EntreLeadership - #219: Jon Gordon—Leading with Positivity

Episode Date: August 28, 2017

Best-selling author and leadership consultant Jon Gordon has coached an impressive roster of powerhouse leaders from many organizations—the Clemson Tigers football team, the U.S. Military Academy and Dell to name a few. And they all have one thing in common: positivity. Whether on the football field or in the boardroom, Jon has learned that positivity is much more than just a state of mind; it is a state of action. Join us to find out why pessimists are simply incapable of changing the world and how you can break the habit of negativity. entreleadership.com/podcast Summit 2018 5 Habits That Kill Team Unity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is Andre Leadership. Now, here's your host, Ken Coleman. From the Music City, this is the broadcast of leaders, by leaders, for leaders. Thank you so much for joining the conversation. Our feature conversation is with multi-bestselling author and frequent guest of this broadcast. He is John Gordon. His new book is out.

I love this. It's called The Power of Positive Leader. I'll tell you a little bit more about it shortly, and then bring in one of our team members for this episode, Tim Smith. This is a fun conversation, very, very practical. We're going to talk about what we do at Ramsey Solutions as it relates to intentionality on culture building and culture retaining. So that's a lot of fun. And, of course, we're going to have some free resources for you to help you grow yourself, your team, and your profits. So John Gordon is back. He's been on with us several times, and as I mentioned, this new book

really excited me. And you're going to hear this in the conversation. John has been obviously a leadership and personal growth speaker and author. And over time, as his books became bestsellers, as it happens with so many folks, the word gets out, books get passed around, and what he has seen is a huge opportunity to personally coach and then corporately teach to a lot of professional football teams, college sports teams of all sports. It's amazing if you look across the board of all the different groups he's talked to.

And what I find interesting about this is because you've got people who are competing. They're competing for championships. They're looking for the edge, and they bring John in. So I have him back from time to time because obviously he's a good friend, and he also has great content that is simple and practical for you.

So that's why we do it. So we're going to get into this new book. It's called The Power of Positive Leadership, how and why positive leaders transform teams and organizations and change the world. So this is a big conversation, but super practical. So I'm going to put out a disclaimer that is really not necessary, but I'm going to give it to you anyway. You don't have to be a sports fan to get the transferred truth out of what is happening. The reason why I like conversations about sport is because you have people who I mentioned, just a moment ago, are driven for one thing.

Finishing first. They want the championship. It's not a truly successful season if they're not hoisting the trophy at the end of the season. You as a businessman, businesswoman, owner, just human being trying to be the best that you can be. You need a scoreboard. You need to be competing against something or somebody if you really want to finish first. That's why it's relevant. That's why John Gordon joins us here on Entree Leadership.

Oh, John, it's so good to have you back, pal. Our friendship exists with, we see each other about once, twice a year maybe, and then we text a lot. And I love you, and I love your work, and I know our audience appreciates you. So excited to have you back on to talk about your latest book, The Power of Positive Leadership, how and why positive leaders transform teams and organizations and change the world. And so let's start here because you say this on the back of the book. You just call it out. Hey, we're not talking about just walking around, you know, giving people compliments and fake smiles and Stuart Smalley leadership.

This is in the ditch grinding, gritty leadership, but there's a positivity that powers it. Why this book? Because this is about real positivity that positive leaders are really the ones who transform their teams, organizations, and change the world. As I was researching this book, as I was working with the leaders over the past 10 years, I saw firsthand that it's the positive leaders

that make the biggest impact. Pessimists don't change the world, Ken, as we know. Naysayers talk about problems, but they don't solve them. Complainers, all they do is complain. They don't focus on solutions. And critics, they just write words. They don't write the future.

So it's the positive leaders that ultimately are the ones who dream, think, believe, and then accomplish great things. Yeah. Because that positivity comes through, I think, of great visioncasters like Martin Luther King Jr. who was taking on one of the most complex, difficult social issues in the history of this country, certainly one of the most complex issues in the history of the world.

And he had a positive vision that he was constantly sharing while having to fight and grind every day. You have to have that compelling vision of where you want to go. That's the telescope that helps you see the brighter and better future that you want to create. Steve Jobs had it. Dabo Sweeney had it. Alan Malaley and turning around Ford had it. The various leaders are right about. It's really about the vision to move forward and then the optimism and belief and the grit actually, the grit to overcome all the adversity, all the negativity, all the challenges, all the setbacks that every leader, every team will face on their journey. And if you don't have this, you're not going to continue to move forward. Alan Malie said positive leadership is about finding a path

forward. I just love that. Yeah. You know, I'm glad you mentioned Alan because he's going to be one of our speakers at our Entre Leadership Summit in 2018, and he came into Ford and just really turned things around. It was spectacular. He's become legendary there. You have some experience there and some observations. Take us there that I think most people don't know what you know there. What are your observations about how Alan took positive leadership and practically put it into play? Well, I read an article where he defined his leadership style as positive leadership. So I was able to interview him, talk to him about positive leadership, and for about an hour, he told me about his experiences at Ford, how he led, what he did.

I really believe in that one hour I achieved an MBA just by listening to him. So Ford is losing $14 billion. He comes in in 2006, takes over, and then turns them around in a few years, profitable in a few years. People say it was one of the greatest leadership feats in history what he did. How did he do it? He said, John, we had to become one Ford with one team, one plan, and one goal. Everyone has to know the plan, embrace the plan, and relentlessly work towards the plan. He had a working together management system that he used at Boeing.

