86 – Styles Of Communications That Complement Each Other (P3)

In this 3rd and final episode of our series on communications, Peter and Sonny dig deep into how different styles of communication in leadership. They explain how it can still produce solid results as they complement each other toward reaching our corporate goals.

If you haven’t checked out episodes 84 and 85, we invite you to listen to them first, so it will all make sense.

“The Obvious Podcast” is a production of ABC Florida East Coast Chapter. Unless otherwise stated, all content reflects the opinions of the guests and hosts.

If you like “The Obvious Podcast,” you can click here to listen to the audio version and subscribe on all the major podcast platforms, such as Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, or Spotify. We encourage you to leave us a review so other listeners can find us. 

You may also follow “The Obvious Podcast” on Instagram, Truth Social, X/Twitter, and now on TikTok.

► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theobvious_podcast/

►X: https://x.com/TheObv_podcast/

►Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/TheObvious_Podcast/

► TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@the.obvious.podca 

►Email: theobvious@abceastflorida.com

Transcript

Sonny Maken 0:09

Welcome to the Obvious Podcast. This is episode number 86. My name is Sunny Maken. I'm the CEO at ABC Florida East Coast.

Peter Dyga 0:18

And I'm Peter Daiga, president and CEO at ABC Florida East Coast.

Sonny Maken 0:23

You are listening to the Obvious Podcast, where all opinions, or you're also watching this, maybe, hopefully, where all opinions expressed are our own unless we say otherwise.

Peter Dyga 0:32

Love the show. Subscribe on any major podcast platform or watch us in action on YouTube. Follow the Obvious Podcast on Instagram, X, and Truth Social, and now on TikTok. All the links you need are in the show notes. And you can reach out to us anytime at theobvious at abceastflorida.com. And if you're enjoying the ride, help others find us by leaving a review wherever you listen. Happy Friday, Sonny.

Sonny Maken 0:58

Happy Friday. You have reached, I hope you're listening to this sequentially. You have reached part three of our three episode series on communications. Right? So we talked about fun.

Peter Dyga 1:10

Yeah. We talked about to actually be able to spend, you know, by the time this is over, 60 minutes kind of talking about communication, the importance of it, and whatnot.

Sonny Maken 1:18

So our first episode on communication, which was episode 84, was communication done well. 85 was communication done poorly. 86 is about a little bit more personal. I wanted to talk to you about your your your personal communication style, my style, how we communicate sort of organization with each other and then organizationally with our staff. Go ahead, go ahead.

Peter Dyga 1:42

And before we get into that, I do want to like uh we talked a little bit about you got in the mail, we have available as we do every year, yeah, uh a year in success. The this particular page uh on the left here uh actually prints our mission, our values, and our code of ethics. So um the last couple episodes in this one, we're gonna talk about the value of having a unified mission and and why that helps uh in success and delivering on success, being uh having it having it shared and agreed to, um, and then avoiding conflicts of interest. Um and today we want to talk a little more personal, yeah. Which we'll talk personal about communication style, if you will, but also its application, I think, to the organization and the percent because it has a huge impact on all of that, right? So uh people hasn't noticed we have a different style. Right?

Sonny Maken 2:37

Yes, yes, we do.

Peter Dyga 2:38

By the way, the different styles can all be successful. Of course. Uh you know, I I think you know, um we didn't necessarily have um one another to um I don't know, lean on or count on um before you before you came. And uh people that don't know, you know, the the our leadership and our board deserves a lot of credit because for many, many years, you know, we tried organically, you know, to kind of develop that person, and it was really much of them that said you have our support to actually go out and get somebody, you know. Um and so that's how how that started. And there will be some point in the future where I won't be here and you will. And so our kind of I think the point we want to uh talk about today is it's not that one is better than the other, and then talk a little bit more about how we take advantage of uh the complementarity, if you will, and and how it's how it's helped serve.

Sonny Maken 3:32

I do want to say if you're wondering about the impact of that on the show, I don't think Peter's going anywhere from the show. He might be sitting in Costa Rica or some other exotic country. That would be pretty cool. Right. Like you'll be you'll be a part of the show for a long time.

