Episode #65: How to Champion a High-Performance Team with Anjani Bhargava, Partner in Evolution
Caneel Joyce:
Hi, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Dr. Caneel Joyce, and this is Allowed. I’m joined today by my beautiful friend and sometimes collaborator, we coach together, we consult together. This is Miss Anjani Bhargava. Good morning, my sweet.
Anjani Bhargava:
Good morning.
Caneel Joyce:
So I’d love if you could tell us a little bit about yourself in your own words.
Anjani Bhargava:
I’ve had just a varied tapestry of backgrounds. So I’m an organizational psychologist by design or by start. I’ve worked with Fortune 100 companies in executive roles, and then interspersed that with various bits of different types of consulting, and now I’m an executive coach working with CEOs and their teams of any stage companies, startups, high growth, or even Fortune 500.
Caneel Joyce:
One thing I do know about you and your work is that when I hear those words of Fortune 100 and executive, coaching, consulting, it sounds, I think, a little more buttoned up than I experience you. And to me, you bring so much depth, and heart, and soul into your work, it’s a little less traditional than I think it might sound from the outside. Can you talk about how you developed into this version of who you are right now?
Anjani Bhargava:
Such a great question because I ask myself that question too. I think I’ve always been a real depth-oriented person and I’ve been on my own life journey of development. And I think as time and life unfolds, you start asking yourself what’s real and what’s not, and so there were absolutely versions of myself where it felt very on the ladder and buttoned up, and I hit that mountain, I was a chief HR officer for a company, and you realize that that’s not the glory that you seek. And the glory that you seek is actually really learning who you are, and all the different aspects of who you are, and how you relate to people, and the authenticity by which you relate. And that’s what it’s about. And even in the context of organizations, big, small, or whatever, that’s why we exist. Not to play the game. The game is really irrelevant.
Caneel Joyce:
The game of winning?
Anjani Bhargava:
The game of anything. The game of winning, the game of climbing, the game of posturing, the game of politics, the game of putting aside who you are for who you need to be, the game of what’s expected of you.
Caneel Joyce:
It’s so beautiful because I see the connection of everything you’re sharing with the very way that you actually do help teams to win the game, and there’s a paradox there. It’s you are coming in through the human side in a very beautifully structured way that we’re going to get into, to really create high performance team environments and high performing leaders. So I want to talk more about the nitty-gritty of that, and first I want to just share a story. So last night we exchanged a few Voxers on … So Anjani and I, for the listeners, we’re working on a project together right now for a client, and Voxer is this app where you can leave each other these really long, up to 15 min long, voice messages. We love it, we use it all the time, it’s a great way to have an asynchronous conversation but it feels synchronous because it’s someone’s voice in a very relaxed tone, just like you’d have in a conversation. So sometimes, because Anjani is in Chicago, here I am in Los Angeles, we’re working on projects, we’ve both got little kids, we don’t want to schedule meetings we don’t need to schedule, so this is how we share ideas, ask questions, get feedback, challenge each other. So last night we were sharing some notes about this project and I remember you sharing something with me about what might be going on in my own coaching. And this is something that you’ve done for me really frequently, and I experience it as a combination of supporting and coaching me, but also there’s a way that you really challenge me. And our backgrounds are different in many ways, and you spent much more time in corporate environments, and I’ve spent much more time in smaller startups, so your perspective, I love your confidence and how you direct me, but last night we’re sharing this exchange. And by the way, guys, I’m in the middle of the most chaotic move process ever. I’ve moved locations with my family a couple times in the last couple weeks. We’re dealing with remodeling. We’re in a rental. Literally I rearranged my studio this morning. So it’s a bit crazy over here. And the past two nights when we’ve been sharing these notes, I’d be like I just can’t. I just can’t even put together a coherent thought at this time of night.
Anjani Bhargava:
And it’s usually at 10 o’clock my time, 8 o’clock your time. And after the kids go to bed.
Caneel Joyce:
And we just put the kids to bed, so we’re tired. But what you shared is maybe you need to drive the conversation more. And I think I responded to all the parts of your Vox except for that comment. But when I woke up this morning, it was ringing in my ears, and I’m like that’s the truth. And I don’t even know how you know that because you have never been in those conversations. How do you know it?
