70. Managing People and Projects: Real-World Leadership Lessons from Richard Regitano
Episode 70
In this expert interview episode, I talk with Richard Regitano, Managing Director of Engineering and Operations, about leading with systems, trust, and self-awareness. With a 20+ year background in engineering and real estate, Richard shares his process for managing both people and complex projects at scale.
Topics include how to build trust with your team, what makes a great one-on-one meeting, and why simple systems can free up mental space to be a more present leader.
What You’ll Learn:
✅ How to balance people management with task management
✅ Simple systems for tracking information (so you don’t rely on memory)
✅ The emotional component of leadership that often gets overlooked
✅ How to be easy to manage—from an actual manager’s perspective
🎙️Other Episodes + Resources Mentioned:
Episode website (with transcript)
✏️Enroll in SchoolHabits University (Curious? Check it out!)
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The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I am choosing not to spend my time fixing them 😉
70 Managing People and Projects: Real-World Leadership Lessons from Richard Regitano===
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Learn and Work Smarter podcast. This is episode 70 and this is one of the monthly episodes where I interview an industry expert on the kinds of things that we talk about on the show, just to round out the conversation and to get some additional perspectives and insights into learning and working smarter.
Today I am talking with Richard Regitano. You will hear more about his background from him directly in just a moment. But let me set the stage. Richard is a seasoned building professional with an engineering degree from Northeastern University. [00:00:30] He began his career working on major public infrastructure projects, including the Big Dig tunnels and the Boston Convention Center.
Today, Richard leads a high performing nationwide team of engineers and maintenance professionals focused on real estate operations. He oversees technical operations of a large national portfolio of multi-family properties, ensuring that each one operates at the highest standard. So in other words, Richard knows a thing or two about managing projects and managing people, and that is exactly what we're gonna talk about [00:01:00] today.
Leadership advice and project management tips are the key topics of today's conversation, and whether you are a seasoned professional or a, a longtime career leader, or maybe you're still in college, the insight that Richard shares today is gold. So let's begin.
[00:01:30]
Well, hello, Richard. Thank you so much for joining me on the show today. I've been looking forward to this conversation for a long time, so thanks for being here.
Richard Regitano: Really appreciate the invitation and I'm very excited.
Katie Azevedo: Awesome. So let me give listeners a little bit. I'm gonna have you share a little bit about yourself and of course I kind of gave [00:02:00] a snapshot in the introduction, but there is a very specific reason why I am having you on the show today and why I thought that you'd be the perfect guest. Because you have a career of managing people and projects. And as much as on this show, I talk about nitty gritty task management and procrastination and time management and all of these skills, I will be the first to admit that I do not manage people. And I have designed my life and my career to be that way. And [00:02:30] so when it comes to leadership and people management,
I don't feel qualified to be talking about that. So that is why you are here having this conversation with us today. Are you ready?
Richard Regitano: I am ready.
Katie Azevedo: Awesome. So could you share with listeners just a little bit of, of your backstory and, and what you're doing these days?
Richard Regitano: Yeah, I'd love to. So I studied engineering in school.
I, I went to a school that focused on co-op learning, sometimes called internships. And it was one of the reasons why I decided to go to that school. [00:03:00] And it allowed me to get into the workforce early on in my career. In fact, during my education time.
And so. I think I, I've always told people the interesting thing about having that opportunity is being able to find things that you don't wanna do, and I think that's something so important and I was able to do that early on. I studied engineering. I was working in a laboratory and testing things and really found that that wasn't what it was for me.
I ended up moving into the construction industry and got some really large, unique pro, uh, project experience, which led me down the road to, [00:03:30] to really drill into more of the owner operator, uh, engineering and facility side of the business. Whereas really, you know, we're, I always say I, that's where, that's what I was built for.
This is what I'm, I'm here to do. And so today I, I work in the multi-family space and I lead a, a team of, uh, incredible individuals across, uh, the country, focused on maintaining properties, finding ways to make sure that they're safe, creating, uh, you know, efficiencies, making sure that [00:04:00] we're always, taking care of the equipment that we need to, so that, that our customers always have the best product possible.
