People are designed and created to thrive in community with others. As social beings, we face challenges in isolation, whether during the pandemic or in solitary confinement.
Did you know your office or workplace is an ideal space to foster a vibrant work community?
What are the benefits of belonging to and building community at work? As an executive leader, what priorities should you set, and how can community-building enhance your company’s engagement and productivity? In this episode, Dr. Karen shares valuable insights to elevate workplaces to new levels of collaboration and success.
In this episode, we are talking about creating community at work. Before we get into the workplace directly, let me talk about people in general. People were designed and created to live in a community. We are social beings, not those who are meant to live solitary and apart from other people. When you think about it, when God created Adam, he was in communion and fellowship with God. God was the one most like Adam because he had been created in God’s image.
When Eve came on the scene, Adam had someone very much like him that he could fellowship with. The two of them together still communed with God in the Garden of Eden. All along, there was this sense of community with others. Even as our children are born and when babies come into the world, they are helpless alone. If they don’t have parents to raise them, they will suffer and die, most likely because they’re not able to fend for themselves.
We’ve been placed into families, which are our first community. From there, we have extended family. Often, in some cultures, multiple generations live together in the same house or even on the same compound. We have villages, tribes, neighborhoods, cities, states, and countries. The whole world collaborates across different communities. That’s part of who we are.
Without community, we have a tendency to wither and die. That is physical and mental death. What I mean by that is we become unhealthy from a physical point of view in terms of our cognitive abilities and our other abilities that are God-given, as well as our mental health. Physically, cognitively, and mentally, we are challenged when we are in isolation.
Probably the most recent example is what happened during the COVID crisis. People were significantly isolated at that time. It was particularly hard on the elderly, many of whom were living alone or in facilities where they could not have visits from family members or friends, and single people living alone as well. Sometimes, if people lived in their houses with their spouses or family members, those family bonds were often strengthened during that time of isolation because they had a chance to get to know each other better.
However, for those living alone or in more facilities and commercial settings, it was a very tough time. We are in the aftermath of that, seeing a lot of mental health issues and concerns, particularly depression. We know a lot of people died partly because of physical illnesses and also the impact of isolation. It was difficult to be as resilient as they normally would be because of being in that situation. We know that even in a prison sense when people are in solitary confinement, it’s difficult for most people.
Even when workers in prison go to that prisoner to bring food or whatever they’re doing. Sometimes, there’s an increase in antisocial behavior and lashing out that is experienced by the person who is in solitary confinement. We also know that if we look back at earlier times in the history of the nuclear family, there were often multiple children. You could have ten children or even more. The older children were tasked with chores in support of the family, including child-given responsibilities to sustain the family. Many times, the children were involved in the family business, whatever it was.
The family business could be farming. Maybe they would help with milking cows or gathering eggs from the chickens. Perhaps the family business was in dry cleaning, a corner store, a grocery store, a five-and-dime, or a restaurant. I’ve often seen little children ages 7 or 8 years old, learning how to greet guests, ring up purchases, and do other tasks of the family business. We also find in Acts 2, when the early church was beginning and getting started in Jerusalem, they gathered together in community. I want to read a few of those verses about how they gathered in the community so we can extract some of the pieces from it.
In Acts 2, starting with verse 41, it says, “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayers. Fear came upon every soul. Many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need.”
“So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” I want you to notice that in this early community of the early church, they were praising God, fellowshipping together, and practicing the tenets of the doctrine they had been taught. They were in prayer. They were performing signs and wonders to see the power of God and what God would do to benefit them.
They sold their possessions and shared in the increase in the produce. They were in gladness. They were happy and with a simple heart. There was no significant stress or worry at that time. They were doing things together, going from house to house, eating together, and being together. That was an example of community. They had favor with all men as they were a community together.
Creating Genuine Connections With Colleagues
They weren’t isolated. They weren’t just operating as individuals. Community life was also important. They were doing life together. When I think about the office, business, company, or where you may work, that is an opportunity for community also. We spend more time at work than almost any other place. I want to identify several ways that we can be in the community at work.
Number one would be what I’ll call creativity and innovation. When we’re in a community together, it helps elevate the ideas we think about and sharpens what we are creating. If you create alone, you might miss some things but when others are in the mix, we spark food for thought in each other. We inspire one another and build on each other’s ideas so that creativity and innovation go to the next level.
Why is that important? In businesses, in the landscape of the business environment, you have to figure out new ways to accelerate your creative advantage in the marketplace. That means you want to be creative about what you’re already doing and how you could do it better. You also want to be innovative, extending what you’re doing even into some new areas and places.
What happens with creativity and innovation is our community will ask us questions or make the statements that are consistent with possibility thinking. It’s the what-ifs, nurturing, and shepherding the new. That’s what happens in the community. Our creativity and innovation are taken to the next level. That benefits the company, the clients you serve, and your purpose and mission in the world.
Number two is challenge. Even as we come to creativity and innovation, we sometimes have to hear alternative perspectives on what we are already thinking and questions from our community, from those we’re working with to think in different ways. That challenge is also what sparked us to consider possibilities we hadn’t thought about. Challenge is important because you want just the right amount. If you have too many challenges, it feels as though things are impossible.
People tend to give up with too much challenge. They don’t have the sense that anyone is for them. If there’s too little challenge, it can be boring. You want just enough to keep the creative juices flowing and keep people thinking, and not so much that they feel as though there’s no way forward or there’s no hope. You have creativity and innovation and then challenge. You’re thinking outside the box and around the edges, including perspectives that you on your own wouldn’t think of. You need the community to come up with the different perspectives.
Number three, I would say, is support. This is support for those new ideas. Support in the form of being a champion for something that you’ve thought of but someone else may have more opportunities to showcase what you’re talking about or bring those new opportunities to visibility or a new audience out there. We want to have champions, people who can bring statistics that back up what we’re talking about. People are wired in different ways so you can provide support to an idea that you didn’t dream of and come up with. However, you may have some information or data that can support it or give a voice in important rooms and places about an idea that someone else has surfaced. Support is important along the way.
In community, number four is important, which is care and compassion for other people. This is especially important for personal lives. People experience deaths, illnesses of family members, and all kinds of challenges every day. In the workplace, it’s comforting and helpful if your community can provide services that might be useful to you, such as if there’s a death in your family, bringing food over, or you’re going through a time of extended illness in the family, checking in on you, sending resources that might be useful and valuable, or a word or card of encouragement, or flowers to cheer you up. Whatever shows care and compassion, speaking your language.
The same is true for disasters that might happen. There may be fires or floods. People offering acts of kindness and works of service, visiting you when you might be sick, shut in, or disabled for a period of time. Show care and compassion from those who we are in community with because we spend eight hours or more a day with those people in our workplace. That’s one of the places where we can receive a sense of caring and compassion.
Our actual deep, long-term friends may be miles away. They may not even be in the same city where we are. Our family members may also be geographically dispersed because we are in a very mobile society and world. Even at work, if you have a remote workplace and even a global one, there are ways to reach out to one another in that context to show that you care and have compassion for what your colleague may be going through.
The number five is fun and playing together. Some people don’t think that this is important. They’re not interested in fun and games. They’re there for work as they see it. Often, if given the opportunity, they will opt out of the fun and games. Here’s what I would say about that. Children know that play is their work. They’re always learning as they’re playing. If we keep that playful spirit, even as adults, we can continue to learn as we play together as well.
Our adult play does facilitate our work experience. For one thing, as we’re playing together and doing team building together, we are gaining a deeper knowledge of one another. I know that some of the exercises I do with clients facilitate them getting to know each other at a level that they might not choose to do if they’re just focused on the work itself.
Yet when you take the time to find out what this colleague is all about, what they prefer to do, what they like, what their history is, what their background is, and what they’ve experienced in their lives. You’ll find points of connection and a deeper appreciation for who people are. You’ll find more common ground. It increases our trust in each other as we spend this profound time together. I would say that fun and play are important to taking work to a higher level, doing it better than you would do if you didn’t know your colleagues as much and if you weren’t playing together.
Building Community Through Shared Experiences
That can lead to number six, which I would say is service. This is when many companies and organizations do service projects together. You might be building homes for people through habitat for humanity. You might be down at the homeless shelter or the soup kitchen serving people food. You may be raking leaves and pulling weeds in public places or on the highway.
There are things you can do in service to the community. As a workplace, you could do that service together, including taking trips overseas to places where there is greater challenge and difficulty. You’re helping children in an impoverished area have food, school supplies, or whatever it may be. Service together is another way of working. It shows a different side of each person who’s in your workplace and can forge deeper connections with each other that you bring back to your own everyday work. It facilitates more effective work when you get back to the office, plant, manufacturing floor, or wherever you may be.
That brings me to seven, which is celebration. As you have business successes, you want to celebrate them along the way. You want to celebrate the times when you have collectively given to charitable organizations, volunteered your time, hit your targets and goals, or helped people achieve a target or goal they never thought was possible, such as having a home of their own or whatever it may be.
There’s a lot that you can celebrate in the community. You’ve been bringing creativity and innovation. You’ve been challenging each other to step it up to the next level. You’ve been providing support and championing new ideas. As people go through the vicissitudes of life, providing care and compassion for one another, having fun and playing together as you learn and grow in the business and serving. Serving the broader community also creates a tighter-knit community among yourselves, and then taking time to celebrate.
As we close, I want to think about some celebration that took place in the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah got word that things weren’t great back in Jerusalem. They had been taken into exile in Babylonian captivity. Most of them were still in captivity. When he got the report about what was going on in Jerusalem, the gates were burned, the fences were torn down, and things were in disrepair. He wanted to fix that and do something about it.
He spoke to the King. He got permission to go back to Jerusalem and handle the situation. He got resources, supplies, and the time to do it. When Nehemiah got back to Jerusalem and conducted an inspection after that, he brought the community together. He then told the community leaders at first, “We need to do something about this.” They all put their hands to work and did what was required and necessary. At the end of doing all that, they had a time of celebration, and so I want to talk about that.
Part of their celebration involved two Thanksgiving choirs. Imagine that in your organization, if you assemble singers and choirs to sing songs of Thanksgiving and praise what it is that you’ve accomplished and gone through. I want to read Nehemiah, the 12th chapter, starting with verse 40. It says, “The two Thanksgiving choirs stood in the house of God. Likewise, I and half of the rulers with me and the priest Eliakim, Masela, Menjamin, Micaiah, Ilionai, Zachariah, and Hananiah with trumpets, also Messiah, Shemaiah, Eliezer, Yehuzi, Johanan, Malkijah, Elam, and Iza.”
“The singers sang loudly with Jezrahiah, the director. Also, that day, they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy. The women and the children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.” Keep in mind that as they made these repairs, it was under great duress. They had a lot of opposition from the people around them, yet they were successful. Not only did the men celebrate in the community but the women and children celebrated, too.
The two choirs that surrounded the community also celebrated. Even though most of you are probably working in a secular company or corporation and environment, it’s the fact that you are there. You are a blessing to your workplace and you bring blessings to your workplace. As your workplace is blessed, you can stop and give glory to God for how your workplace is being blessed. You can encourage other people.
Cultivating Trust And Productivity In The Workplace
Though, they may not necessarily give glory to God or celebrate in that way. They can still celebrate the success of the company, the activities that you’re engaged in, and how you’re adding value to your clients, customers, and the marketplace. I hope you will consider the benefits and advantages of creating community in your workplace and getting to know one another at a much deeper level. I pray that you will be blessed as you do that and as you build trust and a greater platform from which to provide service.
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I want to let you know that I am running a special promotion. If you are a CEO or executive leader in a medium to large-size company and you care about how your people are treated, especially if you share our biblical values, and you may be facing difficult decisions where you want some additional perspective. You may be planning for succession in your company, developing people, and preparing the organization for that succession. Perhaps, you’re going through change and leading change. Maybe there’s a merger and acquisition, or whatever you’re facing in terms of leadership, including developing your executive team. Contact me. Give me a call so we can do a discovery meeting and see what’s going on.
Here’s the special promotion. In addition to your discovery time, I will interview up to three additional people from your executive team so you have even greater context and feedback about where to go next. Reach out to me at Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com or phone me at (719) 534-0949, extension 1. I look forward to hearing from you and coming alongside you to complete and continue your leadership journey with positivity and profitability in your organization.
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I wanted to let you know that we are doing a special promotion for consulting services. We always do discovery calls with prospective clients, and that will still be in place. However, the special promotion, which includes interviews with up to three executive team members, is ending. If you’d like to take advantage of that, please contact me at Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com or call me at (719) 534-0949, extension 1. We can talk about starting that service for you.
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Mining Lessons From Life Experiences To Inspire Your Team
Did you know that you can mine the lessons from your life and work experiences to inspire your teams and people? In my book, Lead Yourself First!: The Senior Leader’s Guide to Engaging Your People for Greater Performance and Impact, I share snippets of my life experiences from childhood all the way up to adulthood. I also share what I learned from these experiences and how that learning informs how I lead. I share some examples of how I facilitate client success with these same principles. I invite you to apply the same methodology to your life with reflection questions at the end of each chapter. When you lead yourself first, you then have a foundation for leading others.
In Chapter 2, which is called Run Your Own Race, I share stories from my time as an active-duty Army officer when my approach to running the 2-mile physical training test and the 12-mile forced road march had to be different from what other people did. Dare to be different. Find your own success formula. Sometimes, what works for you is different from what works for others. Remember to run your own race. Get your copy of Lead Yourself First, and you’ll find resources on how to run your own race.
Rick Gang, CEO and co-founder of Holistic HomeCare Associates, leads the way in transforming home care services from Riverdale, New York. Confronting the challenges of finding top-notch caregivers within traditional home care agencies, Holistic HomeCare Associates reimagined the industry. They prioritize family control, ethical practices, and high-quality care woven into every aspect of their process.
With nearly four decades of expertise in home care management, Rick joins Dr. Karen to discuss his business growth journey, emphasizing change, innovation, flexibility, and reinvention. He shares how leveraging technology and outside advisement has delivered exceptional solutions for clients while driving exponential growth and profitability for his company.
Tune in to discover how Rick and his team deliver white-glove service with a deep understanding of the home care landscape, kindness, and a personal touch. Gain valuable executive leadership insights to accelerate success and profitability in your business.
Rick Gang: CEO And Co-Founder Of Holistic HomeCare Associates On Reinventing Your Business And Industry
A Profitable Business That Serves Clients
When you understand your industry, the needs that most providers do not meet, and the frustrations of the clients who want better service, you are in a position to use your creative advantage to reinvent the industry and transform the client experience and results. Our guest has created a profitable business that serves clients at the highest levels because he saw the landscape and chose to operate in a different way. He shares his secret sauce for building a company that grew 30% during the pandemic and in 2024 saw a 40% increase in profitability. I invite you to read this episode for profitable ideas that you can apply to own business.
Let me tell you about my guest. Rick Gang is the CEO and Cofounder ofHolistic HomeCare Associates, based in Riverdale, New York. In 2014, Rick established Holistic HomeCare to ensure that every client receives compassionate and high-quality service. Holistic simplifies the caregiver hiring process, prioritizes family control, and enhances overall quality. Fueled by the chaos of trying to hunt down top-notch caregivers in the jungle of traditional home care agencies, holistic reinvented home care to make hiring a breeze, the family the boss, and choice, control, and quality interwoven into every fiber of the process.
As a seasoned home care expert with nearly four decades of experience in home care management and a BA Degree in Sociology and Political Science as a minor, Rick has a knack for quick and accurate understanding clients’ needs. He and his holistic dream team offer clients top-notch employer support services, enlightenment on all things home care, and empowerment to make informed choices.
Rick ensures that he and his team meet every client with white-glove service, a deep understanding of the home care landscape, kindness, and a smile. When he is not focusing on home care, he also spent time as a deputy sheriff actively engaged in the community and he also parents his three children, River, Sam, and Ryan. Rick, welcome to the show.
Thank you, Dr. Karen. Pleasure to be here with you.
Difference Between Home Care and Home Health Care
It’s a delight to be here with you, and I know we have so much that we can talk about, so we’re just going to launch right in if that’s okay with you. My first question, because some people in the audience may not know about home care. First, give us a little bit of information about that. What is home care? Who needs those services? Is home care the same as home health care?
Home care is services that are brought into the home, typically paraprofessionals, all the way up to clinicians themselves. Home care is typically on a longer term. Whereas, home health is typically people like physical therapy and occupational therapy coming in for short-term, post-incident or fall, or whatever it is that’s needing their short-term services. We’re seeing more of a shift to in-home care of the medical delivery. Home health is also a developing field, but home health care is more of the long-term, some of the paraprofessional companion.
You have home health aides and certified nurses’ aides who are helping with activities of daily living, bathing, dressing, cooking, laundry, all of those activities. That’s the main differences. The services are usually received by anyone who needs any assistance with remaining at home or independent. It can be someone with a long-term chronic illness or a younger person. It can also be the seniors who are living much longer and wanting to remain at home.
Let me make sure I have this straight. Did you say that home care is typically the more long-term solution and home health the shorter-term solution?
Home health is also more the medical.
You can have more paraprofessionals in home care.
Correct.
Thank you. I just wanted to review that because I was thinking maybe I’d heard that incorrectly.
It is a place where there’s a lot of gray crossover. You can have nurses in a home care agency, and home care services provided through RN services. In home health, it would be more of an episodic situation rather than an ongoing relationship.
I think we have the landscape. Tell us a little bit then about who you see as your clients in the business and how you add value to those clients.
In our registry model of home care, we have two clients. We have the families that come to us for care, and we also have the caregivers coming to us looking for work. We act as matchmakers in the home care space. It’s a different model than the traditional licensed agency. Who’s coming to us are families who are looking to hire caregivers. Also, as I said, the caregivers looking for work. It’s our duty to vet the caregivers, and then also match them with the clients as best fits all of the personalities, the skills, the schedules, and all of the nuances. Whether they can play chess, speak French, and are not allergic to the cat.
Social Justice for Caregivers
I love the way you frame it as a matchmaking service of sorts. I know, Rick, that you also have a perspective that says you want to do a form of social justice, if you will, for the caregivers. Talk about that a little bit, and how you benefit the caregivers as a client as well.
It’s a win-win-win. It’s one of those places where, if you can identify a win-win-win and put yourself in that equation, it’s a home run and a guaranteed success. The way that we’ve done that is by having the caregivers work directly for the families. The overhead of my office, I have an internal office of under ten people but yet, I’m able to work with over 500 caregivers. If I were a typical agency, my overhead would be cost-prohibited for me to pay the end user, the caregiver properly. The margins keep getting tighter and tighter.
In our model, the caregivers are able to earn significantly more than their counterpart at the traditional agency. Typical agencies in my region are anywhere from $19 an hour to $22 an hour. We don’t have anyone below $25 an hour. Most of our cases are $30 an hour and up. In that regard, the caregiver is able to secure a higher paying wage. They have the steady, long-term relationship with the employer. They don’t have that turnover that they have at the agency.
That puts us in a position to lift up caregivers and get them into better-paying positions and reward them for their hard work. The family wins because they’re choosing who they want to hire. When they’re employing the aid directly, they can control those tasks as I said before. If you have a family member who has a long-term chronic illness such as Parkinson’s. You may have peg tube feeding or something.
An agency aid is not going to be allowed to handle that. They would require an LPN to come in. When the family employs directly, it’s just as if another family member is there to do that task. That’s another win for the family. We’re able to put ourselves in that equation and make sure all of the employment is done properly. There’s workers’ comp and disability, unemployment insurance, and all the payroll taxes are done properly. It’s a win-win-win. Everyone is happy. That’s the secret sauce that we’ve created here.
That’s a beautiful story because if you think about the people who usually do home care and are often not paid a living wage, this gives them an opportunity to provide for their own families and have a career that has a long-term trajectory to it. The families get to select the people who they want to have and not just have someone from the agency show up and lose control over that.
Yet, all the back-end, back-office stuff that most family members would know how to do, your organization makes sure that that gets taken care of, the insurance, the benefits, and so on. Which brings me to another question, because you’re operating in New York. This is a field that’s regulated. New York can be a tough place in which to work. Say a little bit about how you’ve managed to make it work in New York. You know what they say, if you can do it in New York, you can do it anywhere.
That was one of the reasons I didn’t want to do this business without a business partner, honestly, because of the licensing requirements. I said I need a business partner for this and the universe was very good at that point and introduced me to Anne Sansevero, who’s my cofounder with me.
What we’re talking about is this whole notion of how you’re surviving in New York with all the regulatory demands and just the difficulty of working in New York. Part of the answer, you say, is your cofounder with you. What else is making it work for you?
Leaning into all of the regulations, figuring out how to make New York City’s sticky and overbearing laws fit into best practices so that we can check off the city’s boxes to work under our license that we need to oblige by, but also facilitate everything for the family. Part of it is we also develop software to do the registry model and to manage all of the moving parts. As we’re speaking with other registries nationwide, the rules are just very different and much more friendly to do business.
It’s like what we built it in New York. The only place that’s more challenging probably is California. It’s second to California. If you can do it here, you can do it anywhere because from there, it would be downhill. I didn’t mind jumping through all the hoops. It’s just trying to figure out how you check those boxes and yet still get your mission accomplished. I know other people that have figured out other creative ways. Whether they call themselves an online marketplace or whatnot, but I choose to do things the proper way, go through, and have everything buttoned up.
The proper channels in an innovative way, and you mentioned technology. Share with us a little bit more about how you use technology to do the matchmaking, the back-office part, and how that’s innovative in your industry.
It’s on so many fronts, and I’m not a tech person. Even just the ability for us to go fully remote during the pandemic. During pre-pandemic, I would have told you it would be impossible for me to have any internal staff outside of the New York area. Now, I know that that’s completely erroneous. No one else was supplying the software to match the clients and caregivers, so we wanted to be the eHarmony of clients and caregivers for the registry and home care space.
That’s where we started and we built that. The companies that we were using for payroll, scheduling, and communications were gobbled up by venture capital. One company was closed and condensed into the other, and customer service went downhill. I saw the writing on the wall and decided to lean into the opportunity and build those modules that we needed into our existing software.
It’s just about solving problems, identifying a need, seeing if there’s a solution out there. If not, then I went kicking and screaming into software development, but it’s taking off now. It’s an interesting endeavor. I’m running my registry two years now on it completely. Even if it didn’t sell, I know the money that I’m saving by using it myself pays for it.
Leveraging Technology to Enhance Screening and Vetting
This is phenomenal because this is not your area of expertise, and yet you jumped in at the deep end of the pool, I’m sure with help and partners and so on, to make it happen because you saw the need, and you created the solution for it. That’s part of the secret sauce in your business that you do see the needs, and then you figure out, how can we solve for this? How can we create a solution that is that triple win again? That’s what you’re talking about. Part of your technology, as I recall, even allows you to be unique in how you do your screening, vetting, and matchmaking. Say a little bit more about how the technology helps you to do some things that maybe others are not able to do to get such great matches.
Despite even like some of the regulations in Florida, they don’t want you matching on personalities, but we have to be realistic. If this person is in your home, doing personal care and living with you, you need to make sure that personalities match. This isn’t someone coming to wash your windows. This is someone who’s coming to personally be involved in one’s life, so make sure that match. We’ve come up with the most unusual matches. It’s always worth it. It’s always worth investing the time to make that match, even if it’s not the easiest to make.
These are very personal relationships that we’re facilitating, and software doesn’t eliminate anyone. We have over 500 caregivers in our roster and over 75 RNs. It constantly reshuffles them, so it re-ranks them according to the match. We never wanted to take the human element out of it. We do love technology. We’re leaning into AI, and so far, so good but we never wanted to take the human out of it because the schedulers or whoever it is, is always going to know some detail that the software doesn’t know. It’s important to work smart, not hard, but still have the human touch in it.
Let me ask this, what was it that prompted you to even start Holistic HomeCare? What did you see maybe that was broken in the industry at the time?
I had been doing caregiver placements through my mother’s care management practice. My mother is now a retired nurse. She was one of the founding members of the Aging Life Care Association. The first chapter was in New York in 1985. A group of women, mostly social workers and my mother was one of the few nurses that got together and formed this organization. I grew up managing my mother’s private practice as a nursing-based care management practice.
During those years, we would always screen caregivers for our clients to privately hire, because we saw that that was the best way for them. We had a lot of clients that were running almost medical homes, chronic care conditions, suctioning, and trach. Having highly skilled caregivers who are able to do those things was always important. After twenty years, I had amassed about 200 caregivers that I had just constantly rolling through and getting placed on cases. We would do their background check, and then we would open an ADP payroll account.
After my mother retired, I continued to run the practice a few years and was then looking to hand off some of the Manhattan cases to Anne Sansevero. She said, “Rick, what are you going to do after you wind down the practice?” I said, “I don’t know, Anne, but I’m ready for a break out of care management and getting the 3:00 AM calls that Mrs. Smith is going to the emergency room, and it’s time to get the power of attorney on the phone.”
My life had done that for twenty years, and was ready for a little bit of change. Anne knew I had 200 caregivers, and she said, “Why don’t we open a registry together?” I said, “That I’ll do,” because I was always ready to do it, I just needed a partner. I said, “Are you willing to do that?” She said, “Yes, because I can’t get good caregivers for my clients.” This is an opportunity for my clients, my business, and for her as well. That’s when we decided to join forces and officially kick off.
That’s another opportunity as a win-win, so to speak, that’s in more than one direction, the two of you coming together, having been out there separately, knowing of each other and interfacing, and now partnering together. Let’s talk about that a little bit. I know that business partners is not always perfect. You got to figure out like in marriage as husband and wife, how you’re going to make this thing work. Talk a little bit about that and a little bit about Anne’s role also with ALCA, the professional organization that your mother was very involved in, how she’s connected with that as well, and how that relates to what you do day-to-day.
I see an EIN, Employer Identification Number, for any business almost like a Social Security number for a child. It is a marriage. We are stewards of this young life that we need to cultivate and help mature. Anne and I are very different personalities. Anyone who meets us I think realizes that. It’s also one of our strengths that we are different. It was not always easy in communication and getting to figure out each other’s style, but I think it’s a good balance. Having different personalities makes the business itself stronger.
Anne has a thriving care management practice in Manhattan called Health Sense, where she has several nurses and a social worker under her. She will refer clients as appropriate. If a client has a policy that won’t reimburse for this model of home care, she refers to agency models, or she’ll refer to multiple. That’s one of the things about ALCA, Aging Life Care Association, the ethics and the standards of everything are very impressive. I haven’t seen another professional organization that has such dedication to professional ethics, which is refreshing, especially nowadays.
It’s good to have those ethics in place. The two of you have figured out how to divide the responsibility, so to speak. What are some examples of what Anne does versus what you do and how it all comes together?
I’m more involved in the day-to-day operations, and less and less over 2024, as we promoted our manager to our director of operations. I was able to step out of the day-to-day operations and more into running the business. Whatever the saying is, spending time developing the business instead of running the business. That and the software takes up most of my time. Anne is very busy with her care management practice, referring clients who may need services, her role with ALCA, and her other various endeavors.
One way of thinking about it, I see Anne as if she’s down on the street level, so to speak, seeing what’s going on, who might need things, having the connections and the relationships with people in the industry to know where the referrals can come from, and so on. You’ve got your operations person in the middle, doing the day-to-day of running the business. You’re in more of a strategic oversight role. Looking at what the business needs in an overarching sense is what I’m hearing in how you describe that.
Building also those relationships. I did several conferences and 2 to 3 networking events a week. I don’t know what hat I’m ever wearing, whether I’m wearing my Holistic Home Care hat, the software hat, or the connector hat. Either one always turns out to be fruitful in one capacity or another, and they’re always good when they’re mixing.
It’s good to have a diversity of skills and abilities that you can bring to the process.
Even if the worst thing I do is connect someone, that’s still a wonderful thing.
That’s a skill, by the way, connecting people. I consider that a skill. When you’re building this business, and you mentioned having ten people and so on and so forth. It can be challenging sometimes to get the right people on the team. We talked about you and your co-founder and the two of you figuring out the best optics and ways to work together. What about getting your team together? What have you faced? What have you had to do in order to get the right people?
It’s been a learning process, and it’s definitely changed over the ten years as well. We’ve been very blessed with a good internal team, and I’ve been a part of the hiring of each and every one. I do feel that I am a good read on people. I did have an unfortunate experience of being ghosted by a young person who started and then disappeared, but that’s the trend now. I know I’m not alone in that but finding the right people, complimenting them and paying accolades when they do a good job, compensating them appropriately, and having good communication is critical.
My personal assistant was also our first employee. She’s been with us for years. She’s in her 70s and she works as many hours as I do. I can’t sing her accolades enough. I think finding the right people who can grow with you and who believe in the mission and vision and internalize it because then it’s no longer employer-employee. It’s a bigger mission.
It is like a partnership of sorts, and that values-mission fit is important to creating the right culture. We all run into people who we think fit but don’t. What experience have you had with maybe having to make some shifts? Maybe somebody wasn’t the right fit.
Even as the company grew, there’s sometimes resistance to growth. They say, “We’ve been doing it this way all this long,” and presenting the potential negatives from their perspective. If there’s ultimately just resistance, and that’s what we had in this one case. It seems our mission and vision have separated. It was just a very easy conversation. He said, “In all honesty, I want to go back to producing shows,” which is his former career. It’s fine. Everyone is in their time and place as it’s right and feels right. Sometimes it’s okay to also just separate. I think as long as people are in good communication about it so that it’s not that quiet quitting perspective, but just a dialogue of what your current interests.
It doesn’t mean that the people are bad people. They may have served their season in the business, let’s say. Maybe there’s something else that they’re more passionate about at this time. Perhaps there’s a better place for them to go. The business has changed. All of these things. We just change chairs and seats when that happens.
Remain respectful of and willing to see the good in the other person, even if they’ve moved on to something else. That’s critical. I mentioned earlier, Rick, that your company grew during the pandemic, when a lot of people were freaked out about it. Talk about that a little bit. What were some of the factors that enabled growth at such a difficult time?
It was a challenging time. Nothing prepared any of us for what was coming. I was just looking through my old cell phone pictures and saw a picture of March 25, 2020, where I had my desk and my chair on the roof of my car going home from my final day here in the office and figuring out how to navigate the changing climate. At one point, it was that caregivers needed IDs when there was a curfew. All of these curveballs. How do we go remote? How does the team function? How do we get people to cases? Most of the cases were transitioning to live-in. We didn’t want people traveling.
The lower amount of people in and out of a household was ideal. We pivoted. We did a lot of live-in. We worked with a financial coach, who helped us see, in live time that we needed to also adjust the rates for the live-in because that was a smaller segment of our business, and the margins were lower. We were losing the hourly, which was the better service line. We did a price change live real-time without having to look back at the quarter going, “What happened? Why did our profits drop?”
