Effective Leadership Communication: How to Achieve Team Alignment with Justin Woodard | 078

Welcome to Lean Leadership for Ops Managers, the podcast for leaders in Ops Management who want to spark improvement, foster engagement, and boost problem solving – AND still get their day job done. Here’s your host, Leadership Trainer, Lean Enthusiast, and Spy Thriller Junkie, Jamie V. Parker. 

 You know your organizational purpose and values and strategic goals, but how do you talk about them in a way that different people throughout your organization feel connected and engaged with? Definitely stay tuned to the end for this great executive series conversation with Justin Woodard, owner and CEO of Woodard Cleaning and Restoration.  

 

It’s a company that helps people get back to their lives by cleaning up and repairing everything from day to day spills and accidents to water, fire and mold disasters in your home or business. Six years ago, Justin articulated the Woodard Way, merging the values his grandparents founded the company on, his dad’s focus on legendary service and his own vision of a future where the people of Woodard help one million people get back to their lives.  

 

Now, Justin believes that the culture and relationships that exist inside a company are the most reliable predictor of success, and the culture he aspires to build is an environment where folks are encouraged to overcome their self-imposed limits to do harder, better and more important things than they would on their own.  

 

In today’s conversation, we’re digging into the Woodard Way with a particular focus on how Justin and leaders in the organization communicate in a way that many different people can connect with. Now I love my conversation with Justin, and I hope you stick around to the end because I want to put some pieces together and talk about next steps. All right, let’s dive in.

 

Jamie: [00:02:03] Justin, welcome to the show today.

 

Justin: [00:02:05] Hi, Jamie, good to be here with you.

 

Jamie: [00:02:08] All right. Well, let’s jump in and we’re going to start off our conversation with a question about you. So tell us about a value or mantra, a principle of quote, something that you feel really embodies your beliefs about leadership.

 

Justin: [00:02:22] I think the thing that I’d like to share this morning about leadership starts with a quote, and then I’ll describe how it fits into Woodard. And the quote is from a guy named David Foster Wallace. He said that effective leaders are those who help us overcome the limits of our own weaknesses, laziness, selfishness, and fears to get to do harder, better things, and more important things than we could ourselves do on our own.  

 

And you know, I think about this idea that you know who is a leader and who can be a leader, and I really want to believe that anybody and everybody can be a leader. And sometimes we get this, this thing that kind of gets mixed together and we say leader. Sometimes we say managers sometimes and we say boss sometimes, right?  

 

And you know, I’m really my view on leadership is I really want to open and expand the environment and the area and the belief of people that everybody can be a leader. And there actually is a little bit of leader or leadership in all of us. And that just walking alongside somebody, you know, maybe they’re just having a bad day and you’re walking along and encouraging them to do something that, you know, just showing up is hard sometimes.

 

Justin: [00:03:38] Or maybe it’s being able to support somebody on a project that they’ve never tried before, or an endeavor that they’ve wanted to do for a long time. And they’re just now having the courage to go out and do that. And you know, when I think about David Foster Wallace quote, that’s what I think about is like, I want to be able to create an environment where everybody feels like they could be a leader and that they are always they just around the corner.  

 

There is somebody that can show up for them as a leader, when they need encouragement, when they need that, you know, that little bit of courage or they need that little push or or or just that somebody to ask how they’re doing and how things are going and what they want to try next. And I feel like if if we can create more and more of those environments and open this, you know, open the view of leadership that it can be anybody at any time and you don’t have to be one every day or all the time. But there is room for all of us to be a leader for somebody else at any given time.

 

Jamie: [00:04:35] Oh, that’s good that you’re starting off there, right? Just going right for it. That is really good. And what a great way to think about it. You know, particularly and we’ll talk about how you’re building your organization and is that this everybody can be a leader for someone else, you know, at different points of time and, you know, bringing that courage. I know you’re friends with Mark Braun, and he was on talking about breathing courage into others as leadership. And that’s exactly what sound like a little bit you were talking about there. Awesome. All right. Well, let’s learn a little bit about your organization. Tell us about water. Who does your organization serve and how do you create value?