Anjani Bhargava:
I don’t know. I think there’s a lot to be said for intuitive knowing, but also, Caneel, I thin where you and I also connect is we’re both scientists. We’ve both gotten through our doctorate. You finished yours, right?
Caneel Joyce:
Yeah.
Anjani Bhargava:
I did not, but we’re oriented that way. So give me a bunch of fluff-fluff stuff without any tieback to science and I really struggle, but on this one, the intuitive nature, I’ve been thinking about that a lot and it makes sense. I think that I can see that because I’ve had all these different experiences. I sit on boards of startup companies, I have worked with Fortune 500 boards, I have worked with big teams, small teams, all that stuff is in my brain as disparate information. And just the patterns of how our brains work, neurons that wire together, fire together, that’s my sciencey side, it just zaps together because of all these experiences that form this tapestry. And so I have a way of just seeing, and I wouldn’t call it intuitive seeing, like some kind of weird thing that I’m not in control of, but this projecting outward of if this, then that. If this, then that. And I think that’s what it is. And I think the other thing that I pride myself on, and I’m sure everyone else does this but this is just for me, is when I work with, whether it’s an individual, a team, or an entity, the minute I decide to start working with them, they get all of me all the time. And so my objective is to be in full service all the time, always. I don’t know, I think just that mindset creates this … I’m almost a part of them. I don’t know, that’s the best I can explain it.
Caneel Joyce:
You’re choking up, almost.
Anjani Bhargava:
No, it’s just I don’t know how else to put it into words. It means so much to me to be a part of their experience and a part of their journey. And as coaches, we have to be careful of that because we are, as a prior podcaster of yours, David, as he says, self is instrument. People aren’t paying for our genius or our wisdom, or even our ability to ask questions, they’re paying for us, and the energy we bring, and the space that we hold. So [crosstalk 00:11:56].
Caneel Joyce:
Our being and not just our doing.
Anjani Bhargava:
Doing. Very well said, yes.
Caneel Joyce:
Dianna Chapman taught me about these two pillars of coaching, and the first pillar is the being, is how you be. And the second pillar is all of your technologies, your tools, your frameworks, your question-asking craft, all of that.
Anjani Bhargava:
Content versus context, right?
Caneel Joyce:
Totally. That’s something else I feel like I’ve learned from you in the past couple months is just allowing myself to surrender more, even more of myself, and less time-boxing of it, and much more just what’s needed now.
Anjani Bhargava:
But that’s something that I’ve learnt from you, because I remember when we first started working together it’s like okay, what are we doing and what do we need to plan for? And you beautifully said, you’re like, “No, we do the dance together and we’re so comfortable with each other that it’s just going to organically flow and play out,” and I have no need to plan. And it was the first time that anyone’s ever said that to me. “We don’t need to plan. It doesn’t matter, throw it all up in the air,” because that’s just not what it’s about. So I’m going to use your word, you’ve allowed me to rest into that. And the times when we do that, it’s beautiful every time.
Caneel Joyce:
I think it may have to do with our personality types too that that works well for us and it doesn’t feel good to a lot of people to work that way. For me, it’s a requirement because I find that when I over plan, I really cramp myself, not because my plans are wrong but because the energy of planning is antithetical to how I show up. Thinking I can predict where something is going to go and that my prediction is going to be more in service than being present with what actually is going on, that doesn’t work for me personally. So whenever I’ve over planned something, it doesn’t go very well. I over complicate, I feel a sense of time pressure and to rigidly force things, and control the flow of a conversation. Specifically, we’re talking about working in intimate, intense coaching settings with high level executives. So they know what they’re doing and they lead us just as much as we lead them. There’s just such a wisdom.
Anjani Bhargava:
Totally. And some people would call that mastery. That is mastery when you don’t need to come in with all your slides and papers.
Caneel Joyce:
It sure is nice that you have that stack of excellent slides though in your back pocket for whenever we need them.
Anjani Bhargava:
Back pocket, yeah.
Caneel Joyce:
Thank you for that. Yeah, so let’s get into high performance teams. What does that mean? Why does it matter whether or not you are a leader on a formal team? What is that about in a broader human sense?
