Segment: Build Teams That Deliver Excellence Without You in the Room

Summary

Konnected Minds Podcast with Derrick Abaitey
Episode Segment: Build Teams That Deliver Excellence Without You in the Room
Date: July 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of the Konnected Minds Podcast delves into the strategies and mindset it takes to build high-performing teams that consistently deliver excellence—even when the founder or leader isn’t present. Through stories, practical examples, and an emphasis on leadership development, Derrick Abaitey and guest “B” break down how to foster reliability and sustained quality, transform mistakes into learning moments, and make customer happiness the team’s shared priority.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Power of Delegation and Leadership Development

• Delegating Responsibilities Like Moses
  The guest shares a biblical analogy of Moses (from the Christian faith) who was overwhelmed by personally judging every case. His father-in-law advised appointing leaders to share the load—a principle crucial in modern leadership:

  “You build leaders who in turn build other leaders... and then that's how you can avoid burnout.”
  — B [01:25]

  • Leaders must cascade responsibility and ensure a healthy organizational structure where leadership trickles down to avoid burnout and inefficiency.

2. Turning Mistakes into Growth Opportunities

• Handling Team Errors
  The guest candidly discusses a recent, stressful event where communication lapses created challenges:

  "When your team make mistakes, they will make mistakes... You must correct the mistakes, but these are mistakes that must not happen again. You must now teach, use it as a learning moment.”
  — B [01:50]

  • Use mistakes as teaching moments and develop systems and processes that prevent recurrence.
  • Leaders should embrace feedback—even criticism—as constructive.

• Continuous Improvement Mindset
  Sustained excellence comes from never settling:

  "The growth mindset is that I want to keep on improving. I want to do better than I did yesterday... you're constantly getting better and then improving, removing the rough edges."
  — B [03:57]

3. Customer Service as a Team Culture

• Customer Happiness at the Core
  Building lasting client relationships is as important as quality work:

  “The customer is the most important person and they must be happy. And when they are happy, they must be over happy. There must be layers to it.”
  — B [04:48]

  • The team’s focus on feedback and relationship-building leads to high client retention and repeat business.

4. Managing Setbacks and Building Resilience

• Emotional Response to Issues
  When things go wrong, even on small projects, the whole team feels it deeply:

  “There's no way that you will be doing an event and something is not going right... We are extremely... not happy.”
  — B [05:59]

  • The key is quickly shifting from disappointment to solution mode—what B describes as “repair management, crisis management, risk everything management” [06:51].
  • Resourcefulness and resilience are essential qualities in successful teams.

5. The Role of Personality and Team Dynamics

• Attributes Driving Business Growth
  When asked what has fueled sustained success—work quality, recommendations or personality—B says:

  “Can I say a combination of all?... My personality seeps into the business. Of course. Connection is my personality now. I'm also energetic now. But... everybody has their different strengths.”
  — B [07:57]

  • Recognizing diverse strengths within the team is key: not everyone must be outgoing; each member contributes uniquely.

• Sustaining Excellence Over Time
  The business has thrived for over 24 years, notably because B has built a team that “do a lot of work” and who “are very instrumental in making sure” every event succeeds [09:45].

6. Leading from the Sidelines—A True Test of Team Excellence

• Letting Teams Shine Without the Leader Present
  B often doesn’t attend events but still receives glowing feedback—proof the team can deliver without figurehead oversight:

  “There are many times in the last few years... I don't go and I still get—people are calling me to tell me, fantastic, awesome. The team, the great. The team. Oh my God.”
  — B [10:34]

  • Intentional absence is part of succession planning and pushes the team to step up and own the process.

7. Planning and Execution: From Concept to Event

• High-level Event Process
  When asked for a quick rundown from planning to execution, B emphasizes understanding and interpreting the client’s brief:

  "The first moment is to understand, get the brief and understand the brief. You must understand what your client's expectations are... no one is the same."
  — B [11:40]

  • Key steps:
    • Consultation and thorough understanding of the brief
    • Visualization and plan proposal
    • Agreement and pre-planning
    • Systems set up for seamless execution

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On building succession into the business:

  “This business is going to outlive me, it's going to grow beyond me. So I must intentionally push my team forward and then I'm stepping back.”
  — B [10:55]

• On resourcefulness and resilience:

  “To be exceptional, you have to want it more than others. You have to do more than others. You have to push more. How do you push more? By going back into the drawing board.”
  — B [06:48]

• A snapshot of humility and gratitude:

  “Some people, I'm the figurehead. I just come to dance or show my face. The work... the team are very instrumental... So it's not a one man business.”
  — B [09:45]

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Useful Timestamps for Key Sections