 

Justin: [00:05:10] Wonderful. Well, for folks that don’t know what it is, a third generation business we have, we’ve been in business for seventy five years. My grandparents started our business in 1946 and currently we are the thing that we are doing for other people. The value that we provide is we want to help people get back to their lives, right? And so that might be looking around your house and realizing that your sofa or your carpet is dirty and you don’t really know how to clean it or don’t have time or don’t want to. And we can show up and do that for you, right?  

 

That also might look like a really bad hole in your roof where like a tree came through and you’ve got a disaster that is really, really traumatic. And that could be a water damage situation, a fire damage situation or some sort of storm. And what we were looking to do is help you get back to your life, and we do that by cleaning up after those sorts of disasters, drying out facilities and homes, cleaning them up and then repairing them and getting them back to a state where you can get back to your life and be with your family or be in your business with the people that that you’re working with and do the thing that you’re that you’re meant to do.

 

Jamie: [00:06:18] Yes, as someone who has been through those types of scenarios, as I’m sure many of our listeners have, it is it would be just so nice to have somebody like, Oh, we’re just going to help you get back to your life to help you get through this and get back to your life. Because it is, it can be a big deal, you know, of course, depending on the scenario that caused it.

 

Justin: [00:06:36] Yeah, for sure. It it does seem a little bit dramatic sometimes, and we’re just talking about carpet cleaning, right? But I do believe that our homes are pretty special to us. And when we see that little thing that really isn’t quite right, it kind of kind of sits in there and bugs you.  

 

And so if you can call somebody and have them take care of something that is, you know, that’s just not quite right for you. I really do believe that gives a peace of mind to a homeowner, you know, and can help them just. Easier and be with their family a little bit more. Be with their friends or do something they really want to do besides that thing that’s bugging them.

 

Jamie: [00:07:08] Yeah. Fantastic. All right. So Justin, listen, so you and I met, I don’t remember I was trying to think of how long ago it was, and I want to say it was like five ish years ago. But we met when we were both attending a Chapman and Company Leadership Institute class. So I went to a few classes. I think the one that we met at was about Leading with Purpose, and I don’t know if you were just buying the company at that time about to just did something right?

 

Justin: [00:07:34] You think you’ve got it just right? I hadn’t bought the company yet, but it was about a year and a bit beforehand. I had taken over the leadership of our of our company from my dad the year prior. So I was in this kind of in-between time where I was technically the president of the company, but I had not bought the company.

 

Jamie: [00:07:51] Got it. Yeah. Ok, so now you now you have rights, so you’ve got this third generation company, but you’re now the guy. Right? It’s going to all fall on your shoulders. So it’s your vision, but it’s also your responsibility. So tell us a little bit about what was kind of going through your mind as you were thinking about being and leading a purpose driven organization.

 

Justin: [00:08:13] If we go back in time to that point, I don’t think I really had any idea what the purpose driven organization was. Right. I think I had a some idealistic view that if I cared, everybody would care, right? Like, you know, I don’t think I really could have articulated what what it means in the same way that I that I would.  

 

Now, about 18 months before I met you, my dad actually was diagnosed with cancer. He went through a six month, you know, chemo treatment. And, you know, he battled and did all this stuff. And you know, he is seven years cancer free now. All of that’s that whole story played out in a really wonderful way from a health perspective.  

 

In the moment, though, we basically had a fire drill of our own at Woodard. We he left, he had to go. He had to go get healthy. During that time that year, we struggled. We didn’t necessarily have a leader because I wasn’t the leader at that moment in time, and we didn’t really know where we were going, and we just held on and tried to make sure that we had a company that was viable when when he came back and the year after he came back, he he basically told me he needed to retire, right?  

 

He’s like, you know, just this is I’ve got other things that I want to do, and I trust you and your team that you’ve been building to do this. And so I’d like I think let’s design a transition path to be able to do that.

 

Justin: [00:09:38] We executed that over about the course of a year and by the end of that second year in that transition time, you know, we did we did pretty good, right? The business had recovered in a way that felt more stable. But I found myself asking at the end of that year, Did we just get lucky or did we really know what we were doing or where we were going?  

