Latest / Something Extra / Led by Humility, Driven by Value w/ Tom Manenti

Transcript

Led by Humility, Driven by Value w/ Tom Manenti · Something Extra

0:00
Tom Manenti: Well, the ten ten ten rule is simply it may take you
0:05
Tom Manenti: ten months to get a customer.
0:07
Tom Manenti: You can lose them in ten seconds.
0:10
Tom Manenti: And if you're if you're lucky, you might get them back in ten years.
0:15
Tom Manenti: And so it just goes to show you, choose your words and everything because,
0:18
Tom Manenti: you know, you can say the wrong thing in less than ten seconds.
0:24
Lisa Nichols: It takes something a little more to lead with impact.
0:28
Lisa Nichols: I'm Lisa Nichols, author of Something Extra, and this podcast
0:32
Lisa Nichols: was inspired by our daughter, Allie, whose additional chromosome has shaped
0:36
Lisa Nichols: how I see people in leadership.
0:39
Lisa Nichols: Each episode features features conversations with inspiring leaders from around the world
0:43
Lisa Nichols: about what truly defines how they lead and serve others.
0:47
Lisa Nichols: If you enjoyed today's conversation, please consider leaving a five
0:51
Lisa Nichols: star review.
0:52
Lisa Nichols: It helps more people discover the show.
0:55
Lisa Nichols: And if you'd like to go deeper, my book, Something Extra, is available on
0:59
Lisa Nichols: Amazon and through other major book retailers.
1:04
Lisa Nichols: Our guest today has a career story that reads like a master class in
1:08
Lisa Nichols: leadership.
1:09
Lisa Nichols: After forty years at MiTek, former chairman and CEO, Tom Manenti,
1:14
Lisa Nichols: is widely recognized for his people first philosophy and his unique
1:18
Lisa Nichols: experience reporting directly to Warren Buffett.
1:21
Lisa Nichols: Tom brings a unique perspective on what it actually takes to build a world
1:25
Lisa Nichols: class organization and a legacy that transcends business success.
1:29
Lisa Nichols: Well, Tom Manenti,
1:31
Lisa Nichols: welcome, my friend, to the something extra podcast.
1:35
Lisa Nichols: I am so delighted we can make this work today.
1:38
Tom Manenti: Thank you for inviting me.
1:40
Lisa Nichols: I just been looking forward to this conversation so much because Greg
1:44
Lisa Nichols: and I have I don't even know how long, but I know that
1:49
Lisa Nichols: even when you were the CEO of MiTek, we were a partner for you
1:52
Lisa Nichols: guys, and then we know each other.
1:54
Lisa Nichols: You and I serve on the board for the CEO forum.
1:57
Lisa Nichols: We've got many different avenues that our lives have crossed.
2:02
Lisa Nichols: And just, Tom, every time we're with you guys, I mean, we just come
2:05
Lisa Nichols: we're richer people because you guys are in our life.
2:08
Lisa Nichols: And I'm just grateful, and I'm just excited to share you with all of
2:12
Lisa Nichols: our listeners today and all your wisdom.
2:15
Tom Manenti: Thank you, Lisa.
2:17
Lisa Nichols: Well, let's talk about this.
2:19
Lisa Nichols: So you did not grow up in Saint Louis.
2:21
Lisa Nichols: You grew up in the Bronx?
2:23
Tom Manenti: I did.
2:24
Lisa Nichols: In New Jersey.
2:25
Tom Manenti: Right.
2:26
Lisa Nichols: Yeah?
2:27
Lisa Nichols: No way.
2:27
Lisa Nichols: Tell me a little bit about growing up.
2:30
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
2:30
Tom Manenti: I grew up in, in the Bronx about, five blocks from Yankee Stadium.
2:35
Tom Manenti: And,
2:37
Tom Manenti: obviously, we're big baseball baseball fans, and, we lived
2:41
Tom Manenti: there until I was eight years old, and then we moved to
2:45
Tom Manenti: New Jersey.
2:46
Tom Manenti: And my mother was, she was sick.
2:49
Tom Manenti: She had, she was asthmatic and, it's my birth mother.
2:54
Tom Manenti: I was blessed to have, you know, two two mothers really in my life.
2:58
Tom Manenti: But and so we moved to New Jersey to try to help her.
3:01
Tom Manenti: And
3:02
Tom Manenti: after a year in New Jersey, she passed away and which was a huge,
3:07
Tom Manenti: disruption in in our family.
3:10
Tom Manenti: I have an older sister, so the she's three years older than me.
3:14
Tom Manenti: And, you know, we were just left without a mom.
3:17
Tom Manenti: So we moved from the Bronx to New Jersey, and we
3:21
Tom Manenti: that was, you know, like, moving to the country, and it was very foreign
3:24
Tom Manenti: to us.
3:25
Tom Manenti: And, and then we had this big, you know, rock kinda fall on us,
3:29
Tom Manenti: in September nineteen sixty.
3:31
Tom Manenti: And, and but we we got through all that in actually a
3:35
Tom Manenti: a very positive way, which, was a real blessing in our lives.
3:40
Tom Manenti: Mhmm.
3:41
Lisa Nichols: Did your sister somewhat Tom's kinda step in as the
3:45
Lisa Nichols: surrogate mom to so to speak?
3:47
Tom Manenti: Well, yeah, she's she is the consummate big sister.
3:50
Tom Manenti: We're very close to this day.
3:52
Tom Manenti: We can't go a day without texting each other at least.
3:55
Tom Manenti: But,
3:57
Tom Manenti: but my my dad realized that we were still kids, and he had
4:01
Tom Manenti: my grandparents.
4:02
Tom Manenti: My Sicilian,
4:04
Tom Manenti: old world grandparents moved from the Bronx over to New Jersey, and my
4:08
Tom Manenti: grandfather was a barber.
4:09
Tom Manenti: He he's a retired barber because he had a stroke a couple years before
4:13
Tom Manenti: that.
4:14
Tom Manenti: So my grandmother became, she was very vocal about this.
4:18
Tom Manenti: She was now the mother of the house, you know, And it didn't it
4:21
Tom Manenti: didn't sit well with my sister, quite frankly.
4:24
Tom Manenti: Oh.
4:24
Tom Manenti: She had a she struggled with that a little bit.
4:26
Tom Manenti: And, but you know what?
4:28
Tom Manenti: Everything, eventually really worked out for the best.
4:32
Tom Manenti: And, it's hard to say that when there's been a death like that in
4:35
Tom Manenti: the family, but we've been we were very fortunate for that.
4:38
Tom Manenti: Mhmm.
4:41
Lisa Nichols: That's tough, you know, at that age at any age to lose a mom,
4:45
Lisa Nichols: but certainly as a young young boy, that that had to been really difficult.
4:49
Lisa Nichols: Well, I know that you eventually moved to Indiana
4:53
Lisa Nichols: in nineteen seventy seven.
4:55
Tom Manenti: I did.
4:56
Lisa Nichols: That was a huge cultural shift, wasn't
5:00
Lisa Nichols: it?
5:00
Tom Manenti: It it sure was.
5:01
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
5:01
Tom Manenti: Well I took a job.
5:03
Tom Manenti: I was working in the post office in, in this little New
5:07
Tom Manenti: Jersey shore town called Hazlett, and,
5:11
Tom Manenti: I worked I always worked two jobs at least.
5:13
Tom Manenti: I was actually working three jobs at the time.
5:16
Tom Manenti: I'm not counting my my reserve military duty that I was also doing at
5:20
Tom Manenti: the time.
5:21
Tom Manenti: And I was, working in a gas station, and a guy pulled in one
5:24
Tom Manenti: day I knew, and we were talking.
5:25
Tom Manenti: And I was maybe having a little bit of a rough patch at, working
5:29
Tom Manenti: in the post office.
5:30
Tom Manenti: I don't know what that would have been about, but, I I asked him.
5:33
Tom Manenti: I said, hey.
5:33
Tom Manenti: How do I get a job like yours?
5:35
Tom Manenti: And long story short, I got him a resume, and they had
5:39
Tom Manenti: an opening in Indiana.
5:40
Tom Manenti: And I almost didn't take the job because I thought, what company would
5:44
Tom Manenti: I wanna work for that would hire me as a salesman?
5:48
Tom Manenti: My background was accounting.
5:49
Tom Manenti: I was working in post office, and I'm thinking, you know, this gotta be
5:52
Tom Manenti: a a dysfunctional company.
5:54
Tom Manenti: But the guy hired me and and, yeah, moved to Indiana, and I had
5:58
Tom Manenti: a sales territory.
5:59
Tom Manenti: All the great lakes states became my sales territory, and I learned the business.
6:03
Tom Manenti: And I just started real really at the bottom of the ladder.
6:07
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
6:07
Lisa Nichols: I love that.
6:08
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
6:08
Lisa Nichols: You've got some stories on sales, and we're gonna get into that.
6:11
Lisa Nichols: You've got some philosophies there.
6:14
Lisa Nichols: But, you know, one thing that I read, Tom, it was a cultural shift
6:18
Lisa Nichols: because you said that it was an other's way of thinking.
6:24
Lisa Nichols: Thinking outside yourself, thinking about others.
6:27
Lisa Nichols: Right?
6:27
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
6:28
Lisa Nichols: And and I also think and I think, I mean, Tom, for as long
6:32
Lisa Nichols: as I've known you, this is, really the bedrock of who
6:36
Lisa Nichols: you and Kathy are.
6:37
Lisa Nichols: But I know that I read also that you found faith in
6:41
Lisa Nichols: Indiana in nineteen seventy eight.
6:44
Tom Manenti: It's true.
6:44
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
6:45
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
6:45
Tom Manenti: That it it was I was raised Roman Catholic and, which I've
6:49
Tom Manenti: always been grateful for, the things I learned, growing up in the
6:53
Tom Manenti: Roman Catholic church.
6:55
Tom Manenti: But, it was there was something lacking.
6:58
Tom Manenti: And and in Indiana, it was different.
7:00
Tom Manenti: Even the Roman Catholic church was different.
7:02
Tom Manenti: I I started going to a Roman Catholic church in, Mishawaka,
7:06
Tom Manenti: Indiana, sister city to South Bend.
