
Shannon Waller's Team Success
Shannon Waller, author of The Team Success Handbook, has been the entrepreneurial team expert at Strategic Coach® since 1995. Shannon Waller’s Team Success podcasts are a series of insights around teamwork and success that she’s gained from working with entrepreneurs.
Latest episodes

4 snips
Apr 11, 2024 • 9min
The Power Of Saying “Yes” To New Ideas
Shannon Waller discusses the dangers of the 'Excellent Trap' and advises on identifying activities to let go of. Emphasizes the importance of saying 'yes' to new ideas to foster collaboration and creativity within teams. Provides practical techniques for engaging with and validating ideas to promote constructive dialogue and problem-solving.

12 snips
Mar 21, 2024 • 13min
The Excellent Trap: The Danger Of Not Letting Go
Shannon Waller, a knowledgeable speaker on personal and team development, dives into the 'Excellent Trap'—where doing things well can stifle passion. She discusses how to identify tasks you're good at but no longer enjoy and emphasizes the importance of letting go. Shannon offers advice on recognizing signs of boredom and suggests that passing off these tasks can spark new creativity and provide opportunities for others. Embracing delegation not only frees up your time but also fosters growth for both you and your team.

15 snips
Mar 7, 2024 • 1h 2min
Daring To Build An Intentional Culture, with Mark O’Donnell, Kelly Knight, and CJ DuBe’
Entrepreneurs Mark O’Donnell, Kelly Knight, and CJ DuBe’ discuss the importance of building intentional cultures in organizations. They explore topics like different culture types, right people in the right seats, and mindset for leaders to create a thriving culture. Transform your organization with this insightful episode.

Feb 23, 2024 • 14min
How To Manage Micromanagement
Discover why leaders tend to micromanage, learn effective strategies for addressing micromanagement, and explore the importance of self-awareness in team dynamics. Tips for fostering clear communication and setting boundaries to overcome micromanagement challenges are provided.

42 snips
Feb 8, 2024 • 1h
A Conversation With Kathy Kolbe: Conative Intelligence & The Importance of Caring First
In this engaging discussion, Kathy Kolbe, a thought leader and founder of the Kolbe Index, dives into the essence of conative intelligence and its impact on leadership. She emphasizes the significance of emotional buy-in for teams, arguing that when individuals connect personal goals with team objectives, productivity soars. Kathy also shares her journey of self-discovery, advocating for the power of understanding unique abilities in fostering creativity and effective teamwork. Her insights reveal how genuine care can transform leadership and drive entrepreneurial success.