 

And it was through a series of of, you know, classes and courses on leadership that I was fortunate enough in kind of, you know, the luck just happened that I chose some that were impactful and I met folks like you. And that really helped solidify in my mind that I needed a framework to run the business from a relational and people perspective, right?  

 

We need operational frameworks. We need sales process frameworks. We need financial models, right? We need all of those things. And we had some to some degree. But what we didn’t have was a cultural framework that would inform all of the new people coming in and all the people that worked at Woodard, here’s how we act. Here’s how we behave. Here’s how we treat each other, and here’s why we do it and connect those things back to the business about what we’re going to do tomorrow. Where we’re going, how do we serve the customer and what value do we create? Yeah.

 

Jamie: [00:10:54] Wow, OK. I don’t. I actually don’t think I knew all of that backstory. So now it’s like all really making more sense. I’m getting a little pieces I’m putting together here. This is great. All right. Well, tell us about this framework, then this cultural framework that that you ended up developing, you and your team ended up developing.

 

Justin: [00:11:10] Yeah, we actually we worked with, you know, just to make sure that there’s transparency. We worked with a company called Dialect. Andy Canfield and Mark Powers, they developed the identity framework that is really the basis for our implementation of it is what we use at Woodard. But they’re there. The components of this, they actually repeat in a process for all sorts of different companies.  

 

The framework is all about creating the identity of the organization. It’s based on the idea or the philosophy or really the research that says the best way to get an organization heading in the right direction is to recognize that there are a variety of different groups of people that when they hear somebody speak or they engage with materials, there’s about four different ways that you can think about it.  

 

And if you aren’t speaking to all four of those different lenses, you’re going to miss people, you’re going to leave them behind, you’re going to they’re going to tune out because what you’re saying isn’t actually engaging them in a way that is meaningful or impactful to them.  

 

And the goal here is, is that if you get all four different types of people converging to one identity, but they have different pathways into that identity, you have the best chance of getting the most people on board or engaging with the cultural elements.

 

Justin: [00:12:33] You know, whether you call it a mission, vision, values, like the terminology of that point doesn’t matter. It’s really about how you get people to engage with the identity of the organization. Sure. Our identity, we we just call it the Woodard Way.  

 

The first group of people that we’re trying to connect with are the analysts. Now those are people that are the folks that are like, OK, just tell me what we’re going to do next. I need something to work on. I want it to be really cool and exciting. What is it?  

 

The other type of person is a vision type person, right? And this is the type of person that’s saying, Hey, where are we going? What is what is out there for the future? I want to look at it from a big picture, and if you kind of point me in the right direction, that’s going to be enough for me, then just tell me the details. But I really want to know where we’re going.  

 

The third group is all about like, who are we doing it with right there, the folks looking around to their coworkers and saying, OK, OK, how is everybody connected here? Who’s working here? How are we working together bridging those gaps between the different people? That’s all about behaviors. How do we act around here? What what do we do and what do we not do?  

 

The fourth group of people is the folks that are looking out at the customer. They’re saying, OK, what value do we create? Why are we even here? If we’re not, we’re not talking about what we’re doing to the customer with the customer. We are talking about anything at all. So just tell me what we’re doing for the customer.  

 

And then if I, you know, that’s my connection to the way every time I go in front of folks, I am looking to say a little bit of something that engages each of these different groups of people in conversation, in dialog that will then be able to tie back together to say what’s most important and what are we working on and how we’re going to get there? My vision for the future at Woodard is that we will be known for creating leaders in our industry, in our community and in our company. We talk about the future and what that looks like and what we would need to do to be able to be known for creating leaders.

 

Jamie: [00:14:31] Yeah, OK. So we’ve got these these kind of like four ways of interacting with the identity, right? And that’s I’m guessing just depending on like in the individual right. So as an individual, I might Lean, you know, there might be several, but I might lean toward one in particular kind of hard wired a little bit, right? And so you’ve got the analysts, you’ve got the visionary, you’ve got kind of that social connection piece and then the customer focused kind of approach or idea, right?  