7:08
Tom Manenti: And, and, you know, he's just sitting with the I I went
7:12
Tom Manenti: I went to confession one day and just sat in the pew right next
7:16
Tom Manenti: to the priest and had a conversation with him.
7:19
Tom Manenti: It wasn't you know, I didn't go to a booth and do all this
7:22
Tom Manenti: other stuff, and it was like, wow.
7:23
Tom Manenti: This is really different.
7:25
Tom Manenti: So I obviously was, had something inside me that was seeking,
7:29
Tom Manenti: you know, my faith you know, something in faith different from what I had,
7:34
Tom Manenti: traditionally done.
7:35
Tom Manenti: And then a friend from back in New Jersey actually had led me to
7:38
Tom Manenti: faith in Jesus Christ in October nineteen seventy eight,
7:42
Tom Manenti: and that started that journey, which, has been, you know, just
7:46
Tom Manenti: something I treasure.
7:48
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
7:49
Lisa Nichols: It changes everything, doesn't it, Tom?
7:51
Tom Manenti: It did.
7:51
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
7:52
Lisa Nichols: It really changes everything.
7:54
Lisa Nichols: Well, looking back now, how do you think, you
7:59
Lisa Nichols: know, how do you think accepting Jesus reshaped your leadership
8:03
Lisa Nichols: philosophy?
8:04
Lisa Nichols: Everything that you've done since since that time, what are some of the things?
8:08
Lisa Nichols: How did it shape you reshape you?
8:10
Tom Manenti: You know, it it made me you know, once I started to be more
8:14
Tom Manenti: serious about my faith, you know, it's it's one thing to actually,
8:19
Tom Manenti: you know, go through that salvation, you know, process, but it's another
8:23
Tom Manenti: thing to, you know, start navigating through.
8:26
Tom Manenti: And and I didn't have anybody really to disciple me, so to speak.
8:30
Tom Manenti: So a lot of it was just, you know, self reading.
8:32
Tom Manenti: I was a a voracious reader anyway.
8:35
Tom Manenti: So, you know, I would read in the Bible and I read commentaries and
8:38
Tom Manenti: things like that, and I realized that there was a there was a way
8:41
Tom Manenti: of life.
8:41
Tom Manenti: You you don't, you know, you don't, you know, get faith in Jesus
8:46
Tom Manenti: by doing something because he already did it.
8:48
Tom Manenti: So Yes.
8:49
Tom Manenti: You just get it by by believing, by having faith in what he did
8:53
Tom Manenti: for me, identifying, with his substitution for me.
8:57
Tom Manenti: And that really made me think, well, there's a you know,
9:02
Tom Manenti: nobody says there's a code of conduct conduct, but you come to realize there
9:05
Tom Manenti: is.
9:06
Tom Manenti: And God was really good.
9:07
Tom Manenti: He he just took a lot of things, a lot of desires for things
9:10
Tom Manenti: away from me and, like, things that just didn't matter anymore.
9:15
Tom Manenti: And that's really what got me, and helped me so much in business.
9:18
Tom Manenti: You know, the first thing I had to overcome was the the peer pressure.
9:22
Tom Manenti: You know, when somebody wants to ridicule you for now this, oh, now you
9:26
Tom Manenti: you know, now you're a Jesus freak or you're a bible thumper or something
9:29
Tom Manenti: like that and not taking the bait.
9:31
Tom Manenti: And that wasn't easy.
9:33
Tom Manenti: And, fortunately, I had some people that I had learned to reach out to,
9:36
Tom Manenti: my friend back in New Jersey and and some others and my customers.
9:40
Tom Manenti: I mean, here I am in the Midwest, and I'm calling on customers, and
9:43
Tom Manenti: I'm starting to realize that they, you know, have the same
9:48
Tom Manenti: faith that I have, but they've they're way, way more
9:52
Tom Manenti: advanced.
9:52
Tom Manenti: I mean, when I met Kathy, it was, you know, really the the biggest
9:56
Tom Manenti: transformation because she really guided me, through this,
10:00
Tom Manenti: Protestant faith that I had that wasn't, linked to a Roman
10:04
Tom Manenti: Catholic church.
10:05
Tom Manenti: So Yeah.
10:05
Tom Manenti: So I started acting differently.
10:07
Tom Manenti: And and and then realizing that I had to I either had to give
10:10
Tom Manenti: in and compromise,
10:14
Tom Manenti: my beliefs or my values, but that never set
10:18
Tom Manenti: that never really felt right to me.
10:20
Tom Manenti: You know?
10:20
Tom Manenti: So I so I would just stand and say, well, you know, I believe
10:24
Tom Manenti: what I believe.
10:24
Tom Manenti: You know?
10:25
Tom Manenti: And Yeah.
10:25
Tom Manenti: If you wanna know more about them, happy to talk to you about it.
10:28
Tom Manenti: You know?
10:28
Lisa Nichols: And Yeah.
10:29
Tom Manenti: Usually, they go running when you start asking.
10:32
Lisa Nichols: But I bet you learned a lot from your customers.
10:35
Lisa Nichols: You had Oh my god.
10:35
Tom Manenti: You were able
10:36
Lisa Nichols: to have those conversations.
10:37
Lisa Nichols: Right?
10:39
Tom Manenti: And yeah.
10:39
Tom Manenti: I had a customer in in Canton, Ohio.
10:43
Tom Manenti: I have to ask John Beckett if he if he knew this customer of
10:46
Tom Manenti: mine, but he was raised Amish.
10:49
Tom Manenti: And, he was a big customer.
10:51
Tom Manenti: And I knew that he had been, he was very religious man as they
10:55
Tom Manenti: say.
10:55
Tom Manenti: And Mhmm.
10:56
Tom Manenti: So I was a bit intimidated.
10:58
Tom Manenti: He was oh my gosh.
11:00
Tom Manenti: He just literally took me under his wing.
11:02
Tom Manenti: If I had a question, he had a sermon for it, you
11:06
Tom Manenti: know, as a response, but he was he was not pretentious
11:11
Tom Manenti: at all.
11:11
Tom Manenti: I mean, wouldn't know if that the man had two nickels to rub rub
11:14
Tom Manenti: together, let alone, you know, tens of millions of dollars.
11:18
Tom Manenti: You know?
11:18
Tom Manenti: Mhmm.
11:19
Tom Manenti: That kind of a relationship.
11:20
Tom Manenti: And, and I I reached out to him many times over the years.
11:23
Tom Manenti: He went to be with Jesus about five years ago, but,
11:27
Tom Manenti: I still keep in touch with, his sons and, some other folks from his
11:31
Tom Manenti: company.
11:32
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
11:33
Lisa Nichols: Well, we're gonna talk we're gonna get deeper into that because,
11:37
Lisa Nichols: you know, it it the legacy that you're leaving behind, that
11:41
Lisa Nichols: you are building to leave behind, Tom, you know, is
11:45
Lisa Nichols: faith runs through that.
11:47
Lisa Nichols: I mean, that thread of faith and what you're doing with your grandkids.
11:50
Lisa Nichols: So I wanna talk about all that.
11:52
Lisa Nichols: But let's talk a little bit about just work.
11:55
Lisa Nichols: So I know you said that you have a degree in accounting and business
11:58
Lisa Nichols: administration.
11:58
Lisa Nichols: You had some post grad work at Wharton.
12:00
Tom Manenti: Right.
12:01
Lisa Nichols: Great school.
12:02
Lisa Nichols: But, you you worked for Guinness Harp.
12:05
Lisa Nichols: You also worked for Gang-Nail.
12:07
Lisa Nichols: I think you worked for Gang-Nail where you were over sales for nineteen
12:11
Lisa Nichols: different states.
12:12
Lisa Nichols: Right?
12:13
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
12:13
Tom Manenti: Gang-Nail was one of the legacy companies of MiTek.
12:16
Tom Manenti: Yes.
12:17
Tom Manenti: MiTek was formed as a holding company here in St.
12:20
Tom Manenti: Louis, and they owned one of two of our competitors, actually.
12:24
Tom Manenti: And then we became part of the MiTek family, but we all had our
12:27
Tom Manenti: own brands.
12:28
Tom Manenti: It was kind of interesting navigating through that in the marketplace.
12:32
Tom Manenti: You know, the customers are not stupid.
12:33
Tom Manenti: They realize they real they think you're they think you're trying to create a
12:37
Tom Manenti: monopoly.
12:38
Tom Manenti: And we weren't trying to create a monopoly, but we were trying to,
12:42
Tom Manenti: consolidate and make a little bit more sense out of you know, there were
12:46
Tom Manenti: twenty two companies that did what we did at that time.
12:49
Tom Manenti: And, so even though there were three of us that had kinda joined
12:53
Tom Manenti: forces, you know, there's still another, you know, nineteen out there that we had
12:57
Tom Manenti: to compete against.
12:59
Lisa Nichols: Right.
12:59
Tom Manenti: We were so and we ultimately did in nineteen ninety one,
13:04
Tom Manenti: we, we did away with the, individual brands.
13:07
Tom Manenti: So Gang-Nail went away as a brand.
13:09
Tom Manenti: The St.
13:10
Tom Manenti: Louis company Hydro-Air went away as a brand, and, and then another
13:14
Tom Manenti: one we had called PanelClip.
13:16
Tom Manenti: And we just all went under the MiTek banner.
13:18
Tom Manenti: So, you know, that all took place.
13:20
Tom Manenti: I I started in sales.
13:23
Tom Manenti: I was in the field as a field sales guy for six years.
13:27
Tom Manenti: I got more states.
13:28
Tom Manenti: I got more responsibilities.
13:30
Tom Manenti: There were different divisions.
13:31
Tom Manenti: I started covering sales for different divisions.
13:34
Tom Manenti: And then I my first sales management position, I was transferred
13:38
Tom Manenti: to Miami where the headquarters of Gang-Nail was, And I was still
13:42
Tom Manenti: the low guy.
13:43
Tom Manenti: I was now I was the, the sales manager of the smallest
13:47
Tom Manenti: division in the company.
13:49
Tom Manenti: And then, eventually, I became director of sales for all of it and
13:53
Tom Manenti: then then VP of sales.
13:54
Tom Manenti: And then, ultimately, I became president of Gang-Nail.
13:57
Lisa Nichols: Yes.