Anjani Bhargava:
I think that people want to be in community with other people, and even those of us that like to alone ourselves from time to time, as a four, as fellow fours, we know what that feels like, we want to be in community, especially with people who we think we can do things with. And so when you’re in a team, whether your team’s your family or your work colleagues, your friends, you feel seen, you feel heard, you feel accepted, you feel invited, you feel like you have the ability to act through your genius. Doing that in isolation is far more limiting than doing it with others. And so I look at team as broadly as that of just being in community, and I think humans are wired to be in community. And when we don’t feel like we’re wired to be in community, because for many, many, many years, and you’ll hear me saying this, I like to alone myself, part of that is my fourness and part of that is just for years, and years, and years I didn’t find my people and my community. And so then you get burned.
Caneel Joyce:
Yeah, I love that framing that it’s about that basic fundamental human need to be in community. Steven Pinker talks about the role of language in the human mind and in how we evolved to be able to encode thoughts and concepts, abstract concepts, things that are not in the here and now, but talking about things that aren’t here and aren’t now, and maybe never were, maybe you’re just purely imaginary right now because they’re an idea about the future, we can encode all of that into language to communicate with each other. And this actually takes up a massive amount of our caloric daily intake is to create language using our mind, but the specific purpose of language is so that you and I can coordinate action, that we can work together. And if we actually couldn’t as human beings, we would perish, individual and as groups.
Anjani Bhargava:
I love that.
Caneel Joyce:
Isolation is a disease. It is a crippling disease that does not work for the human system because, in my view, we’re actually not individual organisms the way that we often talk about it. The health of me impacts the health of my whole family and vice versa because actually the human unit, human being, is a communal being. Teams are actually deeply encoded into our DNA. And the problems that we run into when we go into organizations and try to work in teams, the thing I love about this work that you and I are so blessed to get to do and working with people is it presents you with all of these very fundamental human dilemmas and challenges. That it’s every time you start a new team or a new company, a new venture, it’s a new opportunity to discover more ways that you can grow and learn as a complete human being.
Anjani Bhargava:
I love so much about that. And what comes up for me is the three planes that we work on, you can have your IQ, you can have your EQ, but then there’s so much also to be said for BQ and that energy exchange.
Caneel Joyce:
What’s BQ?
Anjani Bhargava:
Body intelligence.
Caneel Joyce:
Because EQ, BQ, [crosstalk 00:18:41].
Anjani Bhargava:
Body intelligence.
Caneel Joyce:
Body intelligence. EQ, emotional intelligence.
Anjani Bhargava:
So I talk about it as IQ is how fast those neurons fire and the connectivity of those neurons, EQ is your own awareness of your own emotion and that of others, and BQ is being tapped into your body and the energy of your body. And what’s so interesting to me about that is there’s so much research now that proves that you can change people’s complete states by the way that you show up. So yeah, we are absolutely connected. It’s like the trees and the root system of the trees, and they’re all intertwined, and they speak to each other. It doesn’t have to be verbal, there’s an energy exchange. And my energy and your energy can company-create to amplify or to completely shift and pivot.
Caneel Joyce:
Oh my gosh, yes. Okay, so this reminds me of when we first met. And we debriefed on this before. Explain what that was like for you, and I’ll give my version and why this is connected.
Anjani Bhargava:
You mean when we were staring at each other?
Caneel Joyce:
Yeah.
Anjani Bhargava:
That exercise?
Caneel Joyce:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Anjani Bhargava:
Yeah, it was crazy, right? Because what was the prompt? The prompt was just stare at each other, look at each other and show the other person, not by your words but with your hands, whether your energy is going up, or your connectedness, your connectedness is going up or down. And I remember at one point, because I do have so much love for you and I always have, that was just the words that I was shooting out through my eyes. And we weren’t even fully looking into, it was just eye gazing. And I remember your hand just kept going up, and up, and up, and up, and up, and you were brought to tears. And there were no words exchanged.
Caneel Joyce:
And just I could feel so much love in you. And we knew of each other before that happened, but that was the first time we got to be together in an embodied, physical real world. My body in the same place as your body.
Anjani Bhargava:
Yeah. It didn’t even feel like there was a separation.