Having gurus in their sectors, being able to consult, has also been a part of the success. I think during the pandemic people did not want to be in a facility. Home care was the natural choice. People were not able to travel or be with their loved ones, or not necessarily able to relocate. That was just the growth in home care in general. We’ve had growth year after year. The pandemic certainly accelerated that, but we haven’t let off either.
I think as people call this the silver tsunami that’s coming, rumors that are, I think, by 2030, the population that’s going to be over 65. It’s tremendous. It’s important for those people that are doing quality care or services in general for this population, just be tried, true, and professional. There’s a lot of noise in the industry as all the Wall Street reports show, the demographics moving into this area. There’s a lot of venture capital and other motives moving into this sector. It’s important to identify those that are the true practitioners.
I want to get back to that in a second, but I want to ask you first about the other kinds of flexibility and agility you had to have during the pandemic. What are some of the things you’ve carried over into the post-pandemic world that you mentioned about even working remotely and how you didn’t even think that would be possible. Share a little bit about what you’ve learned about that and what you’re doing now that maybe you wouldn’t have done before and it’s working.
The fact that I didn’t think I could hire people outside of New York City. If they couldn’t get to my office daily, we could meet through Google Teams and Meets, a Google meeting. Our team meets daily and the Google chat going daily and constantly having video meetings. We do host times for our team to get together as well so that hat we do have in-person time, and it’s not completely lost. There is some balance that does need to exist. We use Monday.com as a custom CRM that we’ve built. There’s a lot of tools that and having good consultants available to help us devise this on the fly. It’s been a game changer.
I think if I remember correctly, you even have a tree office.
I do. During COVID, I worked the first twelve months in my garage, and then I spent sixteen months in a 30-foot camper trailer that I converted the front bedroom into an office. The town told me that they were going to fine me if I didn’t remove it. I started building a treehouse office. It’s 14×14. It’s got insulation, air conditioning, heat, and has a full bathroom shower. It’s a little bit more than difficult. It’s like a little house up in a tree.
That’s what I would call an executive treehouse office. The point is, you made it work. That’s what I’m highlighting. To create an office of that type so you could work remotely and get everything done is pretty creative and innovative as well. I just wanted to throw that in because I thought that was pretty cool.
It’s a neat story because it was making lemonade out of lemons. I had bought all the wood for the treehouse. For our first COVID Thanksgiving, it was going to be my outside little gazebo. My neighbor called the town, the same one who called on the camper, and they put a stop-work order. I had all this lumber, and this was early in COVID, so before lumber went very expensive. I took all the wood to where I have some property, and I built a treehouse office. At that point, lumber was through the roof, and I couldn’t afford probably all the lumber that I had already purchased at that point. I’m just trying to lean into positivity and making lemonade out of lemons sometimes.
I think that’s a great success strategy. One of the other things I wanted to ask you about is that you mentioned a number of times that you had some consultants and advisors who came in to help you. We all know that no one does this work alone, especially because some of the consultants and advisors had areas of expertise that were different from yours. I know that you work with a good colleague of mine,Paul Meinardus, who was your business and financial coach. Tell us about that. What did Paul do? How did he help you achieve all of these stellar results?
One of the great things about this is we can tap people to be like a virtual CFO. You don’t need a CFO for 40 hours a week necessarily or maybe fifteen hours a week makes sense. That’s where Paul has come in. I call him our virtual CFO. He’s our business strategy advisor and as I said, that was during the pandemic. It was Paul who said, “If all your business is going live-in, we need to adjust rates.” He’s helped us with revenue modeling and identify attributes of the business that I didn’t think were possible. The cost of goods sold. We know our real margins now on each service line.
I had a friend of mine who was involved with Five Guys Burgers, and I used to see him as a manager on his laptop. You could see 500 large fries have been sold by 11:00, and 1,800 Pepsis or whatever, in live time. I feel like I’ve almost now got that live-time statistics on my business. It’s amazing to have that intricate knowledge and the pulse on the real true bottom line and all the moving parts of the business. Paul’s been instrumental in setting all of that up. We still meet with him continuously and look at all of our strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. We go over our SWOT and all of the critical success factors.
It sounds like in one of the benefits that you’ve derived from having a consultant like that, someone who’s an advisor, is they help you to think about things you wouldn’t think of on your own, so that there are greater possibilities for the business and greater ways to increase revenues that you wouldn’t have thought of, and maybe too late and where it would have cost you a lot. There’s also the part of speed of getting the information that you wouldn’t have. Also, making it streamlined so that you can manage and run the business in real time, see things coming before they hit, and avert disasters at the same time.
We don’t know what we don’t know. We’re experts in what we are experts in, and having the ability to tap experts. One of Paul’s colleagues at Wide Awake Business is Carrie Burggraf. She’s been helping us with sales coaching. I can’t even put words to the impact that it’s had. I’ve been working with her directly. She’s been the one who’s been helping me get out and push into all of that. I’m not a salesperson. I can educate and speak to this all day, but I don’t have the questions loaded in my mind. I don’t have necessarily all of the marketing stuff figured out, but she’s got it. She’s like Paul, willing to teach it and enjoys seeing people live it and do it.
It’s a huge difference for you, having those advisors and consultants around you who care about you and the business and want to see you be successful. If you could even imagine or guess, where do you think you would be without them?
We would not be here.
Those partnerships have made a difference to you being where you are now and enjoying the success that you’re enjoying. A lot of people are reluctant to consult an advisor, a coach, or a consultant along the way. What would you say to those business leaders out there, maybe to encourage them, the ones who haven’t experienced the value of real outside counsel?
I make introductions for Paul, Carrie, and other people on their team all the time. I almost see it as my duty to let other people know that they don’t have to do it all. There’s a home care agency owner in Manhattan that I’m good friends with. He does a great job. He has a great business, but he won’t let anyone in his office, except for him, speak with new clients. I get it. I understand the quality control need.
One of the things that I had to embrace was you just need to expect 80% of what you would do in your delegation. That’s enough. I’ve been fortunate to have it, and I know his team can do it. I want to role model for him and even help him stay accountable because I’ve had the help. I feel like it’s one of those things where it’s like, “This is possible. You can step out.”
I think it’s one of my greatest self-accomplishments, retrospectively. I didn’t even realize this but it wasn’t my intention, but, God forbid, if I get hit by a bus, the company is still up and running because I’ve stepped out of the day-to-day. Not everyone needs to speak to Rick. That’s something that I’m realizing that it’s neat.
That’s an important outcome, being able to have the business have longevity even beyond you. You’re facilitating succession. You’re facilitating the legacy, and that good work continues for the clients, both sets of clients that you’re talking about who benefit from your services. That’s an important outcome also in addition to everything else that we’ve been talking about. I hope that those who are reading out there will realize you can go farther, faster, and to better places sometimes when you get others with expertise to come in to partner with you, work with you, and help you see what you don’t see by yourself.
That’s an important point. I’m glad that you mentioned those people from Wide Awake Businesswho made a difference in your experience. You were talking about the kinds of people that are coming into the home care industry now because they can see that this can be a profitable business. However, they may not have the same values in place. They may be more wired toward, let’s say, shareholder value and a venture capital situation or whatever. Talk a little bit about who these other players are. I don’t mean by name, but the kinds of players that are in the marketplace and how you are different from what they do.
The Benefits of a Boutique Concierge
There’s a lot of big players. There are national franchises and chains. We are more of a mom-and-pop shop, a boutique, and concierge-type of service. There are excellent franchises. There are excellent models. The gentleman I was mentioning in Manhattan has a great outfit. He came from Wall Street. He retired out of Wall Street and wanted to start a business. We’ve come from all different backgrounds. For several people, it was a family situation, whether a nurse or whatever. It’s an interesting mix of who comes to the industry.
It sounds like there’s more than one way to do a great job coming to the industry. Not everyone who does it differently is necessarily doing it poorly.
To tell you, we get phone calls where people say, “We’re happy you answered your phones.” That’s how my barometer is showing me the volume of places that are opening quality that they’re not even answering their phones. To identify who the quality people are, make sure you can get an owner or manager on the phone, and understand their mission and vision. Did they just buy a franchise? Have they been in this industry for a long time?
I think those things will be very evident once you get someone on the phone who’s willing to have a conversation. If not, that’s probably indicative of what quality you can expect. We all can agree that when you can get the owner of the business on the phone. You’re going to have a very different experience than if you have a regional manager or something else. Having local boots on the ground, where you can check references and make sure that their passion and empathy is matching your values.
To your families, the ones who work with you and the caregivers, what would you say is the reason that they prefer to work with your company? What do you do to educate your clients? We all know that educating our clients is important. How do you handle educating them? Why do they prefer your organization versus some of the others?
It’s the choice and control that they have in choosing who the caregiver is and what those tasks are and understanding that we then do the full service to make sure that all the administrative burden is eased. A lot of places you hear of a caregiver shortage, where people don’t have caregivers. That’s not one of the items that affects us. We have a waiting list of caregivers to onboard and register with us because they know they’re coming to larger wages, better-paying jobs, and positions that will be typically much longer than a typical agency relationship.
I think all of those components, especially if there are tasks, chronic care tasks that a licensed agency aide would not be allowed to do, or they want someone as a high-level companion who can speak French. We had the former president of the World Bank as a client, and we were able to match them with someone who had their finance degree and create a meaningful connection. This guy was very type A and didn’t want to speak to anyone unless there was some common knowledge on these advanced notions. Those are the reasons that people come and work with us. It’s to have that personalized, thoughtful match, and supported relationship.
I think that’s one of the benefits and beauties of a boutique firm, it allows you to be nimble like that and to customize and personalize the service. Not just one-size-fits-all, and some people don’t want that. They want something that’s customized to their loved one and their situation. That’s certainly a good reason to come to your organization. Rick, how can people reach you? How can they reach you if they want to access the services? Maybe they’re in New York. How could they reach you if they would like to have you speak anywhere, perhaps on best practices in home care?
The phone number for the office is (646) 240-4888. My email is Rick@HolisticHomecareAssociates.com. We also have our Facebook page, and I’m happy to do any speaking engagements and always speak to best practices on employing caregivers or anything to do with home care. I’m happy to always connect people if our registry isn’t the right option. It’s been my duty to make sure that I connect people with the right option. As long as the client is served, then we’ve done our job.
That’s phenomenal. I know that people know if they call you, they will get a good connection if you can’t help them. I’ve already seen that part of how you operate. You’re an excellent connector, so I can speak about that. Rick, what additional words of wisdom would you like to leave for my audience of corporate executive business leaders? Most of them are not in home care. They may be in completely different industries, and yet everything that you and I have been talking about does apply to every business out there. What else would you like to share with them?
To quote Blue Ocean, “I don’t remember the author, collaboration happens at the top, and competition happens at the bottom.” I think that’s my word of wisdom.
What I love is basically everything you’ve built has been built through high level collaborations and collaborations at every level. That’s an important concept for people to realize and to remember. I don’t even like using the term competitive advantage because what I believe people have is creative advantage. You’re going to do something, Rick, because of who you are.
Your partner, Anne, is going to do something because of who she is. When you create your business, it has its unique pieces based on your gifts, talents, and skills. No one else is going to be able to do it quite like you because you are your own unique selves that you bring to the business. I call that creative advantage. You don’t need to compete with anyone, so to speak. Show up with all of your glory and gifts.
Half of life is just showing up. You get 50% credit for showing up.
It makes a huge difference. I want to thank you so much for our time and for all of the wonderful nuggets of wisdom that you have shared with my community. Thank you for being here.
I thank you, Dr. Karen.
Importance of Righteousness, Mercy, and Others’ Interests
We’re going to close out our segment with a few Bible verses that I think are relevant to what Rick and I have been talking about. First, I’ll start with the First Covenant, which is in Proverbs 21:21. It says, “He who follows righteousness and mercy finds life, righteousness, and honor.” The second reading is from Philippians 2:3-4, out of the New Covenant. It reads as follows, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition and conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others.”
I think what we’ve heard here is a picture that Rick has painted of what it’s like to look out for the interests of multiple stakeholders, the win-win-win, looking out for the caregivers, the families, and for the business and those who work in the business with Rick. That’s certainly a part of it. It’s not like you don’t count yourself in, you do, yourself and others. That’s an important piece of it.
As a result, this business is alive. It’s a living organism, and it has honor. You’ve got the picture. You’ve seen it played out here. Rick has described it in an excellent way. I hope that you too out there who are reading will build a business that has mercy baked into it, righteousness and honor, and where you’re paying attention to the interests of others as well as yourself. We’ll see you in the next episode.
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I’m here with Jos Snoep, who is the CEO and President of theBible League. The Bible League is a ministry that provides Bibles and instructional materials in the Word of God, as well as trains teachers in their local language and culture to share the Word of God and to disciple people. Jos, tell us a little bit about the impact of the Bible League. What’s going on out there?
I met this lady. Her name was Nimia. Nimia was born in 1949. She became a Christian in 2002. We were able to invite her to one of our trainings. At the end of that meeting, she stood up and shared her testimony. She said, “This is the first time I received a Bible of my own. I’m equipped to share the Word of God with others.” I thought to myself at that point, “That’s why we are the Bible League. That’s why God called us to be in ministry, to serve people like that and to equip them with the right materials and with the Word of God.”
Thank you so much, Jos, for sharing that story. What I want to let everyone know is you can be a part of this movement as well. You can go toBibleLeague.org to find out more about the ministry and also to donate to the ministry. There are lots more stories like the one that Jos just shared about lives that are changed and impacted for God through Jesus Christ.
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I’m here with Terence Chatmon, the President and CEO of the nonprofit organizationVictorious Family. They are committed to family discipleship and transformation. Thank you for being here, Terence. Tell us about your big goal, what it is that you’re going for at Victorious Family.
By 2030, we see reaching 9.2 million families here in the US.
That is wonderful. You’re reaching these families because you want to see children grow up and truly continue their faith in Christ. Tell us about one of your resources,Do Your Children Believe?, the book you’ve written.
Ephesians 6:4 says, “Fathers, don’t exasperate your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” We’re just being faithful to that calling. In order to do that, we train coaches, provide workshops and content to train parents on how to disciple their children.
That is phenomenal. How can people find out more about the ministry, the other tools and resources you have available? How can they donate to support the ministry?
One of those tools is Do Your Children Believe, a book that we’ve published through Thomas Nelson, and you can find that at VictoriousFamily.org.
There you have it. You want your family to be victorious? Go to VictoriousFamily.org.
Rick Gang BA is a skilled home care professional with nearly 30 years of experience managing home care. As CEO and co-founder of Holistic HomeCare Associates, Rick has a deep understanding of the home care landscape. He and his team take great pride in ensuring that clients receive the very best home care experience through rigorous caregiver screening and matching and enhancing and simplifying the employment process.
The care and feeding of orchids is a delicate business. Too much or too little of a good substance can lead to an untimely demise. Dr. Karen shares six executive business insights from her experiences with orchid care. The first lesson is to seek outside consultation when you are not knowledgeable about a needed area of expertise. View this episode to see the unveiling of the other insights.
The care and feeding of orchids is a delicate business. Too much or too little of a good substance can lead to an untimely demise. Dr. Karen shares six executive business insights from her experiences with orchid care.
In this episode, I am talking about the care and feeding of orchids part two. If you read part one, you will know that I received a beautiful orchid plant from my cousin and his wife. Not being a horticulturist myself, I had a hard time figuring out, how do I care for this orchid, and how do I keep it alive. I talked about that in Episode 442, which was in September of 2023.
How I Saved My Orchid From Overwatering And Thirst
I was so happy at that time that I had kept that orchid blooming for almost four months, which was quite a feat for me. Since that time, many other things have happened to the orchid. Let me give you an update. As I promised, I’d come back, and have some additional leadership lessons that we can learn from the care and feeding of orchids.
First of all, the orchid plant had very healthy green leaves. I did a great job with watering it so that it wasn’t overwatered or underwatered, and the green leaves stayed beautiful for a long time. The beginning of the year happened and my schedule changed. I started traveling much more aggressively. I was gone for long periods of time from 10 to 14 days. I had to figure out what to do with this orchid.
In the meantime, I also wanted the orchid to bloom again. I consulted a very good friend of mine who truly has a green thumb, has a house full of blooming, beautiful orchids, and does a great job. She gave me some tips about how to make it bloom again. That looked like it was going to be a very time-consuming process for someone like me who’s traveling often and on the road. I said, “I’ll wait until a little bit later before I implement some of those strategies.”
In the meantime, with all of this aggressive traveling that I was doing, I had to figure out, how do I water this orchid and keep it alive until I come back? One of the times, I watered the orchid too much. I was trying to make that water last until I would return. When I got home, I saw the dreaded yellow leaves. The beautiful green leaves had turned yellow.
From all the research that I did, I knew that meant the orchid had got too much water. My poor orchid was drowning in water, and it was dying. When I touched those yellow leaves, they just fell off right into my hands. I had about two good leaves left and I said, “Let me see if I can salvage these two that are remaining.” I went on the next trip and said, “This time, I’m not going to overwater the plant. I’ll just make sure I give the plant a small amount of water.”
When I came back, the plant was stressed in the opposite direction and now it was starving. It was dying of thirst and shriveling up. I lost one of the two good leaves, and the one that was remaining was small, puny, and didn’t look like it was going to make it either. I was like, “What do I do now?” I wasn’t sure how to salvage this but I figured, “Let me work on it.” I have salvaged plants in the past, brought them back from near disaster, and I thought, “I could do it again. Let me figure it out, and let me work on it.”
In the meantime, the same wonderful first cousin of mine and his wife gave me another beautiful orchid plant and it was even more spectacular. It had more green plants in it. It was more diverse. I thought, “How nice. I will then cultivate both of these plants.” However, my husband took a look at the first plant and said, “This plant is gone. It has outlived its life. It’s time for it to go.” I said, “No, I don’t want it to go. I want to bring it back to health.” He said, “Time to go. You have a new plant now.”
Leadership Lessons From Orchid Care
He sent the plant on to plant heaven. I have the new plant that I’m cultivating and working on at the moment and so far, so good. The new plant is still alive. There are a lot of lessons in all of this about what to pay attention to and how to think about everything that happened. I know that in my case, when my circumstances changed, I needed to make some changes, too.
What I could have done with the plant when my circumstances changed, my friend, unfortunately, was recovering from surgery at the hospital. I didn’t want to do this first thing, which was, I could have sent the plant to her. It could have been in the plant hospital. She would have put it in with all of her plants and taken care of it. It probably would have done much better and she would have returned it to me in great shape. However, it was not a good time for me to do that because of her own circumstances.
The other thing I could have done was to get one of those time-released water bulbs and put that in the plant so that it would get water while I was gone, but not too much and not too little. I didn’t do any of those things. That’s why I’m telling you this story about the fate of the plant and what happened to the orchid. As far as leadership lessons, there are several that I want to share with you about this experience.
Number one, in leadership, when you are dealing with something new or a new set of circumstances, maybe where you don’t have knowledge and expertise, get outside help. Consult with knowledgeable people. You know I did get outside help. I studied books and talked to people. I did consult and get outside help. Number two, however, it is even more important which is to follow the expertise that your outside consultant shares with you. I followed some of it, but not all of it.
This reminds me of some of my clients. We’ll be talking about things, and I’ll make some recommendations for what their next steps might be. They might, for various reasons, just like I did with the orchid not implement whatever it is that we’re talking about. Later on, when the orchid dies, or the leaves turn yellow, or whatever is happening in their organization, they’ll come back, and I’ll say, “Did you implement what we talked about?” “No, we didn’t do that.” I had predicted upfront that this would be the outcome. They say, “We remember that.” Yet life gets in the way.
There are reasons sometimes why we don’t implement what we know to do and what we’ve heard about from our outside consultants and experts. In those cases, you can’t always do everything yourself because, as I mentioned, life gets in the way. That brings me to number three. It’s get hands-on help for whatever it is that you’re doing. In my case, that hands-on help could have been in the form of my friend who could have been babysitting the plant or someone else who could have babysat the plant while I was gone.
I could have got some tech help, which reminds me, metaphorically, think about the technology that we use, including artificial intelligence. That little water bulb would have been just a picture of that. I could have got some outside help to be my hands when I wasn’t there. You want to do the same thing in your organization. You want to get help from others who are in the organization and help from those who are outside the organization. This extends your reach and your ability to make a difference.
When circumstances change, you want to change strategies. In 2023, it was perfectly fine because I was in town most weeks and I could water the plant every week and giving it that small amount of water it needed. In 2024, my circumstances changed. I wasn’t available to water the plant every single week in the same way. That required new strategies.
In your business, when your circumstances change, look at your procedures or your processes and identify what also needs to alter what also needs to change. Make sure that you make the changes that go with the season you’re in within your business. The next item is important. We have to accept that all things come to an end. There is a natural cycle of life, and there’s an end date to everything.
We want to remember the good times that we had with those who took the journey with us up to this point and then learn to say goodbye. There is an art to saying goodbye. You take some time in saying goodbye when it’s real people and yet, you have to say goodbye. I don’t know if you remember, but in the first episode, when I talked about lessons from orchids and orchid care. I talked about how important when a flower was starting to fade to start taking that off from the orchid so that it didn’t take up a lot of extra nutrients from new growth that was coming behind it.
The same thing was true when I was trying to hold on to this plant and not let it go to plant heaven. A lot of care and effort would have been taken to bring it back to life. Was it possible to bring it back? Probably. Think about the resources involved when it had already served its time. When you think about that in your organization, there are some people who are there with you for a limited season.
When their season is up, let them go. Let them go to another place where they can continue to add value. You could grow, develop, and nurture them. However, the effort that it would take might away from the resources you have to grow and nurture those who are the perfect fit for where you are now. A lot of times, I’ve watched people take too long trying to resuscitate something that they ought to let go of in their organizations.
This siphons away energy from other parts of the organization. It causes those who are the perfect fit for where you are to become very frustrated and discouraged because they need your attention and cultivation to grow as well. We must learn to say goodbye and realize that we can hold on to some people too long. You don’t want to be in that position, which then hampers your entire organization. When you let go of those things that are taking up a lot of time, even though you could do it. Maybe it’s not the best use of your time.
That brings me to the last item which is to welcome and usher in the new. I’ll tell you my new orchid is bigger, fancier, and beautiful. I can devote my energy and time to the new orchid, giving it the proper lighting, proper water, and proper care. The new orchid is the orchid for this time and for this season in my life. Think about all of those things about getting outside, help, and consulting with knowledgeable people. Number two, following the expertise that you learn about. Number three, getting the hands-on help when you can’t do it yourself, delegate to others, bring in technology, or the AI that you might need.
Leadership Lessons From Ecclesiastes For Organizational Growth
Number four, when circumstances change, you change strategies. Don’t do the same thing. Number five, accept that all things have a season, and you have to let go and say goodbye sometimes. Number six, welcome and usher in the new, put your energy, food, sustenance, and resources into growing whatever that new thing is in your organization. As we close, I want to share a reading from Ecclesiastes 3. This is very relevant to what we’re talking about.
It says, starting with verse one, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born, die, plant, and pluck up what is planted. A time to kill, heal, break down, build up, and weep. A time to laugh, mourn, dance, cast away stones, gather stones, embrace, and refrain from embracing. A time to gain, lose, keep, throw away, tear, sew, silence, speak, love, hate, war, and peace.” Let me ask you, what time is it in your organization? What is it that you need to do? What is it that makes the most sense for your current season and for ensuring that your organization grows, is sustained, and adds the value that you were intended to add? I look forward for the next episode.
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Creating Your Own Pathway To Leadership Success And Opportunity
I want to tell you about my book, Lead Yourself First!: The Senior Leader’s Guide to Engaging Your People for Greater Performance and Impact. This book is about playing the music that only you can play. Leadership is about more than following clever techniques, you are the instrument of your leadership. People are inspired by you and how you show up. In Chapter three of the book, which is called Forge Your Own Pathway, I share many experiences of creating a pathway forward when a pathway didn’t exist beforehand.
Sometimes that path is created through service, such as when I was taking a train every week from Wiesbaden to Frankfurt, Germany, to volunteer in the Army hospital, the 97th General. I was volunteering once a week as a psychologist. Little did I know that this volunteer job would later become a full-time employment opportunity for me. It’s because of the volunteer service, I was in the right place at the right time when the doors opened up. The metaphor that I often use for creating opportunities is the ability to see possibilities where none are visible, and I call this creating blizzard food.
Imagine, just like in Colorado, this could happen at any time. There might be a raging blizzard outside. You haven’t gone to the grocery store yet. There’s no obvious food in the refrigerator or the pantry. Yet, if you look hard enough, there is hidden food, and you can use it to create delicious meals for yourself and also your guests. I encourage you, get your own copy of Lead Yourself First, forge your own pathway forward, create your own opportunities, be the instrument of your leadership, and create some delicious blizzard food.
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Creating A Positive, Profitable Workplace Culture
Did you know that workplaces can make a significant difference in the lives of people and that you can create a positive culture that gets positive business results and also produces positive life experiences for your employees, clients, and customers? You can make a significant contribution to the world by creating the culture where your people can bring their gifts to provide the most relevant and excellent products and services to your marketplace.
What the research shows is that companies with excellent leadership are also more profitable. As you flourish and grow in the world, you can do more for yourself as well as for others. If this is resonating with you and you want to create a positive, profitable, and powerful corporate culture, and you care about succession, leaving the organization in a better position than when you found it. Do keep in mind that that kind of legacy is something intentional. I am happy to partner with you to take your organization to the next level and create that positive leadership culture. Reach me at Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com.
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I want to let you know that I am running a special promotion. If you are a CEO or executive leader in a medium to large-sized company, and you care about how your people are treated. Especially if you share our biblical values and you may be facing difficult decisions where you want some additional perspective.
You may be planning for succession in your company, developing people, and preparing the organization for that succession. Perhaps you’re going through change, or leading change. Maybe there’s a merger or an acquisition. Whatever you’re facing in terms of leadership, including developing your executive team, contact me. Give me a call so we can do a discovery meeting to see what’s going on.
Here’s the special promotion. In addition to your discovery time, I will interview up to three additional people from your executive team so you have even greater context and feedback about where to go next. Reach out to me at Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com or phone me at (719) 534-0949, extension 1. I look forward to hearing from you and coming alongside you to complete and continue your leadership journey with positivity and profitability in your organization.
Susan Ireland spent 30 years in business operations leadership roles at The Boeing Company. She was on the original leadership team that built and established a new digital aviation business for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After Boeing, Susan played a strategic role in a start-up company that developed, manufactured, and installed hydrogen systems on diesel engines.
Now, as co-founder of Seasons Leadership, a professional coaching and services business, she and her business partner, Debbie Collard, leverage and share the lessons they learned from both complex global organizations and small technology start-ups. Their objective is to make leadership excellence the worldwide standard.
Susan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Washington and a Master of Science in Management from Antioch University. She is an alumna of the International Executive Programme at Insead University in France and the Executive Leadership Program at Seattle University.
Today Susan speaks with Dr. Karen about how to use business operations systems to manage your business, career progression for women in male-dominated fields, and how to use your values to take charge of your career.
Susan Ireland: The Journey From Boeing To Start-Up To Her Own Business [Episode 476]
Susan Ireland spent 30 years in business operations leadership roles at The Boeing Company. She was on the original leadership team that built and established a new digital aviation business for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
In this episode, I have a very special guest, someone whose backstory and experiences she has leveraged for what she does. Let me tell you about her because you can do the same thing. Susan Ireland is the Cofounder of Seasons Leadership, a professional coaching and consulting services business that she started with her business partner and colleague, Debbie Collard. Their objective is to make leadership excellence the worldwide standard.
Susan consults with leaders at all levels to enhance leadership and business acumen, encourage self-discovery, and turn challenges into positive results. Prior to her current role, Susan spent 30 years at The Boeing Company, holding a number of director-level business operations leadership roles. She also played a key role on the original leadership team that built and established a new digital aviation business for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
At Boeing, Susan navigated and leveraged the complexities of large global organizations. Following her time with Boeing, Susan played a strategic role in a startup company that developed, manufactured, and installed hydrogen systems on diesel engines. There, she provided expertise in steering the design, implementation, and management of business processes. Her experiences at Boeing and the small entrepreneurial company give her the unique background to understand both large enterprises and small startup organizations.
Susan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Washington and a Master of Science in Management from Antioch University. She is an alumna of the International Executive Program at INSEAD University in France and the Executive Leadership Program at Seattle University. In addition, she holds many coaching certifications, including the ICF Certified Professional Coach Credential. She is also a dynamic speaker and host of the Seasons Leadership Podcast.
When she’s not helping others along their journeys, Susan enjoys spending time with her family and traveling. Her personal values of wonder and awe have inspired her to see the world, including her longtime goal of living and working in Ireland for an extended period. Susan, welcome to the show. I’m so happy to have you here.
Thank you, Dr. Karen. It’s great to be here.
Getting The Idea To Start Seasons Leadership
Wonderful. You have such a rich background in history and I want people to know all about it. We’ll start with the present and what you’re doing. Tell us, how did you and your business partner, Debbie, get the idea to start Seasons Leadership?
Dr. Karen, it was spontaneous. I retired from Boeing in 2016. I knew at that time I was going to start my own coaching business because I love coaching and had already got my head around that that was what I was going to do. I was doing that. 1 year or 2 later, I noticed on LinkedIn that Debbie had retired and become a coach. Debbie and I worked together at Boeing but we hadn’t spoken since I left. I connected with her. We started talking about why she became a coach. It was very similar to why I did. She enjoyed working with people, supporting people, and helping other people achieve their dreams.
She had moved to Texas. I’m in Seattle but she was in Seattle for a visit. We got together. We started talking. It was exciting. We said, “We could do this and this.” We decided we wanted to share what we had learned over the years. She had a 30-plus-year background and I had a 30-year background. We said, “Let’s do it.” We both had a passion for the idea of what we knew and what we had learned. How can we share that with people who are in early, mid, and late careers to help them accelerate their progress and what they want to do? We learned by just going. We were living and learning at the same time. We wanted to give people a step up to help them.
I appreciate that because those of us who have gone through 30-plus years need to reach back, give back, and share what we’ve learned. That accelerates and elevates the leadership impact of other people. Thank you for doing that rather than retiring and moving off into the sunset without sharing all that wisdom and allowing that wisdom to go forward and benefit other people. That’s spectacular. I’m glad you decided to do that.
Creating A Course Amid The Pandemic
I know that you and Debbie started a course designed to capture all the things you learned from both of your careers. You started it at a difficult time at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. What happened with that course? How did you need to change during the COVID time and even after to be successful and effective?