He saved Boeing. People don't remember that. Saved Boeing. Use that same system at Ford of getting people. but to work together, getting out of their silos, becoming one Ford. Ford was very regionalized at the time, and he centralized everything, got the right people in place, made sure that he held people accountable. But he said, John, you got to love them up, but you got to hold them accountable to the process, the vision, the values, and the culture. So if you were someone that

couldn't work with other people, then you weren't going to work at Ford. You had to work with the team and put Ford first. And so he did it with this great vision. but then a comprehensive strategy and then a relentless implementation of the plan. Because think about it, 2008, you're doing everything right, everything he's doing to turn around Ford is working, but then the Great Recession hits. So now no one is buying cars. No one's buying cars. So a lot of people started to crumble, but not him and not Ford.

It was his optimism. It was belief. And he said, we have a plan. If we have to change or just, we will. but we will continue to move forward to implement this plan that we have created. And it was just incredible, almost Churchill-like leadership. You know, I'm sitting there listening to you recount your conversation with Alan Malawi. And here's what I love about what you're trying to, not trying to, you highlight it so well in this book,

that positivity is fueled by this leadership optimism, that it's never as bad as we think it is. And isn't that true in almost anything in life? I mean, there are some times where things are just blatantly bad and it sucks and we've got to deal with it. But that's the whole point. I'm going to deal with it the best I can and try to think of the best possible scenario. And there's something there. It's a psychology thing. Our brains are powerful.

And when leaders can tap into that, it literally is a competitive advantage, isn't it? It is. It's knowing that we don't create our world outside in. outside, the noise, the expectations, all the negativity, and even circumstances. You're dealing with tough circumstances. We create our world inside out from our belief, our optimism, our love, our joy, our purpose, and our spirit. And when you realize that the outside has no power over you that you create from the inside,

that's where the power is created. So these great positive leaders are really inside out leaders that don't focus on the outside or what's happening in the world. They focus on what's in the inside. to ultimately change the world, and that's where the power is. Okay, so I want to spend some time on your relationship and what you have learned as a result of up close and personal observation of one of the great leadership stories in college sports.

For you non-football fans, don't worry, this isn't X's and O's, but Davoswini is the head coach of the defending national champion Clemson Tigers. Now, this is a great story, John, because as you know, and I want our audience to understand, before Davo becomes head coach at Clemson, the program is beginning to go downhill a bit. Not crazy, but downhill and Clemson has a rich football tradition. Nobody's ever heard of Davoswini. I'm going to walk you through some things here. So I want you to first introduce Davo Swinney to our audience if they don't know who he is.

And what I mean by that is he's more than just the head coach. coach of the national champions. What was his story leading up to the moment that he becomes head coach at Clemson? Well, he's a former walk-on receiver at Alabama who had the gall to believe that he could play at Alabama, and he did. He had a father who left when he was young, was homeless for a time. When he goes to Alabama, he was so poor at the time that his mom actually lived with him in his dorm room to help support her and him while he was there. Then he gets into coaching after playing, didn't go well. His head coach was fired at Alabama where he was a coach, and he goes into real estate for a little while, gets back into coaching, becomes a receiver's coach and coordinator at

Clemson under Tommy Bowden, and then gets the job as an interim coach when Tommy Bowden was fired. and now is basically charged with running this program. People thought it was temporary. He might have even thought it was temporary. But he goes into me with the Board of Trustees. And the Board of Trustees is talking about Clemson. They said, we want to be great football, but great academics. Our vision is to be like Georgia.

We want to be like Michigan. We want to be like programs like that. Dabo's sitting there and he told me that he told himself, don't say it, don't say it, don't say it. I just got the job, just be quiet, but he couldn't help himself. He said, sir, I don't mean to be disrespectful. But my vision is so much bigger than that. He said, I want to create a program where they want to be like us.

That's my vision. And they probably thought this guy's crazy. But he had this bold, compelling vision. Great story on this, Ken. He then talks to his AD and says, I want a TV from my office so I can watch film. The AD says, we don't have it in the budget. So he doesn't get a TV for his office. He actually has to buy it himself.

So he goes to the store, buys a TV to watch film in his office. He still has that TV in his office. He put his arm around when I was there and he said, if I ever leave here, I'm taking this TV with me. It's my TV. Right. And now, Clemson just built a $55 million facility, the grandest facility in all of college sports with all the TVs that Daba wants.

It's a testament to his vision. and optimism that building. It really is. And to give a complete snapshot of where the program is now, they obviously win the national championship last season knocking off. Maybe the greatest college football coach in history. Certainly one of the top football programs in the history of football, a juggernaut.

And Clemson wins. And now recruiting is at an all-time high. He's just plugging and playing a lot of talent. And arguably, John, he's got to be considered a top-five football coach in America. I don't think anybody disagrees with that that pays attention. Very much, though. And again, it's his vision that helped him get there. Let's go back to two years ago when they lost Alabama.