Caneel Joyce:
I think there was always a magnetism though, which is really interesting. You think about who can I create with, and that’s who I want to be my team, whether you’re technically on my team in some kind of formal, written sense, or you’re on my team. And I just always knew you were on my team, and it was this very natural, instinctive … There’s a sexual energy to it, a recognition of this is a person with whom I can create.
Anjani Bhargava:
Create. And create in a way that we don’t even fully maybe understand or know, right?
Caneel Joyce:
Yeah.
Anjani Bhargava:
And you just give into that. And I think if you asked people to find a memory where they’ve experienced that, I think everyone’s experienced that if they allow themself to. But most people are so guarded and so don’t hurt me.
Caneel Joyce:
Well, also we really tamp down, especially in our business society, but we really tamp down on sexual energy in general, which is just the energy of creativity.
Anjani Bhargava:
Creation.
Caneel Joyce:
It involved curiosity, it involves inspiration, energy, drive. There’s a spark of moving forward with something, and something growing from you and in you. And so that’s one of these five … Anjani and I, both of us are trained in conscious leadership. And in conscious leadership, and we’ve talked about this on previous episodes around emotions, we like to talk about these five basic emotions. There’s joy, fear, sadness, anger, and what I say in a first meeting in a corporate setting would be desire. And desire is a code name for sexual feelings.
Anjani Bhargava:
I say creative energy.
Caneel Joyce:
Creative energy. That’s great. I might snag that one. But this is such a basic thing. When my son was in preschool, I came and taught his class about these five things, and we talked about desire, and he wanted an emoji for each feeling. So for desire, we landed on it’s a spiral, it’s a swirl.
Anjani Bhargava:
I love that.
Caneel Joyce:
Everything needs an emoji.
Anjani Bhargava:
I guess so.
Caneel Joyce:
So in teams, sometimes it doesn’t feel like what you and I have just described, that we often experience with each other. Often, we haven’t specifically chosen our teammates, sometimes we join an intact team, sometimes teammates are brought in, we didn’t choose them. What are some of the challenges that people experience on teams in your experience?
Anjani Bhargava:
So many. I think the first thing, so I think we’ve all heard teams are like the perfect Petri dish for all of your family of origin stuff to just replay itself. I do believe that. So we can say high performing teams, but I like the words conscious teams. Conscious teams. Are you guys consciously creating together? And I think the biggest thing that gets in the way is, for people who haven’t done their work, just facets of your ego, because I’m sure you talked about this in prior podcasts, but we all have three core basic human needs, if not a few more. The need for approval, the need to belong, and the need to feel safe, and the need for some level of control. And then you have, as we’re adults, layers, and layers, and layers of stuff that you’ve experienced, and your mental map of what’s safe and unsafe in the world. And so then you get thrown into a dynamic with 8 to 10 other people and all that just plays out in full form. And we use the word posturing, teams posture all the time. But why are they posturing? They’re posturing because at the end of the day, parts of their ego gets rattled and they’re scared. There’s something that they’re scared of.
Caneel Joyce:
Is this related to projection? Are we projecting those family dynamics onto the team and it’s really within us, but we see it out there?
Anjani Bhargava:
Totally. So I like to, as quickly as possible, get teams talking about what it is that they’re most scared of. And when you peel back the onion usually, and you peel it back, peel it back, peel it back, it’s always the same stuff. I’m scared of not being seen. I’m scared of not being liked. I’m scared of not being accepted. I’m scared that you’re going to find out that I really don’t know my shit. It’s the same stuff.
Caneel Joyce:
So there’s that imposter syndrome that definitely shows up. So common. We did an episode on imposter syndrome recently and it’s one of the ones that my clients have been most impacted by, I think, because that universal human experience of I’m pretending so that I can feel safe and I’m scared that you’re going to find out. That was episode 53, and I’ll link to that in the show notes, but I see that showing up and these family dynamics showing up. And there are different stages of teams falling apart. For anyone who’s been through something like that, it can be a gut-wrenching experience to have a team that used to be working together fall apart because of all those shadowing, egoic projections that are just part of us being human. But I feel like the final thing that crumbles is trust. Or sometimes the first thing that crumbles is trust.
