Latest / Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected Stories / Steady Hands on the Helm with Jim Carlough | Ship's Log #26
Transcript
- 0:02Jeanne: Hello and welcome to Project Candor, where we explore the real stories behind who people become.
- 0:08Jeanne: Today I'm pleased to welcome Jim Carlough.
- 0:10Jeanne: Jim is a seasoned business strategy speaker and the author of the Six Pillars of Effective Leadership, a roadmap to success.
- 0:18Jeanne: With more than 30 years of experience developing teams and transforming organizations, Jim teaches that leaders aren't born, they're developed.
- 0:27Jeanne: His work centers on integrity, accountability, and practical leadership principles that help people grow, not just professionally, but personally.
- 0:35Jeanne: Jim, welcome aboard on Project Candor.
- 0:39Jim Carlough: I am just so happy to be here.
- 0:41Jim Carlough: I've been looking forward to this conversation all week.
- 0:44Jim Carlough: So yes, let's have some fun.
- 0:46Jeanne: Yeah, this is exciting.
- 0:47Jeanne: Um, the more I understand about what you do, the more I want to dig in.
- 0:51Jeanne: So the way this works is I start asking questions and we get to know you a little bit before we jump into your fun stories.
- 0:58Jeanne: So you ready to go?
- 0:59Jim Carlough: I'm ready to go.
- 1:01Jeanne: Okay.
- 1:01Jeanne: So, Jim, before you fully understood leadership, what did it cost you?
- 1:07Jim Carlough: Oh, it probably cost a few relationships.
- 1:11Jim Carlough: When I think back to my first management job, I was horrible.
- 1:16Jim Carlough: I remember one day a young woman that worked for me came into my office and closed the door and didn't like something that I did.
- 1:25Jim Carlough: It wasn't directed at her, but it was for to the with the team.
- 1:29Jim Carlough: And she started with an escalated voice and yelling at me.
- 1:35Jim Carlough: And I naturally responded the same way by elevating my voice, which was the wrong thing to do.
- 1:43Jim Carlough: So I think what it really cost me, it didn't cost me my job, but it cost me that relationship with that person because I wasn't myself.
- 1:55Jim Carlough: And I didn't show up the same way I had showed up two hours earlier to work.
- 2:00Jim Carlough: I had changed, my personality changed in that instant.
- 2:04Jim Carlough: And that's the moment I realized I needed to change, that I would not be successful at leading people if I was going to be getting into screaming matches with them.
- 2:15Jeanne: Yeah, wonderful.
- 2:16Jeanne: Because, you know, I was gonna ask you, was that the moment you realized something had to change, but you answered that right away?
- 2:23Jeanne: I get you, you get to a breaking point, right?
- 2:25Jeanne: Right.
- 2:26Jeanne: And you decide this has got to change.
- 2:28Jeanne: It might be that you were in a shoddy match, but it could have been something else as well.
- 2:33Jeanne: So before we go deeper and talk about the six pillars, uh, can you walk us through what they are?
- 2:39Jeanne: Can you give us an explanation of how you developed that and what they actually mean and what the pillars are?
- 2:45Jim Carlough: Yeah, let me tell you how this whole start, this whole thing started, or the book started.
- 2:50Jim Carlough: Two years ago, I started thinking, what happens when I retire?
- 2:54Jim Carlough: What can I do to give back?
- 2:56Jim Carlough: And, you know, I don't play golf.
- 2:59Jim Carlough: I'm horrible at fishing, and I just don't know what I would do.
- 3:03Jim Carlough: And I know if I didn't have something to do, that every day there would be a list given to me of things that I had to do by my wife, and most of the things on the list, probably things I wouldn't want to do.
- 3:15Jim Carlough: So I said, I got to find something to do.
- 3:17Jim Carlough: So I started thinking, and I realized that I had been mentoring people for 25, 30 years.
- 3:24Jim Carlough: In fact, I've mentored one individual for 30 years.
- 3:28Jim Carlough: Others have been on and off.
- 3:30Jim Carlough: And I started to think about the characteristics that were lacking in each of the people that I helped mentor.
- 3:39Jim Carlough: And I started making a list of them.
- 3:41Jim Carlough: And the list was about 15 items long.
- 3:44Jim Carlough: And I thought, well, if I'm going to teach people how to lead, I need to have a shorter list.
- 3:50Jim Carlough: So I worked hard to narrow it down and I got it down to six, and six that I felt were truly, truly important to drive not just organizational change, but to build cohesive, long-lasting, committed teams.
- 4:10Jim Carlough: And they became the framework.
- 4:13Jim Carlough: And they are the number one pillar is integrity.
- 4:17Jim Carlough: And to me, that's non-negotiable.
- 4:19Jim Carlough: It's just non-negotiable.
- 4:21Jim Carlough: And then after integrity is empathy and compassion, stability and focus, and the final pillar is humor.
- 4:29Jim Carlough: And over the years, these have all evolved and developed.
- 4:35Jim Carlough: And they're all things that I found that they don't teach you in business school, but they're things that you really need to lead effectively.
- 4:44Jim Carlough: And what happens in America today, and actually around the world, when a management job opens up, we typically, and I say we, because I'm part of corporate America, we typically go to the that group or look inside that group for the most technically skilled person in that group and promote them the manager.
- 5:04Jim Carlough: The problem is we don't give them a roadmap to follow of how to be successful.
- 5:10Jim Carlough: Very few companies today have true leadership training programs.
- 5:16Jim Carlough: They just don't exist.
- 5:18Jim Carlough: As budgets got tighter and profits became more important, they sort of went away.
- 5:23Jim Carlough: In fact, in my career, I've only worked for one company that truly had a leadership development program.
- 5:30Jim Carlough: And I learned a lot from that.
- 5:32Jim Carlough: But I also learned a lot by managing people and living experiences and learning what was important.
- 5:40Jim Carlough: And when I look back at my career, I can compare my teams.
- 5:46Jim Carlough: I measure my success by how often people that work for me call me looking for another job.
- 5:53Jim Carlough: And I also still to this day get emails from a few people who worked for me 25 years ago to wish me a happy boss's day.
