March 18, 2021 • 53 mins
In this episode of Cultivate your Culture, we talk with Adam Kreek, who is and Olympian and one of North America’s top Executive Business Coaches. He shares easy-to-apply principles for developing character as a leader, why results and commitment are both important, and how to deal with pushback with culture change. This is the last episode in Season 1. Season 2 of Cultivate your Culture is returning in fall 2021!
Adam Kreek is one of North America’s top Executive Business Coaches, who specializes in leadership development and strategic planning. He has degrees and certifications from Stanford University, UBC Sauder School of Business, and Queens Smith School of Business. He is a guest lecturer at the University of Victoria and teaches strategies and skills of self-leadership, leadership, high performance and perseverance to corporate and government teams globally through keynotes, workshops and online seminars. Adam has coached, trained and taught hundreds of thousands of people, including teams at Microsoft, General Electric and Mercedes-Benz. As an Entrepreneur, Adam runs two small corporations – KreekSpeak Business Solutions and Ergo Eco Solutions, a low carbon initiative that connects small businesses with small governments. Long-term clients include leadership teams from the Aerospace, Finance, Public Service, Nutrition and Clean Energy Sectors. A two-time Olympian, Adam holds 60 international medals, including Olympic Gold, and multiple hall of fame inductions. In 2013, Adam made the first-ever attempt to row unsupported across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to America, the subject of the NBC Dateline Documentary, Capsized. Adam’s bestselling book, The Responsibility Ethic, teaches us the how of self-leadership, driving personal and professional results in individuals and organizations.
Connect with Adam on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or through his website.
The host, Zoran Stojkovic believes that we are all born to flourish in work and life. Through his company, Kizo, he equips organizations and people with culture and mindset tools to reach full engagement through powerful workshops, memorable keynotes, and transformative individual consultations.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Adam Kreek (00:00):
Let's design the values, which are a bunch of
shiny words. Everyone feelsreally good after the exercise,
right? It's, they've done thislike lots and lots, right?
[LAUGHTER] You do the valuesexercise. People are like, "Oh,
yes, those are our values.
That's what we value. That's howwe operate. Oh, it feels good."
And then you maybe you put heron the wall, and then you forget
about.
Zoran Stojkovic (00:25):
Hello, I'm your host, Zoran Stojkovic and
welcome to cultivate yourculture. This podcast we'll be
discussing how leaders can buildconnected high performing teams
in business and sport usingactionable tools, evidence-based
systems and simple processes. Sowith us today, we have Adam
(00:46):
Creek Adam is one of NorthAmerica's top executive business
coaches who specializes inleadership development and
strategic planning. He hasdegrees and certifications from
Stanford University, UBC SauderSchool of Business and Queen's
Smith School of Business. He's aguest lecturer at the University
of Victoria and teachesstrategies and skills of self
(01:07):
leadership, leadership, highperformance and perseverance to
corporate and government teamsglobally through keynotes,
workshops and online seminars.
Adam has coached trained, andtaught hundreds of thousands of
people including teams atMicrosoft, General Electric, and
Mercedes Benz just to name a fewcompanies. As an entrepreneur,
Adam runs two small corporationsCreek Speak...love the
(01:32):
rhyme...Creek Speak BusinessSolutions and Airgo Eco
Solutions, a low carboninitiative that connects small
businesses with smallgovernment's. Long term clients
include leadership teams fromAerospace, Finance and Public
Service, Nutrition and CleanEnergy Sectors. A two time
Olympian, Adam holds 60International medals. That's
(01:53):
quite impressive, includingOlympic gold and multiple Hall
of Fame inductions in 2013, Adammade the first ever attempt to
row unsupported across theAtlantic Ocean from Africa to
America, the subject of the NBCdateline documentary "Capsized".
Adam's best selling book, "TheResponsibility Ethic" teaches us
(02:14):
the 'how' of self leadershipdriving personal and
professional results inindividuals and organizations.
Adam, welcome to the show.
Adam Kreek (02:24):
It's great to be here, Zoran.