Anjani Bhargava:
I was going to say, you think it’s the final thing-
Caneel Joyce:
So I think it depends on-
Anjani Bhargava:
… or the first?
Caneel Joyce:
I think if you don’t have the trust, then you can’t build up to being a high functioning, high performing team. If trust gets broken, everything falls apart, for sure, but it’s in that eroding process of we stop challenging each other, we stop showing up for each other, and maybe norms get developed, and it’s not personal, but eventually that task related conflict quickly falls into now it’s personal, now this is about our relationship, now this is about you, now this is about me, and I’m up all night and there’s no trust left. Once there’s no trust left, what do you do?
Anjani Bhargava:
Well, let’s talk about trust. I think trust is such a ambiguous thing and yet it’s so easy to understand. It’s so big yet so simple. And it’s a formula. There’s a couple of things that go into it and it’s just so blatantly obvious when we talk about. It’s do I think you’re credible for your job or for your position? The way I see you, do I see you as credible? Are you reliable? So can I count on you? And are you authentic so that I can have a relationship where I don’t have to wonder? And all of that can go to not if I think that you are more concerned about you than us. So it’s credibility plus reliability plus authenticity divided by my perception of your self-interest. And if that is zero, everything goes to zero.
Caneel Joyce:
If I perceive that you’re not-
Anjani Bhargava:
I perceive that you care more about you than you care about us.
Caneel Joyce:
Yeah.
Anjani Bhargava:
Right, so think about all the examples, and I invite your listeners to do this too, think about somebody that you … even if it’s your gut screaming at you, I don’t know if I can trust this person, why? And if you break it down into those four simple elements, you will see which one of those is being violated for you. And then you have a choice. What do I go do with that? Because I can sit and stew on that or this is where another thing that you and I love can be utilized, clearing. I can go clear. I can go reveal myself. I can go find out if these stories that I’m holding are actually true or not.
Caneel Joyce:
Let’s give a footnote on what is a story. We have a whole episode on fact versus story, episode 46, which we’ll link to. And also, related to that is the idea of speaking inarguably. So instead of claiming my story is truth and it’s a fact, can I take ownership that I made up a story? I keep telling myself a story. Or even I have a story, which I like that one a little bit less because it takes less responsibility. And I think to be authentic, it requires a tremendous amount of personal responsibility because it’s not authentic for me to ignore who is the one having these thoughts about you or about us. That’s me. I’m the one having those thoughts. It’s not a truth that’s out there and is objective. Where do dynamics like blame and judgment, where do those fit in to that trust equation?
Anjani Bhargava:
So I think blame and judgment are outcomes. So if I don’t trust you or something’s being violated, I don’t even like saying I don’t trust you because I’d rather get to what part of this do I feel unsafe in. If I feel unsafe that you’re not credible in your role, I’m feeling fear that we’re not going to be able to accomplish what we need to accomplish together. I’m feeling fear that I’ll have to take more than 100% responsibility. So then if I sit on that and if I don’t reveal, then I’m now losing authenticity because I’m unwilling to reveal myself, and then I shift below the line and go into blame, go into resentment, go into criticism, all of those things.
Caneel Joyce:
And it can be so subtle. It’s so very, very common. So one thing I’ve heard leaders say a lot when there’s that kind of a situation, so this person’s not good at their job, I don’t trust them. I don’t trust them … If I relied on them, I wouldn’t trust it and I would feel out of sphere, so I’m not going to. None of that is wrong. We make assessments of each other’s credibility in certain areas, and we make our own choices about where we want to engage and collaborate, and where we don’t. Those are our choices to make. However, what I’ve heard is the reason not to have the clearing that you were talking about earlier and not to reveal that authentically is I just don’t want to take the time to do that. I don’t have time for all of the reactivity and drama, and that person’s going to get offended and then we’re going to have to talk about that. Is it possible to move forward from there? How do you help teams where that’s just such an entrenched dynamic? I mean it’s so common.