That's right. I mean, I'm in the locker room after the game with the team. He walks and he says, guys, he said, I have never been more proud of a group of men than I am of you tonight. We just didn't make enough plays to beat a team as good as Alabama. You can't make the mistakes we made and beat a team that good. But you seniors, you have left a legacy that's going to live on, long after you're gone. And you underclassmen, get ready because we're coming back. And he proceeded

to talk about the vision for the future for about 10 minutes of spring football, training camp, what they were going to do. And I was blown away. They just lost the national championship. And he wasn't even upset in that moment. He was already pointing his team towards the future. And I realize that positive leaders, despite the circumstances, regardless of the setbacks, they're always pointing their team forward. And that's why we're going to be able to, and that's, what he was doing. Yeah, which is really amazing because you know how much of a competitor he is. So of course he's just broken up inside and he goes ahead and begins to put the team and really the vision is what's driving him. So he kept the vision on the forefront and you know he's hurting

inside yet he's pulling that off minutes after walking off the field. The biggest opportunity he's ever had as a coach and he lost it. And here he comes back. Here's a love about Davo in this positivity type of leadership. He's just constantly that. that way. As he took over the program, let's go beyond the TV, let's go back a little bit. He gets the full-time job because he does a good job and they give him a shot. He still has to earn it. And he really instilled a constant culture of optimism and vision casting. Give me some examples of things that he changed and things that he did that you've been able to see. Because I think our leaders that are listening in here can literally take some of these things like,

okay, I'm not running a football program, but I am running a company, and maybe I can really win in the locker room like Davo has. Well, the first day, he gets the job. He walks into the team meeting room, and he brings in two signs. One said, believe, another one said, I can't with the T-crossed out. And he knew that Clemson lacked belief. So right away, he's instilling this belief in this team. And one of the things I've watched him over the years that just amazes me is he's always

brainwashing his team in a positive way. He's always talking about what they can do, how they can be the best, how they are the best. Every meeting, every speech after a practice is really a motivational talk about how great they are and how great they can be. But he's always also driving them with a lot of love and a lot of accountability. He really loves these guys and they feel his love, but he also is always challenging them to be their best. Like Christian Wilkins, he said, hey, Christian, in All-American last year, Christian, last year. Last year's plays are not going to win this year's games. What are we going to do today? So he's always pushing the envelope, always driving them towards greatness. So it's like this optimism, but then it's also this pursuit of excellence that

we have this belief, but we're also going to take the actions necessary to create it. And then every year before the first practice, he meets with the coaches for a four-day retreat. He has this huge book with all of the information, all of the material that has made Clemson what it is, just ideas, inspirations, quotes, you name it. And he goes through that book one page at a time for four full days for like 10 hours a day with his coaching staff. It seems a little overboard, but you know what? He said, John, we can't forget what God is here in the first place. Let's fast forward a little bit from that point to he gets back in the National Championship, game this last winter. And so they're playing Alabama, and this is a back and forth game. And

you're starting to go, man, I don't know if Clems is going to be able to pull this off. And it ends with unbelievable, like, story. It's like a movie. It was like a movie. Deshawn Watson leads him down and they score. In the postgame interview, I never forget, he just knew. And he was saying it with conviction, not with bravado. We just knew there's something to that, isn't there? I mean, There is a real psychological edge. I want to come back to this to where a team just believes we can win, we should win, we will win. I love that, Ken. It was halftime.

They're down by a touchdown. He said, guys, we're going to win the darn game. I don't know how we're going to win it. But we're going to win the game. And the way he said it, the guys just believed. And all of a sudden, it looked that way until Alabama scored with two minutes left. But then, as you said, Deshaun Watson brings the team down. they score. And being on the sideline in that moment with that team, what you experienced was

all the belief, all the hard work, and all this optimism and faith ever since Dabo's first day on the job culminating in that moment, that they truly just believed. And as leaders, we need to recognize this. This is not just about sports. This is about you distorting the reality, as Steve Jobs did with his team, of what they believe. Many times they're going to be pessimistic. Many times they're going to say, I'm just being a realist. But being a leader is about, no, it's not about what society says. It's not what others say. It's about being optimistic about what we believe is possible.

And you have to be relentlessly optimistic and relentlessly focused on the plan. And you have to be day in and day out, just continually sharing the message. So he never took a day off of that belief. And again, you just saw it in that series. So it wasn't just that one moment. What I saw is years in. years of grit, hard work, optimism, faith, and belief. And Dabo, the one thing that inspires me most about him is he has tremendous faith. Like, he's a believer. He believes strongly in God,

but he just has a tremendous faith of what's possible. See, and I love asking these questions because, folks, if you're not figured out by now, John has become an informal advisor to Dabo and the Clemson football team, and John gets all these opportunities. If you know, John, you've heard him on this podcast before. But I want to ask you. you, when you're in that locker room, you've been in the locker room a bunch and on the sideline. But let's go back to that moment you just described, the National Championship game at halftime. And he basically says, I don't know how we're going to win the game, but we're going to win the game. At that point, to those players, you're watching, I know you.

Your eyes are scanning that room like Robocop. Is it Davo and is it Leader X, you can fill in the name? Is it the willingness to be vulnerable that allows that sincere optimism to come across so sincere and the players go, he really believes this. This isn't a motivational speech. Coach believes we're going to win the game. I think it has to come from your heart. And as you said, vulnerable, authentic, being real. He really connects with his players at a deeper level. And so through those connections, you get commitment. I often say, as we talked about in the past on past podcast, connection breeds commitment. So because of the connections, he creates individually and collectively, there's this strong commitment to each other.

And then when he says it, they believe it because everything he says, he stands by. Everything he does is led by principle. When one of his players, early on, one of his star players, you know, got in trouble, he benched the guy. This was years ago before the national championship. He bench Sammy Watkins against Auburn. And it could have been a disastrous move. Even the administration said, you don't have to do it.