Peter Dyga 3:47

Share the experience that uh um I don't know if you want to speak who it was, but the whole with the chat GPT and the research with this.

Sonny Maken 3:54

Yeah, we'll talk about that. But before I get into that, I wanted to just publicly ask Mr. Producer. I just realized this is episode 86, right? 86? 100 is coming up. Like I'm expecting some, you know, big time production values here. All right, so you're beginning.

Peter Dyga 4:08

You're getting an advanced notice. Letting our team know, hey guys. We need balloons and good fit.

Sonny Maken 4:13

I would yeah, I I mean I would at least like the those, you know, I see teenage girls in like luxury hotels all the time with those massive balloons that have their age listed on it. I would like to see 100 behind me. It's not on a video like just when I go on conferences. All right. Okay. I just meant it in real life when I when I'm walking through some building. Gotcha. Oh, I'll see those teenage girls with those balloons uh that have the numbers. Uh but I would I would love to have a hundred behind me, behind us. Um, you know, but we'll we'll figure it out. I'm sure the team will will be hard at work to make the special. But before I even came along, and I'm in my, I think it's my fourth year now here at ABC. Uh and it's your 27th. Yeah. Wow. Fourth year. Time flies, right?

Peter Dyga 5:10

Unreal.

Sonny Maken 5:11

Unreal.

Peter Dyga 5:12

Um, seems like yesterday in many ways.

Sonny Maken 5:14

Yeah, it really does. And I was thinking about that conversation you and I had over that carrot cake that you and I both love so much.

Peter Dyga 5:22

Before that four years, or before the succeeding years and then before the four years. You know, because people may or may not know, but our we've had a relationship going back for a long time. You know before um the, you know, we started having conversations about you know our need at ABC for you know high-level COO or second in command, if you will. And so yeah, our relationship goes further back. So But I was thinking about including carrot cake. Including carrot cake.

Sonny Maken 5:47

One of the best ones you can have down there. Uh yeah, if you're curious, I'm not gonna plug the restaurant on the air, but if you're curious, let us know. We'll tell you where it is. Uh and good carrot cake is hard to find. And the way we look at it, it's a vegetable, so you know. Right. It's gotta be healthy. It's got carrots in it. It's got carrots in it. Um how would you describe so let's go back to communication. You you're on your 27th year, you know, clearly long before uh long before I showed up, you you have laid the groundwork, you're the third CEO in a 58-year history of this organization. You you have built upon uh an incredible record of of success and taken it, you know, certainly way above what somebody would even call the next level. How do you how do you feel like that success is reflected in your um communication style?

Peter Dyga 6:38

Well, that's a great question. So and by the way, I I guess I'd I I mean I I've always considered myself a fairly forward and blunt person too. So but I think it depends on the circumstances. Right. You know, so your audience is exactly I mean because our our position is you know a unique position uh where you have uh you know staff people that you have to communicate differently with because your relationship is different versus the volunteer leaders of the organization. Um so you know definitely um you know my style of communication with them because I I kind of have always felt this may have worked a little bit to my detriment, but you know, I'm here to provide uh a what I think is a very qualified and and valuable opinion when asked, you know, sometimes at the board meetings and at the at the federal or the federal, the um the kind of the association level, you know, if you will, the volunteer leadership level. So so yeah, sometimes that's you know, and that's uh you know, that might uh now if I if if there's a necessity, I don't think I would hesitate to to speak up if I felt like it was going in a, you know, um but if it was a conversation that, you know, was I don't want to say inconsequential, but it wasn't gonna be like the detriment of the organization if the decision went this way or that way, or they weren't necessarily getting all the data or information they needed. You know, but if if it was important to the conversation, I think I would speak up. But yeah, but yeah, my style's a little different, right? It's a little more political. You know, I think some people have couched it as. I wonder where that came from. I mean, right? Because I've been involved in politics my whole life and lobbying, yeah, you know, where you I've had to lobby people on this side of the political spectrum and this side. And so you have to know and find ways of trying of trying to do that. So, you know, so I think, yeah, that's kind of my style when it comes to our our leadership and association governance, if you will. I want to say something about your staff. It probably bleeds a little bit over to the staff. There are probably some some occasions when I'm a little less.