- 6:02Jim Carlough: And so when I think about those things, I think about how those teams performed and what were the things that kept them unified together.
- 6:11Jim Carlough: And it really came down to these six principles.
- 6:14Jim Carlough: And I also discovered along the way that my voluntary attrition rate, people who voluntarily quit, who worked for me, is under 5%.
- 6:27Jeanne: Wow.
- 6:28Jeanne: That's a low percentage, yeah.
- 6:30Jim Carlough: The average in the United States is 10 to 15%.
- 6:33Jim Carlough: And so these pillars have meaning and it humanizes the leader.
- 6:39Jim Carlough: It doesn't make them part of the team.
- 6:41Jim Carlough: They're not, they're not out drinking with them and eating with them every night.
- 6:44Jim Carlough: They're not, you know, friends, but it keeps the group together.
- 6:48Jim Carlough: And that is something that I'm that I'm probably most proud of.
- 6:52Jim Carlough: And most proud of the people who have who call me and say, hey, I need advice.
- 6:59Jim Carlough: I'm looking for a new job.
- 7:00Jim Carlough: Do you have one?
- 7:02Jim Carlough: You know, do you know anybody who's hiring?
- 7:04Jim Carlough: And the fact that they they reach out.
- 7:06Jim Carlough: And so I feel good about that.
- 7:09Jim Carlough: But again, I wanted to take this and do this on a bigger scale.
- 7:13Jim Carlough: So in retirement, I'm doing more public speaking at conferences on this topic.
- 7:19Jim Carlough: And I've also developed workshops for corporations, a three-day workshop where we can bring these pillars to life and instill it into the leaders that already exist in positions and they can start that transformation.
- 7:33Jim Carlough: I believe strongly that if an organization can adopt these principles, that I can cut their attrition rates in half.
- 7:42Jim Carlough: However, it won't happen overnight because telling somebody they need to show compassion or empathy, they have to learn how to do that.
- 7:53Jim Carlough: And learning that takes time.
- 7:55Jim Carlough: You can't pick up a book on compassion and think that you can implement it successfully.
- 8:02Jim Carlough: The way I handle it and the way you handle it may be different.
- 8:07Jim Carlough: And you'll have to develop your own style for it.
- 8:10Jim Carlough: So the workshops are a starting point, but it's a start of a journey that will over time have a dramatic impact and will severely bring down attrition rates as we develop more cohesive teams.
- 8:24Jeanne: Yeah, you've given me a lot to think about.
- 8:26Jeanne: I'm thinking of personal growth, uh, corporate growth, uh, leadership styles within corporations.
- 8:33Jeanne: And just my mind is going a little crazy now.
- 8:37Jeanne: I've got other questions for you that I didn't have ready on the ready for you.
- 8:42Jeanne: But I do remember when I was at IBM, they used to have great leadership training.
- 8:48Jeanne: They would take you up to Armak and they had a very big corporate facility, and we would go through tons of leadership training.
- 8:56Jeanne: I don't know if they still do that or not, but I was privileged enough to be able to go to that.
- 9:00Jeanne: And I thought it was quite effective.
- 9:02Jeanne: It did set my career as I went forward.
- 9:04Jeanne: So I understand and I realize what you're doing is just such a needed service for corporations if they don't have that.
- 9:12Jeanne: If you were to say to a corporation, like, why they should reach out to you and say, or just a leader in a corporation, why should I go to gym and work on these pillars of success?
- 9:26Jeanne: What would you say to them?
- 9:28Jim Carlough: I would tell them they're killing their bottom line.
- 9:31Jim Carlough: Let's talk about the cost of replacing an employee.
- 9:34Jim Carlough: So the Society for Human Resource Managers did a study, and they say that it costs between 100 and 300% of an individual's salary in order to bring the next person on board.
- 9:48Jim Carlough: Because the components of that are you have lost productivity because you didn't know the person was going to quit till they quit.
- 9:56Jim Carlough: And you can't hire somebody and train them in two weeks.
- 9:59Jim Carlough: So you've got some period of time where that work isn't being performed.
- 10:04Jim Carlough: You then have it starts with recruiting, whether internally or externally, finding candidates, screening candidates, interviewing candidates, you know, two, three-level interviews or whatever they are, because and every company is different.
- 10:21Jim Carlough: Then you have the onboarding process, the training process, and that new employee is likely not capable of being fully functional for eight to 12 months.
- 10:33Jim Carlough: And so if you take the numbers that they suggest, let's assume we have 500.
- 10:39Jim Carlough: I like simple math.
- 10:40Jim Carlough: Let's assume we have 500 employees, and let's assume that our attrition rate is only 10%.
- 10:46Jim Carlough: So that means that every year I'm gonna lose 50 employees.
- 10:51Jim Carlough: Now let's assume for a second that those 50 employees all made $100,000.
- 10:58Jim Carlough: And let's say we're gonna take middle of the range and say it's 200%.
- 11:03Jim Carlough: That's $10 million of profit that is going out the window because of an attrition rate of 10%, and the cost of doing nothing is taking profit off the table.
- 11:18Jim Carlough: And so I would ask the question what is your attrition rate?
- 11:24Jim Carlough: If your attrition rate is 10% or higher, you need me.
- 11:29Jim Carlough: You need to change something about the organization and create a leadership culture.
- 11:36Jim Carlough: And I think that's what's missing is not just the leadership culture, but giving permission to people to be a leader and then to give them the tools on what they should focus on.
- 11:49Jim Carlough: And again, I don't think we do that.
- 11:51Jim Carlough: I don't think we do a good job of that.
- 11:53Jim Carlough: And when we put somebody into a management role who never was before, if they can't make that transition in 18 months, you're gonna see that department's attrition rate go up and you're gonna see the burnout of that leader.
- 12:07Jim Carlough: So it's a very costly problem that nobody's talking about.
- 12:12Jeanne: So I'm going totally off script because I have more questions based on what you said.
- 12:17Jeanne: So I remember Luke Ersner wrote a book.
- 12:20Jeanne: I can't remember what the title was.
