Justin Maust is all about family.

The Michigan native who now calls Granger home doesn’t even have to say it directly; it just pours out through the deeply personal stories he shares about challenges his family has faced.

So it makes perfect sense that the presenter and life coach is an expert when it comes to team building because, ultimately, what is a family if not a team?

And vice versa.

Shying away from calling himself a motivational speaker, Maust founded the company Leader Legacy (a great name but no connection to the newspaper). Although, fittingly, he would tell you his team made it possible, his company almost single-handedly put together this spring’s Lead Michiana event that drew more than a thousand people and featured nationally acclaimed speakers including John Maxwell. In only its first year the event became northern Indiana’s largest leadership event of its kind.

Last week Justin was talking to a much smaller audience.

Justin spoke to a group of about 20 Leader Publications employees, focusing on the “7 Practices That Determine Team Success.”

We are a small staff, always with lots of work to do, so getting everyone to find the time for professional development like this can be a challenge.

As a testament to his presentation, no one walked away feeling anything other than it was time well spent.

“Throughout my school career, from elementary to high school, there was not a single presentation from an outside speaker that I enjoyed nor greatly respected. They all seemed lofty and idealistic. Continuous messages of ‘Set goals and strive towards them!’” one co-worker told me. “Why? How? Write it down and do it? That seems vague and unhelpful. Justin’s presentation showed me many things at an angle that made sense and worked. I’ll admit, I was very doubtful about spending four hours at a presentation when I could be working, but his was definitely worth the time.”

Another co-worker offered similar feedback, emphasizing how it helped modify the thinking process.

“It’s hard to know where to start in explaining what I gained from going to the leadership seminar. My mind went 100 mph all weekend, figuring how I would apply these to the various aspects of my life,” the employee told me. “They were tools I have never had before. Even though they are simple concepts, I never thought of these things this way.”

I am not going to share all the steps as Justin can do it far better than I. He is already hard at work organizing the 2016 version of Lead Michiana, raising the bar along the way. It is not too early to start thinking about how individuals and companies from southwest Michigan can benefit from this and it can have an even greater impact on the region.

You can get more information at www.powerfulteams.com or by email at Justin@justinmaust.com.

Will this presentation magically change everything about how our company — or someone else’s — works as a team? Of course not. Did it provide us with the tools we can use to, as Justin says, “eliminate mediocrity?” Absolutely.

Building stronger teams in our professional and personal lives will make each of us better individuals and, by extension, make our communities better places to work, play and live.

 

Michael Caldwell is the publisher of Leader Publications LLC. He can be reached at (269) 687-7700 or by email at mike.caldwell@leaderpub.com.