Speaker 1: What's up, Cold or Draft? Galen here. This video is about how to create really great work-life balance for employees. And in this, this is gonna be very personal. So this is my philosophy. This is how I run this company. This is how I manage our team and lead in this way. And I think it works. Now I realize that I have a small organization and different organizations are different sizes, different complexity, different industries and different sort of roles that exist inside the organization. But this is how we do it. And I think this does speak to work-life balance for employees as well as doing it in a way that benefits the organization and the individual people. So from a high level, when I think about the salaries that my employees make, I don't think of that as like, you make X amount per hour and like every hour of the day for this many hours, you're productive doing these things. I don't think about it that way. I think of it as your yearly salary is what I'm paying as an organization to have you work for me in this role and contribute all this work over a year's period. So I don't keep track of individual days and hours that people work. I honestly don't care. For me, it's like work whenever you want to when you're productive and get things done. So we focus on output and projects and production. And I don't want this to sound like it is sort of an advertisement that like, I think I'm great or some wonderful thing. I just truly think this is like the recipe for how it's done. I give my employees like very generous, unlimited PTO. If you wanna take a day off or a weekend off or half a day off or do whatever, my employees do not need permission from me to take a Friday off so they can go to the beach with their friends. I don't care. You wanna go to a conference? You wanna like take a longer vacation? I literally don't care. Just get your work done. And that is balanced with also that my employees understand the culture that we have as an organization is that when it's time to get it done, it's foot on the gas, get it done, right? So it's like I offer a lot of reward. I pay people well. They have generous PTO and generous benefits as well as they understand when it's time to get stuff done. I say foot on the gas. I need this done. I need you to take full ownership and accountability to produce high caliber work and do these things and get these projects done and be accountable. They do it. It's like foot on the gas when it needs to happen, right? In terms of holding people accountable and making sure that they're producing high next level caliber work as well as high reward. It's like, it's great to work here. We have a great culture. You can take time off. I don't care. And I see my employees as human beings first. They have lives. They have family things. They have all kinds of personal things going on. I don't pretend that working for my company is the most important thing that exists in my employees lives because they're human beings. They don't own this company. I own the company. They're contributing their time and talent. I hire highly accountable, incredibly intelligent people and then let them do their shit. I just like let them do what they're great at. And also they understand that like there's a high bar, right? They're like, I hold them accountable to showing up with a great attitude and producing high caliber work. And the ways that I think all of that contribute to a better work life balance is that work is integrated and incorporated into my employees lives. So if they need to leave work at four o'clock or go pick up their kid or do whatever, it's like they never have to ask permission from me. It's like, yes, live your life, thrive inside your own life and come to work and be awesome at work. I encourage them to have boundaries. I encourage them to take care of themselves personally so that in order for them to be fully intact so that they can come to work and be exceptional. And I think that that is the balance that exists for organizations is like let people be fully humans. It's high bar and high reward. Give them a lot. You can ask a lot of them. And I feel like that is what happens here with this company is that I feel like I can ask a lot of my people because I give them a lot. And I prove it through how I show up as a leader is that like, I will always have your back. I will always say yes, if you need time off, it doesn't matter what it is. I will always say yes to it. And in return, what I see happen in real time is that my employees also give back. They give discretionary effort. They work on things. They make sure stuff gets done. They try harder than they have to try because they care. And the reason that they care is because they know that me as a leader and us as an organization care about them, that I always have their back. I think when companies and leaders honor people and treat them as human beings and prioritize their experience, they gain the right to ask a lot of those people. And I think that is the balance. We talk about work-life balance, and I think it's like, you know, reward and accountability balance as well creates this recipe where everybody tries hard. They also take care of themselves and just kick ass together. Thanks for watching and tuning in. Subscribe to our channel. We put a lot of content on here. You can also subscribe to the CultureDrop mailing list and get these emails in your inbox every Tuesday morning. Follow our social media channels. Put a lot of free content out about just being more awesome and building great teams.