Katie Azevedo: Okay, so it sounds to me like you have this career experience of managing projects, managing all the bits and pieces that come with a project, but also the people who are involved in that project. So, today's conversation, hopefully we can touch on both of these concepts, leadership and managing people, and then actually the nitty gritty of project management in itself and maybe some of the more granular pieces of what that looks like, the mechanics of it, what what tools [00:04:30] are you using? What philosophies? What mindsets? Like how do you manage the projects? And I don't want to reduce people to projects, but for the sake of simplicity and for this conversation, in many ways people are projects, right? And, and if you can't manage your people and the ones that you're leaving to run the show
when you're not there, 'cause you're not micromanaging, right? You gotta make sure that the people are able to operate at the highest level. So, question, let's just jump right out of the gate. What builds trust [00:05:00] in a leader? So how are you establishing yourself with these teams as somebody who is worth listening to, to someone who is inspiring? Like, how are you establishing yourself as a leader out of the gate?
Richard Regitano: It's a, it's just a great question.
Katie Azevedo: It's a tough one, I think.
Richard Regitano: Yeah, I mean it's, uh, it's, well, uh, or easy. I think, you know, trust is one of the most important things that comes with leadership and I think about trust, I think about [00:05:30] empowering your team and balancing when to be more involved and when to be less involved.
And I always, one of my, one of my favorite practices is to work on a problem with somebody. And, and I'm, I'm somebody, uh, I, I, I'm excited we get to talk about some systems. I love systems. I, I create process so that I can focus on the people as opposed to focusing on trying to remember something. And [00:06:00] so, but when you think about trust, I, uh, uh, you know, where I go is I always tell people that I trust them.
And, you know, I would tell anybody listening, I would say, think about the last time that somebody told you that they trusted you. And I know when somebody tells me, and I, I'm very deliberate, I say, look, I trust you. Here's, here's my thoughts on something, on the project, on the, on the decision, on the contract, whatever it may you're working on.
[00:06:30] But I trust, I trust you. I trust your decision and I trust I'll be, I'll be there to support you and think about the last time somebody said that to you personally. I know how I react and that's that there will be no, there's no option for failure. I'm going to make sure that I'm gonna, I am gonna know what I need to do, I'm gonna communicate what I need to do because I now feel responsible and that I know that my supervisor, leader, whoever it may be, [00:07:00] trusts me to be the person to make sure that it's successful. And of course, things go sideways, and you need to come in and help people. And what you want them to know is that it didn't, that didn't disrupt the trust that you have in them.
Occasions always occur when things go sideways or, or whatnot, right? And you can't control everything. But that one, it's they know that they can trust you. That you're gonna be in, you're gonna be shoulder, shoulder with 'em when they need the support, and that you're [00:07:30] also gonna continue to trust 'em on the next project.
And I just always think about it's, it's more of a emotional piece than it is, uh, you know, anything beyond that. And, and the other side of the coin is also that trust is something that you have to continue to support, and so you want them to always know that you're gonna be there and break down those barriers so that you can continue to have a, a, a [00:08:00] positive and a successful relationship.
Katie Azevedo: Hmm. So what I can hear from them is gonna glean two insights because I have a broad and diverse, um, listener base. And there's some folks listening to this who are in college and they're gonna be seeking managerial and leadership positions. Some perhaps are headed into internships, and then there's folks who listen, who are established professionals or are already in leadership positions.
So I wanna extract two important things that you said, which. You know, are, are kind of a similar concept, but break it out into different audiences. If you are a student right now [00:08:30] listening to this, and you just heard Richard say that, if someone tells you if a managing a manager in your life tells you, I trust you to do this thing that we're assuming is part of your job that you've been hired to do or that is you're expected to do, that there is a cognitive piece at play. There is a social accountability piece at play. There's a psychological piece at play where that is someone saying, I have the trust in you to show up. Right? And so it's on you. It is your job as [00:09:00] that student, as that intern to show up and deliver what's expected of you. But Richard is not saying right, you're not saying at all that if you're struggling, that if you have questions that your manager and that your leader doesn't expect you to come up with questions and seek help when you need it.
Right. Being trusted to do what you're asked to do doesn't come with a stipulation that you must do it fully on your own and make no mistake. And that you
Richard Regitano: need to know every answer. Exactly.