Sonny Maken 8:37

Because your relationships I think staff is interesting because your relationships by definition will be different because every staff member performs at a different level. Yeah. Right? Great. So how you communicate with a high performance staff member is very different than how you perform communicate with a low-performing staff.

Peter Dyga 8:53

You know, and early on, if you're trying to redirect or form or something, it might be a different style. It slowly may change over time. As you say, every new broom sweeps sweeps well. Yeah, right. Yeah. I didn't say that, but it's some Latin or a Spanish way of saying that, that apparently is that I I love the meaning of it. You know, it makes a lot of sense, right?

Sonny Maken 9:13

So I'm gonna I'm gonna say something about something about your style that I think might be a little controversial. Okay. Perceived as controversial. I think one of the things that I love those kind of things on the show. So that's getting and this this is gonna, you know, how when people are people ask other people in interviews, what's your greatest weakness? Oh, I'm a perfectionist, you know. I don't I work too much. What's those answers, you know? So I don't need I'm not this is not what I'm trying to say. Okay. In my criticism of your your uh style. Oh. Uh it's not even criticism, it's really feedback. I think you have this perspective, right? Because you've been here so long, and I think you have this perspective that I will let the success speak for itself. Yes. And I don't need to remind them that this is I mean, obviously it's a group effort, but it's really your leadership. I don't need to remind anybody that my leadership is responsible for this.

Peter Dyga 10:08

We've had this conversation many times. You're right, and probably is to the detriment of the organization. I don't really care. Probably me too, but I don't necessarily there's no probably to it. I'm certain that it probably has uh not worked to my advantage professionally.

Sonny Maken 10:22

Yep.

Peter Dyga 10:22

Uh as much as if I was more of a toot your own horn, you know, kind of guy. So but no, you're you're spot on. In fact, I can think of, you know, in a recent example within the last week, you know, I was having a conversation with uh some of the one of our volunteer leaders, you know, and the question was, what what did I want my legacy to be? You know, and the and for me, I don't know, it's a little caught off guard because it's like I don't really spend a lot of time thinking about my legacy. I put I put my best on the field and I think it speaks for itself.

Sonny Maken 10:53

It's in your mind, it's reflected, right? In your mind, you're like, look at my legacy. Look at look at everything that this organization has done since you became CEO. And and I feel like people don't catch people don't capture it, people don't catch it, right? Um and this is not an insult on people who don't catch it, it's not an insult on their intellect. It's just people are busy, people have limited bandwidth, and people have to be like I tell my I tell my kids this all the time. Uh because my my kids tend to be very kind of uh one of them tends to be like very sheepish. And I'm like, hey, do you know what Toyota is? And she looks at me like I'm an idiot. She's like, Yeah, I know what Toyota is. They make cars. And are they good cars? Of course. They're Japanese, they're good quality. Then why does Teota keep advertising on TV, right? Everybody knows what Toyota is. It's probably a huge global brand. I could grab some random person in Africa and be like, Do you know what Toyota is? But they keep advertising because they want to be top of mind. They want to remind you, hey, we're here, we're great cars, we're good quality, whatever, right?

Peter Dyga 11:50

So I think that's something Well I'm Peter Daiga, and I've been president and CEO for 27 years, and we're doing pretty well. The ABC Florida East Coast chapter, ABC CARES Foundation.

Sonny Maken 12:03

Yeah.

Peter Dyga 12:04

So anyway.

Sonny Maken 12:04

And not just, you know, and so okay, so that's a great point. You just said three organizations where you're the CEO, I'm the CO. So it's the chapter, it's the foundation, and it's the Institute, right? Institutes are our apprenticeship training uh platform, which is the largest in the state of Florida. But then think about within that how much happens. Sure. Right? So within the within the chapter, like you know, we're landlords, we're publishers, we're we are uh workforce placement experts in the institute, we're uh recruiters, we're I mean there's all these different roles.

Peter Dyga 12:37

Have we done an episode yet on the recent agreement we've entered with a state organization? No, we have not done an episode.