 

So so let’s talk about this just in practice and you walked us through like how that translates to what you’re doing, your identity there? What are the Woodard Way? So in practice, then you let’s say, you know, you’ve got whether it’s a meeting or you’ve got an initiative or you’ve got something like what would that then look like into how you make a decision and how you communicate? So you’ve got some decision thing that you’re talking about with your team? Tell us about that.

 

Justin: [00:15:26] Sure. I think I think maybe a reasonable example is a like a quarterly. A quarterly meeting or some some all company meeting where you’re going to be presenting parts of a strategic plan or the initiatives for that current quarter, right? That’s one of the contexts where we’re going to have a whole bunch of people in one room. And when I’m preparing for that or I’m working with my team to prepare the remarks, we just put the four buckets out there and say, How are we going to speak to each of these groups of people, right?  

 

If you are doing a quarterly and you’re talking about here, the here are the four rocks that we’re going to do. You can be pretty, pretty assured that the folks that are the analysts are going to perk up at that moment, right? And so you’re going to want to make sure or we we make sure when, when we’re doing or what I’m doing it, that we connect the main four capabilities that we believe at Woodard. We need two rocks on a regular basis, right? We say, Hey, we’ve got we’ve got this rock having to do with the water damage trucks. We’ve noticed that these four pieces of equipment have been failing on a regular basis. Over the next quarter we’re going to research and figure out what a good replacement is, and that’s how we’re going to, you know, that’s how we’re going to move that team forward, right?  

 

And then we connect that and say, we’re working on that because one of our core capabilities is to have the right tools and equipment for the job, right? And so we make that. And if we have the right tools and equipment for the job, that’s really good because what we’re doing, remember we’re promising to our customers, we’re going to be the most capable, but we know we can’t be the most capable unless we have the right tools and equipment.  

 

We need other things to write training. The right people, right, there’s all sorts of other things, but we can tie one of those things all the way through to the customer, and that’s how we’re looking to do that. You know, each time we’re doing Iraq or we have a particular initiative or we’re giving out a recognition, right? That’s the other place we will do it. We give it out legendary service awards on a monthly basis and we give it legendary service awards for people that are showing capability and core values.

 

Jamie: [00:17:29] Yeah. And I think this is so important to I know. So one of the models that I that I use in my work is this it’s, you know, like a leading excellence and there’s four quadrants and there’s, you know, like purpose and participation, performance and progression. So it’s a circle, but around the circle is this little band that says personalization.  

 

And you know, the reason being that like, there’s not just like this one size fits all type of approach and that that is to anything, you know, benefits and all of that, but also in how we connect with them and help them connect with purpose. And that’s really what I’m what I’m hearing you talk about is we recognize that individuals have are different, that individuals, you know, kind of have their different things that help them connect to the identity of the organization.  

 

And if you go through in a very purposeful about communicating in that way and making sure all four of those components are there, then more people are going to feel that connection with identity. And then therefore, of course, you know, act and make decisions and problem solve in alignment.

 

Justin: [00:18:33] Yeah. I mean, you’re exactly right. I have heard many different speakers talk about, you know, you want to get everybody on the same page, you want to get everybody aligned. You want to get you want to get folks pointing in the right direction, right? And you know, frankly, my experience when I’m talking, if I just talk very naturally, I lose like two thirds of the people. Right, right there. Just like who this guy talking about, right?  

 

And so I think it’s a, you know, it’s a kind of a humbling sort of experience to be able to look around and be like, OK, well, if one of my core roles is to get folks aligned, but every time I talk, the way I would want to, only a third of the people are aligned. I actually might need to talk a little differently. Mm hmm. And this framework is really helped me a lot be able to recognize the thing I like actually talking about the most.  

 

As you know, maybe our opening segment can attest to is his leadership. And how do we create this place where you know, folks can be the leader that they want to be in the moment or have the leader that they need at that moment? And that’s a that’s a vision for the future. We’re not we’re not quite there yet and in many different ways and recognizing that most people don’t really want to think about the future, right, or are or interested in the very next step or what’s happening with the customer or what’s happening with their coworkers.  