He told me, John, if I don't lead this one. way by our principles. What does that say to our team, to our coaching staff, to our fans, and to our university? I got to lead it. I got to do it. I got to live it. And sure enough, you saw the integrity play it over time as well. And I also believe that's why they won a championship because he did everything the right way over time. Yeah, you know what? You just reminded me of something. I love all these C words. So folks, you need to write that down. John just laid it out for you. Obviously, connection breeds commitment. Here's another C word that you just told. told us about. Conviction leads to courage. If you are living by conviction, as Dabbo was,

you have the courage to sit your star receiver. I mean, that's huge, John. You've seen that. That's the differentiator. People want to know, how can I be courageous as a leader? I think you've got to first decide, what am I convicted about, and I'm not going to waver from my conviction? I love that. And if you're passionate, right, that's going to give you more purpose to keep moving forward. And if you're purposeful, that gives you the passion. So this conviction, this courage, this passion, this purpose all comes together for a leader who's leading his team. And they say, you know what, this guy's for real. He believes it. We believe it. Now, you also have to have leadership on the team, right? Without Deshaun Watson and his leadership, his positive leadership,

that doesn't happen as well. That's right. Without his belief, because he's the kind of transformational leader on the field that gets everyone around to believe that, hey, we're going to be great. I think he's going to be great NFL player because of this belief in optimism and also his skill level. But you have to have leaders on the team who are also leading forward and driving the team forward. Well, let's talk about that. That's a gorgeous segue. Let's talk about, so Davos come in and he changes the culture of the program. Things are starting to work. But this is all about developing leaders. You're not going to win national championships if you aren't taking that culture and then creating processes to then, then,

empower your leaders on your team. The coach cannot make the plays. He's got to be able to transfer all that positive leadership, positive culture, conviction to the player. So you've got Deshaun Watson, who's the quarterback. You've obviously got a defensive leader. You've got your assistant coaches. In big time college football, obviously the coordinators are like many head coaches. How did you see a young kid, you watched Deshawn Watson come in from Gangel High School? By the way, John, did you know that I interviewed Deshauner, Watson on my old radio show in Atlanta because I was in Gainesville and that was where he went to High School, Gainesville High School, right behind my radio saying. Did you know that? I did not know that.

That's awesome. Before he committed to Clemson, the kid came in like, gave him like four minutes. I had no idea. Guy goes on a big, you know, a big time player, but just an aside there. So how did he, you saw Deshaun come in from Gainesville High School? Stud, super talented. How did Dabo empower him? Deshawn to be the positive leader of that football team. Well, I remember when Dabo told me, hey, we got this kid, Deshaun, come in, he is special. John, he is really special. So I think from the moment he stepped onto Clemson, they knew he was that kind of leader and special leader.

And as a coach, as a leader, you have to lead each person differently. So you're going to lead Deshaun differently than you're going to lead some other guys on the team. And they already knew that, you know, he was that kind of leader. So he empowered him to be the leader that he was. And from the very beginning, it was clear that this was Deshaun's team. This was his program. And they were just continue to work with him to develop him to be his best.

And you just saw this support of him. Now, again, I'm meeting with the team. And then I sit in with Chad Morris when he was there as the offensive coordinator. And then Tony Elliott, Jeff Scott, they meet with the quarterback, sat in on some of their meetings. And again, they're just coaching. They're leading. They're helping him get better, working on things they need to work on. Again, just like any coach and team does.

But it was more about, they already knew that this kid was special and he was a transformational leader. Let him do his thing, basically. I want to switch gears to an interesting story that you've got about Michael Phelps. I know this is a lot of sports stuff, but again, folks, this is so transferable. Here's a guy who in a team environment, it's not a traditional team environment. This guy's an individual performance. former. And then, of course, when you get to the Olympics and, you know, the nationals and all that kind of stuff, then obviously swimming on these medleys and relay teams. But I want you to talk

about Michael Phelps and his positive leadership. I was watching this interview that he did with Bob Kossis after the Olympics. And Bob asked him about his leadership style because this was the first time that Michael Phelps was a captain of the Olympic team. Think about the greatest swimmer ever finally is now considered a leader because he truly became a leader. He said a lot of the guys during training camp, we're complaining and being negative. And he turned to the guy, he said, look, guys, we're about to go to the Olympics. We have to do this. So if you're going to be negative and just complain, keep the comments to yourself. Because the more positivity we have as a team, the better off we're going to be. He told Bob that the moment he said that, they became

closer and closer as a team and then went to the Olympics and just dominated. And I have experienced that over and over again with all the teams I've worked with, whether it's a corporate team or a sports team, that positivity is the glue that begins the process of building a more connected team. But then, right, you have to do other things that create that connection. But positivity begins the process that allows the connections to naturally develop. And so by addressing the negativity, which one of the biggest mistakes leaders make is they do not address the negativity that exists on their team. So by addressing it, by confronting it, you can then transform it and then create an environment where people can come in and do their best work.

work. That's the key. Now, we're not going to go through this book 100% because it's just so much content here. But as you put this together, and now the book has been out, and as you said, you work with a lot of teams from the college level to the pro level, then of course, corporate teams as well. What are you hearing? What are leaders grabbing onto this book and saying, hey, this is helping me win here. What are you hearing from folks? Well, there's nine pieces of the book, right? There's nine parts of the framework. So I'm hearing from different leaders about different parts of their framework. For some, it's, hey, John, I realize I got to focus more in my culture, and I got to drive the culture as the leader.

