Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: BoSCA-Kristin Hughes AD of Smith College "Creating Positive Culture in Your Athletic Department"

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BONUS: BoSCA-Kristin Hughes AD of Smith College "Creating Positive Culture in Your Athletic Department" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  It's bonus time. We've been enjoying some bonus
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  episodes here over the last couple of weeks from the Bosca,
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  the Business of small College Athletics convention.
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  Your humble host here, Mike Cunningham got to attend that a
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  couple of weeks ago. And they were just some topics
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  that I thought are high school and college track and field
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  coaches could receive value from.
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  And I this one really hit the mark for me.
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  So we got Kristen Hughes, the athletic director of Smith
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  College up in Massachusetts. Her topic is creating positive
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  culture in your athletic department.
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  This is spot on. I know this is an athletic
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  director, but guys and gals, this is your track programs,
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  your cross country programs. You will receive value today
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  from listening to Kristen Hughes amazing talk on creating
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  positive culture in your athletic department.
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  Well, good morning. I, I think this is a bit of a
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  set up being the 8:30 talk on Day 2.
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  So we're going to talk about that Jim.
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  And just to level set. Fair enough, East Coast, fair
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  enough. My, my workshop last September
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  was only about 8 minutes long. So I'm going to see how this
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  plays when it has to be an hour. But I'm really happy to be here
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  and, and thanks for showing up this morning.
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  I hope you got some coffee. Going to try to walk you through
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  a few ideas, honestly, that I have around culture.
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  And then I'm going to leave some time at the end, certainly for
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  questions. But I also hope we can have a
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  little bit of a conversation, some dialogue back and forth
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  about things that everybody, I'm sure, is already doing on their
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  campus that might be great for everyone to share.
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  We're going to start this morning with what I'm going to
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  call passive participation. Not going to ask too much of me
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  this early, but hopefully you'll you'll play along for a bit.
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  I'd like you to you can, you can write these things down or feel
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  free to type it into your computer or, or your laptop, but
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  I'd like to ask you a couple of questions just to kind of get us
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  started. The first questions, I'd like
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  you to think about the healthiest group or team you've
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  ever been a part of at any age in any role.
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  And can you write down some of the things that made it feel so
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  healthy and positive to you? I'm going to give you a few
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  minutes on each of these. The next thing I'd like you to
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  answer is think about the most toxic team or group you've ever
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  been a part of and write down the things that made it feel,
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  again, toxic or just really negative.
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  And I just wonder if is anyone willing to just just shout out
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  some of your answers? We'll start with that first
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  question about the the positive team or group you've been a part
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  of. What were some of the things
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  that came to mind as you thought about that?
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  Just just yell things out. Great common shared goal.
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  Thank you. Someone else be in it with you.
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  Great. One more maybe selfless.
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  Thank you. And then the second question,
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  negative, toxic what what kinds of things came to mind
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  complaining me first attitudes. Thank you One more maybe I'm
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  sorry, can I buy a vowel? What do you got?
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  All right, so interesting answers.
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  I've got a got a couple more questions and then I'm going to
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  get into this. The next one is what is your
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  favorite part of your job? Favorite part of your job as it
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  is right now? What was that the I heard
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  service? Anyone else have any answer they
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  want to share impact working with students?
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  Great, thank you. And then I want you to think
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  about someone who has professionally really impacted
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  you in a positive way at any point along your career path and
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  what were the qualities of that person?
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  Firm, fair and consistent. One more time.
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  Firm, fair and consistent. Firm, fair and consistent.
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  Thank you. One more maybe intentional,
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  Intentional. Thank you.
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  All right, last question for now.
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  What were you doing on your best day of work?
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  If you think about the best day you have had, really any job,
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  what were you doing? Does anyone have anything that
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  they might want to share on that?
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  Helping someone? Thank you.
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  Something else celebrating. Successes.
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  Celebrating successes one more maybe developing.
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  Others. Developing others.
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  Thank you. So if you think about all the
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  answers that you just heard, none of it.