 

That’s really important to recognize and be able to say, Oh, you know what? I can talk about those things, too. Those are actually important to me also. I just like to start with this other one. And so a lot of times it’s not really that we can’t engage in these other areas. It’s just they’re not our favorite.

 

Jamie: [00:20:13] Right? Yeah, because you’re going to you’re going to naturally whichever one you kind of resonate with most. So if you resonate with visionary and most right, then you’re probably going to naturally speak in that way. And other people are may not just they’re not pulled along in the same way.

 

Justin: [00:20:29] And it actually it turns out that it’s actually really easy to figure out somebody’s preference here, right? Because we have one piece of paper that will tell you everything about the way you need to know. And if you give that to somebody on their first day and they say, Hey, read this and they take five minutes to read it, and then you just say, Hey, what part stands out? Yeah, right? They’re going to tell you immediately. The right one for is they’re going to say they’re going to, they’re going to say, Oh man, helping people get back to their lives.  

 

I love the idea that that’s how we’re going to how we’re going to help the customer. Now I know that’s how that’s how you relate to and connect with this thing. So every time I’m going to, if I do need to have a one on one conversation with you, I start with that one and that could lead us into different places and different conversations. And I’ll have more of, you know, more of your attention or more of your ability to engage with the material if we enter from the place that you’re most comfortable or the place that you like the most.

 

Jamie: [00:21:24] Well, and here’s the other reason for our listeners. I really want you to pay attention to this, but here’s the other reason why I think this is so important. So I was just a couple of episodes ago talking with Kerry Higgins, and this came up in the conversation, which was this recent McKinsey study. And so McKinsey consulting, right? Mckinsey did this study on purpose at work, particularly because the pandemic so many people are reevaluating, you know, why am I here?  

 

All of those things. And what they found in this study is that I think it’s something like 70 percent of this is U.S. based, but most employees are saying that their sense of purpose is largely defined by their work. I was kind of surprised by that initially, like when I first read it, because I’m thinking like, oh, family and faith and all of these other things.  

 

But then when you think about it, well, what do we spend our time doing? I guess it does make sense, right? Seventy percent say that their purpose is largely defined by their work, but that only 18 percent get as much purpose from their work as they want.

 

Jamie: [00:22:24] And this is particularly there’s particularly a divide between senior leaders, executives and senior leaders and frontline team members, front line leaders that mid-level management that there’s it’s a big divide where frontline leaders don’t feel like they’re getting that purpose at work. And I think this is part of it because so often when we talk about the purpose of an organization, we’re talking about the purpose statement and we go and repeat that purpose statement all the time, and we might try to connect the dots in our one preferred method that you were talking about.  

 

Like that one preferred method that makes sense to us, and we repeat that all the time, but we’re not connecting with everybody. And this gives people kind of this path, this framework to help have those conversations so that people can see how their work makes a difference. Because I feel pretty confident you could talk with any team member, your organization and they could know how the work they do matters because of the way that you talk about it with within this framework.

 

Justin: [00:23:22] That’s the goal, right? I mean, being able to create more room for folks to tie together what they’re passionate about with what they’re doing today. You know, that’s that’s really part of the dream that I have for everybody, and you know, I I I don’t have as much confidence maybe as you, Jimmy, because we do. We still struggle with this being able to connect the individual work that somebody does on any one day with something that is truly meaningful and impactful to them. It’s it is really hard. We talk about it a lot, you know, and we don’t we don’t always get there, right? Because it’s such an individual experience.  

 

And, you know, to be able to create enough room to have the individual experience of meaningful work and try to tie everybody together in a common alignment. I mean, if you say it like that, it actually doesn’t even make any sense. But but that’s what we’re trying to do. And so being able to have a broad, a little bit broader purpose or a purpose that can encompass a lot of different types of work. You know, that’s why, you know, that’s why I can say simultaneously, we’re trying to help people get back to their lives and all of the different services, I think, help do that.

 

Justin: [00:24:37] Some are a little bit more dramatic than others. Some of them kind of feel a little bit like they’re harder to connect with. And I think I think that’s just the challenge of leadership and the challenge of being able to create enough space where people can can connect with it and in talking about it in a good, you know, a way that that is impactful and being able to be OK with it, things adjusting over time.  