I can't let other people do it. I have to drive the culture. Also hearing from people talking about just the optimism piece. Like, man, I've been allowing these situations and the negativity of my team and what's going on really to get me down. I realize I got to just be more positive than negativity that we face. I just got to be more optimistic about where we're going as a lot. team. And that's obviously probably the biggest thing because people get so caught up in all the negativity, all the challenges that they are not able to rise above. So they read this book and they're

able to then just see the bigger picture, rise above, see all the examples of the people who did it. And then they have more courage and conviction as you talked about earlier. So hearing a lot about that. But I think the biggest part of the book is the relationship piece. Like we talked about Clemson. Clemson says, you know, John, a lot of people talk about the process. You know, Alabama is very process driven. He said, so are we. But we are relationship driven first. Our relationships are what drive our process.

And that's what you experience that. The great leaders, they're demanding, but they're not demeaning. They cultivate these great relationships. They unite the organization, unite the team, but they connect with the individual. And so it's the relationships that drive the motivation. The relationships that drive the process, the relationships that actually drive true success. John Caliapari and I were talking about this the other day, because you know, you saw the 30 for 30. Cali Perry is masterful with relationships.

So he and I were talking about how powerful relationships are and how that's the game changer. So to me, the crux of this book is taking this positivity that you think because it's more than just a state of mind though. And then turn into action. Positivity and positive leadership is a state of action too. Well, I love it, folks. As he says, there's so much in here culture, vision. teams, belief, removing negativity, building great relationships, pursuing excellence, leading with purpose, grit, and going forward.

I'm going to give you the final word, John, forward thinking. This is something that you get to experience a lot because of your unique role as a writer and a speaker. And there's something about, we talked a lot about Daabu Swinney, and Alan Malali, there's something about forward thinking that if you're having a hard time, getting positive. I think, John, I want you to say yes, no, coach me up on this, but it seems to me what I'm learning from your writing

is that the great positive leaders are positive because they're so driven by the forward vision. You can't help but be positive, even in tough times. Ken, you couldn't be more right. We don't get burned out because of what we do, we get burned out because we forget why we do it. So they're going to be days we don't feel very positive about our vision. We don't feel very positive about our team, our life, and our situation. But that's

where the vision of where we're going, the North Star, the telescope that we see the brighter and better future we want to create. And then the purpose of why we're going there, you have your vision, you have your purpose. That's going to give you the positivity you need on this journey to be successful. I look at my own life. I'm sure you look at yours, right? I know, Ken, you've been on this incredible journey, right? So much rejection we both face, so much adversity, so many setbacks. the way, it was our vision and purpose that kept us going and made us positive, kept us positive. Without that vision and purpose, your positivity will wane. Good stuff.

Man, there's so much good stuff in this book, folks. It's the power of positive leadership, how and why, positive leaders transform teams and organizations. And these are the most powerful three words on the cover of the book, change the world. You can do it in your zip code. That's how it happens. We want you to run, go get the book. John Gordon, your dear first.

friend, this is not goodbye because you'll be on here as much as I can get you, and we appreciate you very much, man. We're always better for our conversations with you. Thanks, Ken. I look forward to being with you with the Titans when we go there together. It's going to be awesome. Oh, so fun. All right, folks, hope you enjoyed that. I wrote down one little simple anecdote from John. I'm going to share it with you. I think this is the type of thing you put on your mirror. Maybe you put it on the closet door so that every morning you see it. He said, naysayers, don't change the world, right? He's quoting that.

Nayayers don't change the world. Here's what's interesting. As I read that to you, I'm also looking through the glass at Eric the producer and Will the engineer, and in between their handsome heads, is a poster on the wall. It's one Teddy Roosevelt.

And above his head, it says it is not the critic who counts. one sentence from arguably the most important speech, most well-read speech he ever gave, the man in the arena. I look at that every time that I'm in this studio, and that's on purpose. Oh, it's not the critic who counts. Naysayers don't change the world. Go to johngorton.com. That's j-on-jongordon.com.

If you'd like to get the book, you'd like to connect, like to learn more. about what John is doing. Hey, did you notice that John mentioned Alan Malali, the former Ford Motor Company CEO, and he's going to be speaking at our summit event. I just want to make sure that you're aware of it. We know we have new people joining this conversation all the time. So if you're not familiar with our event, you can learn everything about it. I believe it is the best leadership event in America.

And we are bringing another one to you next May. It's going to be a phenomenal lineup, Alan Malawi, just a part of it. If you'd like to get more information, text the word, summit 18. Summit 18. You can send that to 3-3-444. That's 33-44. Or you can click the link in this episode's show notes at entreleadership.com. Click on podcasts.

