Episode 37: Building teams, connections, trust, and card games with Jason Treu

Jason Treu talks with Liz & Kat about building teams, trust, social wealth, and his game, Cards Against Mundanity.

This week Liz and Kat welcome Jason Treu, author of the book Social Wealth, whose goal is to help teams get to know each other. He gives us his advixe to building a career with real connections, including telling us about his game that's designed to help you start making those connections, Cards Against Mundanity, .

Jason started his career in Silicon Valley, working with companies like Apple and eBay. He saw great leaders doing all types of things, and now does executive coaching, leadership training, teamwork and communications, building trust. He also works on the HR side on collaboration and teamwork.

He was working as a VP of Marketing when he started coaching and proving out his model for building great teams, and eventually he scaled the business and set out on his own.

We asked what Jason believes makes a great team. His answer: building connections build trust and great teams. Unfortunately, many leaders who have built great teams don’t know how they did it, and don’t know how to do it again. People all need to build better relationships. Great performances come from teams that have worked to build trust.

We ask about socialization at work, and Jason feels that people today look to connect with people from work, make friends there, and have a purpose. It's not the perks at work that attract people.

We discuss soft skills and practicing them. Great leaders need strong soft skills, but people don’t spend time developing them. Leaders need to be held accountable for their own soft skills as well as developing in them in other and upholding the team culture.

Jason has introduced his game, Cards Against Mundanity, to over 30,000 people to create bonds and trust with people which can be done at any level.

People crave connection. and they make those connections with other people who they have gotten to know and trust. That's when they can take their armor off. You can use the cards with anyone who you want to get to know better. If you show you care, people will assume you have their back. They will want to work with you if they know they can count on you.

Introverts love Jason’s game because it cuts the small talk and gets to the meat of the conversation where they want to be and where they can create those meaningful connections.

“Your job as a manager/leader is for someone to take your job because then you’ll have somewhere to go.”

Jason’s book Social Wealth is a blueprint to making connections, inspired by Keith Ferrazzi’s book How to Never Eat Alone. Jason wanted a quick and dirty guide to helping people get results learning how to meet people, go to conferences, andget to know people from front to back. You have to meet a lot of people to find your own tribe.

Jason Treu on Twitter: @jasontreu
Cards Against Mundanity
Social Wealth: How to Build Extraordinary Relationships By Transforming the Way We Live, Love, Lead and Network