Sonny Maken 12:47

The complexity, yeah.

Peter Dyga 12:48

You know, so um you know, entered into a We got time. We can talk about that if we want to get into it. Um I mean, really entered into a I don't know, groundbreaking thinking for a better word or a better phrase, but um for us and even for the state, I think, you know, um partnership, if you will, agreement. Absolutely. You know, so for with the Department of Juvenile Justice, it's formal, it's formal now and signed and done deal. And um we've got the instructor on payroll and and uh cleared through, you know, the background checks and whatnot. So we're we're super excited, you know. And again, all boils down to what why. Yeah, you know, and this came about in part because of relationships, you know, which is why relationships are important as well, because you never know what might develop out of them, but it also come about because of our our commitment to that mission, yeah. You know, and and that's why we have a whole separate entity, you know, with a whole separate board of directors, a whole separate set of financials and and whatnot that's dedicated to that aspect of our mission. So in any event, you know, but we don't talk about it necessarily a lot, you know, and it's a problem. So but that's where you've been a perfect compliment, I think. And thank you. Um and some people uh have preferences for certain styles, but I guess the point we want to make today is we think both of them are are necessary.

Sonny Maken 14:12

I just I have a real I'm gonna use a phrase that I have a real contempt for, and I and I see it a lot in life and in and organizations. I think people theologize serendipity, they don't understand, and primarily because it hasn't been communicated to them, so they don't understand that every successful agreement, there's years of work behind it. There's years of credit credibility building, years of relationship building, years of actually deserving results.

Peter Dyga 14:39

Do you think they do that for themselves? No. Or their own companies? Never.

Sonny Maken 14:44

Then it's them. I built it myself with my bootstraps, you know, look what I've done, look what I've accomplished. But when it's when it's other people's success, I think it's like it's you know, it's serendipity. Like you you you do this with celebrities all the time, right? They'll be like, oh yeah, this guy came out of me.

Peter Dyga 14:59

I mean, some of them have been around almost as long as I have, or you know, you can have volunteer leaders that have been around a long time. Absolutely. I mean, we we we hope they are. We would like all of our members to be engaged and to be you know on committees.

Sonny Maken 15:12

And uh, you know, so I mean a lot of them have that experience and and can contribution, if you will, to but if they're still not understanding the impact of like your leadership or my leadership, then it's a communication issue. We're back to where we started. Okay. So then it's a communication issue. I I don't uh other than that, I really don't know. Uh I mean you could argue it's conflict of interest, you could argue all sorts of other things, but primarily I think uh communication is the driving force uh behind how people perceive the uh success of an organization. But I think people are very, very quick to uh to I I hear celebrities say this all the time, like especially when they make it big, they're like, oh man, people keep telling me I'm an overnight success. I've been making commercials for 20 years, or I've been I've had small parts for you know 20 years, and now that I finally hit it big, everybody tells me I came out of nowhere. And that's just not the case, right? And I think like that happens, certainly happens to us uh as an organization. And I really am very um cognizant of the fact that this is all built, you know, and not just on your shoulders, but really on Dan Shaw's shoulders and the young men before him, right? Like it's Errol Bader. Yeah, Errol. And it's a series of good decisions, and of course bad decisions, but the impacts, the series of good impacts that you know everything gets built upon.

Peter Dyga 16:32

By the way, did we have we talked yet about the fact that we inducted our only second lifetime member? We have not talked about that. We should talk about that. You know at the recent uh national convention. So Richard Wass. Richard Wass from Wall Construction. His company and or uh affiliated company, I think, has been a charter member going back to 1968, and he has served in almost every capacity in this organization at the federal, state, and local level. I was a twinkle in my daddy's eye in 1968. Right, and still serves as a trustee on the ABC CARES Foundation, relatively new trustee, but he's still serving today. And he great guy. You know, it is not an easy thing to be approved by this organization at a national level to be a lifetime member. And so he recently was done. So that that fits in, I think, to the whole um mission statement and communication and whatnot. So but I want to spend a little time because we're it's a uh amazing how quickly the time goes by. But we're in our third part of a communication series. We are and talk a little bit about the value of being a little more direct when we're talking about and communicating the mission, the focus on the mission, the things that divert us from the mission, the conflicts of interest that might creep in to understanding the mission and in the way we communicate, you know. Because my leadership has has lacked, you know, I think in a lot of that.