Jan 25, 2024 • 19min
A Goal-Setting Team Is A Self-Managing Team
Are your team members growth oriented? How do you foster that mindset in your company? Today, Shannon Waller breaks down the January Strategic Coach® team meeting in which each of the 100+ team members thought through their personal growth and contributions for the upcoming year. How did it work, and how does that investment translate to the success of the business?
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Show Notes:
Motivated For Growth
The ROI for investing in your team’s personal and professional goals is team members becoming self-managing and growth-oriented.
For the kick-off meeting of the year, the 100+ team members at Strategic Coach spent three hours thinking about their values, their intentions for the year, and their areas of growth.
The meeting began with asking everyone to share their intentions for the year based on their values and PRINT® motivations.
Celebrating The Previous Year’s Achievements And Progress
Next, the team walked through The Positive Focus® exercise to reflect on achievements and progress from the past year.
Everyone was asked to write down three business achievements and two personal achievements from the previous year.
For each achievement, they wrote its significance and why they viewed it as progress.
Then, they considered what further progress they could make on those achievements and what their first action would be.
In small breakout groups, they then shared one or two of their achievements, allowing for 20 minutes of celebration and connection.
Connecting Past To Future
Next, Strategic Coach founder and lead coach Dan Sullivan led the team through the Triple Play™ exercise, which involves reflecting on and finding connections between three past accomplishments or experiences.
The insights Shannon gained through this exercise gave great clarity to her 2024 intentions, distilling the lessons of the past year into ideas for a bigger future.
Creating A Bigger Future
One of Strategic Coach’s favorite mantras is, “Always make your future bigger than your past.”
Strategic Coach co-founder and CEO, Babs Smith, shared the 10-year vision and three-year vision for the company.
This set the stage for an exercise called The Bigger Future™, which helps make ambitious long-term plans more concrete.
This exercise has people envision their six-year ambitions, then work back to the three-year capabilities they’ll need to develop, and then the one-year challenges that will move them toward those.
Expanding Capabilities Expands Positive Impact
Expanding individual capabilities expands the positive impact of each team member’s Unique Ability®, which creates a growth path for a Unique Ability organization.
Encourage team members to pursue self-directed growth rather than having growth paths dictated to them.
Give them ownership over their development goals but provide them with the capabilities to achieve them.
Look for job candidates who are self-motivated learners who bring their own drive and initiative.
Benefits Of Investing In Team Member Growth
By investing in team members’ personal and professional growth, leaders can gain their gratitude, develop more capable teams, and create loyalty within the organization.
This can result in lower team member turnover and higher retention of high-performing individuals.
Even if team members do leave after being supported, they may become raving fans who recommend the company.
Resources:
The Positive Focus
The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy
The Self-Managing Company by Dan Sullivan
Unique Ability
Unique Ability Teamwork
Wanting What You Want by Dan Sullivan
EOS®: Entrepreneurial Operating System
PRINT: Team Success Podcast, episode 224, “Uncovering ‘The Why Of You,’ With Debra Levine”
Deirdre Van Nest of Crazy Good Talks

6 snips
Dec 19, 2023 • 9min
From Boasting To Celebrating: How To Shift Your Mindset For Success
Uncover the transformative power of celebrating successes over boasting. Discover how sharing wins fosters a positive workplace culture and supports individual growth. Learn practical tips to create a celebratory environment and leverage small victories for larger business goals. Explore how mutual recognition can enhance team dynamics and encourage a motivated atmosphere. Dive into methods that allow for strategic reflection on achievements, turning past successes into future opportunities.

Dec 14, 2023 • 12min
Managing Up, Part II
Join team success expert Shannon Waller as she dives into the art of supporting your entrepreneur. Are you seeing through their lens, anticipating their needs, and proactively contributing to the owner’s vision? Learn the power of a simple four-word question that will have your entrepreneur celebrating you. And, find out entrepreneur and coach Dan Sullivan’s ultimate compliment to a team member.
Download Episode Transcript
Show Notes:
“Managing up” means:
You’re looking out for your entrepreneur.
Taking a leadership perspective, which is the wider view, not only focused on the tasks in front of them.
Knowing your entrepreneur’s long-term vision for themselves, for your team, and for the company.
Getting feedback and having strategic conversations.
Having a helper mindset: “How can I help?”
Communicating your needs—technology, training, resources—to be much faster, make things easier, and achieve a bigger result.
Your entrepreneur can say, “I never think about you”—because you take ownership, and they never have to worry about you.
Assuming positive intent and digging deeper to understand the logic of strategies you disagree with. Use The Strategy Circle® thinking tool to help see the goal and obstacles and suggest alternative strategies.
Speaking up when you see potential train wrecks; yes, it is your place to say something when you see something others don’t.
Resources:
Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

7 snips
Nov 29, 2023 • 7min
Proving Yourself: The Surprising Barrier to Effective Teamwork
Learn about the downsides of the\u201cproving game\u201d in business and how it hampers effective teamwork. Discover strategies to cultivate genuine success and authentic leadership within teams by challenging conventional thinking.