Zoran Stojkovic (02:26):
Tell me about your journey. I mean, what what
is your your backstory of howyou got involved in sport to
Adam Kreek (02:33):
Well, my current profession is to be an executive
where you're at now?
business coach, I work withexecutives who are undergoing
some form of transition. Theyhave recently been promoted, or
they're suffering from a bit ofleadership anxiety, wanting to
get more, faster from theirleadership role, or people who
(02:56):
are getting ready to retirelooking to leave a legacy. So I
got into this career, itcertainly wasn't what I imagined
when I was a young kid, I, Ithink I wouldn't be a farmer
when I grew up. [LAUGHTER] As akid, it's the it's been a bit of
a, you know, a wandering path,if you want to call it that. I
(03:19):
grew up in London, Ontario. Inthe center of Canada, it was a
small sort of Midwestern typetown. And then after high
school, moved out to Alberta,where I worked on the oil rigs
and in the resource sector for awhile, then moved to Victoria,
British Columbia on VancouverIsland, where I trained for my
(03:40):
first Olympics, and during theend attended the University of
Victoria. During that time, Iwent to a couple of World
Championships had an Olympicexperience that was very
upsetting, I suppose, wehave...we expected to win, we
finished far off of the podium.
And so that was upsetting. Wentdown to Stanford University in
California spent three yearsdown there came back up,
(04:02):
rejoined the Canadian Olympicteam, we won a World
Championship then we won theOlympics. After winning the
Olympics, I had the opportunityto go on the speaking circuit.
So I would go speak at differentconferences and found that I
really enjoyed that profession,and started to branch out into
(04:22):
the training space. During thattime as I was doing more public
speaking and professionaltraining. I partnered with a
couple of gentlemen down inSeattle, we built a project to
roll across the Atlantic Ocean.
We It took us a while to buildthat...that...project. We did a
(04:47):
preparation by Mikecircumnavigating Vancouver
Island. And then we launchedfrom Dakar, Senegal and rode for
73 days before we capsized inthe Bermuda Triangle. [LAUGHTER]
We recovered, we...we've comeout of it safely. Well,
obviously I did. They didn't do.
And, and when I got back, I, Ileaned in that time I had one
(05:15):
child and one on the way. And Istarted to lean into more of my
professional career as a speakerand a trainer. And then after,
you know, after taking a fewcourses and being asked by a
number of senior executives, Ifinally agreed to say to you to
move into the executive businesscoaching realm. And so that's
(05:39):
where I've been for the lastfive years or so, working with
with top performers in the inthe corporate space.
Zoran Stojkovic (05:50):
So you've worked on Team culture, as well
with leaders and withperformers. And maybe we start
off by telling me what teamculture isn't.
Adam Kreek (05:57):
Team culture is not a quick fix is, that's one thing
I would say team culture is not.
They say, if you want to copysomeone's strategy, you know, it
would take, you know, might takea few months, if you want to
copy someone's product mighttake a few weeks, but if you
want to copy someone's culture,that's years and years to
cultivate, to establish, andeven to change. So there's,
(06:21):
there's a lot to be said aboutculture in that it's a strong
and driving force in any groupof people who are trying to
achieve something together. Sowhether it's the culture of a
country was the culture of thecity, the culture of a sports
team. My Olympic team,obviously, they had a culture,
(06:41):
whether it's the culture of anorganization, and so I work with
a lot of organizations to, youknow, to unpack their culture
and figure out tools andtechniques to to impact that
culture and to hone it.
Zoran Stojkovic (06:57):
So out of your saying, team culture isn't a
quick fix. So then what is teamculture? How do we define it?
Adam Kreek (07:04):
How do we find team culture? Well team culture is
the unspoken understanding ofhow work gets done. Culture is,
is often unspoken, and we we tryto speak it. Language is a
foundation of culture, and youcan influence the way a culture
operates by using that language.