You know, I
Richard Regitano: think, yeah, you don't, [00:09:30] you know, every situation is different and you're not, especially in business and may maybe it's slightly different in school when you're learning very uh, regimented curriculum. Mm. And you are expected to know certain aspects, so that may be a slight difference, but in, in the world of business, you, you can't possibly know everything. And so you need to surround yourself with, with, with successful, with smart people, and you know, trusting is not knowing all the answers.
Trusting is [00:10:00] knowing that when you don't know the answer, you're gonna ask for help.
Mm-hmm. So the other side of that coin is for the audience listening, who is the, the seasoned manager and, and the leader, and you have questions like, why, why is my team not delivering? Why are they not showing up? Why am I struggling?
Maybe a question is, ask yourself, are you delivering to your team the message that you trust them? Do they want to perform for you? Do they know that you have trust in them? And so that's just, those are questions that only somebody can ask and answer for themselves. But I think that those are great [00:10:30] questions to ask.
So, in your industry, whether it's in construction or in real estate, you are used to managing a lot of parts, and you just said that you love systems and you like to create them so that you can focus on the pieces that are more important, which are the people. Can we talk a little bit about these systems that you're alluding to?
What are they? How did you create them? How do they serve you?
Richard Regitano: I can, I can give you one kind of unique industry example, and there's probably [00:11:00] a number of other ones I would say. So in my business, I, we take a lot of pictures, so we're documenting things and this one is always fun and everybody always is always impressed by my ability to pull things up.
And so, you know, I'm, I'm, I am devout in taking a lot of pictures in, in all of my life, but mostly at work and I focus immensely on making sure I organize them as quickly as possible. So what does that mean? It's not very fancy. [00:11:30] I put them in a folder based on location, and so for me it's, it's buildings and uh problems usually. And so I'm able to, have I been in there? I don't know. I go to the pictures, I know exactly where it is, I know what that that is, and I'm able to recall a lot of things. So I use pictures as a way to remember even if I, and I overtake pictures just so that I have documentation. So I'm able to, oh, did I have a problem with this type of, this piece of equipment?
I'll have a picture of it [00:12:00] and, and maybe even, you know, uh, you know, 50 pictures of it that allows me to then recall, so I don't have to remember every location, every type of problem, every type of piece of equipment. And that's just a very simple way for me to kind of document the progress over time. And it really allows me to, my goal is always to not have my memory be the responsible party in having historical data. Mm-hmm. And so I would say that's one very simple way to just track where you are, what you're doing, and what may [00:12:30] be, what issues you're dealing with or what you're trying to to find a solution for.
And then another one is, I, uh, I, I'm, I take a lot of notes now. A lot of people take a lot of notes.
I've, I've been very, you know, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how is the best way to keep track of all these notes, and I have, you know, most days are just back to back meetings and trying to figure out what, what we talked about in the last one and tracking things. And so I'm very [00:13:00] focused on making sure that notes are more action based, more driven on process as opposed to just writing what was discussed.
And so you, I, you know, I think sometimes notes from a meeting can get long and do you, when do, when do you really go back and, and read them and, and, and, uh, how do you use them to your advantage? And so I structure one-on-ones and I structure recurring meetings in such a way that I build on them constantly.
[00:13:30] So the previous meeting is at the source of the next meeting, and then, uh, you know, I ba I basically copy and paste it. And I'll use tools like OneNote, Notion. I've used Evernote, I've used a number of different things at work. It's typically OneNote at home 'cause I do the same systems at home as notion.
And, it allows me to, to build a repository of information and, and it builds over time. And so each meeting for one-on-one, for example, I'll document some action. [00:14:00] So say there was a project being worked on. I'm not writing everything about every, you know, issue or decision that's made, but I'm keeping track of, okay, I, I, I asked you to do X, y, or z.
I'm putting that in the notes, and so then I then can rely on my notes for the next time. It's, it's a process. Say, oh, hey, how did that go? What did you, did that, was that successful? Was that not successful? Did did you have to change your path? And then that way, [00:14:30] especially when you're managing large numbers of people,
you're managing large numbers of projects and they might be in different time zones and you know, you know, all across the country, whatever it may be. However, you know, the diversity of your work that you work on is it allows you to rely on your system so you don't have to try and remember everything. I also take written notes, but I don't use those the same way.
