Lead with Culture

Latest Episodes:

Cultivating a Purpose-Driven Team Culture with Justin Konikow, Owner of Prime Real Estate Brokerage Apr 18, 2023

Show notes

“Purpose is the leading indicator of what the culture will be. Start with purpose and then look at how that trickles down into your daily activities, which becomes your culture.”

Justin Konikow, Owner of Prime Brokerage, is on a mission to revolutionize his industry. He’s well on his way, too, because he is crystal clear on his purpose, to be the most trusted name in real estate, and allows that core value to guide his decisions and company culture.

In this episode, Justin discusses how he’s established strong team connections through improved communication and shared principles. Along the way, you’ll hear how he leverages personal and professional goal-setting and simple routines to achieve greater success. Listen in to hear his insights on cultivating a supportive, goal-oriented team environment through clarity and curiosity.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Start with a clear purpose and allow that to drive culture and decisions
Practice what you preach, execute on your promises, and stick to your core values to build an unshakeable culture
Insert yourself into unknown mentor’s ecosystems and slowly find means of connecting with them to build a relationship

Things to Listen for:

[01:20] Start with purpose

[04:58] Building internal and external culture

[08:10] Systemising processes to hire the right people

[16:43] Focusing on the bigger picture

[24:21] Having courageous conversations

[29:28] How to build relationships with mentors

Resources:

Connect with the Guest:

Connect with the Host & Floyd Coaching:

Three Practical Exercises to Improve Your Leadership Today Apr 11, 2023

Show notes

“We all need great ways to reflect on our leadership style so we can then think about how to improve.”

Leadership development is an investment in yourself that you can’t afford not to make a priority. In this episode, Floyd Senior Executive Coach Michele Marquis shares a trio of reflection tools you can immediately incorporate into your leadership toolbox so you can continually grow yourself and your team. Listen in to learn about defining and refining your personal brand and how to access your performance on a regular basis.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How to create and cultivate an intentional personal brand as a leader.
Explore the importance of self-awareness and challenging yourself to become a better leader.
Learn the benefits of rating your performance and regularly taking a leadership inventory.

Things to Listen for:

[04:09] Understanding your personal brand

[10:19] Your leadership inventory

[14:05] Using analysis to increase confidence

[18:00] Rating your performance

[23:46] Accountability and motivation through coaches

Resources:

Connect with the Guest:

Michele Marquis’s LinkedIn

Connect with the Host & Floyd Coaching:

Building Trust Through Open Communication and Transparency with Adam Smith, President of HB McClure Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

“What's right for your people will ultimately be right for your business.”

Adam Smith, President of HB McClure, defines culture as a shared vision of the future, and he’s intentional about listening to his team members to ensure they’re moving forward together to reach their goals.

In this episode, Adam discusses the leadership skills he leverages to create a coaching culture based on trust, transparency, and open communication, even in times of uncertainty. Along the way, he breaks down the challenges and benefits of becoming an ESOP and shares his insights on how to empower employees to add value to the business.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How to empower employees to add value to the business
The challenges and benefits of becoming an ESOP
The importance of aligning everyone in an organization to its mission, vision, and core values

Things to Listen for:

[04:41] Being bold in the face of uncertainty

[08:32] Highlighting the voice of the employee

[18:50] Benefits and challenges of an ESOP

[28:04] Why leaders have to be open to change

[34:56] Leadership lessons from wrestling

Resources:

Connect with the Guest:

Adam Smith’s LinkedIn

Connect with the Host & Floyd Coaching:

Mission is King Mar 28, 2023

Show notes

“A great mission statement on a wall doesn’t guarantee everybody understands the mission, and more importantly, it doesn’t guarantee the life of your organization revolves around it.”

When mission is king in a company, it guides all decisions and allows people to work with a purpose. In this episode, Tony Ferraro, Senior Executive Coach and Director of Training Services at Floyd Consulting, shares what it takes to craft a mission worthy of the crown.

