Love in Action

Marcel Scwhantes: Six Building Blocks of a High Performance Organization

Marcel shares a compelling leadership model that will get results for leaders and the best out of their employees. These are six building blocks you want to develop in your leaders to create a high-performing organization. Highlights: 1. Display Authenticity Dr. Laub’s research shows that the best leaders display authenticity by being learners. Meaning they are open to input from others, they are transparent, and they are self-aware.  ”By showing up daily with their most authentic selves, they generate trust seamlessly and develop more productive relationships than their less authentic counterparts.”[3:20] 2. Value People True leaders value their people by putting others (their employees!!) before themselves. They believe and trust in their people as well as their strengths, abilities, potential, and commitment to the job. “These leaders value people by maintaining a high view of them, showing them respect, and listening receptively to their needs in a nonjudgmental way.” [4:10] 3. Develop People In our research, we found that they provide for learning and growth, and develop potential and career paths for others. They also model appropriate behavior and build up their people through encouragement and affirmation. “Developing people is a key strength of great leaders.” [5:10] 4. Provide Leadership “Providing leadership is pointing the way forward.”[5:40] Dr. Laub noticed that they will envision the future and use foresight to direct the organization. These leaders take initiative, move out ahead, and they consistently clarify goals and expectations to get to the vision. 5. Share Leadership The strength of great leaders comes from sharing power and decision-making and pushing authority down to empower others. We found in the research that because of their selfless nature, sharing status in relation to position or honor is a given. “Leaders that share leadership use persuasion to influence others instead of coercion.” [6:22] 6. Build Community “Building community can only happen through fostering positive relationships at work.”[7:04]  Dr. Laub said that great leaders relate well to others at all levels. They promote a sense of belonging and connection for all team members, they work collaboratively and emphasize  teamwork, and they value the differences of others differing strengths, expressions, ideas, personalities, and viewpoints. Mentioned in this episode: Servant Leadership Training Course [https://www.marcelschwantes.com/virtual-training/] Marcel Schwantes | Professional Profile | LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelschwantes/] Marcel Schwantes [https://marcelschwantes.com]

Steve Brass: Servant Leaders at WD-40

Highlights: A Pioneer in Servant Leadership Former CEO and global thought leader, Gary Ridge, has retired and he can be noted as the catalyst for the incredible culture and employee engagement at the iconic company WD-40. Gary, as a leader and role model, provided mentorship to Steve Brass since he was 25 years old. As Steve takes over as CEO, how will he follow? "My role is about sustaining success going forward, there is nothing that needs to be fixed. It's really about taking this wonderful business, this wonderful culture, and building on this huge legacy." [11:08] Succession Planning "If it's not properly executed, then the culture suffers." [14:42] Marcel explains how well-planned and executed succession is so important in leadership transitions for huge companies like WD-40. Steve Brass calls this process "Talent Management". Where high-level leaders nurture, grow, and support the talent of their teams. Steve explains the direct transition with Gary Ridge and how the planning, training, and responsibility began over 8 years ago! Culture What makes the WD-40 Company culture so special and a competitive advantage? "We have clearly articulated and lived values, the critical piece is in living them and leaders demonstrating them." [21:05] Steve shares how leaders quarterly write down and discuss how they are living and demonstrating the company values. He explains the inverted organization at the heart of the Servant Leadership Mentality, where the CEO is at the bottom of the structure serving all of the stakeholders above them. Learning Moment Steve explains the way Gary Ridge created immense psychological safety in this global company with "Learning Moments". At WD-40 they don't play the blame game, when mistakes are made there is something to be learned. Marcel agrees that the evidence behind the learning culture, "One of the top reasons people come to your company [WD-40], is because they are seeking career growth and development." [23:50] Leadership in the Pandemic "Looking back at the pandemic, it's going to be one of the biggest periods of learning we've ever had. The agility we've learned by pivoting on a daily basis to meet the challenges of the pandemic is just incredible, and we're a better business because of it."[28:46] Steve explains the changes, adaptations, and challenges they faced during the Pandemic. Now post-pandemic during the Great Resignation, Steve explains they have not experienced a loss of employees because of their positive culture and highlight on employee growth. They have in fact actually strengthened because of remote tools and hiring possibilities. WD-40, Weird Hacks During his research for the episode, Marcel found the WD-40 Fan Club in which they shared over 2000 uses for the product. One is removing pythons from a bus in Thailand!! Steve shares his favorite WD-40 hacks, some recommended and others not so much. "We get people writing in, they use it for arthritis, they use it for their joints…that is not a recommended use by WD-40" [32:55]. Some more practical uses…removing crayon marks from your walls, and bugs from the front of your car! Mentioned in this episode: Steve Brass on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-brass-099a4a28/] WD-40 Company [https://wd40company.com/]