13:57
Lisa Nichols: Right.
13:57
Tom Manenti: So that so I was president of Gang-Nail when we decided, and there was
14:01
Tom Manenti: a president of Hydro-Air and a president of P anel clip, and we decided to consolidate.
14:06
Tom Manenti: So that's how that was kind of the evolution of my career and how
14:09
Tom Manenti: I ended up in St.
14:09
Tom Manenti: Louis when we consolidated everything.
14:13
Tom Manenti: Gene Toombs was already working for the company.
14:15
Tom Manenti: He had been he had been running another division of,
14:20
Tom Manenti: started as Gang-Nail , but of MiTek .
14:22
Tom Manenti: And it was a wood products division where our products were mostly metal products
14:26
Tom Manenti: and machinery.
14:27
Tom Manenti: And, Gene and that business was doing terrible, and Gene was hired to either
14:31
Tom Manenti: fix it or sell it.
14:33
Tom Manenti: And, it was unfixable, and he told, the, the
14:37
Tom Manenti: owner of our company at the time was Paul Cornellson who is a lifelong
14:41
Tom Manenti: St.
14:41
Tom Manenti: Louis guy.
14:41
Tom Manenti: He was the number two man at Ralston Purina, and,
14:46
Tom Manenti: and he left and bought this company that was failing.
14:48
Tom Manenti: And he he he brought it back to life, and he hired Gene.
14:52
Tom Manenti: And then Gene said we have to sell it.
14:53
Tom Manenti: So we sold that company, and then Gene ended up my that was the
14:56
Tom Manenti: first time he ended up my boss.
14:57
Tom Manenti: So when we consolidated and I came to St.
14:59
Tom Manenti: Louis,
15:01
Tom Manenti: we split the country into three divisions, and I had one of the divisions.
15:05
Tom Manenti: So I went from a president of a business unit to a vice president
15:08
Tom Manenti: of the eastern division.
15:10
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
15:11
Tom Manenti: And then, that's kinda how it all evolved.
15:13
Tom Manenti: And that's how I got to know Gene, but I knew him before.
15:16
Tom Manenti: In fact, I was actually I actually advised him.
15:19
Tom Manenti: He would ask me, you know, how to navigate through some of this industry
15:22
Tom Manenti: stuff that he knew nothing about.
15:23
Tom Manenti: But he was a he was a quick study, and and he he he
15:27
Tom Manenti: learned he learned a little bit from me, and I learned an awful lot
15:30
Tom Manenti: from him.
15:30
Lisa Nichols: Isn't that the way it goes?
15:32
Lisa Nichols: Isn't that the way it goes?
15:33
Lisa Nichols: You know?
15:34
Lisa Nichols: I mean, mentor, mentee, you know, you learn as much.
15:37
Lisa Nichols: Right?
15:39
Lisa Nichols: Love Gene Toomes.
15:40
Lisa Nichols: You know, I served on the junior team up board with him for a
15:43
Lisa Nichols: while and,
15:46
Lisa Nichols: loved him.
15:46
Lisa Nichols: And, of course, you know, I had an affinity for him immediately because my
15:50
Lisa Nichols: dad's name was Gene.
15:51
Lisa Nichols: Uh-huh.
15:51
Lisa Nichols: And I would always tell him, yeah, my dad actually got to meet him
15:55
Lisa Nichols: one time before he passed away.
15:57
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
15:58
Lisa Nichols: Before my dad passed away, and then, of course, Jean passed away a few
16:01
Lisa Nichols: years ago.
16:01
Lisa Nichols: But let's talk about MiTek a little bit because MiTek is really known for
16:05
Lisa Nichols: its strong culture and core values.
16:10
Lisa Nichols: You know, why what were the four the I think there were seven core
16:14
Lisa Nichols: values.
16:15
Tom Manenti: Oh, gosh.
16:16
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
16:16
Lisa Nichols: That and you say the core values are unchangeable.
16:19
Lisa Nichols: Right?
16:20
Lisa Nichols: The way that we go about things can change because methods change, but the
16:24
Lisa Nichols: core values themselves.
16:25
Lisa Nichols: Well, do you remember some of those core values?
16:27
Lisa Nichols: I'm sure you do.
16:28
Tom Manenti: Oh, yeah.
16:28
Tom Manenti: Well, the number one, I still remember how we've how we how we came
16:31
Tom Manenti: up with those core values.
16:32
Tom Manenti: You know, I I I had left MiTek for a short for about
16:37
Tom Manenti: eighteen months.
16:37
Tom Manenti: I actually was still a con I was still working on a big project
16:40
Tom Manenti: for MiTek.
16:41
Tom Manenti: The whole eighteen months, I wasn't actually employed by MiTek.
16:44
Tom Manenti: And, and then Gene called and asked me to come back because he wanted to
16:48
Tom Manenti: retire, in a year or two, and he wanted me to come back to
16:51
Tom Manenti: be CEO.
16:52
Tom Manenti: So, which I actually didn't wanna do.
16:54
Tom Manenti: I didn't wanna come back, and Kathy didn't want me to go back.
16:57
Tom Manenti: And then, a lot of prayer about that Yes.
17:00
Tom Manenti: Was because, we would have an opportunity to put a little bit of
17:04
Tom Manenti: a different, flavor on on on the culture.
17:07
Tom Manenti: Mhmm.
17:08
Tom Manenti: And, and when we, when I came back and I actually just, I was
17:12
Tom Manenti: attending a sales meeting as an observer.
17:14
Tom Manenti: I was just you know, I knew a lot of the guys from the
17:16
Tom Manenti: old days, you know, when I was there and running the sales department.
17:20
Tom Manenti: And, and we went through an exercise to identify
17:24
Tom Manenti: core values for the company.
17:26
Tom Manenti: And I thought this is really cool.
17:27
Tom Manenti: This is something I would have wanted to do once I became CEO,
17:32
Tom Manenti: And but we we did it.
17:34
Tom Manenti: And, and with thirty five in the room, we broke up into seven,
17:39
Tom Manenti: groups of five.
17:40
Tom Manenti: They even insisted that I'd be part of one of the groups.
17:43
Tom Manenti: But they identified all these candidate core values, You know, all the kinds
17:47
Tom Manenti: of ones that you would think of teamwork and all the all the all
17:50
Tom Manenti: the things.
17:51
Tom Manenti: And what I was most proud of all the time, you know, I was
17:54
Tom Manenti: there from that point through my career as CEO, it was that unanimously,
17:59
Tom Manenti: this team of thirty five picked integrity as number one.
18:03
Tom Manenti: Oh.
18:03
Tom Manenti: And that meant a lot to me.
18:05
Tom Manenti: Yes.
18:05
Tom Manenti: So it was, you know, it's integrity.
18:08
Tom Manenti: It was,
18:09
Tom Manenti: it was a a passion for excellence.
18:12
Tom Manenti: It was a a commitment to the customer.
18:16
Tom Manenti: It was, you know, ownership minded.
18:18
Tom Manenti: It it was there were values where I don't remember every one of them,
18:21
Tom Manenti: but there were seven core values that we came up with, and it all
18:24
Tom Manenti: were very, very special.
18:26
Lisa Nichols: Well, Tom, let me ask you this.
18:28
Lisa Nichols: You know, and Drucker, right, famously said culture will eat strategy
18:32
Lisa Nichols: for breakfast.
18:34
Lisa Nichols: Why is culture
18:36
Lisa Nichols: so I mean, strategy is important too.
18:39
Lisa Nichols: But I think it's cultures that every bit is important, if not a little
18:43
Lisa Nichols: bit more.
18:43
Lisa Nichols: You know, even in strategy, you can have a great strategy.
18:46
Lisa Nichols: But if you got a lousy culture,
18:49
Lisa Nichols: why why is that important?
18:52
Tom Manenti: Well,
18:55
Tom Manenti: culture is insidious in both a good way and a bad way.
18:58
Lisa Nichols: Yes.
18:59
Tom Manenti: Culture actually, is like a living organism in your organization,
19:03
Tom Manenti: and it can it can be very disruptive if it's not the right culture.
19:07
Tom Manenti: We had a great culture at MiTek.
19:10
Tom Manenti: Gene did a great job of instilling, you know, in us that
19:14
Tom Manenti: customers were so important.
19:17
Tom Manenti: It wasn't always like that, because, you know, the, you know, predecessor to
19:21
Tom Manenti: Gene was more of an operations guy.
19:23
Tom Manenti: So it was more about financial stability.
19:25
Tom Manenti: It wasn't real.
19:26
Tom Manenti: The customers were a means to an end instead of really being the prize.
19:29
Tom Manenti: The customers are the prize.
19:31
Tom Manenti: You know?
19:31
Tom Manenti: And and Gene, he he really instilled that,
19:35
Tom Manenti: to the point where that never went away.
19:37
Tom Manenti: I always said we started at with entrepreneurs.
19:40
Tom Manenti: You know, so we were just, you know, that kind of a company.
19:42
Tom Manenti: We were, sort of an innovative
19:46
Tom Manenti: company, and then then we became a a process driven company and financially
19:50
Tom Manenti: driven.
19:51
Tom Manenti: And then under Gene, we became a customer driven company.
19:55
Tom Manenti: And then I wanted us to be a value driven company.
19:57
Tom Manenti: I wanted us and and and none of the others ever went away.
20:00
Tom Manenti: They nested is what happened.
20:02
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
20:02
Lisa Nichols: You need them all.
20:03
Tom Manenti: Every one of them.
20:04
Tom Manenti: So it wasn't calling us.
20:06
Tom Manenti: I always displayed them in a you're never in in in that kind of
20:09
Tom Manenti: an order, but always in a, you know, continuum because they're constantly,
20:14
Tom Manenti: you know, connected with one another.
20:16
Tom Manenti: And and culture just really,
20:19
Tom Manenti: it just made all the difference in the world.
20:22
Tom Manenti: We
20:24
Tom Manenti: it's because you want people to come to work because they want
20:28
Tom Manenti: to come to work, not just because they have to come to work.
20:31
Lisa Nichols: Right.
20:32
Tom Manenti: And, and that was one of the things, I I had a friend that
20:36
Tom Manenti: would say, you can get up in the morning and go, oh, I have
20:38
Tom Manenti: to go to MiTek today.