We didn’t plan on launching it during COVID. After our conversation when Debbie was in Seattle, we said, “Let’s put everything we know into a program,” and we did. The idea was to have people come together in a cohort throughout the year. We wanted it to be a year-long because we thought it took that long to integrate some of these learnings. We didn’t want a quick fix for people. We wanted something they could use, implement in their careers and lives, and see a difference.
We put it together and were working hard and fast to do this. We got a group together, all women at the time, for an in-person event on March 20th, 2020. I was calling Debbie as she was getting on a plane, saying, “I don’t know if you should come because I don’t know what’s happening.” In Seattle, we were the center of everything. It started here. She in Texas said, “I think it’ll be okay.” She had no idea about the different environments we were in.
We had a great first cohort. It was a weekend long. We were the only people in the hotel. The hotel was very generous. We had food and everything we needed. After that, as we all know, everything shut down. Debbie got back to Texas and then the planes stopped. We decided, “What are we going to do?” Like everybody in the world, we had to do that word that everybody did, which is pivot online. You have to do what you have to do. We put our things online and got our cohort together. Everybody stuck with us and we started doing Zoom. It worked out great.
We’ve completed that year thinking this is going to end soon and we’ll go back to our in-person program. We couldn’t so we did another year virtually. It was surprising. Other people experienced this as well. Our first cohort was generally around the Pacific Northwest because we were located in Seattle. We had a few people fly in for it but it was mostly that. When our second year came around, because we were all online, we had people from all over the world, which was fantastic.
It brings a whole new dimension to the leadership conversations we were having. That’s what happened there. We decided we were being limited because it was only Debbie and me. To do the cohort type of classes was taking up a lot of our energy and space so we decided to put that on hold. As a matter of fact, Dr. Karen, I don’t even think I told you about this. We are getting ready to launch an online version that is more self-paced than our program. We’re excited about that. You’re going to see that soon.
You did mention it. Like other business leaders, you have to innovate, change, grow, and create new versions of what you started. Many business leaders, when talking about a coaching or consulting practice, need to know how to do that because there’s always change going on in the work environment. It’s very dynamic. You and Debbie have lived it in your previous work lives and are also living it now. That’s very credible because you have fresh information about what it takes to change and be successful. That’s wonderful. I love that story about how you didn’t let that stop you. You kept going, made it work, and made it into an advantage with the international element.
One of the things we do, which is important to us and can be helpful to other people, to help us be more flexible is to keep going back to what our mission is. Our mission is to support leaders to become more excellent leaders. When you think about that, it doesn’t say how we do that. We have to keep looking for ways to meet people where they are and what they need. You have to be creative with that. Sometimes it’s in person. Sometimes it’s online. It’s important to us to support leaders. That’s why we keep going.
The Balance Of Being And Doing In Leadership
Phenomenal. I’m glad to hear that part of your story as well. You have some concepts that you work on within your business. One is about the whole notion of being and then there’s the whole notion of doing. Tell us a little bit about that. What is this being? What is this doing? How do you support leaders in both of those realms?
This is not a concept we came up with, being and doing. It can be a challenge, especially for people who are in the work environment leading others, because there’s so much pressure on us to perform and deliver results. That is focused on what we do. Being a leader first requires who we are at our core, what our values are, why we do what we do, and staying grounded in those things because that’s what shines through. The doing will come. The being is about being confident enough in yourself, to be yourself, speak your voice, and allow others space to speak their voice. It’s the foundation. We spend time on that foundation, who you are as a person and a leader. We then talk about how you do it.
I resonate with what you’re saying about being and doing. I don’t know if you know or remember Frances Hesselbein. She was a nonprofit leader who worked with Peter Drucker. They had the Leader to Leader Institute, which went through various name changes. She lived to be 107 years old. I worked with her years ago. She had this concept of being and doing, which she taught often with the military and at West Point. Being a former military officer, I’m familiar with that as well.
It’s crucial to start with the self. The book I wrote is called Lead Yourself First!. It’s all about understanding who you are because we are the instruments of our leadership. What we do comes out of who we are. It’s phenomenal that you are acknowledging that and doing that work with the people you’re consulting with as well. We are of the same mind when it comes to that.
No kidding, Dr. Karen. Coincidentally, I am diving deep into Frances Hesselbein because I’ve connected with Alan Mulally. He is a fan of hers and was a close friend. I am deep into that. It’s so interesting that you were connected to her as well.
We did some joint projects together for a number of years, first with Texaco and then when it merged into Chevron Texaco. That’s how I know her, through years of working together.
I love the synchronicities, connecting.
Understanding Business Operations Consulting And Its Role In Leadership Success
You just never know. You also, Susan, refer to your work as business operations consulting. That’s an important term and it’s different from what we often hear. What is business operations consulting? How important is it to leadership success?
That was my career at Boeing, and Debbie’s as well. In a big corporation, sometimes titles, roles, and all of that aren’t clear. What we mean by business operations is it’s the organization that is connecting the dots and all other functional organizations together. It describes the plan and puts it all together, the schedule and the processes the organization needs to run. It’s like running the organization on the inside. It’s the space between all the different functions, the connection of it.
Most often, what I have found is organizations, big and small, don’t know about this or don’t do it very well. They don’t know what is wrong with their organization. Why aren’t we working? Why aren’t we communicating? How come the left-hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing? That’s what the business operations function is. It’s integrating it all together so everybody knows the plan that we’re on, how we’re doing on that plan, and who needs to do what and when to meet our goals.
When I hear you talk about this, Susan, I think a lot about the word alignment, making sure that all parts are aligned. The word systems also come to mind, having the right system so that all of this can be done. You address leadership and management systems. Say a little bit more about that. What are some of those pieces that people often forget?
When you have a leadership system, you can start at a high level by understanding who the leaders are, their roles, how they interact together, who is responsible for what, and how they agree to work. What are their operating principles? What are the behaviors they want to live by? What’s the system they will implement so that they all are working together? This takes time and dialogue between all the leaders. There’s no one system. I can’t say, “This is what everybody needs to do.” It’s not a cookie-cutter kind of a thing.
You go in and work with the leaders. They participate as they develop their leadership system and operating principles. When you talk about a management system, that is the operating rhythm. It’s how you, in an organized and predictable way, manage your business. For example, we advocate having a BPR or Business Plan Review. This is something we got from Alan Mulally. Once a week, a business, a company, or an organization has a business plan review where the whole leadership team gets together. This is for big corporations or small businesses like Debbie and I. We do it every week.
You look at your plan and everybody has their part of the plan and they report. “This is how it’s going and where I need help. This is what’s going well,” that kind of thing. Everybody knows what’s happening in the business. It’s very transparent, from financials, human resources, engineering, operations, and supply chain. Everybody is reporting because everybody has an important piece of the business. You have that in a weekly rhythm. It can go fast. It sounds onerous.
When I first talked to people about this, they said, “You got to be crazy. I have no time for that.” Let me tell you, it can go pretty fast but you can get ahead of problems and tackle problems when you have a whole team working on it rather than just one person. Everything is in a system. You look at your finances, talent, and company regularly. Everything is in a rhythm and everybody knows what that rhythm is so they can prepare for it and it takes away the chaos that sometimes runs in the business it can have.
It’s like having the system in place in a rhythm so that what occurs on a regular basis, you’re not reinventing the wheel every week to deal with it. You already have the process in place to analyze and look at what you’re doing. People usually know these things are important and know what to do, yet at the same time, they often don’t do it. I heard you say one of the reasons they might not is they think it’s going to take longer than it does. They don’t understand that they either take a little bit of time and do it upfront or a lot of time on the back end because they didn’t do it. What else gets in people’s way? Why do they not do these things that they know are relevant?
One of the big things is they haven’t experienced it. They’ve only experienced chaos. That’s what their models are like. This is what it means to run a company. “I’m doing everything. I’m fighting fires. I’m the person in charge and I need to answer every question.” That is the way it is. You can get pretty far that way sometimes but that has a lot to do with luck. Putting a system in place feels constraining. Some people feel like, “I want to be free and do whatever I want to do.” When you have an organization that’s following you, it feels too chaotic to them. If they have a system, they know what’s happening. Another reason might be ego. “I know best so I’m going to do it.”
Lessons From Successful People At Boeing
That doesn’t always work. Let’s turn back the clock a little bit. I’m going to ask you some things about Boeing. You’ve worked with a lot of successful people there. Tell us a little bit about what you learned about successful people and how they operate.
I was super lucky. Working at Boeing was a great career. The people there were so dedicated. I believe they were the smartest people in the world. If I had a question like, “How does that airplane fly? I was not an engineer. What about that part? What does that part do?” There was always somebody very generous with their time and expertise to explain it to me. It was great in all functions, which was wonderful. It was amazing to be around people who were the best of the best.
What I learned from that is those people who had the most impact on me were very generous with their time, advice, and ideas. What I learned from them is to allow space for other people to learn. When I started, I was a communications major and went into industrial engineering. I didn’t even know what that was at the time but they put you in, gave you a job, and trained you how to do it. I found it interesting. I looked to other people to learn more. A big one is to share what you know with others around you.
Leave space for learning. Creating a culture of learning is a key to success in business if people focus on that. What other lessons did you learn from Boeing and being there? What else did you learn that you’re even taking with you and using?
One of the positive things is that you always have to keep learning. I came from a communication degree and my job wasn’t in communications. My job moved into business operations. There are ways to learn, get competent, and get good at what you do but you have to work at it. It doesn’t come out of the blue naturally. If it’s important to you, do the work, go to school, get mentors, practice, and ask for assignments that are stretch assignments where you have to push yourself. You will learn but it’s up to you to do that work. Nobody can do that for you.
That’s important about putting yourself in places where you can learn what’s next. Something else you said that I loved is your background in communication. My background is in psychology. We can apply what we’ve learned in those fields to so many different settings. What setting doesn’t need communication, or in my case, an understanding of people and how they operate? We can apply that not just in one space but in multiple spaces. It becomes a gift or a real ability that is flexible in a lot of senses.
That is exactly right. People are kaleidoscopes of skills, experiences, ideas, and thoughts. The more we can bring that to what we’re doing, the more rich and valuable our contributions will be.
Leaving Boeing: The Courage To Transition Into New Opportunities
What prompted you to leave Boeing at the time that you did? How did you even have the courage to make that step? Often, people stay someplace because it’s too difficult to think about moving and doing something different.
That is true. It started with a class I took. It was an extra elective class when I was getting my Master’s and it was in coaching, which I had never heard of before. I thought this was interesting. I coached people I worked with and loved working with people. I took it and liked it. The professor said, “You can do this as a career.” I thought, “What do you mean? I don’t even know what that means.” She said, “People will pay you for this.” I said, “I don’t know about that.” I pushed it off to the side but there was a seed in there that I thought, “Maybe someday I’ll look at this.”
That professor was great. As part of that class, we did a values exercise. I had done many value exercises throughout my career at Boeing because they had training. I went to training and different things. We were always doing this value exercise. I could do it pretty fast. I’d check the box and say, “I know my values.” It’s true, they were my values but I didn’t put very much thought into it. She kept saying, “Do it again.” I said, “What do you mean?” She said, “I don’t think you’re digging deep enough.” I did do it. Instead of an hour, it took me a couple of weeks, maybe a month, to do it.
You always have to keep learning. If it’s important to you, do the work.
Values exercises are all over the web and they’re all about the same. You start with words and then pick the words that resonate with you. My words were safety, security, family, and contribution. Those are good. Those are my values. I started to realize why those were my values. I was a single parent for most of my career. Safety and security made sense because I needed enough money and security for my family. Family was my priority and contribution was my work. They all played together and made sense to me.
As I was going through this exercise, I realized safety and security are still there. It’s not gone. However, the priority has changed because my kids are older. I’ve worked at Boeing for all these years and I have positions of responsibility. I’m feeling pretty secure. My risk factor is way better than it was when I first started at Boeing. I thought, “Maybe my priorities have changed.” Not that my family isn’t my priority, but where am I spending my attention and focus?
The contribution was still there. I said, “What is it that lights my fire and gets me going?” I was thinking about this and came up with wonder and awe. I knew that was it. When I was a little girl, what were the things that I used to dream about? I wanted to be an astronaut, travel the world, and do things like that. I thought, “I do. I still am that person and I want that. I have space in my life to do that.” I still have my responsibilities but I have more space to pay attention to that.
From then on, I started making my decisions with that in mind. If I had a new job, I thought, “Would this give me wonder and awe?” For me, that means, is it something new? Am I going to be learning something? Is it a great project? If the answer was yes, I took it. This is maybe a long way to get to why I decided to leave Boeing when I did. I started thinking about where I was in life.
Unfortunately, my son-in-law passed away from leukemia. It brought into clear focus that life is short in many ways. I realized I was in a position where I could leave and try something else that would give me wonder and awe. It was a little bit scary but I felt I was in a position where I could do it. Why not? The question was, what would give me wonder and awe? That was it. I leaped and that’s where it was.
That’s a great story and example of how we can live our lives by our values and also how those values can shift in priority over time. When I think about safety and security, it almost feels like the opposite of wonder and awe. At the same time, you already built the foundation of safety and security. That was taken care of, which gave you the margin and opportunity to pursue this other piece. It has been a part of you since childhood. Often, people don’t get to go back to those childhood dreams and live them out. Good for you that you did the exercise longer, got to wonder and awe, and you’re living some of that. You and I are talking to each other, and you are in Ireland.
I am. Remember when I was talking about leadership and management systems, the BPR, and the regular operating rhythm? I apply that to business. I did it at Boeing and I’ve done it in consulting. It works. What I didn’t talk about is that I do that with my life and it works. I define my values and what I want to do in the future. I think about that on a regular basis. I have an operating rhythm and I put these goals out there. I put my system in place to achieve those goals. I don’t do it as rigorously as I would in business. I give myself some slack if I don’t do things on time. I allow changes but the whole process and mindset of thinking of our life or projects like this puts in place mechanisms to make sure they happen.
Key Lessons From Working With Smaller Entrepreneurial Businesses
You’re talking about deciding what you want to do and accomplish for various values-based reasons. What I’ve discovered is that the how will come to you as you’re pursuing the what. That’s what you’re describing. That’s very powerful. I’ve also found that business tools often work very well when personalized. I’m glad you circled back to say that because it’s relevant. Thank you. You also had startup experience and worked with a smaller entrepreneurial company. Let’s talk about that a little bit. What did you learn from that experience? Tell us a little bit about that business.
That was fun. Hytec Power. It was truly a startup. Not very many people and everybody was doing everything. When I came on board, I came from my business operations experience and putting the processes together. I found myself doing HR functions and everything business-wise. I wasn’t doing any engineering or manufacturing but putting the process together so the business itself could have an operating rhythm, leadership system, and management system.
What I found is that in a startup, things move awfully fast. Having that foundation that I had worked well because I didn’t have to learn it. I was putting it together and working with the leaders there at the time. They were all on board to be able to do this because they were trying to get more established and systematized to deliver their product. The quickness is something to learn and be more flexible.
In a big corporation like Boeing, you have processes and you’ve got to follow them. In a small startup, knowing the intent of the processes and then being able to flex and still achieve the intent is important. First, you learn the rules and then how to break the rules. That’s where I was in the startup. That was good. The other thing is there’s no security in startups.
You might not get paid. You need to deliver. Not everything works out. You don’t have the backup or deep pockets that you do in a larger, more established corporation. You have to be more willing to accept those risks. I was in a good position since I had retired from Boeing that I was able to take those risks. I realized that not everybody can.
That’s important what you’re saying, knowing that it fits in with your life at that time and that you can manage the ups and downs and the roller coaster experience. We also know that a lot of startups and entrepreneurial businesses fail. What’s your sense about why that happens? What are some of the hazards that get in their way that cause them to fail?
The one startup I was with did fail. It’s probably as many reasons as there are startups out there. It could be the product wasn’t ready and you don’t have enough money to push it through to the end. Money is a big deal. It could be that you don’t have the expertise that you need. I wish I knew all the answers but there is no one great answer. The leaders in those positions have a huge responsibility to the people who are investing in them and the people who are working for them to be as transparent as possible and know when to call it and when to keep going.
That timing is not always obvious or clear to make those decisions. Sometimes, people call it too soon or they stay too long, and then the losses are greater. They weren’t going to be effective anyway because of other parts of the system. There’s a lot you learn in this faster-paced environment where you have to be much more agile. Talk a little bit about those lessons and how you’re bringing those forward as well. You’re fortunate to have both sides of the spectrum, big business and also entrepreneurial small business.
One of the lessons that I learned there for startups is to have a diverse set of, I’m going to call them, board of advisors. It’s not necessarily a formal board of directors or anything like that but a board of advisors. Diversity is important because it’s people who have different experiences and perspectives, not just people who tell you what they think you want to hear. That would be the best thing, and then to have them be able to tell you as the leader or the group of leaders where you can do better.
That’s important because it’s a recognition of the fact that no one person has all the skills needed to run a business. If you’re bringing this diverse board around you and you’re willing to listen to the advisory board, the willingness to listen is huge. You can learn what you don’t know. You can avoid some unnecessary mistakes and get faster to where you need to go. That’s a great lesson you learned from the entrepreneurial small business.
It’s hard, though. The thing that gets people into startups is that they have this great idea and they’re good at something about that, either creating it or whatever it is. The problem is that you need much more than that idea to make it a reality. It’s hard to let go, being the person, expert, and founder, to be able to broaden your perspective and call more people in.
Navigating Male-Dominated Fields In Leadership And Business
You’re right. That’s a hazard of it. The kind of people who start and find things don’t easily let the pieces go, even though, at times, you need to. That’s huge what you’re saying. Susan, both of these experiences, the startup experience and the Boeing experience, occurred in what I would refer to as male-dominated fields. Talk a little bit about that. What was it like for you as a woman to work in these spaces? What did you experience? What did you learn from that?
Oftentimes, especially when I started in the late 1980s, I was the only woman in the room. Oftentimes, I could see people being promoted a lot quicker and further than I was, which was disappointing. I’m hoping it’s better. I’m not sure if it is but I’m hoping it is. What did I learn? I don’t know that I learned this by doing it. I learned this thinking about it. What would I do differently?
This is part of the reason why I’m a coach. I did not advocate for myself. I went with the flow. I was good at and still am good at reading a room and knowing, “If I want this, I need to do this.” I’m juggling other people’s needs and wants to get ahead. Looking back, I could have been a bigger advocate and taken more risks but I didn’t. I was a single parent for most of the time. Safety and security were top of my mind.
I had this notion that I didn’t want to get fired. I was afraid I was going to get fired. It’s a crazy notion. I was never going to get fired. I was a great employee. People wanted me to work in their groups. I contributed and provided a lot of value. Nobody ever suggested I was going to get fired. I had it in my mind that I wasn’t good enough because I wasn’t an engineer or in manufacturing. I was a communications major. Earlier in this show, I said I was just a communications major. I still do it.
I could have taken my career more into my own hands and got training earlier than I did. I waited. Boeing had a training program and everything but you had to be a certain level before you could take certain classes and that kind of thing, which is great. It’s a big corporation. That’s fine. They have to have their own program. It doesn’t mean I have to stick with it. That’s where I would have done things differently.
I heard a lot of things there that women who may be reading this show can take away. One is to advocate for yourself. Include yourself in the group that needs to be developed in service. It’s not just thinking about others, which you do naturally. Put yourself on that list. “What do I need next?” Take the risk to sometimes do it earlier or in a different rhythm than what the company might do on their own so you can take charge of your career in a lot of ways. I hear a little about balancing out the need for safety and security in terms of risk-taking and being willing to get out front a little earlier or sooner. What else would you advise women to think about based on your experience that we haven’t said yet?
I would say get a coach or somebody to talk to. It doesn’t have to be a paid coach but you can get a mentor. You can do it with your colleagues. Push each other. Sometimes, we can see something in another person that they can’t see for themselves. Tell them. Be open when your friends tell you, “I see something special in you. You do this well. Do more of it.” Support each other and lift each other up. That’s important. Some of the things are we don’t even know what’s possible. That’s why talking to others can help us. It was somebody else who suggested I get into management. I didn’t think about it at first.
It’s good to have an outside perspective, for sure. People will see the gifts in us that we sometimes ignore because it’s just, “That’s just us. That’s nothing special,” and we forget. For example, in these high-tech environments, your communications background is needed because that’s not usually what tech people are good at.
You’re exactly right. We need everybody. My role in integrating and aligning all the different functions is vital for the success of a project. It’s about seeing the value in what we do ourselves. The other thing I would say is, “That is what I would fall into. I was just a communications major.” Just because I do, say, and think that sometimes, I don’t let myself off the hook. I still have to step up, perform, show up, and be a leader. I’m not perfect.
I love that. Accept your imperfections because you’re still making a great contribution. That’s the bottom line.
Of course, we are. Nobody’s perfect. In spite of everything, still do what you need to do.
Leadership Challenges In Today’s Business World
You are working with a number of people and you’ve seen clients while looking at the business optics of today and into the future. What are some of the challenges that people are facing most in the world regarding leadership or business operations?
For leadership, people are tired and burnt out. I hear it every single day. They’re trying their best. They’re tired and burnt out. The thing I think people can do, and this is so hard, is take care of themselves. It’s so important. We de-prioritize ourselves so much. Everybody does it, especially women. Everybody comes first. Who are we when we are burnt out and tired? We’re cranky and short. We don’t make good decisions. We hurt relationships. We’re not good leaders.
We might even jeopardize the people we think we’re helping. I think about that airplane example. When you’re with someone else who needs help, you have to put your oxygen mask on first. If you don’t, you die and they die too.
It’s exactly true. The great leaders I know, and I’m very blessed to know quite a few, do this well. It’s amazing. You think, “How can you do that?” They say, “I just do it. It’s important.” It’s a lesson in leadership to set those boundaries for yourself and take it. When we do that, other people respect them.
Seasons Leadership Podcast: What Listeners Can Expect
They see a model and an example of how to succeed. If they don’t see that, they don’t know what’s possible. They’re on the treadmill and can’t get off either. We certainly have to model that as well. I want to ask you about your podcast, Seasons Leadership. Tell us about that. Who’s on it? Who should listen? What will they gain from listening?
Thank you very much, Dr. Karen. Seasons Leadership is a podcast Debbie and I have done for years. We call ourselves accidental podcasters because we got into it through somebody else. We started having fun and kept doing it. We’re still learning but it’s for anybody who is a leader. We believe we are all leaders at some point in our lives. It’s not a positional title but we’re leaders for our families, groups, and communities.
What we do is talk about leadership excellence and what that looks like. We have different guests from different fields and perspectives. A leader is not the same. There are as many leader examples as there are people who are leaders. We want to show people that you don’t have to be a cookie-cutter mold to be a leader. You can be who you are. We’ve got plenty of examples of that.
I’ll direct people to check out Seasons Leadership and tap into some of the leadership excellence that we’re talking about. Susan, how can people reach you and get a hold of you?
One of the best places is through our website, which is SeasonsLeadership.com, or through our Patreon site. If you look at Patreon, look at Seasons Leadership and that comes up. Our podcast is on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. We’re also on LinkedIn, too.
Words Of Wisdom For Corporate Leaders
They can look you up through your website, on LinkedIn, and through the podcast hosting channels. They can access the podcast there as well. Susan, you’ve shared a lot of deep wisdom with the community already that comes from big business and small business as well. What additional words of wisdom do you want to leave for my community of corporate business executives and leaders?
I appreciate what leaders are doing. We need excellent leaders because they will change the world for the better. If leaders can lead with humility, love, and service, the world will be better.
Amen to that part. Humility, love, and service. I’m a proponent of all three of those. Thank you so much, Susan, for being with me. I appreciate it, and for sharing your love, humility, and service even with the community.
Thank you.
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As we close out our episode, I’d like to share a Bible verse that comes from Proverbs 18:15, which says, “The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” Everything we’ve been talking about in this episode is about how to get additional knowledge and also wisdom, which is that knowledge applied, and to go outside of yourself sometimes to get it, whether it be your board of advisors, a coach, a mentor, a consultant that you might bring in, or people on your team. We are doing this work together, collaboratively, and in co-creation. All the best to you as you pursue excellence in leadership. Thanks for being here. We’ll see you next time.
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Spirit Wings Kids Foundation: Transforming Lives In Uganda
I want to share some important insights with you about Spirit Wings Kids Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that’s doing wonders across the globe, especially in Uganda. I have with me Donna Johnson, the Founder of Spirit Wings Kids and a member of the board. She’s going to tell us about the permaculture farm they started. Donna, tell us all about it.
Thank you, Dr. Karen. For decades, we’ve been supporting the Orphanage and Family Network in Uganda. In 2018, my son was a permaculturist. We had acres that we dedicated to his planting. It was amazing. He also taught them how to do permaculture. It’s flourishing. During the pandemic, it saved lives. Two hundred and three families were fed during the pandemic. It’s such a miracle that God called us to plant that garden at the time that we did.
Thank you so much for your work in Uganda. A couple of other things I want people to know. A permaculture farm is self-contained in many ways, depending on how they’re growing the crops. You don’t have to use pest control. You don’t need fertilizer. It’s a very sustainable way to provide food for the community. That’s a blessing. If you want to be part of this wonderful work, 100% of all of your donations go to the people in Uganda to help feed them and their families. Go to SWKids.Foundation and give. Make a difference in the world. Thank you for doing so.
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I want to tell you a little bit about Spirit Wings Kids Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides profound services for orphans, widows, and families across the globe in many ways, especially in the country of Uganda. I’m speaking with Donna Johnson, who is the Founder of Spirit Wings Kids and also a board member. Donna, tell us about some examples of the profound work you’re doing in Uganda.
Thank you, Dr. Karen. We were there and it was incredible. It’s more than an orphanage. We have a soccer academy that keeps the boys off the street. We have a widow’s program that matches them with children. It’s a thriving network of entrepreneurs. It’s been such a meaningful blessing to see the work we’re doing there.
What I love about what you said is you’re talking about their whole lives. You’re creating families between the widows and the children. You’re also making sure they have recreation and something to do with the soccer academy. You’re looking at the job situation and the entrepreneurial aspect. As a businesswoman yourself who’s very successful, you’re right in line with being able to make that difference. Thank you so much for the difference you’re making. I’m inviting everyone who’s reading to go to SWKids.Foundation and donate. A hundred percent of everything you donate goes to those people who are in need and who are receiving those services. Thank you so much for donating. Donna, thank you for this ministry.
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Victorious Family: Reaching Millions And Transforming Families
I’m here with Terence Chatmon, who is the President and CEO of Victorious Family and also the author of Do Your Children Believe?. Victorious Family has a goal of reaching 9.2 million families by 2030. Terence, tell us, how far along are you on that goal?
We’re very excited. We reached 133,800 families. We’re right around the 400,000 family mark toward our 9.2 million goal in the second year.
That is very exciting news. I know there are many new initiatives helping you to reach even more families. What’s new in the ministry?
What’s exciting is that on December 7th, 2023, we had a national newspaper cover, Victorious Family, that went throughout the country. That exposed us to over 30 million families in the US. From that, we’ve had a great deal of responses. One of those is a new partnership we’re forming with Hampton University to come alongside them and work in eight counties in the Hampton Roads area. We’re really excited about that. Millions of families will be exposed to what it looks like to have a family transformation taking place in your home.
That’s phenomenal. How can people reach you and your weekly resource that you have as well?
They can reach us at VictoriousFamily.org. Our resources are there. We’re excited because we have a brand new resource that came out. It’s our weekly rhythms guide. It gives parents and individuals a day-to-day rhythm in how they might walk in Christ. We encourage them to get a copy of our weekly rhythms guide for parents and individuals.
Thank you so much, Terence. I’m so glad that you’re here with me. Audience, please go to VictoriousFamily.org, donate to the ministry, get the weekly rhythms guide, and see what else is new in the ministry. See you next time.
Susan Ireland has deep experience in the aerospace industry and business operations. As an ICF-certified professional coach, Susan works with executives, entrepreneurs and leaders at all levels to enhance leadership and business acumen, encourage self-discovery and turn challenges into positive results. Her thought-provoking and creative approach inspires enduring, transformative change.
Does your company conduct a State of the Business Address? In this episode, Dr. Karen provides insights on the reasons to periodically conduct this important company meeting. When you regularly inform your workforce about successes, challenges, and examples of living the company values, you engage the workforce, reinforce the culture, increase retention, and reduce fear, anxiety, and destructive rumors.
Learn how to use The State of the Business Address to transform and inspire your company both for now and the future.
The State Of The Business Address: Why And How? [Episode 475]
Why Every Business Needs A State Of The Business Address
In this episode, we are talking about the State of the Business Address. This is a very special meeting that every company needs to have. If you have more than one person, you need a State of the Business Address every so often. The purpose of this address is to inform all business associates of the key events since the last State of the Business meeting. A lot of times, people don’t realize that what they know others have not heard and don’t know about. There has to be a mechanism or forum for informing everyone.
When you inform people about what’s going on in the business, you also have the opportunity to align all parts of the business on the same page. That’s important because if you’re not aligned, you’ll be using a lot of energy and power pulling in very different directions. With alignment, you focus that energy and power. You’re more likely to get to where you’re going because everyone knows where you’re going and you’re all heading with the same purpose in mind.
You also want to use the State of the Business Address to engage the workforce in the success of the business. When people don’t know what’s going on, they can’t sign on to it and say, “I’m behind this,” or “This is something I’m going to support,” or “Now, I understand so let me recommit myself to what we’re doing.” You also use the State of the Business Address to reinforce the cultural values. We’ll get into that a little bit more.
What you’re talking about during this address gives people pictures of what it looks like to live out the values of the corporation. When you also do the State of the Business Address, you’re decreasing anxiety and fear. You’re quelling the rumors that happen and occur in a vacuum of information. When your people are informed, that takes the rumors off the table. They will know when they hear a rumor, “That’s not true because I heard in the State of the Business Address that such and such a thing is what’s going on.” It’s a very important meeting. It has a great purpose in your organization.
What To Include In Your State Of The Business Address
Here are some things you want to consider including in your State of the Business Address. One would be the current direction and also the actions that people are taking in the company to fulfill the mission and vision of the organization. You want to reiterate how every member of the workforce fits into this mission and vision, fits in today, and also your forecasting for the future. You want everyone in every role to be able to see where they fit, and how they are contributing and adding value to the corporation.
You’re reiterating that direction. Don’t think to yourself, “We’ve covered this before. Everybody knows.” People need to be reminded. You cannot over-communicate on this direction part. There are so many other messages going on, activities happening, and mission drift. It’s a part of the scenario. You don’t want people to get into mission drift because they haven’t heard from you.