Edward Sullivan: Leading with Heart

Highlights: The Journey Behind Leading with Heart What makes the difference between great leaders and mediocre leaders? In their research Edward Sullivan and coauthor, John Baird found that the nuts and bolts behind effective leaders are authentic connections. Edward Sullivan says, “We found that leaders who are very successful lead with heart and leading with heart isn’t simply being a good guy or it’s not simply caring with a capital C. We found that there are actual specific conversations that people have to create the connective tissue in the workplace that lead to better results.” [9:45] Organic Conversation The way Leading with Heart was written, is to be used as a tool. These conversations and questions are organic, it's more about the conversations than one-liner questions. The book includes conversation starters to create ongoing conversations and dig into the richness behind them. “At the end of the day, leading with heart is about engagement. It’s about conversation. It’s not about interrogation.”, Edward explains the way the book can be used by teams. [15:23] Heart Centered Questions What do you need to be at your best? People like their work when they are treated like individuals and feel seen and as a member of the team. Leaders who promote this check in with their team, assessing and providing what each member might need to do their best work. “You can tell when people like their work… and it’s not because of those superficial benefits.” [19:53]Edward shares the powerful question leaders can ask to support their team. What fears are holding you back? A fear-run organization is going to cause more turnover, less transparency, more politics, and all of the other negativity that is commonly seen in the workplace. Edwards provides a powerful analogy from the book, “If your team is afraid to tell you when they smell smoke, you’re always going to be putting out fires.”[22:08] What desires drive you, and which might derail you? This is the “gas pedal” conversation… It’s the leader's responsibility to ask the questions and start the conversations to figure out what is going to motivate their team and get them going but also be conscious of what might get them off track. Leaders naturally desire acceptance and belonging but can also face the struggle of connection versus having difficult conversations. Edward reiterates by saying, “We can’t let the maintaining the relationship get in the way of maintaining effective performance of the team.” [31:32] What are your greatest gifts? This is the question that gets leaders and team members lighting up. Our gift is something that often goes unappreciated, something that comes so naturally but we don’t value it the way other people might. “As soon as you gain awareness of your gift you start seeing applications for it in many other places in your life, and many other places in the business” [35:24] Edward explains how great leaders can see gifts and use them to add value to not only the business but by allowing their team member to see the gift for themselves as well. What is your purpose? In Leading with Heart, all the previous four questions lead to the why. Get all the other information and feelings out there so that you can determine a real why and a real purpose. To Edward, purpose means how do you wanna leave the world? Who do you want to serve? What impact do you want to have? Edward defines this as, “Ultimately purpose comes down to figuring out how to use your gifts to their highest and best use. In service of something bigger than yourself.” [44:26] Mentioned in this episode: Leading with Heart [https://leadingwithheartbook.com/] Velocity Coaching [https://velocitycoaching.com/]