 

The Woodard Way is it does grow and does change a little bit, and it’s got these components that are that are staying pretty, pretty consistent. But how we engage with it. You know, it’s got it’s got a little bit of a life of its own. And that I think is important to recognize as we bring new people into our teams and engage with folks that have been here for a while and try to make sure that we’re we’re keeping up with with their interests and the meaning that they want to to engage with.

 

Jamie: [00:25:31] Well, let me ask you this, too. It’s just so when you think about when you talk about the word way and you kind of have these components like how frequently are you speaking that language?

 

Justin: [00:25:43] Yeah, I I feel very strongly that the language needs to be spoken or the best way to have it penetrate and and have as many people as possible. On the same page is that there has to be some sort of daily rhythm. And so when I think about the Woodard Way or the cultural framework of our company, we think about it in daily rhythms and weekly rhythms and monthly rhythms, quarterly rhythms and annual rhythms, right? There are components of all of those inside of how we operate the company, you know, on the one side.  

 

We actually we wrote the thirty one days of the Woodard Way, and those are 31 different ways to engage with the our cultural framework. And you know, there’s thirty one because there’s up to 31 days in the calendar and every fifth of the month, if we’re meeting as a as a team, we’re pulling out and got a little spiral binder and they’re all over the place and you just go to number five and somebody reads it and then we talk and see if, see what, see what it connects to today. And then, you know, from that we go to, you know, just annual rhythms of of how we celebrate a year or how we recognize anniversary milestones, right? Or something like that. Mm hmm. And we we have a whole bunch of different elements that we put in between. But I do believe it without daily. I don’t think it has to be all of them up to daily to really be able to have the impact that that really that, I guess I want to have.

 

Jamie: [00:27:13] Yeah, I’m with you on that, for sure. All right. Before we close out, I want to. I have a little surprise for you, actually. Hold on just a second. And I want to say I got to grab something off my whiteboard. That’s what I’m doing. If you can’t see me, I’m grabbing something off my whiteboard and I want to do this. I want to show you this just because, like, the work that we do matters and the interactions that we have with people matters, the conversations we’re having, everything that you’re talking about.  

 

And so I don’t know if you remember this, but what I have in my hand, I remember. So it’s a Chapman Mining Company leadership card with little note. It was an encouragement note that it’s from Justin to to me actually from like five years ago. And I think that’s just something that, you know, as we’re all listening is the words that we say matter, whether we’re saying them, whether we’re writing them in a note card and they they can last and have an impact that we may not even recognize. So I just wanted to show you that because it’s still there.

 

Justin: [00:28:10] I’m pretty speechless today. I actually remember writing that note, and those cards have actually had an impact on me. In general, there’s actually I think there’s six Woodard Way cards that are modeled after that exact that exact card with with six different, you know, impactful leadership messages from from how we think about leadership at Woodard, and I have a whole stack of those cards in my desk.  

 

And I do still think about my, you know, as the as the CEO, my role is the biggest decisions about what service line to go into next or what building to go right. Right. The most the largest decisions. And then I need to be writing those cards, right? Those are the two. Those are the two top roles, and I appreciate the reminder that those are more impactful than they may seem. To think that we get to have that impact on people is still a little overwhelming, but it’s important. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that.

 

Jamie: [00:29:15] Yeah. And I think it goes right back to what you said, which is anybody can be a leader to somebody at a time, right? And so what a great example of that. All right. Well, we’re going to wrap up now. So just, you know, our closing question, thinking about our listeners who are improvement minded operations executives and managers, what words of encouragement or advice would you leave our listeners with today?

 

Justin: [00:29:38] You know, so we were talking a little bit before we got started about falling and failing. And for whatever reason, falling and failing has been on my mind recently. I think Simon Sinek has been engaging with a little bit, but there’s been a couple other places where there’s a nuance between falling and failing. That, I think has been impactful to me recently.  

 

And this idea that, you know, when a little baby is learning how to walk, they don’t actually fail when they learned how to walk. They actually just fall down. Mm hmm. And when they fall down, everybody around them knows that the only way to learn how to walk is that you have to fall down a whole bunch of times, and that means everybody claps when they fall down.  