Those are more just in, you know, in the moment and or they're task based. So if I need to do something, [00:15:00] I'll put it in in my notebook and then I am very focused on executing whatever that is. That may be create a, a OneNote or, or a, uh, another note to tar, to track something. But it's more of a, in the moment kind of in, you know, tracking as things go.
Interesting. So I just heard two things that I wanna pull out here. This is my favorite thing. When I listen to people during an interview, I'm like, hold on. That was a golden nugget. I don't even know if they realize that that was a golden nugget. So let me just reiterate this. It sounds like when you're taking your very action based notes at meetings, you're [00:15:30] leaving off the fluff, you're leaving off, this was discussed that was discussed. It's more like, this is what I'm supposed to do and this is what I've asked so and so to do, and I can't help but go back, think back to the beginning of this interview where you're like, I tell my people I trust them. Right. And I think that that is absolutely a through line between what your, your note taking system, your information management system, and your trust that you have in other people.
Because if you're just writing in your notes, I asked, you know, Jill to do this thing, you are [00:16:00] trusting, Jill, that she's gonna do that thing and she's gonna trust you to just check up uh, the next meeting, did you do that thing? Not the micromanagement. Right. And so I think that that's, you're not just saying lip service here.
You're saying I trust people through and through, and I tell them I trust them. And even the way that I manage information, that's something else I wanna talk about. Information management exemplifies the trust that you have in the, the people on your team. Now the other thing, [00:16:30] information management, so for people listening who are like, okay, so he's, he's keeping track of photographs and he's keeping track of, you know, all of these things.
There is a name for that and it is information management. At least that's what I call it on the show. Some people might call it data management. I just think in general, information management and whether you're a project manager, whether you know, whatever industry that you work in, information management is a critical piece of being able to operate successfully and smoothly and efficiently.
And it sounds like [00:17:00] your, you have systems that work for your industry. The, the, the pictures of the machines and the buildings. So if someone's listening right now and you, you're listening to Richard's advice about, just capture the information so that you can build a repository of data that you may or may not need in the future.
But if you had it, you'd be pretty darn happy that you had it. What could that look like for you? And this is my question to people listening. What could information management look like for you? What things in your life do you [00:17:30] often wish that you like? Oh, I wish I, I wish I knew that, I wish I knew where all my professors, um, contact information was.
I wish I knew where all my online textbooks were. I wish I knew where I, a place where I saved all those PDFs. Did I even save them? Right? Because information management can look different and whether you're in college or high school or in various industries. So I just wanted to name what you were talking about is information management as something that's critical to what, um, we talk about here on the show.
So follow up question, are you creating yourself some [00:18:00] SOPs? And what is one of my favorite, one of my favorite topics, workflows, SOPs, or does not that not fit into your day to day?
Richard Regitano: Well, standard operating procedures is everything in my day. So, you know, I think we, my business is driven by that. So, you know, you create, you know, down to very tactical pieces like, you know, this, this piece of thing, this equipment, this building requires this on this frequency and this and this order.
These are the tasks and here's a, here's a software package that will trigger a work order [00:18:30] ticket that would then be executed by somebody who's responsible for that work. So I, I would say beyond that, from a leadership perspective, I think everything I do is, is a, is a standard operating procedure.
Um, you know, I, I think it comes down to one, like, one-on-ones, for example, where I meet with the teams. Um, it's, I do this, I do this interesting thing. I, I, I schedule one-on-ones for a year, and, My motto with a one-on-one is always, this is, you know, this is [00:19:00] my opportunity to talk to you. My, it's, it's their time.
So I'm keeping track. I'm taking those notes, I'm gonna ask questions. I'm gonna, you know, find out what's going on, try to identify when things are not going correctly, but it's their time. And so if I want to, if I wanna have my time, I'll schedule something with 'em separately for a project based work, whatnot.
Uh, but I always, I let the meeting expire. And so at the end of the year, I never, I never do these un you know, forever meetings, right? You [00:19:30] always wanna have meetings. Meetings will always expand to the amount of time you allow 'em, right? So, so you let it, you let it expire at the end of the year, and then you monitor when the individual reaches out to, Hey, my, you know, my, my one-on-one is, we haven't, we haven't rescheduled 'em.
They, they ended at the end of the year and. If it's not, if it takes a long time, it's probably not valuable to them. And if it's, if, if it's immediate [00:20:00] January 1st, you know, usually ends in around the holidays and everybody comes back from, if they take some time off and, oh, you know, we, we don't have any of those on, can we get those scheduled?