Listen in as Tony breaks down the difference between mission statements and the mission itself, how to bring your mission to life for all employees, and why it should be both aspirational and realistic. Along the way, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the power of an actionable, simple, and connection-oriented mission.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

The subtle differences between mission statements and the mission itself
How to craft a both aspirational and realistic mission
The benefits of letting your mission guide all decision-making

Things to Listen for:

[00:45] Connecting personal and work missions

[09:20] Making mission-guided decisions

[15:04] Crafting aspirational and realistic missions

[22:19] How to understand if your mission is worthy

Resources:

Connect with the Guest:

Tony Ferraro’s LinkedIn

Connect with the Host & Floyd Coaching:

The Value of Conducting Stay Interviews with Hannah Wiscaver, HR Director at TrueScripts Mar 21, 2023

Show notes

"We have an awesome culture, but we never want to rest on our laurels. We always want to continue to get better."

TrueScripts has repeatedly been named one of the Best Places to Work in Indiana, and while that excites Hannah Wiscaver, their HR Director, she’s also determined not to get complacent. Which is why Hannah recently decided to conduct stay interviews to gain valuable insights from employees and ensure the organization continues to improve its culture.

Through her interviews, Hannah learned why people would leave and what they valued most about the organization, including the Dream Manager Program. In this episode, Hannah shares the key steps to follow when implementing stay interviews and a system for conducting them at scale. Listen in to learn the importance of showing your team members that their feedback is valued and how to find new opportunities for growth and advancement.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

The benefits of stay interviews to employees and employers
How to conduct stay interviews at scale
Why communication is key to making any feedback exercise a success

Things to Listen for:

[04:21] Employee responses to stay interviews

[11:32] Implementing team feedback

[17:00] Conducting stay interviews at scale

[24:26] The impact of the Dream Manager Program

Resources:

Connect with the Guest:

Hannah's LinkedIn

Connect with the Host & Floyd Coaching:

The Benefits of Coaching Mar 14, 2023

Show notes

“Coaching is not a magic pill. It’s a collaboration with someone who can help you navigate challenges and identify what you want your life to be like professionally and personally.”

Coaches help leaders develop their teams, make better decisions, and encourage others toward growth and success. In this episode, Floyd Senior Executive Coach Michele Marquis discusses all the benefits of coaching and explains why it has to be viewed as an investment, not an expense. Listen in to hear how an outside perspective can help leaders create action plans, hold them accountable to achieving their goals, and ultimately grow their business.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

What is the importance of setting aside time for intentional thinking
How having a coach keeps leaders moving forward and accountable
Which questions to ask yourself to establish goals and priorities

Things to Listen for:

[00:46] Shifting perspectives on training and development

[05:47] The power of asking great questions

[09:30] Being intentional about “think time”

[16:07] How coaches help identify a path and keep you on it

[20:11] Why a third party person can see what you can’t

[24:55] Questions for leaders to consider

Resources:

Connect with the Guest:

Michele Marquis’s LinkedIn

Connect with the Host & Floyd Coaching:

Prioritizing and Scaling Employee Development with Ochsner Health’s Anne-Marie Skansi Mar 07, 2023

Show notes

"Learning for learning's sake doesn't help, the goal has to be to change your behavior."

Anne-Marie Skansi’s lifelong passion for teaching and education led her to a job in organizational development at Ochsner Health back in 2006. Since then, she’s been named VP of Ochsner’s Learning Institute where she and her team have created a library of resources and learning experiences aimed at prioritizing and scaling employee development.

In this episode, Anne-Marie shares how she uses direct feedback to understand the challenges the leaders in her 36,000+ organization face, so she can leverage a combination of internal resources and external programs to support them. Listen in to learn how to build trust and courage on teams, develop and retain talent, and create connections, all while encouraging constraining learning and growth.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How to use a combination of internal resources and external programs to develop a robust, scalable development program
What strategies can be used to retain talent and build team connections
How to meet the needs of leaders through customized learning experiences

Things to Listen for:

[04:46] The evolution of leadership

[08:48] Asking the right questions and listening to the answers

[14:49] Combining internal resources and external programs

[22:34] How to scale employee development initiatives

[29:52] Cultivating a culture of learning

[34:56] Measuring success based on feedback

Resources:

Connect with the Guest:

Anne-Marie’s LinkedIn

Connect with the Host & Floyd Coaching:

Quiet Quitting Isn’t New, Neither is the Solution Feb 28, 2023

Show notes

“The quick answer to quiet quitting is loud firing.”

Tony Ferraro, Senior Executive Coach and Director of Training Services at Floyd Consulting, says that with a smile because he doesn’t want you to simply start handing out pink slips. He sees quiet quitting as a symptom of a deeper problem, and it’s largely up to the leaders of a company to figure out where they went wrong.

In this episode, Kate Volman and Tony discuss the disconnects between employer and employee that lead to them phoning it in at work. Along the way, they dive deep on the importance of aligning an organization’s mission to that of the people within it and why role descriptions are so critical to supporting growth. Listen in to learn how to help employees understand how their work will help them achieve their dreams, so they buy in and show up with their A-game.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why are 70-71% of workers disengaged, and what can employers do to combat this
How can leaders create an environment that helps employees fulfill their dreams and understand the meaning of their work
What changes are possible when you create accurate role descriptions that leave room for development and growth

Things to Listen for:

[01:27] Unwavering stats around disengagement

[06:44] Focusing on growing your people

[15:46] Why mission has to be king

[16:38] Role descriptions that stretch employees

[24:47] What would solve for 75% of quiet quitting

Resources:

Connect with the Guests:

Tony Ferraro’s LinkedIn

Connect with the Host & Floyd Coaching:

How to Lead with Clear Expectations with Melissa Preisler & Kristen Humphreys of Vita Finance Feb 21, 2023

Show notes

“The end game of any review process is to ensure your staff are continuing to grow and develop and to make sure everyone understands the expectations.”

Melissa Preisler and Kristen Humphreys are Co-Founders and Partners at Vita Finance Services. As a company, they are dedicated to providing peace and financial predictability to business owners.

Melissa, Kristen, and their staff crafted that mission statement as a part of their efforts to define and refine their internal culture. In the process of doing so, they realized that the more they grew, the harder it was to make performance expectations clear. They needed a scaleable, repeatable framework.

In this episode, Melissa and Kristen share the impact implementing a scorecard system has had on the growth and development of their people and their business. Listen in to learn how creating a structure and cadence for direct feedback encourages employees to be self-aware and take ownership of their advancement and performance.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How to use scorecards to facilitate employee growth and development
The importance of tailoring conversations to the psychology of individuals
How creating a framework for feedback lays the foundation for increased self-awareness and ownership

Things to Listen for:

[02:11] Experiences that set Kristen and Melissa up for entrepreneurial success

[07:01] Avoiding ‘shiny object syndrome’

[10:50] Creating a scalable framework for clear expectations

[16:08] Simple but effective scorecards

[18:22] How structure fosters self-awareness and ownership

[27:17] Why you should never stop evolving your processes

[31:36] Skills every leader should work on

[34:14] Final thoughts from Kate

Resources:

Connect with the Guests:

Connect with the Host & Floyd Coaching:

Becoming a “Best Place to Work” with Travis Snyder, Dream Manager at TrueScripts Management Services Feb 14, 2023

Show notes

“We want people to feel comfortable being themselves, and we want them to know how invested we are in them.”

Travis Snyder has a mission: to take care of TrueScripts’ employees and make sure they feel valued and cared for.

In this episode, Kate Volman talks with Travis about his role as Dream Manager at TrueScripts and how through the program, he has been able to help fund dreams of mission trips, publishing books, and even a first vacation for an employee's brother.

As a full-time Dream Manager, Travis can attest to the program's impact and knows it played a large part in TrueScripts being named the best place to work in Indiana for medium-sized companies in 2022. Listen in for more on how Travis has been able to make dreams come true and create a lasting impact on countless lives.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

Why the Dream Manager program is so important to employee culture
How TrueScripts is setting the bar for company culture
How the Dream Manager program can help people become better role models for their family and friends

Things to Listen for:

[03:58] The uniqueness of having a full-time Dream Manager on staff

[06:24] TrueScripts’ Dreamstorm outcomes

[07:54] The ROI of the Dream Manager program

[12:29] Empowering employees and making them feel valued

[16:20] What Travis is most proud of accomplishing over the past year

[21:05] Final thoughts from Kate

Resources:

Floyd Coaching - https://www.floydconsulting.com/

The Dream Manager Program - https://www.thedreammanager.com/

The Culture Assessment - https://www.floydconsulting.com/culture

Matthew Kelly’s Books - https://www.floydconsulting.com/books