to ask because people get really creative when they do this." Like a lot of people go back and forth and it was fast as they can, like a lot of you guys did. And then sometimes people go, "Well, we did 10 on this side and then we had to be fair." So you can count the other side. And then sometimes you see people doing a quick negotiation like, "Okay, let's just do all of me and we'll split the bonus check." Oh my gosh, the best one, though, happened about like six months ago. Guy from the South killed me. He shot his arm up and he started yelling, "We got way more than 40." I said, "What'd you all do?" He said, "Well, we all just moved our elbows all the way out and we just made it real small." But this just shows us a couple things, right? I mean, first of all, you guys can take this back home to your hotel with your gang. But it shows us how wired we are to compete, right? Which is a fantastic thing. A lot of you guys had to turn off your little inner competitor switch, right? Like, "Oh, I see where she's going with this game." But we're wired to compete, which is a wonderful thing. You guys would not be at this level in your life or your career if you're not an amazing competitor. You never want to lose that. But every single day we have an important decision to make, where the people that work with us have an important decision to make. And that is, who we're competing with or for English majors with whom we're competing. Right? Because sometimes we get so competitive where the people that work with us get so competitive, they start competing against their own teammates. Instead of realizing that we're going to get so much further faster if we bring our positive intent to one another and don't just allow each other to succeed, what if we actually helped each other out? We both get to our finish lines further faster even if we have individual goals. It also shows us how wired we are to see winning as being something mutually exclusive. For me to win, somebody has to lose. But the best and brightest are always thinking, "Why can't we all win?" And they're always finding ways to bring other great people onto their team. Maybe they have strengths and talents that they don't have. And the goal is to take all those people with you. Because none of us is as strong or smart or as fast as all of us, right? Give yourselves a hand. That was awesome. That was impressive. I love that. That was good, you guys. Your team members must love working with you guys. All right, next essential element of building world class teams is all about creating ownership and buy-in. Ownership of the project. How do we create that buy-in with every member of our team to our mission? Well, you either hire the inspired or you inspire your hires. And what I mean by that is when you're bringing people onto your team, hiring the inspired, make sure they're truly inspired by warmth and light and welcoming people and creating and experience, creating memories for your guests. Or something deep in their soul that they genuinely care about. You know, loving the brand, make sure it's deep inside them. And something they would do if money wasn't even a factor. Make sure they're truly inspired by the mission. And then further inspire people by doing one of a few things. Either asking them what they're hoping to get out of working with you and seeing if you can get that for them. Because you'll have as many different answers as you have people on your team. Find out their why and get it to them. And ask for people's input. Because people embrace the things that they themselves help create, right? And letting people lead based on their strengths, not necessarily their titles. So this next video is great story about ownership and a lot of other things. It's about a guy named Dawat Mutang. It's actually my favorite video. And Dawat is not an adventurer. He's a farmer from the middle of the Borneo Rainforest. But he became an adventurer on this particular day completely by accident. So the French team, team Interspore, that had taken second place in the raid the year before, they were on a mission on fire coming back to win this year. And on the way running to the start line on race day, one of their teammates broke his ankle. So they had a tough decision to make. What on earth do we do now? Do we start unranked? Because you don't have the right number of racers? Or do we start walking around the Rainforest and knock on these six huts? And see if we can find a guy to come race with us. I'm watching all this happen. This is my first adventure race ever. This guy split up and they start knocking on these six little village huts and one door slowly opens. And they quickly assess this guy will fit the available Lycra outfit. And they're begging him to come out and they're putting the backpack on him and suggesting that he should kiss his kids goodbye. Because he's going to be gone for a few days doing this little thing. And they take him to the start line. And bless this guy's heart. He doesn't know these people. He's never spoken a word of French. I don't speak a word of English. He's never heard of this sport. He's never done any of these disciplines. And he's lining up to the start line of the toughest race on earth with a team with whom he can't even communicate that's going to try to win. But it's an incredible story about ownership because the first thing you see is he's inspired by the mission. Inspired by the teamwork. And then they further inspire him by realizing and capitalizing on his unique talent and strength, which is what? Yeah, he knew exactly where he was going. Like the first 30 miles of the course. He was the most important guy in the sport. That created such ownership in him and the team. They had an unbelievable outcome. You guys love this. The start of the race is moments away. And suddenly team inner sport has solved its problem. They've convinced a local villager to replace their injured teammate. Inner sport heads to the starting line with Dawat Mutang, a 35 year old farmer and father of three. Dawat has never rafting, never canoeed, or even ridden a bike. But they have no other choice. Not exactly what, I don't know what exactly was going to happen, but I'm completely trying to walk it with a team. For some reason, both American teams fail to take advantage of Dawat's local knowledge. Mount Mordor? Yeah. Mount Mordor. Mount Mordor? Not this way. Others do it the easy way. They wait for inner sport and their native newcomer Dawat. They know he's been to the top of Mount Mordor many times. Up ahead, the front teams have reached the river. Inner sport has fallen from second place to ninth, and they don't expect