Anjani Bhargava:
So you got to make a choice. And I think this is where the team leader is critical because if the value is placed on we are only going to win, whatever you’re trying to win towards, if we are a true team, if we’re a first team. Then the priority becomes being a team versus the output of what the team is doing. What’s actually more important is are we a team. And there are certain teams that say that, there are certain leaders that say that, they’re like, “I don’t really care. We’re not going to sacrifice the business, but I don’t really care about the short team wins if we’re not doing it correctly, because I’m going to bank on the longterm win, which is going to be so much better and so much richer if we unite as one, as a first team.”
Caneel Joyce:
First team.
Anjani Bhargava:
First team. So first team versus second team or third team. So how many leaders, when we ask them, “Who’s your team?”-
Caneel Joyce:
They usually will talk about the people who report to them
Anjani Bhargava:
My team.
Caneel Joyce:
Yes.
Anjani Bhargava:
My team. And then we say, “Well, what if that was your second team? What if the first team was the team that you’re on?”
Caneel Joyce:
Meaning?
Anjani Bhargava:
The team that you are a player on, not the team that you lead.
Caneel Joyce:
So like the executive team, the leadership team, the management team, whatever level.
Anjani Bhargava:
Whatever. The team that you are a player on with other people that are peers. Because that’s what you get paid to do. You get paid to lead your team, but really the influence and how you’re going to move things forward is this, not siloed parenting.
Caneel Joyce:
Yeah. So what does an organization look like where that is actually what’s happening versus the opposite, where people consider their team to be the team under them?
Anjani Bhargava:
I think everything gets discussed at the team that you’re on, especially if it’s the executive team. There’s alignment there. People put all their cards on the table. Things don’t get held back. They’re not posturing for their team and their wins. They’re sharing talent. They’re not hording their talent. They’re talking. I use the word altitude a lot. They’re rising in altitude and talking about the right conversations that are hard. And they’re making decisions together and they’re supporting each other. So they’re never saying, “Well, I didn’t really want to do this anyways, but.”
Caneel Joyce:
Right. A thread I’m hearing there is they’re not competing with each other.
Anjani Bhargava:
Yeah, exactly.
Caneel Joyce:
So they’re not competing with each other, however at some point there will be an opportunity to promote someone. And there a budget, and allocation happens across the whole organization, and in a family setting this would look like there are a lot of tasks to get done and there’s a certain amount of money in the bank, and there’s a certain amount of time. How do we choose who gets to spend what? How do we choose who does what around the house? That coordination of resources is what I’m referencing here. So what does that look like in a team where people are not competing?
Anjani Bhargava:
Well, if you’re not competing, then you’re not trying to tear each other down.
Caneel Joyce:
So what are people making decisions in service of if not themselves?
Anjani Bhargava:
The business. The role. The outcome. In a family setting, who gets the money? Who gets to go buy whatever they want? I don’t know, does it have to be that question? Could it be a different question where it’s what are we trying to create based on our values? Maybe none of us spend that money. Maybe the money goes in the bank. Maybe we go and don’t buy anything, and maybe we go have an experience together. Or as a team, what’s the role that is open and there’s only one role and we want to promote from within? Well, who’s the best person for that role? And if you truly looked inside, if you’re a conscious team, and there’s no competition, and stuff, if you truly looked inside, you would be happy if you got it, and you would be just as happy if your peer got it.
Caneel Joyce:
Yeah, because it’s what’s most in service of us achieving our mission and realizing that vision. This is why vision is just so critically important, not just for alignment but also for establishing trust. Without a clear vision of this is where we’re trying to go, this is the juiciest carrot hanging out in front of us that we’ve ever seen in our whole entire lives and we are willing to put that before ourselves because we want it to exist so badly but we cannot create it on our own. So once that vision is really set, and held, and clear, and there’s different levels of clarity, we could talk about that another episode, but clear enough that it actually can unite us without needing to debate each and every thing. It removes so many of those little windows where competition sneaks in, or I don’t understand what’s happening over there and I think my role is more important than yours, all of those little chances where trust does begin to crumble once that sneaks in.
Anjani Bhargava:
Yeah. And sometimes I think vision doesn’t actually have to be … The vision that inspires you doesn’t have to be the vision of the company that you’re a part of.
Caneel Joyce:
Say more.