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  And, and every time I've done this with a group, it has never
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  been about, well, I learned how to run faster.
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  I learned how to throw a ball better.
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  It's never been about any kind of a skill.
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  I'm pretty sure if I went around the room and looked at your
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  answers about what you were doing on your best day on the
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  job, it was not balancing your budget.
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  It probably wasn't even fundraising, right.
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  And I know it was not dealing with the transfer portal.
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  Everything I would imagine for the most part you have probably
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  written down or thought about or all things that I would call
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  culture qualities. And these are the things that we
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  know have the biggest impact. And really, if we get rid of all
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  sort of the noise that takes up so much space in our heads with
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  all of these jobs, whether you're an athletic
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  administrator, a coach or a student athlete, it's the things
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  that you probably wrote down, the things that you have already
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  shouted out that really have the big impact.
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  And it's really why we're all doing it.
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  And so I would argue that we spend so much time trying to
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  figure out all like the processes and the nuts and bolts
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  of these jobs. Coaches spend so much time
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  trying to figure out the right offense to run right, the the
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  right strength and conditioning work.
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  I took the players in. And I'm not saying that we have
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  to discount that, not at all. It's 100% a part of the process.
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  But I ask you to reflect and say, do you spend just as much
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  time on the things that build the qualities that you all just
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  listed that actually have the biggest impact?
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  And that's really what I want to talk about today.
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  And I think it's an important place to start because I think
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  people hear the word culture and they think it's soft, right?
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  We do not have time for this. We are too busy.
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  It's this big Kumbaya moment. And any coach in my department
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  will tell you that there is not someone who wants to win more
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  than I do. And we've had a lot of success.
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  Our women's basketball team has been to the last three Final
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  Fours and played in the last two national title games.
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  Success is really important to us.
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  That coach, that program are probably the biggest people that
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  have bought into what we do as a department with our culture.
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  And so I think you've got to start with the why and really
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  break it down this way in order to get people to buy in and
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  actually want to put the time in.
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  So I put this picture of these NBA All Stars up there because
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  there's a lot of studies, there's actually a lot of
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  research about why culture is important.
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  And here's the thing, like the guarantee is that a culture is
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  going to exist. We have a culture right now in
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  this room. We had a culture yesterday at
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  each of the round tables. And culture always exists.
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  The question is whether it's a culture that's going to help you
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  or hinder you. That's really where you need to
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  be living. So when I started to do some
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  some deeper dives on why culture works, why a healthy culture is
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  important, this one study that came out of the NBA looked at
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  the teams that had the most physical contact, high fives,
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  fist bumps, chest bumps, whatever it was the teams that
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  had the highest degree of physical contact, had the best
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  win loss records in the league. And the research sort of, you
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  know, said, well, we feel like physical contact that builds
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  emotion, right? And emotion is actually what
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  connects us. It's what bonds us to people.
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  And so when you think about athletics and all of the stories
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  that that we talk and that we tell, there's so much emotion
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  rolled in. And that's where the power is.
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  That's where the impact is. Another great example of this is
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  an experiment that was done a few actually many years ago, and
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  it was between a group of kindergarteners and a group of
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  MIT engineers. There was 8 kindergarteners put
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  in a room, they were given a set of building blocks. 8 MIT
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  engineers put in a separate room, same number of building
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  blocks. Both groups were giving the
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  given the same amount of time and they were asked to build as
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  many towers as they could in that amount of time.
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  The kindergarteners crushed the engineers.
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  They were 72% more productive. And when people went back and
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  they observed the video of what happened in each room, you can
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  probably guess what happened, right?
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  The kindergarteners just got right into it.
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  They just started building, right.
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  They didn't care if it was a red block, a blue block.
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  They didn't care who put down the first block.
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  They just started building as many towers as they could.
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  The engineers sat down and they tried to like overanalyze and
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  argue about which color should go 1st and at what angle and who
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  should place it. And they ran out of time.
