Latest / Something Extra / A Roadmap to High Performance w/ Eric Stone

Transcript

A Roadmap to High Performance w/ Eric Stone · Something Extra

• 0:02
  Lisa Nichols: Chromosomes.
• 0:03
  Lisa Nichols: Little strands of nucleic acids and proteins are the fundamental genetic instructions
• 0:08
  Lisa Nichols: that tell us who we are at birth.
• 0:10
  Lisa Nichols: Most people are born with forty six chromosomes, but each year in the United
• 0:14
  Lisa Nichols: States, about six thousand people are born with an extra chromosome, making them a
• 0:18
  Lisa Nichols: person with Down syndrome.
• 0:20
  Lisa Nichols: If you've ever encountered someone with Down syndrome, you know that they are some
• 0:24
  Lisa Nichols: of the kindest, most joyful people you will ever meet.
• 0:27
  Lisa Nichols: They truly have something extra.
• 0:30
  Lisa Nichols: My name is Lisa Nichols, and for thirty years, I have been both the
• 0:34
  Lisa Nichols: CEO of Technology Partners and the mother to Ali.
• 0:38
  Lisa Nichols: Ali has something extra in every sense of the word.
• 0:41
  Lisa Nichols: I have been blessed to be by her side as she impacts everyone she
• 0:45
  Lisa Nichols: meets.
• 0:46
  Lisa Nichols: Through these two important roles as CEO and mother to Ally, I have
• 0:50
  Lisa Nichols: witnessed countless life lessons that have fundamentally changed the way I look at the
• 0:54
  Lisa Nichols: world.
• 0:55
  Lisa Nichols: While you may not have an extra chromosome, every leader has something extra that
• 0:59
  Lisa Nichols: defines who you are.
• 1:00
  Lisa Nichols: Join me as I explore the something extra in leaders from all walks of
• 1:04
  Lisa Nichols: life and discover how that difference in each of them has made a difference
• 1:08
  Lisa Nichols: in their companies, their families, their communities, and in themselves.
• 1:12
  Lisa Nichols: If you liked this episode today, please go to Apple Podcasts or wherever you
• 1:16
  Lisa Nichols: listen and leave us a five star rating.
• 1:20
  Lisa Nichols: Before we get started, I'm excited to share that my book Something Extra is
• 1:23
  Lisa Nichols: now available.
• 1:25
  Lisa Nichols: It is rooted in the remarkable spirit of our daughter, Ally, and the heartfelt
• 1:29
  Lisa Nichols: conversations we've had on the podcast.
• 1:31
  Lisa Nichols: You'll find wisdom and practical tools to ignite the leader within you and
• 1:35
  Lisa Nichols: uncover your own something extra.
• 1:37
  Lisa Nichols: Visit something extra book dot com or find it at Amazon or in all
• 1:41
  Lisa Nichols: major bookstores to order your copy today.
• 1:44
  Lisa Nichols: I'm delighted to have Eric Stone on the show today.
• 1:46
  Lisa Nichols: Eric is the founder and CEO of ClearPath Ventures and the author of
• 1:50
  Lisa Nichols: Jump Start Your Workplace Culture.
• 1:52
  Lisa Nichols: Well, Eric Stone, welcome to the Something Extra podcast.
• 1:56
  Lisa Nichols: I am so delighted to have you on the show today.
• 1:59
  Lisa Nichols: Thank you so much for making the time.
• 2:01
  Eric Stone: Lisa, it's a pleasure to be on Something Extra.
• 2:06
  Lisa Nichols: Well, we're gonna have fun, and you have got so much wisdom.
• 2:09
  Lisa Nichols: I don't know how much we're gonna capture, but we're gonna try to capture
• 2:13
  Lisa Nichols: a lot of your wisdom today for our listeners.
• 2:15
  Lisa Nichols: And I have to give a special shout out to our mutual friend, Tim
• 2:19
  Lisa Nichols: Sater.
• 2:21
  Eric Stone: Absolutely connected the dots and put us into this situation that
• 2:25
  Eric Stone: we are in today.
• 2:26
  Eric Stone: So absolutely grateful.
• 2:28
  Lisa Nichols: I'm so grateful.
• 2:28
  Lisa Nichols: Aren't you?
• 2:29
  Lisa Nichols: I'm just thinking.
• 2:30
  Lisa Nichols: I'm so grateful for those connectors in our life.
• 2:33
  Lisa Nichols: I didn't ask him to connect me, but he said, hey.
• 2:36
  Lisa Nichols: This is somebody I think you should meet.
• 2:37
  Lisa Nichols: So you and I may not have crossed paths otherwise.
• 2:41
  Lisa Nichols: So I'm really grateful for people like that.
• 2:45
  Eric Stone: That not enough of Tim's out there.
• 2:46
  Eric Stone: Right?
• 2:46
  Eric Stone: Not enough of Tim.
• 2:48
  Lisa Nichols: I agree.
• 2:48
  Lisa Nichols: I agree.
• 2:49
  Lisa Nichols: Now don't let your head get too big, Tim.
• 2:52
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 2:52
  Lisa Nichols: We love you.
• 2:53
  Lisa Nichols: We love you.
• 2:55
  Lisa Nichols: Well, Eric, gosh, there's a lot that I want to cover, but I know
• 2:58
  Lisa Nichols: that you grew up in Western Massachusetts.
• 3:01
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 3:02
  Lisa Nichols: What are some of your earliest memories of that, and were there some things
• 3:06
  Lisa Nichols: that happened in your childhood?
• 3:08
  Lisa Nichols: I know your parents, and you can talk about them too, were very, very
• 3:12
  Lisa Nichols: influential,
• 3:13
  Lisa Nichols: even in your love for business.
• 3:15
  Lisa Nichols: So just tell me a little bit about growing up.
• 3:18
  Eric Stone: You got it.
• 3:19
  Eric Stone: Like you said, grew up in Western Mass.
• 3:20
  Eric Stone: Grew up born in Springfield, Massachusetts where the hall of fame the basketball
• 3:24
  Eric Stone: hall of fame is.
• 3:25
  Eric Stone: And at about the second grade, moved into Longmeadow, Mass.
• 3:28
  Eric Stone: My parents moved us to try to get into a bit of a a
• 3:31
  Eric Stone: better school system.
• 3:32
  Eric Stone: The one thing that really when you say, hey.
• 3:34
  Eric Stone: What are the things that shape you in your life?
• 3:37
  Eric Stone: One, believe it or not, was I was the smallest kid in my class.
• 3:40
  Eric Stone: So so out of all the things you don't probably want, I was the
• 3:44
  Eric Stone: small.
• 3:44
  Eric Stone: Now when you're the smallest, things don't always come easy, and you must be
• 3:48
  Eric Stone: quick on your feet.
• 3:49
  Eric Stone: And so or, you know, kids will make funny and have fun with it.
• 3:53
  Eric Stone: And I think early on, it allowed me to be very quick witted, and
• 3:57
  Eric Stone: I had to be.
• 3:58
  Eric Stone: And it allowed me to be a little resilient, and I had to get
• 4:01
  Eric Stone: pretty tough because things, things weren't always smooth for the little guy.
• 4:04
  Eric Stone: You know?
• 4:05
  Eric Stone: Mhmm.
• 4:06
  Eric Stone: And also in school was not easy for me.
• 4:09
  Eric Stone: So I was not a gifted student.
• 4:11
  Eric Stone: I was someone who would put in the I beat a I beat a
• 4:15
  Eric Stone: page five times.
• 4:17
  Eric Stone: It just didn't always resonate with me.
• 4:19
  Eric Stone: And yet another thing that really, I think, separated me as I went on
• 4:22
  Eric Stone: in life was my ability for the details to consistently do
• 4:26
  Eric Stone: something for an extended period of time until you really master it.
• 4:30
  Eric Stone: And so I think being that small individual,
• 4:33
  Eric Stone: you know, had some challenges learning too eventually.
• 4:36
  Eric Stone: You know, I just figured it out.
• 4:38
  Eric Stone: And so always loved business.
• 4:39
  Eric Stone: I was the paper route guy, the odd jobs guy, started our own business
• 4:43
  Eric Stone: with a buddy of mine, and we had no idea what we were doing,
• 4:47
  Eric Stone: but we're really enjoying making a couple of bucks.
• 4:50
  Eric Stone: I was one of those kids absolutely motivated by money.
• 4:54
  Eric Stone: Some are, some are not.
• 4:56
  Eric Stone: I definitely was.
• 4:57
  Eric Stone: Mhmm.
• 4:58
  Eric Stone: So motivated by the the the Olympics.
• 5:01
  Eric Stone: Right?
• 5:01
  Eric Stone: So nineteen eighty.
• 5:02
  Eric Stone: I'm ten years old.
• 5:03
  Eric Stone: I see the US Olympic team come together, a group of college individuals who
• 5:07
  Eric Stone: overtake Soviet Union and eventually win the gold medal.
• 5:11
  Eric Stone: Always fascinated with what are these individuals doing?
• 5:13
  Eric Stone: Why are they coming together to do something really special?
• 5:16
  Eric Stone: And so that continued to ripple.
• 5:18
  Eric Stone: And then my parents, my dad was a a textile salesman, and I used
• 5:22
  Eric Stone: to eavesdrop over here in all his conversations after a long business trip
• 5:26
  Eric Stone: and the ebbs and flows of his experiences.
• 5:29
  Eric Stone: And my mom was a teacher, so that coachability and
• 5:33
  Eric Stone: teaching and and took a little bit of that.
• 5:35
  Eric Stone: My childhood, a great circle of friends was so important to me as
• 5:39
  Eric Stone: I went to high school and college, majored in business, and I land
• 5:44
  Eric Stone: on, eventually, a company called enterprise.
• 5:46
  Eric Stone: But but those are, you know, the early roots of things.