The show notes are detailed, and you can check out the entire summit lineup and get registered. We love when we can bring in one of our team members to the studio and talk about their role or the intentionality of what they do from time. to time. And I mentioned this at the top. Tim Smith, been with us a long time, and this is a integral part of the organization, but then he wears another hat. And so he's going to describe this role, but this conversation is so important for you if you are not being intentional with culture building. All right? This is huge. We are very intentional about this here. And what does it look like? And then what are the results? Here is my conversation with Tim Smith. Well, folks, this is very exciting. In studio with me is Tim Smith, one of our longest tenured Ramsey Solutions team members,

and a very important part of what we do here at the Entree Leadership Podcast. I'll reveal that in just a second. But Tim, first of all, welcome. Hey, thanks, Ken. I'm excited to be here today. I'm excited to have you in here because this is a fun topic, this conversation. But first, let's paint the picture for people. How long you've been on the team? I have been at Ramsey Solutions for 15 years. You have your own parking space. I do now. It was, and I'm telling you, it's working out great, because Parking is very hard at this place. It really is. If you don't get here at the right time, it can cause some blood pressure issues. A lot of anxiety and a lot of stress is wrapped around. That's right. And then I want you to tell people what your role is. So I'm our director of research

here at Ramsey Solutions. And really what it is is my job to help our business units understand their audiences. We're always trying to figure out their behaviors and why they do what they do and what they need from us. And so really, it's just a way to help us improve our decision-making. And so that's where it ties in. I said just moments ago, he's a big part. of what we do at Entry Leadership. And I mean that because as the host, one of the things that any host worth their salt, let me just say that. If you care about your job as a host of a show that has a large audience, which the Entry Leadership

podcast does, you care about data. And so you remember the survey we did. How long ago do we do that survey, Tim? That survey was done last summer. Last summer, and we had a terrific response. I remember you saying in one of the meetings, you were really thrilled with the amount of respondents. It was. The Entree Leadership podcast audience is one of our highest response rates of all the time.

Everyone really got into it and it made my job a lot easier. It did. And it makes my job easier because I had Tim, I was harassing Tim. And he got tired of me showing up at his desk. I was like, I need you to print this thing out for me because this is like I've got to digest this whole study. And so we did and it sits right beside me. I want you know I've got a special shelf and in there sits the survey. Man, and now see, now I feel kind of bad because... Why? I don't have one question on my book show. Well, there you go.

I need to do it. We can get your copy. Okay. Don't worry about that. All right, so anyway, great stuff. But the reason you're in here is not because of your role you just described, but it's in your role as one of the leaders on this team. And I don't even know how to describe it, but they're a team of people.

They all have full-time gigs here. And then you give above and beyond your normal work situation to our HR and culture type stuff. Now, I know I'm describing that so generally, but we do so many things. So what I want you to do is give our audience when it comes to culture building, we are intentional. Give me a handful of the biggest things we do. Yeah, absolutely. So really, what our team focuses on is monthly events that help bring our team together. And so what happened was back in July 2013, we used to do lunch every single week. And we had to do that in a really small room. And we had to do that in a really small room because it was happening all the time. And Dave walked in there one day. And Dave said,

this is lame. There's only like 80 people in here eating out of the four or five hundred that we have because we have to do something different. And so what we did instead, we said, we're going to start having monthly team events in which we get together and we eat and we do something a little more than that. And so that's where this team came from. They pulled six of us together and they said, all right, guys, this is y'all's job. Now we're four years and about 58 events later. And it has taken on a life of its own and really is a centerpiece of our company. It really is. So snapshot for you folks listening in.

We do about 16 events a year that are beyond these monthly lunches. So the whole thing, if you look at all of them, we do all these amazing events. A Christmas party that would just blow your mind. You just wouldn't believe it. We're in the middle. We're in the throes as we record today of probably the most popular event we do outside of the Christmas party. That would be the battle of the band. So you have team members that come together.

You have to be a team member. You put a band together. straight up just like you think it is. It's a competition. We vote. And then we have a big championship night and big awards and all that kind of stuff. So when we begin to get super intentional about that and you put everybody together, that's a huge cost just for the food. Then you've got work time.

People that are doing full-time gigs that are putting extra time in. There's a lot associated with this. In your opinion, as one of the team leaders, is it worth it? That's a great question to ask, and it's the same question we ask ourselves every month. And when we step back and take a look at it, it is worth it. It's not necessarily value that shows up on a profit and loss statement, but it is that type value that we all know is happening. And the buzzworthy factor that comes from all this,

it really is out in the hallways and the elevators. Those type things are how we know this is working, and that there is value there. Give me some personal examples where you've heard a story, whether it be it's helping with recruiting or you're seeing some tangibles. Obviously, you're hearing stuff, but just give me your personal perspective on how it really plays out. You know, for us we do, we always sit back and we ask ourselves, why are we doing this? And there's four reasons that we always keep in front of us on this is our why. And the first one is it builds trust. One of the favorite quotes we say around here is trust is the great.

Greece takes the friction out of work. And what we do is when we come together for these events, it helps everyone get to know each other better. And that helps us when we walk out of these rooms and step into the meeting rooms instead. Or when we're emailing someone is when we feel like we know that other person, we don't have all of the worry, concern that comes from, well, you know, should I word this this way? Or should I be direct or not direct? The trust that gets built within the organization from doing this type stuff is really hard to measure, but we know that it's there.

A second thing for us is that this builds unity. That's pretty obvious. What we always say is by creating shared experiences, it gives us all a common narrative to speak from. Now, what does that mean? That means you can step into the elevator with anyone at our company and turn to them and say, hey, how about that lip sync battle today? That's right. Even if you know them or if you don't, we're all having. have had a shared experience, and that is one of those things that unites us.

