Mar 9, 2022
Banks Benitez joined Uncharted in
2012 as an unpaid intern, and became the CEO in 2017. Since
stepping in as CEO, Banks and his leadership have tripled the size
of the team and doubled their revenue. Also during the pandemic,
Banks moved to a four-day workweek at the same wages. In this
episode, Banks shares his insight on the move to a four-day week,
and the lessons learned about time management, mental health, and
productivity. As a CEO, Banks went from 52 hours a week to 34 hours a week!
Key Takeaways
[1:50] Advice Jim and Jan give
to veterans is, “If you hear about really interesting people, just
reach out to them.”
[2:20] Banks has not only grown
his organization to triple its size but shifted to a four-day
workweek.
[5:20] Banks is currently
reading Making Numbers
Count, by Chip
Heath.
[6:20] Banks shares his story on
how he got selected for Rotary International.
[9:35] Jan believes
understanding anthropology will also help you towards being a
better leader.
[11:00] Banks talks a little bit
about his company, Uncharted, and the inspiration behind
it.
[12:15] It’s so easy to be a
fixer of problems. As a leader, Banks found himself spending all of
his time making things “less bad.”
[13:35] Banks and his COO
decided to change things up after feeling burned out within the
company. They decided to go on the offensive instead of being on
the defensive.
[17:55] Banks is a few months
into his company working on a four-day workweek. He shares his
results so far.
[20:35] Banks was nervous at
first when he had to talk to his investors and clients about this.
He was worried they would not see him as a serious
company.
[23:15] Banks has noticed that
his team really hates a three-day week.
[24:55] Prior to converting over
to a four-day workweek, Banks decided to hire a third party to help
evaluate the productivity and measure if it made sense to convert
over.
[28:34] The book
Essentialism,
by Greg McKeown was critical in
determining what was important work and what was not.
[29:55] Jim and Jan hear topics
about mental health all the time with their clients. It’s
important. People are getting burned out.
[30:30] You can easily quantify
turnover costs and when people burn out, and how much it takes to
replace that talent. A four-day workweek makes you
competitive.
[35:50] Banks explains how
Uncharted works and how they’ve been a successful non-profit
company.
[37:40] Entrepreneurs who are
successful tend to be coachable and follow up/follow
through.
[39:45] Sell the problem, not
the solution.
[43:55] Busyness and working
“hard” is a cultural value that needs to be questioned.
[44:35] When Banks closes his
laptop on Thursday night, he still feels incomplete. There’s still
a lot to get done.
[45:35] The more you focus on
brute force hard work, the less you are refining your “decisive”
muscle.
[48:40] Listener challenge:
Plant yourself in the richest soil you possibly can.
Quotable Quotes
- “It’s so easy to be a fixer of problems. It’s
easier to fill holes, but it’s harder to build peaks.”
- “We spent the whole month of May in 2020 to how
we might optimize our work week; the ways we could get smarter
about how we structure our time.”
- “Not all hours of the workweek are created
equally. They are some hours that are productive. There are some
hours that are a complete waste of time.”
- “My day before, I was working 52 hours a week.
Now I am down to 34 hours a week.”
- “The best entrepreneurs that we work with are
those who are really good at handling a lot of loose
ties.”
Resources Mentioned