• 5:50
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 5:50
  Lisa Nichols: Oh, I love that.
• 5:52
  Lisa Nichols: I love that.
• 5:52
  Lisa Nichols: So really and truly as a as a little guy, I mean, you kinda
• 5:56
  Lisa Nichols: had to come up with some coping mechanisms and quick wittedness, and and I'm
• 6:00
  Lisa Nichols: sure that served you well all through life.
• 6:03
  Lisa Nichols: People love to be around people that have a great sense of humor and
• 6:07
  Lisa Nichols: can, you know, turn turn an or an ordinary moment into
• 6:11
  Lisa Nichols: something extraordinary.
• 6:12
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 6:13
  Eric Stone: Absolutely.
• 6:13
  Eric Stone: I mean, it's it's just those things that allow you if especially in negotiations
• 6:17
  Eric Stone: in business or problem solving that allow you to really, for whatever
• 6:21
  Eric Stone: reason, have an opportunity to think maybe just a little bit quicker.
• 6:25
  Eric Stone: Though I still always have to, you know, allow the rinse for reading stuff.
• 6:28
  Eric Stone: You know, it allowed me some some things that made me definitely better.
• 6:32
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 6:32
  Lisa Nichols: That's so good.
• 6:34
  Lisa Nichols: That is really good.
• 6:35
  Lisa Nichols: Well, you know, I know that you your dad really
• 6:40
  Lisa Nichols: did, inspire you and influence you for your love for business.
• 6:44
  Lisa Nichols: And so you probably, at a young age, probably decided you
• 6:48
  Lisa Nichols: knew that you wanted to do something in business.
• 6:50
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 6:51
  Eric Stone: Absolutely.
• 6:51
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 6:51
  Eric Stone: I know there was just something there that I didn't know what it would
• 6:55
  Eric Stone: end up looking like.
• 6:57
  Eric Stone: You know?
• 6:57
  Eric Stone: And then I don't know if you remember, but there was a movie god.
• 7:00
  Eric Stone: Was it in the late eighties Wall Street?
• 7:03
  Eric Stone: The Gordon Gekko.
• 7:04
  Eric Stone: So so this was a a movie, the the highs and lows, the good
• 7:08
  Eric Stone: and bad of a guy named Gordon Gekko.
• 7:10
  Eric Stone: And, you know, again, just being attached to this individual who was always dressed
• 7:14
  Eric Stone: to the nines and, you know, I just somehow something something
• 7:18
  Eric Stone: stuck.
• 7:18
  Lisa Nichols: Something stuck there.
• 7:20
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 7:20
  Lisa Nichols: I'm sure you were much nicer than Gordon Gekko.
• 7:23
  Eric Stone: Yes.
• 7:24
  Eric Stone: That's why ebbs and flows you always take from the good and make sure
• 7:28
  Eric Stone: you don't lose the bad.
• 7:29
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 7:30
  Lisa Nichols: Not quite as ruthless probably as he was.
• 7:32
  Lisa Nichols: But I know that you you when you started enterprise and we've talked a
• 7:35
  Lisa Nichols: little bit about this, you've had a really illustrious career at enterprise.
• 7:40
  Lisa Nichols: But when you started there,
• 7:43
  Lisa Nichols: I think you, you know, you were a one person office.
• 7:46
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 7:47
  Lisa Nichols: Eric?
• 7:47
  Lisa Nichols: I mean,
• 7:48
  Eric Stone: you're one of four.
• 7:49
  Eric Stone: You know?
• 7:50
  Eric Stone: So you're one of four.
• 7:51
  Eric Stone: You have no idea what you're doing, and you're certainly counting on a lot
• 7:55
  Eric Stone: of individuals to help you with your learning curve and and your overall employee
• 7:59
  Eric Stone: experience.
• 7:59
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 8:00
  Eric Stone: So one of four, no idea what I was doing.
• 8:02
  Eric Stone: And to be honest, in the beginning, I don't know if I would have
• 8:04
  Eric Stone: said I had the best training that I would hope for.
• 8:08
  Eric Stone: But what I did find was this bond with some of the people we
• 8:11
  Eric Stone: would work with, and that was the big thing.
• 8:13
  Eric Stone: It's kinda like they say finding, you know, your best friend or a good
• 8:16
  Eric Stone: friend at work is really important for engagement, and that was there in spades.
• 8:21
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 8:21
  Lisa Nichols: That's good.
• 8:22
  Lisa Nichols: I'm sure you carried that forward with you too because as you became moved
• 8:26
  Lisa Nichols: up the ranks, you know, you probably were were looking for
• 8:30
  Lisa Nichols: that for people, you know, making sure that they felt like they belonged and
• 8:34
  Lisa Nichols: that they were plugged in to the group.
• 8:36
  Lisa Nichols: And
• 8:37
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 8:37
  Eric Stone: Such a a good point, Lisa, of the things I might not have received
• 8:41
  Eric Stone: really became these inspirations or a catalyst to what
• 8:45
  Eric Stone: was the foundation of our blueprint as I started to take a bigger
• 8:50
  Eric Stone: leadership position, and the things I did get would be implemented into an initiative.
• 8:53
  Eric Stone: So, yeah, really, really important to take again the things I might not have
• 8:57
  Eric Stone: gotten.
• 8:57
  Eric Stone: Of course, the things I did get, I just doubled down on them.
• 9:00
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 9:01
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 9:01
  Lisa Nichols: Well and into that to that point, you know, I mean, you climb
• 9:06
  Lisa Nichols: the ranks to become one of the most decorated regional vice presidents that the
• 9:09
  Lisa Nichols: company had seen.
• 9:11
  Lisa Nichols: I think you ran the most successful, smooth running, profitable
• 9:16
  Lisa Nichols: region in the history of the company.
• 9:18
  Lisa Nichols: That's pretty remarkable.
• 9:20
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, what what were the leadership habits during that time, Eric,
• 9:24
  Lisa Nichols: that were nonnegotiables for you?
• 9:27
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 9:27
  Eric Stone: That well, it's it's interesting you say that.
• 9:29
  Eric Stone: We we formulated,
• 9:32
  Eric Stone: what we would call, commitments.
• 9:34
  Eric Stone: You know, it's kind of how we phrased it.
• 9:36
  Eric Stone: And but but to get from where we started to where we were were
• 9:40
  Eric Stone: so many things.
• 9:41
  Eric Stone: But just to go on, the nonnegotiables were these things that we utilize
• 9:45
  Eric Stone: what I actually eventually came to call the think tank.
• 9:48
  Eric Stone: And those were a group of our managers who would get together with me
• 9:51
  Eric Stone: personally every other month and really strategically think about things that were
• 9:55
  Eric Stone: either missing the what are we losing on?
• 9:58
  Eric Stone: Where is the opportunity?
• 9:59
  Eric Stone: And where are we winning?
• 10:00
  Eric Stone: You know, what are those things we wanna continue to do?
• 10:02
  Eric Stone: Mhmm.
• 10:03
  Eric Stone: And to me, the things that that think tank group brought out, because
• 10:07
  Eric Stone: they were truly the voice of the region.
• 10:09
  Eric Stone: They were very close to all their fellow coworkers and would
• 10:13
  Eric Stone: pull all of the information that was really important.
• 10:15
  Eric Stone: And those meetings were inspirational to coming up with things like our commitments.
• 10:19
  Eric Stone: Those things that we all agree on, those three to five key business initiatives
• 10:24
  Eric Stone: that we're all going to be in support of.
• 10:26
  Eric Stone: Taking those three to five key initiatives and making sure it's put within the
• 10:30
  Eric Stone: training infrastructure of your organization.
• 10:33
  Eric Stone: And I think that's where a lot of people sometimes miss it.
• 10:35
  Eric Stone: They have the initiative, but how are we training and developing the individuals to
• 10:39
  Eric Stone: be able to execute it to the highest of level?
• 10:42
  Eric Stone: And we didn't make it too deep.
• 10:43
  Eric Stone: It was the three to five key commitments that everyone would have.
• 10:46
  Eric Stone: They would call them as district
• 10:50
  Eric Stone: slightly differ only in how they might deliver it, but with the same goals
• 10:54
  Eric Stone: and expectations that we would have.
• 10:57
  Eric Stone: Those goals and expectations were put into the employee review.
• 11:00
  Eric Stone: So now whatever I looked, wherever I was going, whether it was an employee
• 11:04
  Eric Stone: review, my typical daily life at a a branch, it
• 11:08
  Eric Stone: was it was the same thing.
• 11:10
  Eric Stone: It got traction.
• 11:11
  Eric Stone: Traction allows you to do a lot of things.
• 11:14
  Eric Stone: And so those commitments were were critical and,
• 11:18
  Eric Stone: to where we ended up becoming, as you mentioned, fortunate to be one of
• 11:22
  Eric Stone: the more prestigious regions within the company.
• 11:25
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 11:25
  Lisa Nichols: So let me ask you.
• 11:26
  Lisa Nichols: Let's let's dig into the think tank here.
• 11:29
  Lisa Nichols: So it's all your managers, right, that were underneath
• 11:33
  Lisa Nichols: you were part of this think tank.
• 11:35
  Lisa Nichols: Were those three to five initiatives, Eric, were those did those
• 11:39
  Lisa Nichols: change?
• 11:40
  Lisa Nichols: Or because you said you guys met monthly.
• 11:43
  Lisa Nichols: So
• 11:44
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 11:44
  Eric Stone: They well, I would say they evolved.
• 11:46
  Eric Stone: So you have something.
• 11:47
  Eric Stone: And and and what it was actually wasn't all the managers.
• 11:50
  Eric Stone: It was, it was those nominated by their peers.
• 11:54
  Eric Stone: So so they would get nominated by the group.
• 11:57
  Eric Stone: Mhmm.