You want to make sure to cover the business successes. A lot of times, people forget that you have to celebrate successes. You have to show people routinely and regularly what success looks like in your company. You want to highlight successful projects that have been done since the last meeting. You want to talk about new clients that the company has acquired and perhaps those were some difficult clients that took a while to acquire. What’s the benefit to the business that you have these clients? What value are you going to add to that new customer?
You want to talk about any new products that have been launched. What kind of revenues are coming in as a result of all the work of the business? You want people to hear about the profitability of the company. You want them to hear about the success of the company and how you are fulfilling your mission through very specific examples. You also want to talk about problems that have been solved from maybe some past updates.
Maybe two meetings ago, there was a big issue on the table and the company was trying to figure out how to walk through it. You’ve resolved that issue and walked through it successfully. Inform the workforce. Let them know about that success and what was done to get to a place of success. Thirdly, not only do you want to talk about the successes but you also want to talk about business challenges. What are the current issues to address? What are your ideas and plans to resolve these issues?
It’s not enough to say, “We have these challenges,” and then act like you’re clueless and have no idea about how to proceed forward. That provokes more anxiety. Let the organization know that you and the executive team have been thinking about ways to move forward on this issue, and you have some plans in place. You also want to inform them about these challenges because they may have some ideas even better than yours and they will be able to weigh in and share those ideas.
Sharing the challenges also keeps this presentation real. If people aren’t hearing the challenging sides, they wonder if they’re hearing the truth. They wonder how trustworthy you are and if you’re truly being transparent. In the State of the Business Address, you are covering the good, the bad, and the ugly. However, you’re doing it in a way that is aspirational, inspirational, and uplifting to the workforce.
Even when you’re talking about challenges, you’re not saying, “Woe is me. We don’t know how to get through this or if we’ll survive another day.” That’s not the message. You talk about what you are doing to stay viable, what you’re doing to thrive, and how you are covering certain shortfalls along the way. Make sure to keep it in that positive tone as you share the State of the Business.
Number four, you want to share individual stories about teams, and people in the company who exemplify the company values. For example, suppose you have a value that says, “We are proactive about resolving customer concerns before they become problems.” You want to give examples of teams that did that with a customer and how they got in there early. They had an insight about something coming down the pike, what they did to educate that customer, and what they did to do some brainstorming ahead of time and come up with a way forward that avoided a crisis and a true problem.
If that’s one of your values, you want to show people what it looks like to live that value out. You don’t want to assume that everybody knows and sees these aspects already. They may not know these stories. They may be in another country or another branch of the organization and have not heard what’s happening over in Asia Pacific, for example, when they might be in North America. You want to share the stories widely and across the geographical locations of your organization.
Number five, you want to be intentional about thanking the workforce for the success that the company has. You might think of specific people and teams as appropriate. As you’re talking about business successes in general, thank the workforce and let them know that none of this would be possible without their commitment, hard work every day, and innovation and creativity at work. Make sure to say thank you and let them know that you know they are the reason for the success of the business.
Number six, as you’ve covered all of these aspects of the business, you’ve shared the good news stories, the challenges, and given examples, you also want to ask for the help of the workforce about those challenges. You’ve already rolled out what you’re thinking. Let them know you want to hear from them. You want to know if they have an idea that would benefit the organization in addressing some of the challenges mentioned. Let them know how to move that idea forward.
Sometimes, you would have a place online where people can make a comment. You might have them go to the direct leadership person who they report to. There are all kinds of ways of gathering this information. You want to let them know you want the information and hear from them. When people share good ideas, make sure to implement them and also at the next State of the Business meeting, give credit to those people whose ideas you are implementing.
This lets the organization know you are listening. It’s not just what the executive team wants to do. It’s also their voice and what they see. Sometimes, because of where they’re sitting in the organization, they have more intel or knowledge about how to fix something than you might or even the executive team. A lot of times what executives forget, and this is why they’re often cavalier about whether to do the State of the Business meeting, is they don’t remember that people don’t know what you know.
You’re the CEO and the president of this company. You know a lot about the direction and what’s going on. Also, your executive leadership team is meeting with you to talk about what’s happening now and what the plan is for the future. Remember that the workforce is not privy to the conversations held in those executive team meetings. You have to have mechanisms for getting that information out to the entire workforce.
Do keep in mind that in the absence of information and updates, people make up their stories and those are usually far worse than what the true reality is. Tell your story, the one that’s true, that you want the organization to know. Otherwise, be prepared for a lot of false narratives that are not so true and might even discourage people.
Effective Format For A State Of The Business Address
What about the format for these meetings? Principally, you want that meeting to be led by the CEO of the company, or if you’re in a different structure and it’s the president of the company, then the top leader. People who work for your company need to hear your voice as the CEO and the president. That’s crucial. You don’t want to have it be a telephone game where you’re passing information on to someone else. However, the workforce does not get to hear from you directly. A lot of interpretation may get seeded into the original message. It’s diluted or changed in some way that’s different from what you intend.
Make sure that you, as the CEO and President, are the primary voice. When I say primary voice, that does not mean only voice. It’s very powerful to have parts of this briefing be covered by members of the executive leadership team. You want to have your executive team partners also involved. What this shows is unity and alignment at the top leadership levels of the company. You want the workforce to see that in action so you all can have a piece in it. Make sure also that the CEO’s voice is leading it and is also heard.
It’s also interesting another strategy you can use. This doesn’t have to happen at every State of the Business meeting but it’s a creative idea. You can include a client testimonial. You could have a client there live to talk about why they are working with your company, the profound results they’re getting, and what they’re delighted about. What this shows is your company’s why. You get to see the company’s why in action. You want your workforce to know the benefit of the value they are adding to customers and clients.
The person doesn’t have to be there live. The customer could be on a video that you play for the workforce. It doesn’t have to be overly long but they share a little bit about why they’re choosing your organization. You can also have a format on video or live where someone from your organization, maybe from your communications department, is interviewing that client and bringing out the best information. Sometimes customers are excited about you but they may not always know how to share the message without being interviewed by someone a little bit more savvy about a media experience. Feel free to include some client and customer testimonials in the State of the Business address.
The State of the Business address is for the entire workforce. You want everyone to be included across all geographical regions and time zones. You’re including it across all time zones so you want to be sensitive to the time that you hold the meeting. Of course, some people will have to attend very early in the morning while others may attend after hours in the evening if you have a global business. Yet, you want everyone to have the opportunity to participate in the State of the Business update.
Best Practices For Frequency And Meeting Duration
The frequency varies in terms of how often you should have these. For most businesses, four times a year or quarterly makes a lot of sense. For some, maybe three times a year. Three or four times a year is a good optic to strive for in terms of frequency. I wouldn’t have this less than once or twice a year. Remember that if you go a long time, that’s an opportunity for people to get off of the path they are on. You want to keep people aligned and heading collectively in the same direction.
If you meet only once or twice a year, you might consider having a meeting that is more like an in-person mini-conference. Maybe it’s a longer meeting because you are covering a whole lot of aspects of the business and you’re only going to meet once or twice a year. For larger and more complex businesses where the speed of business is very fast and the industry is volatile, you want to have more meetings because there’s more to update the workforce about. Keep that in mind.
If you’re having regular meetings and that includes the three times a year and quarterly meetings, you could have a format that’s about 1 hour long, 1.5 hours at the most. You don’t need to belabor this. You’re providing a high-level overview. The business units are also following up with some regional meetings or some country-specific state of the business addresses that parallel what the overall company meeting is about. They may cover some additional details in those separate meetings. You’re staying a lot at the high level so that 1 hour or 1.5 hours should be plenty.
Some companies have their State of the Business Address weekly or monthly. Those meetings could be an hour or less because you’re doing a more frequent update in that case. You also want to consider recording the meeting. There’s always someone who’s not going to be there, who’s sick or unavailable, and you want the opportunity for them to hear and view that meeting later and hear the update.
Between meetings, it’s important to continue updating the company through other mechanisms. That might be through online sites that you have that are internal to your organization and shared drives. You’re giving some information about the company and newsletters. Perhaps some very short CEO videos and updates. This is not the only time you’re talking to the workforce. You are punctuating the state of the business meeting with in-between updates as well through various mechanisms.
Benefits Of A State Of The Business Address
You might wonder, “What’s the purpose of all of this?” We’ve talked about some of it in terms of aligning the organization, having everyone informed on the same page, and knowing the same information. There are additional benefits as well to having a State of the Business meeting. When people hear about what’s going on in the company, they can rekindle the pride they have in the company, and why they chose to join your organization and to work for the company.
You want people to have pride in the company because of the great work that you’re doing and the value that you’re adding to the world. It increases company loyalty when they hear about, “Our company is on point. We’re doing what we’re supposed to do. Our customers’ and clients’ condition is improved. We’re adding value that they are not getting elsewhere.” This inspires your workforce about the company’s purpose and the why. It re-engages them about being a part of the company team.
What I find is that organizations that make sure they have a State of the Business Address retain more of their workforce members. In the absence of information, it also feels like a lack of connection. When there’s a lack of connection and a lack of information, people often leave because that’s confusing. That’s when fear and anxiety rise. This is especially true in hard times. You want to make sure that you retain more people because you’re sharing more.
It also helps with selection. You can take snippets of your company’s successes and company stories and share them in the places where you are soliciting jobs that are available and open. When people see those snippets, the accomplishments of the company, the values exemplified, and the promotional materials that are public, they will want to work for your company, those who align with those same values and want to participate in the kinds of successes that you are experiencing in your company.
This is also an added benefit because you are getting new ideas and solutions from the entire workforce about the challenges that the company is facing. The executive team does not know everything that you need to move forward and find solutions to those challenges. When you meet with the whole workforce, you are bringing in the collective wisdom, knowledge, expertise, gifts, and talents of all those people you’ve hired so they can help address the way forward with new solutions.
You will also have more people who are living out the company values because, as you share the stories and examples, an a-ha goes off in their brains. “That’s what it looks like to be proactive. I can do that in my part of the business in this way.” It gets them thinking about how they personally can live out the company values and live the culture that you’re creating.
The State of the Business Address also increases collaboration between people because, as they hear what’s going on in other regions, functions, and parts of the business across the world, they will begin to see synergies between those different departments, functions, and countries. They might get excited about something that’s happening, let’s say, over in Europe that maybe they can use in the Asia Pacific. This allows cross-fertilization and cross-collaboration in your organization.
You’re also sharing and seeding what I’ll call best practices throughout the company. That’s an important aspect as people are sharing what’s working well. This whole process increases trust. People sense that there’s a high level of transparency, which increases their confidence in the company, the leadership, and where the company is going. If I haven’t mentioned it already, make sure that in your format, you include ample time for questions and answers.
Even though I’m referring to this as a State of the Business Address, that doesn’t mean it’s a one-way conversation. You want to hear from the workforce, their questions, any comments they have, and any concerns. When you leave that state of the business meeting, there may be additional areas you need to think about and address. In that meeting, you want to answer as many of these questions as you can so that people leave feeling fully informed as if they are part of the process, and as if they have been heard. Even though I’m saying address, it is a two-way process and you do have Q&A as part of it.
Inspiring Action: A Lesson From Nehemiah
As we’re wrapping up this message, I want to think about a picture of what I’m talking about from the Book of Nehemiah. You may remember that the children of Israel were in captivity. While they were in captivity, Jerusalem was in ruins. The gates were all burned with fire and the land was in poverty. Nehemiah was the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes. He got this report back from the people who came and said what the state of Jerusalem was. He was very distressed.
Ultimately, the king saw him when he was in this state of distress and wondered what the problem was. Of course, you couldn’t be sad around the king. That wasn’t a good thing. You could lose your head over that. Nehemiah had been praying to God and seeking God. Initially, he was a little frightened about the king noticing that he was sad. The king knew this was nothing but sadness of heart because Nehemiah wasn’t sick so something else was going on.
He told him about what was going on. The king was favorable toward him because God had already moved things around in the heavens to give Nehemiah favor with the king. The king gave him provision and all the time that he asked for and needed to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and gates of the city. When Nehemiah came, he walked through, went through at night, and reckoned the area to see what the state of Jerusalem was and what it would take to rebuild the environment. After he had assessed everything, he had a State of Jerusalem meeting with the local leaders there.
This is Nehemiah, the second chapter, starting with verse 17. It says, “Then I said to them, you see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach. I told them of the hand of my God, which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s word that he had spoken to me. They said, let us rise up and build. Then they set their hands to this good work.” That’s Nehemiah, the second chapter, verses 17-18.
Notice several pieces of this state of Jerusalem message. He let them know what the challenges were. The gates were burned and the wall was broken down. He didn’t leave it there. He talked about the goodwill he already had, the good favor from King Artaxerxes. He talked about what the king said and what the king’s provision was. He was letting them know they had a green light from God.
God had provided for them because Nehemiah sought God first. The people, in hearing about the hand of God being good upon Nehemiah and the king’s words and provisions, were inspired, motivated, and energized to say, “Let us rise up and build.” Notice the gates had been burned and the wall had been broken down for a long time before that, but now you have a man with vision coming in to give a picture of what was possible, saying, “We have what they needed in our hands. We have the favor of the king and the favor of our God to get this done. He was the real king of Israel.”
Keep that in mind as you are inspiring your organization so that they will put their hands also to work in your company for the purpose, the calling, and the vision that God has given you as you lead your organization. Have a blessed day. Remember to schedule your next State of the Business Address.
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Creating A Positive And Profitable Corporate Culture
Did you know that workplaces can make a significant difference in the lives of people? You can create a positive culture that gets positive business results and also produces positive life experiences for your employees, clients, and customers. You can make a significant contribution to the world by creating the kind of culture where your people can bring their gifts to provide the most relevant and excellent products and services to your marketplace.
What the research shows is that companies with excellent leadership are also more profitable. As you flourish and grow in the world, you can do more for yourself as well as for others. If this resonates with you and you want to create a positive, profitable, and powerful corporate culture, and you care about succession, leaving the organization in a better position than when you found it, keep in mind that that kind of legacy is intentional. I am happy to partner with you to take your organization to the next level and create a positive leadership culture. Reach me at Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com.
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I want to let you know that I am running a special promotion. You are a CEO or executive leader in a medium to large-size company and you care about how your people are treated, especially if you share our biblical values. You may be facing difficult decisions where you want some additional perspective. You may be planning for succession in your company, developing people, and preparing the organization for that succession. Perhaps you are going through change, leading change, or experiencing a merger or acquisition.
Whatever you are facing in terms of leadership, including developing your executive team, contact me or give me a call so we can have a discovery meeting to see what’s going on. Here’s the special promotion. In addition to your discovery time, I will interview up to three additional people from your executive team so you have even greater context and feedback about where to go next. Reach out to me at Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com or phone me at (719) 534-0949 extension 1. I look forward to hearing from you and coming alongside you to complete and continue your leadership journey with positivity and profitability in your organization.
This week marks the 73rd National Day of Prayer. With numerous challenges facing our country and the world—such as the upcoming presidential election, wars, escalating crime, natural disasters, and climate disruptions—Dr. Karen emphasizes our profound need for prayer.
How did the National Day of Prayer begin? What issues and topics are we encouraged to pray for? Dr. Karen answers these questions while sharing heartfelt words of prayer to uplift and inspire. Remember to pray for our country and its leaders on Thursday, 2 May 2024.
The National Day Of Prayer 2024—”Lift Up The Word, Light Up The World” [Episode 474]
The National Day Of Prayer
I want to talk about the National Day of Prayer. The National Day of Prayer is coming up and we want to keep that in mind. The purpose of this day is to pray for our nation and to pray for our leaders. This is the 73rd National Day of Prayer and the theme this year is Lift Up the Word Light Up the World from 2 Samuel 22:29-31. The president of the National Day of Prayer is Kathy Branzell and she is a board member of the National Day of Prayer. She served alongside Vonette Bright, the wife of Bill Bright from Campus Crusade for Christ when she was in that role, and she also served alongside Shirley Dobson from Focus on the Family who has been in the role for about 25 years, Anne Graham-Lotz and Dr. Ronnie Floyd.
Now, Kathy Branzell is the President of the National Day of Prayer. She’s also the Founder and President of Fellowship And Christian Encouragement, FACE for educators. For many years, she weekly wrote scripture and prayer prompts, devotionals all for educators, and she’s also the author of a number of books mostly on prayer.
Every year there’s also a co-host who serves with the president of the National Day of Prayer, and this year’s co-host is A. R. Bernard, the senior pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, New York. They have campuses in Long Island, Orlando, and 40,000 members as they are spreading the word of God in all of those places. You might wonder about this National Day of Prayer. How did it get started? I’m going to say that first of all, there was a biblical precedent for the National Day of Prayer and I’d like to read a scripture so we have a sense of it.
This is in 1 Timothy 2:1-2. It says, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” We are instructed and prompted to pray for our leadership, pray for all members, but especially our leadership and those in authority, and they mention kings at that time.
We know from the biblical record that God has moved the hearts of kings who weren’t even following him, men who didn’t even know him, yet he was able to move them to do what God’s plan was for that era and that season. Whether that be for building the temple for the Jewish people at the time, or to release his people and let them go. There are so many ways that God was intervening in the events of the world.
I’m reminded of a situation that took place in Babylon. This was when God knew that he was sending his people Israel into Babylonian captivity. He told them on their way, he gave them some instructions about how they were to operate in the midst of this. This comes from Jeremiah 29:4-7. It says, “Thus says the Lord of host, the God of Israel to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon. Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands so that they may bear sons and daughters, that you may be increased there and not diminished. Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive and pray to the Lord for it, for in its peace you will have peace.”
This is still a principle as we read in 1 Timothy and at that time God was issuing a judgment on his people Israel because of their disobedience, and he had them go into Babylonian captivity. Rather than for them to be dismayed, he says, “I’m the one who sent you here. I will prosper you here. I will continue to grow you. Get married, have children, prosper in this place, and pray for this place so that you indeed will prosper.” We know from a biblical perspective certainly the aspect of praying for the nation where we are living, the nation where we are having our livelihood.
As far as the United States goes, the movement for the National Day of Prayer started officially in 1952. There was a bill that was initiated by Conrad Hilton of Hilton Hotels and Senator Frank Carlson of Kansas. That bill passed that the president would set aside and proclaim a suitable day each year other than Sunday as a National Day of Prayer on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals. That was 1952.
Vonette Bright’s Influence On Prayer Day
All along the way, Vonette Bright started sensing that there should be a specific day that was named the National Day of Prayer. She spoke to senators and congressmen about it and kept after them. In particular, we had one particular congressman that she kept after until finally when we got to 1988 on the 5th of May, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the designation of the first Thursday in May as the annual observance for the National Day of Prayer. Vonette Bright was very instrumental in making that happen. Every year, the US President issues a proclamation concerning the National Day of Prayer. We want to remember that.
If you are from a country that’s not the United States, I invite you nevertheless to join us in prayer. You can pray for your country, you can pray for the world, for leadership across the globe. I want to mention the context that we are in general, and these are avenues for prayer. For example, we know that two major wars are going on that involve the United States, the war in the Middle East between Israel and the terrorist factions of Hamas and Hezbollah backed also by Iran.
The war that’s going on there where many lives have been lost, and people are still suffering in terms of not having food, shelter, water, clothing, or medical care. We need to keep people in prayer for that situation that God we know is still on the throne and will intervene and we are praying that God’s will be done on earth even as it is in heaven.
That’s one of the wars, and then we still have the war that’s going on between Russia and Ukraine and the suffering of the people there in similar fashion shortages of food, shelter, clothing, medical care, and safety, people are losing their lives in that conflict, which has been going on for a very long time. These are things we want to pray about.
We also have the US presidential election coming up and we want to pray for wisdom and discernment about selecting a leader for our country. We have the privilege to vote in the United States and we need God’s guidance about how to exercise that vote. We know that there may be others who emerge as candidates before it’s all said and done. We are asking God to lead us, to guide us, and to provide favor for our country in terms of finding a leader who is appropriate for our country. That’s another important part.
Medical Crises And The Power Of Prayer
Some issues have magnified I would say post-pandemic and those would be things such as the increase in all-cause mortality in the United States. We see almost weekly an increase in the deaths of young people including professional athletes along the way. There are so many medical crises for people, many that I know, who are dying in routine everyday surgeries.
People are dying from cancers and heart conditions and some medicines are being given to people whose side effects are worse than what they had to begin with, and so those side effects reign supreme in their bodies, making them weaker rather than leading to an effective cure. We want to pray that God will show us how to walk through these times, that lives will be preserved, and that proper medications and treatments will be identified to help people who are suffering from various conditions. We want to lift that up.
We also want to lift food crises. We have a lot of scenarios where God’s natural food that he created is being maligned and we are creating chemical food that does not necessarily agree with our bodies. It’s important that we lift up the farmers, growers, and food supply so that it not be tainted in the United States and the world around us. As we taint the food supply and as fake food is applauded, we find that our medical health and condition are not as good as they used to be.
We are also living in a world where there’s increased violence. Some people are shooting and killing their neighbors, meaning people who are in close proximity to them, and also random strangers, people that they don’t know. This is coming to everyday citizens and also those in leadership, whether they be police officers or others in security who are supposed to be protecting our people and our nation. We want to lift up those concerns. The police, for example, would have true guidance about what they should do in difficult situations. We need police officers, we need firemen, we need all of these services that we have and we want them to be doing the right things. We need to pray for them as well. They are in positions of leadership and authority.
We also know that a lot is going on concerning natural disasters, issues such as floods, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, and all kinds of weather challenges that are impacting people across the globe and causing secondary issues. I want us to remember that Jesus is the one who was on that boat on the sea and he was asleep when a big storm emerged and erupted. The disciples were fearful and afraid and they couldn’t believe that he was asleep. “Don’t you care that we perished?” They said to him.
However, he got up and rebuked the waves and he said, “Peace. Be still.” Whatever is happening with our weather with natural disasters, God is the authority over it all. There is nothing that happens here that he can’t start or stop. The Bible even tells us that the snow, he has the snow in storehouses. That’s a way for us to understand that all weather things, all kinds of natural disasters, he can calm the seas even for those.
I would remind you of the time when after Jesus had fed the 5,000 people, he sent his disciples in a boat to go over to the other side of the sea. He went up into the mountains to pray and a big storm emerged on the sea while the disciples were in the boat on the sea. They were afraid and they were concerned about what they should do. Jesus came walking on the water and they were frightened when they saw this figure walking on the water not knowing that it was him and Jesus says, “Fear not. It is I.”
He was the one that was walking and we know that Peter said, “Lord, if it’s you lift me to walk on the water to you,” and Jesus told him to come. For a brief period of time, Peter was walking on the water towards Jesus until he looked around, saw the frightful waves, took his eyes off of the Lord and that’s when he started to sink and cried out for the Lord to save him, which of course the Lord reached out his hand and lifted him back up and rebuked him for having such little faith in the situation.
As we think about this context of all the things that are going on in our world and all of the prayer concerns, we want to remember that we serve a God who is the ruler of all. There is nothing too hard for him, nothing that’s impossible for him. Rather than magnify all these problems which indeed exist and which we have, we are going to magnify our powerful and awesome God and pray to him to intervene in all of these circumstances. That’s the attitude that we want to have as we go into this day of prayer for our nation, the National Day of Prayer. We want to remember that God is indeed more than able to handle anything that we are facing here.
Prayer For The National Day Of Prayer
Kathy Branzell, who is the president of the National Day of Prayer, did write a prayer for this occasion and I would like to read the prayer that she wrote. She says, “Jesus, we profess our faith in you. You are the light of the world and in you, there is no darkness. For you are our lamp, oh Lord, and our God who lights our darkness. Forgive us for fearing and focusing on the darkness around us. Instead of being filled with faith and shining like the city on a hill you have called us to be. Forgive us for the times when we have been the absence of light, allowing darkness to dwell in America.”
“Lead us forward to dispel the darkness and bring light throughout the church, family, education, business, military, government and arts, entertainment and media. We are saved by grace through faith, released from the darkness that once held us captive, and now free to walk in the newness of life in you. Light dispels darkness and exposes what is hidden and wicked. We commit to rise and shine for by you, Lord, we can take courage to run against the enemy, and by our God, we can fight the good fight and keep the faith as living lampstands in our communities and country.”
“We fear no evil for you are with us. Lord, your way is perfect. You lead us on paths of righteousness for your name’s sake. Your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Your word is truth. Instructing and inspiring us to live an abundant life. You gave when you saved us from the death and destruction of the enemy. Fill us with truth as we read, study, and live your word. God, you are a shield for all those who take refuge in you as we abide in you and your word abides in us. We take up our shield of faith and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and run boldly into the darkness to lift up the word and light up the world. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.”
That was the prayer written for this occasion of the National Day of Prayer by Kathy Branzell. I want to read the scriptures that also go with this celebration of the National Day of Prayer. The scriptures I’m reading are from 2 Samuel 22:29-31. “For you are my lamp, oh Lord, the Lord shall enlighten my darkness for by you I can run against a troop. By my God, I can leap over a wall. As for God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord is proven. He is a shield to all who trust in him.”
I will close with a brief prayer. Dear heavenly Father, we come before you acknowledging you as the Lord of our lives. Acknowledging you, Father, as the sovereign over all the universe. Lord, there is none like you. You are unique in all of your ways. You have all power and all authority which you have given to your son. Father, we thank you and we praise you because nothing is impossible for you. All things are possible for you Lord, and we praise you for being that God of the impossible, being the God who can intervene when all of these things are going on in our world, and more besides Lord.
Father, we praise you for being our lamp. You are the one through your word who lightens the path before us and dispels the darkness. We thank you for that, Lord. We thank you for giving us strength through your Holy Spirit, Lord, to leap over a wall and to also run against a troop. Lord, we know that your way is perfect. Father, we know that your word is proven. We lift up your word Lord, which is our light Father, our light shining in the darkness. We lift up your son who is the living word, Lord, as you lead and as you guide us.
Thank you, Father, for being the shield, our shield, the shield for all those who trust in you. Thank you, Lord, for leading and guiding us and how we are to pray. Thank you, Lord, for being our shield even in the midst of these challenging and difficult circumstances. We magnify you above them all. We thank you Father and we praise you. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Natural Disasters And God’s Authority
Be blessed, my friends. Have a glorious week in the Lord remembering the national day of prayer to lift up our leaders, to lift up those who are in places and positions of authority. To lift up the media, education, military, and government at all levels. Oh, Father, we thank you and we praise you for protecting those who are on the front lines in every way, including those who are missionaries across our globe. We ask that your son be lifted up and that all people will be drawn unto him. In Jesus’ name. We thank you again, Lord. You, my friends, have a blessed week.
I’m here to celebrate the work of the Bible League, which is a global ministry that provides Bibles, ministry study materials, and through activities like Project Philip, also teaches and trains local people in how to share the word of God. The President and CEO of Bible League Jos Snoep is with me to share a little bit more about what the Bible League is doing.
The beauty of the local church is that it is the body of Christ and it is the Holy Spirit that is calling the local church to be engaged in the Great Commission. As Bible League, we come alongside those local pastors. I met a pastor, his name is Rolando, in the Amazon, and he has this great vision to reach 200 communities with the word of God and we are able to come alongside them and help them with bibles and resources.
Thank you so much, Jos. We are all partners together. You and the Bible League are the hands and feet to the local people on the ground, and there are partners and donors out there who can be hands and feet to you as you also share with others. Those of you who want to be part of this ministry and I invite you to be a part of it, I’m a part of it, go to Bible League. See more about the ministry and see how you can participate and donate.
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Victorious Family And Their Mission
I’m here with Terence Chatmon, who is the President and CEO of Victorious Family and also the author of Do Your Children Believe?. Victorious Family has a goal of reaching 9.2 million families by 2030. Terence, tell us. How far along are you on that goal?
We are very excited. We reached 133,800 families before that. We are right on around the 400,000 family mark towards our 9.2 million goal in the second year, in the year and a half. We are extremely excited.
That is very exciting news and I know that it’s many new initiatives that help you to reach even more families. Tell us what’s new in the ministry.
What’s exciting is on December 7th, 2023, we had a national newspaper cover, Victorious Family, and it went throughout the country. That has exposed us to over 30 million families in the US. From that, we have got a great deal of responses and one of those responses is a new partnership that we are forming with Hampton University to come alongside them and work in eight counties in the Hampton Roads area. We are excited about that. Millions of families will be exposed to what it looks like to have family transformation taking place in their homes.
How can people reach you and how can they reach your weekly resource that you have as well?
They can reach us at Victorious Family. Our resources are there and we are excited because we have a brand new resource that came out. It’s our weekly rhythms guide. It gives the parents and individuals a day-to-day rhythm and how they might walk in Christ. We would encourage them to get a copy of our weekly rhythms guide for parents and individuals.
Thank you so much, Terence. I’m so glad that you are here with me, and to you out there in the audience, please go to Victorious Family. Donate to the ministry, get the weekly rhythms guide, and see what else is new in the ministry. See you next time.
Dr. Randy Ross is the CEO of Remarkable and a bestselling author of multiple books, including “Remarkable!,” “Roadmap to Remarkable!,” “Relationomics,” “Fireproof Happiness,” and his latest book entitled, “Make Life Good.”
Working with brands like Delta, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, GE Appliances, McDonald’s, Panasonic, Cox Communications, Keller Williams, Compass Group, Chick-fil-A, and the Intercontinental Hotel Group, he has inspired and enabled countless people to find new passion and purpose in their work, to work better together in teams, and have greater influence and impact.
Dr. Ross, a former Chief People Officer says, when people like what they do, they do it better. Today, he speaks with Dr. Karen about how to live a “conspicuously extraordinary” life, how to create a Remarkable corporate culture, the connection between employee experience and customer experience, the role of hope in creating a happy culture and profitable business, the four maxims of value creation, and more. Listen for practical wisdom you can apply in your business today.
Dr. Randy Ross: How to Create a Remarkable Life and Business [Episode 473]
We are talking about how to create a remarkable life and business. A remarkable life goes beyond world-class service to make a profound difference in people’s lives. When you live a remarkable life, you are conspicuously extraordinary. How do you create such a life? Our special guest knows what it takes and also knows the benefits of living a remarkable life.
Dr. Randy Ross is the CEO of Remarkable and a bestselling author of multiple books, including Remarkable!, Roadmap to Remarkable,Relationomics,Fireproof Happiness, and his latest book entitled Make Life Good. Working with brands like Delta, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, GE Appliances, McDonald’s, Panasonic, Cox Communications, Keller Williams, Compass Group, Chick-fil-A, and the international InterContinental Hotel Group, he has inspired and enabled countless people to find new passion and purpose in their work, to work better together in teams and have greater influence and impact.