- 12:22Jeanne: It had elephant in it, the big blue elephant or something, you know, talking about IBM.
- 12:27Jeanne: And he made a statement that shocked me that it would take a year for me to be effective at IBM just because of complexity of the organization and the understanding that I needed in order to be effective.
- 12:42Jeanne: But that made me stay there to just want to be there and be effective.
- 12:47Jeanne: I don't know.
- 12:47Jeanne: It just like a it's just something that just stuck with me, like, you know, they're giving me this year and they're paying me.
- 12:55Jeanne: I'm gonna be effective for them.
- 12:56Jeanne: So I stayed for quite some time there.
- 12:59Jeanne: And uh, do you think that CEOs are scared of that?
- 13:02Jeanne: You're talking to attrition.
- 13:04Jeanne: So it's even worse.
- 13:06Jeanne: If it takes you a year to be effective at a corporation, then if they leave after six months, that's just money gone and they haven't done anything.
- 13:15Jeanne: Even though they might have done some work, it's not, you know, in the scheme of things, it might not be um enough to cover the cost of them.
- 13:24Jim Carlough: I totally agree.
- 13:24Jim Carlough: I had a similar situation where I was hired at a company.
- 13:28Jim Carlough: I was told it would take a year to learn what they do, been in healthcare my entire professional career.
- 13:35Jim Carlough: And this is 2008, and they had a uh routine that after 90 days, you had a formal review with your boss.
- 13:44Jim Carlough: And my boss lived in New York and happened to be in our Texas office that week.
- 13:51Jim Carlough: And she came to me and she said, if you don't mind, I'm gonna fly home tonight and I'm gonna do your review over the phone.
- 14:00Jim Carlough: And I said, That's fine.
- 14:01Jim Carlough: And so I had no that.
- 14:04Jim Carlough: I started to think about and was prepared and had already cleaned out my desk that I was gonna be let go because I felt I was not adding any value.
- 14:16Jim Carlough: And we got on our call, and the first thing she said is, How do you think it's going?
- 14:23Jim Carlough: Oh, gosh, I hate that question.
- 14:25Jim Carlough: And uh, this is a true story.
- 14:27Jim Carlough: And I said, Christina, and she happens to be one of the best bosses I've ever had in my life.
- 14:33Jim Carlough: So hopefully she's listens to your podcast.
- 14:36Jim Carlough: Um because I I look, I stay in communication.
- 14:39Jim Carlough: You didn't tag her today, till today.
- 14:42Jim Carlough: I mean, she's she's just a fabulous, fabulous leader.
- 14:46Jim Carlough: And I said, Christina, to be honest with you, I have my office packed.
- 14:52Jim Carlough: I'm ready for you to let me go.
- 14:54Jim Carlough: I accept the fact that I just don't get it.
- 14:57Jim Carlough: And she paused and she said, What don't you get?
- 15:01Jim Carlough: And I said, I just can't understand the complexity of what we're doing.
- 15:08Jim Carlough: She said, Stop.
- 15:09Jim Carlough: Stop right there.
- 15:10Jim Carlough: She said, Number one, I told you it would take a year.
- 15:15Jim Carlough: I said, Oh, you were just being nice.
- 15:17Jim Carlough: She said, I wasn't being nice, I was being truthful.
- 15:21Jim Carlough: It will take you a year to learn everything because we are that complex.
- 15:26Jim Carlough: And she said, I owe you an apology.
- 15:30Jim Carlough: I should have stayed in Dallas to have this conversation with you face to face because you're adding value in places we didn't expect you to add value initially.
- 15:40Jim Carlough: And she said, You've actually improved a product of ours.
- 15:45Jim Carlough: And you've only been here 90 days.
- 15:47Jim Carlough: I mean, she had examples.
- 15:49Jim Carlough: She said, She said, Jim, I've got to tell you something.
- 15:52Jim Carlough: I think I have failed you because I need to spend more time with you to reinforce how much you do know and how much you have learned.
- 16:03Jim Carlough: And so we made a plan to do to talk more frequently than just once a week on a one-on-one.
- 16:11Jim Carlough: And it really helped both of us.
- 16:14Jim Carlough: And I was very successful there and was there for almost a decade.
- 16:19Jim Carlough: And but I literally had a box packed with my personal things ready for her to say that she was going to let me go.
- 16:29Jim Carlough: And that was the farthest thing that was from the truth of what was going to happen.
- 16:33Jim Carlough: But that's the perception.
- 16:35Jim Carlough: I just felt like I wasn't contributing value for what they were paying me.
- 16:39Jeanne: That's because you had your own expectations set pretty high for yourself, I guess.
- 16:44Jeanne: And you didn't see how you were meeting your own goals.
- 16:49Jim Carlough: And I said to her, I said, I, you know, I consider myself a pretty smart guy.
- 16:53Jim Carlough: I'm not the smartest person in the room.
- 16:56Jim Carlough: And she said, but you are smart.
- 16:58Jim Carlough: And I said, you're being nice, but I still don't get it.
- 17:03Jim Carlough: And but it was it was a very interesting conversation.
- 17:06Jim Carlough: It changed my view of the organization.
- 17:10Jim Carlough: It changed the way she and I interacted with each other.
- 17:14Jim Carlough: It improved our relationship, our relationship was never bad, but it improved it.
- 17:19Jim Carlough: And one of the hardest things was when she was moved into another position.
- 17:24Jim Carlough: I was really upset about that because I felt like we had really come together as a group and we had done some really great things.
- 17:34Jim Carlough: And we were growing by over 25% year over year.
- 17:38Jim Carlough: And I thought that that would impact our performance.
- 17:42Jim Carlough: And it turned out it did with the leadership change.
- 17:45Jim Carlough: But I mean, it happens.
- 17:47Jim Carlough: It happens.
- 17:49Jeanne: Yeah, that's a fantastic story.
- 17:50Jeanne: I hope she does hear that because she needs to get kudos for the way she managed and led, and you still are impressed with her all these years.
- 17:59Jeanne: So I got to go off script again because I, you know, you keep saying things that just make me think of things that I've experienced.