You know, that that process is working well and you know where to maybe invest or find different processes. And, and, and I've had the, the luxury of working with very, you know, very different people. People that take these types of meetings and feedback and, and rapport differently, and that allows me to augment the way that I work with them.
'Cause ultimately it's my responsibility to make sure that [00:20:30] they're successful.
Katie Azevedo: So it kind of comes back to the trust again, right? It's not, you're not setting up this gotcha moment, right? Like, gotcha. You didn't follow up about the meeting, it's you saying, Hey, I trust you to care enough about the job that you were hired to do, that you wanna check in with me about it, and I trust that you're gonna be monitoring the calendar and keeping track of your questions and your snags and the things that you want feedback on. So I see that as a, a, again, an illustration of how important it is to have [00:21:00] trust between a leader and the people being led. Now, speaking of people being led, right? So you've given some advice for, for people who are leading, but if someone is listening to this or watching this on YouTube and they are being managed, they're not in a managerial position, um.
Maybe they don't want to be. That's not for everybody. What are some qualities, do you think, make someone easy to manage? What are some characteristics, some habits, [00:21:30] however you wanna frame this, that if someone listening right now, they're like, you know what? I'm having a tough time. I'm having a tough time in my job, being managed, and you know, what advice do you have for those people?
Richard Regitano: Well, I think it's a, it's a very, it's a, it's an interesting question. It's hard to know specifically because it comes down to the personalities of the person, or really their, relationship with their supervisor, I'm gonna assume in this scenario, is slightly the person that's leading them. You know, when I think about how I work with my [00:22:00] supervisor and look for feedback and guidance I think the, the most important thing is being transparent with them so that they understand what you need. Uh, I've had very, you know, very different supervisors over my career, and I think the most important thing is just making sure that when you do sit down with them is, is I always use the, the saying, knowing your audience, it's.
Somewhat applicable here, but communicating with them so that they know what you value and how [00:22:30] they can help you. That's probably the most important thing is how can, how can your supervisor help you? So, and I'll ask that question where somebody will come to me with a problem and I will, I will respond with, okay, I get it.
I heard you. Now let's talk about what I can do for you. How do you want me to help? Do you want me to talk to this person? Do you want me to and organize something? Do you, you know, again, my, as my, as a supervisor, you know, a leader, [00:23:00] my job is to break down the barriers, so you're likely at a higher role, you have more access to people, you can push things along maybe faster and supporting your team with creating those smoother paths for them, it's probably the most important thing that you can do for them so that they can be successful.
And that's one of the way, the ways that I do that. So on the flip side, being the person being managed to communicating what you need clearly. And, concisely and consistently is, I think, the [00:23:30] best way to get the most out of your time with your supervisor.
Katie Azevedo: Hmm, concisely. I think that's something that we could all work on, is, you know, clarifying what it is that we're thinking, how we wanna say it, and communicating that.
And the better we ask our questions, the better answers that we're gonna get in return. And again, I don't mean to keep coming back to this, but I, in your answer, all I'm hearing is trust. Trust, trust. If an employee or someone that you're managing is at your one-to-one annual meeting and they're saying, Hey, I, I need this.
The way that you turn it [00:24:00] back and say, okay, what can I do? How can I show up to give it you what it is that you need? That is saying, I trust you to be able to that, to assess what it is that you need and to tell me how you need that, how I can deliver what it is that you need. That all comes back to that trust piece again.
Um, so I'm thinking for students listening to this and, and of course we've got the whole, the whole gamut here, but if there is a student listening to this right now and they [00:24:30] want a manage, they want a manager position at some point, that's where they're in the business school, they're in, whatever it is, and they're like, I wanna get to that point where I am managing a team.
What advice do you have for them, Richard?
Richard Regitano: Well, I have some bad news. There's no, there is no playbook. There is no, there is no class on how to be a leader. I think the way that you become a leader is by acting like a leader, and the way that you can act like a leader is find people around you [00:25:00] that inspire you and that motivate you, and maybe have taken a moment to help you in a way that they went over and above.