• [01:06] — The Moses leadership lesson: delegating to avoid burnout
• [01:50] — Turning mistakes into growth opportunities
• [03:57] — Discussion on growth mindset and continual improvement
• [04:36] — Customer service focus as a differentiator
• [05:57] — Emotional impact when things go wrong
• [07:57] — What drives business growth: personality, relationships, or work quality
• [09:45] — Sustaining business success and team contribution
• [10:34] — Leadership stepping back, team delivering excellence
• [11:40] — 2-minute overview of event planning and execution process

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Final Thoughts

This episode offers a nuanced, down-to-earth exploration of what it takes to build and sustain a team that operates to high standards—independent of the leader’s presence. Through humility, tenacity, and practical leadership, the guest demonstrates that real success is rooted in service, learning, and empowering others to lead. For anyone aiming to scale themselves out of daily operations without sacrificing quality, this conversation is packed with relatable wisdom and actionable insights.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Of course, even the culture, the work culture of an organization plays a big role in how you all behave. What you are teaching, how you are guiding, how you are showing them your love. You know, teaching, guiding, training, all kinds. So sorry, let me now quickly add also what you now need to do is that as a leader, which is what, if you remember, I think it was in. No, it was even Moses. I remember when his father in law said to him that he was the one judging all the cases. Sorry, I'm a Christian. For those of you just. These are the things that guy did.

[C]

That's right.

[B]

So Moses was judging all the cases all the time. They'll come out, come to him and be lamenting. Give him case, you go judge matter, you go judge case. And then his father in law said, you are going to wear yourself out and they can bring the big one to you if they cannot solve it. And Moses listened. And then he appointed leaders. So that is what, as a visionary or as a. As someone that sees the future structure, you must not cascade. So you, you build leaders who in turn build other leaders, who in some build other leaders. But you must keep at it. So you must ensure that you have a lot of leaders that are now building other leaders that are not building other leaders. And then that's how you can avoid burnout.

[C]

If you close your eyes and then imagine the last event you did, how does this whole description looks like?

[B]

Don't ask me about the last event. The last event we did, I must say was actually very stressful. And that was just because there were just some little. But the clients was very happy at the end, extremely. But before the event started, they were extremely happy. But there were some little gaps in communication with the team and some other people, but it was quickly corrected. And one thing, which is why I said that as a leader you must also understand is that when your team make mistakes, they will make mistakes. Right? And that's one thing you must recognize, that's one thing you must understand. When they do make mistakes, how can it be rectified so you must correct the mistakes, but these are mistakes that must not happen again. And you must now teach, use it as a learning moment or a teaching moment to say, next time you don't say this or this is what you do next time when you face this, not going to make that same mistake again. So that was for some of my team members learning because they had done excellently well on some other jobs, but on this one, I was not very happy, but at the end of the day, beautiful. So. But guess what? And that's why when you sit back, it's like when I think about even organ big organizations, sometimes you can go into a bank, everybody's complaining about the bank, oh, the bank is terrible. Or you can go to a place, oh, the food is bad. What you do as a business owner, as a leader, is to take criticism, take feedback, take it as constructive, and go and correct and learn from it and say, okay, somebody has said, I did not respond on time. How could I have avoided that? What should we have done next time? We will respond in three hours next time, okay? Or is there a process gap or is there a communication gap that we need to address in our organization? Then you sit back and then you use that to build more systems, more processes, or to remove bottlenecks. But the mistake people make is that when things happen or they go wrong, people just say, oh my God, it's gone wrong and we're not going to come out of it or whatever because. And that's what they call when they say you have a learning, a learning, a grow, a growth mindset. The growth mindset is that I want to keep on improving. I want to do better than I did yesterday. I want to do better than I did 10 minutes ago. I want to do better than I did one minute ago. And how can I learn? What should I learn? What should I see? How can I improve? And then you're constantly getting better and then improving, removing the rough edges, smoothing it, making it smooth, and then, boom, there's a finished product.

[C]

Is that the reason why people keep coming to you?

[B]

I think so. I would say so. I think that also one other major reason is that we are so big on customer service. So even if I. Today before I got here, we had an event and a lady came to me and said, funke, you need to come and train my team on customer service. I looked at her, I said, well, he said, yes. He said, you have it on a lockdown. Because for me, when what it is, the customer is the most important person and they must Be happy. And when they are not happy or when they are happy, they must be over happy. So there must be their layers to it. So that ability to take feedback, improve on the feedback, ensure that you are building relationships and you are sustaining the relationships with your clients, with people around, and then you are not sharing it. Those are, That's. I think that those are. That's why people keep on coming back. So beyond the work. The work is excellent. Beyond the perfection, beyond the. Oh, beautiful work. Oh, excellent. It is the relationship part of it. And that's one of the things I always teach my team. You must build relationships and hold on to it.

[C]

Okay, let's say you are doing one of your biggest events.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

And then all of a sudden something goes wrong.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

How does it make you feel as a leader?