A second thing that it also does when it comes to unity is it gives us a sense of belonging. From our newest team member who just joined, they can come into one of these lunches, and they instantly feel like they're part of the club. Well, this just happened. As I was going to say, that's what, yeah, battled the bands last week. We're doing this acoustic karaoke where we're just pulling people up on stage and having them sing on the spot. And a girl, she comes up, and she's been here for two weeks, and she gets up and sings wagging, wheel in front of the whole company and everyone joins in and sings along and she ends up winning a pair

of tickets to a concert and right away in that moment you can see in her face man I belong here and so sense of belonging is another item that we see that comes from this as we build unity i love this now let's get practical because we have a lot of people tim that are listening and you know our audience this is what i love this guy knows you and they're thinking all right i get it ramsie solutions is five 600 people in their mind right we're now over 600 we are Big budget. You can do this. You could feed all those people. Okay, get it. I get it. But, okay, I want to start doing this, Tim, but how do I start? And you understand this. You've been here 15 years. You've seen it grow. So forget. Let's just strip away all the barriers. Okay. And I don't want to talk about barriers or hurdles to doing this. Just some practical things. You're in leadership in this role. What would you say to these folks if they wanted to begin to build this type of cultural experience on a regular basis? It's a great question. So for us, again, four things we try to stick by. One, if you're wanting to dive into this, leadership must participate. What happens is when leadership doesn't, it sends a message to the company that this isn't something you do if you want to become a leader here.

If you want to climb the ladder, you stay out of these things and you don't get involved. That sets a bad precedent. I know that at our place, it's great because Dave will get up there on stage with everyone else and he'll do the exact same things. And what that does is that gives everyone else permission to do it as well. And so your leadership has to participate in this because if they don't, you're sending that message that this is not something you do if you want to be a leader here. The second thing, if you're looking for advice, is I would say think buzzworthy. What are things that we can do? It's not just what happens at the event. But even once we leave, what gets chatter going out in Cubeville?

What gets chatter going in the hallways? What gets that chatter going in the elevators? This is really exciting when we're doing something big here is seeing all the many conversations that happen outside of the place just the other day. Someone won the guitar MVP at our Battle of the bands. It wasn't me, by the way. Yeah, it wasn't, but it was close.

And it wasn't Will Rutter, the engineer either, which I was very disappointed about. Yeah, but guess what? He was second. I haven't told you that yet. Oh, there you go. He did great. And what happened is when I saw this team member come back,

was on the other side of the floor, but when he walked into the room, everyone in his pod areas just started applauding. That's really, really loud. And it was kind of like, hey, there's a neat moment. And that happened outside of the event. So we're looking for those buzzworthy things. A third thing always tell people to keep in mind is that this is more cost effective than you think. For us, we have our company revenue. We commit about 0.2% of that company revenue towards these initiatives. That's less than 1% investment gets all this value out. We spend on average $442 per team member per year to pull off these six events. I think if you got to the end of the year and asked our folks, hey, do you want $442 or would you rather have these 16 experiences? I think what we're going to hear back is people

would rather have the experiences. That's right. Yeah. It's unbelievable. And you know, listen, And here's what I'd say. Because we know this, that we've heard Peter Drucker say this, right, that culture eats strategy for breakfast. That's right. And the reality is that it's true. And I would just add to what Tim said and say, look, I would be consistent and I would be fun. Don't overthink this.

Be consistent. What I mean there is simply do it enough to where people go there, committed to doing this. And it will begin to morph and grow on its own. And then just make sure you're having fun. It is. you wouldn't believe the things that we do. I already mentioned the lip sync battle that we do. We have a spelling bee where we divide the company up by division. It feels like the World Cup inside the air. It's really true. Someone will spell one word right and their entire division erupts

when that Proctor says that is correct. That's right. We also have a company-wide field day where we transform our parking lot with 11 different inflatable obstacles. We have masseuses come in. We have tents. We have free food. it's a great experience. We have a flip cup tournament. That's right. That's right. I mean, this is college, right? I know, yeah. But it's so much fun. We do it with water, and we get everyone up front and we have teams compete. We have the game going on up on two big screens in front of the organization. We have a company award show at the end of the year, which feels like the Oscars. We have five awards that we give out to everyone, and they're a pretty big deal. When you bring in a string quartet to play the music on offstage, this ends up being a pretty great thing. And then also you've in Battle of the bands. Yeah. And that's just a huge summertime event

that we do here across five weeks. These things sound crazy, and maybe they sound a little bit out of reach, but all these have grown from starting small, and then

continuing to build as a years have gone on. Well, I mean, let's talk about our Christmas party. We'll wrap with this. I mean, this thing has become a full-on production. We rent out the Music

City Center, and we're talking about 600 team members plus. Then you take their spouses or girlfriends or boyfriends or whatever, and now you've got 1,200 plus people in a room,

and then our event team is unbelievable, and they produce this thing like a full-on live event. I have hosted the event. I don't know, two times, three times. I can't remember I wear a tux. I mean, it's a big deal, and you never see anything like it. It's just unreal,

but it is this thing that everybody looks forward to, a big part of our culture, but here's the point. Why do I tell you all that? Because Dave started it out in this. living room and they gave hams away. That's true. Everybody got a ham. So I mean, you know, listen, it started early on. That's what I love about this with Dave. Card tables where the whole business started, they're giving out hams and now you do this big production. So you can be intentional. I'm going to

give you the final word, Tim Smith, encourage these folks on the importance of developing some culture from your head and heart. What would you say to them? That's right. At the end of the day, we're humans, not robots. We want our work to have meaning. We don't want to be a cog in the wheel and we don't want to feel like a unit of production. And so anything that we do that helps create connection in the workplace is always going to benefit us in the long run. When someone is on stage spelling a word, it may seem like we're wasting time, but in reality, we're laying groundwork for the first five minutes of the next board meeting. Oh, I like that. No question about it. He is Tim Smith. Thank you, buddy, for being a part of the Entree Leadership podcast. Listen, we do a better job because