- 18:06Jeanne: Corporations now, they're hiring rapidly.
- 18:09Jeanne: And in some roles, they think they can shortcut these hiring processes.
- 18:15Jeanne: And so they do it by Zoom.
- 18:17Jeanne: They hire by Zoom.
- 18:19Jeanne: And I'm not going to say the name of the company, but there has been times when companies have hired people by Zoom where they were getting answers fed to them from someone else.
- 18:32Jim Carlough: Whoa.
- 18:33Jeanne: And then when they show up to the job, it's not even the same person.
- 18:39Jeanne: I mean, yeah, it sounds horrible, but it's true.
- 18:44Jeanne: It's happened to me.
- 18:46Jim Carlough: You know, it's funny, I I'm not surprised, but it deeply concerns me when somebody would truthfully manipulate an interview by having somebody you know on the other side of the behind the camera writing answers on a big sheet of paper or whatever, so somebody could answer them.
- 19:07Jim Carlough: I mean, you're not the truth, it is going to come out because when you do show up eventually and you're not that same person because that person's not isn't feeding you the answers, you're going to be discovered very, very quickly, and you're not going to last very long.
- 19:25Jeanne: Right.
- 19:25Jeanne: Yeah, they didn't last long, but it happened more than once.
- 19:28Jeanne: So that's the sad part about it.
- 19:30Jeanne: So that company did get smart and decide that it was only in-person interviews.
- 19:36Jeanne: So they would pay the money to fly the people in.
- 19:39Jeanne: But they were trying to, but it was expensive to do because they were hiring quite a bit of people.
- 19:44Jeanne: And I think they finally ended up sending people to bulk hiring events.
- 19:50Jeanne: But we're not really talking about hiring, but we're talking about attrition.
- 19:53Jeanne: So that just, you know, came to mind because I thought, yeah, that was a lot of wasted money.
- 20:00Jeanne: All right, let's go back to the pillars because that's really, really important.
- 20:04Jeanne: So of the six pillars, which one challenged you the most personally?
- 20:09Jeanne: And um, what did it take for you to grow into it?
- 20:13Jim Carlough: I would say compassion and empathy were both the hardest.
- 20:18Jim Carlough: Integrity for me was not, but empathy and compassion was they're two very, very different things.
- 20:26Jim Carlough: And so I like to tell stories.
- 20:28Jim Carlough: So I'll tell you a story about empathy.
- 20:31Jeanne: Great.
- 20:31Jim Carlough: A couple of years ago, I had a woman who worked for me who was a single mom, absent dad with a 12-year-old son.
- 20:39Jim Carlough: And it was summertime.
- 20:41Jim Carlough: And I had noticed that she had not taken time off to be with her son at any point during the summer.
- 20:48Jim Carlough: And it was like the end of July, one month left before they went back to school.
- 20:53Jim Carlough: And I called her on the phone.
- 20:55Jim Carlough: She's a remote employee, and I said to her, I said, Jennifer, I said, You haven't taken any time off to be with your son, and he goes back to school in a month.
- 21:06Jim Carlough: And she said, Well, I'm I'm just too busy.
- 21:09Jim Carlough: And I said, Well, that's not the right answer.
- 21:12Jim Carlough: The right answer is I need to take some time to be with my son.
- 21:16Jim Carlough: I said, So here's what we're gonna do.
- 21:19Jim Carlough: When this call is over, you're gonna log out of your computer, you're gonna turn your phone off, and I don't want to see you, hear from you, or see an email from you until Monday morning after 8 a.m.
- 21:32Jim Carlough: I said, it's Wednesday, I'm gonna give you the rest of the, I guess it was late morning, get the rest of the day today, Thursday, Friday, and I don't want you putting it in as PTO.
- 21:42Jim Carlough: This is my gift to you because you've been working your tail off.
- 21:46Jim Carlough: And I appreciate what you've done, but I know that your son needs your attention.
- 21:52Jim Carlough: He's 12 years old, he's going through changes, entering adulthood.
- 21:56Jim Carlough: He needs you more than ever.
- 21:59Jim Carlough: She immediately said, but wait, can we negotiate this?
- 22:04Jim Carlough: No.
- 22:06Jim Carlough: I said, We're not negotiating you.
- 22:09Jim Carlough: She said, Well, let me explain.
- 22:10Jim Carlough: She said, I have a very big commitment to a customer, and I promise them the deliverable by Friday.
- 22:17Jim Carlough: I don't want to go back on my promise.
- 22:20Jim Carlough: But you are right.
- 22:21Jim Carlough: I need to spend time with my son.
- 22:23Jim Carlough: What if I take the time next week?
- 22:26Jim Carlough: I said, You can take the time next week, but it's not available after next week because I'm going to force you to do it.
- 22:34Jim Carlough: She took the time the following week.
- 22:36Jim Carlough: She took Wednesday, Thursday, Friday off.
- 22:38Jim Carlough: Didn't hear from her.
- 22:40Jim Carlough: Monday morning, the first thing I get is a phone call.
- 22:43Jim Carlough: She's a little emotional, and she couldn't get the words out about how thankful she was that I forced her to take time to be with her son.
- 22:54Jim Carlough: And to me, that's what a leader is supposed to do.
- 22:59Jeanne: Wow, that is fantastic.
- 23:00Jeanne: That's a very touching story.
- 23:04Jim Carlough: And in terms of, you know, I have another example of which is a combination of sympathy and compassion.
- 23:10Jim Carlough: Back in 2001, when I was working at Perot Systems with Ross Perot and Ross Perot Jr.
- 23:18Jim Carlough: and others, I had several teams, but one team that I had was responsible for one of the claim systems that we produced, which was old green screen technology.
- 23:30Jim Carlough: I believe you and I are from the generation that grew up with green screen technology.
- 23:34Jeanne: Yeah, I know green screens.
- 23:35Jeanne: Let's not go how far back that.
- 23:37Jeanne: And mag card readers and screen scraping.
- 23:41Jeanne: Okay, let's go forward.
- 23:43Jim Carlough: So in a management meeting, we decided we were going to sunset the green screen technology.