20:40
Tom Manenti: Or you can get up in the morning and say, I get to go
20:42
Tom Manenti: to MiTek today.
20:44
Tom Manenti: And that's a big difference.
20:45
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
20:46
Tom Manenti: I talked I've talked to other people that you you and I both know
20:49
Tom Manenti: together, and yourself as well.
20:51
Tom Manenti: You and Greg are an example of that.
20:53
Tom Manenti: And, you know, we I always wanted to make sure people didn't come to MiTek
20:58
Tom Manenti: every day just because it was a job.
21:00
Tom Manenti: Yes.
21:01
Tom Manenti: For the first time they got an offer for more money that they were
21:04
Tom Manenti: gonna leave, I I I really, felt great about
21:08
Tom Manenti: finding out that people were being approached and not leaving
21:12
Tom Manenti: because they didn't wanna leave, because we actually
21:16
Tom Manenti: believe that everybody, was entitled to dignity
21:20
Tom Manenti: and respect regardless of their role in the company.
21:23
Tom Manenti: It did it didn't matter if you were the CEO, if you were the
21:27
Tom Manenti: head of sales, if you were a packer on the stamping line, or,
21:31
Tom Manenti: you know, whatever it might have been.
21:33
Tom Manenti: And, we started to really get that.
21:36
Tom Manenti: It took about five years to really see it on autopilot.
21:41
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
21:41
Lisa Nichols: That's so good.
21:43
Lisa Nichols: That is so good.
21:45
Lisa Nichols: Well, you know, I know that one of your philosophies,
21:49
Lisa Nichols: Tom, was empowerment.
21:51
Lisa Nichols: And you said almost to the point of abdication.
21:55
Lisa Nichols: In fact, I read something that said, sometimes I felt like, wow.
21:59
Lisa Nichols: You know, it really felt like you weren't doing anything because you
22:03
Lisa Nichols: you had abdicated.
22:05
Lisa Nichols: But why is healthy empowerment?
22:07
Lisa Nichols: What does that really look like?
22:08
Lisa Nichols: And I do think it's important.
22:11
Lisa Nichols: People want to have that ownership.
22:13
Lisa Nichols: Right?
22:14
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
22:14
Tom Manenti: Absolutely.
22:15
Tom Manenti: It's one it's one of my most favorite things to talk about.
22:20
Tom Manenti: Empowerment, you can't pay lip service to that.
22:23
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
22:24
Tom Manenti: If you say that, and that was one of our core values.
22:27
Tom Manenti: And thanks for, you know, for, prompting me.
22:30
Tom Manenti: You know?
22:30
Tom Manenti: And Yeah.
22:32
Tom Manenti: So empowered people is one of our core
22:36
Tom Manenti: was one of MiTek 's core values.
22:38
Tom Manenti: And you can't say that and not do it.
22:41
Tom Manenti: I used to say I have I had a saying, I know it's gonna
22:43
Tom Manenti: sound weird, that if we're gonna say we are who we say we are,
22:47
Tom Manenti: we have to be who we say we are.
22:50
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
22:51
Lisa Nichols: So good.
22:52
Tom Manenti: So I would I would tell CEO friends,
22:56
Tom Manenti: when they would say our people are our most valuable asset.
22:59
Tom Manenti: And I and I I could love these people very much, you know, as
23:03
Tom Manenti: my friends that see but I I would say I would say don't say
23:06
Tom Manenti: that unless you are really delivering on that because your people
23:10
Tom Manenti: know the difference.
23:12
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
23:12
Tom Manenti: You know, it the, you know, the customers are really not the not the
23:16
Tom Manenti: players.
23:17
Tom Manenti: The players are are your people.
23:18
Tom Manenti: And what you want your customers to experience, your own people have to experience
23:22
Tom Manenti: that first.
23:24
Tom Manenti: So so if if they don't feel empowered and if they don't feel
23:28
Tom Manenti: valued Yeah.
23:30
Tom Manenti: They're not gonna be as good at that being felt by the customer unless
23:34
Tom Manenti: they're feeling it first.
23:35
Lisa Nichols: How can they?
23:36
Lisa Nichols: You know?
23:36
Lisa Nichols: How can they, Tom?
23:38
Lisa Nichols: How can they project that when they don't feel it themselves?
23:41
Tom Manenti: They can't.
23:42
Tom Manenti: They can't.
23:42
Tom Manenti: So I would tell my friends, I would say, just just be silent on
23:45
Tom Manenti: that issue.
23:46
Tom Manenti: Come up with a different phrase, but don't say our people are our greatest
23:49
Tom Manenti: asset when they're not.
23:50
Tom Manenti: You know?
23:50
Tom Manenti: It's a Yeah.
23:51
Tom Manenti: That was the kind of thing.
23:52
Tom Manenti: I remember standing in front of a group in the factory.
23:54
Tom Manenti: I used to love to do this.
23:56
Tom Manenti: And, and I and I learned a little bit of this from a good
23:59
Tom Manenti: friend who you know very well, and he just recently passed away, Bob Chapman.
24:03
Tom Manenti: And actually going being on the on
24:07
Tom Manenti: the shop floor and having conversations, and he had he had
24:11
Tom Manenti: a a term for it, and I can't remember what it was, but,
24:14
Tom Manenti: that's what I started to do.
24:16
Tom Manenti: And so somebody asked me about this empowerment,
24:20
Tom Manenti: thing.
24:20
Tom Manenti: And, you know, cynically, like, yeah.
24:22
Tom Manenti: Right.
24:22
Tom Manenti: You know?
24:23
Tom Manenti: And I said, well, I said empowerment starts with empowered leaders.
24:27
Tom Manenti: So you're not gonna feel empowered unless I make sure the leadership team is
24:31
Tom Manenti: is feeling empowered.
24:31
Tom Manenti: And that's exactly what you were referring to about, you know, you
24:36
Tom Manenti: almost have to abdicate responsibility.
24:38
Tom Manenti: Right.
24:39
Tom Manenti: But you're not because you're accountable.
24:40
Tom Manenti: I mean, I'm I'm accountable.
24:41
Tom Manenti: I'm the guy that has to deal with, you know, my boss if something
24:46
Tom Manenti: goes wrong.
24:46
Tom Manenti: You know?
24:47
Tom Manenti: Yes.
24:47
Tom Manenti: Even no matter who did it, it's still, you know, up to me.
24:50
Tom Manenti: Yes.
24:51
Tom Manenti: That that whole thing of an of of of, you know, not abdicate.
24:55
Tom Manenti: But you have to really empower people even to the point when they make
24:58
Tom Manenti: a mistake
24:59
Lisa Nichols: Right.
24:59
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
25:00
Tom Manenti: That you don't just come down on them.
25:03
Tom Manenti: I mean, you know, you're gonna have an opportunity to coach them later.
25:07
Tom Manenti: But take care of the problem, whatever it is, and then let's all learn
25:10
Tom Manenti: from it.
25:11
Tom Manenti: Now is, you know, saying, you know, you can't you know, you you know,
25:14
Tom Manenti: if you've, you know, fool me once, shame on me.
25:16
Tom Manenti: Fool me twice, shame on you or something like that.
25:19
Tom Manenti: But I can't remember the order of that, but you know what I mean?
25:22
Tom Manenti: It's Yes.
25:22
Tom Manenti: It's one of those things that, you know, you gotta give people a second
25:26
Tom Manenti: chance.
25:27
Tom Manenti: Otherwise, they're not gonna feel empowered.
25:28
Tom Manenti: And that's what we did.
25:29
Tom Manenti: And, yeah, I I had CEOs ask me, how do you do this?
25:33
Tom Manenti: And I said, well, they asked me, what is, like, one thing I can
25:36
Tom Manenti: do to be better at this?
25:37
Tom Manenti: I said, get out of the way.
25:40
Tom Manenti: Get out of the way.
25:41
Tom Manenti: If you if you believe in your people and they're as valuable as you
25:44
Tom Manenti: say and they're as effective as you say, let them do their job.
25:47
Tom Manenti: And when they don't, then you have every reason.
25:50
Tom Manenti: But if you're interfering all the time, then they're gonna say, well, that's really
25:53
Tom Manenti: what, you know, I thought you wanted, so that's why I did it.
25:56
Tom Manenti: Well, that's not a good that's not the best reason.
25:58
Tom Manenti: Let's put it that way.
25:59
Lisa Nichols: Right.
26:00
Lisa Nichols: Oh, that's so good.
26:02
Lisa Nichols: I'm reading you would love it, because I know you're a voracious reader,
26:06
Lisa Nichols: Tom, but I'm reading, John Maxwell's return on failure.
26:11
Tom Manenti: Mhmm.
26:12
Lisa Nichols: And, you know, his whole thing is
26:15
Lisa Nichols: you're gonna make mistakes.
26:16
Lisa Nichols: People are gonna make mistakes.
26:17
Lisa Nichols: So, like, when you empower, I mean, maybe somebody's gonna make the wrong call.
26:22
Lisa Nichols: But like you said, you've got to allow them to do
26:26
Lisa Nichols: that.
26:27
Lisa Nichols: Right?
26:27
Lisa Nichols: And it's just like, what is the return that you get on that?
26:30
Lisa Nichols: And just as long as you're learning from it.
26:33
Lisa Nichols: And like you said, again, if it happens multiple times,
26:37
Lisa Nichols: then, you know, then you may have to to make some sort of corrective
26:41
Lisa Nichols: action for sure.
26:43
Speaker 2: Yeah.
26:43
Lisa Nichols: But creating that psychological safety for people to try things and to
26:47
Lisa Nichols: you know, how else are they gonna grow?
26:49
Lisa Nichols: How are we gonna grow if we don't get to try?
26:52
Tom Manenti: Well, they're not.
26:53
Tom Manenti: They're not.
26:53
Tom Manenti: They're just gonna it's just like pouring a liquid on on the countertop.
26:57
Tom Manenti: All it does is just kinda spread.
26:59
Tom Manenti: You know?
26:59
Tom Manenti: It just it go it gets shallower
27:02
Lisa Nichols: Right.
27:02
Lisa Nichols: The more
27:02
Tom Manenti: it spreads, you know, and it's and that's what happens in an organization.