[B]

You won't be happy now. You will. There's no way that you will be doing an event whether. And guess what? It doesn't even have to be a big event. Any event, no matter how minute, no matter how small. Any event. Once we're doing an event and something is not going right, I am. We are extremely. And why I say we is because it's not just myself, it's the team. People are like, oh my God, I'm not happy. We're not happy. Or. And people want to rectify. It's something. In fact, I won't lie to anyone when I see the way people show up for themselves, show up for other team members, show up at their events just to ensure that something is corrected. My heart is always glad. So at first, of course, you're going to be sad, you're going to be thinking, wow. But then you must go into repair management, crisis management, risk everything management. Okay. Yes. So this is not looking as good as we thought. Or it's not. How can we make it better? So that's why as a leader, you must have, you must have a resilient mindset. So you mustn't always be. It's very difficult, right. Not to go into your, into your shell and just say, what is going on? Let it go. Everybody get out. But you have to go back and say, look, no, we speak about. We're saying that we are excellent. We've said that we're like this. We've said that we are the best. We've said that we're exceptional. To be, to be exceptional, you have to want it more than others. You have to do more than others. You have to push more. How do you push more? By going back into the drawing board. And say, okay, guys, okay, let's do this, let's do that. Look, okay, have we thought of this? I mean, so resourcefulness, very important, you know, relation, so many factors.

[C]

You know, there are several things I read, you know, about what people are saying about you. The energy you have, your personality. Linking this into your business. Which one do you think has grown your business the most? Is it the recommendations or the personality you have or even the work that you have done? Which one do you think has really grown your business?

[B]

Can I say a combination of all? And when I say a combination of all, I'm saying this because first of all, my personality, since I've been a young person person, I've always had this joyful personality. It's my. It's just me. I've been joyful. I'm fun, you know, I'm energetic. I just want to have everyone to be happy now. And you remember when I said. When I talked about the. Why I said for the clients to be happy. So my personality seeps into the business. Of course. So that. Right. Then, of course. And then of course, connection. Because I'm very good at connecting people, bringing people together. That connection is my personality now. I'm also energetic now. But you have to understand that the energetic part of it, a lot of people on my team are not as energetic as I am. Right, Good. So that is not what. So I went that energetic part. What it is that everybody has their different strengths. Some people are not. Some people are calm. Some people are, you know, demure. You like a thing. So you have to recognize that everybody's not going to be energetic like me. Yeah, but the ones that are energetic, push them forward. The ones that are calm, they are doing this. Everybody has different strengths. So that energy, of course, feeds the business, but it's not what is propelling the business now. Then, of course, the work. The work is excellent. The work. If the work was not good, it will not come back. If the work was bad, they will not come back. So they have been coming back for over 24 years. Right. It means the work is outstanding, man.

[C]

Over 24 years. Some people can't even last five years. So it's putting yourself together, gathering that energy and constantly showing up.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

For over 24 years.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

That is a lot of work.

[B]

It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. But I'm grateful that I've been able to build a team in the last, I would say 15 years. It's. The team have done a lot of work. They've done it. Some people just see me sometimes. Some people, I'm the figurehead. I just come to dance or show my face. The work, everything is happening, everything, even on the day, the team are very instrumental in making sure. So it's not a one man business, the one man person, it's a team of people doing great things.

[C]

Are there moments where you never show up to the planning, the organization and just show up at the event?

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Dressed up to enjoy?

[B]

Yes. Of course there are times, of course there are times I don't attend some

[C]

events and you still get there and see the excellence that.

[B]

In fact there are many times in the last few years that I don't go. I don't, I don't go, I don't go and I still get. People are calling me to tell me, fantastic, awesome. The team, the great. The team. Oh my God. You know, for a number of reasons, some the clients have said, don't bother coming, your team is excellent enough, we don't want to see you. Some have been because I've been unavoidably absent because I had to travel, you know, and it was not planned. Some has just been like, it just been even intentional. You have to say, look, I need to be, I'm building a team. There's succession, right. This business is going to outlive me, it's going to grow beyond me. So I must intentionally push my team forward and then I'm stepping back. So that is, there's also been, it's also been deliberate and most of the time, I would say 99, the feedback has been excellent, well done, amazing, outstanding, wonderful, great. You're not in the room.

[C]

Great.

[B]

So that's it.

[C]

In two minutes, I want you to take me through the process from planning to executing an event.

[B]

Two minutes. Oh my goodness, that's 10 years. I'm just explained. So I think that from, for the first moment is to understand, get the brief and understand the brief. You must understand the brief. You must understand what your client's expectations are. Because every client is different. No one is the same. So you cannot, you know, say it is a one size fits all. So you must understand the brief, digest the brief and then now be, begin to interpret the brief. So those are. So of course you start from taking the brief in, which is like a consultation. From the consultation. When you understand the brief, you can say, okay, no, this is how we're going to visualize or this is how we're going to bring your dream to life. Of course you send them your bill, they agree and then you not begin the process of so we call. We have a pre planning stage Connected Minds podcast.