- 23:49Jim Carlough: So I had to tell a department of 25 people that their jobs were going away, but they weren't going away tomorrow.
- 23:57Jim Carlough: And I didn't know what to tell them to get them committed to staying as long as we needed them to support the customers we had.
- 24:06Jim Carlough: We had 36 customers on this product.
- 24:10Jim Carlough: We knew or we estimated that to transition somebody to the new versions would take eight to 12 months.
- 24:17Jim Carlough: But I didn't know what to say.
- 24:20Jim Carlough: So I wrestled with it.
- 24:22Jim Carlough: I called my mentor, whose advice was good luck.
- 24:26Jim Carlough: Let me know how it worked out.
- 24:28Jeanne: You got a new mentor after that, right?
- 24:31Jim Carlough: And I truly struggled.
- 24:32Jim Carlough: So I ultimately said, What would I want my boss to say to me if my job was going away?
- 24:41Jim Carlough: So I came up with three things.
- 24:43Jim Carlough: Now remember, my only goal was nobody left before it was their time.
- 24:48Jim Carlough: So I have the meeting, I made three promises.
- 24:52Jim Carlough: Promise number one, everyone would know as early as possible the transition date for their role based upon when somebody was converting.
- 25:05Jim Carlough: Knowing that the minimum time for implementation is eight months, if we know that client X is starting implementation today, eight months from now, these two people who are supporting that customer likely are not going to be needed after that point.
- 25:22Jim Carlough: So they would have eight months to start looking for a job.
- 25:27Jim Carlough: So that was promise number one.
- 25:29Jim Carlough: Promise number two.
- 25:31Jim Carlough: If you wanted to stay with the company and you wanted to learn the new technologies so that you could support the customers, I will make the training available to you during the workday.
- 25:45Jim Carlough: Not at night, not early morning, not at lunchtime, but during the workday over the course of the next eight to 16 months or whatever.
- 25:54Jim Carlough: And so when it's time for you to move, you already have the knowledge and the training to go work in that department.
- 26:00Jeanne: Oh, that was great.
- 26:01Jeanne: I like that.
- 26:02Jim Carlough: And then I thought, I need to go one step further.
- 26:06Jim Carlough: And I said, if you don't want to learn the new technologies and you don't want to work here, I will personally help you find a job on the outside that fits your family's financial requirements as we do today, and something that fits your skill set.
- 26:25Jeanne: Wow, that's a big promise.
- 26:27Jim Carlough: It's a big promise.
- 26:28Jim Carlough: So here's what happened.
- 26:30Jim Carlough: Nobody left before it was their time.
- 26:34Jim Carlough: Not one single person.
- 26:36Jim Carlough: What I didn't expect happened 18 months later.
- 26:42Jim Carlough: 18 months later, I get a call from HR and they asked if they could come and see me.
- 26:48Jim Carlough: Now, when HR calls you and they say we want to come and see you, usually it's not a good thing.
- 26:53Jim Carlough: So I thought, oh no, what did I do now?
- 26:55Jim Carlough: And so these two women from HR came in and they sat down and they said, um, we want to talk to you about your team in California.
- 27:03Jim Carlough: And I went, Oh.
- 27:05Jim Carlough: And the one woman said, That you know, the team that you're downsizing because we're converting and all this other blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
- 27:13Jim Carlough: And I said, Yes.
- 27:15Jim Carlough: And she said, Well, remember, if you think back six weeks ago, we did an employee satisfaction survey and we want to talk about the results.
- 27:25Jim Carlough: And I went, how bad are they?
- 27:28Jim Carlough: And she said, Well, that's the problem.
- 27:30Jim Carlough: We have 20, over 20,000 employees in this company, and that group of 20 plus employees are the happiest employees we have in the company.
- 27:43Jeanne: Wonderful.
- 27:45Jim Carlough: We need to understand what you're doing.
- 27:49Jim Carlough: These people's jobs are going away, they're not quitting, and they're happy.
- 27:55Jim Carlough: And the happiest of the whole organization.
- 27:58Jim Carlough: So I said, Look, I can only tell you what I did.
- 28:01Jim Carlough: And I said, Here's what I did.
- 28:03Jim Carlough: And I did made the commitment to everybody.
- 28:05Jim Carlough: And I told her the three promises.
- 28:08Jim Carlough: And they sat back in their seats and they said, How did you come up with that?
- 28:13Jim Carlough: I said, Trust me, I didn't sleep for a few nights, and I had to try to figure out what message do I deliver that will keep them from running out the door.
- 28:22Jim Carlough: And basically, what they said to me is, Jim, you took all the responsibility away from them and put it on yourself.
- 28:33Jim Carlough: You committed to them to get give them training.
- 28:36Jim Carlough: You committed to them that, you know, it would be during the workday.
- 28:40Jim Carlough: You committed to them that if they didn't want to stay, you'd help them find their job.
- 28:44Jim Carlough: So they went home that day, told their spouses, I'm going to be losing my job.
- 28:50Jim Carlough: I don't know when, but my boss is going to help me.
- 28:52Jim Carlough: And literally, I took all the weight that they should have been feeling and put it on my shoulders.
- 28:58Jim Carlough: But the HR people said, we need to write this out because we're going to have a situation like this again someday.
- 29:06Jim Carlough: And we need to make this our policy.
- 29:10Jeanne: Wow, that was fantastic that you did that.
- 29:13Jeanne: That is just amazing.
- 29:14Jeanne: I don't think I've ever had anybody that said, oh, it's time to downsize, and you're part of the group that ever helped me with anything.
- 29:21Jeanne: And it was stressful.
- 29:23Jim Carlough: And usually the cuts come fast and and sharp, but we had time, and it would do nobody any good to hide the fact that we were sunsetting something and to not tell them that it's going to not or or misrepresent that it wouldn't impact their life.
- 29:42Jim Carlough: I mean, that wouldn't be a correct lack of integrity because you're not being honest with them.
- 29:47Jim Carlough: And so that was very important for me.
- 29:50Jim Carlough: But it it is, I think is one thing and one reason why that group in particular, I hear from a lot of them when they're changing jobs or looking or thinking about a career change or whatever.