27:05
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
27:06
Lisa Nichols: So good.
27:07
Lisa Nichols: Well, we've got I've got so much more here.
27:09
Lisa Nichols: I'm hoping that we can get through it, but we do need to take
27:12
Lisa Nichols: a quick break, and we'll be right back with my dear friend, Tom Minenti,
27:16
Lisa Nichols: on the Something Extra podcast.
27:18
AD: In business, the tendency is to seek out partners who are bigger, faster,
27:22
AD: stronger.
27:23
AD: When it comes to IT, you should be looking looking for smarter, faster, better.
27:27
AD: That's just what you'll find with the talented technologists at Technology Partners.
27:31
AD: Our experts develop custom solutions to tackle your most complex challenges,
27:35
AD: all to simplify your processes in the smartest, most efficient way possible.
27:39
AD: The time to be swift and nimble starts now.
27:42
AD: Go to technology partners dot net slash solutions and see what's possible.
27:48
Lisa Nichols: Welcome back, everyone, to the Something Extra podcast with Tom Manenti.
27:52
Lisa Nichols: This is like a master class in leadership, people.
27:55
Lisa Nichols: So just get your pencils out.
27:57
Lisa Nichols: Get your journals out.
27:58
Lisa Nichols: You're gonna run wanna write stuff down here.
28:01
Lisa Nichols: But, Tom, you tell this story about your grandfather and your grandfather that had
28:05
Lisa Nichols: the barbershop.
28:06
Lisa Nichols: And it's such a powerful picture of an ownership mentality,
28:10
Lisa Nichols: and I know that that was part of, you know, think like an owner.
28:14
Lisa Nichols: Right?
28:16
Lisa Nichols: You know, tell that story what your grandfather would do.
28:19
Lisa Nichols: And then, you know, why is personal ownership?
28:22
Lisa Nichols: Why does it matter so much?
28:24
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
28:25
Tom Manenti: Well, my grandfather is is my father's father, and, this
28:29
Tom Manenti: was in the Bronx, and he had a barbershop and on, what they called
28:33
Tom Manenti: Avenue Saint John or Saint John Ave.
28:35
Tom Manenti: They my grandparents used to call it Avenue Saint John, but and,
28:40
Tom Manenti: and I used to see as a kid I mean, as a little kid,
28:42
Tom Manenti: four, five, six years old, my dad would bring me to the barbershop, and
28:46
Tom Manenti: I would see my grandfather when there weren't people in the chair.
28:51
Tom Manenti: And he would be outside sweeping in front of his shop.
28:53
Tom Manenti: And I asked my dad one time, why did grandpa always sweep in front
28:56
Tom Manenti: of his shop?
28:57
Tom Manenti: And he told me that grandpa always felt that if as long as
29:01
Tom Manenti: he sweeps in front of his shop and the person next, you know,
29:05
Tom Manenti: next to him and the person aft you know, all those stores would sweep
29:08
Tom Manenti: in front of their shop, eventually, the whole street is gonna be clean.
29:12
Tom Manenti: So it was that mentality of, you know, you have an owner.
29:16
Tom Manenti: I don't own this, but I'm gonna keep this part of my, you know,
29:20
Tom Manenti: my when I'm a steward over Yes.
29:24
Tom Manenti: You know, clean and it's gonna be inviting and it's gonna be the right,
29:28
Tom Manenti: you know, invite in environment for people to, respond to.
29:32
Tom Manenti: But, yeah, I I'll never forget that that he said, yeah.
29:35
Tom Manenti: If you and if you keep and if every street and every city did
29:37
Tom Manenti: that, the whole city would be clean, and that would be
29:41
Tom Manenti: a a good thing.
29:41
Tom Manenti: And I I I we need more of that today, quite frankly.
29:44
Tom Manenti: You know?
29:45
Lisa Nichols: We do.
29:45
Lisa Nichols: And it's so metaphorical, right, for an organization.
29:49
Lisa Nichols: Because everyone in the organization owning their role,
29:54
Lisa Nichols: being the best version of themselves in their role, I mean, the organization
29:59
Lisa Nichols: is gonna run so much better.
30:00
Lisa Nichols: Right?
30:01
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
30:01
Tom Manenti: And you do it not he wasn't doing it for somebody to pat him
30:04
Tom Manenti: on the back and say Oh.
30:06
Tom Manenti: His name was also Tom.
30:08
Tom Manenti: And he, you know, the, hey, Tom.
30:10
Tom Manenti: You know, you keep your shop really, you know, swept clean or what you
30:13
Tom Manenti: know?
30:13
Tom Manenti: No.
30:13
Tom Manenti: It it wasn't that.
30:14
Tom Manenti: It was just this intrinsic,
30:17
Tom Manenti: you know, thought that, this is the right thing to do.
30:21
Tom Manenti: And then you see you would see them all doing it, you know, different
30:23
Tom Manenti: parts of the day.
30:25
Lisa Nichols: That's so cool.
30:26
Lisa Nichols: What a great I love I love the lessons like that will just stick
30:29
Lisa Nichols: with you one thing, and they're so transferable, I feel
30:33
Lisa Nichols: like.
30:34
Lisa Nichols: I mean, you know, I talk about Ally a lot.
30:37
Lisa Nichols: You know?
30:37
Lisa Nichols: I just feel like I've learned so much from her just watching,
30:42
Lisa Nichols: you know, that can be translated into leadership lessons.
30:46
Lisa Nichols: But we we see that every day if we've got the eyes to see
30:49
Lisa Nichols: it.
30:50
Lisa Nichols: Right?
30:50
Lisa Nichols: And I love that.
30:52
Lisa Nichols: Well, let me ask you this.
30:54
Lisa Nichols: You know, what are some leadership lessons, Tom?
30:58
Lisa Nichols: And you have seven grandkids, or do you have eight now?
31:01
Tom Manenti: No.
31:01
Tom Manenti: We have seven.
31:02
Lisa Nichols: Seven.
31:03
Lisa Nichols: Seven.
31:03
Lisa Nichols: Every week.
31:04
Lisa Nichols: One for every day, and we're gonna talk about that.
31:07
Lisa Nichols: We're gonna talk about that, because I love, love, love what you do with
31:11
Lisa Nichols: your grands.
31:13
Lisa Nichols: But, you know and I'm sure you're imparting these kinda lessons all the time.
31:16
Lisa Nichols: But what are some leadership lessons that you think younger generations need to learn
31:21
Lisa Nichols: today?
31:23
Tom Manenti: Well, you know, the the number one
31:27
Tom Manenti: thing is trust.
31:30
Tom Manenti: I learned a long time ago in sales.
31:32
Tom Manenti: I was not a great salesman, by the way.
31:34
Tom Manenti: I just was a relationship guy.
31:36
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
31:37
Tom Manenti: I I I really never saw I I used to do a I used
31:41
Tom Manenti: to do a little talk called I've never sold a thing in my life.
31:44
Lisa Nichols: Yes.
31:45
Tom Manenti: It's always funny in the company with the technical guys, and they go, wait.
31:48
Tom Manenti: This guy heads up sales.
31:49
Tom Manenti: He never sold anything.
31:50
Tom Manenti: But I didn't.
31:51
Tom Manenti: I just I created relationships, and,
31:55
Tom Manenti: and then eventually, you know, I mean, I would talk about our, you know,
31:58
Tom Manenti: our products because they would ask me questions.
32:00
Tom Manenti: And I would and then one day, they would say, you know, we need
32:02
Tom Manenti: to buy one of those machines, or we need to start doing business with
32:05
Tom Manenti: you, whatever.
32:07
Tom Manenti: And then I just, you know, said, okay.
32:08
Tom Manenti: Great.
32:08
Tom Manenti: I'll set it up.
32:09
Tom Manenti: But it's so it really it people buy from you
32:13
Tom Manenti: because they like you Yes.
32:15
Tom Manenti: And they trust you.
32:16
Tom Manenti: Now your product has to obviously, you know, be relevant to their
32:20
Tom Manenti: business, and it needs to be reasonable quality and and and competitively
32:24
Tom Manenti: priced.
32:25
Tom Manenti: But that's not the main reason that people continue to buy from you.
32:28
Tom Manenti: They buy because they trust you.
32:30
Tom Manenti: And it's the same thing in leadership.
32:32
Tom Manenti: You know, I always say that leaders lead.
32:34
Tom Manenti: Anybody who said,
32:36
Tom Manenti: with some false humility,
32:38
Tom Manenti: well, I like to lead from behind.
32:40
Tom Manenti: What what is that all about?
32:41
Tom Manenti: I mean, I've had to lead from behind.
32:43
Tom Manenti: No.
32:44
Tom Manenti: Leaders lead.
32:44
Tom Manenti: You gotta get out in front.
32:46
Tom Manenti: And I had a friend, somebody that you probably know, but I won't I
32:49
Tom Manenti: won't mention.
32:50
Tom Manenti: He he said to me one time, he says, how do you know if
32:53
Tom Manenti: you're an effective leader?
32:54
Tom Manenti: I said, look over your shoulder.
32:56
Tom Manenti: See if anybody's following you.
32:58
Tom Manenti: Just look around.
32:59
Tom Manenti: And if they're really not following, if they're just waiting for the next thing,
33:02
Tom Manenti: you know, the next command that you have for them, that's not leadership.
33:07
Tom Manenti: Mhmm.
33:08
Tom Manenti: I I don't know what that's called, but it's not leadership anyway.
33:10
Tom Manenti: It's not effective leadership.
33:12
Tom Manenti: So, trust.
33:14
Tom Manenti: Trust is so important.
33:16
Tom Manenti: I, talked about, the seven keys of trust.
33:19
Tom Manenti: A friend of mine wrote a book, called People First.
33:22
Tom Manenti: And, and the seven keys of trust as he articulates in the
33:26
Tom Manenti: book are character, competence, confidence, caring,
33:30
Tom Manenti: communication,
33:32
Tom Manenti: consistency, and commitment.
33:34
Tom Manenti: And when I was asked one time at a fellowship of Christian athletes
33:38
Tom Manenti: national meeting, I was being interviewed, and they
33:42
Tom Manenti: asked me what what one word would you say is, you know,
33:46
Tom Manenti: the best
33:49
Tom Manenti: virtue, you know, for for leadership?