• 11:58
  Eric Stone: And there would be up to seven, and we'd have a rotation as we
• 12:00
  Eric Stone: wanted it as a leadership initiative as well.
• 12:03
  Eric Stone: And so they get nominated by their peers.
• 12:05
  Eric Stone: They would control the agenda.
• 12:07
  Eric Stone: And what would eventually happen is we would have those those
• 12:11
  Eric Stone: keys.
• 12:12
  Eric Stone: So now those keys, what ends up happening with any organization is
• 12:16
  Eric Stone: right sometimes when it's there for an extended period of time, it can get
• 12:20
  Eric Stone: stale.
• 12:21
  Eric Stone: This think tank group allowed us, instead of just always doing a bounce
• 12:25
  Eric Stone: pass for a basketball analogy, would sometimes find a way, okay.
• 12:29
  Eric Stone: That's getting a little stale.
• 12:30
  Eric Stone: What do we need to do for a behind the back to create a
• 12:33
  Eric Stone: little bit more excitement?
• 12:34
  Eric Stone: And so you take the the initiative and give it a little extra juice,
• 12:39
  Eric Stone: a little bit different.
• 12:41
  Eric Stone: And we would take that difference, of course, Lisa, and make sure we trained
• 12:44
  Eric Stone: it on how to execute that difference
• 12:47
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 12:47
  Eric Stone: Whatever it may have been.
• 12:48
  Eric Stone: And so it definitely evolved to become I would say you
• 12:52
  Eric Stone: get a a bachelor's degree.
• 12:54
  Eric Stone: We wanted to create a master's degree in the rental car
• 12:58
  Eric Stone: industry.
• 12:59
  Eric Stone: And that's how we would evolve of constantly giving them the right material,
• 13:03
  Eric Stone: equipment, and information in order to achieve the desired outcome.
• 13:07
  Eric Stone: We had to keep giving them that because you can't just raise
• 13:11
  Eric Stone: the expectation without raising the level of training.
• 13:14
  Lisa Nichols: For sure.
• 13:15
  Lisa Nichols: And that's probably that was probably the difference right there is the the training
• 13:19
  Lisa Nichols: that you that you mapped back to that initiative.
• 13:21
  Lisa Nichols: I love that.
• 13:24
  Lisa Nichols: You know, you say one of your isms, I guess, if you
• 13:28
  Lisa Nichols: will, is you say that culture is what happens when the leaders aren't in
• 13:32
  Lisa Nichols: the room.
• 13:33
  Lisa Nichols: How did you cultivate that level of ownership?
• 13:36
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, I think about extreme ownership.
• 13:39
  Lisa Nichols: How did you cultivate that, Eric?
• 13:41
  Lisa Nichols: And it's probably it probably started with this group of of this think tank,
• 13:45
  Lisa Nichols: I would imagine.
• 13:47
  Eric Stone: Well, you know, I would say we we really focused on these I called
• 13:51
  Eric Stone: it a philosophy or pillars of engagement that allowed because step one, you
• 13:55
  Eric Stone: always gotta build trust.
• 13:56
  Eric Stone: So I can't just walk in and they're going to trust me overnight.
• 13:59
  Eric Stone: And so anytime I took over a new opportunity, we would we would
• 14:03
  Eric Stone: really hone in on these factors.
• 14:05
  Eric Stone: And so the things that made a difference to make people believe, to create
• 14:09
  Eric Stone: culture carriers, to do all those things when I'm not around because we'd
• 14:13
  Eric Stone: have fifty brick and mortars.
• 14:14
  Eric Stone: I can't I can't be at them.
• 14:16
  Eric Stone: I can't answer the phones, you know, and and things like that.
• 14:19
  Eric Stone: And so it was what are we doing to encourage a strong relationship with
• 14:23
  Eric Stone: our manager?
• 14:24
  Eric Stone: You know, what are those two to three initiatives that we're going to truly
• 14:27
  Eric Stone: from the hiring process and and all the way through hire to retire type
• 14:30
  Eric Stone: of stuff?
• 14:31
  Eric Stone: What's the initiative that we're gonna truly believe in that strengthens relationships and
• 14:35
  Eric Stone: builds trust, those seeds of trust?
• 14:37
  Eric Stone: The second was just clearly communicating your goals and expectations
• 14:41
  Eric Stone: along the way.
• 14:42
  Eric Stone: So we wanted everyone to have a role, and we just wanted them to
• 14:45
  Eric Stone: star in their role.
• 14:48
  Eric Stone: I would say then, of course, we've already mentioned right material equipment and information
• 14:52
  Eric Stone: in order to achieve that Mhmm.
• 14:53
  Eric Stone: Outcome.
• 14:54
  Eric Stone: Okay.
• 14:54
  Eric Stone: Now I've got it.
• 14:55
  Eric Stone: Now I can be successful.
• 14:57
  Eric Stone: They've removed the noise by clearly communicating.
• 14:59
  Eric Stone: Now I can be successful and execute personally and professionally to to
• 15:04
  Eric Stone: help them develop themselves in and out of work.
• 15:07
  Eric Stone: So if we had a work meeting, we might spend twenty minutes talking
• 15:11
  Eric Stone: about how you might wanna budget and take your own analysis of our own
• 15:15
  Eric Stone: financials.
• 15:16
  Eric Stone: Take that at home.
• 15:16
  Eric Stone: Go look at your cable bill.
• 15:18
  Eric Stone: Go look at the, you know, whatever it
• 15:19
  Lisa Nichols: is.
• 15:20
  Lisa Nichols: Good.
• 15:20
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 15:21
  Eric Stone: You know, and bring in a component that it's not just all about what
• 15:24
  Eric Stone: we're doing here.
• 15:25
  Eric Stone: Mhmm.
• 15:26
  Eric Stone: And then lastly is recognize effort, but reward excellence.
• 15:29
  Eric Stone: So you gotta find some way to to thank people for what they're doing.
• 15:33
  Eric Stone: And and that is what helped us create some of that belief.
• 15:37
  Eric Stone: We just live that, and each one of those would have an initiative
• 15:41
  Eric Stone: or so, right, under what we're all trying to do.
• 15:44
  Eric Stone: And so the best example would be with the first one, a strong relationship.
• 15:47
  Eric Stone: We called, or created through the think tank something called the thirty
• 15:51
  Eric Stone: minutes of fame.
• 15:52
  Eric Stone: It was our way to once a month at the minimum, you would meet
• 15:56
  Eric Stone: with your team for, you know, ten or fifteen minutes.
• 15:58
  Eric Stone: How are you doing, Lisa?
• 16:00
  Eric Stone: Tell me about what's new.
• 16:01
  Eric Stone: And then the last half of that is, well, let's talk about some of
• 16:04
  Eric Stone: the goals and expectations and things that are gonna help you be be successful.
• 16:08
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 16:08
  Lisa Nichols: That's so good.
• 16:09
  Lisa Nichols: I love it.
• 16:11
  Lisa Nichols: Well, you wrote a book.
• 16:13
  Lisa Nichols: I've got it right here.
• 16:15
  Lisa Nichols: It's gonna start your workplace culture, a road map for igniting high performance.
• 16:19
  Lisa Nichols: Who would not wanna read that book?
• 16:21
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, because we're all wanting to make sure that our workplace cultures are
• 16:25
  Lisa Nichols: the best that they can be, and, certainly, we want high performing teams.
• 16:28
  Lisa Nichols: I'm gonna read the way that you, describe culture.
• 16:33
  Lisa Nichols: It is here on page six.
• 16:37
  Lisa Nichols: Let me
• 16:41
  Lisa Nichols: get here.
• 16:44
  Lisa Nichols: You say a high performance culture happens when a set of shared
• 16:48
  Lisa Nichols: values and beliefs drive the right behaviors, creating a
• 16:52
  Lisa Nichols: consistent experience and desirable outcomes.
• 16:56
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 16:56
  Lisa Nichols: And so I think probably in your think tank and and getting
• 17:00
  Lisa Nichols: those commitments and those shared beliefs, everybody has to have that.
• 17:03
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 17:04
  Lisa Nichols: And then cons then everybody agreeing to that, and then that
• 17:08
  Lisa Nichols: is going to help you be you know, the outcomes be more
• 17:12
  Lisa Nichols: consistent then, you know, so I just I love that.
• 17:16
  Lisa Nichols: What are some of the what are some of the biggest misconceptions,
• 17:20
  Lisa Nichols: do you think, Eric, that people have about workplace culture?
• 17:24
  Eric Stone: Well, I I think they think it's soft, philosophical, all about your
• 17:28
  Eric Stone: hugs and high fives.
• 17:31
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 17:31
  Lisa Nichols: Kumbaya kind of stuff.
• 17:32
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 17:33
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 17:33
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 17:34
  Eric Stone: So and and don't get me wrong.
• 17:35
  Eric Stone: Those are there are components that you wanna know, hug and high fives, I
• 17:38
  Eric Stone: guess.
• 17:39
  Eric Stone: But I I think it's just completely misunderstood.
• 17:43
  Eric Stone: I think it is something that is it is the
• 17:47
  Eric Stone: catalyst in my it is the catalyst to execution.
• 17:51
  Eric Stone: The reason it's there's so many reasons why it's important.
• 17:54
  Eric Stone: But when you look at why people do the things they do, why do
• 17:57
  Eric Stone: they have these behaviors in action, which is the shortest definition of culture is
• 18:01
  Eric Stone: they just feel inspired to do the thing that they have come aboard to
• 18:05
  Eric Stone: do because they feel they're supported.
• 18:07
  Eric Stone: There's empathy, as I like to say, with accountability.
• 18:11
  Eric Stone: Mhmm.
• 18:11
  Eric Stone: There there is high character with high standard.
• 18:13
  Eric Stone: They it's
• 18:19
  Eric Stone: borders are empathy with accountability.