- 30:03Jim Carlough: So and I when I look back at that, I look at to me, that's what a leader should be doing.
- 30:09Jeanne: Right.
- 30:10Jeanne: Right.
- 30:11Jeanne: Well, honestly, I was going to ask you some more about integrity, but you've just given two massive examples of it.
- 30:18Jeanne: And one was the lady that you wanted to have her go and be with her son before he went back to school.
- 30:25Jeanne: But then she turned around with such integrity that I don't want to I don't want to harm my customer that I've made this promise to.
- 30:31Jeanne: Wow.
- 30:32Jeanne: So she must have also gotten that from being working with you as well.
- 30:37Jeanne: I mean, she probably had a lot of integrity herself, but still she felt comfortable that she could tell you that, that she was had pride in her job and her customer.
- 30:47Jeanne: And then you come up with this other great story.
- 30:50Jeanne: That's phenomenal.
- 30:53Jeanne: I mean, they need more leaders like you, Jim.
- 30:56Jim Carlough: Well, I think the stories, I think the stories are important.
- 30:59Jim Carlough: And some of the stories were in the book because it brings to life how to humanize this.
- 31:05Jim Carlough: And when you can give examples and talk to people about, well, here's how I did this or here's how I learned this.
- 31:14Jim Carlough: I think it's important because it's this is not easy.
- 31:18Jeanne: Right.
- 31:19Jeanne: It's not.
- 31:20Jeanne: And you also give examples about Ross Perot.
- 31:23Jeanne: I know you had talked to me earlier about him, and then you have such admiration for him and his family.
- 31:28Jeanne: So I think you had you have that in the book as well.
- 31:32Jim Carlough: I do.
- 31:32Jim Carlough: I do have some stories in the in the book as well.
- 31:35Jim Carlough: In each chapter, I talk about the pillar, I talk about the importance of the pillar, I give examples of a time in my life where a reference that I use that pillar.
- 31:47Jim Carlough: But then I also give two other things.
- 31:51Jim Carlough: Things that a person can do to try to implement that pillar in their own life.
- 31:55Jim Carlough: But I also give them references of other people who they would recognize their names, who also exemplify that pillar in their leadership style.
- 32:07Jim Carlough: So, for example, for integrity, I use Satya Nadella, the chairman of Microsoft.
- 32:16Jim Carlough: When he went into Microsoft, his first words were, we're going to operate with absolute integrity and transparency.
- 32:24Jim Carlough: And he instilled that in his leadership team.
- 32:29Jim Carlough: And if you instill that in the leadership team, it's going to flow downward.
- 32:33Jim Carlough: And so I thought it was important to have references so people could say, okay, I know it's this author who says that this is what I should do, but Satya Nadella, I don't know much about him.
- 32:46Jim Carlough: I can go read about him and read what how he manages.
- 32:51Jim Carlough: So there's the book is not long, but it's packed.
- 32:55Jim Carlough: It doesn't have a lot of theory and blah, blah, blah filler stuff.
- 32:59Jim Carlough: I mean, it is packed with actionable items and explanations that people can implement it, which I felt was important.
- 33:08Jeanne: Right, right.
- 33:08Jeanne: Well, I know there's one other pillar that we hadn't really talked too much about, but we're going to transition to our next part of the podcast, which is called Two Truths in a Lie.
- 33:19Jeanne: So we're going to see your humor in action.
- 33:22Jeanne: And so far, this has been such a wonderful conversation, Jim.
- 33:26Jeanne: I don't want to belittle it, but I do think that humor that they're going to love what your stories.
- 33:33Jeanne: So I'm going to share my screen.
- 33:34Jeanne: Are you ready to play Two Truths in a Lie?
- 33:37Jim Carlough: I'm ready to play Two Truths in a Lie.
- 33:39Jeanne: Okay.
- 33:40Jeanne: So Jim has provided me for those listening with three headlines just about himself.
- 33:46Jeanne: Two are true.
- 33:48Jeanne: And then one is a lie or a possible twisted truth.
- 33:51Jeanne: We'll find out which one.
- 33:53Jeanne: First of all, I'm going to read the headlines out, and then I'm going to have Jim explain each of the.
- 33:59Jeanne: Oh, actually, I forgot.
- 34:01Jeanne: I'm going to guess which one I think is a lie.
- 34:02Jeanne: But then Jim's going to then talk to us about each of those stories.
- 34:06Jeanne: And then at the end, he will reveal the lie or twisted truth.
- 34:12Jeanne: This episode is sponsored by Rebel 190, the home of brave pivots and fresh starts.
- 34:19Jeanne: Rebel 180 is all about helping you rediscover what's possible when you stop settling and start listening to that little tug inside that says, Life can be different.
- 34:30Jeanne: Whether you're navigating a career swift, dreaming about a new direction, or standing at the crossroads and wondering if it's time for your own 180-degree turn.
- 34:38Jeanne: Rebel 180 is a reminder.
- 34:40Jeanne: You don't need permission to change your story.
- 34:43Jeanne: Simple second print.
- 34:49Jeanne: If you're running SQL Server 2016 or newer, SimpleSocket Print 1.5 drop right in and get it to work.
- 35:14Jeanne: Keep your workflow simple.
- 35:15Jeanne: Keep your label printing fast with SimpleSocket Print.
- 35:19Jeanne: Thank you to our sponsors.
- 35:21Jeanne: Here we go.
- 35:26Jeanne: So Jim, you were elected to public office at the age of 22.
- 35:32Jeanne: And that's amazing in itself.
- 35:35Jeanne: That was your first headline.
- 35:37Jeanne: Number two is in college, Jim spent the weekend in jail once for urinating in public.
- 35:43Jeanne: All right.
- 35:44Jeanne: I'm sure in college your parents weren't around, so that might not have been a pleasant trip home for the holidays.
- 35:54Jim Carlough: Or to try to explain.
- 35:56Jeanne: And then uh the third one is Jim shared a banana with Rihanna.
- 36:03Jeanne: I'm amazed by that.
- 36:05Jeanne: So let's go through and see.