33:52
Tom Manenti: And I said consistency.
33:54
Tom Manenti: And I've and and I didn't know anything about this book.
33:57
Tom Manenti: I hadn't read this.
33:57
Tom Manenti: I didn't even know Jack at the time, and and I just said I
34:01
Tom Manenti: said consistency.
34:02
Tom Manenti: I said, because, you know, the book of James says that a double minded
34:06
Tom Manenti: man is unstable in all of his ways, and let not that man think
34:10
Tom Manenti: he'll receive anything from God.
34:12
Tom Manenti: Mhmm.
34:12
Tom Manenti: So I I thought, well, I don't wanna be that kind of guy, and
34:15
Tom Manenti: I don't wanna follow that kind of guy.
34:16
Tom Manenti: I mean, who wants to follow a double minded person says one thing and
34:19
Tom Manenti: does another or says one thing today and says a different thing tomorrow?
34:23
Tom Manenti: Those those are double minded things.
34:25
Tom Manenti: So consistency to me is it it it covers a lot.
34:29
Tom Manenti: It's just like, you know, love fulfills all of the law, you know, that
34:32
Tom Manenti: kind of thing.
34:34
Tom Manenti: And so consistency is is one of the seven, but
34:38
Tom Manenti: trust really is the key.
34:39
Tom Manenti: And Yes.
34:40
Tom Manenti: And trust is so easy.
34:42
Tom Manenti: I used to tell my our sales guys.
34:44
Tom Manenti: I used to call it the ten ten ten rule.
34:46
Tom Manenti: And I
34:47
Lisa Nichols: said glad that you're talking about that because I was gonna ask you.
34:50
Lisa Nichols: Talk about
34:50
Tom Manenti: ten ten rule.
34:52
Tom Manenti: Yes.
34:52
Tom Manenti: We'll do that one before.
34:54
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
34:55
Tom Manenti: Well, the ten ten ten rule is simply it may take you
34:59
Tom Manenti: ten months to get a customer.
35:02
Tom Manenti: You can lose them in ten seconds.
35:04
Lisa Nichols: Yes.
35:05
Tom Manenti: And if you're if you're lucky, you might get them back in ten years.
35:08
Lisa Nichols: Ten years.
35:09
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
35:09
Tom Manenti: And so it just goes to show you, choose your words and everything because,
35:13
Tom Manenti: you know, you can say the wrong thing in less than ten seconds and
35:16
Tom Manenti: somebody.
35:17
Tom Manenti: And I saw that happen in our company.
35:18
Tom Manenti: I I I I remember a guy.
35:20
Tom Manenti: It was actually, it was with this mentor of mine from, his name was
35:24
Tom Manenti: Abner Yoder from from, Ohio.
35:27
Tom Manenti: And just one little statement totally offended
35:31
Tom Manenti: Abner.
35:31
Tom Manenti: And if, there weren't some of us that had a closer relationship with
35:36
Tom Manenti: Abner and talked him off the ledge, we could have lost all of Abner's
35:38
Tom Manenti: business.
35:39
Tom Manenti: So so those kinds of things are important.
35:41
Tom Manenti: So trust really just like in a marriage, I mean, you don't you don't
35:45
Tom Manenti: ever wanna breach that.
35:46
Tom Manenti: I mean, you breach that, it's oh, gosh.
35:48
Tom Manenti: It's almost impossible to really, you know
35:50
Lisa Nichols: To rebuild.
35:52
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
35:53
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
35:54
Lisa Nichols: So okay.
35:56
Lisa Nichols: So shout out to our friend, Jack Lannom.
35:59
Lisa Nichols: Hi, Jack.
35:59
Lisa Nichols: Get Jack's book.
36:01
Lisa Nichols: Jack is phenomenal.
36:03
Lisa Nichols: He is phenomenal
36:05
Lisa Nichols: individual and just leadership guru, Jack Lannom.
36:10
Lisa Nichols: But, Tom, like, what are some of those things that you
36:14
Lisa Nichols: think can build trust?
36:16
Lisa Nichols: Consistency is one of those.
36:18
Lisa Nichols: Right?
36:18
Lisa Nichols: Being consistent with what you say and what you do.
36:21
Lisa Nichols: Where are some of those things that can build it?
36:22
Lisa Nichols: And then, you know, I mean, you can like you said, you can tear
36:26
Lisa Nichols: it down in ten seconds.
36:28
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
36:29
Tom Manenti: Well, people see people, can see right through, any kind
36:33
Tom Manenti: of, of a of a
36:36
Lisa Nichols: Fake.
36:36
Tom Manenti: Disingenuous, you know, approach to leadership.
36:40
Lisa Nichols: Yes.
36:40
Tom Manenti: So, you know, you know, this I was saying earlier, you know, you can
36:43
Tom Manenti: fool the spectators, but you can't fool the players.
36:46
Tom Manenti: Mhmm.
36:47
Tom Manenti: And when you don't realize that the people, you know, who are reporting to
36:50
Tom Manenti: you especially, that they're the players.
36:54
Tom Manenti: So, you know, you don't wanna try to fool them because,
36:57
Tom Manenti: they know better.
36:58
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
36:59
Tom Manenti: So, you know, you don't wanna do that.
37:01
Tom Manenti: And and when you when you you you you you know, when you, you
37:05
Tom Manenti: know, deliver a steady diet of that, they see through it, and it just
37:09
Tom Manenti: it's just phony.
37:10
Tom Manenti: And and people, you know, they really, you know, they really snuff that out.
37:13
Tom Manenti: So that's one of the things that I I think is important that,
37:18
Tom Manenti: you be transparent,
37:20
Tom Manenti: you be consistent.
37:22
Tom Manenti: You have to,
37:25
Tom Manenti: you really have to be humble.
37:27
Tom Manenti: Yes.
37:27
Speaker 2: And
37:27
Tom Manenti: people people, you know, that people don't you know, what's the old saying?
37:32
Tom Manenti: People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
37:34
Tom Manenti: Know what I mean?
37:34
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
37:35
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
37:35
Tom Manenti: So and that's true.
37:36
Tom Manenti: I mean, I always wanted to I I knew how I wanted to be
37:40
Tom Manenti: led, and for a long, long time, I was not led that way that
37:43
Tom Manenti: you know,
37:44
Tom Manenti: until Jean Toomes came along, you know, and believed, you know, a lot of
37:48
Tom Manenti: the things I believed.
37:50
Tom Manenti: I was just really, you know, kind of like a salmon swimming upstream, it
37:54
Tom Manenti: seemed.
37:55
Tom Manenti: And, and then, but when you, you know, you when you you have
37:59
Tom Manenti: that and, you don't you I wanna be led.
38:02
Tom Manenti: I wanna lead the way I I I wanted to be led.
38:05
Tom Manenti: So if I wanted to be led that way, then I need to be
38:07
Tom Manenti: a leader that way.
38:09
Lisa Nichols: So good.
38:09
Lisa Nichols: We could do a whole podcast just on trust and
38:13
Lisa Nichols: how you build it and how it can, you know, it can be lost.
38:17
Lisa Nichols: Right?
38:17
Lisa Nichols: So
38:19
Lisa Nichols: I'm so glad that you talked about the ten ten ten because I was
38:22
Lisa Nichols: gonna ask you that.
38:23
Lisa Nichols: Well,
38:27
Lisa Nichols: okay.
38:27
Lisa Nichols: So what our listeners might not understand is MiTek
38:32
Lisa Nichols: is now owned by Berkshire Hathaway.
38:35
Tom Manenti: Right.
38:36
Lisa Nichols: So I wanted to ask you a couple things about uncle Warren.
38:40
Lisa Nichols: Okay?
38:42
Lisa Nichols: You know, Warren famously said intelligence and passion can never
38:46
Lisa Nichols: make up for lack of integrity.
38:48
Lisa Nichols: Right?
38:50
Lisa Nichols: And so, you know, for you, you've already talked about that, that that was
38:54
Lisa Nichols: the number one core value that all thirty five, it's so
38:58
Lisa Nichols: integrity is everything.
39:00
Lisa Nichols: And again, going back to trust.
39:02
Lisa Nichols: Right?
39:03
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
39:03
Lisa Nichols: If you don't have integrity, then trust is gonna be broken.
39:08
Lisa Nichols: But what was it like working under uncle Warren?
39:13
Tom Manenti: It was easy, actually.
39:15
Lisa Nichols: Easy.
39:16
Tom Manenti: It was easy.
39:16
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
39:17
Tom Manenti: He was, he was a great example of, what empowerment looks like.
39:22
Tom Manenti: And,
39:23
Tom Manenti: he,
39:25
Tom Manenti: he he he says this all the time.
39:27
Tom Manenti: I I think annually, they probably still do.
39:30
Tom Manenti: They run the,
39:32
Tom Manenti: the the the clip of Warren testifying before Congress,
39:37
Tom Manenti: when, he was testifying because of the Solomon Brothers
39:41
Tom Manenti: insider trading scandal, back in the early eighties, I think.
39:46
Tom Manenti: And, he he runs that, and he takes total responsibility,
39:51
Tom Manenti: for what everybody had done wrong in the company and and and vowed to
39:55
Tom Manenti: to change it and turn it around, and he did that.
39:58
Tom Manenti: But he, you know, he would just, remind us that we, you
40:02
Tom Manenti: know, we can afford to make mistakes.
40:04
Tom Manenti: We can afford to lose money.
40:05
Tom Manenti: We can afford to lose a lot of money, but what we can afford
40:09
Tom Manenti: is to lose one shred of our reputation.
40:12
Tom Manenti: And so Okay.
40:14
Tom Manenti: I just love the fact that, you know, I I reported to somebody like
40:18
Tom Manenti: that, and, Jean worked like that.
40:20
Tom Manenti: You know?
40:21
Tom Manenti: You know, this year, it's twenty five years since since Warren bought our company.
40:25
Tom Manenti: July of two thousand one was when, he bought the company.
40:29
Tom Manenti: And so twenty five years
40:32
Tom Manenti: to see the company, do so well is really good.
40:36
Tom Manenti: But that's what working for Warren was easy.
40:39
Tom Manenti: He had very he had very few rules.
40:41
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
40:42
Lisa Nichols: He was pretty hands off.