Marcel Schwantes: 3 Decisions To Be A Better Leader

25 years ago, my leadership skills were on life support, but over time my toxic patterns were broken as I repeatedly chose to perform actions that created value, built community, and increased my influence. Neuroscience and positive psychology research have led us to a better understanding of how to improve our leadership behaviors and shift from a fixed to a growth mindset. To take neuroscience for a test drive and begin to reshape your own brain to become a better leader, there are three time-tested decisions you must make: 1. Practice New Behaviors You become a leader by first unlearning and subtracting old habits. Then shift to a growth mindset, showing curiosity and openness. When you surround yourself with leaders exhibiting character and emotional intelligence — soak up their wisdom, and model new habits and behaviors. Then apply your new learning and knowledge, and add experience to your everyday life. “Application and practice is the key.” [3:40] 2. Change “You must be willing and motivated to change and grow as a leader.” [4:30] Your intentions to become a great leader someday have to be heart-based. In other words, great leaders connect to the hearts of their followers to gain their trust. Both the head and heart need to be in the game. Without the heart, you’re stuck in autocracyland — focusing heavily on the end results while treating people like cogs — and forgetting the relationships that will achieve even greater results while making people’s lives better. 3. Seek Feedback “To develop leadership skills, you must be motivated to seek out and receive feedback from others to see yourself more clearly.” [5:54] This will take great courage. You have to be willing to go down deep to explore old habits and behaviors below the surface that need to be identified and changed. In other words, unlearning and subtracting old behaviors and learning and adding new habits. Which of these ideas do you agree with? What would you add? I’d love for you to continue the conversation on LinkedIn. Tag my name and use #loveinactionpodcast. Let’s keep it going. Mentioned in this episode: Marcel Schwantes | Professional Profile | LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelschwantes/] Marcel Schwantes [https://marcelschwantes.com]

[REPLAY] Frances Frei: Unleashing Empowerment Leadership

Highlights: Leadership and Empowering People True leadership extends beyond being in the trenches. It’s about the ability to empower people even when you’re not around - even after you’re no longer in the company permanently, your influence remains. “Leadership is about empowering other people as a result of your presence and making sure that impact continues into your absence.” [5:46] Empowerment Leadership as a Target Empowerment leadership can be represented by a target - the bullseye being TRUST which is the foundation. Leaders move outward with each ring representing an element that empowers people. The first ring is LOVE with the idea of: How can I set up one other person for success? The next ring is BELONGING: What can I do for a varied group? The next rings are STRATEGY & CULTURE where you truly make a difference with your influence going past the bounds of the organization, rippling out to the customers and the clients where strategy is silent. "It starts with ourselves with trust and it goes all the way past the bounds of the organization with culture." [8:38] Building a Trustworthy Culture Trust is broken down into 3 traits: authenticity, logic & empathy. Each component has a role and what’s prescribed for the lack of empathy cannot cure the diagnosis for authenticity. If your culture is broken, start with trust. Frances describes the role of each component in building a trustworthy culture. “The reason that people haven’t been able to make much progress on trust is they kept trying to move to trust without understanding its very different but comprehensive component parts.” [18:40] Love By Setting High Standards Love is empowering people by setting high standards and revealing deep devotion to them. To bring out someone’s best, they have to feel your high standards as much as your devotion to them. Marcel comments that people often forget the leadership part of servant leadership: high standards and accountability are as important as caring. Both are necessary for a great leader. "Servant leadership in its definition, people only focus on the servant part and forget that the leadership part is setting those high standards and holding people accountable." [23:44] Diversity and Inclusivity in the Workplace One of the strategies that often fails in making a workplace more diverse and inclusive — especially for women — is the recruitment process. Frances shares why the recruitment process fails - they fail to acknowledge that their recruitment system fails in attracting. She stresses that if an organization’s recruitment system is great for attracting men, keep doing that. But if an organization is looking to attract highly qualified women using the same recruitment system, it’s not going to work. Acknowledging who your system attracts is the first step in creating diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. "If women are not applying, your systems are great for attracting men. Keep doing it every time you want to attract men but acknowledge that it's failing at attracting women. So now, how do you recruit differently for different demographics?" [42:31] A Leader’s Takeaway Frances wants leaders to take away this point: if you notice something wrong, address it now. “Meaningful change only happens quickly,” she argues. “Meaningful change happens when the thing you want to change is your number one priority…So when you see something, address it; address it with all your might, close it, & move on to the next thing.” [51:06] Mentioned in this episode: Frances Frei on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesfrei] Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leaders Guide to Empowering Everyone Around [https://www.amazon.com/Unleashed-Unapologetic-Leaders-Empowering-Everyone/dp/1633697045]