I remember when I moved fromathletics into the professional
(07:27):
world, I was working with amajor bank, RBC up here in
Canada, the Royal Bank ofCanada, they head the Olympians
program, and I remember workingwith the bank, and it made my
head turn a little bit, becausethe language they used in that
professional setting was unlikeanything I had been exposed to,
as a student, as an athlete, as,as a worker on the oil rigs
(07:52):
[LAUGHTER]. You know, on myprevious experience, but it
dawned on me this is this is adifferent place. This is a
different culture and thelanguage, I could tell that it
was, you know, that the languagewas actually impacting the bank
and how it operated. And theywould train us they would train
(08:13):
everyone who worked for the bankto speak in a certain way. And
the way that we speak,influences our behavior, the way
we speak, influences how wethink. So you're by controlling
language, you're alsocontrolling thoughts.
Zoran Stojkovic (08:28):
What I'm hearing you say is, culture is
this unspoken understanding orthis invisible handshake that we
shake...[LAUGHTER]... that we dowhen we when we enter work,
workplace and language is a bigpart of shaping culture, and it
shapes some of that some ofthose behaviors and actions. Why
(08:49):
is it important for businessesor sports teams to cultivate the
culture?
Adam Kreek (08:53):
Yes, and also add rituals, rituals are very
important within culture aswell. And you can design
language, you can designrituals, you can, you can try to
make the unspoken spoken bydefining things like values,
which I think will, we'll touchon later. Your question is why
is culture important? And yourculture is important? Because it
(09:14):
drives us to be our best, youknow, we can we can feel
supported, we can feel driven,we can find mastery with the
right, the right culture thatsurrounds us. So the, you know,
the best high performing teamshave leaders that consciously
cultivate the culture withinwithin their organizations.
Zoran Stojkovic (09:38):
So, let's say somebody buys into this and a
leader buys in to this and okayI get what culture is what it
isn't, why it's important. Now,how can culture be cultivated?
What's the starting place? Imean, who who has to be in those
conversations?
Adam Kreek (09:51):
The leadership team has to be in the conversation
certainly. Culture trickles downand I'd say culture trickles up
as well. You know, the issuethat I see within larger
organizations, if you're theleader of 500 people, or even
5000 people, there are a lot ofeyeballs that are looking at
(10:11):
you. And so the more people thatlook at you, the more your
behavior is under microscope,and people will will judge you,
they will emulate you, they willrespect you. So I think it's
very important to be, I mightsay, guarded, but that's
probably not the right word,professional is probably is
(10:33):
probably the right word, todrive, to drive your culture
forward. And so I think itcultivating culture is, you
know, it's led by example. So ifso, for example, strong
character will be a foundationof culture. When we say
character, it's, it'sidentifying these traits, and
(10:57):
these values that the leaderlives intuitively. So you know,
as an executive coach, some ofthe work that I do with with
clients is to help people, youknow, articulate, you know, the
values and the character traitsthat they hold closest to their
heart, and that they actuallylive and express on a regular
(11:18):
basis. Help them to articulatethose, then affirm those values
and character traits withinthem. And then encourage them to
act upon those those charactertraits. And so as the leader, we
say, how do you cultivateculture, you take a you take a
leader, you develop theircharacter, and you help them
(11:39):
broadcast these positivecharacter traits that are
innate, that have beencultivated over over a lifetime.