Dr. Ross, a former chief people officer, says, “When people like what they do, they do it better. When people like those, they do it with, they work better together. When they like the impact they are having, they find meaning and fulfillment in what they do.” Dr. Ross helps them find what they like while building healthier relationships and pursuing a passion beyond self. A messenger of practical wisdom and needed hope. Dr. Ross untangles the biggest challenges facing today’s business leaders, tomorrow’s workforce, and the future marketplace. He lives with his wife, LuAnne, and four children in Atlanta, Georgia. Welcome, Dr. Randy, to the show.
Thank you. It is a pleasure to be with you and thank you so much for your time.
Understanding The Concept Of Being Remarkable
It’s a pleasure to be with you as well. I want to hear about this remarkable life and I know that my community would love to hear about it too. First off, what is the definition of Remarkable and how did you conceive that concept?
That’s a word that’s near and dear to my heart. It’s the name of our company for one, and it’s also the name of the book as you alluded to earlier, but remarkable for me means that you live life and you do business in such a way that you blow people away. You go the second mile, you deliver world-class service, you provide the unexpected, and you mark people’s lives for good, even if just for a moment to such a degree that when they leave your presence, they have this irrepressible desire to talk about and the good that you brought into their life.
When people are remarking about you, then you indeed have become remarkable. That’s what businesses strive to do. You’ve heard the term raving fans. Remarkable is the same thing. Interesting. Robert Stephens the Founder of Geek Squad, several years ago in an Inc. Magazine article was quoted as having said this. He said, “Advertising is a tax you pay for being unremarkable,” and I like that because if you think about it makes perfect sense. The best form of advertising is word of mouth. When you leave an indelible impression, when you mark someone’s life for good to such a degree that they can’t help but go out and tell other people about it, then you become remarkable.
Overcoming Barriers To Achieving Remarkability In Business
I would imagine that most businesses would love to be remarkable. Let me ask this, what are some of the barriers that stand in the way of businesses achieving this remarkable state where others remark about them? There must be some barriers that prevent people from getting there, otherwise we’d all be there.
Let me give you a definition of what we consider to be a remarkable culture, and then we can talk about culture for a little while if you’d like, but culture happens wherever people get together. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in your business or whether it’s in the church, synagogue, or mosque where you attend worship. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the philanthropic organization where you volunteer your time or the gym where you go to workout.
Everywhere people get together, there’s a culture. We define a remarkable culture as a place where people believe the best in each other, they want the best for each other, and so therefore they expect the best from each other. I like that three-pong trilogy because the first talks about trust, the second talks about connection and compassion, and the third talks about accountability.
You are talking about barriers to creating that organizational culture, or think about it this way. You have a culture in your home. When there’s no trust, what happens to relationships? They fall apart because where trust is low, resistance is high. It’s very difficult to make forward progress or bring about change. The second thing is compassion and connection, which are essential for team dynamics, collaboration, and wanting the best for each other.
The third one is accountability. We have to call the best out of each other, which is about healthy coaching within organizations, and mentorship. The things that are barriers are lack of mentorship, lack of accountability, no connection and compassion, and low levels of trust. Those are all barriers that impede being able to create this remarkable culture where people thrive in a relationally rich environment.
I love those three items. Would you state those one more time?
It’s what we call the Remarkable Cultural Trilogy, where people believe the best in one another, they want the best for one another, and so therefore they expect the best from one another.
Role Of Values, Beliefs, And Behaviors In Corporate Culture
When you are talking about corporate culture, which is the ether in which everyone lives in the organization, tell us a little bit about the role of values, beliefs, and behavior as part of that culture.
You almost gave the exact definition that we use for culture because culture is talked about quite frequently. Everybody is beginning to understand now that healthy cultures create happiness, health, and productivity. They lead to the longevity of the tenure of their team members. Everybody is beginning to talk a lot about culture, but how we define culture is different.
We like to define culture as the collective expression of the values, beliefs, and behaviors that individuals bring to the endeavor. It’s not about their behavior, which is a big part. Some people say tongue in cheek that culture is how we play in the sandbox together, or it’s how things are done around here. It does speak a lot to behaviors, but underneath every behavior is a belief system.
It’s the way that you perceive the world. It’s the way that you see yourself. It’s the way that you see yourself interacting in your world, but beneath that fundamentally and foundationally behind the belief system is a value construct. The value construct plays into your personal beliefs, which could be faith. A big part of that is your personal faith. A big part of that is your worldview.
A big part of it is both the aspirational, the inspirational part of what you want to become, but also reflective of who you naturally are. That all creates that value construct that we as individuals hold to be near and dear. This will be fun to talk about. There’s a whole philosophy called axiology. Axiology and theology are kissing cousins because axiology posits this belief that in the universe there’s infinite good to infinite bad. Axiology is the study of good. It’s trying to define and measure good in the world, but at its very core, it’s about creating movements of good.
The way axiology defines good is to say axiologically good is having been designed for a purpose. You fulfill the purpose for which you are designed. Now in theology, we would call that sanctification, but in philosophy we call that axiology, fulfilling your purpose. A lot of what we do is bring principles of axiology into the corporate realm.
Challenges In Company Values And Behavior
If a company is struggling and they are having challenges and difficulties, and maybe their culture is not quite on point, what are some of the issues that you might diagnose there? What’s going on with values, beliefs, behavior, or that focus on the ultimate good? What might be standing in the way?
Honestly, a lot of times in corporate circles, there’s a tremendous amount of toxic behavior. We see this in a lot of organizations. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a nonprofit organization or a large multinational corporation, but sometimes even in church life, we see this, where people are about self-promotion and self-protection.
It’s all about trying to push or promote an agenda as opposed to trying to create a movement of good that’s beneficial for everybody concerned. That’s one of the things that a lot of organizations struggle with. It is to create a relationally rich environment where people can flourish. You said at the top of the show describing our work. It’s so true that happy people do good work. They do. Happy people do their work better. When you enjoy doing the work with the people that you do it with, you are more productive because you may be able to go faster alone, but you can go farther together.
Creating a relationally rich environment where people can thrive, they can collaborate, bring creativity, sharpen each other, and encourage each other, that’s what we are trying to create within corporate life. All of those are elements that can be addressed with applied axiology, the principles that can help an organization move things in a positive direction. We want to eliminate the negative or toxic behavior, and then we want to equip leaders to be strong in being able to create an environment where people are inspired to bring the best of who they are to work every day.
I know that this is much easier said than done. I have seen a lot of companies and cultures where the toxic behavior is going on, the self-promotion and the self-protection that you talked about, where it’s difficult for them to even imagine creating an agenda together that’s a good direction or a good agenda or something positive in its focus because there’s not the trust that’s there very often. When you think about ways to intervene when the culture’s already toxic, how do you help to move people who are very entrenched where they are?
One of the first things you have to do is you have to create what we call value-centricity. Don’t go look that up because that’s a word that we made up. That’s one of the prerogatives of being an author. You can make things up, but value-centricity means that the values within the organization are all aligned. First, an organization has to decide who they are, what they stand for, and what they want to accomplish. That’s what we call our vision, our values, and our mission statement, but then people who choose to be a part of that organization, their values have to align with the values of the organization. When they do, then they can create value centricity, which is an alignment of values, creating a circuit through which energy can flow to light up the world and do good.
The first thing that has to happen is there has to be an alignment of values. My personal values have to match the values of the organization. If not, then it’s not going to be too terribly long until I’m going to be experiencing cognitive dissonance. In other words, they are going to be expecting me to do things that I don’t morally or ethically feel like I should do, or they are going to be requiring things of me that go against the grain of my personal commitment and value construct.
That’s when organizations have a hard time coalescing because the values of the individuals are not shared by the organization, and vice versa. When we are all on the same page, we all have a common vision, we all have a common commitment on how we are going to get there, and we are not going to compromise our values. We know what our values are.
By that, they are not subtle plaques in the lobby, but everybody has embraced them, they have embodied them, and they imbue them, and all three of those are important that they have to personally own them, they have to manifest them, and they also have to be evangelists for them. When that takes place, then what happens is that culture becomes magnetic. It both attracts the right people and begins to repel the wrong people.
The challenge for most organizations is they don’t have values that are strong enough to be repulsive. An organization that has a culture worth its salt, its values, should be so strong that it repels people who don’t align with those values. The problem with most organizations is they are so intent on filling a seat with the most talented or most competent person, and the thing that they overlook is, does this person shares the values that we possess as an organization because culture is nothing less than the character of the organization? That’s very critical because then you begin to realize that every addition to the team is either going to codify a great culture or they are going to compromise our culture. You can’t afford to have your culture compromised by people coming into the organization who don’t share your values.
This is such an important conversation that we are having. I see this every day. What you are talking about is the impact on organizational culture by people who may be the wrong fit. What’s fascinating to me is that even though a culture may be strong and you would think it would repel the wrong people, sometimes people are in there and they have their own reasons for not wanting to leave. Very often the organization itself, the top leadership, is not as willing to get rid of people they need to get rid of because they are never going to share the values of the corporation. It’s always going to be a friction point, and they are always going to have somebody working against them in the organization, no matter how talented that person may be. Speak a little bit about those issues.
You are right. You do see this quite frequently. Unfortunately, in a lot of corporate situations where we reward the wrong behavior, you will get more of what you reward. To your point, I have worked with a lot of organizations who may have an extremely talented team member, let’s say, a great salesperson who brings in a tremendous amount of revenue into the life of the organization, but at the very same time, he or she behaves in such a way that it demoralizes other team members.
Maybe they are in sales and they are bringing in a lot of volume in terms of closed deals, but the pressure that they are putting on the ops team, the people who have to come behind and deliver the service that’s been promised, may be devastating them with expectations that are unrealistic or poor relational activity. I see a lot of times when organizations are afraid to step up and intervene in situations like that and go, “That doesn’t align with our values. That behavior either needs to change or you need to shift out of the organization.”
Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. What happens over the long haul is it may serve the organization in the short run, but they compromise what they could have had in the long run, and they exchange a short-term benefit, money through closed deals, for the long-term loss of morale, or other people exiting the organization because they have gotten burned, discouraged, or disillusioned because no one will step up and address the bad behavior. It’s all this matter of interchange between whether we are willing to take a short-term loss for a long-term gain, or do we want the short-term gain, not realizing what the long-term loss will be.
That’s a tension particularly in publicly traded organizations because there’s this dynamic tension when you have to have quarterly returns where “Who do we serve first? Do we serve our shareholders who are looking to get a benefit from their investment, or do we take care of our stakeholders first?” Our stakeholders, our employees, our supply chain, and our vendors. In other words, that whole ecosystem that provides our service or our product.
I have seen time and time again, decisions made in corporate life where the shareholders are put first at the expense of the stakeholders. That may drive a great quarterly return, but in the long run, it’s damaging for the organization. We have to get back to putting our people first and making sure that the employee experience is robust and that it’s dynamic, and then we create a place where people love to come to work.
They wake up in the morning and they don’t have the attitude, “I have to go to work,” but they want to go to work, and then that’s when great things begin to happen in organizational life. In the long run, if the shareholder is patient, it’s much better for them as well. They may not see the immediate return, but the long-term return can be 10, 20, or 30 times what it would have been had they settled for the short term.
Connection Between Employee And Customer Experience
This is hugely relevant and very important to talk about. What seems like a short-term cost is less a cost than it is an investment in the future. When you think about it that way, and you are investing the resources for a larger return on the back end is what you are referring to. People have to think about it that way, look more holistically, not at this moment only, and then in essence, you are selling the company off and it could be a whole lot more. You mentioned something else that I want you to comment on and double down on a little bit. You were talking about the employee experience and we know that you know that there’s a connection between the employee experience and also the customer experience and what happens. Talk about that and why it’s important for companies to double down on that.
There’s no question that the customer experience is going to be a direct reflection of the employee experience. The question is, if we want to have a stellar customer experience, how do we make the employee experience better? It all gets back to this idea of putting your people before profit. A lot of organizations are still struggling with that idea. They want to do what’s going to drive results. They want to do what’s going to drive more money to the bottom line, but they don’t think about the fact that without your people, nothing is going to happen. If we don’t take care of our people in the right way, then sooner or later the business is going to suffer. That can take on a myriad of different forms.
We have one organization that we have done work with. The one that you may be familiar with, it’s a little chicken sandwich shop in our backyard here in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s called Chick-fil-A, and they have done arguably a phenomenal job when it comes to creating a culture about taking care of people because they put making a difference above making a dollar.
Here’s the point. It started with the Founder, Truett Cathy, way back in 1946. This is interesting information for those who want to see the business case for it. In 2022, Chick-fil-A was about ready to break through the $19 billion mark, $18.8 billion in gross revenue. That was more revenue than their top five competitors combined, more than Popeyes, Cane’s Chicken, Zaxby’s, and Wingstop combined. Here’s what’s fascinating. They generated more gross revenue than their top five competitors with almost a third of the number of retail outlets. Their five competitors had 10,600 outlets, while Chick-fil-A had under 3,000. Think about that. Chick-fil-A does several things to take care of their people if you know much about them. Number one, they give them a day off. They give them Sunday off.
They are not even open on Sundays. They are working one less day.
Arguably, in the quick service restaurant space, that’s one of the busiest days of the week for most organizations, but they said, “No. Our values dictate that we are going to be closed one day a week.” Part of that was a commitment to faith. Part of that is a commitment to their people. They said, “We are going to be closed.”
I can’t even begin to tell you how many people-centric programs Chick-fil-A has. This says it all. Their motto, their mission statement are very simple, and it’s this, “To be the world’s most caring company.” Now, what does that have to do with chicken sales? Nothing, but it’s about taking care of people, and you see this in their Red Couch commercials because the Red Couch commercials are about acts of kindness. How do we take care of our people, not just internally, but externally as well? That’s the whole focus.
The point is that when organizations deeply invest in taking care of their people, their people appreciate that. Their people feel affirmed, acknowledged, and respected. They in turn bring the best of who they are to the equation, and then they provide the same stellar service to the customer base that they have received as the employee, and it makes perfect sense, but why do so many organizations fail to recognize that simple idea that simply taking care of your people is the best thing that you can do to drive business. It seems like common sense, but unfortunately, it’s not common practice.
Make Life Good: A Soul-Stirring Parable About What Really Matters
One of the things that you were talking about, they sometimes think that there is no connection between creating the most caring company in the world or the planet, and the results of the business. When in fact, your results do depend on that. You get the best results by caring for your people. A lot of businesses don’t believe that. They don’t know that and they haven’t seen it because they haven’t tried it. Here’s a business that doesn’t even work on Sundays, the busiest day in the fast food industry, and yet they are outpacing their nearest five competitors. That says something about the value of caring for people, and so we have to talk about it differently. We have to connect those two. It does make a difference. They are deeply connected.
A lot of organizations strive to be the best. Here’s a great question. A friend of mine by the name of Jeff Henderson has an organization called The FOR Company. He wrote a book titled FOR, and he made this challenge. He says, “There are a lot of organizations that try to be the best in the world, but we need to be the best for the world.” There’s a big difference between the two.
The way that we like to say it in our organization is there are two kinds of organizations. There are organizations that use people to grow the business, and there are a lot of organizations that do that, but the best organizations in the world use the business to grow the people who then grow the business. When your focus is on using the business to grow the people, helping the people aspire, helping the people attain their goals, dreams, hopes, and aspirations, equipping them to become leaders worth following, and providing for them the resources they need to excel, not just at work, but at home as well.
When you have that focus on helping people grow, then the dividends are hard to describe because they are exponential. Because you’ve marked their life for good, they then want to turn around and mark other people’s lives for good, and that’s the whole idea of creating a movement of good, which brings us back to the principles of axiology.
Four Maxims Of Value Creation In Business
I think that the work that the employees then do is done with much greater ease. It’s not work. It comes naturally. It springs out of what’s been invested in them, and therefore they naturally show that to the customers and also their fellow employees that the other people they are working with inside the organization as well. I know there’s a concept that’s related to this that you talk about, which is this whole notion of value creation. You have four maxims value creation, creativity, positivity, sustainability, and responsibility. Tell us how this ties into what we have been talking about so far.
Those four maxims are at the very heart of axiology. Those are the principles that we help organizations not only begin to understand but be able to put into practice to create and crystallize a very compelling culture. The first one that you mentioned, the maximum of creativity simply says this, we are all designed to create value in life, which means that we feel good when we do good. That’s the way that God made us. He created us to give back to the world, not just to be consumers, but to be creators of good. That’s where it all begins, and then the question tied to that is, do you create on a daily basis more value than you take? In other words, do you bring more to the table for others than you expect others to give you in return?
There are two types of people in the world. There are value creators and their value extractors. A value creator lives by what I call an abundance mentality, and they say, “If we all bring more to the table than we take away, then at the end of the day, there will be a surplus on the table that can be shared by everybody who helped to create that value, and that’s a win for everybody.”
On the other hand, there are value extractors, and we all have had experience with value extractors. Some people are very myopic. It’s all about them, “What’s in it for me?” They live by a scarcity mentality. They believe, “There’s not enough to go around in the world, so therefore, I have to get to the table to get as much for myself as I possibly can,” and often that’s with blatant disregard for anybody else but the challenge is if everybody has the attitude of being a value extractor, it won’t be too long until there’s nothing left on the table. When there’s nothing left on the table, go home.
This whole idea of do you bring more to the table than you take away, that’s the principle of creativity, the maxim of creativity. The more value you create, the more invaluable you become. I don’t care if that’s in my organizational life or personal life. The same thing applies to my wife and our relationship at home.
My wife has what I call an emotional piggy bank. If I make more deposits into her emotional piggy bank than I make withdrawals, if I’m more interested in her good than my own good, if I’m bringing more to her than I’m expecting from her, if I’m striving to make her world better where she can thrive, then her emotional piggy bank is full and life is good. If I’m making more demands on her than I’m giving to her, if I expect more from her than I’m creating for her, I’m going to drain that reservoir pretty quickly. When I do, mama ain’t happy, and if mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.
There’s nothing else to draw out of the bank either.
She’s depleted, and our relationship is bankrupt. The same thing happens personally, and it can happen professionally as well because we have to consciously keep our hand on the helm of culture, and we do that by value creation because we are going to have a culture. Anywhere people get together, you are going to have a culture. The question will be by design, meaning you give a thoughtful reflection and intentionality, move it in a constructive way, or are you going to have it by default? You are not thinking about it and one day you wake up and you don’t like it. You often hear couples talking about, “I don’t know, we drifted apart.” That’s a culture by default because you didn’t focus on making it better.
The first and most important is the maxim of creativity, and then the second one is positivity. Positivity says, do you leave a positive wake in the world? It’s a great question. Do you leave a positive? All of us sometimes move through life in such a way that we don’t slow down long enough to smell our own exhaust, but we leave a ripple impact on the shore, and we need to know what that is. We need to stop and think about whether we are leaving a positive wake in all that we do.
The third is sustainability, which simply says to continuously create value, and leverage your passion and your strengths to solve problems. I love this one because there’s a lot of talk in our world about passion. There’s a lot of talk in our world about strengths, but the key is we have to leverage both of those to solve problems. The bigger problem you solve, the more value you create, the more value you create, the more invaluable you become.
The last one is the principle or the maxim of responsibility, which simply says to have the biggest impact, determine what those elements are over which you do have control because there are a lot of elements over which you don’t have control, and apply your energy to move those forward in a positive direction. Take responsibility for those things that you can change and move in a positive way. There are so many more nuances to that and how we apply that across the board and organizational life, but that’s the essence, and that’s what we unpack in the book Remarkable!.
That sounds phenomenal and wonderful information for people to absorb and apply. What is the connection between what we are talking about now, this value creation process and people living for the purpose for which they are created, and also the impact that they are having in the company? There’s some connection between all of those. How do you see those going together?
They are intricately intertwined because passion comes as a result of pursuing your purpose in life, and purpose in life is exactly what we are talking about. Everyone’s purpose in life is the same or should be the same, and that’s to bring value to other people. The scripture is clear, “God so loved the world that he gave.” God was a giver. To be a part of his greater purpose, we are givers as well as we reflect his likeness to the world.
As we create good for others, that’s what brings meaning, fulfillment, and joy to life. From a psychological standpoint, people are depressed when they are anxious. It’s all because their focus is on themselves. They have turned internally and they are concerned about what’s going to happen with me, what’s going to happen to me, why is this happening against me? Their focus is on trying to get through that particular circumstance but it’s all myopically driven.
We know psychologically the antidote to depression and anxiety is to turn your focus outward, either through appreciation for others or in helping others, but put your focus on helping other people and it will begin to eliminate the anxiety, the stress, and the depression as you focus on doing good for others. It’s profound, and then when you talk about organizationally. When an organization is on a mission together, they don’t have a mission, they are on a mission together. That’s where the real cohesiveness is. The team dynamics begin to gel, and you can begin to move things forward at lightning speed sometimes because you’ve got this value-centricity that we are talking about.
Fulfilling Your Purpose In The Marketplace
Let me ask you a more personal question. How did you come to do this work that you are doing in the marketplace? How are you fulfilling your purpose and your unique design in living like this?
I appreciate you asking the question. For me, this is so much fun because I look at the research that’s available especially from organizations like Gallup on employee engagement, and you would know that less than a third of the American workforce is what Gallup describes as actively engaged. Meaning that they bring passion, enthusiasm, and excitement to the work experience.
Think about that. Only a third of the American workforce. Pragmatically, that translates into $1.9 trillion of lost opportunity costs. That’s the economic impact, but let’s talk about the emotional impact. People don’t like what they do. For a long time, I have sat back and I have said, “That has to change. The most time that any of us spend is in our work, and if we don’t enjoy our work, then what’s life about?” For me, the passion is to be able to go in and help individuals and organizations begin to understand life is too short not to enjoy what you are doing.
Where this came from or the genesis of all of it was that I spent the first almost two decades of my career in the not-for-profit space. I worked with some phenomenal organizations that did great, good in the community and had a high impact on making life better for a lot of people, but I learned through that how you motivate volunteers. In a nonprofit, it’s driven by voluntary time, energy, and resources.
The only way that you can create a movement among volunteers is to tap into their passion to have a cause, purpose, or mission that they believe in, and then honor and recognize them and fuel their energy by appreciation, and this rally cry to do something worthwhile. Take that. I took those lessons learned in the space of philanthropy and moved those over into the for-profit space. It’s the same because people are not primarily driven by financial gain. They are not.
If they are paid a fair wage in a fair market for fair work, that’s great, but what drives people, what people want to be a part of is a mission that’s larger than themselves, and they want to do it with people they enjoy doing it with and beyond that, they want to have fun doing what they are doing because they feel like they are making a difference in the world.
By taking those ideas, concepts, and principles from the not-for-profit world, and translating them over into the for-profit space, the results are amazing. Think about it from the standpoint of a leader. The greatest resource that you have is the untapped laden energy that lies within the margins of life, the discretionary effort that your people have that you’ve not yet tapped into.
If you could get that 30% or 33% that are actively engaged, if you could get that number up to 40%, 45%, or 50%, the impact on the organization would be extraordinary, and that’s what we are talking about. We are talking about creating a culture that’s inspirational to tap into that discretionary effort in the margins of life.
Connection Between Hope And Happiness At Work
It is true that in the nonprofit sector, they are very tuned into what they believe in terms of the mission that they are going after, why they exist, and who it is that they intend to impact on the back end of what they are set up to do. It’s great to bring that same spirit to the for-profit world as well. I find that there’s a lot of cross-pollination that can happen in both directions for different purposes, for both what the nonprofits can learn from the for-profit and vice versa. Let me ask this. We haven’t used these words exactly, although when people are fulfilled at work, there’s this happiness component that’s a part of it, and there’s hope that is a very important concept for you. How are those two connected, hope and happiness?
I wrote a book during COVID, entitled Fireproof Happiness. A friend of mine challenged me to write it because we looked at what was taking place in the world around us with COVID and all the challenges and the anxiety. He said, “You need to write a book on hope that will give people an optimistic view.” I said, “That’s, that’s interesting,” and so I took up the challenge.
My audience predominantly, while I do enjoy speaking for not-for-profit, and particularly in the church realm, the vast majority of the work I do is in Corporate America, Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies. I can’t always lead with chapter and verse. I wanted to write a book on hope that was not heavily faith-based because I knew that would be something my audience in the corporate world may not immediately embrace.
I wanted to take it from a scientific standpoint, and I did a great amount of research. I gathered over 250 scientifically validated peer-reviewed research papers on the power of the efficacy of hope. I synthesized it, crystallized it, and put it in a form that everyone can pick up, read, easily understand, and apply. The link between hope and happiness is irrefutable. Everybody in the world is searching for happiness, but very few people attain it or know how to attain it, and the secret element is hope.
You have to first of all understand what hope is. You have to define it properly, then you have to know how to pursue it, and it’s not what most people think, and that’s what I write about in Fireproof Happiness. Let’s define hope. Hope is a dynamic motivational system that’s tied to inspirational goal setting. Happiness does not come in attaining the goal that you desire. Happiness comes in the challenge of the pursuit.
That is interesting because John Templeton, a wise man, once said, “Happiness pursues eludes, but happiness gives returns.” What he was saying is that everything good in life that you want, you can’t get by saying there’s a goal and trying to attain it. It comes by creating value for other people. In other words, I’m the happiest as a husband when my wife is happy. I’m the happiest as a father and as a parent when my kids are happy. I’m the happiest as a team leader when my teams are happy. Therefore, happiness comes by providing those things that create an atmosphere of happiness for others, which comes full circle back to what we were talking about before.
Maybe you’ve heard the statement before, “Hope is not a strategy.” Everybody has heard that in corporate circles, but I would suggest that hope is the best strategy if you understand what hope is. If you are pursuing any endeavor and the people who are involved in that endeavor are hopeless about it, it’s never going to become a reality. Hope is your best strategy and hope is the basis for happiness, but it’s also the basis for health, productivity, and longevity. We go into great detail pulling that apart, unpacking it, and talking about it as we deconstruct hope and then put hope back together again.
I know that you and I both have a deep love and respect for Viktor Frankl who certainly is one of the luminaries out there on this whole notion of hope. Maybe say a word or two about that.
Viktor Frankl is the author of a book that is a classic called Man’s Search for Meaning. He was an Austrian neuroscientist, a psychiatrist, and a philosopher who was a Jewish taking prisoner and a Nazi prisoner of war camp. All of his worldly possessions were taken away. All of his family members were exterminated or executed in the Nazi gas chambers, and it was a horrific period of time for him as he endured four different concentration camps, but he came out on the other side of that. He wrote a book called Man’s Search for Meaning. It talks about the eternal struggle, about the common thread in humanity, which is suffering, that all of us have disappointment, disillusionment, dreams that are dashed, loved ones that are lost, and challenges in life that are difficult to face. That’s the common bond that ties us all together in humanity.
He talks about the importance of both being able to have the hope to persevere in the end while combining it with the discipline to embrace the difficult truth of the reality of your situation. He writes this masterful piece and essentially says, “Everything in life can be stripped away from you except for one thing, and that one thing is your choice.”
The power to choose your attitude. The power to choose how you’ll respond to life circumstances. The power to choose how you’ll respond even to those who perpetrate the greatest atrocities that mankind has ever seen against you. It’s a great story. It’s a great book. It’s a great lesson in life when we are down, we are depressed, and we wonder why is this happening. It’s good to learn lessons from other people who’ve walked roads that are even more challenging than our own.
I believe that his philosophy is exactly how I would say that my African-descent ancestors got through slavery. They had to think every day about the choices that they could make, which would seem from the outside to be very few, and yet every minute, they are making a choice. You could do this or you could do that, and those choices have different consequences.
Just knowing that even in a small way, you have some agency, makes a difference in terms of the outcomes because you can make the choice for hope and to see optimism on the other side of the fence, which brings me to the next thing I want to say and ask you about. We have been talking about hope and there are other words like optimism. There are other words like positivity. We mentioned that. I know that each one is a little bit different. Maybe unpack that for us a little bit too.
I love the idea of positivity. There’s a great amount of research coming out of The School of Positive Psychology, Dr. Martin Seligman, and others. Valuable work. I am a big believer in positivity, but positivity serves as the foundation of hope. Positivity alone will not get you through the most challenging issues of life, but it forms the foundation upon which you can then build the skyscraper of hope. After positivity, the next thing we call buoyancy belief is responsibility, and then there’s agility and then there’s reality, and all of those are buoyancy beliefs of hope. It begins with positivity, but hope brings more to the equation than just mere positivity.
That’s awesome because, in other words, you are saying you need all of those building blocks, not just one of them. If you apply that to what Viktor Frankl was doing, how did those other pieces look in his world? How did you see him having something that was beyond positivity?
The first point, the buoyancy belief of positivity says, “I believe that tomorrow can be brighter than today no matter how dark today may be.” The second buoyancy belief we talked about is responsibility, which says, “I’m not a victim of circumstance. I have a say in how my life unfolds. There may be a thousand things over which I don’t have control. I don’t have control over the weather, I don’t have control over the economy. I don’t have control over what might happen to me. I don’t even have control over other people, but I do have control over my own internal response. I do have control over my attitude, and so that’s where responsibility comes in.”
The third principle is agility. Agility says, “There’s not one single way for me to get to any desired destination. If one way is blocked, I can work to remove the blockage or I can choose an alternate route, and, if necessary, I can even choose a different destination. I have the freedom to demonstrate agility and I can morph, change, and be creative to face whatever life throws my way.”
Lastly, your reality. You have to embrace your reality, which simply says that I need to combine my perseverance and the belief that I will be able to persevere and come through victorious on the other side with the discipline of accepting reality no matter how harsh it may be. When you have positivity, responsibility, agility, and reality all together, that forms the foundation for what we call the core of buoyancy beliefs that will keep your head above water when the storm surge rises.
Thank you for breaking it down with that example because it makes it more tangible and more visible in a lot of ways. I appreciate you taking the time to do that. I know you’ve got your latest book, which is Make Life Good. Tell us a little bit more about what that book is about and what its connection to legacy.
Make Life Good is the one I have enjoyed writing the most. All of my books I have thoroughly enjoyed and hope that they are beneficial to the audience that receives them, but the full title of this book is You’ve Made a Good Living, Now Make Life Good. Make Life Good is about, beyond making money and taking care of your own, how you turn around and give back to the world. That happiness does not come from titles and trinkets that we attain from the world, but it’s in what we bring to the world. It’s about what we do for others that they are incapable of doing for themselves. It’s about altering our lifestyle so that we can alter the lives of others.