- 36:08Jeanne: I think the one that's the lie is the college one, number two.
- 36:13Jeanne: So you tell us each of those stories, please.
- 36:17Jim Carlough: So I was elected to public office at the age of 22.
- 36:21Jim Carlough: Uh, I ran for city council in the town I grew up in and won.
- 36:25Jim Carlough: And uh shortly after the election is when I was introduced to the integrity pillar.
- 36:32Jim Carlough: The city manager called me and asked me if I'd come and sit down with him and have a chat.
- 36:37Jim Carlough: So I went in and sat down, and he was an older gentleman, elder statesman of the community as well.
- 36:43Jim Carlough: And we were talking, and he got to a point, he said, Jim, I want to ask you to do me one favor.
- 36:49Jim Carlough: And I said, Okay.
- 36:50Jim Carlough: He said, Every night before you go to sleep and you put your head on the pillow, I want you to ask yourself this one question.
- 36:59Jim Carlough: Did I do anything today for my own personal self-benefit that was at the expense of another individual or group of individuals or organization?
- 37:11Jim Carlough: And then he went on and said, if you answer yes, before you can go to sleep, you have to figure out how to unwind it.
- 37:20Jim Carlough: And number two, figure out how to never repeat it again.
- 37:23Jim Carlough: And I have led my life by asking myself that question every single night.
- 37:30Jim Carlough: And I've never answered that question with a yes.
- 37:34Jeanne: Wow.
- 37:35Jim Carlough: Very powerful.
- 37:36Jeanne: Yes, it is.
- 37:38Jim Carlough: Okay, that was number one.
- 37:39Jim Carlough: Number two, so in college, colleges had bars because the drinking age was 18.
- 37:47Jim Carlough: The problem was the school that I went to where they had the bar was not convenient to the restrooms.
- 37:57Jim Carlough: You literally had to go to the other side of what they now call the student union, which was a good 50 to 100 yards away, and then get there and wait in line because there weren't enough stalls or urinals or whatever.
- 38:16Jim Carlough: And so this one night, the group of us went and the line was super long, and we were men, and we decided that the bushes outside would work just as well.
- 38:26Jim Carlough: But what we didn't know was there was a police officer out there just wandering around, and we never saw him.
- 38:34Jim Carlough: May have been the fact that we'd had a few drinks, and um he asked us if we'd like to go for a little ride.
- 38:40Jim Carlough: And that's what happened.
- 38:42Jim Carlough: We went for a little ride.
- 38:44Jim Carlough: Oh, and there was the rest is history written in some law book somewhere, or you can research, but we were released after the end of the weekend, and we were never charged with anything other than that.
- 38:58Jim Carlough: And so hopefully nobody will remember that except the guys that were with me.
- 39:03Jeanne: Okay.
- 39:03Jeanne: I don't have any questions about that one.
- 39:06Jeanne: You explained that one well.
- 39:08Jeanne: All right, how about number three?
- 39:10Jim Carlough: So, Rihanna, so I used to fly to LA a lot, and I was flying from LA to Dallas one time.
- 39:18Jim Carlough: It was early spring, March, April time frame.
- 39:22Jim Carlough: And because of the amount of miles I fly, I was at the time was always getting upgraded to first class.
- 39:29Jim Carlough: So I get on this airplane and I see this woman walk in, and everybody's saying hello to her.
- 39:36Jim Carlough: And we were on the two-seat side of the airplane.
- 39:40Jim Carlough: That at that time the plane was an MD-80, so there were two seats on the left side if you're sitting down, and three seats on the right side.
- 39:48Jim Carlough: And so I was already sitting down when she came in.
- 39:52Jim Carlough: She came in, she was so polite.
- 39:54Jim Carlough: And I got up and I let her sit down.
- 39:56Jim Carlough: I didn't know who she was.
- 39:58Jim Carlough: But this big man came in behind her, and he sat across from me on the opposite side of the aisle.
- 40:04Jim Carlough: And she fell asleep, and he and I just started talking, and he said, Do you know who you're sitting next to?
- 40:12Jim Carlough: And I said, I have no clue.
- 40:15Jim Carlough: He said, He said, That's Rihanna.
- 40:18Jim Carlough: And I literally had no clue.
- 40:21Jeanne: And so You're like, that's nice.
- 40:24Jim Carlough: That's nice.
- 40:24Jim Carlough: What did she do?
- 40:26Jim Carlough: You know, but I recognize the name, but I didn't know her music.
- 40:29Jim Carlough: So I certainly couldn't have a conversation with her.
- 40:31Jim Carlough: So it's a good thing she was sleeping.
- 40:33Jim Carlough: But when they started to serve breakfast, and this was back in a time when they still served breakfast on airplanes, or at least in first class, we ordered breakfast.
- 40:43Jim Carlough: And American at the time, American Airlines at the time, you had a choice of either cereal or an omelet.
- 40:50Jim Carlough: So I got the omelet, Rihanna ordered the omelet.
- 40:54Jim Carlough: But when you order the cereal, the cereal comes with a little thing of yogurt and also comes with a banana.
- 41:00Jim Carlough: And so after I finished my omelet, I called the flight attendant over and I said, Do you happen to have a banana?
- 41:08Jim Carlough: And you know, an extra banana up front that nobody's eating.
- 41:12Jim Carlough: I would welcome it.
- 41:13Jim Carlough: She said, I think I do have one.
- 41:16Jim Carlough: So she went back, got a banana, came back, gave it to me, and Rihanna then turned to the flight attendant and said, Do you have a second one?
- 41:25Jim Carlough: And the flight attendant said, I don't, unfortunately.
- 41:29Jim Carlough: That's the last one.
- 41:30Jim Carlough: So I turned to Rihanna and I said, I'd be more than happy to share my banana with you.
- 41:37Jim Carlough: And she was so cute.
- 41:39Jim Carlough: This guy that's with her on the other side of the aisle is hysterical.
- 41:43Jim Carlough: And she said, Okay, well, go ahead and cut it.
- 41:45Jim Carlough: I said, No, I'll let you cut it.