to make up any time in this lake. Remember, Dawat has never ridden a canoe. Further ahead, Dawat and his teammates, blows in on checkpoint 13. Not only did he survive the canoe ride, but now, at the age of 35, Dawat has learned to ride the bike for the first time in his life. Oh, yeah, I have been pulled one, and it's really, I don't know, it's my fault too, because they have been so much to handle the brakes. The basketball will keep me out from the saddle. Incredibly, Dawat's team covered the 50 mile mountain bike leg in just 20 hours, just an hour behind in second place inner sport. Dawat prepares for this final leg, and like the canoe and bike ride before, he has never been inside a cave, never repelled, never used climbing gear. It is almost midnight, day four. The battle for second place is over. Dawat and team inner sport have hung on. They finish just four hours behind first place family. Dawat mutang's incredible journey is complete. Over the past four days, he's traveled parts of his native country he has never seen. He has been tested far beyond his will. Now he's a hero, not because he came in second, not because he finished the race, but because he was willing to try. So many things to learn, I mean, it really fun to think. When I get back home probably, if I talk to my village, probably people won't believe that something's up, I'm just thinking that we'll dip here. And really amazing. And we remember this for a long, long time? Yeah, I won't forget that. How awesome is that? Second place. Second place. Crazy, right? Out of 63 teams. And I know there were 63 teams because guess whose team was 63? You know, if I love.watt story so much, of course, a great statement about ownership. But a couple of things I get out of this piece, that it's the perfect representation of luck, being that moment where opportunity meets preparation, and the value of completely different kinds of preparation. They had huge adventure race acknowledge. He had crazy local knowledge, and then they each found this incredible opportunity in each other. And they became the second luckiest team in the race. And also that what makes us valuable to our team members isn't even necessarily what we know. You know, very often it's based on what we're willing to learn along the way. And very often the rookie on the team can bring such an interesting and unique background of perspective. They can be the linchpin to your team's success. You know, so always embrace the rookie. And last but not least, that sometimes the universe comes and knocks on our hut in our life. You know, and we may not be ready for what's on the other side of that door. But if we have the courage to open the door and get in the game, especially if we're surrounded by a great team, we always discover that we're braver than we believe stronger than we seem and smarter than we think. Like Dawawat did that day, right? All right, last essential element that will cover real quickly is all about kinetic leadership, meaning leadership that constantly flows and changes. And I think this is important for you guys all being managers and leaders. Now you guys know this. There's a difference between management and leadership, right? Right. In your capacity as a manager, you're always a facilitator of all of your team members' success that will always be your job. But you don't always have to be the leader, right? In fact, it makes your team stronger if you're not always the leader. But other people lead based on their strengths because your most important job as a manager is to create other leaders. And then change leadership styles. These six different leadership styles are based on a Harvard Business Review study called Leadership That Gets Results, written by Daniel Goldman. If you recognize his name, you may have read emotional intelligence. So Daniel Goldman did a 3,000 manager study. He looked at their behaviors over three years and he looked at those leadership behaviors effect on the corporate climate, you know, on their team. And then further, those leadership behaviors affect on business unit profitability. And what he discovered blew my mind. That your leadership style or styles that you live in the most often, that's responsible for 30% of your business unit's profitability. 30% way too much to ignore. And the yada, yada, yada, on the article is that you should use situational leadership. Be the leader that your team members need in that moment and that your guests need in that moment. It's like a golfer chooses his or her clubs, right? Use the right club for the shot, which is why I have lead like Tiger on there, even though maybe he wasn't the best role model a few years ago. But you do have to admit, both Tiger and his ex-wife, you know, just the right club to use for the job. And you will be here all week, try the wheel, tip your weight, Tris. All right, so what are these leadership styles and when to use a pace and a leader gets out in front and says, I know the way guys follow me. Authoritative was the visionary in this case. I can see the finish line. We all got to get up on this thing. Affiliate to friendship, coaching, great. We have newer people on the team, coercive on the boss applesauce and democratic self-explanatory. What do you think is the number one style or styles to live in the most often according to the study for happy people and best business unit profitability? One of them affiliates, one of them. Let's go to a style to live in the least often. Coercive, right? And there's another style to live in the least often that a lot of people think you should sort of live in the most often. Pace setting, right, which I thought was really interesting because a lot of us feel like, well, we got to lead by example. And in a lot of cases, that's true. But if you're always the big dog and it's sort of all about you and you get the credit for the team's success and people are working for you instead of with you, they're uninspired. They don't have that entrepreneurial spirit that they have when they walk next to you as colleagues. Or even when you let them lead you sometimes. The number one style was the visionary, followed very closely by affiliative, coaching, and democratic. So if you live in those four of the most often, happy people, best profitability. All right, guys, last clip, the Japanese team and the eco challenge. On day five of this race, they realized the woman on their team had ripped her Achilles tendon. And they decided to see a challenge instead of a roadblock. And they used every essential element of building world class teams and a lot of other really creative things to get to this finish line. You guys will love