And even, you know, generations,your, your your values, and your
character traits come from yourfamily, from the schooling you
received, from the places thatyou've been raised. From the
(11:59):
experiences you've had in life,the clearer you are on your
personal values, and the betterable you are to broadcast those
values, the more effectiveyou'll be as a leader. And
you'll see that leaders selfreport as being 25% more
effective, when they're veryclear on their values. And they
that they broadcast their valueseffectively. And even more so,
(12:21):
when the people they lead areasked about the effectiveness of
the leader, they rate leaders asover 45% more effective when the
leaders are clear on theirvalues, and they cast their
values effectively, there is anincrease in performance when
values are broadcast. And valuesare the underpinning of a
(12:43):
culture when the the way I liketo look at it is that you know,
every culture has unspokenbeliefs that exists and it's
hard to, it's hard to wrap youryour head around a feeling,
which was which is often how abelief is experienced as, 'I
just feel this way', 'have anintuition', 'I have a gut
(13:03):
experience'. And value...valuesand value judgments are the
first level of logic in our inour mind, and when we were able
to articulate the values of aculture, and then incorporate
that into the rituals that wehold, whether it's hiring,
firing, rewarding, periodicreviews, celebrations, if we're,
(13:29):
we're incorporating these valuesinto the culture consciously,
then we can, then we cancultivate that as well, the
leaders have to live thosevalues, because every leader is
under a microscope. It'svery...it's stressful, but it's
also part of the job. This iswhy you're paid more as a
leader. This is why you'vestepped into the spotlight, you
(13:50):
have your gifts that have beenbestowed upon you that you have
developed. And now it's time toexpress them away that in a way
that's that's more contributory.
And so then, by living thosevalues as a leader, the culture
then becomes even morecultivated.
Zoran Stojkovic (14:08):
Wow, Adam so you saying... What I'm hearing
you say is these charactertraits would be the starting
place for for the leadershipgroup and the leaders and at
first, it would be aboutclarifying and developing them.
Adam Kreek (14:20):
I wouldn't say clarifying and developing them,
I'd say clarifying them. We willdevelop some character traits in
a leader. But I'd say thestrongest values or the most
influential values that you can,that you can broadcast... I'm
interchanging character traitsand values are slightly
different, but they're veryrelated. When you're able to
(14:43):
articulate, affirm and act uponvalues that are natural towards
you and broadcast those out intothe organization, you will have
a greater impact on the cultureand you'll be more effective as
a leader. Your leaders candevelop character traits and
develop different values and toincrease their competencies, but
they're especially, you know,the leaders that I interact
(15:05):
with, in, you know, welldeveloped people, high
performers in, you know, intheir 40s, in their 50s,
there's, there's room for somedevelopment, but the core of
their personality isn't going tochange, and the core of their
strength isn't going to change.
So it's figuring out what thosestrengths are, and how to
(15:25):
harness those strengths. So thatwe can amplify them and, and
have maximum impact upon theculture of the organization.
Zoran Stojkovic (15:35):
So you're saying those values are actually
the same as character traits.
And the character traits areactually part of the
personality, which as we getolder, is more stable, and
doesn't change as much and wedon't develop it as much.
Adam Kreek (15:49):
A personality is the way other people see us. So our
personnel, you'll say, "Okay,look, there's that Adam Kreek,
he's a, he's an outgoing guy,right? He likes to laugh. And,
yeah, he's thoughtful,"or maybethere's , "Okay, this is this is
how I see Adam Kreek." Whereasa value would be something that
(16:10):
I hold, I hold dear to myself,and something that's an internal
driver, but there's a fewdrivers within me, so I, I've
articulated my value. So Ipersonally value, a generous
impact. So anything I can dothat delivers a generous impact,
I will move towards that. I alsovalue vital physical sensations.
(16:33):
I'm a former athlete, I was veryphysical. So if I can have a
physical sensation, for example,I, I took some time off this
summer to rip out the chimney ofmy house and what I enjoyed
ost about that was just theeeling of exhaustion
fterwards, some people don'tike that, I like it, but I'm
iving my values through that,ou know, and all of us have
(16:53):
ore drivers that but yououldn't necessarily see it, as,
s me looking to you, I wouldn'tee Zoran's core drivers. And
hen a character trait islightly different, in that it's
, it's a trait that I that Iee in myself, or you can see in
yself, you could say Adam is aenerous person, or I'm a
(17:16):
enerous person, which islightly different than a
ehavior.
Zoran Stojkovic (17:22):
So then I want to clarify this are our
behaviors, are they artifacts ofour personality, or values, or
both?
Adam Kreek (17:31):
Behaviors are observable. And so they are,
they're driven by our beliefs byour values, the they are. And so
behaviors are closer to apersonality, a personality would
be observable behaviors that aredirectly correlated to our know
how we present ourselves in theworld. Whereas a character trait
(17:55):
would be the nature of thatbehavior. And value would be a
driver of that behavior.