- 41:48Jim Carlough: So I handed her the knife and I handed her the banana, and she tried to measure the exact middle of the banana by using her fingers and then cut the banana.
- 42:00Jim Carlough: And one piece was bigger than the other.
- 42:02Jim Carlough: She said, Well, you're gonna have the bigger piece.
- 42:04Jim Carlough: And I said, Nope.
- 42:05Jim Carlough: I said, You did a great job.
- 42:07Jim Carlough: You're the guest, you take the bigger piece, I'll take the smaller piece, because this story is gonna live on an infinite.
- 42:14Jim Carlough: And because she wasn't getting the analogy, but her friend was over here, and he just he was rolling on the floor.
- 42:22Jim Carlough: So that's the story behind that.
- 42:24Jeanne: That's pretty funny.
- 42:25Jeanne: But why was she the guest?
- 42:27Jeanne: She was just on a plane.
- 42:29Jim Carlough: Well, she's just on a plane, yeah, she was just on a plane.
- 42:31Jim Carlough: But I was just trying to be nice.
- 42:32Jeanne: You were the guest.
- 42:33Jeanne: Yeah, I get it.
- 42:36Jeanne: I get it.
- 42:36Jeanne: She was the celebrity, I guess.
- 42:38Jeanne: All right.
- 42:39Jeanne: So, Jim, which one's the lie?
- 42:42Jim Carlough: I never got arrested and never peed in public.
- 42:46Jeanne: Oh, I did it.
- 42:49Jeanne: I guess the right one.
- 42:50Jeanne: I just didn't think that sounded like you.
- 42:52Jeanne: Although I can picture that whole scenario because yeah, drinking age was 18.
- 42:59Jeanne: I think I'm glad it's not anymore.
- 43:03Jim Carlough: I am, you know, I that is the one thing that I know people who are 18.
- 43:09Jim Carlough: Well, it's so common now, it's but at the time, people were like, well, wait a second, I can vote at 18, I can get drafted at 18, but I can't drink.
- 43:19Jim Carlough: But the reality was we weren't mature enough to drink.
- 43:23Jim Carlough: I mean, the number of accidents the people in that 18 to 21 category had that were alcohol related was extremely high.
- 43:31Jim Carlough: So it made sense to raise the age.
- 43:34Jeanne: Yeah, for me, it was more like drinking at that age messed up my freshman year of college.
- 43:42Jeanne: Because I was having too much fun.
- 43:45Jeanne: But anyway.
- 43:46Jim Carlough: I think that happens to most college students.
- 43:49Jeanne: Yeah.
- 43:49Jeanne: Well, this has been so fantastic, Jim.
- 43:52Jeanne: I love you as a guest.
- 43:53Jeanne: You're just so much fun, and you have so much to offer.
- 43:56Jeanne: I know people will want to get in touch with you, so I'm gonna share my screen.
- 43:59Jeanne: Again.
- 44:00Jeanne: And here's the contact information that I have for Jim.
- 44:04Jeanne: It'll be in the transcript, the show notes, and uh you'll be able to reach out to him.
- 44:10Jeanne: But you gave me a great quote at the beginning.
- 44:12Jeanne: So you want to talk about that?
- 44:14Jeanne: The biggest lie?
- 44:16Jim Carlough: Yeah, the biggest lie in business today is that leaders are born that way.
- 44:22Jim Carlough: And that is the furthest from the truth.
- 44:26Jim Carlough: Leadership is a developed skill that's developed with intention, and it's a never-ending evolution.
- 44:35Jim Carlough: If people were born that way, that would mean that there would be a genetic disposition that I had that came from an ancestor.
- 44:45Jim Carlough: My dad was a carpenter, his dad was a mason, and my great-grandfather was a chicken farmer.
- 44:53Jim Carlough: There's no business or C-suite experience in any of those roles.
- 44:59Jim Carlough: So to me, I turned out to be a leader because I chose to be a leader, and then I learned to be a leader, and I continue to practice becoming a better leader every day.
- 45:13Jeanne: Great.
- 45:14Jeanne: Well, your grandfather, great grandfather, he was a leader.
- 45:18Jeanne: The chickens, the chickens were his troop there.
- 45:23Jim Carlough: I think they were more family chickens.
- 45:24Jim Carlough: And back in those days, I think everybody shared their whatever they raised with each other.
- 45:32Jim Carlough: Those are different times.
- 45:33Jim Carlough: I mean, we're talking well over 130 years ago.
- 45:38Jeanne: So wow.
- 45:39Jeanne: Well, I hope that people can reach out to you, have a call to action here just to go to your website.
- 45:47Jeanne: And if you need to want to hire Jim, you can just uh send him some information via the website, LinkedIn, or email.
- 45:54Jeanne: Anything else you wanted to add before we wrap up?
- 45:57Jim Carlough: Well, one other thing.
- 45:58Jim Carlough: I'm about to be launching a corporate workshop, and I am going to be launching a cohort, a series of eight to 12 weeks of one hour a week cohort on instilling this in individuals.
- 46:14Jim Carlough: So it'll be, you know, groups of people.
- 46:16Jim Carlough: I don't know how big the class will be, but follow me on LinkedIn or Facebook or Instagram because I'll start promoting a webinar that will kick all of this off, and the webinar is free.
- 46:28Jim Carlough: So follow me and you'll get to learn.
- 46:32Jeanne: Wonderful.
- 46:32Jeanne: So for those listening, if this episode has resonated with you, I sincerely think you should reach out to Jim and find out more about his leadership approach.
- 46:43Jeanne: And also please stay tuned for another guest next week.
- 46:47Jeanne: And until then, I'm your Admiral of the Unexpected.
- 46:51Jeanne: I wish you all smooth sailing.
- 46:54Jeanne: Thanks for joining me on Project Candor, where the doors are open, the stories are unexpected, and the treasure is always real.
- 47:01Jeanne: If today's episode made you laugh or think, follow the show and share it with your crew.
- 47:07Jeanne: Otherwise, I might just make you swab the deck.
- 47:10Jeanne: I'm Jeanne Andersen, your Admiral of the Unexpected.
- 47:13Jeanne: See you on the next voyage.