 

And I think it’s it’s been easier for me to imagine that I could help other folks get back up or try the next hard thing. If it is really just about falling down as opposed to, they have to actually go through failure to get there, right? Because if you’re going to fall down like everybody knows that when you fall down, you get back out. Right.  

 

And if you are falling down, you’re probably running really fast, you know, going through some obstacle course or trying something that you’ve never done before, and it’s probably pretty reasonable that you’ve fallen down.

 

Justin: [00:30:50] And so I think so many of the the Lean leadership lessons that I have engaged with kind of come back to this idea that you really got to fall a few times and you’re never really going to fall unless you’re doing something a little bit out of your comfort zone. We’re a little bit more challenging than you did yesterday.  

 

And you know, that’s that’s why we have people around us to encourage us so that we will do those things. I hope that, you know. I hope that we can be that we will have created a little room for somebody to encourage somebody else based on what we’ve been talking about and if they have to fall down to get there, all the better, right?  

 

Because I know you inspire people to get back up and try new things. And I think that’s what I think. That’s what I think. That’s what we do for each other. When you see somebody fall down, you grab, you know, you grab their hand, you encourage them to get back up and go for it again. And if they need a little help, you help them a little.

 

Jamie: [00:31:52] Oh, fantastic, what a way to close out today. Justin, thank you so much for joining the show, for sharing your perspectives and being here with our listeners today.

 

Justin: [00:32:02] You bet, Jamie. I had as much fun as I did. I think the first time I met you, you know, you continue your smile and your laugh are contagious, and the work that you do is inspiring and extraordinarily helpful for so many people. And I love that I get to be close enough to see a little bit of it. So thank

 

Jamie: [00:32:19] You. All right. Thank you.

 

Jamie: [00:32:24] Justin summed it up to be able to create enough room to have the individual experience of meaningful work and try to tie everybody together in a common alignment. You know, this is what makes purpose as a foundation, just such a challenge.  

 

Helping people find purpose at work isn’t just about the organization’s purpose statement, and I think Justin’s story today really helped to call out how important it is to have a clear framework. You know, something like the Woodard way to communicate it in ways that different people with different personalities and priorities feel pulled toward instead of just what matters to us. And to draw the line between individual work activities and daily work to the values, the capabilities, the purpose of strategic goals.  

 

In my leading excellence model, my three steps within the purpose quadrant are one to clarify true north to, to make it personal and three to connect the dots. And I think Justin just beautifully illustrated that today, after this Q1 executive series, there will be some episodes where I dig into this in more detail because I’m afraid that some people are getting lost in the whole idea of purpose at work and organizational purpose.  

 

And I want to help simplify and paint some pictures for you so that you can feel inspired and also capable of taking action on this front. Let’s talk your next step. You know, one of the things I loved about Justin’s message today was his discussion about being humble and self-aware and recognizing how he as a leader naturally gravitates to communicating to just one or maybe two of the four types of processors or lenses.

 

Jamie: [00:34:01] And I want you to become more aware of your own tendencies. So think about the four types of lenses that people view things through the analyst, the visionary, the social or connector, and that customer focus. And which one do you think you most identify with? And then here’s the big part ready the next time you’re communicating a message with your team.  

 

Pay attention to that message, which one of the four types was your message more likely to land with which types? Which lenses may not have felt pulled by your message? Who might have accidentally skipped over? Would be really interested in hearing what you learned through that.  

 

Now, if you enjoyed this episode, then you definitely want to go back and listen to last week’s episode with Kerry Siggin’s CEO at Stone Age, as she and I talked about culture and leadership development and building image. And I really just think that there’s a lot of connection between that conversation and what we’re talking about here with Justin. All right.  

 

Next up, in our executive series, we have Jeff Welch, who’s going to talk about training and learning and development. Chris Wilson is going to share a story about improving flow, and we will wrap up with Greg Jacobsen talking about moving from startup to scale up and what that means from leadership and a culture standpoint. I hope you’ll join us until next time.