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  They only built 1 tower. And so when you think about like
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  how you how you think about you want your culture to be, I would
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  argue that it is much better. It is much more powerful to have
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  a healthy culture than it is to have a smart one.
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  And this happens all the time. There are examples of this
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  across sports where UC teams with so much talent who don't
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  win, right? And I think a lot of it comes
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  back to how healthy the culture is.
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  So the last piece in terms of the why that I really want to
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  dive into, and I think this is a really important one, is about
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  this balance as athletic administrators that I think we
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  really need to try to keep for our departments.
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  And it's this balance of this personal perspective versus a
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  societal perspective. And so this is this is the last
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  set of questions. This is the last piece of work
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  you have to do this morning. But just stay with me in your
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  professional life. I'd like you to to listen.
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  I'm going to give you about 60 seconds to do this.
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  List out 10 things that are most important to you.
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  And this can be personally important to you or important to
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  you like for your department as you work as a professional. 10
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  things. All right.
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  Now this is like interval trend, we're going to go fast.
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  So now you've got your 10 circle, the five that are most
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  important to you and that list of 10, your top five.
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  And again, I'm just going to ask if anyone would be willing just
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  to shout out a couple of their answers.
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  Give me give me your top one or two things that are most
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  important to you. Student athlete experience.
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  Thank you. Student athlete experience, my
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  family, family, one more friends, friends.
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  Thank you. OK.
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  And now I want you to think about the three things that
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  might get in the way of at least those ones that you circled.
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  And whether that's for you personally or for, again, your
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  your department, what are the three things that might get in
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  the way of you maintaining those kinds of values as a priority as
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  you think about your culture? Anybody have any thoughts on
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  that one? Understaffing something else?
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  Yep. Over thinking, over analyzing.
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  Anything else, I'm sorry, no vision.
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  Thank you. Anyone more ego?
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  Thank you. So when I've done this with,
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  with our own department, some of the things that have come up
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  with those things that get in a way are things like jealousy,
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  right? Things like losing focus or
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  maybe putting focus on the wrong things.
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  But I think what's important to realize is that a lot of what I
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  think we, we place value on are really these, these human
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  skills, right? Again, it goes back to that list
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  that we started with earlier already this morning.
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  And what you're going to value and those things are really
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  going to be the, the, the basis for whatever your cultural
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  identity is for your department. But you're going to have to get
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  really good, in my opinion, of balancing all the things that
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  really is a societal perspective, right?
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  So the hard thing about athletics is that it's
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  incredibly public, right? So the things that society is
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  going to value are going to be things like winning in
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  championships, right? Maybe fundraising, maybe playing
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  time, right? Societal perspective is going to
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  be what a parent thinks about about their own child's
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  experience. And so your ability to balance
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  those two things for your department is going to be
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  critical in order to maintain the culture you want when things
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  start to get really hard. Culture's really easy when
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  you're winning a lot because society's right there with you,
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  right? But what happens if you've got a
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  coach who has that off year, right, and everyone's coming
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  down hard and that person or on that program or that parent is
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  coming down hard on that program, and how are you
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  balancing that and making sure you're staying true to your
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  values? I think it's a critical balance
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  in order to really have a culture that doesn't just exist,
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  but really supports people through that whole process.
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  So the way we try to look at it is with this acronym, CPR,
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  right? So we all know that, again, if
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  you look back at your list, everything that you've all
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  talked about with your culture is about building character,
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  right? So the things that are going to
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  be important to you in your culture are going to be the
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  character qualities in the ways people show up every day for you
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  at work, right? It's going to be how they show
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  up as a coach, how you show up to your job, how you show up for
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  student athletes. That character is going to drive
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  the process. So it's not just about who I
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  actually want to be in my role, but it's how I'm going to do the
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  work and that process will produce the results.
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  So I always try to come back when we're talking about culture
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  to the things that really people probably pay the most attention
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  to, you know? And so I think if you do that
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  though, then you under, then people understand why the
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  culture has to be first and foremost before you can get to
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  talking about results in championships and winning.