this. In the early afternoon on the seventh day of the race, just after the winners have crossed the finish line, the members of Japan's team East Wind received some disheartening news. I must say I just don't think she's going to make it. Despite Nahoko Hayama's ankle injury, team East Wind from Japan attempts the rigorous 13-hour hike over Bartel Flair. We have a proverb in Japanese that says, "Once you fall, you are closer to death, but not yet dead." So I think this was a test for us to never give up, even under the toughest of words. Team East Wind are the epitome of what eco challenge really stands for. Most people couldn't even walk over Mount Bartel Flair for them to carry that woman over that entire mountain. It's incredible. How beautiful is that? I love it. So inspiring. So, so, so inspiring. I especially love the fact that all those guys left their egos at the start line, you know, where your egos belong. You can't bring it on the race course with you. And they have her on their shoulders. They made her the hero. I actually called my guys a day after that show aired on Discovery Channel. I was like, "You guys are so glad that wasn't me." I mean, she fit in a backpack. I mean, come on. What are the chances? How lucky was that? But I love the fact that they have her on their shoulders. You know, more great statements about teamwork and leadership. You know, that we never achieve our greatest hype by stepping on somebody else's back. You know, we always achieve our greatest hype when we put our teammates on our shoulders. And we don't inspire the people around us by showing them how awesome we are. We inspire our team members by putting them on our shoulders and showing them how talented and useful and smart and worthy and amazing they are. Because at the end of the day, if you as a leader sit out to inspire your people versus impress them, you're going to achieve both of those things. At the same time. So, now you guys have all kinds of adventures. Race is ahead for you in 2018, right? And just like an adventure race, you know what your finish line is, what your big goals are. But how you get there and if you get there is up to how you as a leader chart your course and the teams you create and the people that you inspire. But it's not going to take inspired leadership. It's also going to take on your part a hell of a lot of courage in what theateros vote called daring to do mighty things. This is my favorite quote in the whole world. That it's far better to dare mighty things to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure than to take rank with those poor souls who neither enjoy much nor suffer much in the great twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. Right? Isn't that the best? Great twilight, man. Oh, that's me falling out of the boat, by the way. I mean, every single day we get to decide, right? Do we live in the great twilight and do the same things we've always done and get the same results we've always gotten and kind of symbolically, you know, be on that mirror go round? Or do we say, you know what guys? Let's go big. Let's challenge the heck out of ourselves. Let's get on the roller coaster. Knowing that on the roller coaster there's always a dip, right? But it's in those dips that we learn the things that help us rise even higher the next time. Because you guys know in those days where you genuinely challenge yourself and your team members that you go to bed at night and say, you know what? I'm awesome. I rock. I am a hit that inspired myself today. Come on, guess what your most important teammate is? That would be you. So how do we avoid the great twilight? Two things we're going to do right now before you guys leave. One is setting huge, hairy, audacious ludicrous, crazy goals. And I know you guys have a million goals for your properties and your team members and your guests and your communities and your families. The one was the last time I said a personal goal, maybe a while. So tonight, before you guys go to bed, will you guys do one thing for mommy? No, that's me. Will you guys set one crazy, hairy, personal goal that you want to accomplish in the next six months? Will you guys set that tonight, say yes? Yes. Awesome. And by this time tomorrow, you have to tell two people what it is. I know that's the kicker. Yeah. That's what makes it real. That's why I always get by in first small details later. And the second way we get to avoid great twilight is always remembering that no matter where in this beautiful country you are, all over North America or even South America, even though you may feel alone on your property, sometimes you always have this amazing all-sweets family with you. Always. Always. [Applause] At least in spirit. And we can celebrate that adventure racing style right now. So it happens in our start lines. It's really cool, you guys, right before the start. As a race director after he does his final countdown and says go, instead of leaving off the start line, all three or 400 racers start turning to each other. And everyone starts shaking their hands and high five and doing the bump and the fist bump and diving on each other. It's kind of a neat symbolic gesture that says you may not necessarily be on my team, right, just like you guys. But as someone on the same crazy journey to the same finish line, I'm with you in spirit. And I got your back and I got a toe line for you. And I would carry you if I needed to. And I know that everybody on this all-sweets team failed that way by each other. [Applause] I know. [Applause] So we'll do this just because it's fun. All right, I'll be the race director. I'll do a final toast to you guys. And then we'll all count backwards together. Five, four, three, two, one, go. And then anybody that you can reach in your radius, just shake the hand high five and do the bump and do the fist bump. Dive on them unless they're ready. And just let this family know that you're with them on this crazy journey. And since there's a lot of men in the room, I will give you quick man hug instructions from my special forces teammates. All right, chest contact only, two pads, quick release. [Applause] Watching you people. [Laughs] All right, so here's to you. Thank you for air toasting me back. The world champion adventure racers of this all-sweet leadership team. Hey you guys always have such huge, hairy, crazy, audacious goals that you could never accomplish them alone. And maybe the kind of amazing leader that inspires everyone around you to grab a toe line or even carry each other every step of the way. You guys ready to race? You guys ready to bring it? All right, let's count from five. [Laughs] [Music]