40:43
Lisa Nichols: Right?
40:44
Tom Manenti: Very Mhmm.
40:46
Tom Manenti: Hands off.
40:46
Tom Manenti: And, and and he would be lighthearted about things, and,
40:50
Tom Manenti: you know, you didn't have to lie to him if, you know, he was
40:52
Tom Manenti: talking about financial things that were way over your head.
40:56
Tom Manenti: You know, I would just say, I would tease him and I would say,
40:59
Tom Manenti: well, you know, you keep talking like that, we're gonna have to switch to
41:01
Tom Manenti: baseball.
41:03
Tom Manenti: He's a huge baseball fan, and he knows I am.
41:05
Tom Manenti: So, so that's, you know, one of the things that we would, do.
41:09
Lisa Nichols: That's so good.
41:10
Lisa Nichols: So good.
41:11
Lisa Nichols: And I love what what you said he said.
41:13
Lisa Nichols: You know, that we can lose a lot of money, but we can't afford
41:17
Lisa Nichols: to lose one ounce of reputation.
41:19
Tom Manenti: Right.
41:20
Lisa Nichols: Everything.
41:20
Lisa Nichols: It really is.
41:23
Lisa Nichols: Okay.
41:24
Lisa Nichols: I've got so much more here, but I wanna kinda get into some
41:28
Lisa Nichols: of, more personal things.
41:32
Lisa Nichols: You know, I mean, you've said, I read somewhere, Tom, where you
41:36
Lisa Nichols: said you wanted to finish well.
41:37
Lisa Nichols: What does finishing well mean to you?
41:41
Tom Manenti: Well, you know,
41:44
Tom Manenti: my my daily prayer for myself I do actually pray for myself, and
41:48
Tom Manenti: my daily prayer for myself is that I can be as
41:52
Tom Manenti: healthy as possible and as strong as possible for as long as possible,
41:57
Tom Manenti: whatever that is, so that I can serve God
42:01
Tom Manenti: and lead my family well.
42:04
Tom Manenti: And that really is my mission statement, I guess, you would say here in
42:08
Tom Manenti: retirement because,
42:10
Tom Manenti: you know, as, there's a line from the from the television show Blue Bloods
42:15
Tom Manenti: where he, where Frank Reagan says, all I know is I'm closer to the
42:19
Tom Manenti: end than the beginning.
42:20
Tom Manenti: So I, you know, I know that.
42:23
Tom Manenti: And and so I'm thankful for the opportunities, to,
42:27
Tom Manenti: to pour into my grandchildren.
42:30
Tom Manenti: I don't know if my my adult children are, you know,
42:34
Tom Manenti: gonna allow me to pour much more into them.
42:36
Tom Manenti: They're probably about bursting at the seams.
42:38
Tom Manenti: My young she just turned forty.
42:40
Tom Manenti: So, you know, the so they're, you know, they're moving on in their lives,
42:44
Tom Manenti: but, their children mean everything to Kathy and me, and
42:48
Tom Manenti: and we do our best to pour into them.
42:50
Tom Manenti: So, really, that's what, you know, that's what's important.
42:54
Tom Manenti: So finishing well to me is, is really living
42:58
Tom Manenti: a life, of significance in some way.
43:01
Tom Manenti: So wherever we can, that's what we try to do.
43:04
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
43:05
Lisa Nichols: You know, I heard somebody say the other day, Tom, and I thought it
43:08
Lisa Nichols: was so good that when they enter heaven, they wanna enter exhausted.
43:14
Tom Manenti: That sounds like something my friend Larry Colette would say.
43:17
Lisa Nichols: It wasn't Larry, but Larry could've said that too.
43:20
Lisa Nichols: But it wasn't Larry.
43:21
Lisa Nichols: It was somebody else that that I was listening to that that they wanna
43:25
Lisa Nichols: enter heaven exhausted.
43:27
Lisa Nichols: You know?
43:27
Lisa Nichols: Because you think, oh, and and this way, I see you and Kathy.
43:31
Lisa Nichols: I mean, you guys I know family is everything to you guys.
43:35
Lisa Nichols: You guys have been married for how long now, Tom?
43:37
Lisa Nichols: Forty seven years?
43:39
Tom Manenti: Forty seven years this year.
43:40
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
43:40
Lisa Nichols: Forty seven years.
43:42
Lisa Nichols: Give us a couple of pieces of marriage advice for strong
43:46
Lisa Nichols: family.
43:46
Lisa Nichols: Because you guys for strong marriage, and I wanna talk to you about kids
43:50
Lisa Nichols: and grandkids.
43:52
Lisa Nichols: Because you guys you guys just clearly you love each other, and you just
43:56
Lisa Nichols: you have fun.
43:57
Lisa Nichols: You guys are still great friends.
44:00
Tom Manenti: We are.
44:01
Tom Manenti: We've we've said it for since we we were we were in our twenties
44:04
Tom Manenti: when we met, and,
44:07
Tom Manenti: you know, we just consider each other each other's best friend.
44:11
Lisa Nichols: Yes.
44:12
Lisa Nichols: I
44:12
Tom Manenti: know I know how long you and Greg have been together, so I
44:15
Lisa Nichols: Yep.
44:15
Lisa Nichols: What did you do?
44:16
Tom Manenti: Guys in the same way.
44:17
Tom Manenti: And and and, we were just with a couple this weekend, and he's,
44:21
Tom Manenti: he's ten years younger than me, and he's about to retire.
44:23
Tom Manenti: And
44:25
Tom Manenti: and they're they're they're scared that he's gonna retire.
44:29
Tom Manenti: What, you know, what are they gonna do?
44:31
Tom Manenti: And and I and I think, oh my gosh.
44:33
Tom Manenti: You know?
44:34
Tom Manenti: And it would never it never even dawned on Kathy and me that we
44:37
Tom Manenti: wanna do anything but just hang out with each other as much as we
44:40
Tom Manenti: can, which is what we do.
44:41
Tom Manenti: Now I traveled a lot, in my career.
44:44
Tom Manenti: I never really, kept a a log of all the miles in all the
44:47
Tom Manenti: countries, but I know I've been to over forty countries and,
44:52
Tom Manenti: all over the world.
44:53
Tom Manenti: And and Kathy really she held the fort together.
44:56
Tom Manenti: And to answer your question, one of the things is that Kathy and I,
44:59
Tom Manenti: especially on all the major the big things, we were on the same page.
45:03
Tom Manenti: And if we and if for some reason we weren't,
45:07
Tom Manenti: maybe we were just, like, peeking at the page.
45:09
Tom Manenti: We weren't on it.
45:11
Tom Manenti: We would talk about it and make sure.
45:13
Tom Manenti: And we and always did that, alone.
45:15
Tom Manenti: We didn't do it.
45:16
Tom Manenti: We didn't hash that stuff out in front of our kids, you know, at
45:18
Tom Manenti: least not that I can recall.
45:20
Tom Manenti: So, I mean, I'm not saying that we didn't ever have, you know, a
45:23
Tom Manenti: flare up or something.
45:24
Lisa Nichols: Right.
45:25
Tom Manenti: Because I've had well, this our adult kids have said, you know, we've seen
45:28
Tom Manenti: seen Kathy and I.
45:29
Tom Manenti: Kathy and I don't realize realize we're doing it.
45:31
Tom Manenti: I mean, some of my grandchildren say, why are you and and and grandma
45:36
Tom Manenti: arguing?
45:37
Tom Manenti: We're not we're not arguing.
45:38
Tom Manenti: We're discussing.
45:41
Tom Manenti: Like so We've heard that too, dog.
45:44
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
45:44
Tom Manenti: But the kids the the older ones will say you know, our our own
45:47
Tom Manenti: kids will say, okay.
45:48
Tom Manenti: You know, no fighting in front of the children, meaning them.
45:51
Tom Manenti: You know?
45:51
Tom Manenti: And Yes.
45:52
Tom Manenti: We're not.
45:53
Tom Manenti: Yes.
45:53
Lisa Nichols: I just
45:54
Tom Manenti: said Yes.
45:55
Tom Manenti: But, you know, when you're together that long, you know, you almost you know,
45:59
Tom Manenti: you can finish each each other's sentences.
46:00
Tom Manenti: You know, you
46:01
Lisa Nichols: know all of
46:02
Tom Manenti: that exactly what I'm talking about.
46:04
Tom Manenti: Right.
46:04
Tom Manenti: But the the main thing, Lisa, is that that we compromise has
46:08
Tom Manenti: become a dirty word.
46:10
Tom Manenti: And and and I don't mean the comp you know, you never compromise your
46:13
Tom Manenti: values, your ethics, and things like that.
46:15
Tom Manenti: Those like you said earlier, that those are immutable.
46:18
Lisa Nichols: Yes.
46:18
Tom Manenti: But but compromise is okay.
46:22
Tom Manenti: I mean, I I I I remember when in in politics, which I actually
46:26
Tom Manenti: hate politics.
46:27
Tom Manenti: I don't talk about it very much.
46:29
Tom Manenti: But in politics, you know, they they used to be, you know, compromise
46:33
Tom Manenti: positions, you know, where they had a actually, there was such a thing as
46:37
Tom Manenti: a bipartisan decision on something, and and you don't see very much of
46:41
Tom Manenti: that.
46:41
Tom Manenti: And so, I mean, in the simplest form, Kathy wants to see a movie,
46:45
Tom Manenti: and I really don't wanna see it, but I go see it anyway.
46:49
Tom Manenti: She wants to see it.
46:50
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
46:50
Lisa Nichols: And you
46:50
Tom Manenti: know what?
46:51
Tom Manenti: I you know what movie I just went to see?
46:52
Tom Manenti: I think I think we had this conversation.
46:55
Tom Manenti: I had never seen the Devil Wears Prada original movie.
46:58
Tom Manenti: I'd never seen it.
46:59
Tom Manenti: Kathy's had it on, and it's been on in the background, but I've never
47:02
Tom Manenti: really watched it.
47:02
Tom Manenti: I kinda knew what it was about.
47:05
Tom Manenti: And then that number two came out a few weeks ago, and,
47:09
Tom Manenti: I'm the one that said, hey.
47:10
Tom Manenti: Why don't we go see that movie?
47:11
Tom Manenti: And she looked at me a little strange.