It’s about doing for one what you wish you could do for everyone and thereby changing the whole world for that someone and maybe in the process changing your whole world too. It’s about generosity, legacy, and philanthropy. I wrote the book twofold to encourage corporate responsibility, but then also I wrote it so that it would be a tool that nonprofit groups could use to inspire their donor base to do more than give their money, more than their treasures, but give their time and their talent as well.
It’s a fun narrative. It’s a parable of sorts that talks about this man in midlife who sees a lot of what he’s pursued in life, the futility of it all. He’s beginning to ask the question, there has to be more to life than dying in a lake house. There has to be more to life than taking care of my own, and he’s challenged with a simple question. The question comes to him by a very unexpected character. It’s a homeless person on the street who comes up to him and says, “Why do you do what you do?” He goes, “You mean what do I do?”
He goes, “No. What you do is not as important as why you do it. Why do you do what you do?” It brings us all the way back around to the purpose that we have talked about in our conversation. Finding your purpose in life is what fuels happiness. It’s what creates movements of good. It’s what brings value to the workforce. It’s what ties people together with common values and a purposeful mission. It’s at the heart of everything we teach and do.
You have brought it full circle in terms of the new book that’s coming out and it gives people a bit of something to think about when we have a lot of Baby Boomers who are retiring right now and we have a lot of other people who are mid-career and thinking about what’s the legacy they want to leave and are the financial results enough. Usually, there’s something else they want to make a mark on on this earth and this gives them an opportunity to think about what that is. How can people get a hold of you? How can they reach you? How can they get your books? How can they book you for keynote speeches or anything else they want to connect with you about?
I appreciate you asking that. Our books are available wherever fine books are sold. You can get them on Amazon, Books-A-Million, and Barnes & Noble. They are all available there. As far as reaching me personally, our website is Dr. Randy Ross. If you want to reach me personally, it’s very simple, rr@drRandyRoss.com. I would love to assist or complement any leadership development initiatives that organizations may have or help them apply these principles to move their culture in a more positive affirmative direction.
Words Of Wisdom For Corporate Business Leaders
They can have results all the way around, not just on one end. What additional words of wisdom do you want to leave for my community of corporate executive business leaders?
In the front of Fireproof Happiness, there’s a trilogy statement that maybe would be a great thing to leave your readers with. It goes like this, “Joy is the emotional response of hope. Peace is the emotional response of faith, and love is the expression of them both.” Loving people, taking care of people, putting people first in organizational life. It’s what we started off talking about when we were talking about culture, and now we have concluded in talking about hope. The power of hope is that it’s the foundational fundamental building block for happiness, health, productivity, and longevity. If we can build resilient teams that understand the power of hope, then business and life will be much better.
Amen to that. I can see it already. What you said about business and life, every principle that you’ve talked about is relevant beyond business as well. If we live like this, we will have better lives. Thank you so much for being here and sharing your wisdom with the audience.
My pleasure. It’s great hanging out with you and having this conversation, and I want to thank you again for your time.
You are welcome. We are going to close the show with a verse, Proverbs 16:16. It says, “How much better to get wisdom than gold and to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver?” We have learned from Dr. Randy that those building blocks of wisdom and understanding as he’s unpacked them in the package of hope that if we have that, that’s what generates the gold that lasts in all different directions in our lives. If you just get the gold without the wisdom and the understanding, you’ll probably lose on all fronts. Win today. Go for wisdom, go for understanding, spread hope, and add value to others in your life and your workplace. We’ll see you next time.
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I’m here to celebrate the work of the Bible League, which is a global ministry that provides Bibles and ministry study materials, and through activities like Project Philip also teaches and trains local people and how to share the word of God. The President and CEO of the Bible League, Jos Snoep is with me to share a little bit more about what the Bible League is doing.
The beauty of the local church is that it is the body of Christ and it is the Holy Spirit that is calling the local church to be engaged in the Great Commission. As Bible League, we come alongside those local pastors. I met a pastor, his name is Rolando, in the Amazon, and he has this great vision to reach 200 communities with the word of God. We were able to come alongside them and help them with bibles and resources.
Thank you so much, Jos. We are all partners together. You and the Bible League are the hands and feet to the local people on the ground, and there are partners and donors out there who can be hands and feet to you as you also share with others. Those of you who want to be part of this ministry and I invite you to be a part of it, I’m a part of it, go to Bible League. See more about the ministry and see how you can participate and donate.
Randy is Anchored by Hope and the belief that tomorrow can hold bigger and brighter possibilities than today. Most importantly, he’s a messenger of practical wisdom to help untangle the biggest challenges facing today’s business leader, tomorrow’s workforce and the future marketplace. He engages audiences worldwide, creating value for leaders and teams alike. His keynotes and workshops resonate with transformational truths that inspire elevated performance.
In 2008, Randy founded Remarkable! – a consulting and advisory firm specializing in team development and organizational health. Spending time in both the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds, Randy has traveled throughout the United States and internationally as a speaker, consultant and coach, building teams and developing leaders. A compelling communicator, Randy has the keen sensitivity to speak to the heart of leaders and inspires elevated performance among teams. Randy’s unique understanding of employee engagement allows him to offer practical solutions for increasing both the morale and performance of your teams.
A graduate of Baylor University, Randy also holds two advanced degrees from Southwestern. Randy is the co-author of Remarkable!, a leadership parable that illustrates the power of applied axiology to guide organizations toward the creation of a more compelling and collaborative culture, based upon Value Creation. Randy’s latest book, Relationomics: Business Powered by Relationships, provides powerful insights and practical principles to create relationally rich environments.
Before founding Remarkable!, Randy led several not-for-profit entities in Texas and Florida and served as VP of Recruiting for a large regional mortgage corporation, based in Atlanta. Later, he became the Chief People Officer of North American Automotive Group. He and his wife, LuAnne have four children and live in Atlanta, Georgia.
What business and leadership lessons can you learn from navigating the challenges of travel, traffic, and turbulence? In this episode, Dr. Karen shares insights from her recent trip to Atlanta. While she unfolds her fascinating traffic and turbulence story, Dr. Karen also extracts lessons corporate executives can leverage to effectively lead through business traffic and turbulence.
I want to talk about traffic and turbulence. This is related to some lessons I recently learned on a trip to Atlanta. It’s a reinforcement of some principles we want to keep in mind about life and business. First, I’m going to start with traffic in Atlanta, 13 miles is a long way. I live in Colorado 13 miles is right around the corner. I imagined that it would take me about 30 minutes at the outside to get anywhere being 13 miles away. However, I discovered quickly that 13 miles is an automatic minimum of 45 minutes in a busy city like Atlanta.
On the first day that I had to be somewhere at a particular time, the GPS said, “You’re going to be getting there in 30 minutes.” I thought, “Wonderful.” As we were driving and my husband was driving, that 30 minutes turned into 45 minutes. The next thing you know, we got caught behind a train. I said, there is no way we’re going to make it at exactly the right time, even though we had left some margin in the trip. That was very stressful driving through the city of Atlanta. We learned to make sure we left no less than 45 minutes, no matter where we were going.
My role, since my husband was driving, was to be the assistant driver. The assistant driver is essentially the navigator. This is the person who makes sure that you see things that are difficult to see when there’s so much to pay attention to and so much to see. I would be looking at the GPS. I would be making sure that my husband knew what the next exit would be or what terrain we were about to face if a car was suddenly driving erratically and about to come into our lane because people were driving crazy in the big city.
We had to be alert for all of that. When I think about the navigator, the assistant driver, so to speak, I think about the caddy in golf. You’re an expert golfer, yet you have a caddy who’s alongside you, who’s knowledgeable about the game and can still give you relevant advice and counsel and help you to see things that maybe you might not be seeing or might not be paying attention to. Also on one of those trips, a train suddenly was in front of us and I knew that this was going to be an inordinate delay. In the big city, you just never know what might stop you.
Business Lessons From Atlanta Traffic: Navigating New Terrain
It could be other cars and traffic. It could be trucks. It could be an accident. It could be a train or any other impediment. When I thought about, “What’s the meaning of all of this?” If I think about a business application, if I think about life, here’s what I would say is that when you’re in different places, the same terms may have different meanings and implications. In Colorado, 13 miles is close. In Atlanta, 13 miles is far away. You want to keep in mind about the context of where you’re operating.
You may be starting a business in another place from where you normally live and reside. When you open that branch, what are some of the difficulties or challenges you might face just because the timing may be different, traffic may be different? The way your business operates could actually follow a completely different trajectory because each place has its own optics. You want to keep that in mind. I would also say that you want to learn from your new terrain while you’re there and know about it.
After that first trip, realizing that the GPS was going to continually add time and add time, we learned not to pay attention to what the GPS said at the outset because traffic conditions changed rapidly. We had to know that terrain that 13 miles, that was 45 minutes. That wasn’t an hour. Some of what you already know about how you’ve been running a business so far. Before you’re trying some new things, you will apply that learning to the new place. However, it won’t be all that you need to know. You’ll also have new learning that’s necessary in the new place and everything that you’ve experienced before, not all of it is going to apply.
Not all of it is going to be relevant, though some of it will. Use what is relevant, use what you can, and learn new things along the way. The other thing I would say, it’s important to remember to leave extra time when you’re navigating new terrain. You want to expect the unexpected obstacles and unexpected challenges and things that stop you along the way in that added time, whether they be trains, buses, or whatever else it may turn out to be. Leave extra time on your journey when you’re doing something new in your business, don’t assume that it’s going to be the shortest possible time.
Make sure you pad it, and add some extra time to make sure you’ve got that cushion. I would say in your business, you also need a number of people who are in the role of assistant driver or navigator, your extra pairs of eyes and ears along the way because you cannot see everything all around you or in every department or in every location where you may be operating. You want skilled and talented people who are coming alongside you as your team members to advise you. That’s an important concept in business as well.
You’re not doing it by yourself. You have help and you want to use that help. The other thing I would say is that similar to a road trip like what we were taking at the time and also in business, you have tools that can help you. We were using some tech tools like GPS. Without GPS, we would have been lost many times and I am very thankful for the GPS. At the same time, as most of you know, GPS is not always perfect. There was one highway where every time we would go on this highway, it would route us off the path and then bring us back that wasted a lot of time.
Once we did that twice, we realized, “This is just a flaw in the GPS, we won’t follow that direction the next time.” We didn’t. Again, you’re learning as you go. Learn along the way. You have tools to help you. You have people to help you in your business. Use all of them and know that they’re not infallible. In fact, sometimes they can be wrong and then you make the adjustments. Also, perhaps wherever you’ve been, you’ve never been before or it’s changed. I’ve been to Atlanta a number of times.
However, I haven’t been there lately, and it seemed to be a little different, and we were staying in a very different part of town than we normally would stay. Therefore, the experience was different. Just because you’ve even done something before, been there before, doesn’t mean that it stays static, it stays the same. There may be some nuances of difference. I would also say, take time to appreciate the benefits of each location where you are. In Atlanta, because it’s a big city, there were multiple options, multiple services, and all kinds of restaurants from different ethnic backgrounds that we really enjoyed and that we really liked.
First Flight: Battling High Winds And An Aborted Landing
In Colorado, we have vast open spaces and lots of natural beauty, many occasions unobstructed to see the sunrise, and the sunset, and to watch the mountains and the purple mountain majesty. Each place has its beauty, and each place has its delight, and you want to enjoy the delight where you are and recognize the delight where you are, because there is some, even if it’s different from where you are accustomed to being. Those would be a few lessons that I would share about traffic. Now on that same trip, we also experienced some turbulence on our flight back from Atlanta to Colorado Springs.
We were taking two planes. On that first plane which was going to Denver, let me just mention that Colorado is well known for high winds. We have huge high winds and on that particular day, the winds were up to about 80 miles an hour. Here we are attempting to land in Denver with these high winds which up to this point we’d had a very smooth flight. There was not any turbulence with that particular plane and it was a big aircraft and that’s important because larger planes can handle the wind a lot better than small planes.
Here the plane is landing, starting to land, nothing unusual about that. It comes all the way down to the ground for the landing. Suddenly, the plane pulls up and it starts going real fast straight ahead and pulls back up in the air and it’s not landing. It goes all the way a long-distance straight ahead first. I was like, “What is going on here?” I’ve seen many planes that circle in the air for a long time because the conditions aren’t good for landing and then eventually they’ll land on the ground. I have personally never been in a plane that came all the way down, about to touch the ground, and then suddenly pulled back up.
That’s after more than a million miles in the air flying. I am a frequent flyer. I’ve got more than a billion miles in the air and I’ve never seen that. I thought that was unusual. I was not sitting by the window. I asked my husband and said, “Were we really at the airport? Was that the proper place because it looked like we were over a lot of farmland?” I said, “Were we trying to land at someplace that was not an appropriate place?” However, it looked like it really was the airport and somehow we just weren’t landing.
Now the pilot did not get on the loudspeaker right away to give an announcement about what was going on. Given that this first landing was aborted, I figured in this case, “They’re busy in the cockpit right now. They don’t have time to give an announcement just yet.” However, it wasn’t too long after that experience, the pilot did get on the loudspeaker and he indicated that there was significant wind and we were going to make a second approach to the airport and land the plane. Now, mind you, his voice was very calm.
There was no sense of crisis or emergency. The plane was flying fine, smoothly, no sense of crisis or emergency whatsoever. He was acting as though, “We do this every day. This is not a problem whatsoever.” I’m sure that he had to make a split-second decision about whether to land or not and then he opted for not landing, figuring it would be safer to continue the flight and to come back. I was glad it wasn’t dark. It was not dark yet. Even though it was in the evening, it was still light outside.
Perhaps he had to go further straight ahead in the distance because of the air traffic and other planes coming in. Perhaps because of the wind, he had to go a long distance straight ahead before he was able to circle and come back. In any case, my husband and I, we always have a practice. We pray before every trip. Before we left Atlanta, we were praying over our safety, over the trip, both on the ground and also in the air. At this moment, I said, “We have some challenges here and the pilot’s got to make some difficult decisions. I’m going to lift up some extra prayers on his behalf.”
Not in fear, there was no fear. I thought, “It was just different, yet extra prayers are always useful because we know who holds our lives in his hand and that’s God himself.” That was what happened on the first plane. The second approach was successful. We landed fine. A lot of time was added to the flight as a result of having to make the second approach. It was a mad rush to the second gate and we had to go from one concourse to the other, take the train, and so on. All of those things were somewhat significant and challenging.
Second Flight: Turbulence, Rough Landings, And Unexpected Delay
By the time we got to the second gate, it was really time to board the second plane. Now the second plane is going from Denver to Colorado Springs. It is typically and often turbulent on those flights because they have to fly at lower altitudes because it’s a very short flight from Denver to Colorado Springs. This particular day, the wind was even worse than usual, so more turbulence was expected. Thankfully, again, there was a large plane as opposed to a small plane. Larger planes, again, can handle these kinds of crises a bit better.
When we first started off, it was a rough takeoff, very rough. In fact, in my mind, it sounded like the plane was falling apart. I thought, “I sure hope they’ve done maintenance on this plane because it’s not sounding very good.” That was the first thing that was a little bit concerning. Of course, when we got in the air, it was up and down and turbulent as is often the case, but not excessive. It was quite reasonable for the normal trip going from Denver to Colorado Springs. I decided no need to worry about that. I took a nap on that plane. What woke me up was the rough landing.
The plane felt like it was slamming into the ground when we got to Colorado Springs. I think everybody was jilted by that. I certainly woke up from my little nap and the taxi into the gate was fine. It was no problem. We got down to baggage claim and it seemed to take an inordinately long period of time for them to even be thinking about bringing the luggage out and the luggage didn’t come out. We were there with our driver. When they suddenly announced that they were not going to be able to bring the luggage out because the door to the luggage compartment of the airplane was jammed and it was jammed because all the luggage had slammed against that door and they had tried multiple methods to open the door.
They felt that they tried everything they knew already that was safe to do and anything else they tried would not be safe and so they had to call in for extra help and reinforcements. A company that specializes in circumstances like this for someone to come to open the door. That would take a minimum of an hour and a half and probably longer. We had options. We could wait for the luggage, we could come back for the luggage, or we can have it delivered to our house. The driver ran upstairs and got in the line for us.
We came up and then when we replaced him in the line, he took the luggage, the hand-carried luggage that we had to the car and we registered to have the luggage delivered the next day. That’s what happened with that. Next, however, was walking to the car from the airport. Mind you, I said it was incredibly windy, very windy. When there’s a wind report in Colorado, typically, I try to stay indoors, stay home, and not be out in the wind because people have been knocked over from the wind. You could be hit by some flying debris.
It’s not necessarily the safest thing to be out in the wind. As I’m pressing against the strong wind trying to walk to the car in the wind, when hitting me in the face, I cannot barely walk an inch. It is that strong. I’m exerting a lot of energy to go forward and I’m not going forward very much. Maybe like I said, an inch or so along the way. My husband is standing at the door of the car waiting for me to get there so I can get in the car and he can close the door. However, when I get right to the point where the car is, suddenly this gale-force wind just stops.
Now, I don’t know if much about physics, but if you’ve been exerting a lot of energy and pressure to go forward and the wind suddenly stops, I kept moving. It propelled me at that same high speed and threw me into the car. That had never happened before either. When I got thrown into the car, I ended up hurting my left hand somewhat. I thought, “What a day this is that that was unexpected.” I didn’t have experience walking in the wind because like I say, I normally stay indoors when they have the wind announcement. Here we are.
Lessons From Turbulence: Navigating Life’s Challenges
I’m sitting later on after we get home and I realized that my hand really needs to be iced. I put a nice pack on my hands. I’m sitting there and reflecting over all these experiences of traffic and turbulence and the lessons that can be learned from this. I’ll share with you the lessons from the turbulence. That is, first of all, some trips that we take are rough. It’s not always going to be smooth flying, or smooth sailing, and some turbulence is actually quite normal in life. It’s not meant to be smooth sailing all along the way.
Turbulence is normal. Takeoff and landing can be especially challenging and difficult so because these are regular occurrences, this is a normal part of life. You want to be ready in the sense of having the right equipment for such occasions. I was thankful for the big plane on both flights because if we had had a mini plane from Denver to Colorado Springs, the flight probably would have been canceled. I doubt if the regional jets really could have handled the level of wind that we had that night. Even though the big plane was tossed a little bit, a miniature plane gets tossed in such a way you feel like you’re going to crash and die. I’ve been on those planes many times.
This was not a day for a small plane. Also, I would say it’s important to have experienced personnel. On that first flight, the pilot was unflappable. He knew what he had to do. He had trained, I’m sure, for conditions such as what he experienced. Therefore, when he saw whatever he saw when he got down close to the ground, he said, “I’m opting for safety.” He pulled up and said, “I’m doing a second approach.” Which is another important aspect, is you want to keep safety in mind. In your business, as you’re doing new operations and new places, maybe you’re in a manufacturing environment.
Your personnel can be hurt if you do not make the right decision. You want to have a mindset that’s safety-focused. I know that my airline, that’s what they care about. They always talk about safety first. I would also say bring in specialized help as needed. When you need it, a delay is better than death. With this door being shut, someone could have been severely hurt if they had opened the door, not having the extra expertise and skills for the conditions. If someone had been harmed like that, that would have been unfortunate. It’s inconvenient.
We had to wait for our luggage and it wasn’t available right away. We had to get it delivered the next day. I’d rather see than have a situation where someone’s hurt, harmed or killed because the extra specialized help was not there and safety was not at the forefront. I would say going back to the first plane, there are situations that will occur in your business, such as not being able to land or things are turning out different than you thought. When you can, and as soon as you are able, speak to your people and provide information about what’s going on and maintain the appropriate calmness for whatever it is that’s going on.
If you are in that crowded theater, as it says, even if there’s a fire and you’re yelling and screaming fire in a panicked way, that’s how people get trampled and killed. Even though there may be a fire, there is a more appropriate way to exit, if you will, the movie theater in a fire. Similarly, this pilot had a very calm voice saying what was happening, and what they were going to do about it. He was not at all worried in terms of the voice tone that he used and giving us the information.
Now, suppose it had been a much more severe situation and maybe he was concerned that the landing was going to be particularly tough or whatever, then he could provide direction. The same thing in your organization, provide direction to your people even after you’ve given the call message, “Here’s what’s happening. Here’s what’s going on.” If we needed to be in a brace position to prepare for impact, the pilot could have talked about that.
Again, he could have remained calm. He could have said, “We may face some significant turbulence. It could be a rough landing. We would like to ask all of you to assume the brace position and he could have described it. He could have had the flight attendants describe it. He could have referred us to the card on the plane for the aircraft.” All of that to say, “We are doing everything we can to have a safe and smooth landing. In cases more turbulent, we want to make sure that no one is hurt. Please do this for us and for yourselves.”
That could have been announced if necessary. In our case, it wasn’t necessary. In your company, sometimes the information alone is enough, and other times you need to give direction and you still want to maintain sufficient calm and yet reach everyone with the direction that you are given. Keep in mind that lots of events are going to be new and will be unexpected as you go along. No matter what’s happening, keep in mind that you can pray and take a nap because we know that God is the one who holds us in his arms.
Trusting God Through Life’s Storms And Challenges
I want to just read a scripture related to this. This is Philippians the fourth chapter and it’s verses 6 and 7, which says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” I peacefully took a nice nap on that second plane in spite of some minor turbulence. It wasn’t anything to worry about or be afraid over.
When we give issues to God and we pray to him, we can trust that he is in charge and in control along the way. All of these are new experiences. I’ve never been on a plane, got that close to the ground, and pulled back up. I’ve never been on a plane that landed and couldn’t get the luggage off the plane because of the door being shut. The third thing that I never experienced was a wind force so strong that when it stopped suddenly, it just slammed me into the car unexpectedly. I’ve never experienced that either.
Keep in mind that even though turbulence is normal, sometimes it’s going to have a different impact or a different way of operating than what we’re used to and you want to know what are the proper strategies in each situation. Before I’m out in the wind again, I’m going to do a little research to figure out, how do you keep yourself maybe from being thrown into the car unexpectedly and possibly being harmed or hurt? I’ll do a little research to figure out what’s necessary. Of course, since I had a minor injury, when injuries occur, hopefully they’re minor such as mine was take care of them early and right away so that they don’t become worse so that they don’t become major.
When I got home and I saw that this was really a problematic, I started the icing up right away and the next day I had no swelling even though it was still a little bit tender. If I hadn’t intervened early could have been worse outcomes. Same thing in your business. When something is small and it’s a challenge, handle it then before it becomes something big. I hope you’ve gotten something out of traffic and turbulence that you can use in your business. Be prepared, rely on people, rely on equipment, and yet know that all of these things are fallible. Make sure you pray through everything because God is there to help us in a time of need.
I’m going to read from Matthew the chapter as we close. This is a picture of Jesus who was on some stormy seas. In my case, I was in turbulent air. Sometimes it’ll be stormy seas. Starting with verse 23 in chapter eight of the book of Matthew, it says, “Now when he got into a boat, that’s Jesus, his disciples followed him and suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea so that the boat was covered with the waves but he was asleep.
His disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, “Lord, save us. We’re perishing.” He said to them, “Why are you fearful? You of little faith.” He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. The men marveled saying, who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey him?” Take that with you this week and know that even the winds, the waves, and the sea obey our Lord. We can trust him. We can be asleep in a boat. We can be asleep on the airplane because God is watching over us at all times. That doesn’t mean you don’t take necessary and appropriate action as you need to and as we’ve already talked about. However, when you’ve done what you’re supposed to do, it’s smooth sailing. Let Jesus take the helm, be in the cockpit, and fly your plane to safety.
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This is Dr. Karen Wilson-Starks, president and CEO of Trans Leadership, Incorporated. Did that workplaces can make a significant difference in the lives of people and that you can create a positive culture that gets positive business results and also produces positive life experiences for your employees and your clients and customers? You can make a significant contribution to the world by creating a culture where your people can bring their gifts to provide the most relevant and excellent products and services to your marketplace.
What the research shows is that companies with excellent leadership are also more profitable. As you flourish and as you grow in the world, you can do more for yourself as well as for others. If this is resonating with you and you want to create a positive, profitable, and powerful corporate culture and you care about succession, leaving the organization in a better position than when you found it. Do keep in mind that that legacy is something that’s intentional, and I am happy to partner with you to take your organization to the next level and create that positive leadership culture. Reach me at Dr.Karen.TransLeadership.com.
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This is Dr. Karen Wilson-Starks, President and CEO of Trans Leadership, Incorporated. I want to let that I am running a special promotion right now. If you are a CEO or executive leader in a medium to large size company, and you care about how your people are treated, and especially if you share our biblical values, and right now, you may be facing difficult decisions where you want some additional perspective.
You may be planning for succession in your company and developing people and preparing the organization for that succession or perhaps right now you’re going through change. You’re leading change. Maybe there’s a merger, there’s an acquisition. Whatever you’re facing in terms of leadership, including developing your executive team, contact me. Give me a call so we can do a discovery meeting to see what’s going on.
Here’s the special promotion. The promotion is that in addition to your discovery time, I will interview up to three people, additional people from your executive team so you have even greater context and feedback about where to go next. Reach out to me at Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com or phone me at (719) 534-0949, extension one. I look forward to hearing from you and to coming alongside you to complete and continue your leadership journey with positivity and profitability in your organization.
Neal Frick, the CEO of CyberCore Technologies, a government contractor that specializes in secure IT infrastructure and supply chain management, leads his company with empathy and compassion. Neal’s business results include restructuring and reducing overhead by 2.5 million, tripling headcount and revenue within 2 years, and reducing attrition from 35% to 8% within 12 months.
The author of the book, “The E Suite: Empathetic Leadership for the Next Generation of Executives,” with co-author Tina Kuhn, Neal grounds his approach to leadership in the power of empathy and investment in people, a methodology he learned from his father who is a general contractor in the insulating business. With previous corporate and government contracting roles, Neal has seen empathy leadership produce successful and profitable businesses in other sectors. His father’s leadership instilled a lifelong conviction that investing in people leads to inevitable profits.
Today Neal speaks with Dr. Karen about employee hiring and retention, responsible downsizing, leading millennials and Gen Z, the role of diversity for business success and innovation, and how to protect yourself in a cyber and AI environment.
With insights sharpened in the crucible of personal experience and professional success, Neal is on a mission to build a community of empathetic leaders.
Neal Frick, CEO of CyberCore Technologies: The ROI for Empathy in Corporate Businesses [Episode 471]
What if there is a profitable return on empathy in the corporate work environment? My guest will share his insights on how a culture of compassion enhances the bottom line, the value of creating a diverse executive team, and how to unlock millennial magic to attract bright young minds who will drive the future. Neal Frick is the CEO of CyberCore Technologies, a cybersecurity company that specializes in secure supply chain management. He has also held other corporate and leadership positions in retail business and government contracting.
Neal’s business results include restructuring and reducing overhead by 2.5 million, tripling headcount and revenue within two years, and reducing attrition from 35% to 8% within 12 months. The author of the book, The E-Suite, Empathetic Leadership for the New Generation of Executives. Neal grounds his approach to leadership in the power of empathy and investment in people. His father modeled this ethos when he took personal responsibility for an employee grappling with drug addiction, paying for the employee’s rehab and welcoming him back to work once sober.
His father’s actions deeply impacted Neal, instilling a lifelong conviction about the inherent value of people over profits and the understanding that investing in people leads to inevitable profits. With insights sharpened in the crucible of personal experience and professional success, Neal is on a mission to build a community of empathetic leaders. Welcome Neal to the show.
Thank you so much, Dr. Karen. I appreciate you having me on.
Neal Frick’s Father As A Model Of Empathy In Leadership
I am delighted to have you on. I love what you’re doing in terms of empathy in the workplace. It fits with my notion of positive leadership in the workplace as well. You and I really share something in common or on a similar page in that respect. I want to jump right in, Neal, and just start asking you about this backstory with your father, because he was your number one role model for empathy in the workplace. Tell us a little bit about your father’s business and a little bit more about what he did for that employee who was struggling with drug addiction.
Certainly. My father is an insulator, a general contractor and started his own business, very small, him and a few other guys. One of those employees of his over the course of their working together, developed a drug addiction and was having some pretty significant personal issues after going through a divorce. My father really valued this individual and not just his work, but also just him as a person. From a very early age, I saw what it was like when a boss takes a genuine interest at an employee and helps them through a difficult time. It would have been very easy for him to just say, “Thank you so much for your work, but this is no longer working, and move on.” Instead, he modeled a very different approach.
What ultimately happened to that employee that he helped in the workplace?
They are still working together 25 years later.
What a blessing. That’s a great testimony of the value of the empathetic approach. What other examples did you see from your father in his business? What else does he do to show empathy in the workplace where you saw that modeled for you?
I think he has a very community-centric approach to his organization. He decided to stay small, partially because he wanted to spend more time with his family. He didn’t want to get out over his skis, but partially also because I think he really appreciated the personal touch that he was able to have, not just with his team members, but also with his customers. He knows each and every one of the people that he contracts for very well and typically very closely. They were in and out of our home when I was a child. He became friends with a number of them. His approach, I found after I got into a more traditional business setting myself, was not the typical approach, and was somewhat surprised by that. I think that is how he really modeled that for me when I was younger.
How Neal Applies His Father’s Leadership Lessons Today
Let’s talk about that a little bit. How you’ve taken what you learned from your father and taking it to the next level. Talk about how your father’s example impacts, how you lead today. What are you doing as a result of seeing what he did and how have you extended it?
I think I have tried my best to live up to the example that he set in that there is serious opportunities within business, especially within the United States, to help high performers continue to be high performers. Everyone goes through significant personal issues. Not one of us has not been impacted by something terrible especially after coming out of this pandemic and seeing what terrible situations people have gone through and the impact it’s had on their work life. We let people struggle when we could extend a hand in help. I think that is something that we miss a trick on and something I try within reason to do when I am leading an organization or leading a team.
It’s challenging, I’m sure, because sometimes it may not always work out in the way that you hope it would work out. Say a little bit about that, because there are some people who are wondering is this empathy thing really profitable. Is it the way to go? To what extent do maybe some employees exploit the system rather than benefit from the empathy?
I think it’s important to define empathy in a business setting and really empathy is about understanding another person’s emotional state and contextualizing that to make decisions. It’s not sympathy and it’s not niceness. It is another avenue of information for you to gather before you make it informed decision. It can be misapplied.
What I find that nice bosses tend to misapply empathy because niceness comes from a desire to avoid conflict and make everybody like you, whereas empathy comes from a desire to understand what someone’s going through and then see if there is a reasonable way to accommodate them and make their situation better. Where I think people get that negative impression of empathetic leadership is that they see it misapplied and they see people use it to give people who are acting poorly another chance and another chance. That’s really not what it’s about.