• 18:22
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 18:23
  Lisa Nichols: Without the accountability, you have no results.
• 18:25
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 18:26
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 18:27
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 18:27
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, it it is soft if it's just empathy.
• 18:30
  Lisa Nichols: But, yeah, I've got a good friend, Pat Aspen.
• 18:32
  Lisa Nichols: She says, just because I am soft apart doesn't mean I'm not
• 18:36
  Lisa Nichols: hard of hand.
• 18:37
  Lisa Nichols: And what she means by that is, you know, it's both of those things.
• 18:41
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 18:41
  Lisa Nichols: So, so important.
• 18:45
  Lisa Nichols: You know, you say that culture is measurable
• 18:49
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 18:49
  Lisa Nichols: And it's predictable.
• 18:50
  Lisa Nichols: Tell me more about that, Eric.
• 18:53
  Eric Stone: So so one of the biggest things when I was doing research for the
• 18:55
  Eric Stone: book was reaching out to hundreds of people and and really just saying, you
• 18:59
  Eric Stone: know, hey, Lisa.
• 19:01
  Eric Stone: What's workplace culture to you and how do you measure it?
• 19:03
  Eric Stone: And you'd hear crickets.
• 19:04
  Eric Stone: I mean, it really people it it was this thing they couldn't find a
• 19:08
  Eric Stone: way to describe and or measure.
• 19:11
  Eric Stone: And so the one thing I remembered is anytime, whether it was in my
• 19:14
  Eric Stone: career at enterprise or or just helping others get there, there
• 19:18
  Eric Stone: were there were a few things that showed us the way.
• 19:21
  Eric Stone: Number number one is engagement from many of the statistics
• 19:25
  Eric Stone: led to really good outcomes, really good increase of customer
• 19:29
  Eric Stone: satisfaction and loyalty.
• 19:31
  Eric Stone: It shapes even the things like dependability and reduct reduction of absenteeism
• 19:36
  Eric Stone: and all of the things that matter.
• 19:38
  Eric Stone: Profit, of course, matters.
• 19:40
  Eric Stone: And so I double waited and took a look at engagement's one piece, but
• 19:44
  Eric Stone: then they the retention's another.
• 19:47
  Eric Stone: And so what we did is I I had six things that I put
• 19:49
  Eric Stone: all together.
• 19:50
  Eric Stone: I should say the double weighted were really the customer and employee experience.
• 19:55
  Eric Stone: So so those two actually would be on the top.
• 19:57
  Eric Stone: What is your engagement of your team?
• 19:59
  Eric Stone: You do have to periodically periodically find a way to figure that out through
• 20:03
  Eric Stone: surveys, conversations, think tanks, whatever it is.
• 20:06
  Eric Stone: And and when your when your employees are are in that good spirit and
• 20:10
  Eric Stone: they're enthusiastic and motivated, it tends to trickle over to to the customer.
• 20:14
  Eric Stone: And so those were just red flags to me that if we're gonna measure,
• 20:17
  Eric Stone: we gotta start with the employee side and the customer side.
• 20:21
  Eric Stone: And there's a variety of ways that organizations can get a net promoter score
• 20:24
  Eric Stone: and customer satisfaction score.
• 20:26
  Eric Stone: And then the ripple effect really then actually trickles to more of the retention
• 20:30
  Eric Stone: things.
• 20:30
  Eric Stone: Because I can stay with the company.
• 20:32
  Eric Stone: I just might not be motivated.
• 20:34
  Eric Stone: But you still do need to look at it.
• 20:35
  Eric Stone: You still need to keep it, a gauge on that.
• 20:40
  Eric Stone: Depending on if you're a new or established company, you know, profit and or
• 20:44
  Eric Stone: market share might be really important that you have to take a look at.
• 20:46
  Eric Stone: So numbers are really gonna matter.
• 20:48
  Eric Stone: Inclusivity is something that you you've gotta figure out.
• 20:51
  Eric Stone: Are you mirroring the demographics that you do business in?
• 20:55
  Eric Stone: Does that align?
• 20:56
  Eric Stone: And those were just a few things that you could put together and
• 21:00
  Eric Stone: get your own baseline.
• 21:02
  Eric Stone: So I created in a sense a little bit of a formula that would
• 21:05
  Eric Stone: allow you to check the health of your organization.
• 21:08
  Eric Stone: But that doesn't mean there aren't other warning signs.
• 21:11
  Eric Stone: You know?
• 21:11
  Eric Stone: And so so the warning signs, for example, all of a sudden, ethical violations
• 21:15
  Eric Stone: start spiking.
• 21:16
  Eric Stone: You know, that's a cultural problem.
• 21:18
  Eric Stone: Mhmm.
• 21:19
  Eric Stone: So so there are all of the the too many silos, especially when you
• 21:22
  Eric Stone: don't want silos.
• 21:23
  Eric Stone: You know, that that that's something that's a red flag.
• 21:26
  Eric Stone: Absenteeism,
• 21:28
  Eric Stone: you having a happy hour and no one shows.
• 21:30
  Eric Stone: Just little obvious things.
• 21:32
  Eric Stone: The artifacts in organizations.
• 21:34
  Eric Stone: You might have these buzzwords or these things that when you go in a
• 21:38
  Eric Stone: restaurant for example, you either see or don't see.
• 21:41
  Eric Stone: You might see a championship belt and someone holding their sales belt around.
• 21:45
  Eric Stone: That's exciting.
• 21:46
  Eric Stone: That's culture.
• 21:46
  Eric Stone: That's something.
• 21:47
  Eric Stone: If you're not seeing these things, those are signs.
• 21:51
  Eric Stone: You don't even need a need a scorecard.
• 21:53
  Eric Stone: It's like when you do go into a restaurant, Lisa, you can feel the
• 21:56
  Eric Stone: energy.
• 21:57
  Eric Stone: I mean, you can't.
• 21:58
  Eric Stone: Is it good?
• 21:58
  Eric Stone: Is it bad?
• 22:00
  Eric Stone: You could get your own barometer.
• 22:01
  Eric Stone: I just happen to use a variety of terms that would really allow me
• 22:05
  Eric Stone: to get a baseline.
• 22:07
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 22:07
  Lisa Nichols: That is so good.
• 22:08
  Lisa Nichols: That is so good.
• 22:09
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 22:10
  Lisa Nichols: I I love that you brought up the cultural red flags.
• 22:14
  Lisa Nichols: And and, you know, we have to be we have to pay attention.
• 22:17
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, we really do have to pay attention to to what is
• 22:21
  Lisa Nichols: going on and those those little signs.
• 22:24
  Lisa Nichols: Like you said, I love that.
• 22:25
  Lisa Nichols: You know, you have a happy hour.
• 22:26
  Lisa Nichols: Nobody shows up.
• 22:28
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 22:28
  Lisa Nichols: There's something going on there.
• 22:30
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 22:31
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 22:31
  Eric Stone: And that goes on to depending on if you can.
• 22:34
  Eric Stone: But if you're in manufacturing, man, the leaders gotta walk the floor a lot.
• 22:38
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 22:38
  Lisa Nichols: You just have
• 22:39
  Eric Stone: to because you we talked about commitments to begin.
• 22:42
  Eric Stone: But the worst thing that can happen is when you you think you're instrumenting
• 22:46
  Eric Stone: this game plan.
• 22:47
  Eric Stone: You go into the field or observe.
• 22:49
  Eric Stone: I call it listen, observe, and learn, the LOLs of of that.
• 22:53
  Eric Stone: And you you find out actually that the team has a point.
• 22:57
  Eric Stone: There is a reason they can't do one of the initiatives.
• 23:00
  Eric Stone: We missed something.
• 23:01
  Eric Stone: We thought we got it.
• 23:03
  Eric Stone: We didn't supply them with enough to be successful.
• 23:06
  Eric Stone: And so it allows you to check the reality of by having a
• 23:10
  Eric Stone: presence, and I think those are the basic things.
• 23:13
  Eric Stone: Just Yeah.
• 23:14
  Eric Stone: Just have a consistent presence.
• 23:16
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 23:17
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 23:18
  Lisa Nichols: Management by walking around, I think it's what it's called.
• 23:21
  Lisa Nichols: I think so.
• 23:22
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 23:22
  Lisa Nichols: You gotta be, and then I've got friends that talk about Gemba.
• 23:26
  Lisa Nichols: You know, like, being on the shop floor, you gotta be where the work
• 23:29
  Lisa Nichols: is happening so that you can see.
• 23:31
  Lisa Nichols: And and to your point, there may be obstacles that you weren't aware of
• 23:35
  Lisa Nichols: that's preventing them from even completing that initiative.
• 23:38
  Lisa Nichols: So so important.
• 23:41
  Lisa Nichols: Well, let's talk about this.
• 23:42
  Lisa Nichols: And then, I've I've got a couple more questions, and we'll take a quick
• 23:46
  Lisa Nichols: break.
• 23:46
  Lisa Nichols: But I wanna talk about your metaphor your metaphor of the road
• 23:50
  Lisa Nichols: trip that your family would take a lot and mostly to Cape Cod,
• 23:54
  Lisa Nichols: I think.
• 23:54
  Eric Stone: Yes.
• 23:55
  Eric Stone: Very good.
• 23:56
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 23:56
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 23:56
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 23:57
  Lisa Nichols: You know, how you know, you said that family trips in the Rockwood camper.
• 24:03
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 24:03
  Eric Stone: Yep.
• 24:04
  Lisa Nichols: Connect to leadership.
• 24:06
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, tell tell me a little bit more about that.
• 24:08
  Eric Stone: Oh my god.
• 24:09
  Eric Stone: Well, the funny thing is is on those road trips, you better have boundaries
• 24:12
  Eric Stone: because in those days, you know, my brother and sister were on each side
• 24:16
  Eric Stone: of me.
• 24:16
  Eric Stone: I would, of course, get the worst seat possible because I was the youngest.
• 24:20
  Eric Stone: And God forbid you went on someone's side of the the the tracks, you
• 24:23
  Eric Stone: would be getting, you know, a nice elbow maybe in the time.
• 24:26
  Eric Stone: And so you better have boundaries as you go on those road trips, and
• 24:29
  Eric Stone: you better come prepared because you better have in those days, we're the walkman.
• 24:33
  Eric Stone: You better have some sort of device that's gonna preoccupy you to stay focused
• 24:37
  Eric Stone: and do what you wanna do.
• 24:39
  Eric Stone: Hopefully, on the road trip, I call it choose your passengers carefully.
• 24:43
  Eric Stone: Well, I couldn't choose my family, but it was important that we had a
• 24:46
  Eric Stone: strong relationship that would allow us to go on those four hour drives
• 24:51
  Eric Stone: up to wherever we were going.
• 24:52
  Eric Stone: Mhmm.
• 24:53
  Eric Stone: And so, you know, the road trip, very similar to culture, is it's just
• 24:56
  Eric Stone: a journey.
• 24:57
  Eric Stone: It it it's not something that is developed overnight.
• 25:00
  Eric Stone: So
• 25:00
  Lisa Nichols: Well, those passengers, I'm thinking, it's the same in in, you know, when you're
• 25:04
  Lisa Nichols: developing a team.
• 25:05
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 25:05
  Lisa Nichols: And when you're putting a team together, you wanna make sure, you know, you're
• 25:09
  Lisa Nichols: picking the right passengers,
• 25:11
  Lisa Nichols: and making sure those passengers are on the right in the right seat too,
• 25:15
  Lisa Nichols: I think, is really important.
• 25:17
  Eric Stone: There's a funny, at least a funny Turkish proverb in it, and it goes
• 25:20
  Eric Stone: something that when a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become king.
• 25:24
  Eric Stone: The palace becomes a circus.
• 25:26
  Eric Stone: And so when you're bringing in the wrong people, bad things can happen to
• 25:30
  Eric Stone: your point about the hiring process, which could be another book in itself.
• 25:34
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 25:35
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 25:35
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 25:35
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 25:35
  Lisa Nichols: And I and we've talked about that.
• 25:37
  Lisa Nichols: You probably have another book in you, Eric, so we need to be on
• 25:40
  Lisa Nichols: the lookout for that.
• 25:42
  Lisa Nichols: You know, you talk about on any great road trip, there's detours.
• 25:46
  Lisa Nichols: Do you have an example of a detour?
• 25:48
  Lisa Nichols: Sometimes my, my friend, Dennis Muilenburg, who used to be the CEO for Boeing,
• 25:52
  Lisa Nichols: he calls it side trips.
• 25:54
  Lisa Nichols: And he always talks about don't don't like,
• 25:59
  Lisa Nichols: what how does he put it?
• 26:00
  Lisa Nichols: It's like don't despise the side trips because sometimes the side trips are
• 26:04
  Lisa Nichols: when really cool important things happen.
• 26:07
  Lisa Nichols: But do you is there an example of a detour in your career,
• 26:12
  Lisa Nichols: that you made, Eric, that you could, you know, tell us about?
• 26:15
  Lisa Nichols: Or, you know, maybe it was a blessing.
• 26:17
  Lisa Nichols: Maybe it was a blessing in disguise.
• 26:19
  Lisa Nichols: Well, I mean, I would
• 26:20
  Eric Stone: even just say, you know, one of the things that have made this topic
• 26:23
  Eric Stone: so popular is there's five generations in the workplace, each each valuing
• 26:27
  Eric Stone: different things that are important to them from the Gen z all the way
• 26:30
  Eric Stone: up through the boomers.
• 26:32
  Eric Stone: So, you know, the one of the things that was a a detour for
• 26:36
  Eric Stone: me is when the millennials in the time were the new generation and me
• 26:40
  Eric Stone: really not getting the fact that wait a sec.
• 26:43
  Eric Stone: What what it seems like time became a currency, and we had to
• 26:48
  Eric Stone: understand this.
• 26:48
  Eric Stone: And so by being in the field and understanding that what used to work
• 26:52
  Eric Stone: is not working anymore, and we came up with, in a sense, generational perspective
• 26:56
  Eric Stone: training.
• 26:57
  Eric Stone: So it wasn't just that I could learn from the millennials at the time,
• 27:01
  Eric Stone: for example.
• 27:01
  Eric Stone: It was so the millennials could learn my worldview and my point, or I
• 27:05
  Eric Stone: should say from the gen x, so I shouldn't say mine.
• 27:08
  Eric Stone: And so this this
• 27:10
  Eric Stone: we were missing the mark.
• 27:11
  Eric Stone: We were missing some of the mark.
• 27:13
  Eric Stone: And through digging in, we then said, my god.
• 27:17
  Eric Stone: Not everyone is motivated the way we are all motivated.
• 27:19
  Eric Stone: Now we know people are motivated differently, but that generation really was a shift.
• 27:23
  Eric Stone: Mhmm.
• 27:24
  Eric Stone: That that shift allowed us to come up with initiative that we called scheduling
• 27:28
  Eric Stone: with precision.
• 27:29
  Eric Stone: So we said if time is important, let's ensure that we're doing something to
• 27:33
  Eric Stone: free up your time.
• 27:34
  Eric Stone: Let's look at all of our initiatives.
• 27:35
  Eric Stone: Let's look at all of the reports.
• 27:37
  Eric Stone: Let's look at everything we got, and let's try to streamline some things
• 27:41
  Eric Stone: that might be better served so you can execute some of those things in
• 27:45
  Eric Stone: work, but be able to be, have a great life out of work.
• 27:48
  Eric Stone: And so we did this scheduling with precision that became a bit of a
• 27:52
  Eric Stone: detour.
• 27:53
  Eric Stone: We really refined what we would give out, what we would, expect
• 27:57
  Eric Stone: during certain times.
• 27:58
  Eric Stone: And so there were a lot of things that we had to synthesize, and
• 28:01
  Eric Stone: I really think it started from a generational perspective.
• 28:04
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 28:05
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 28:05
  Lisa Nichols: So important.
• 28:06
  Lisa Nichols: That's, you know, we could probably spend the rest of the podcast just on
• 28:10
  Lisa Nichols: that, you know, with the five generations in the workplace and understanding
• 28:14
  Lisa Nichols: that.
• 28:14
  Lisa Nichols: But, we do need to take a quick break, and we'll be right back
• 28:17
  Lisa Nichols: with Eric Stone on the Something Extra podcast.
• 28:20
  AD: Hey there.
• 28:20
  AD: In a challenging business climate like this, savvy leaders look to technology to
• 28:24
  AD: find an edge.
• 28:25
  AD: This can mean the difference between staying ahead of the curve or playing catch
• 28:29
  AD: up.
• 28:29
  AD: It's time to collaborate with the highly skilled experts at Technology Partners.
• 28:33
  AD: Our team of technologists draws upon decades of experience for your project, with each
• 28:37
  AD: bringing a passion for solving problems and a track record of success.
• 28:41
  AD: How can we help you overcome your biggest technology challenges?
• 28:44
  AD: Visit technology partners dot net to book a free consultation with one of our
• 28:48
  AD: leaders.
• 28:50
  Lisa Nichols: Welcome back, everyone, to the Something Extra podcast with Eric Stone.
• 28:54
  Lisa Nichols: Oh my goodness.
• 28:55
  Lisa Nichols: Eric, you have got so much wisdom, so much wisdom, so much experience, but
• 28:59
  Lisa Nichols: you're not that old.
• 29:00
  Lisa Nichols: Not that you're old.
• 29:01
  Lisa Nichols: You're just experienced.
• 29:02
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 29:02
  Eric Stone: There you go.
• 29:03
  Eric Stone: That's right.
• 29:03
  Eric Stone: That's right.
• 29:05
  Lisa Nichols: You talk about the five factors of engagement, and I think this will be
• 29:08
  Lisa Nichols: really helpful for our listeners because I think everybody is trying to figure out
• 29:12
  Lisa Nichols: how we can make sure that our employees are more engaged.
• 29:15
  Lisa Nichols: Can you can you dig into those, you know, five factors a little bit?
• 29:19
  Lisa Nichols: And is there one in particular that you think leaders sometimes underestimate?
• 29:25
  Eric Stone: That's a great question.
• 29:26
  Eric Stone: I well, so for the first one, for example, so so strong
• 29:31
  Eric Stone: relationship with your manager and especially as we go into the the world of
• 29:34
  Eric Stone: hybrid and remote and in person and how the the beauty of
• 29:38
  Eric Stone: the factors is it it doesn't discriminate against generational perspective
• 29:42
  Eric Stone: or where you're working.
• 29:43
  Eric Stone: You still need to have a strong relationship.
• 29:45
  Eric Stone: Now how you have that is gonna be harder, let's be honest,
• 29:49
  Eric Stone: if it is something that is remote.
• 29:51
  Eric Stone: Now I have eleven nieces and nephews, three kids of my own, and they
• 29:54
  Eric Stone: have their circles of five.
• 29:56
  Eric Stone: And they're all really the gen z type, and some
• 30:00
  Eric Stone: are mixed with in person remote hybrid.
• 30:02
  Eric Stone: So it's it's great to use them as a barometer.
• 30:05
  Eric Stone: Mhmm.
• 30:05
  Eric Stone: And the key for relationship building, especially in if we circle to the hybrid
• 30:10
  Eric Stone: side, is just what are those things that you're gonna be able to do
• 30:13
  Eric Stone: from the onboarding piece, from the employee journey piece?
• 30:16
  Eric Stone: I think you just have to take a time out and truly road map
• 30:19
  Eric Stone: what you're trying to do to create that relationship.
• 30:22
  Eric Stone: Some of them could be as simple.
• 30:23
  Eric Stone: I wish we had the technology twenty years ago that if I wanted to
• 30:27
  Eric Stone: visit someone in New Rochelle, New York, man, I could just join a morning
• 30:31
  Eric Stone: meeting and hop on a a a virtual call.
• 30:34
  Eric Stone: I mean, I lost opportunities to do that.
• 30:37
  Eric Stone: It would have made me much more omnipresent, and I could have made more
• 30:40
  Eric Stone: relationships that were built.
• 30:42
  Eric Stone: And so I think for each of them, you you just have to figure
• 30:46
  Eric Stone: out what can we do, whatever work style we're in.
• 30:50
  Eric Stone: The okay.
• 30:51
  Eric Stone: So what do I think that clear communication of goals and expectations would
• 30:55
  Eric Stone: be the one that I think is
• 30:58
  Eric Stone: shockingly
• 31:00
  Eric Stone: I I just talked to too many individuals.
• 31:02
  Eric Stone: And, you know, you go around a boardroom.
• 31:05
  Eric Stone: Let's say you're part of a board and you say, hey.
• 31:07
  Eric Stone: We have a great cause here, whatever that cause may be.
• 31:11
  Eric Stone: And you ask each board member to describe either the purpose of the organization
• 31:15
  Eric Stone: or in thirty seconds, go and tell me what we're all about.
• 31:18
  Eric Stone: And you are going to hear some drastically different things.
• 31:23
  Eric Stone: And I I don't know well, I do know why, but but I mean,
• 31:26
  Eric Stone: that to me is the one that I think we get in such a
• 31:29
  Eric Stone: rush.
• 31:29
  Eric Stone: There's a flavor of the week mentality at times.
• 31:31
  Eric Stone: We're just trying to flush all this information so it's off of my chest
• 31:35
  Eric Stone: and you now know it and you better learn it.
• 31:38
  Eric Stone: Mhmm.
• 31:38
  Eric Stone: I think it gets lost there.
• 31:40
  Lisa Nichols: Oh, I could not agree more.
• 31:43
  Lisa Nichols: I could not agree more because I always say there is an issue or
• 31:47
  Lisa Nichols: problem.
• 31:47
  Lisa Nichols: It's usually that it was not communicated well or the
• 31:51
  Lisa Nichols: person receiving it wasn't really understanding and you moved on too quickly.
• 31:56
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 31:56
  Lisa Nichols: But, but it's so good.
• 31:59
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 31:59
  Lisa Nichols: So your five are relationships, communication, resources, development, and
• 32:03
  Lisa Nichols: recognition.
• 32:04
  Lisa Nichols: So I I really do believe that you're right in that that,
• 32:08
  Lisa Nichols: you know, communicating.
• 32:09
  Lisa Nichols: Well, let's talk about that then.
• 32:11
  Lisa Nichols: So if that's one that is underestimated,
• 32:15
  Lisa Nichols: how can leaders get better at clearly
• 32:19
  Lisa Nichols: articulating what what the expectations are, Eric?
• 32:24
  Eric Stone: Great.
• 32:24
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 32:26
  Eric Stone: Great segue into I call them the ABCs of communication.
• 32:30
  Eric Stone: And when you look at the
• 32:35
  Eric Stone: the, a, amplify.
• 32:35
  Eric Stone: So so what is the organization we talk three to five key priorities.
• 32:39
  Eric Stone: Right?
• 32:39
  Eric Stone: What are those things we're gonna truly amplify?
• 32:42
  Eric Stone: It might be the new technology that came out.
• 32:44
  Eric Stone: It might be the new initiative or the initiative that we have.
• 32:48
  Eric Stone: It is those big hitters that everybody in the organization
• 32:52
  Eric Stone: must have.
• 32:52
  Eric Stone: I'm gonna give you an example of of a of an amplifying a message.
• 32:56
  Eric Stone: If it was new technology, I would recommend and this is what we
• 33:00
  Eric Stone: would do.
• 33:00
  Eric Stone: So if a new technology came out, we would first bring, all our managers
• 33:04
  Eric Stone: up in person.
• 33:05
  Eric Stone: Now you might not be able to do it nowadays, so you have your
• 33:08
  Eric Stone: virtual setting.
• 33:09
  Eric Stone: And we would go over this really important thing that we're gonna
• 33:13
  Eric Stone: have.
• 33:13
  Eric Stone: This new technology, how to utilize it, the three key things that we need
• 33:17
  Eric Stone: to focus on to execute the technology properly.
• 33:20
  Eric Stone: From that meeting, they would go back and they would have a morning huddle
• 33:23
  Eric Stone: with their team.
• 33:24
  Eric Stone: Their assistant managers would now either come up virtually, I guess, nowadays or in
• 33:28
  Eric Stone: person.
• 33:29
  Eric Stone: We'd go over the same thing with the exception of they had to tell
• 33:32
  Eric Stone: us what the meeting was about before we go over this little scenario.
• 33:36
  Eric Stone: So what was communicated to you?
• 33:38
  Eric Stone: Yes.
• 33:39
  Eric Stone: They would then go back.
• 33:40
  Eric Stone: We would have a recap for each level.
• 33:42
  Eric Stone: Here's the recap high level, can't be too long of what we
• 33:46
  Eric Stone: discussed.
• 33:48
  Eric Stone: They then would now take the entry level position and and morning huddle
• 33:52
  Eric Stone: would be discussed.
• 33:53
  Eric Stone: We would not stop there.
• 33:54
  Eric Stone: So, of course, morning huddle, I wanna know what's topical.
• 33:57
  Eric Stone: Oh my god.
• 33:58
  Eric Stone: This technology, that's really exciting.
• 33:59
  Eric Stone: But how are they gonna use it?
• 34:00
  Eric Stone: Well, we use the fifth factor, the rewarding excellence or recognizing
• 34:04
  Eric Stone: and rewarding great performance, and we said we're gonna come up with a little
• 34:08
  Eric Stone: contest because this is gonna be amplified to everybody.
• 34:10
  Eric Stone: Whoever utilizes this technology the best from a usage standpoint,
• 34:15
  Eric Stone: we're gonna allow you to receive said award for the month.
• 34:19
  Eric Stone: And so that is just amplifying one small way.
• 34:23
  Eric Stone: We then, of course, as I even mentioned earlier, that stuff would be now
• 34:26
  Eric Stone: in your employee review.
• 34:27
  Eric Stone: We are not talking about it once.
• 34:29
  Eric Stone: It's not just a morning huddle.
• 34:31
  Eric Stone: It wasn't just the meeting.
• 34:32
  Eric Stone: It's in your employee review under leveraging technology or in other
• 34:36
  Eric Stone: category.
• 34:37
  Eric Stone: Like, you it is there is you can't not know about it.
• 34:40
  Eric Stone: There's just too many talking points.
• 34:42
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 34:43
  Eric Stone: Then you got the b.
• 34:44
  Eric Stone: The buffer is also an art.
• 34:45
  Eric Stone: These are the ways I called it the distraction catcher in the book.
• 34:48
  Eric Stone: Like, you know, you've gotta find a way to avoid some of the noise
• 34:52
  Eric Stone: and synthesize things throughout your organization.
• 34:55
  Eric Stone: Easiest example, of course, we have too many meetings.
• 34:58
  Eric Stone: Let's maybe we consolidate the meeting.
• 35:00
  Eric Stone: I don't need a fifteen page document, Lisa.
• 35:02
  Eric Stone: I just need the the three things that are really critical to know.
• 35:05
  Eric Stone: And so the organizations that buffer that are also key.
• 35:09
  Eric Stone: And then the c is convey.
• 35:11
  Eric Stone: They're just really good at our holiday parties coming up.
• 35:15
  Eric Stone: Everyone knows about it.
• 35:16
  Eric Stone: Nice to know, not necessarily need to know everything about it, but they just
• 35:20
  Eric Stone: balance.
• 35:20
  Eric Stone: And when you buffer and convey, your amplify compounds.
• 35:25
  Eric Stone: And I think that's what great organizations do.
• 35:27
  Lisa Nichols: That's so good.
• 35:28
  Lisa Nichols: That is so good.
• 35:30
  Lisa Nichols: Love it.
• 35:30
  Lisa Nichols: Love it.
• 35:31
  Lisa Nichols: Love it.
• 35:32
  Lisa Nichols: Well,
• 35:33
  Lisa Nichols: you know, let me let me talk to you about this.
• 35:36
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, you you after your corporate career, last year's career,
• 35:40
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, number one region in the history of the company,
• 35:44
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, just really incredible.
• 35:48
  Lisa Nichols: You you started ClearPath Ventures, I think, in twenty eighteen.
• 35:53
  Lisa Nichols: You know, what was the biggest mind shift for you going from this large
• 35:57
  Lisa Nichols: corporate structure to now you're kind of on the entrepreneurial
• 36:01
  Lisa Nichols: wagon?
• 36:02
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 36:03
  Eric Stone: Well, first, I I never thought I would do it.
• 36:05
  Eric Stone: And and this was a formulation of of relationships from the past who are
• 36:09
  Eric Stone: calling me and saying, hey.
• 36:10
  Eric Stone: I could use some help.
• 36:11
  Eric Stone: And so ClearPath was a way to hopefully make their vision
• 36:16
  Eric Stone: moving some of the obstacles a little bit a little bit clearer.
• 36:19
  Eric Stone: What was really evident right away is well, I had a huge support
• 36:23
  Eric Stone: staff who I could just kinda delegate as they say,
• 36:28
  Eric Stone: pass the assist.
• 36:29
  Eric Stone: I mean, I was I had so many great people, and they allowed
• 36:33
  Eric Stone: me to be even better.
• 36:34
  Eric Stone: And when when you when you start something, and it's you,
• 36:38
  Eric Stone: and it's you're creating a proposal for a speaking opportunity or for a client
• 36:43
  Eric Stone: meeting, and I never had to really do that.
• 36:45
  Eric Stone: I got a bunch of people.
• 36:46
  Eric Stone: So that was everything was it was much slower for me because I had
• 36:49
  Eric Stone: to really take time to eventually create my shell or
• 36:54
  Eric Stone: drafts or kind of cheat sheet of of a a
• 36:58
  Eric Stone: few big things that would help me.
• 36:59
  Eric Stone: Even invoicing.
• 37:00
  Eric Stone: I mean, you're creating an invoice.
• 37:01
  Eric Stone: I mean, I never really had a voice.
• 37:03
  Lisa Nichols: Did that.
• 37:03
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 37:03
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 37:04
  Eric Stone: No.
• 37:04
  Eric Stone: Yep.
• 37:05
  Eric Stone: Or me
• 37:05
  Lisa Nichols: Or the accounting department did that.
• 37:07
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 37:07
  Eric Stone: That's right.
• 37:08
  Eric Stone: So rewarding, but rewarding much differently.
• 37:11
  Eric Stone: Challenging and just challenging a little bit differently.
• 37:14
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 37:15
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 37:15
  Lisa Nichols: I'm just thinking, Eric, scheduling my meetings.
• 37:18
  Lisa Nichols: You know, my you've met my EA, Jenny.
• 37:21
  Lisa Nichols: It's like, oh my goodness.
• 37:22
  Lisa Nichols: Where would I be, you know, without her?
• 37:24
  Lisa Nichols: Because she does all of that.
• 37:26
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 37:26
  Lisa Nichols: But in the beginning, I mean, Greg and I started our company thirty one
• 37:30
  Lisa Nichols: years ago.
• 37:31
  Lisa Nichols: Wow.
• 37:31
  Lisa Nichols: And in the beginning, we were the, you know, customer service.
• 37:36
  Lisa Nichols: We were the sales department, the accounting department, you know, the whole
• 37:40
  Lisa Nichols: nine yards.
• 37:41
  Lisa Nichols: So Yeah.
• 37:42
  Lisa Nichols: But well, you know, you,
• 37:46
  Lisa Nichols: I yeah.
• 37:47
  Lisa Nichols: I really I want to let our our our, listeners
• 37:51
  Lisa Nichols: know, go get Eric's book, jump start your workplace culture.
• 37:55
  Lisa Nichols: I know that it's gonna really help you.
• 37:57
  Lisa Nichols: I know you're gonna love the book, but also follow Eric.
• 38:01
  Lisa Nichols: And, Eric, I was looking at lots like, you put really awesome stuff out
• 38:05
  Lisa Nichols: on LinkedIn,
• 38:07
  Lisa Nichols: you know, articles and blogs and things like that.
• 38:10
  Lisa Nichols: Here's one that, you know, you talk about.
• 38:13
  Lisa Nichols: You say, you know, hiring the right person is one of the hardest challenges
• 38:17
  Lisa Nichols: any organization faces.
• 38:19
  Lisa Nichols: The problem, most candidates bring their a game
• 38:23
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 38:23
  Lisa Nichols: And their rehearsed optimal answers.
• 38:27
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 38:27
  Lisa Nichols: So the secret is real insights come from seeing their typical responses.
• 38:31
  Lisa Nichols: So tell us a little bit more about, like, your strategy when you
• 38:35
  Lisa Nichols: were hiring people.
• 38:36
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, how did you how did you pull that out, the the truth?
• 38:41
  Eric Stone: Yes.
• 38:41
  Eric Stone: Oh my god.
• 38:42
  Eric Stone: Well, let me first say in the beginning, I was probably terrible.
• 38:45
  Eric Stone: I mean, as I was originally starting in a branch manager trying to interview
• 38:48
  Eric Stone: this person, I'm sure I made so many mistakes and biases I probably
• 38:52
  Eric Stone: had.
• 38:53
  Eric Stone: They call them the horn halo effect.
• 38:55
  Eric Stone: Or at least if you said you're a Red Sox fan, I'm hiring you.
• 38:58
  Eric Stone: You know?
• 38:58
  Eric Stone: I love Red Sox.
• 38:59
  Eric Stone: We're we're
• 38:59
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 39:00
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 39:01
  Eric Stone: And so it it was trial and error.
• 39:03
  Eric Stone: But what I found that worked best for me and my team
• 39:07
  Eric Stone: was I was the third stop.
• 39:10
  Eric Stone: And so I was really checking to see if this was going to match
• 39:14
  Eric Stone: that culture we had.
• 39:15
  Eric Stone: And I needed to find a way, as you mentioned, to find their typical
• 39:18
  Eric Stone: verse optimal.
• 39:19
  Eric Stone: And the best way to do it was to try to make them as
• 39:22
  Eric Stone: comfortable as they could in an interview setting.
• 39:25
  Eric Stone: It's one of my favorite lines I even opened up with.
• 39:27
  Eric Stone: I know this is stressful.
• 39:28
  Eric Stone: My goal is you're interviewing me just like I'm interviewing you.
• 39:32
  Eric Stone: Please understand that.
• 39:33
  Eric Stone: And I wanted them to just tell me a little bit about them.
• 39:36
  Eric Stone: I know this is this is something Elon Musk actually does is tell me
• 39:40
  Eric Stone: your story.
• 39:41
  Eric Stone: And that would be anything.
• 39:43
  Eric Stone: And what it allowed them to do was just hone in on the things
• 39:46
  Eric Stone: that were important.
• 39:47
  Eric Stone: I try to find commonality into those some of the thing.
• 39:50
  Eric Stone: So I just wanted them to tell me who they were.
• 39:53
  Eric Stone: By telling me who they were unprovoked, I didn't have to, you know, look
• 39:57
  Eric Stone: for key buzzwords about were they gonna be persuasive, were they going to be
• 40:00
  Eric Stone: really great with customer service.
• 40:02
  Eric Stone: It's what they told me was gonna be really important.
• 40:05
  Eric Stone: I then had a little bit of a couple of tricks along the way.
• 40:08
  Eric Stone: So even before the interview, I called it attitude effort
• 40:12
  Eric Stone: and coachability were really the big things that I always wanna be mindful of.
• 40:15
  Eric Stone: I think if you have that, you're in really good shape.
• 40:18
  Eric Stone: Mhmm.
• 40:18
  Eric Stone: But even how they would treat my HR manager or executive assistant
• 40:22
  Eric Stone: when they would come to the interview.
• 40:24
  Eric Stone: So when I'm done with the interview, I would always go and say,
• 40:28
  Eric Stone: when you just introduced yourself, how'd they treat you?
• 40:31
  Eric Stone: And this was a character test, and you learn a lot from people on
• 40:35
  Eric Stone: what they do or don't do.
• 40:37
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 40:37
  Eric Stone: Then there was the question.
• 40:38
  Eric Stone: I do through the interview, I wanted to get them I I don't wanna
• 40:42
  Eric Stone: say I I wanted to take an opposing side.
• 40:46
  Eric Stone: So I needed to see that if I push them in a professional
• 40:50
  Eric Stone: way, if I really challenge them on a thought, are they gonna hold
• 40:54
  Eric Stone: ground?
• 40:54
  Eric Stone: Are they gonna believe in the values that have got them to where they
• 40:57
  Eric Stone: are?
• 40:58
  Eric Stone: And so there would also be something of their conviction to something.
• 41:03
  Eric Stone: Another biggie was what does work life balance mean to you, Lisa?
• 41:07
  Eric Stone: I needed to understand what they claim work life balance is.
• 41:10
  Eric Stone: Everyone looks at it quite differently.
• 41:12
  Eric Stone: Differently.
• 41:13
  Eric Stone: So I wanted to understand those things.
• 41:15
  Eric Stone: And so it was really it was more of like a psych evaluation, I
• 41:18
  Eric Stone: tell you.
• 41:18
  Eric Stone: That then I was not looking it wasn't right or wrong.
• 41:22
  Eric Stone: So if you if you disagreed that, on customer service, I
• 41:26
  Eric Stone: would sometimes say, is the customer always right or wrong?
• 41:29
  Eric Stone: You know, can they be wrong?
• 41:30
  Eric Stone: I didn't care what they said.
• 41:31
  Eric Stone: I didn't care if they said no.
• 41:32
  Eric Stone: The customer is wrong.
• 41:33
  Eric Stone: I just wanted to understand their thought process that went behind why they would
• 41:37
  Eric Stone: make a statement.
• 41:38
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 41:38
  Eric Stone: So I wanted to encourage them to just tell me who they were
• 41:42
  Eric Stone: and find little moments that I might give them a little push at the
• 41:46
  Eric Stone: end.
• 41:46
  Eric Stone: And my last thing I would usually say is
• 41:51
  Eric Stone: when you leave this interview, I want you to talk to a mentor, someone
• 41:55
  Eric Stone: who who you really trust, who you really believe in.
• 41:59
  Eric Stone: And I want you to tell them all about the good and the bad
• 42:02
  Eric Stone: of of where you're going to be coming, and I want you to take
• 42:05
  Eric Stone: your time.
• 42:05
  Eric Stone: Because if we call or when we call, I don't want you to make
• 42:08
  Eric Stone: a rash decision.
• 42:09
  Eric Stone: I want it well thought out.
• 42:11
  Eric Stone: And I've seen this with my nieces and nephews and kids.
• 42:14
  Eric Stone: It's like you get an offer and and they just don't even know what
• 42:16
  Eric Stone: to do.
• 42:17
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 42:17
  Eric Stone: And so those were just whether it was few questions or things that I
• 42:21
  Eric Stone: traditionally look for, but more importantly was training my team
• 42:26
  Eric Stone: to not have some of those biases, to ask the right clarifying questions
• 42:30
  Eric Stone: so you don't think they said something when they just didn't articulate it the
• 42:34
  Eric Stone: way they wanted.
• 42:35
  Eric Stone: And that's why it's this art and science, and it is not easy.
• 42:38
  Eric Stone: And I've I had many a mistake in my day.
• 42:41
  Lisa Nichols: Oh, yeah.
• 42:41
  Lisa Nichols: So so have I.
• 42:43
  Lisa Nichols: So have I.
• 42:44
  Lisa Nichols: And and to your point, you know, I can remember hiring somebody because
• 42:48
  Lisa Nichols: it's and it turned out to be a great hire, but they went to
• 42:52
  Lisa Nichols: our our university.
• 42:54
  Lisa Nichols: I'm like, oh, great.
• 42:56
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 42:56
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 42:57
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 42:57
  Lisa Nichols: Because, yeah,
• 43:00
  Lisa Nichols: the the association.
• 43:01
  Eric Stone: Right?
• 43:02
  Eric Stone: Effect.
• 43:02
  Eric Stone: It's the Halo Effect.
• 43:04
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 43:05
  Lisa Nichols: Exactly.
• 43:05
  Lisa Nichols: Well, you've got so many great ones, here.
• 43:08
  Lisa Nichols: I love this one.
• 43:11
  Lisa Nichols: You know, it's called Get Up.
• 43:13
  Lisa Nichols: And, you know, it's all about a coach and a, you know, player falling
• 43:17
  Lisa Nichols: down, and the coach says get up.
• 43:18
  Lisa Nichols: A lot of people criticize that coach saying you were too, you know, brash
• 43:22
  Lisa Nichols: with him or you weren't empathetic enough or whatnot.
• 43:26
  Lisa Nichols: And and he said no.
• 43:27
  Lisa Nichols: You know, I knew that this player could get up and and
• 43:31
  Lisa Nichols: do well.
• 43:31
  Lisa Nichols: And you said that real leadership isn't always about comfort.
• 43:35
  Lisa Nichols: It is about calling people to their potential, especially
• 43:40
  Lisa Nichols: when it hurts.
• 43:40
  Lisa Nichols: And sometimes love sounds like get up, not because
• 43:44
  Lisa Nichols: you're weak, but because someone knows you're strong.
• 43:47
  Eric Stone: Oh, and, you know, I it is one of that interview, like, that just
• 43:51
  Eric Stone: gave me my own little goosebumps.
• 43:53
  Eric Stone: Like, that that coach was it was just so right
• 43:57
  Eric Stone: on.
• 43:57
  Eric Stone: And almost with one of your questions of this misconception of culture, it's not
• 44:01
  Eric Stone: a lot of love.
• 44:02
  Eric Stone: The love was believing that that person could rise.
• 44:05
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 44:06
  Eric Stone: And and that's this that's this uniqueness of what special
• 44:10
  Eric Stone: workplace cultures look like.
• 44:12
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 44:12
  Lisa Nichols: That's so good.
• 44:13
  Lisa Nichols: Well, just listeners, go and follow Eric.
• 44:18
  Lisa Nichols: Trust me.
• 44:18
  Lisa Nichols: You'll be glad that you did.
• 44:20
  Lisa Nichols: Oh my goodness.
• 44:21
  Lisa Nichols: I have all kinds of other things.
• 44:23
  Lisa Nichols: You, if you can have dinner with one leader, and I think you
• 44:27
  Lisa Nichols: mentioned, which I absolutely love too, coach John Wooten
• 44:32
  Eric Stone: Oh, yeah.
• 44:32
  Lisa Nichols: To pad who you would have dinner with.
• 44:35
  Eric Stone: He is he would absolutely be on the Mount Rushmore of the people
• 44:39
  Eric Stone: I would I would have loved to have have, have met and learned
• 44:43
  Eric Stone: from.
• 44:44
  Lisa Nichols: So he
• 44:44
  Eric Stone: would he would absolutely be one.
• 44:47
  Eric Stone: You know, I I I you gotta throw a Warren Buffett for this.
• 44:50
  Eric Stone: I'm very much about humility.
• 44:52
  Eric Stone: I love the people.
• 44:54
  Eric Stone: I tell it to my kids all the time.
• 44:56
  Eric Stone: The ultimate flex is not flexing.
• 44:58
  Eric Stone: You know?
• 44:59
  Eric Stone: Warren Buffett doesn't need a flex.
• 45:00
  Eric Stone: He drives his, you know, whatever year Buick in the same house.
• 45:04
  Lisa Nichols: Same house that he's been in the whole time.
• 45:06
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 45:07
  Eric Stone: His principles.
• 45:08
  Eric Stone: He follows his principles.
• 45:09
  Eric Stone: He follows his values.
• 45:10
  Eric Stone: He executes to the highest of level and has become this oracle
• 45:15
  Eric Stone: of Omaha.
• 45:16
  Eric Stone: And what what a story.
• 45:17
  Eric Stone: It's just amazing.
• 45:18
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 45:19
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 45:19
  Lisa Nichols: So many awesome leaders out there that we can learn from, but I I
• 45:23
  Lisa Nichols: could not agree more.
• 45:24
  Lisa Nichols: Go get the book, Wooten, if you don't have that.
• 45:26
  Lisa Nichols: And, Wooten on Leadership, it's really just phenomenal.
• 45:31
  Lisa Nichols: Well, goodness gracious.
• 45:33
  Lisa Nichols: You you wrote this book.
• 45:34
  Lisa Nichols: You've won I I know that you don't want you you would not want
• 45:37
  Lisa Nichols: me to say this, but this book has won lots of awards.
• 45:40
  Lisa Nichols: It's won the hustle and heart award, the pinnacle achievement award,
• 45:44
  Lisa Nichols: international book award.
• 45:47
  Lisa Nichols: So congratulations, Eric.
• 45:50
  Lisa Nichols: That's that's really phenomenal because there are a lot of books out there.
• 45:53
  Lisa Nichols: Well, let me ask you one more question.
• 45:56
  Lisa Nichols: I could ask you a lot more questions, but but we don't we're running
• 46:00
  Lisa Nichols: out of time here.
• 46:01
  Lisa Nichols: What is the something extra that you believe every leader needs?
• 46:06
  Eric Stone: I would I might have to give you two only because we talked about,
• 46:09
  Eric Stone: you know, like, real estate location, location, location.
• 46:12
  Eric Stone: In in corporate world, it's communication, communication, communication.
• 46:15
  Eric Stone: And we talked about the importance of those a b c's.
• 46:19
  Eric Stone: I will say, you know, trust is one of those things within
• 46:23
  Eric Stone: your organization that is gonna be unbelievably critical.
• 46:26
  Eric Stone: You can't go from where you want if people truly don't believe in the
• 46:29
  Eric Stone: message.
• 46:30
  Eric Stone: Mhmm.
• 46:30
  Eric Stone: And then maybe a small thing, and I don't know if this is this
• 46:33
  Eric Stone: necessarily that extra thing, but I sometimes think we fall
• 46:38
  Eric Stone: we always think we have to learn from failure.
• 46:40
  Eric Stone: I saw this thing from another coach, and it we're going to learn from
• 46:43
  Eric Stone: winning so we don't have to learn from losing.
• 46:46
  Eric Stone: I thought that was really interesting approach that we always think we're
• 46:50
  Eric Stone: supposed to lose, but own like, when we lose, that's our biggest learning lesson,
• 46:54
  Eric Stone: and it is.
• 46:55
  Eric Stone: And and and most of mine probably are for losing.
• 46:58
  Eric Stone: But let's learn let's learn from winning too.
• 47:00
  Eric Stone: I mean, that's okay.
• 47:01
  Eric Stone: Right?
• 47:01
  Eric Stone: We wanna be great.
• 47:02
  Eric Stone: And so that was something I recently saw that I think could really help
• 47:06
  Eric Stone: people Yeah.
• 47:07
  Eric Stone: That there's more ways to continue to be coached.
• 47:10
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 47:10
  Lisa Nichols: That's good.
• 47:11
  Lisa Nichols: I think I even read something about that, with the the Japanese.
• 47:15
  Lisa Nichols: Was it a rowing team?
• 47:16
  Eric Stone: Oh, yeah.
• 47:17
  Eric Stone: Yeah.
• 47:18
  Lisa Nichols: A rowing team and the American team and Yeah.
• 47:21
  Lisa Nichols: You know, I mean, learning from winning.
• 47:24
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, they won every time.
• 47:25
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 47:26
  Lisa Nichols: And, yeah, that's good.
• 47:28
  Lisa Nichols: Well, Eric, this has been so good.
• 47:30
  Lisa Nichols: Thank you so much for being with me today, and I know
• 47:34
  Lisa Nichols: that this is gonna help our listeners.
• 47:36
  Lisa Nichols: And, I just wish you the best of luck with all that you're doing.
• 47:39
  Lisa Nichols: I know you're gonna be helping a lot of people.
• 47:41
  Eric Stone: Thank you, Lisa.
• 47:42
  Eric Stone: And great questions.
• 47:44
  Eric Stone: Really appreciate it.
• 47:45
  Eric Stone: It's a nice different flavor, and, I really enjoyed it.
• 47:49
  Announcer: Thank you for listening to today's show.
• 47:51
  Announcer: Something extra with Lisa Nichols is a Technology Partners production.
• 47:54
  Announcer: Partners production.
• 47:55
  Announcer: Copyright Technology Partners Inc, two thousand and nineteen.
• 47:58
  Announcer: For show notes or to reach Lisa, visit tpi dot co
• 48:02
  Announcer: slash podcast.
• 48:04
  Announcer: Don't forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever
• 48:08
  Announcer: you listen.