47:13
Tom Manenti: And I said, yeah.
47:14
Tom Manenti: Why?
47:14
Tom Manenti: Let's go ahead.
47:14
Tom Manenti: Let let's go see the movie.
47:16
Tom Manenti: So we went to see it.
47:17
Tom Manenti: I loved it.
47:17
Tom Manenti: I had a great time.
47:18
Tom Manenti: You know?
47:19
Tom Manenti: I wasn't expecting to love it, but it was it was fun.
47:22
Tom Manenti: It was fun to watch it.
47:23
Tom Manenti: But I know that, you know, that I get great joy out of seeing,
47:28
Tom Manenti: joy in my children, my grandchildren, especially my wife.
47:32
Tom Manenti: So, somebody told me one time, you need to
47:36
Tom Manenti: he's the guy that holds me accountable, and he said, you need to do
47:39
Tom Manenti: a better job of making Kathy feel radiant.
47:43
Tom Manenti: Aw.
47:44
Tom Manenti: And don't ask me to define it.
47:46
Tom Manenti: It's one of those things where you could say, I don't I can't define
47:48
Tom Manenti: it, but I know it when I see it.
47:50
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
47:50
Tom Manenti: And when she's radiant, it's it's really
47:54
Lisa Nichols: Life is good.
47:56
Lisa Nichols: Life is good when she's radiant.
47:57
Tom Manenti: See, it's it's almost really like a, a bit of an elixir for me
48:02
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
48:03
Tom Manenti: That, you know, she's that way.
48:04
Tom Manenti: And, so yeah.
48:05
Tom Manenti: So that the compromise thing is it it it's important, you know, that when
48:09
Tom Manenti: you're able to say, you know, that wouldn't be my preference, but if that's
48:13
Tom Manenti: important to you, we're gonna do it.
48:15
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
48:15
Lisa Nichols: That's so good.
48:16
Lisa Nichols: So good.
48:17
Lisa Nichols: Well, I've gotta ask you this.
48:19
Lisa Nichols: This is so important.
48:20
Lisa Nichols: Now I've gotta ask you this, and then we're gonna talk about something extra.
48:24
Lisa Nichols: And I really seriously think we could do a five hour podcast here, Tom,
48:27
Lisa Nichols: but we're not gonna do that to our listeners.
48:30
Lisa Nichols: Your grandchildren.
48:32
Lisa Nichols: You've got seven of them.
48:33
Lisa Nichols: Katie, you've got all these amazing grandchildren.
48:36
Lisa Nichols: Seven of them, one of them for each day.
48:39
Lisa Nichols: And I will never ever forget, Tom, you telling me
48:43
Lisa Nichols: what you do for each of your grandchildren.
48:45
Lisa Nichols: And I want you to tell our listeners because there could be a listener
48:48
Lisa Nichols: out there that wants to adopt what you do to stay connected with your
48:52
Lisa Nichols: grands.
48:53
Tom Manenti: Well, somebody had pointed out when when our our youngest grandchild, who's the
48:57
Tom Manenti: only boy, by the way, and he'll be six years old, he was born
49:00
Tom Manenti: on Warren's ninetieth birthday.
49:02
Lisa Nichols: Oh, that's awesome.
49:03
Tom Manenti: He was born August thirtieth, twenty twenty, and that was, that was
49:08
Tom Manenti: Warren that was a fun conversation with Warren, by the way.
49:10
Tom Manenti: He was gonna try to get an early admission, for my grandson
49:14
Tom Manenti: to Nebraska.
49:17
Lisa Nichols: Oh my goodness.
49:18
Tom Manenti: He was trying to get a commitment he was trying to get a commitment
49:20
Tom Manenti: letter signed.
49:22
Tom Manenti: But,
49:23
Tom Manenti: the so we had so when I had the seventh, just somebody just pass
49:26
Tom Manenti: in passing said, oh, one for each day of the week.
49:29
Tom Manenti: And I was in prayer the next morning, and I went, that's pretty cool.
49:33
Tom Manenti: You know?
49:33
Tom Manenti: And so I I started a thing.
49:37
Tom Manenti: I I just call it, you know, our grandchildren's
49:40
Tom Manenti: precious texts.
49:41
Tom Manenti: I call them the precious seven.
49:43
Tom Manenti: So, so you you know, so here's the here's the here's the
49:47
Tom Manenti: days of the week.
49:48
Tom Manenti: Monday is Sofia day.
49:50
Tom Manenti: Today is Katie day.
49:52
Tom Manenti: Tomorrow's Libby day.
49:54
Tom Manenti: That's Olivia.
49:56
Tom Manenti: Thursday is Anna day, Mariana.
49:58
Tom Manenti: Friday is Nora day.
50:01
Tom Manenti: Saturday is Maddie day, Madeline.
50:04
Tom Manenti: And Sunday is Tommy day.
50:05
Tom Manenti: And so Thomas get caps it off on Sunday.
50:08
Tom Manenti: And I just started by sending a text, and they
50:13
Tom Manenti: they used to be short text.
50:14
Tom Manenti: They they got to be pretty long, and none of them complained.
50:17
Tom Manenti: But but I send them a text and just kind of, you know, catch
50:21
Tom Manenti: up what's going on.
50:23
Tom Manenti: And then there's always a a prayer section, you know, where I I
50:27
Tom Manenti: I have a a unique prayer for them.
50:29
Tom Manenti: I don't cut cut and paste anything.
50:31
Tom Manenti: I I just pray about what I should pray about for them, and then
50:35
Tom Manenti: I I share it with them.
50:36
Tom Manenti: And, and I do that every morning.
50:38
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
50:39
Tom Manenti: So this morning, I sent that out to Katie, and
50:43
Tom Manenti: Olivia will get hers tomorrow.
50:44
Tom Manenti: And and and most of them respond.
50:46
Tom Manenti: If not if nothing else, they send me back a heart.
50:48
Tom Manenti: You know?
50:49
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
50:49
Tom Manenti: Most of them respond, you know, so they know I know they got it,
50:53
Tom Manenti: and they read it.
50:54
Tom Manenti: And, Katie
50:57
Lisa Nichols: Katie.
50:57
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
50:57
Lisa Nichols: But sometimes she said that she even will send you something back.
51:01
Tom Manenti: Oh, yeah.
51:02
Lisa Nichols: That's something that she's learning.
51:04
Lisa Nichols: Right?
51:04
Lisa Nichols: You know?
51:05
Lisa Nichols: That will bless you.
51:06
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
51:07
Tom Manenti: Katie's the Katie's probably the best at that.
51:11
Tom Manenti: Nora's pretty good at it.
51:12
Tom Manenti: Nora's only twelve, and she's pretty she's pretty good at responding and, you know,
51:16
Tom Manenti: giving me a little bit of feedback.
51:17
Tom Manenti: Olivia, who's graduating, next week.
51:20
Tom Manenti: So my school
51:21
Lisa Nichols: I just love it so much.
51:23
Lisa Nichols: What what a legacy.
51:24
Lisa Nichols: What a legacy, Tom.
51:26
Lisa Nichols: And you have no idea
51:29
Lisa Nichols: where you're sitting, you know, just what that text may do for
51:33
Lisa Nichols: them that day.
51:34
Tom Manenti: Right.
51:35
Lisa Nichols: You know?
51:35
Lisa Nichols: It could just set their mindset in a completely different
51:39
Lisa Nichols: way.
51:40
Lisa Nichols: So I just love it.
51:42
Lisa Nichols: But okay.
51:44
Lisa Nichols: This is called something extra, and I ask every leader this.
51:47
Lisa Nichols: What do you believe, Tom?
51:48
Lisa Nichols: Is this something extra that every leader needs?
51:53
Tom Manenti: Well, I don't think I don't think there's any big secret about it.
51:57
Tom Manenti: But I what what Jim Collins wrote about it in in Good
52:01
Tom Manenti: to Great, and it was about level five leadership, and the and the x
52:05
Tom Manenti: factor for a level five leader was humility.
52:08
Tom Manenti: Yeah.
52:09
Tom Manenti: And that comes in a lot of different forms.
52:11
Tom Manenti: It it comes in I mean, not everybody has to not everybody's like me,
52:15
Tom Manenti: and I'm willing to talk about anything about my life.
52:17
Tom Manenti: You know?
52:18
Tom Manenti: They they're not quite that transparent.
52:20
Tom Manenti: But, you you know, some of the things, that go along with humility,
52:25
Tom Manenti: here's a practical one where you admit your mistakes.
52:30
Tom Manenti: You just it's I I I caused that.
52:33
Tom Manenti: That's my fault.
52:34
Tom Manenti: You know?
52:34
Tom Manenti: And and and and as CEO,
52:36
Tom Manenti: if you're not willing to do that, then you're not gonna
52:40
Tom Manenti: you're not gonna get to that special, you know, maybe promised land of culture
52:45
Tom Manenti: that you're looking for in your company.
52:47
Tom Manenti: So I I believe it's humility.
52:49
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
52:50
Lisa Nichols: So good.
52:51
Lisa Nichols: Well, Tom, this has been so much fun.
52:53
Lisa Nichols: Thank you so so much.
52:55
Lisa Nichols: I just know that I know that everything we've talked about today and your
52:59
Lisa Nichols: story and your wisdom is gonna help our listeners.
53:02
Lisa Nichols: And, I just I count count it a real blessing to count
53:06
Lisa Nichols: you and Kathy as friends of ours.
53:09
Tom Manenti: Well, I couldn't have done it without Kathy.
53:10
Tom Manenti: I can tell you that.
53:14
Lisa Nichols: Alright.
53:15
Lisa Nichols: Well, very good.
53:15
Lisa Nichols: Well, have a great rest of the day, my friend.
53:17
Tom Manenti: Thanks, Lisa.
53:18
Tom Manenti: Take care.
53:20
Announcer: Something extra with Lisa Nichols is a Technology Partners production.
53:23
Announcer: Copyright Technology Partners Inc, twenty nineteen.
53:27
Announcer: To learn more about this week's guest, check out the show notes at tpi
53:31
Announcer: dot co slash podcast.
53:33
Announcer: If you enjoyed this episode, consider leaving us a review.
53:36
Announcer: Thank you for listening to Something Extra.