And ask them questions and start to emulate what, what, what works for you and what you think is in your culture of the way you want to be leading and want to be led. And I think that there's really, there's no easy path other than just starting to do it. And you gotta take one, one step forward in order to go [00:25:30] down that path.
And most of all, surround yourself with people who will be there for you when you have a question. Every leader, no matter how, how big or or small the team is, doesn't have all the answers and doesn't always know the path. And the most successful leaders are people that surround themselves with people who are smart, honest, and trustworthy, and that there can be
communication, um, between the two, uh, you know, groups or parties and [00:26:00] whatnot, just so that they can continue to get better. And, you know, if you're not learning and getting better, that, that, that's the way you become a leader. And that's the way you become a, a leader of more or grow and bigger is because it's constantly a learning and re reinforcing that into your practices.
Katie Azevedo: What role do you think emotional intelligence has in being able to be a strong leader?
Richard Regitano: Uh, I mean, it's, it's, it's so important. It's probably more important than any of the technical aspects of a job. Uh, you know, um, I had [00:26:30] a, a person who I was working with that was, we were very different I'm very animated.
I'm very act, I'm active and I. Again, I, I trust the team and I, there was problems coming to me. my reflection on myself was that I was, you know, very invested in their success and making sure that I was there to support them and, and, and get them whatever they needed. And I cared. I was, I really was upset with what was going on and was throwing ideas out and trying to figure out paths. [00:27:00] And what I learned was, and this was a blind spot for me, and something that I've learned is that, you know, they didn't, they, that was not the, that was not the way that they wanted to hear what I, they did not, they wanted to be more of the emotional aspect or the more caring part and, and show me what they were doing and.
It was interesting. I got feedback from that person and it was very important to our success working together and, and I changed the way that I approached [00:27:30] providing leadership or providing advice and feed feedback to that person, and it got a lot better. It's, I didn't change for everybody because that, you know, my, my natural kind of leadership works.
But what I think it does is it shows you that it's about caring about the people that you work with, and it's about watching for those cues and, uh, taking a little extra time to make sure that they're okay and making sure that [00:28:00] it doesn't take a lot of energy to build systems for it.
And, like I call everybody, I, everybody I work with, or if I find out about your birthday, I call you on your birthday. And sometimes I just leave voicemails and I'm like, don't need to call me back. Just let you know. Wanna wish you happy birthday. And you know, those are the types of things that I think build a connection with people you work with that allow you to, to, to dial into that next level of emotions.
And it, it allows for better connections, which ultimately allows for more trust [00:28:30] and better rapport. And Trust in the other direction where, because they know you care about them and you're wa and you're investing and making sure that they're okay and they're successful and, you know, whatever it may be, that they feel comfortable coming to you when they need you.
And that's probably the most important thing, is that when somebody needs support from you, that they, that they do come to you. 'cause it's really a bad situation when somebody needs your help and for whatever reason they don't come to you for [00:29:00] support. Then likely the project is gonna go sideways or, you know, you know, it could be even worse, right?
They might leave the company or they, or you know, who, who knows what it could be any number of things. But, you know, making sure that they know that they can come to you is one of those reciprocal, kind of emotional, Practices.
Katie Azevedo: Mm-hmm. So that self-reflection piece, right? So I, I am showing up, I'm doing, I'm leading the best way
I know how I took all my leadership classes, I'm doing all of the right things, but my team isn't responding. It is so critical to pause and say, okay, am I not showing up the way this particular [00:29:30] person needs? Right. You might be checking all the boxes as a leader and saying all the right things, but not for that specific person.
Right. So I think it's what, what you're saying is people first leadership. Over process based leadership. They're both important. Right. But like, if we're talking about project management, 'cause I feel like we're like half leadership and half project management, but I, I love conversations that have kind of like a Well you have to have both successful both Exactly.
But they really do play off each other because you said something in the beginning, which is when you have your [00:30:00] processes down and your systems down, and your data and your, you know, your information management is dialed in. Yes. Then you can focus on the people and it can become people-first leadership.
But if you don't have your processes and, and your project management dialed in, then you're gonna be frazzled and you know, all over the place with those pieces that somebody might come to you or need to come to you for help, for guidance, but you're unavailable. You are emotionally inaccessible [00:30:30] because you don't have your own sort of, manager life pieces together.
Am I sort of giving the big picture here?