Say a little bit more about that, about not giving another chance, another chance. How do you determine when to use empathy in a certain situation? Maybe when you’ve extended enough and it’s time to do something else. That’s a tough call for a lot of business leaders. How do you know?
It’s a bit of a gut check, I’ll give you an example. I had a high performer, someone who was incredible, did wonderful things for the organization from a revenue standpoint but ultimately was incredibly disruptive to the culture within the organization. He was going through a very tough personal time. He had a lot of demons that he was fighting. I let that go on for too long, one, because of my natural inclination to try to help a top performer continue to perform, and two, because we had built a very strong friendship. What I found was that my sympathy for him and my kindness were overriding what I knew I needed to do, which was to find an exit for him from the organization.
Empathy gave me knowledge of what he was going through, but it also gave me information about what his actions were doing to the rest of the organization. The niceness, the sympathy is what overcame that and said, “That’s not as important, and I’m going to make sure that he continues to perform well.” From my perspective, empathy is contextual. How you apply it is you have to look holistically at your organization and make sure that everyone is driving in the same direction and you’re not allowing one person to override what is fair to others.
It sounds like you’re making some decisions that have to do with the climate of the company in general. In other words, he was a person who was performing well in terms of the business metrics, however culturally they were doing some things that didn’t fit. It sounds like there are multiple buckets you have to evaluate to determine is retention the best choice in this case or are there some other options that maybe I need to consider. Maybe help us with that a little bit. When might you decide that retaining the employee is really not in the best interest of the company or other people in the company and that perhaps even with empathy in place, the better choice and decision is to help them exit, as you were saying?
I think it comes down to whether or not the individual is willing to make the changes that they need to make to offset the challenging situation. If they are causing cultural issues within an organization because they are not getting along with their peers or they’re overly aggressive in their salesmanship, if they’re willing to have a conversation around it, if they’re willing to be led and to be mentored, then I think if they’re a top performer, you owe it to them to give them an opportunity. You also need to rigidly bound that with performance metrics. If things do not improve within a certain period of time, action needs to be taken.
In the specific case that I mentioned before, I failed, frankly, in setting those performance metrics. Had I, from the beginning, used my understanding of his emotional situation through that empathetic leadership to craft a performance improvement plan that included those cultural touch points that I needed him to hit, perhaps it would have had a better outcome. I think termination and moving someone out of an organization is really your last, hopefully, your last solution. Realistically, some organizations just don’t work for certain people. Sometimes people reach the end of their lifespan within an org and everyone needs to accept that and gracefully move through it.
Recognizing And Investing In Salvageable Employees
Wonderful. I think a lot of executives out there hearing this is like, “We agree with what you’re talking about. That’s probably what we would do too.” I think the flip side and maybe some of what you’re talking about is that there are people who can be salvaged and in a lot of organizations, those people would be thrown out to pasture, so to speak, maybe prematurely. Talk a little bit about how do you tell when maybe salvaging a person is the better way to go. What are the signs that you look for to determine when to make that investment?
I find that when performance starts to drop from someone who has historically been a strong performer, or even not necessarily the strongest, but a consistent performer, and there are no changes in tools in the environmental situation within the organization and it tends to be an issue of morale or an issue of personal challenges.
What we tend to do as leaders sometimes is come into that situation with preconceptions about what the issue is. We may think it is someone who is just skating. They’re not as interested in performing anymore. We may think that their personal situation is overwhelming their professional situation and make judgments. I would recommend to leaders going in with a more open attitude and fostering an environment where people feel comfortable about mental health issues, family issues, and situations that they have going on because we all go through them.
Have a human-to-human conversation around, “What do you need to be successful here?” We’ve noticed that things aren’t going as well. If your personal situation has changed, is there something that we can do? Offer more flexibility, and change your hours. More than not, people want to be successful and they want help to be successful. If we offer that, we can salvage those people rather than pushing them out the door.
I love that because when you think about it, I mean, human resources are very valuable and it’s like, I know this is going to be a weird analogy, but let’s say you could even have an older car. Like I love older cars that you want to preserve. You could throw it out the pasture if you want to, or you could take good care of it. You can get it repaired and keep for a long time and it can still be of great service.
Sometimes we’re in a throwaway culture that doesn’t think about how can something be salvaged and utilized still, even though it may be older or it may have issues. It can still be of good service. What you’re saying is it’s almost like recycling or it’s like in that vein, how can we still get value here and build the person up to at the same time is what I hear you talking about.
I think it builds loyalty. I think it builds trust in the organization. People talk a lot about the great resignation post-COVID. They talk a lot about how the younger generation doesn’t have the same loyalty to organizations now. A lot of the reason that they don’t is because organizations don’t have the same loyalty to them. As you said, we have a throwaway culture now. If something isn’t working, we don’t expend the energy to fix it. We just say, “We’re going to get something new.”
When it comes to people, if someone wants to be successful and they have the aptitude, that is all a good leader needs. If you can take someone and give them the hard skills, you can take someone and teach them what they need. You can mentor them, you can refine their communication style, but you cannot create ambition within a person. If you have someone with good raw materials that’s not even empathetic leadership. It’s just common sense. You want to try to foster and give them an environment in which they can thrive because it helps the bottom line in the organization.
Here’s something here that makes me think about the partnership between the leader and the employee. In this sense, the employee is bringing some skills and abilities, obviously, as you’re saying, they learn on the job as well, they can be taught some things. However, there’s that motivation part where you said most people want to do well, they want to do a good job. The people you’re investing in this way, they at least have that as the core or the nucleus of their motivation. You can build around it is what I’m hearing you say. This empathy thing, it works especially if people have some internal motivation and they’re willing to do their part of whatever the fix is to get to a different place.
It is certainly a two-way street. People do have to realize that they have an obligation to themselves to better themselves, to seek out mentorship, and to grow. Not everyone is cut out for a traditional business role. That’s fine. It takes all kinds but for those who are interested and who are willing to put in that work and are willing to have those conversations around what they need without fear, which usually takes an environment where they can feel that way.
They are the ones who you want to reinvest in and make sure that you’re growing because they’re going to be the ones that will stay with your organization the longest and be the most successful. The organization I’m running now, CyberCore, we have great success with an internship program that has taken people from helping out in the IT room all the way through into software and systems engineering, where in ten years they’ve completely changed the trajectory of their career and we’ve created a program to do so. Those kinds of things are what make companies successful these days.
CyberCore’s Mission And Client Services
I love the fact that you are sharing ways that you’re building into people. You’re talking about CyberCore. Let’s deviate just a little bit. We want to talk about CyberCore for a minute and then I want to come back to some of the people things. What does your company do? Who are your clients in the sense of who do you help? How do you serve them? Tell us a little bit about cyber security.
CyberCore is a government contractor. Our primary customer is the intelligence community of the United States. A lot of the three-letter agencies. We do cyber security, infrastructure security, and supply chain security for those customers. Essentially purchasing, safeguarding the IT infrastructure, the systems that do some really cool and interesting things in the national interest safeguarding our nation’s security.
AI Challenges In Cybersecurity And Practical Cybersecurity Tips
When we think about cyber security, one of the big issues nowadays is this whole thing about artificial intelligence, AI. Recently in the news, there have been some videos that came out that were fake and that were false and given a message that those real individuals would not have wanted to put out there. Talk to us a little bit about what some of the challenges are that are new or front and center in cyberspace particularly as it relates to AI.
I think that the internet is a wonderful thing, but it’s also somewhat of a dangerous thing. Our adversaries overseas, people who want to do harm to the U.S. and really in any country, anyone’s adversaries, they look at the internet as a battleground, as a way to leverage information to sow dissent, to cause division, to push their end game forward.
AI has allowed for a lot of disinformation that would have been significantly more manpower intensive twenty years ago. To fake a video of that quality would have taken a team of individuals quite a long time. Now it’s pretty much a push of a button. I think one of the challenges we’re going to face as video and photo technology advances and artificial intelligence advances in writing and citing sources, verifying factual information is going to be really key.
I have said for a long time, don’t trust anything you read on the internet. Never have truer words been spoken than right now. This is one of the most dangerous times for information. I’m sure you see it you read an article and you go, “Is that real? It seems real.” It seems to be written by someone, but it’s entirely possible that all of the sources are created artificially. There’s no verification or validation of information. It is definitely something that we have to be very vigilant about as we move forward and keep ourselves informed.
Thank you for sharing that information. Maybe share a couple of strategies that people can use to keep safe in a cyber sense. You mentioned about verifying information. Maybe give some examples. How can they verify information? What are 1 or 2 other things they can do that would make a difference?
Some of it is obvious that never open an email from someone that you don’t know. Never even answer a phone call from someone that you don’t know. Make sure that your voicemail is set up that doesn’t give out your full name. You want to try to restrict the information that you have out in the world as much as possible. You don’t put personal identifying information out onto social media. I don’t allow connections from anyone who you do not know on social media.
There are somewhat common-sense solutions. The more nuanced ones are more complicated. There are a number of organizations out there that can safeguard your computer equipment with antivirus software and anti-spam software, but where people tend to fall into the trap more often than not is in that human-to-human communication to get you on the phone and they have this much information about you. You certainly start to feel comfortable and then all of a sudden you give them more and they have what they need to steal your identity.
They sent you an email and the name of it is a very good friend of yours, but the actual email address itself is spoofed from overseas and they’re trying to get information from you. I would just say when it comes to communication and anything that you are reading online, just take the extra step to verify. If you’re reading something that seems odd, look for other sources that are reputable, that you can trust, whatever your personal, if you’re a New York Times reader or a post reader, whatever, verify that information before you take it as truth.
Those are very good tips. I already heard a thing or two that I can change. Thank you for that information. One of the things I’ve noticed is that those who are sending the fake emails, they’ve gotten better at it than what used to be the case. In the past, it was so easy to spot them. They weren’t written very well, and there were all kinds of other telltale signs. Now you have to really be careful in order to detect that there is a fraudulent email in the inbox. Thank you for reminding us.
Especially as a government contractor, we are targeted quite often for cyber attacks. We’re certainly targeted from a lot of phishing scams as well. The most recent thing I’ve seen is a lot of Adobe e-signature documents that look very real. They look like they come from your auditor or from your CFO. You have to be very vigilant about those links because, as you said, they’re much more creative these days. With artificial intelligence, the writing is now much more cogent because it has much more to pull from. It is not people whose English is not their first language, crafting these. It’s getting harder and harder to tell them apart from real legitimate emails.
Achieving Profitability Through Cost Reduction
Thank you, Neal, for keeping us all safe and what you do every day, and even what you just shared right now. I want to take a step back and go back to this whole notion of business people, business executives especially, really do care about profitability and business results and so do you. You’ve had some stellar results and I really want to unpack a few of those. One of the things I mentioned earlier is that you restructured and reduced overhead by 2.5 million. Tell us how you did that.
When I took over as CEO of Cybercore two years ago, we had experienced quite a lot of challenging times during COVID as most organizations did. It was really time for a full restructuring and reorg. Personally, my least favorite part of my job is anything to do with personnel reductions. We looked at tools, efficiencies, and redundancies. Are there individuals within the organization that if they had a new toolkit, could take on additional responsibility?
What we ended up doing was taking individuals who were overhead, and shifting them into revenue-generating positions where possible. You get that twofold of you cut your overhead costs and you increase your revenue on the back end. That really took understanding where people were and what they were willing to do and then working with them to find more efficient solutions to challenges that they were facing.
What I love about that is you didn’t just take the easy answer like so many companies do. Let’s just chop this many people, this many heads, so to speak. You’ve looked a little more deeply at where could people be redeployed. How could they be adding value to the company, which probably took a little more time? Yet at the same time, you are preserving talent and you’re using that talent in a profound way and increasing, as you said earlier, the loyalty of those personnel because they certainly know they could have been cut or they could have been chopped instead.
It took a good year, I would say, which is a little bit longer than I think most people like to take. I felt that thorough analysis, division by division, was really important. Now, don’t get me wrong, we did end up doing some layoffs as part and parcel with the reorganization, but those were very informed. They were not siloed decisions based solely on financials. We took the cultural impacts into account.
We took potential problem-solving issues into account. We took people’s personal situations into account to some degree. As a result, even though we did conduct a series of layoffs, we had no turnover as a result of it from people tend to get scared after layoffs and they move on. We didn’t experience that. I feel like our culture is stronger than it’s ever been. Our revenue continues to go up quarter after quarter.
I think the easy thing to do is to come into an organization and look at, “Purely by the numbers. Here’s the revenue. Here’s the cost. Here’s what we can eviscerate.” I’ve had consultants come in and make those recommendations. In a vacuum, yes, the next day, you go from not profitable to profitable. Six months later, a year later, your corporate team is left. Your customers are unhappy and you’re experiencing a significant amount of brain drain because you didn’t do it the right way. I think that sometimes going slower and making those more deliberate decisions are really important.
It increases and engenders the trust of your people in you. If they see you just come in with a hatchet and chop overnight and nobody understands that, that’s frightening. As you said, people will be less loyal in that situation. When they see you be careful and deliberate and make wise choices and really consider options, which engenders a greater sense of loyalty rather than the fear of I could be next tomorrow. I think transparency is also very key there.
We created a leadership team within the organization and employee-led culture committees that were empowered to make real change within the organization. We walked people through our thought process when it came to the changes that we were making. There are some things, obviously, that have to be held behind closed doors. Where we could, we shared that information, both from a solicitation of creative ways to problem solve, but also so that people knew where we were coming from and knew that we didn’t make the decisions lightly.
There was a thought process behind it, we did it for a reason, and they could see what the end game is. Often, you are in a situation where you are part of an organization, but you don’t know how you’re contributing, aside from this much of the value that you bring. When you are all driving in the same direction, it’s much easier to feel that connection, and then want naturally to stay longer and work harder.
I think that sharing the information you could share also addresses fear in an organization. When people don’t know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, how you’re doing it, and they don’t have enough information, fear increases. Of course, we already talked about trust being eroded. As that happens, they start making up their own answers for what’s going on and 9 times out of 10, those made-up answers are worse than the reality of what’s going on.
That is absolutely true. Fear thrives in darkness and the only way to really do anything about it is to bring all of it into the light. We had a situation somewhat recently. It was a cow evocative of different situations. A lot of the executive leaders had PTO at the same time. We also had a couple of new contract wins. We were not as accessible for a period of about two weeks and at the end of those two weeks we had a pretty big customer come through and walk the building and because there was a shift in our behavioral pattern, even though it was slight, all of a sudden there were these conversations around, “The company’s being acquired. Something’s up. There’s something new.”
We realized we have to be very cognizant of what we’re doing, how we’re talking, what we’re communicating. We cannot really take a couple of weeks and just do things differently. We have to be consistent because when we don’t, people start to get a little concerned. It was really instructive for us to understand the power of that transparent communication.
Scaling And Retaining Talent: Neal’s Business Results
The predictability, because if you start acting different, then they think something different is going on even if it isn’t. Very powerful concepts. You also had some other business results to Neal about tripling headcount and revenue in the two-year period of time, and you also reduced attrition from 35% to 8% in the year. That was a pretty remarkable kind of result. Share more with us about how you did some of those other pieces as well.
Those were, I think actually when I came on board CyberCore, initially I was the head of talent acquisition. My background is in recruiting and talent acquisition. We created a career path. I think we called it compass basically setting your own direction. We set up certification incentive plans, the education reimbursement programs. An internal lab where people could come and play around with technology that they hadn’t experienced before to get hands-on exposure to how things work.
We then looked at our benefits and compensation plans and said, “They need a refresh.” Hired a few individuals to come in as employee liaisons and program managers whose focus was mobility within the organization and then growing individuals. We’ve really tried to make this a place where, like 40 years ago, when you could go to a company, you could work there for 30 to 40 years and retire from it with all of these new skills and experience.
We really wanted to make it a company where you could do different things at and experience the full breadth of cybersecurity. As a result, yes, we were able to hire over 100. We had about when I started with maybe 160 people, we grew to 300 in about two years. As a result of our services business growing, we tripled that revenue and we went from close to 40% at one point attrition all the way down to single-digit attrition.
That is truly amazing because you made your workplace interesting for the employees where they could continue to grow and develop. They weren’t going to be doing the same thing all the time every day. They didn’t have to move to another company because, within the company, they had an opportunity. I think that’s brilliant. More people probably should do more of that in order to have success.
I agree. I think we have this tendency when someone’s really good at their job, we don’t want them to go anywhere because they’re so good. How are we going to replace that person? How are we going to find somebody who can do what they do? They’re going to get bored. We’re humans. We need stimulation. We need new things. They’re going to move on. It’s more risky to an organization to lose someone talented than to promote or move someone talented. It also costs us more money to hire than it does to retain. From a purely numbers standpoint, it makes sense to reinvest in your employees because they are what’s driving your customer satisfaction and they are what’s driving your profit.
Engaging Younger Leaders In The Workplace
That is the truth. This is reminding me of another area where I know you have expertise and that is in really engaging the younger people in the organization, the millennials, the ones who are going to be the leaders replacing the baby boomers and others sometime soon. What have you learned about engaging those younger leaders in the workplace? What has worked? Think about what other companies aren’t doing that makes a difference.
Something that I’ve realized, millennials and especially Gen Z and the newer generations that are entering the workplace have experienced somewhat of an unprecedented level of access to other people. All of this social media, TikTok, and all of that. They have the ability to be heard by hundreds if not thousands of people on a daily basis. There’s an expectation that they be heard but when I was growing up, children were to be seen and not heard. Now kids today and young adults today have a very different perspective. I think there’s some pushback from older generations about you’ve got to earn your place in the organization.
You have to earn your voice. Those are still valid but there’s also no harm in opening the aperture to new ideas and experiences from someone who is entering the workforce or a younger leader. Give people the opportunity to have their voices heard. Give them the opportunity to contribute. Help them understand and give them boundaries so that they can be successful but don’t say, “Be quiet and color for six years,” and then you can start to have an opinion. The world has changed a little bit. They’re very used to being heard. I think we can foster that. We can boundary it, but we can foster it.
I think it’s so huge. I’m thinking now this is a long time ago, but many years ago when I was on active duty in the army and one of my assignments was with the cadets at West Point. In the summer, we ran a mental health operation for a cadet basic training and I had first-class cadets in essence by direct reports. Now the way offices led at the time would be simply to just tell them what to do and that was it. I said, “Look, these guys are about to graduate out of the academy. They’re going to be leading people in real life and they need to exercise their brains and thinking through tough decisions because we have very tough decisions every day.”
In our morning case conference meeting every day, I would solicit. “What would you do here? How would you handle this?” While I’m there to be the mentor and also help them see what they wouldn’t see, they’re also stretching their brains and learning how to analyze and make tough decisions as leaders. If you don’t practice, then you’re not going to be good when you first get out there and you could have been practicing under safer conditions. I think it’s important.
It’s teaching critical reasoning and critical thinking skills. It’s helping to expand their confidence, which is incredibly important. The reality with the exception of the military or organizations that are doing active health care, there’s not a lot of risk in letting someone fail. Obviously, in certain organizations, there is some risk. In most businesses, failure is not a terrible thing, especially if it’s a boundary. I think back to when I was young in my recruiting career, I had a lot of ideas about what would work. I learned over time what did and what didn’t. I see young recruiters coming in with a lot of similar ideas to what I had when I was younger and my inclination is to shortcut it and tell them, “Here’s why that’s not going to work.”
Sometimes if there’s a cost investment that’s what I’m going to do because I’m not going to spend the money but if there’s no cost investment or there’s not a lot of risks, I’m going to let them find out on their own and then help build them up afterwards and reinforce that I did the exact same thing. The reason I got that question was, “Why did you let me do it?” “First of all, it’s been twenty years since I was a recruiter. Things might’ve changed. Second of all, that’s how I learned. That’s how I got to where I am is because I fell on my face and then I got back up.”
That’s really important. Really being willing to let people learn from mistakes because it’s all part of the process along the way. I also think we can help them by asking some really good questions that are open-ended and it’s based on the experiences and knowledge that we have. Questions they may not have thought about and we might say, “What are your plans or what would you do if in implementing this X, Y, and Z happens?” At least they’re thinking about it and they’re coming up with a pathway forward if X, Y, and Z happens. They might not have even considered that X, Y, or Z could happen. I think that’s an excellent way to go to.
There’s no harm in listening to someone’s suggestion or opinion. Even if they’re not right, that’s okay. You have then an opportunity to have an educational conversation around why it won’t work. If you’re a transparent leader, it gives you teaching opportunities every single day but it takes maybe two minutes to lend an ear. The trust that you build with that person when they see that you are trying to help them and that you’re really giving them a chance to express themselves, it’s enormous.
It’s why a lot of companies are having significant attrition issues with millennials and Gen Zers is because they’re applying archaic business practices that they’re just not tolerating. There’s a lot of opportunity out there. We need talented workers. We need to grow them. We need to advance their careers because we’re not going to be around forever. We need to be able to pass the torch to a generation that has critical thinking skills, that has critical reasoning skills, and can do what we do because that’s the legacy that we should leave behind.
Anything else about the millennials or the Gen Zers or younger generation you haven’t mentioned yet that you think other executives really need to think about?
I think the only other thing I would say is I hear a lot of these younger generations have a lot of entitlement issues. They think they deserve something. I would challenge executives, because it’s something I go through myself, to ask yourself why you think you didn’t deserve that when you were younger. Looking back, you probably did. You probably did deserve a voice at the table. You probably did deserve fair and equitable wages. You probably did deserve a second chance if you made a mistake.
Just because we were brought up in certain environments, just because we were taught a certain way, doesn’t necessarily mean it was right. Now I will caveat that with, yes, sometimes there are entitlement issues and sometimes that can be frustrating. I’m not invalidating that, but I would just challenge people to be a little bit more open because I think there are things that we can learn from this generation. Their connectivity and their knowledge of how other people and other organizations do things have given them a wider worldview than we had at their age.
The Power Of Diversity In The Success Of Organizations
That’s great. I’m so glad you talked about that. Neal, I also know that you are very committed to diversity and to the power of diversity in the success of organizations. When you came to your company, you had an executive team of six white males. Tell us what you did to transform that team and what’s been the result.
I will say it was made up of men and women, but yes, it was. We were all, all Whites. First, as part of the reorganization, we reduced our executive team, but then we eliminated it. Instead, I opened it up to a leadership team that I think is more representative of the world at large. Men, women, and people of different ethnicities, backgrounds, and socioeconomic classes. Personally, I want to see the organization that I work for represent the world around me.
People of different races, colors, genders. It’s important to me that the company is more reflective of my worldview. I’m also really interested in diversity of thought. People who are raised differently, who think differently, who problem solve differently, because that really lends to creative solutions to problems that organizations miss out on when they homogenize their culture. People talk about fitting into an organization’s culture and I would challenge people to look for individuals that expand your organization’s culture.
From what I’m hearing, making the team broader and more diverse, it’s actually led to some unique thinking and the ability to solve tougher challenges is what I’m hearing.
I will say that I think people who are part of marginalized groups have had to work harder and work differently in front of obstacles that people who look like me do not have. Whether people agree with that or not, I think it’s inarguable that they have to approach things differently. That gives you a different set of tools for solving a problem. That is critical to an organization. You need to be able to attack something from all sides. If you have 5 or 6 people who are all coming from the exact same background, you’re only going to have one solution to that problem.
Neal’s Book: The E-Suite And Its Leadership Insights
That’s just well-stated and well-said. I know your company has the profitability results to talk about the value of becoming more diverse in today’s world. Neal, tell us a little bit about your book, The E-Suite, Empathetic Leadership for the New Generation of Executives. What’s in there that we haven’t talked about yet, let’s say, and who did you write it for? If somebody reads it, what are they going to get out of it?
It is a labor of love between myself and a coworker, a previous boss of mine, Tina Kuhn, who’s my co-author. We wrote it because we realized that while we had very different approaches to problem-solving, they were both rooted in this people-first empathetic leadership. In the book are practical solutions to commonplace business problems, everything from tactical issues of how do you recruit and retain? How do you sell? How do you market, and all wrapped up in that people-based empathetic leadership approach?
There’s also how do you transformationally change an organization but maintain some level of sanity during it. How do you make sure that your team stays on board? How do you manage difficult people? How do you have confrontational conversations while still maintaining everyone’s dignity and making sure that you are communicating effectively, knowing as much as you can by leveraging that empathy? There are a lot of really practical frontline solutions. I would say it’s for anyone who wants to learn how to connect more deeply with their employees to make a positive change. Anybody who wants to connect more with their customers and anybody who wants their companies to experience revenue growth.
That’s a lot of people.
Exactly.
That sounds like a great book. How can people find out more about you and get the book?
The book is available on Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. The website is TheESuite.com. Me personally, I’m on Instagram @TheAnxiousCEOOne. I use that moniker because I talk a lot about mental health. I’m an anxious person and on Medium @Neal.Frick, where I write more short-form articles about mental health and leadership, business ethics and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Final Words Of Wisdom For Corporate Executives
You have quite an influence on a wide swath of subjects that you are covering. I’m glad you’re sharing that with people so that they can go to those sites and learn more. Neal, what additional words of wisdom do you want to leave for my community of corporate executives? Maybe something you haven’t said just yet.
I would say that it takes less time than you think and it takes no money to have a conversation with someone and understand where they’re coming from. It really is not that difficult to operate empathetically. Although people think of it as a softer skill. There is real evidence around the power of it in growing your business. The first thing that you have to do is you have to put your ego aside because you’re going to have to have conversations with people who have different viewpoints than you do, who think differently, who approach things differently, who have different opinions.
If you allow them, they’re going to challenge you. That will help you grow as a leader, it’ll help them grow as an employee, it’ll set them up for leadership. Depending on the industry that you work in, businesses tend to be a very ego-focused area because it’s very about what I can contribute. As your leader, it’s about how I can change an organization. Open that aperture, let more people in, grow your community, diversify your community, and you will see results.
That’s wonderful guidance. What it reminds me of is the two-way process of learning. Just because you may be the executive doesn’t mean you cannot learn from the millennial or the Gen Z or whoever else is in the workplace. I think if everyone has that learner’s mind and attitude, the company is going to grow and be more successful rather than to think it’s just a one-way street. It’s in both directions is really what you’re talking about, Neal.
Absolutely. I am a firm believer that no one is an expert. They say 10,000 hours and anything makes you an expert. I don’t believe that. If you are truly an expert and you have nothing left to learn, then in my opinion, move on to something new because if you’re not learning, what are you doing? There’s always, especially when it comes to our businesses, as the world evolves, we have to evolve. Listen to someone who is maybe not someone that you would typically take advice from. If it doesn’t resonate, throw it away, but give someone the opportunity in the same way that you are trying to teach and mentor, give them an opportunity to teach you something as well.
Thank you so much, Neal. Thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing so much wisdom that’s practical and that people can use today and really marrying empathy with the profitability of the company because they do both go together.
Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. I enjoyed our conversation.
Leadership Wisdom From First Kings
Me too. Thank you again. To everyone out there in our conversation with some scriptures that come from First Kings, the 12th chapter. This is the situation where a rare poem who was the son of King Solomon is now taken over as King because his father has died. He has an opportunity to lead the Northern tribes as well as the Southern tribes if he makes the right empathetic choice. What we’re going to read is what really happened, what he decided, and a little bit about what happened. In First Kings, the 12th chapter, and it starts off by saying, “And Rehoboam went to Shechem for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him King.”
It happened when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat heard it, he was still in Egypt for he had fled from the presence of King Solomon and had been dwelling in Egypt. Keep in mind. Jeroboam is the de facto leader of the northern tribes, but he’s in exile in Egypt until Solomon dies. Now that he hears a Rehoboam, Solomon’s son in place, he comes back on the scene. Here’s where we picked that up and then he says, “That they sent and called him then Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam saying your father made our yoke heavy.
Now, therefore, lighten the burdensome service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.” He said to them, depart for three days, then come back to me, and the people departed. King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived and he said, “How do you advise me to answer these people?” They spoke to him, saying, “If you will be a servant to these people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.”
He rejected the advice which the elders had given him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him who stood before him, and he said to them, “What advice do you give? How should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, lighten the yoke which your father put on us?” The young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you should speak to these people who have spoken to you saying your father made our yoke heavy but you make it lighter on us.”
That’s you say to them, “My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s waist.” Now whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges. Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had directed saying, “Come back to me the third day.” The king answered the people roughly and rejected the advice which the elders had given him.
He spoke to them according to the advice of the young men saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges.” Now you can read the rest of this, but what do you think those people did? The people from the Northern kingdom ran away and said, “Forget it. We’re not serving you.” At that time, Rehoboam ended up being only in charge of the house of David and the Southern part of the kingdom. He lost the ten Northern tribes.
This choice of whether you choose empathetic leadership or harsh scourge leadership makes a difference in terms of the success of your organization, the success in this case of the kingdom that Rehoboam was in charge of. I think that Neal has done a great job of sharing with us the business benefit of empathy and how it leads to loyal employees and increases trust in the organization and profitability. The choice is yours. Decide for empathy and the success of your people and your company. See you next time.
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Combating Loneliness And Depression: Dr. Clarence Shuler’s Insights
In some parts of the world, including the United States, loneliness, depression, and suicide are at an all-time high. With me is Dr. Clarence Shuler, President and CEO of Building Lasting Relationships. He personally experienced a bout of depression. Dr. Shuler, tell us a little bit about what you learned in your experience and what resources you have available for us.
Mental health is a really big thing in America today like you said, and African American men are the number one depressed group in America. I think men in general would come into that. When I went through my depression, it was really a thing about ideology. I hate to say that, but I was trying to validate myself by how much money I made or my success. I was fortunate enough to have a Christian counselor, Dr. Monique Gadsden who helped me work through that.
Now I’m managing my depression more effectively. One of the resources that we have is our book, Finding Hope in a Dark Place: Facing Loneliness, Depression, and Anxiety with the Power of Grace. I hope you will use it as a resource just to see where you are emotionally. It’s not a sin to be depressed. I just want to encourage you and give you hope that your depression can be coming into control.
Wonderful. Thank you so much, Dr. Shuler. What I want everyone to know, as he already said, this is a book that was co-written with his counselor. It is the real deal. If you want to know more about the book or more about services that are available to deal with depression and loneliness, go to Dr.ClarenceShuler.com.
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The Mission For Family Discipleship At Victorious Family
I’m here with Terence Chatmon, who is the president and CEO of the non-profit organization Victorious Family. They are committed to family discipleship and transformation. Thank you for being here, Terence. Tell us about your big goal. What it is that you’re going for at Victorious Family.
By 2030, we see reaching 9.2 million families here in the U.S.