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  So CPR is a great way for us to to kind of quickly get back to
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  that thinking. I had a chance to listen to a
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  guy from he was in the Air Force, officer in the Air Force,
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  and he was giving a talk on leadership and he talked about
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  the importance of whatever you're going to value as a
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  leader. You have to stay really, really
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  close to it. Like there's no delegating a
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  relationship. And he had this great visual
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  that I wanted to share with all of you this morning.
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  I'm not going to do it because I'll make a mess, but it has
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  stayed with me. But he had this bottle of water
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  and he put this cup on the floor.
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  And his point was, you know, if I want to get water from this
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  bottle into this cup, I can stand here and do it.
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  And probably not a lot's going to make it into the cup, right?
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  Probably a lot's going to splash out and I'm probably going to
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  make a mess. But if I want to make sure all
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  the water gets into the cup, I got to get closer.
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  And his point is you've got to be really close and on top of
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  the things that matter to you if you wanted to actually work.
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  And so I just thought it was a great visual.
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  And as I think about culture, those are the things that I
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  think about. Like I can't just stand up and
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  talk about it at the first meeting of the year and expect
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  that culture is just going to roll out and happen the way I
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  want it to. You've got to be really on top
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  of things. So that's the why.
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  And again, I think it it it's important to really spend time
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  with people so that they understand the buy in piece of
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  it. But I do want to spend some time
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  talking about the how and how you're going to get to building
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  the identity for your own department.
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  I really think there's there's three things that are critical.
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  The 1st is that it's always going to be about behavior.
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  People only have access to your behavior.
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  They do not have access to your intentions.
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  So how you act, what you do, the actions that you put behind your
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  culture are critical for it to be something that is going to
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  have impact. The second thing is that it has
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  to be intentional. It has to be something that's
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  happening daily in your department and it has to have
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  some peer-to-peer accountability.
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  You can't be the only person who is driving culture.
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  It can't just be your head coaches.
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  It can't just be, you know, seniors on a team.
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  It has to be everybody and everyone has to be able to
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  commit to it, especially when it gets really, really difficult.
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  The third thing I would say is, again, everyone is responsible
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  for because everyone has access to it.
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  So when we have a, we have a large graduate assistant program
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  at Smith and our opening meeting of the year, we talk a lot about
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  the culture. And certainly a lot of it about
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  is about winning and how they present themselves
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  professionally. But we also talk about if you're
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  walking up the stairs into our building and you see a piece of
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  trash on the stairs, the expectations that you pick it
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  up, right, because we're going to take care of our facilities.
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  So it's a lot of little things and big things, but they all
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  speak to the same identity that we're trying to to get at.
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  This is a great example of everyone buying into culture.
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  I would imagine most of us know of this company, Zappos, their
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  business model is they, they sell shoes online.
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  So their culture, however, mission is to have and provide
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  the best customer service in the country.
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  And their CEO has gone around and talked a lot about this.
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  And many of you have maybe even heard this story, but he was
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  giving a talk, this was many years ago, and really bragging
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  about how great their customer service is.
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  That if you call someone that's appos, they're going to offer
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  you free delivery. They're going to give you free
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  return on shoes. They're going to tell you a joke
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  of the day. They're going to give you the
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  weather report. They're going to do anything.
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  You need to make that experience on the phone with that person
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  the best out of any other country in the US.
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  So there's a woman in the audience listening to this.
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  This top and she leaves from the top, she goes out to dinner, I'm
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  going to guess probably had a few drinks because at 11:00 at
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  night, she decided to test the theory and she called Zappos and
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  she ordered a pizza. And the representative from
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  Zappos figured out where her hotel was, got the address,
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  figured out that there was a pizza place that was open 24
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  hours and would deliver, and got a pizza delivered to this
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  woman's hotel room. And at the end of the call, she
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  said, I hope you enjoy your pizza.
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  It's going to be there in about 25 minutes.