Richard Regitano: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I, and as as you're saying that, I think I want to, I wanna stress something, you know, you can't be a robot. And so if you can have great systems and I, you know, you, I constantly am challenging myself to come up with better ways to manage.
But just because you have a list of things that you want to talk about that you talked about the last meeting there's a number of occasions when we don't even get to one of those things because you need to be able [00:31:00] to read a person so that you can say, okay, this is not where we're going.
We're not gonna be talking about these, you know, very minor little projects that are going on. There's something else. And so again, that's a reflection of reading your team member and saying, okay, there's something at bigger at at play here and we need to focus on that. And then maybe two, three meetings in the future, you can come back to that, but you really need to make sure that you're not, making yourself into such a systematic [00:31:30] executor.
Mm-hmm.
Richard Regitano: That the, again, this comes back to the associate that you're working with then doesn't feel like they have the ability to have those, those heart-to-heart or the more difficult conversations.
I had an individual that I worked with for a long time, truly incredible at, at the job, not, and, and we're working on the leadership piece, but they got so focused on the execution piece that they would lose track of the emotional they would lose track of the relationship, [00:32:00] really more relationship with whoever they were working with or leading and I was trying to build this person up as a leader for the future. And it's a, it's a transition. So you, you need to allow them to grow as an individual and they have to continue with their tactical experience because that's what they do. But then they have to add on the leadership piece. So then this person would have, say, for example, one person reporting to them.
They're such a good executor. But transitioning to leadership, again, there's [00:32:30] no, there's no instruction manual. And so what, what I would do is I would watch closely and then I would ask questions and I would never tell the person necessarily, this is right or wrong 'cause it's not my place. And there's no, there's, there is no right or wrong, but there is a way to say, was the outcome of the way you dealt with that one that you wanted or you didn't?
And that would push back on theindividual who's the leader, and they would think about, was this actually what I wanted or not? [00:33:00] And let, more than likely they would come to a resolution and say, okay, that's working with this individual, because that's what you know, that's what I felt.
And by the way, it was also a successful project. And so, you know, watching and asking questions along the way, especially as you're trying, this is maybe the next level of coaching a future leader is, is incredibly important.
So one thing I wanted to follow up with regarding your one-on-ones and when you're talking with your manager or your, or your team [00:33:30] is, I think one of the important things to do is recite or repeat back what you heard.
I think a lot of times there can be things lost in communication, especially if it's a newer relationship and it's incredibly valuable to just repeat back what you heard to the person that you're talking to, and it's scary. Most of the time they're like, well, mostly but insert, and, and the thing that they insert is probably one of the most important things to make sure that you have a, [00:34:00] a high quality level of communication with either your supervisor or with your team members.
I'll tell you as a, somebody who, you know, everybody has a supervisor, everybody has a, a boss. Reciting back exactly what you heard has been an incredibly valuable, uh, practice to prevent you from going down the wrong path and spending a lot of energy, resources or other on, you know, whatever you're working on.
And that way you just always build in the fact that they're, [00:34:30] you're on the same page.
Katie Azevedo: Hmm. Checking for understanding. Right. Again, I can't help but think of these parallels of the classroom. It's like what a teacher does. Right? Okay. You teach something, you say, all right. Do you know that? Can you repeat back to me what I just said?
Even as parents, right? We say give instructions to our kids and we say, can you repeat back to me what I just said, or let me repeat to you what I thought you heard. I think that's a communication skill that, um, it can be taught, but that's one that's more of those [00:35:00] softer skills that is typically learned through trial and error and exposure.
So, um, what you're doing in that situation is actually modeling too. Right to the people that you're managing. So you saying to these folks that you're managing, let me, let me make sure I got it right. If you're grooming those, those people to be managers, hopefully that's a practice that they take into their management style as well.
No, that's terrific.
Asking people questions instead of giving them the answers. That's how you grow a leader.
Absolutely. No, I can see that it works. [00:35:30] It's similar in the, in the classroom too, right? Like we ask students the questions, we don't give them the answers. We want them to generate the answers, you know, and if, if maybe their answers a little bit off, right? We say, well, how did you come to that conclusion?