Zoran Stojkovic (18:00):
I appreciate you clarifying that, that that
makes a lot more sense. Thesevalues have to be integrated as
a leader, they have to beintegrated within your culture,
and you have to live inalignment with these values.
Adam, how have you helped shapeteam cultures by training
leaders are by directly havinginfluence over the culture?
Adam Kreek (18:21):
Well, I'll give you one example I've worked with a
an aerospace company, there isindividual he was promoted into
the senior executive role. Andwhen he came in, one of the
traditions are the rituals iswas to recultivate the values of
the organization, realign them,and make sure that there was
(18:44):
clarity throughout theorganization and kind of, you
know, celebrate the leadership,celebrate the culture, celebrate
the employees, celebrate thecompany, and and help everybody
understand what the company isall about. So we worked through
a process of where I coached himindividually, I worked with the
senior leadership team on abiannual basis, and then work
(19:08):
with the entire organizationover a couple of events. And so
we ended up doing wasarticulating the values as an
organization. So it's importantwhen you talk about values,
organizational values, thatorganizational values are not
aspirational. They're notsomething that I wish my company
(19:28):
was like this. But instead,values of an organization's are
when we show up at our best.
This is how we operate. And thisis how we operate. When we show
up at our best. Often companieswill have a lot of values that
people don't remember, theycan't you ask them what the
values are of the organizationthey forget it. So it's
important to design values in away that people can can recite
(19:50):
it because memorization is thefirst step of integrating
certain ideas, especiallycomplex ideas, like values. So
we decided upon after week orweekend retreat, we worked
through some exercises came upwith, with R.O.I. so Respect,
Openness and continuousImprovement. So we wanted to
(20:14):
have respect with one another.
We wanted to have open back andforth dialogue. And we wanted to
have make sure that we wereconstantly driving to improve
the engineering company,manufacturing refurbishing
company. And so through thatprocess, we were able to clarify
what our values were, which ishow we live the culture in the
(20:38):
company. So when when I'mtalking to you, Zoran, and
you're turning wrench on a jetengine, and I'm coming to you as
the as the manager and I seesomething that might not be
working properly, I'm going tocommunicate with respect and
openness and with the desire todrive improvement. And likewise,
when you see something that'swrong in the way that I'm
(20:58):
operating, you'll communicateaway that's with respect,
openness, and continuousimprovement. We talk about it,
we put it on the wall, you havein the you know, in the regular
huddle seats, you know, themanagers would like to recognize
you, Peter, and you know,Harjeet for, you know, for
displaying openness this week,and this is how you did it. So
(21:20):
giving you recognition,reinforcing, having people talk
about one another, and, youknow, build them up by
reinforcing these, these values.
And then, not only do we havethe values, which was for the
entire organization, but whenyou moved up to middle
management and seniormanagement, they're part of a
multinational organization, theyare based in Germany, the issue
(21:44):
was that German company withwith Serbians, with Canadians,
with Chinese with polish, andeven at our Canadian factory,
there's 60 different countriesrepresented in on the floor. So
people from all over the worldwho are working together. And
(22:06):
because you don't have the same,you know, if everyone grew up in
the same valley of West Saxony,Germany, who went to the same
church and spoke the samelanguage, had the same
schooling, there'd be a deeper,invisible handshake as that was,
that would be a commonunderstanding, but because that
wasn't the way the organizationdecided to roll out some
(22:30):
leadership values. So the waywhen in so when we talk about
leadership values, you know,this is the way that I, I will,
I will influence you. So what Ineed to influence you, I will
have, you know, I'll use certaincharacter traits to go to
influence you. So beinginspirational was one of them,
(22:51):
we do we had organizationalvalues, we had leadership
values, and then you haveindividuals. And so we work with
individuals understand whattheir personal values are. So
what do you value as anindividual, and how do those
values line up with the culture.