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  And, oh, by the way, we happen to sell shoes.
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  So if you're ever in the need for shoes, give us a call back.
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  Well, that woman was the CEO of Skechers.
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  And it's how Skechers joined on to being a part of Amazon.
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  But I think it's an incredible story about how here is someone
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  who's, you know, arguably at the lowest ranks of a company who
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  understands what the culture is and understands then how to
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  deliver on it. You know, I think when you think
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  about how you're going to promote it within your
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  department, it's really important to attach these
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  culture actions to moments and not people.
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  And the reason that is so important is because if you
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  attach it to a moment, then it makes your culture available to
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  everyone, right? If you attach it to a person, it
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  gets too personal. And I find like summons that can
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  actually discourage folks from really jumping in.
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  So I think it's really important that you attach these moments or
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  these actions to moments rather. Next thing is in that, you know,
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  anyone who is coached knows this.
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  People are going to do what you inspect and not what you expect,
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  right? So the things that you're
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  talking about and you're noticing, it's the only time I
• 21:48
  talk with our GAS about culture is at that opening meeting, then
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  they're not going to do it. They're just not.
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  If I, if I see the kid ahead of me on the stairs, pick up an
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  empty water bottle and I make a comment about it, and then maybe
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  I make a comment about it at our next staff meeting, that's going
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  to have impact. So I think this is a really
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  basic concept, but a really critical 1.
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  And I don't think you can ever under score the power of showing
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  gratitude and appreciation when people are doing the right
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  things. And I think you got to catch
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  people doing the right things and really make a point to
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  calling them out. The last piece in terms of the
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  how I think is how you develop your people because your people
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  are certainly going to drive your culture.
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  So the first thing I would say, you know, especially with as you
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  think about all the hiring, right, that that we all do every
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  year, I mean that that's just kind of the the nature of the
• 22:42
  job. And so you're constantly
• 22:43
  bringing new people into your program.
• 22:45
  I would imagine with assistant coaches, if you're anything like
• 22:47
  us, that is like a rotating like wheel, right, like all the time.
• 22:51
  So you're constantly having new personalities.
• 22:54
  So you could have a year where your culture is incredible,
• 22:57
  right? But when you bring new people
• 22:59
  in, if you don't do the work with them and also maintain it
• 23:02
  with your existing employees, and I think you risk that
• 23:06
  culture really suffering. So This is why the people part,
• 23:09
  I think is is important. So the first thing is developing
• 23:11
  ownership. You want to try to get your your
• 23:15
  people to really focus on results rather than blame.
• 23:21
  And we talked a lot at Smith about not being the best in our
• 23:25
  department, but being the best for our department.
• 23:28
  And there is a world of difference between those two
• 23:30
  phrases being the best for your department, not in your
• 23:35
  department. I think the next thing is really
• 23:39
  fostering this culture of helpfulness.
• 23:42
  And I'm not talking about superficial cooperation.
• 23:47
  This is genuinely celebrating the success of other people.
• 23:51
  And I really believe that starts at the top.
• 23:53
  You've got to be recognizing what success looks like, and it
• 23:57
  may be very different for each program and each person.
• 24:01
  You know, success for the person who runs your facilities, maybe
• 24:04
  they just got through, you know, that the crossover season and no
• 24:07
  one yelled at them or they shouldn't mess up the schedule,
• 24:09
  right? Success for a program that maybe
• 24:12
  has been under 500, that makes the postseason for the first
• 24:16
  time is going to look really different than a team that's
• 24:18
  going to NCAA's. But I think you have to
• 24:20
  recognize that and you have to model how to celebrate that.
• 24:24
  So everyone else jumps on board. And then what I think people
• 24:27
  find is the more you do it and the more this becomes a part of
• 24:31
  your culture, it really strengthens the entire
• 24:35
  department. You know, you lose a lot of the
• 24:38
  pettiness, you lose a lot of the jealousy.
• 24:40
  People are generally happy. It's easier.
• 24:42
  It actually needs a lot of energy to be negative and
• 24:44
  jealous. This is actually much more
• 24:47
  uplifting. But I think you got to walk
• 24:48
  people through that. The next thing is nurturing
• 24:53
  engagement. And I think it probably almost
• 24:56
  goes without saying that we all really try to genuinely care
• 24:59
  about the people who work for us and with us.
• 25:04
  You know, I, I feel like as a athletic director, a big part of
• 25:07
  my job is trying to anticipate blind spots for folks trying to
• 25:10
  kind of see ahead of the bend, right?
• 25:12
  And make sure that if there's a problem that, you know, we try
• 25:14
  to get on the same side of it together.
• 25:17
  But I really approach it like I did when I coached, you know, if
• 25:21
  I had a kid who was struggling with her jump shot, I didn't
• 25:23
  say, well, you know, you're shooting 18% and that that needs
• 25:26
  to get better. And then out she went, right?
• 25:27
  Like that didn't happen, right. We watched film.
• 25:30
  We had one-on-one time in the gym.
• 25:32
  We broke down her mechanics. And I really try to take that
• 25:35
  same approach with our department when they are
• 25:38
  struggling. And that takes a lot of it, a
• 25:40
  lot of time. But I think if you if you
• 25:42
  nurture that relationship in that way, people get vulnerable
• 25:47
  in the best of ways because then they're going to grow from that.
• 25:51
  The next thing is transforming conflict.
• 25:53
  I think a lot of people are really, really bad at
• 25:58
  confrontation, at difficult conversations, and we just try
• 26:01
  to avoid it. And there is no avoiding it,
• 26:04
  right? We have to get really good at
• 26:05
  navigating those those spaces. And as the athletic director, I
• 26:09
  don't think you can be the only one.
• 26:10
  You've got to have people that are willing to get in there and
• 26:13
  have those hard conversations. And I think if you're doing a
• 26:15
  lot of the things we've talked about, it just makes it much
• 26:18
  easier to try to get through what you know, it's never a fun
• 26:21
  time, but unnecessary time. The next thing is building
• 26:24
  relationships. You know, yesterday I think in
• 26:26
  almost every session that I sat on in on, people talked about
• 26:31
  the importance of building relationships.
• 26:32
  And again, like with the water bottle, I do not think that's
• 26:35
  something you can delegate. I think you got to spend a lot
• 26:38
  of time with folks and not just when they're first hired.
• 26:42
  You know, I've got 2 coaches on my staff who been there for a
• 26:46
  while and we could go weeks without talking because they
• 26:50
  just do their thing and I'm really intentional about trying
• 26:53
  to get out and seeing them and just sitting in their office for
• 26:56
  no other reason but to continue to build that relationship.
• 27:01
  Recruiting and retaining talent. We talked a little bit about
• 27:03
  this one yesterday afternoon. You know, I think there is a lot
• 27:09
  of research that shows that people don't leave jobs because
• 27:14
  of salaries or resources. They leave jobs because of
• 27:17
  culture and bad leadership. And this, that kind of data
• 27:22
  speaks to me maybe more than anything on why culture is so
• 27:24
  important. I also think there's an
• 27:26
  opportunity here. We have been really locked in on
• 27:30
  sort of this thinking around mentorship, right, for younger
• 27:34
  coaches, for younger administrators.
• 27:36
  And I think we really need to be transitioning to more of a
• 27:39
  mindset around sponsorship because sponsorship feels
• 27:44
  different, right? People that are are are working
• 27:47
  their time, are, are working their way through a career.
• 27:50
  There is certainly a moment that mentorship makes a lot of sense.
• 27:53
  Let me show you what I do. Let me show you how I do it.
• 27:55
  But then at some point it needs to shift and you need to start
• 27:59
  sponsoring them and giving them opportunities, whether it's
• 28:02
  within your own department or on your campus, so they can
• 28:05
  actually develop on their own. And I think sometimes we get
• 28:08
  really stuck in that mentorship piece and we never get to that
• 28:11
  sponsorship. And sponsorship to me is a great
• 28:13
  way to retain people that are really strong for you.
• 28:17
  And then finally, corrective action.
• 28:20
  You know, this is not punishment.
• 28:21
  This is upholding a standard. And I think you can be really,
• 28:25
  really tough on standards and really empathetic with people.
• 28:28
  And I think both things are incredibly necessary.
• 28:32
  So those are some thoughts around the how I would like to
• 28:36
  share with you. And I'm think this is going to
• 28:38
  work. This is a Ted Talk from Margaret
• 28:41
  Heffernan. It's about 12 minutes long.
• 28:44
  I think it's important and hopefully you're going to enjoy
• 28:47
  kind of watching this, but it's something that we watch
• 28:50
  frequently actually as a department.
• 28:52
  So I think she's just got some great thinking around how you
• 28:55
  build a healthy culture that that is really productive.
• 28:58
  So looks like our Wi-Fi is cooperating.
• 29:01
  Hey gang, I wanted to pop in here real quick.
• 29:03
  This is where Miss Kristen Hughes plays the really
• 29:06
  wonderful Ted Talks by Margaret Hefferman.
• 29:09
  Forget the pecking order at work.
• 29:11
  Kind of a super Chickens is the subtitle here.
• 29:13
  I highly suggest you go to Google when you get done with
• 29:16
  this episode and Google Ted Talks Super Chickens.
• 29:20
  That'll bring up Margaret Hefferman Heffernan's Ted talk
• 29:23
  Forget the pecking order at work.
• 29:25
  Really valuable, but obviously can't play it here for copyright
• 29:27
  issues, but I highly suggest you go listen and watch that Ted
• 29:31
  talks. Speaking of Ted talks, great
• 29:32
  opportunity for me to remind you about the Gil 1918 Project, the
• 29:35
  Ted Talks of track and field podcast.
• 29:37
  If you're interested in recording your own episode of
• 29:40
  the Gil 1918 Project, just hit me up on Twitter, e-mail, text
• 29:44
  message, whatever it takes. All right, let's get back to
• 29:46
  miss Kristen Hughes presentation.
• 29:48
  Hey. Thank you for using excellent
• 29:50
  listening skills. That was very very good.
• 29:53
  I hope you got something out of it.
• 29:56
  I think some of her points are really transferable to a lot of
• 30:00
  the work we do. And a lot of times in department
• 30:04
  meetings, we will pull up Ted talks like this and we will
• 30:06
  spend half of our meeting just talking about things like this.
• 30:12
  All right, This actually looks a lot scarier on a big screen than
• 30:15
  it did on my laptop earlier. That just making sure you're
• 30:18
  still paying attention. I'm going to close with a few a
• 30:22
  few comments. I hate horror movies.
• 30:25
  I've never liked them. I didn't like them as a kid.
• 30:26
  I certainly don't like them now as an adult that I've learned a
• 30:29
  lot from them and I wanted to share that with you today.
• 30:32
  The 1st is you should always avoid the vampires, right?
• 30:37
  So anyone who's trying to suck the blood and life out of you,
• 30:41
  avoid them at all costs. Get them out of your department.
• 30:44
  They do nobody any good at all. The second thing is you should
• 30:48
  always turn the lights on. And I think that we have a huge
• 30:54
  opportunity to always really illuminate and shed light on the
• 30:58
  things that are most important to us and the things that really
• 31:01
  fill us and fill the people that we work with.
• 31:03
  And it's really our job to make sure that we put light on that.
• 31:07
  The third is never go into the basement.
• 31:10
  You know, we all have those people I would imagine in our
• 31:12
  department to try to pull you down, right?
• 31:14
  You want to talk about somebody else, They just want to talk
• 31:16
  about everything that's going wrong, what they don't have, how
• 31:20
  they're being wronged. Don't go to the basement with
• 31:23
  anybody because again, nothing good ever happens down there.
• 31:26
  And finally, never go anywhere alone.
• 31:30
  You you know, there's always that moment right in the movie
• 31:33
  where like someone's getting chased by someone with like a
• 31:36
  machete and some dummies like let's split up.
• 31:39
  Never a good idea, people. It's never good.
• 31:43
  You need to bring people along with you.
• 31:44
  And, and I think that the more folks that you bring along with
• 31:47
  all of your successes, all the joy, it just really compounds it
• 31:51
  for everyone. So maybe it's just a fun way to
• 31:54
  think about things. And then my, my final thought is
• 31:57
  this, you know, I think you can have, you can have slogans, you
• 32:00
  can have T-shirts, you can have mission statements, strategic
• 32:02
  plans. That's really never been my
• 32:03
  thing at all. Because to me, it's only things
• 32:06
  that you read. And I think culture is something
• 32:08
  that you need to feel and for all of the things that we have
• 32:12
  spoken about yesterday, right, which are legitimate challenges
• 32:17
  in this profession, whether it is on around fundraising or
• 32:20
  parents or promoting sports, you name the topic.
• 32:24
  The beauty about culture is it can be as strong and as positive
• 32:30
  as you want it, irrespective of all those challenges.
• 32:34
  None of those things have to come into play if you don't let
• 32:36
  it. And that's where your control
• 32:38
  lies. And I think it's really where
• 32:39
  you make these jobs, not only for ourselves or for the people
• 32:42
  who work for us, just feel really empowering and it makes
• 32:45
  them want to show up and share success with you everyday.
• 32:48
  So thank you for for listening and putting up with a very poor
• 32:52
  volume on the on the video. I appreciated the opportunity to
• 32:57
  share some of my thoughts and happy to answer any questions.
• 32:59
  Thanks. Sir, I had a question for you.
• 33:11
  You know an employee that's transient.
• 33:15
  Well, really a bit as you're in the hiring process and I think
• 33:22
  you're probably very thoughtful about how some persons that do
• 33:25
  the culture of my Parliament. But can we talk a little bit
• 33:29
  about maybe the things that you're looking for in that or or
• 33:33
  even potentially questions that you might ask?
• 33:36
  We're helping you determine whether they will contribute to
• 33:41
  your department. Or yeah, I think that the two
• 33:44
  biggest things anytime we're hiring for me are emotional
• 33:48
  intelligence and emotional agility.
• 33:50
  And both of those skills I think are rare and I think are
• 33:53
  critical to be successful. And I think if you've got those
• 33:56
  two things and you're strong in those areas, then at least for
• 34:00
  us at Smith, you're going to be a great addition to the
• 34:03
  department. I mean, we talk a lot about our
• 34:05
  culture through an interview process, but those two things to
• 34:08
  me really need to be able to come across.
• 34:10
  And that can be through the way they answer a question to, I
• 34:14
  think even little things. I really like to spend a lot of
• 34:17
  informal time with candidates and just see how they act.
• 34:21
  You know, we'll walk through campus today, make eye contact
• 34:23
  with people and say hi. For me, it's a lot of little
• 34:25
  things as well as the the big things in the more formal
• 34:29
  settings. But emotional agility, emotional
• 34:31
  intelligence are big ones for me.
• 34:38
  I'm going to ask you one other question.
• 34:45
  Did you see someone turning toward a?
• 34:53
  Magnifier, yeah, I don't think it's a nudge, right.
• 34:55
  I think this goes back to having like your the ability to
• 34:58
  navigate those conflicts and having those difficult
• 35:00
  conversations. And I think the people that are
• 35:02
  trying to do everything the right way count on you to keep
• 35:05
  people all going in the same direction.
• 35:07
  And so I think it's a huge like responsibility to make sure that
• 35:11
  you're kind of holding everyone to that same standard.
• 35:14
  And again, sometimes those conversations are are unpleasant
• 35:17
  and not fun, but certainly necessary for what you need to
• 35:22
  sort of uphold the standard of culture for your department.
• 35:27
  Thank you.