Nov 16, 2023 • 52min
Teamwork Triad In Real Life, with Chad Willardson
In previous episodes, Shannon has talked about the Teamwork Triad—are you curious to see how it plays out in real life? In this episode, Shannon interviews entrepreneur, author, and podcast host Chad Willardson about his Unique Ability® Dream Team. Learn how to find extraordinary executive assistants who not only support you, but sit in the Teamwork Triad seats that will help you achieve 10x growth.
Download Episode Transcript
Show Notes:
Chad Willardson is an entrepreneur, author, and podcaster from Southern California. He left Merrill Lynch in 2011 to start his own company, Pacific Capital, a wealth management firm serving entrepreneurs.
Teamwork specialist Shannon Waller and Unique Ability specialist Julia Waller introduced the idea of a Unique Ability “Dream Team” to support Chad beyond his business. This team, called the Teamwork Triad, includes a Visionary, an Innovation Manager, and a Focus Manager.
Chad found two extraordinary people he knew would be the right fit through LinkedIn.
Maddie was hired to be Chad’s Strategic EA and handles business-related tasks. Chad calls her his left brain.
Oriya was hired to be Chad’s Operational EA and focuses on personal tasks, marketing, travel planning, and calendar management. Because of her interests and skills in design, Chad calls her his right brain.
What each member of the triad is responsible for can be summed up by “make it up” (Chad, the Visionary), “make it real” (Maddie, the Innovation Manager), and “make it recur” (Oriya, the Focus Manager).
Chad’s main requirement was to find and hire high-caliber individuals who align with his vision and have the mental horsepower to handle complex tasks.
The team uses tools like Asana, Microsoft Teams, and Google Docs for communication and task management.
Regular communication and collaboration are keys to success for a team that works mainly remotely but meets bi-weekly in person. The team meets weekly and has in-person collaboration sessions every other week to align on goals and projects.
The trust and empowerment Chad gives his team leads to his own increased freedom and success as an entrepreneur.
Chad used assessments like Kolbe, CliftonStrengths®, PRINT®, and Working Genius to understand each of their strengths and how to best work together.
Chad asked ChatGPT to assess potential clashes given everyone’s assessments, gave its response to Maddie and Oriya, and had them discuss how they would avoid territorial dangers.
From the beginning, Maddie and Oriya forged their friendship and working relationship based on mutual respect for each other’s separate interests and areas of Unique Ability.
Because of how Chad has empowered them, Maddie and Oriya find ways to help each other without having to get Chad involved, thereby keeping his capacity free for his own Unique Ability projects.
Maddie and Oriya have been attending their own workshops with Strategic Coach® to learn how to use tools such as The Weekly Planner and The Impact Filter™, which further simplify communication and delegation for all three.
Maddie and Oriya have collected their tips on how entrepreneurs can most effectively work with two executive assistants: “EA Collaboration Guide.”
Freed up from daily business operations, Chad is leveraged to think about bigger opportunities beyond his business, such as Free Zone collaborations with other 10x entrepreneurs.
Resources:
Books:
Stress-Free Money: Overcome These Seven Obstacles to Find Financial Freedom
Smart, Not Spoiled: The 7 Money Skills Kids Must Master Before Leaving the Nest
Fit for Wealth: 7 Breakthrough Strategies for Elite Health and Abundant Wealth
Podcasts:
Smart Money Parenting
Financial learning app for kids: GravyStack
EA Collaboration Guide:
Detailed version PDF
QuickStart version PDF
Pacific Capital website
Personal assessments:
CliftonStrengths website
Kolbe
PRINT: Team Success Podcast, episode 224, “Uncovering “The Why Of You,” With Debra Levine”
Wonderlic
Working Genius
Productivity:
Asana
ChatGPT
Microsoft Teams
TripIt
Other resources:
EOS: Entrepreneurial Operating System
Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization, by Dave Logan, John King, Halee Fischer-Wright
Strategic Coach concepts, tools, and books:
The Strategic Coach® Program
Free Guide to The Entrepreneurial Time System® PDF download: “The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Time Management”
Free Impact Filter worksheet PDF download
The Team Success Handbook by Shannon Waller
Unique Ability Teamwork article: “What Are Unique Ability Teams?”
Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy