Episode 49 - Creating a Culture of Inclusion

Lou Quinto (00:19):

Hi, welcome to Q and A on Breakthrough Leadership. I'm Lou Quinto and I'm Craig Anderson. In today's episode, we're going to cover creating a culture of inclusion. Now, Craig, on a previous episode, you and I have discussed culture a lot. In fact, we had Doctor Darren Martin on talking about the importance of culture when we did our very first Q and a on breakthrough leadership interview. And so we thought that we pick up a little bit more on the culture aspect of being a leader, because when you create a culture of inclusion, you find that your team members all realized the work that they're doing and how important it is to the impact of your total goal. And so whether you're a manufacturer executive or whether you're an accountant or whether you're an attorney or you're a salesperson hitting your numbers becomes very important. And a lot of times leaders spend too much time just focusing on the numbers.

Lou Quinto (01:16):

And we forget about the true team members efforts that are being put forth to be able to hit those numbers. So we're going to cover three areas today on our culture inclusion. And the first one is listening to new ideas. When it comes to creating that culture of inclusion, we need to listen to people's ideas because as we all know, Great leaders don't have the one answer. Everyone's got the answer and we've got to listen to those new ideas. The second area we're going to talk about is hugging the new normal. Now I know Craig, you don't like the term new normal, so we'll just call it the hugging post COVID for your say. And then the last area we're going to cover is knowing what makes your team members tick. So Craig, why don't you kick us off and talk to us about listening to new ideas and how a leader should listen to people's ideas?

Lou Quinto (02:10):

Sure. Lou, as you know, when I was running my business, when I was leading national sales teams, a big focus I had was that I knew I didn't have all the answers because I wasn't in front of our clients every day. I wasn't dealing with what their challenges were. I didn't know what their challenges were with us every day. It was. And, and also as much as we might lay out things that they should do, we can also see it at the frontline of the organization, what things that they were doing that worked, that we weren't thinking of. Because we were kind of at a higher level at 30,000 feet looking down. So it was always really important to me to make sure that we did solicit ideas from the front, if you would, because they were the ones who knew what was going on. And they really knew what the touch points were and the pain points were in the sales conversation or what the needs were from the customer side

Craig P. Anderson (02:10):

Lou Quinto (03:01):

I always believed it was really important

Craig P. Anderson (03:03):

To dive down and dig in, get alongside folks and, you know, frankly, you should go out with them a lot anyway, as it is, but really to get their feedback. And I would open up in sales meetings and say, all right, guys, what's working out there. What are we, what are we finding? That's working and let's share why, and let's talk about how it can work across the organization. And that's why it's so important to listen to those new ideas instead of just thinking you have all the answers,

Lou Quinto (03:25):

Right? Yeah. At one time there used to be something called the suggestion box and that's really dating ourselves in a business model. But there used to be a suggestion box, particularly on a manufacturing floor where people who were actually doing and running the machines in a manufacturing facility would be able to put suggestions in on how to improve something, how to save time, how to save money. And I don't know if I've,ever seen the suggestion box recently in probably the last 20, 25 years that I've been working with different companies, but the suggestion box is something that we need to take virtually now. And as a leader, we need to talk to our people about, on one, on one coaching calls, where are you seeing inefficiencies that you think we can make up ground, or we can save time or we can save money.

Lou Quinto (04:18):

And I think that a leader truly needs to ask for those suggestions and those new ideas, because as we all know, Craig, you know this as well as I do, you get together in a room and group think takes over. And if you ask for suggestions on something, the minute one suggestion comes up, we start our mind takes over that reptilian portion of our brain and wants to protect us from anything that's new or different than it's unique. And we immediately put things down or we talk about all the reasons why things won't work. And what we really need to do is we need to start thinking of the positive things for all of the new ideas that we get so that people know that we're receptive to their new ideas as opposed to, well, yeah, that sounds good. But, and I believe that we hear that more in meetings when it comes to suggestions or anything else,

Craig P. Anderson (05:11):

It may well be. I, well, I think what I would add is kind of a corollary to this whole point is the value in just letting people be heard and soliciting that even if you don't necessarily, even if you do say, but, or you just say that this isn't the right time, I think you often find if people at least feel they're heard and their ideas are considered and weighted in the equation that even if it doesn't go the way they hoped people will come alongside you when, you know, at the end of it. So it's kind of another piece of it that I think brings it all on it. Not every idea that somebody brings to you is a good idea. And disruption, isn't always good just because it's disruptive, but it is very easy. It's very important that your team feel that they're heard and that their voice is valued. And I think that's another piece that really underlines this idea of pulling in the new ideas.

Lou Quinto (06:00):

Yeah. And if I can steal a line from you, I would say that leaders need to be more intentional when it, when it comes to listening to new ideas. And so that's a perfect transition into our next topic and that is hugging the new normal Craig as you and I both know things have changed. Now, we have seen 10 years of progress in just a very few short number of months. We've adapted to things so quickly because we've had to adapt to them. And when it comes to inclusion, you really, as a leader, have to hug that new normal and know that you don't have all of the answers. You don't know what it's going to be like in three weeks from now three months from now, the things are changing constantly. I know Craig and I think I sent you an article today, but you've got companies that are announcing where they originally thought people would start coming back to the office in large groups on January 1st. Now we heard from Salesforce announced that they're going to not bring anybody back until summer of 2021. And so things are constantly changing. And to have that inclusion during this time, because people are working remotely, they're out there by themselves. Inclusion becomes very important. So hugging on to all of the I'll call them issues, problems, concerns that this new normal has created for us is going to become very important for every leader going forth.

Craig P. Anderson (07:31):

Yeah. I don't disagree with you, but I think it's important to realize that these things are a pendulum, right? Where yes, everyone's swinging that way right now, what we're going to do. Like we always do.

Lou Quinto (07:42):

They're not super over corrupt, but we're swinging that way to meet today's current needs. The needs that we have today will start to subside or we'll get more settled in them. And that's when the pendulum is going to start coming down toward the middle because some things will go away and some things will stay.

Craig P. Anderson (08:01):

Yeah. But there is always a tendency to overcorrect, right. That's how we ended up with open offices. Right. And everyone's like, Oh my God, there was a dumbest thing ever. You know, it's like mullets except in the office. So it swings too. You know, there's always a tendency to overcorrect. So we will see things start to come back if Salesforce really, I mean, who knows, right? I'm not Marc Benioff run in Salesforce, but if they're really holding that out till 2021, I'll be impressed. So we'll see where it all goes. I think it's important to be aware of, of where people's concerns are. And I think giving people that kind of psychological safety that implies, Hey, at least, you know, we're willing to go this far. If things don't get to the point where our employees feel safe to come back, that probably takes a burden off and makes feel, people feel good about where they work. Things could change as you know, very rapidly. And, you know, we may come on March and things may have changed very dramatically and people are ready to go back because they're tired of being apart from everybody. So, so we'll see where it goes. But I think the larger lesson is what meeting your people, where they are in the midst of some of these challenging transitions. And I think that piece is a valid point.

Lou Quinto (09:06):

Yeah. And as you and I both know that a lot of people are making decisions and forecasting things into a future that is very cloudy and murky. We don't know what it's going to be like in March of next year. So I truly believe that we need to, no matter what's coming at you as a leader, you need to hug that new normal, because that's going to help you defend any decisions that you've made or any actions that you're taking and bring your people with good communication into that area, where they understand why a decision is being made, going out into the future, which brings us to our next topic. And our last topic is if you really want a culture of inclusion, you need to know what makes people tick. Now, Craig, I know you've read the book, I've read it several times, situational leadership and situational leadership.

Lou Quinto (09:55):

One of the principles that Ken Blanchard and his team talk about is that not everybody is the same. Everybody absorbs information differently. Everybody responds to things differently. And to create that culture of inclusion as a leader, you need to know what motivates your individuals so that this way, in order to them to feel like they're included, you need to be able to understand what really is the sizzle that makes them productive and keeps them active and gets them excited and gets that energy going so that the team can continue to move forward and follow what the goal or the objective that needs to be accomplished.

Craig P. Anderson (10:34):

Sure. I, I believe it speaks to the need to really be in front of your people. We have this tendency as the leadership team to kind of huddle up with the leadership team. And especially when you're sitting in the CEO spot or the president's body, or you're sitting there and that's the people you spend most of your time with, but getting out with your teams, you know, doing God, not the management by walking around. But I think I just talked about that last time, but the, the idea that, you know, being in front of you, people listening to people, giving them that audience, even if it's just a couple of minutes, you can really get more of a pulse of what's going on in the organization and a pulse of what's driving the hopes or the fears or the concerns of your employees or the opportunities that maybe you aren't seeing. And that's where you really start to get that, that pulse of the organization is by actually going out there and being part of the pulse of the organization and showing up. And so many times I think leaders have this tendency to want to stay above it when they really need to weight in as much as they can.

Lou Quinto (11:31):

Yeah. And I think that goes back to things that we've pointed out on several episodes. And that is when it comes to leadership leaders really need to make part of their job description, coaching and mentoring their team members, as opposed to just focusing in on the specific objective and beating people up in a figurative way about we're not making the numbers, we're not hitting this, we're not getting this goal done and really understanding what is it that makes an individual tick and being able to capture that, to create that enthusiasm and that excitement that's going to help push the entire team through. So Henry Ford had a quote that said is if everyone's moving forward together, the success takes care of itself. And that is something when it comes to teamwork, that's a quote that I've always quoted. We all have to be moving forward together.

Lou Quinto (12:24):

And I truly believe when it comes to inclusion gets everybody together. So great. What are your key takeaway on today? And my key takeaway today, and I, I believe underlies all three of these issues is the real importance of leadership presence. Listening, being engaged with your employees, getting input from the field. These are all things that are important towards creating the culture that you want, where employees feel valued. Employees understand that they have a say in what's going on or some influence points into it. And ultimately when they feel that way, you're going to have a more engaged employee base. And we know that engaged employees are more productive. So for me, it's really about being present, not only being present, but in your job description, knowing that you're responsible for creating the culture, the culture that's going to keep the team firing on all cylinders and inclusion, having them feel like they're part of it is number one.

Lou Quinto (13:22):

So my key takeaway is looking not just that your job description and hitting your goals, meeting your deadlines, staying within budget, but creating that culture of inclusion that gets everybody participating in the way that the entire team starts moving forward. All right, Craig, why don't you take a film? Absolutely. Thank you everybody for joining us for today's episode on how to create a culture of inclusion. If you enjoyed today's episode, please like share it with your colleagues and subscribe. So you make sure you catch every episode as, as we drop them on Thursdays around nine 30. Also, if you like to listen to and gather your information while you're driving around, we're on all the major podcasting platforms on under Q and A on Breakthrough Leadership. So until next time I'm Craig Anderson and keep your hands washed. Keep your distance. I'm Lou Quinto

Intro (14:30):