of the work you did, so I want to thank you for that. We appreciate you. And thanks for hanging out with us. Thanks for having me, Ken. This was great. Big thanks to Tim for hanging out with us and sharing just a little bit about what he and our team is doing there. And you heard him say unity at some point in our conversation. And so we're really excited about this entree tool. It's called the Five Habits that kill Team Unity. Why the cost of a bad work environment makes you go broke. So this is serious stuff. Very, very popular resource. It's absolutely free. What are the five? habits. Well, they're tied to the five enemies. The five enemies of unity, poor communication,

gossip, unresolved disagreements, lack of a shared purpose, and sanctioned incompetence. That's just a tease for what we're going to walk you through, and it's a perfect, perfect resource to help you as you've got your mind on what Tim just challenged you about when it comes to building a healthy culture. So you can print this off, you can share it, you can pin it on the company, bulletin board, whatever you want to do, just take advantage of it. It's free. You can text the word enemies to 3344. Enemies to 3344. Or of course, we have a link for you in the show notes. Hey folks, speaking of communication through text, we love when you email us. I want to remind you that podcast at ontraigleadership.com comes right to me, Will the engineer, and Eric the producer,

we love to hear from you. And so if you have a suggestion, You have a question. You have a guest that you would like to recommend or even better. If you have a guest that you have a connection to, ho ho ho. Send it in. Podcast at entreleadership.com. That is the email address. We would love to hear from you.

That is an open invitation. Send it away. Now, let me just say something. Don't get your hopes up that you're going to get a quick email reply for me. Probably not going to happen. So now that we've set expectations, email away. And I got to tell you, I really want to challenge you. Tim Smith gave you some great ideas.

But I'm going to give you a personal example of how it really has fired me up at times. We have this lunch every month where we all get together. And you've heard it said before that there's great power in eating with other people. When you break bread with somebody else and you're having conversation, you know, it just kind of takes the walls down. So just beyond having an organized lunch, when you add in some food, fun with it and you get to see coworkers do things in front of you that are usually entertaining. We've got yourself a win. Folks, this is not going to eat up a lot of your brain power as a leader.

So let me give an example. One of my favorite all-time events that we have done is the spelling bee because it's competition. And I just think competition and eating together is a wonderful combination. People need to compete. And so they divided the entire organization up into teams, if you will. and each team was represented, and there'd be 50, 75 people. It was based on how many years you'd been there. So it was like freshman, sophomore, juniors, and seniors is what they ended up coming up with.

And it was my freshman year, it was like my first year. So I was in the freshman. And it brought out all that immaturity that clearly I have grown out of. And so they put you in teams, right, and you're cheering for your two spellers. So each class has two spellers. And bottom line is somebody on our freshman class team came up with the idea to bring Vuvazuelas in. Now, if you don't know what a Vuvizuela is, it is that horn that you hear at soccer game.

So if you turn ESPN on or FS1 and you're watching any soccer game, even the MLS here in America, you're going to hear the droning of a Vuvizuela. It is a horn. And it's really fun. It's a little plastic thing. But they got all of our team, and there must have been 50, 75 of us with these Vuvasuelas. Now, I've got to tell you, I got excited. because immediately I'm not competing as a speller,

but I'm now competing to be the most obnoxious, loud, Vuvazuela blower. By the way, there's a phrase I never thought I'd utter on a microphone. So I took it on, and I've got to tell you, I was the first person to blow the Vuvizuela when my speller got it right. I was the last person to blow the Vuvazuela when my speller got the word right. So the bottom line is that my lip, it looked like I had collagen implants, when the lunch was over.

I'm walking around the office and everybody's looking at me going, what's wrong with your lip? I went, oh, the Vuvizuela. Took it home and promptly got irritated the third time one of my kids blew it. But I was going bananas at the lunch, blowing this Vuvizuela till the top of my head came off. Then I take it home. Third time, one of my kids blows it.

Hey, knock it off. So there you go. Confession is good for the soul. But what am I saying? I'm saying that I got completely wrapped up and lost in that. And here I am. I only been here a year. And I had people come to me later and say,

it was really fun to see you, you know, just kind of goofing off and blowing that Vuvusuela until your veins popped. What happened? Made a positive impression and I was acting like an idiot. We had fun. People made fun of my lips later. I could go on and on with all the beneficial things.

Point was intentional culture creation through eating together, competing together while we're eating together. This is not rocket science. There's my challenge. Do something this month. I'd like to see you try to eat together at least once this month as a company and then do something fun while you're eating. There's my challenge. Now, if you do this and you take the challenge, I want you to take some pictures or video

and we want you to post it on Instagram and at Entree leadership. is who you tag. Our social media folks over there will love it and they'll like it and they'll reshare it. So I want to see this stuff. And just maybe if you really, really entertain me, maybe I have you on a future episode and you tell us where this came about, how much fun was had. We'll just see. I'm going to put that challenge out there. So there you go. At Entree Leadership on social. Facebook page, post it wherever. Tag us. We'll see what happens. All right, before we take off, I want to say a big thank you to our friends at InfusionSoft who helped bring you this amazing content week after week.

On behalf of Eric, the producer, engineer Will Rudder, and the entire Entree leadership team, thanks for listening. We'll talk with you again very soon.