Sonny Maken 17:51

And well, I I would disagree with you on a little bit. I don't think it's lacked on it, but I think I think what happens is when the like I I heard a uh professor say this in call in um grad school uh repetition builds culture, right? And when you stop repeating because you think they got it, number one, that's when they stop getting it. But number two, I think there is a price to pay for the distraction that is caused by all these other things that are non-mission um focused or based or however you want to say it, right? Say that again? I think there's a there's a price to there's a cost of distraction, right? There's a price to pay. Say that again. Repetition, right? I mean that is a good point. There's yeah. That's a great point. There's an absolute cost uh cost to pay. And I think organizations pay a very heavy cost when they get distracted by conflicts of interest or or leaders who who somehow think all success is is serendipity. And I think when you get away from that, I think you pay a price. So you have to constantly remind them why they're here to constantly remind not just uh volunteer leadership, but also staff. Like, why are you here? Like there's a that's a great point, too. Right? You have to constantly remind staff why you're here. And if you can't figure that out, I mean our mission, it's not it's not just us talking about it. It's like literally on a on a sign behind me. It's in everything we publish. You know, we talk, it's in our if you look at our I mean, if you were a volunteer leader, you would see it on the agenda. I mean, there is a constant uh reinforcement. And I think it's still lacking, even how much we re reinforce it. It's still not enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know.

Peter Dyga 19:26

I wonder how many people, if we asked, wouldn't know what our staff were voluntary if they could repeat it like we can.

Sonny Maken 19:32

Yeah. That's a great question.

Peter Dyga 19:34

Help our members win work and deliver that work safely, ethically, and profitably. Profitably. So anyway, we hope you'll uh again, you've gotten this year in success for 2025. And on the right side, we have uh on the left side, excuse me, we have our mission statement again printed, our values, our code of ethics, et cetera. So we encourage you to take a look at it and help us communicate and drive this mission every day of every week, of every month, year after year. Year after year. But anyway, hopefully with a little bit of an insight on communication styles and how they're c complementary, I think. They're absolutely serving us well at the moment. And it's not that one is bad or one is good or one is preferable or one is not preferable. It's actually, I think you need a little bit of balance of both at different times and in different circumstances. So anyway.

Sonny Maken 20:25

And all of it, all of it is uh connected to the mission. So if you are pursuing and staff and leaders and and and volunteers, if you're pursuing the mission, you know, I see it all the time at like our EIC events or at our GC showcase, like you know, the the the steel-eye determination with which we're sort of look at the projects we built. Like, you know I remember talking to somebody about the uh the racetrack around the hard rock and all all the engineering that took place under the track because uh you know, because the pl the amount of plumbing that was involved was insane. Right.

Peter Dyga 21:00

And the thresholds, you know. For that racetrack as opposed to a a street that you and I drive on.

Sonny Maken 21:05

Exactly. So again, mission, mission, mission. And that's you know, styles, you know, can't style over substance, guys. I mean, that's really at the end of the day. Pay attention to the substance. Yes, style matters, but uh if the results aren't there, it's it's irrelevant.

Peter Dyga 21:25

What would you say to somebody that might say, are you saying the ends justify the means?

Sonny Maken 21:30

I am definitely not saying the ends justify the means. But I think you can have a balance where you can kind of pay attention to um again, if you understand the mission, you can uh define what success is. And if you understand that, I think you will not get hung up on the things that are um irrelevant in the long term. Yeah, maybe we could do a whole show on that. We could we should do it, we should do an episode on uh do the ends justify the means. Absolutely. All right, but we're out of time and Mr. Producer is kind of like telling us to wrap it up. So thank You for joining us and for uh listening. We will be back next Friday with a whole new episode.

Peter Dyga 22:05

And for comments, we ask you to send us an email at the obvious at abceflorida.com. Until next Friday, ciao.