Anjani Bhargava:
I think sometimes it’s totally great and totally okay, not okay, great, if the vision that you’re aspiring to is the vision of the team, the collective. Like you and I, do I really care about going and doing more work together, and the work itself, and achieving that? I do when I think about being in service of my clients, and why I spend time doing what I do. I don’t as it relates to you and I.
Caneel Joyce:
So interesting.
Anjani Bhargava:
The vision for you and I is just this energy exchange, this craziness that you and I have. And that is what the vision is, not the output of what we do. That make sense?
Caneel Joyce:
It completely makes sense. Completely. Yeah, and I can see how that applies to companies as well, that we have a vision of becoming this kind of a company. It’s not just about the product we’re putting out in the world, or our inhibitions, or our stock price, God forbid, it’s about the kind of company we want to be to put a mark on the world and to hold this container of human beings who cares about it.
Anjani Bhargava:
Yeah, or I care so much about the people that I work with and I learn to much from them. I love being in community with them.
Caneel Joyce:
So it goes back to who do we want to be, not just what do we want to do.
Anjani Bhargava:
Yeah.
Caneel Joyce:
Being not doing. Anjani, I love skimming around all these topics about teams, and I feel like, in this episode today, what’s really coming through for me is just the critical humanness of teamwork, and how fundamental it is, and how worth it it is for us to lean into any challenges that we face in teamwork because of how critical that learning is for us as humans. You have such a healer vibe, and I really see that happening with the people that we work with is there’s a real opportunity to have a reconciliation with some of your deepest wounds and some of your biggest insecurities, and I really, really appreciate you and your way of understanding the world, and how much love you put into being of service. And thank you so much for being here today.
Anjani Bhargava:
Can I say one more thing?
Caneel Joyce:
You betcha.
Anjani Bhargava:
For teams that are not business teams, like family teams, I think one of the most important things is the same vision that you’re talking about. Who do we want to be as an entity, as a family? The most important team. And we have two little kids, and from a really early stage, I think they were three or something, we created family values of who we wanted to show up in the world as. And I did it just as I was probably frustrated about something they were doing and I just wrote it out, but it’s simple and it’s just like what we would do in an organization. It’s the culture of our family. And it’s simple, it’s respect my body, respect my earth, respect my parents, respect my friends, and respect my house. It’s so simple. And we’re always checking each other on that. And then above that sits a Team Bhargava, who do we want to be in this world? What’s our purpose? But those values are so critical and it’s the binding force. I hope when my girls are released into the world, this is their roots system.
Caneel Joyce:
Oh, that’s so beautiful.
Anjani Bhargava:
Thank you. So we can talk about teams in any capacity, like families are teams. And families have culture.
Caneel Joyce:
100%. So Anjani, if our listeners want to get in touch with you about coaching, or teamwork, or any of the executive and culture development work you do, what’s the best way for them to follow you and find you?
Anjani Bhargava:
I’m going through a website refresh right now, so the best thing is to find me on LinkedIn or through the Evolution website.
Caneel Joyce:
Great, so that’s evolution.team and we’ll put a link into the show notes so that you can get in touch with her, and follow her, and hear an announcement when the new website’s ready. I’m excited for that. And also, I’ve been through that before, and that’s a doozy. Talk about ego work. Yeah, so great. Thank you so much for being here today.
Anjani Bhargava:
Thank you.
Caneel Joyce:
Listeners, Anjani is one of the types of coaches who’s going to be invited to offer live, interactive coaching sessions to you. All you need to do is join our brand new membership and you can learn more about that at allowedpodcast.com or caneel.com/yes. Link to that is in the show notes. And if you enroll very soon, you have a opportunity to become a founding member, lock in your price for life, and really have a big hand in co-creating and shaping the culture of that growing community. So I really hope that you can join us for that and get to have some life coaching with me, with the others who listen to the show and care about the things you do, and with other brilliant coaches, such as Anjani herself. So I’ll invite you to that and get in touch with you soon.
Caneel Joyce:
Thank you so much for being here today, and taking the time to share your wisdom and your heart. And listeners, whenever you take time to invest in yourself, your own personal exploration and discovery, your own growth, you really are doing something good for the world and the world of people around you. You’re doing something good for yourself, so give yourself a little connection love is so critically important, as we talked about today. So thank you for being connected, and we’ll see you next week.