That is wonderful. You’re reaching these families because you really want to see children grow up and truly continue their faith in Christ. Tell us about one of your resources. Do your children believe the book you’ve written?
Ephesians 6:4 says, “Fathers don’t exasperate your children, but to bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” We’re just being faithful to that calling. In order to do that, we train coaches and we provide workshops and content to train parents on how to discipline their children.
That is phenomenal. How can people find out more about the ministry and the other tools and resources you have available and also how they can donate to support the ministry?
There you have it. You want your family to be victorious? Go to VictoriousFamily.org.
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Spirit Wings Kids Foundation’s Global Impact And Permaculture Farm
This is Dr. Karen here, and I want to share some important insights with you about Spirit Wings Kids Foundation, a 501c3 organization that’s doing wonders across the globe and especially in Uganda. I have with me Donna Johnson, who’s the founder of Spirit Wings Kids and a member of the board. She’s going to tell us about the permaculture farm that they have started. Donna, tell us all about it.
Thank you, Dr. Karen. For decades, we’ve been supporting the orphanage and family network in Uganda. In 2018, my son is a permaculturist, and we had acres that we dedicated to his planting. It was just amazing. He also taught them how to do permaculture. It’s flourishing. In fact, during the pandemic, it saved lives. 203 families were fed during the pandemic. It’s such a miracle that God just called us to plant that garden at the time that we did.
Thank you so much, Donna. Thank you so much for your work in Uganda. A couple of other things I want people to know, as a permaculture farm is self-contained in many ways, depending on how they’re growing the crops. You don’t have to use pest control. You don’t need fertilizer. It’s a very sustainable way to provide food for the community. That’s a blessing. If you want to be a part of this wonderful work out there, 100% of all of your donations goes to the people in Uganda to help feed them and their families. Go to SWKids.Foundation and give, make a difference in the world. Thank you for doing so.
Dr. Karen, the President and CEO of TRANSLEADERSHIP, INC. celebrates the 29th birthday of her company with a new painting by Cheltenham, UK-based artist, Louis Parsons. They take you behind the scenes to experience the collaborative process to co-create a commissioned art piece through Parsons’ unique SoulScaping approach.
Through his talks, workshops, and art, Parsons unlocks the emerging art movement he terms “The Soul Renaissance and our ability to see the unique symphony of light that resides inside all of us. He brings simplicity and clarity to empower his audience to find greater energy in their lives.
Louis’ art commissions reside all over the world including with celebrities, world-class surfing athletes, and leading-edge philosophers such as Karren Brady, Tom Curren, and Ken Wilber, and now also with TRANSLEADERSHIP, INC. For the last nine years, he has been the Guest Artist for The Four Seasons, Kuda Huraa, Maldives, and Four Seasons Serengeti. One of his favorite achievements is having one of his artwork pieces auctioned for charity, raising £120,000.
Louis seeks inspiration from all the color and vibrancy in the waves when he surfs and scuba dives. Join Louis and Dr. Karen as they talk about how a corporate painting can clarify and reinforce corporate values and culture.
Write to Dr.Karen@transleadership.com to Name the painting and choose your favorite orientation: Vertical or Horizontal.
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Listen to the podcast here
Corporate Painting Reveal With Louis Parsons On TRANSLEADERSHIP’s 29th Birthday [Episode 470]
This is Dr. Karen Wilson-Starks, President and CEO ofTRANSLEADERSHIP, Inc., and your host for the show and forDr. Karen Speaks Leadership. My company Transleadership, Inc., turned 29 years old on the first of April. As part of the birthday celebration, I’m unveiling a new artwork specifically and especially designed commissioned and painted for Transleadership, Inc. by UK-based artists and prior Voice of Leadership guest,Louis Parsons. I am delighted to have Louis here to celebrate the Transleadership birthday with me.
Louis Parsons uses the power of art to inspire people and organizations to co-create a world of deeper harmony and success. He passionately believes there is an emerging movement which he terms, the Soul Renaissance. Through his talks, workshops, and art, Parsons unlocks our ability to see the unique symphony of light that resides inside all of us. He brings simplicity and clarity to empower his audience to find greater energy in their lives.
Louis’s art commissions can be found all over the world, including with celebrities, world-class surfing athletes, and leading-edge philosophers, such as Karen Brady, Tom Curran, and Ken Wilber and now also with Transleadership, Inc. For the last nine years or so, he has been the guest artists for Four Seasons, Kuda Haraa, Maldives, and Four Seasons Serengeti, where he’s still active at.
One of his favorite achievements is having one of his artwork pieces auctioned for charity raising £120,000. When he isn’t painting, Louis loves to surf and scuba dive seeking inspiration from all the color and vibrancy of the ways. He lives in Cheltenham, UK, at the foot of the Cotswolds Hills with his beautiful wife and family. Louis, welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for celebrating the 29th birthday of Transleadership with me.
Thanks, Karen. It’s great to be here and it’s great to see you color coding yourself with the soul scape that we created.
Undergoing Soul Scaping When Creating Art
It is Amazing. I love that. We are coordinated and aligned. Maybe we’ll put it that way. Louis, what I’m hoping we do is we’re going to take our guests backstage so that they get to hear how we created this art piece together and also get to learn a little bit about the meaning of it, what it means and they can also add their two cents worth and we’ll go over that in a little bit. First, I know that when you’re creating art, you go through the soul scaping process with your guests and you went through that with me. Let’s remind people about the definition of soul scaping and then, let’s talk about what you did with me in terms of soul scaping.
Thank you. The first step, only ever know the first question I’m going to ask, which is, imagine you have the perfect work of art and it lights you up. What would you want to experience in that painting? That can either be with reference to an individual, a couple, a family, or some moment in nature or life. It can be the soul of an organization or an company. I start with that question and then I never know what the next question is until that person’s responded.
Often there’s like a couple of intuitions that come out. At first, you might feel like we don’t know the answer to that question, but it’s amazing to me how much there is inside this and just how much a single question can unlock that power or potential in us. From that place, I will then create a small oil pastel and acrylic piece which reflects back what the essence of that person has shared. That’s the first hit. It’s like a soul impression, if you like.
It’s the impression that I got while someone was sharing. I’m intuitive and I’m tuned in and what I want to do is pay attention to you, to the space between us, and what’s coming up in me. I see that in terms of color and light as someone who’s speaking. It’s not necessarily about the words that someone says. It’s something about their presence or the presence of what they’re sharing and the colors and patterns that come through that.
I honestly don’t know how or what happens. Sometimes, I think I know and then something happens. I have no idea what’s happened. I just enjoyed that it does. I’m very happy for that gift and then the stage beyond that, assuming you completely love the first soul impression, which you did. I, then end up creating it as an oil on canvas piece. Any size. It can be on the smaller end of the spectrum or far larger, depending on what’s required, what’s required of you, at the space, and where you want to travel to. Sometimes, a larger piece can help you travel in different ways and sometimes a more intimate piece can be quite nice and very personal. That’s all the process in a nutshell.
Basking In God’s Heavenly Presence
Thank you, Louis. Let me share something. As you’ve been talking about that question about imagining that the artwork has already existed and what would my experience be. I’d like to share the words I said to you. I said words like inspiration, attraction, transformation, hope, power, energy, calling, enthusiasm, and possibility. Those were my words and what I was thinking about, Louis, and for those who are reading, I was thinking about the fact that in the work that I do, which is based on transformation. The company’s name stands for leadership transformation and it’s based on the Bible verse 12:2 which talks about, “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”
I wanted to have a painting that captured this process of God coming in with a heavenly light. That’s important because I’m working out of a Christian mindset and frame of reference. We know that when God created the world, it was in total darkness and then he’s the one that brought the light in. The light to me just reminds me of a heavenly presence. That’s what I was thinking about and I wanted to have the world lit up by God’s heavenly presence.
It’s amazing hearing you say again the words and what those words mean to you then to look across to the painting behind you. It’s interesting. At this stage, it almost feels as though someone else’s created it. I often feel like these artworks are created through me I suppose. As I look at that, I can see some of the words. For example, the light and the inspiration. I’m almost reminded of that quality of the light coming down through water and the water can often represent the mind.
It can represent that realm of fluid being that we relate to that thought. Some parts of that mind can be darkened. It can be in dark places. Sometimes, the deeper we go, there can be darkened areas and places that we weren’t aware that need to be brought to the light. To see that life, you’re like piercing that water or not even piercing but sometimes just gently emanating into that water and revealing those depths.
That in itself is something of a transformative experience. Who hasn’t been transformed in some small way when you dive into emotional or a river? Let alone when someone’s presence or someone’s words or maybe even just a coaching phrase or something unlocked. Something within you. Many of us can relate to that experience.
In my case, I was thinking more of a celestial thing, the heavens and most of like a water scene. I know we talked about that in this sense because often, you will represent the depths of the water with much darker colors. I wanted to have more of a heavenly scape where the colors were a little lighter and a little bit brighter. We know that even a small amount of light chases away the darkness when we’re thinking about from a heavenly perspective or a heaven viewpoint. That was one of the things I was thinking about.
We also talked about what metaphor would this be in the sense. You sometimes paint figures or people or images of people in the painting and I want one that would be more of a metaphor. You could assume some things about the transformation of people without having people in the picture. That was also a part of how we talked about it, what it might look like and what the message that would be conveyed.
In my case, one of the smaller paintings, because of space above me is smaller and I also have what I’ll call a carrying size version of it, so that if I go somewhere and I’m meeting with a client or whatever and if I want to show them this. I can take a small picture with me and we can talk about that as well. I was thinking about a small scape as opposed to, let’s say, if you were in a big huge gigantic office building or museum or someplace like that. That was part of it as well.
The heavens are often associated with the sky, air, heavenly clouds, and light pouring through clouds. There’s a paler almost ozone color associated with that, which we carried across to your piece, which is nice. It brings those realms together to have that very celestial presence. The notion of inspiration as well. That light is like a carrier or it’s a transmission of something imbued with inspiration and light. That’s what words at their best can be. They’re like a frequency that can just transmit something golden from one place to another.
Artwork and music can be like that too when coming from the right intention. It maybe a prayerful intentional. Some other intention but the quality of that, I remember in a delicate trying to translate into the camera, especially in the staining process. You build it up on patterns and layers. Some of the beautiful thing about that is layering the happy accidents that happened that you are not in control of or something beyond you start to take over it. Things happen that are a surprise. A beautiful spontaneous surprise, but that’s also part of inspiration. That’s also part of letting light come in through you, your words and an artwork and crystallize and take the form of something that, hopefully, you would want to share with your client, your organizational or someone else.
It’s interesting you say about the figures because the moment you put a figure in a piece, then it changes the whole dynamic, which can be right and powerful and beautiful to do so. It changes the whole thing into some landscape or seascape or soul scape. The nice thing as well about just having something purely abstract is it opens. Especially if you’re going to use it in the way you’re going to use it, which is asking people how they will personally respond to this.
They can put their own feelings and their own thoughts into that and it’s amazing, the power of an image to unlock what’s inside someone. I’m intrigued as well. Now, it’s been in your space for a while and you’ve had the image with you. I’m just intrigued to know what’s changed or evolved or lit up in you? What’s changed now that those words have become? As many people, we can have a written mission statement and something written down but it’s very different than to have that translated into something like an artwork. I’m intrigued to know what’s changed with you as a result of that.
You may know that every year, I have what I call the word of the year. I think that the painting influenced the word of the year this year because the word I selected was light. I talked about the trifecta of light, how light leads to God’s love and love leads to life and life even in an eternal sense. You’ve got the three Ls, light, love, and life.
The painting is the picture of that. It’s a reminder of what I am doing with clients, which is to accelerate, elevate and impact for them and their work and how their going about things. Many times, my clients are in a situation where things look dark and they don’t see the way through and the way out of it. I want them to be inspired that the light of God is shining on it all the time. We can connect with that and we can go from where we are to a different place. It connects with that picture of light that’s important to me.
That’s amazing you say. I’ve been thinking a lot about light. It’s beyond thinking. You start to experience the notion that everything from the very subtle, from the heart of God and through to all form is made out of light. Various layers of light and various layers of density. To consider that, I like that trifecta. That’s gorgeous. There’s light, love and life all interacting. It’s like they’re all woven together into that light. The love and the life is woven into it. There’s a powerful intelligence in all of that light that has made everything around us and put satellite of inspiration in us. That’s a beautiful thought.
The Power Of Transforming And Transcending
They’re a couple of other words that about that are also important in terms of the work that I’m doing and one of the words is transform. Transform is you’re changing. Something is shifting and then transcend because you’re rising above even some of the Earthly planes of what’s going on. You’re transcending, I would say, getting past the Earth’s atmosphere. The pull and the drag that pulls us back down sometimes.
You transcend through that and once you go through that barrier, then you ascend. When you ascend, the kinds of thoughts that can come to you are the possibilities that we wouldn’t necessarily think of on our own without God showing us a greater possibility than what we can see which is totally in an Earthly space. When you engage in some heavenly light, then you’re going to see and experience greater options because With God, all things are possible and nothing is impossible. As he says, his thoughts and his ways are high above ours. When we’re connected with God, we see what we don’t see if we’re not connected. I see that part transform, transcend, and ascend as well.
That’s beautiful. It’s funny because again, sometimes this happens in our conversations. They sometimes run in parallel to the things that we’ve been previously considering. One of the things that’s been important with my art and for some of my healing processes is the realization that like descends as well. It actively reaches in to touch and surround. In fact, there’s a beautiful and incredible metaphor that was shared with me about how we perceive light. The center of the eye is completely dark.
It’s a theater of darkness, if you like. The only way we’re able to perceive any light is because of that darkness. Even taking that thought a little further, darkness in a sense is very dense light. It’s another quality of light. It’s not even dense. It offer ability to measure. When we look up at the night sky and we see this darkness and we think there’s a vacuum but there’s no vacuum at all. It’s packed or full of intelligence, information, waveforms, and particles. Things that are beyond our way of perceiving and way of seeing.
Something beautiful happens in that process of transformation. When light and darkness connect and they touch one another. It’s like the light gets Earth and becomes even more real. If it was all light all the time, I wonder what would happen to life, where this beautiful synthesis of combination of all of those in a wavelengths of life if you’re together? That just makes me marvel at the design, the creation, the intricacy, the joy, and the astonishing building of any form of light.
The thing is, humans, we have this beautiful way of participating. If you’re like this God-given ability to create this way to bring almost more light into the process. That word transformation can be many things to many people, but the sense of the light touching in and then folding around and changing the darkness. I love that picture very much. The color is the filling in one wavelength between those who opposite. Its surroundings the whole time. We would have no debt perception unless there was shadow a long side the light.
How God’s Light Transforms Our Lives
That’s certainly true in an Earthly sense. What I like about what you said and I’m going to build on it when you were talking about the light of God coming down. That’s very relevant because in a Christian perspective, we don’t have the ability to go from where we are up to God in and of ourselves. In fact, when the people were building the Tower of Babel in the Bible and trying to reach God, he stopped them. It’s like, you can’t reach me and he already knew he was going to reach us by sending Jesus, the Messiah to come down as that ultimate light.
God comes to us so that we can then assess him and then join him. It’s if to say, God becomes our vehicle to go to the heavens where he is and we can’t get there apart from him, so to speak. Some other words that I reflected on later like I mentioned the inspiration attraction, transformation and hope and so on. Later on, I was thinking about this notion of God coming to Earth. I was thinking about heavenly light, celestial light, light piercing the darkness and this notion that the Bible describes where God himself dwells in unapproachable light.
The light in heaven is so bright that there’s no need for a son there because God is the light of heaven. God himself is the on. Now, we have the seasons and the cycles of light and darkness. Our bodies probably need that because we have to rest here in various other things. When we get into the heavenly space and we have our supernatural heavenly bodies, we will be able to handle light all the time. Whereas here, maybe we could do that.
The light of God is going to brighten up the heavens in a way that we haven’t seen before here on Earth just like when Jesus was transfigured on the mountain with his three closest associates with him. The light of his clothing was so bright. There was no color white or light like that even of available on the earth. Even if you had bleached something. As white as it could be or light as it could be. It would pale in comparison to the light that was shining on him and this transfiguration experience. We are the royal priesthood of God and the Darkness has transformed us into not just a royal light, but I even think of royal blue of sorts because we are part of that Kingdom of priests.
I love blue. I tend to create something to say for me. There’s a natural gravitation to the realm of blue. I love all the colors. Don’t get me wrong, but there’s something about the blues of the oceans. It’s just that beautiful viscosity of waters and heavens. It’s interesting because I wonder as well, whether that moment of transfiguration is also, again about the possibility of us having that light inside us whilst being here. In fact, it seems to me and especially using that picture from the book of revelation that heaven seems to descend to earth.
Depending on how you feel about the gospel’s, there’s an amazing phrase that Jesus uses, which is the Kingdom of Heaven or if you like the Kingdom of God stretches out over this Earth, but men can’t see it. There’s something about when you see how he walks and how he operates in these moments, where there’s these incredible wonderful things that he’s so filled with that light that it almost reveals this world of light and it’s possibility of participate with a world of light that’s already here but that we can’t currently see. That excites me.
That excites me as an artist, as a creator, and as someone with imagination. One of the, if you like, the scourges of our time is anxiety, levels of anxiety and worrying depression. That’s partly because we don’t unfold the wings of our imagination into the full possibility of what they’re here for, which is this, if you like, God give him the ability to be able to see, feel, and experience these incredible beautiful realms of light that are in beautiful synchronicity with the world that’s here.
We’re not just waiting on a rock to just pass on to another place. There’s always that promise but part of our participation as artists, speakers, coaches, or whatever it would be, is to bring more and more of that light into this realm and to do anything we can. It’s a lot of flame towards it. Whether it is painting or speaking or loving or looking an eye or touching someone’s hand in a certain way. Those are the sole qualities. Those heavenly qualities that get transmitted from one another when we do that.
The fact that we’ve lost touch, generally speaking. There’s more and more people that are more in touch with this than ever before in certain ways but I’d like to see that network of light and to know that we can be held and supported by it. That light is love. That light is life. It’s an extraordinary revelation and it changes the way you look, feel, and experience everything around us.
That is completely true. In fact, in the language that I would speak, I would describe it as the more we’re in tune with, in touch with and filled with the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the more ability we have to connect with the light that you’re talking about and to experience the divine and the supernatural here on Earth.
I do think that’s a reality. Some people are more connected than others. Some people get to see more that others. As you say, it’s here. We just may not always have as Jesus was saying, sometimes in the Old Testament was saying, “Eyes to see and ears to hear.” All that is around us and that’s giving in the spiritual sense. Those abilities and our ability later. Jesus demonstrated this when he was resurrected from the grave that he was able to do amazing things. He could walk through walls. He could transport himself suddenly for one place to the next.
There is a realm that we are not as in touch with, most of us, every day. Some of it is possible now, and they’ll be even greater possibilities later because we don’t even have the bodies that can handle all that God can do and manifest until later. We’re going deep with all this stuff. I’m going to share something. It’s in the form of a course to a song because I remember in childhood, we used to sing the song in church.
I’m just going to sing a little bit of it just to get into the vibe of it. It went something like, “Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Hallelujah. Singing His praises. Jesus is mine.” That song was written in 1899. It’s an old one, but we used to sing that. When I think about the painting, I was thinking to day. When I woke up, I was thinking about heavenly sunlight and that song came to mind. That’s just the chorus of it but it has a number of different verses and so on, just to remember that we have access to God’s heavenly sunlight. It’s just beautiful thought to me.
That’s beautiful. You’ve got a beautiful voice.
Diving Deep Into Louis’ Painting
Thank you. Anyway, as we’re thinking about this and one thing I haven’t done, Louis. I have not named the painting. I haven’t named it yet or given it a name. We know that it’s about transformation being transformed. It’s about the light and reflecting the light in God’s light. I want people who are reading to write in and write to me and let me know, what do they think the name of this painting should be in light of everything that we’ve been talking about? It can have a number of different names.
I also want people to think about the orientation of the painting. We’ve got a picture of the painting and it’s a little bit easier to see because we’ve got it on the screen. When you look at the painting this way, you can see that the light is pouring in, if you will from heaven. You see the deep strands of gold that are coming down. One of the pictures in my mind that I see, I don’t know if you remember these or if you’ve ever even been to them. They are these old homes owned by ancient millionaires from the United States.
They have these houses off in New England up in Rhode Island, and other places. Europe has a lot of buildings like this too where the ceiling inside the building is painted in this heavenly color. You’ll see little angels and cherubs and all that built in. You’ll see the different shades of the yellow, the gold, clouds, and sky. Often, you’ll see that in like a dome to build building right above and the ceiling is made that way.
When I think about these colors and the way it’s shining, that’s one of the images that comes to mind when I look at the painting. This is the primary orientation of it. This is the way in which you painted it, Louis. Maybe you might just share a little bit about what you were thinking about when you painted at this way. I know it’s based on everything we were talking about in the soul scape experience. Maybe share your insights.
Again, it’s just that little of the descending light. I wanted to have a certain orientation almost look like you were following the light in a dance. You’ll looking in and downward as you following it from the top right down to the left but it’s almost folding in a little bit to the center.
You and I discovered together that the painting also could have a horizontal orientation where the light is coming in from the left side. In a minute or so, we’re going to change the views so people can see the painting in the horizontal format. Louis and I are talking about this painting in vertical and horizontal. Some of you normally read this show, this might be a day, you might want to watch the show onYouTube or possibly on Raven International Television, so that you can see what we’re seeing.
If you are connected to us by email or on social media, we will include the visual as well so that you can follow along with what we’re saying. Now, we can see from a horizontal view. The light is coming from the top left and coming down into the earth realm. This is a powerful view of the painting as well. I thank you, Louis, because you gave me options. I could hang it in both directions if I want because we were looking at it in both directions and we liked it in both directions. What else emerge for you when you saw the horizontal version?
I feel as though, you can see the curvature of the earth and you’re zooming and finding into it like from the light to some delicate horizon at an angle. I could because I’ve been watching a lot of Sci-Fi. I love the qualities of light that comes through in this. There’s something about reaching in towards a horizon of possibility but it is making me want to tilt my head.
Does that suggest that you personally prefer to the vertical way in which it was created?
I think I do because that was the way I was creating it but it’s not the first time that I’ve created a painting and then changed the orientation and thought, “I like it this way, too.” Some I’ve even turned upside down. Although, there were figures in the center and reflections of the figures, so it worked quite well. I like it this way, I’ve got to say. I’m surprisingly so. It’s probably a certain amount of bias because I was so focused on creating it the other way, but I could easily get used to seeing this way. It’s got a lot in it this way for sure.
It’s quite dynamic in this direction as well. Those of you who are watching and reading, I’m going to invite you to also weigh in on that. You get two things you can weigh in on. What do you think the painting should be called? We haven’t it named it yet. Do you prefer the vertical or the horizontal orientation?
You can let me know and reach out. You can reach out to me on Dr.Karen@Transleadership.com. You can also reach out on social media. Those of you who get my social media messages and postings, you know where to reach me on all of those channels as well. Tell us what you think, vertical, horizontal, what name comes to mind and we’ll have a naming ceremony at some point and talk about it.
I think the painting can be vertical or horizontal. Somedays people may come and speak with me and see it horizontal and on other days, they might see it vertical. It’s because I’m able to relate to both. I wanted to just mention something but this is the Transleadership card. You’ll see the royal blue on the far left and then there’s gold. That’s gold foil in the middle.
What’s interesting is that it’s a movement from darkness into light. That goes with the theme of the company moving from darkness to light. I just wanted to also mention that. It goes with who we are and who we’ve been over the last years. Louis, let me ask you this. You do souls scape all the time. What was it like for you to participate in and do the soul scape with me about this particular painting in work of art?
That was a real ease in connecting with you on this. Sometimes, it can take a little while to answer themes that want to be brought into a piece but there was a real clarity there, so that was a lot of fun. For me, if there’s any sense of spirituality in depth and what’s being shared, then that greatly aids my inspiration, too. It was a effortless creation and this happens sometimes.
Sometimes they can be quite challenging, which I quite like to be challenged and pushed by. It’s like, you’re in conversation with the painting. It can push you in different directions, but this was quite different. It just blows quite effortlessly. Even the way the painting dried certain times, it was almost just a bit of a gift how it landed itself. That stands out in my mind.
What was fun for me, Louis, is I’ve never had a commission to painting before. It was fun to be able to share ideas and to know that somehow, it would be represented in the painting even though I’m not a painter. I don’t paint but we were co-creating it together, the words that we shared, the thoughts and the experience. You are representing everything that we talked about in the actual painting itself. That’s fun and I know that you do this type of work for many people. Let people know how they can reach you and if they want to get their own commissioned painting, what they need to do and what’s the process.
I did between 5 and 10 commissions in a year, typically. The best way to get in touch is by my email address. That’s Louis@LouisParsons.com. You can contact me on the website as well, LouisParsons.com. as paths and calm. The first part of it is to have an initial conversation and see what feels right for you. If you’re drawn to the artwork, it’s on the website. I see those as flowers. They will attract the kind of people that drawn to this work or not. Following that first conversation, if it feels right, we can go into the process together. It’s got to feel right for you and for me as well. I wanted to make sure that my energy and your energy is connected in wanting to create something beautiful. That would be amazing.
How A Painting Can Change A Business
What I hope I’m able to do, I haven’t figure out how to do this yet. I’d love to create some note cards that have this image on them and then I can write to people from my own Transleadership painting. In wrapping things up, Louis in what we’re talking about. What else would you like to share with people about anything that we’ve been talking about? As you’re thinking about the members of the audience who are corporate executives and what a painting might even mean to their business. What might you share?
Especially for those who are in the corporate world, you might not initially think paintings going to change things. It’s way more than a painting. It’s more the exploration with that which is truly valuable and truly important to you and your organization. If you’re like those soul qualities that are often permeate the culture and to have something that captures the heart and soul of those, which is good upon. Maybe not just with you but a number of people that are, if you like the key perspective holidays, then have something creative that then enables you and those around you to get behind, to see your place in the bigger picture.
You can have quite powerful effects. Certainly, it seems to have had something of an effect with Microsoft to certain extent with some of the leadership workshop work I did with Google. I’m not the first to shout from the rooftops about it. I prefer to let other people share their experiences of it. All I can say is that this realm of light is very real. The more you’re in contact with it, the more it can only bring huge amounts of benefit, inspiration, and abundance to those who want to connect with it. It’s just a real joy and honoring to engage with people who are willing to participate in that process.
I love what you said because you can go beyond just the words on the page from your vision statement, your purpose or your mission statement or whatever it is that you’re conveying in the organization. If it has a visual like a picture to go with it, when we think about vision, it’s something that you can see. This adds to the depth of that message.
Different people will, I’d say connect with them message to a different portal. Whether it be through words or images. You’re involving both the left and the right side of the brain if you will for a more total experience when you have both the words and the images together. That’s a powerful way to think about what the possibilities are for corporations.
Thank you. I love that you used the word portal. In their pure respond, that’s exactly what soul scapes are there. They’re portables of light. They engage us and our imaginations. They can take us to places but we can also bring ourselves to those artworks and let that light get built enough. Thank you for that.
I would even encourage people who might want to think about how could they make a painting or do a soul scape experience that’s even for their family? Who is our family? Who are we? What do we stand for? What are our values? There are endless possibilities about what people can create and have something that’s meaningful and that in a case of a family that’s passed down and last many generations.
When the children are thinking about, who are we? What’s our family about? They can reference painting and have that conversation with someone as their sharing. I see multiple applications. Louis, I hope that people will contact you and have a wonderful experience and explore what their soul scape is and what the message is that God is transmitting to them. I want to thank you for my experience and the creation of the painting. I will keep you posted on what people end up saying in terms of their reflection and what they ultimately shared with me.
Thank you. It’s been a real joy to going through this process with you.
Thank you so much, Louis. This birthday would not be special or the same without you being here sharing it with me for 29 years of Transleadership. I just thank you for sharing this space and for creating something wonderful and beautiful that we can celebrate going forward. Thank you so much. I would like to close with a Bible verse that I think is very fitting for everything that we’ve been talking about with the painting.
This comes from Psalm 19:1 and it says, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork.” Every day as you look up in the sky and see what God is painting for us, I hope that you will enjoy his handy work and His glory. We’re just capturing a little sliver of it in this painting, but he is the painter who paints every day. We get to experience God every day if we would take the time, have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. Have a blessed day full of the light of God. May he continue to lead and guide you in the way that he would have you to go. See you next time.
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Dr. Karen’s Special Promotion
This is Dr. Karen Wilson-Starks, President and CEO ofTRANSLEADERSHIP, Inc. I want to let that I am running a special promotion. If you are a CEO or executive leader and a medium to large sized company and you care about how your people are treated. Especially if you share Biblical values and you may be facing difficult decisions where you want some additional perspective.
You may be planning for succession in your company and developing people and preparing the organization for that succession or perhaps, you are going through change. Your leading change. Maybe there’s a merger. There’s an acquisition. Whatever you’re facing in terms of leadership, including developing your executive team. Contact me. Give me a call, so we can do a discovery meeting to see what’s going on. Here’s the special promotion.
The promotion is, in addition to your discovery time, I will interview up to three additional people from your executive team so you have even greater contacts and feedback about where to go next. Reach out to me at Dr.Karen@Transleadership.com or phone me at (719) 534-0949 extension 1. I look forward to hearing from you and to coming alongside you to complete and continue your leadership journey with a positivity and profitability in your organization.
Did that you can mind the lessons from your own life and work experiences to inspire your teams and your people. In my book,Lead Yourself First: The Senior Leader’s Guide to Engaging Your People for Greater Performance and Impact. I only share snippets of my life experiences from childhood all the way up to adulthood. I also share what I learned from these experiences, how that learning informs how I lead today and some examples of how I facilitate my clients success with these same principles.
I invite you also to apply the same methodology to your life with reflection questions at the end of each chapter. When you lead yourself first, you then have a foundation for leading others. In Chapter 2, which is called Run Your Own Race, I share some stories from my days as an active-duty army officer when my approach to running the two miles for the physical training test and also my approach for the 12 miles forced road march had to be different from what other people did. What I would say is dare to be different. Find your own success formula. Sometimes, what works for you is different from what works for others. Remember, to run your own race and remember to get your own copy of Lead Yourself First and you’ll find resources on how to run your own race.
Rick Gang BA is a skilled home care professional with nearly 30 years of experience managing home care. As CEO and co-founder of Holistic HomeCare Associates, Rick has a deep understanding of the home care landscape. He and his team take great pride in ensuring that clients receive the very best home care experience through rigorous caregiver screening and matching and enhancing and simplifying the employment process.
PCC, MSM, Tilt 365