Did that work? Did you get the outcome? Like explain your thinking and that leads to that self-reflection, right? In the person that you're training to be a leader. And you shared a story earlier that you had a situation where, you know, you thought you were doing all the right things and then you paused and said, wait, what's another view of this [00:36:00] situation? So again, that emotional intelligence, that self-reflection that, very people first leading that has a place to land when your systems are dialed in. Right. So I I have, I have a final question for you, Richard. Of course. Unless you're like, hold on, we wanna talk about this too.
Absolutely. I can go forever, but this is just a sort of a quick hit question. I don't know if you know the answer to it. You ready? Put you on the spot?
Richard Regitano: I'm nervous.
Katie Azevedo: What's your favorite tool? No, and I know you're in construction, so you can't tell me like a hammer. Okay. I mean, like pro [00:36:30] productivity.
Richard Regitano: Oh, yeah.
And the camera doesn't count either. I suppose. Uh, my favorite productivity tool would be, it's gonna sound kind of a little bit like I said already, but I think it's either one note or a notion. When I think about, like, my memory, I think of my memory as like incredible in certain aspects and terrible in others. And so, I'm sure everybody who's listening has said, oh, I can't believe I remembered that thing from so many years ago, but yet [00:37:00] you can't remember maybe the, you know, the dinner you had last week or something like that.
And so, I don't know, I, I, I build systems and for me, that's productivity that allows me to trust my process of of taking notes. So I'll go deeper. I'll double click into this. So I do my one-on-one notes with, with folks or, or meetings. It doesn't have to be always a one-on-one. If there's some sort of recurring meeting, I do try and avoid creating a [00:37:30] million OneNotes and or whatever system you use.
No notion or Evernote or whatever. Because then it can, can become uncontrollable. And so back to what you said before, the data management, data management's real, you know, in all aspects of of your life. It can be exhausting. I would tell you, you know, find a way to, to make it work for you where you're not feeling overwhelmed.
I find that it's as, as quick as possible so that you don't let things pile up. Have to go back and [00:38:00] try and figure out how to put things in an organizational manner. And so I just do it routinely. It's a process, and that way it never becomes overwhelming. And because, you know, if you haven't documented your pictures for a month, you know, good, good luck trying to figure out where, where all those go.
And so, I use those systems. And then, so my one little, one little hack here is I always, I, I'll create the, the notes and, and chronological, but I'll put one above and so it's usually the name and I'll write data or, or you know, [00:38:30] info. And that's where I keep track of things that I care about with that person.
What are their children's name? What, what is their dog's name? What's the vacation coming up? Just things that matter and allows me to connect with somebody on a deeper level. And most of the time you don't need them. But then when you, when you're just like, oh, what was that?
You know, what was their birth? I know there was something that, and I just keep track of, I just keep like a little cheat sheet on top of the OneNote and that always allows me to quickly reference just, you [00:39:00] know, important information that matters with your team.
Katie Azevedo: Brilliant. Love it. It's kinda like a funnel.
The people are at the top. In the middle is the, the processes, and at the bottom is just the nitty gritty systems. I love it, Richard. Hey, where can, where can people find you if they wanna connect with you? Uh,
Richard Regitano: easiest way is on LinkedIn. Uh, you know, I'm on there all the time. Lots of information there, and you can, you can reach out to me.
There's contact info there.
Awesome. Awesome. Thank you for sharing your insights today. I think this is gonna be helpful to [00:39:30] the broad range of listeners that we have. And, you know, no matter what industry we're in and where we are in our life, we always, always can learn from others. So thanks for sharing your story.
Richard Regitano: Thank you for having me.
All right. Take care.
Richard Regitano: Thank you.
All right. It's me again just to wrap up the show. But before we go, I wanna remind you of something that my conversation with Richard reminded me of, and that's that every single person that we encounter in our lives has something to teach us no matter how different their career or [00:40:00] interest may be from ours, others' experiences can open up insights in ourselves that never would've been.
Activated if we weren't open to learning. And that's why I end every single episode with Never stop Learning, because that is the goal. Richard has been in the construction management, engineering and real estate fields for about 25 years, and I have zero experience in construction management, engineering, or real estate.
But even I learned so much today, and I hope you did too [00:40:30] because no matter your industry or interest or expertise. It is the systems and the strategies and the personal management skills that are at the core of all we do, and that my friends, is the purpose of my show and of these expert conversations.And with that, may I remind you to never stop learning.