And so when you see how yourvalues interplay with the
(23:11):
culture of the organization, youcan then pull out the values
that you have that orient yourprofessional stance more
effectively to the earth andhelp amplify that culture. And
you also recognize where thereare pieces of your career that
aren't being served. So wetalked about the personal. So
there's, we touch I share twovalues of my vital physical
(23:32):
sensations and generous impact.
Like a lot of my my work isconversations based use a lot of
consulting, a lot of reading,there's a lot of research,
there's a lot of computer work,there's not a lot of room for
vital physical sensations in myprofessional career, that's not
a you know, that's not thepurview of my chosen career
path. But by knowing that I'mmotivated by vital physical,
(23:54):
physical sensations, I can makesure that I go out for a run,
that I've, you know, I goswimming in cold water, and I,
you know, I feel alive, or Ihave, you know, I build a sauna.
And so I can go and you know,have a steam bath and, and have
those experiences, which I knoware very important and important
drivers in my life. Because theflipside of not living your
(24:19):
values, which I will say theflipside of not living your
values is that you selfsabotage, and you start falling
apart. So it's like, valuesdiscovery is particularly
beneficial. When someone ishaving a breakdown or someone is
(24:40):
feeling despondent, or someoneis having a moment of crisis,
because, you know, even when weexperienced COVID, itself, the
change was not itself a crisis,the change, change becomes a
crisis when a certain value isviolated. So I value security
and that value is violated, thatchange has also moved from
(25:03):
something new into a crisis. Soit's that. So by identifying
what you value, and then settinggoals around those values of
moving towards those values, youcan become more integrated as an
individual and be a bettercontributor to your
organization, and help thatorganization exist in its own
(25:23):
state of values, you know, it'sits own entity, that, and again,
that invisible handshake thateveryone shares within the
organization is, is dictated bythese values.
Zoran Stojkovic (25:36):
Wow Adam so that's quite a lot of gems and
golden nuggets in that and fromthe story of, of working with
the Aerospace executive who wascoming in being promoted and and
having to come up with a freshset of values and how you came
up with that and, you know, theorganizational values, the
leadership values and theindividual values being
important in that, was there anypushback? How was the buy in?
Adam Kreek (26:00):
Well, the buy in is, is interesting, because there is
a healthy dose of cynicismwithin the corporate
environment, because we are allhuman. And humans have desires
that come in conflict with our,our virtuous self. And so
(26:21):
there's, you know, there'sgreed, there's anxiety, there
is, you know, insecurity,there's people who don't always
live a virtuous existence. And Ithink that's, that's how you
have to move up in the corporatehierarchy, if that's your, if
(26:43):
that's what your desire is, youhave to you have to understand
how other people operate, howyou're seen in the world, how
you can present yourself so thatyou can be more effective and
achieve more of your goals. Butthe you know, the cynicism that
came from, you know, from seniormanagement and middle management
is that while we've gone throughthis value process before, I've
(27:04):
seen leaders who don't livetheir values, we talk about
respect, and my leaders yellingat me, right? He's, he's reading
me out, I don't feel respected.
I don't respect him. We've gotthis thing on the wall that says
respect, but it's not beinglived right here. So values are
most powerful when they arelived, when they're reinforced.
(27:26):
But we were able to actuallymake some headway by having, you
know, I know myself as a, havingmyself as a consultant engaged
over a number of years, itwasn't, 'here's the workshop,
let's design the values', whichare a bunch of shiny words.
(27:46):
Everyone feels really good afterthe exercise, right? It's done.
Like, lots and lots, right? Youdo the values exercise, people
are like, "Oh, yes, those arevalues. That's what we value.
That's how we operate all thatfeels good". And then you maybe
you put her on the wall. Andthen you forget about where it
becomes very useful in in thecultivation of culture is every
(28:11):
quarter having conversationswith the senior team, the senior
management team, havingconversations with the CEO? How
are you living the values? Howare you expressing the values?
How are you reinforcing thevalues? This is the culture that
drives excellence is the culturethat drives performance? And
we've...you were cultivatingsomething that's indescribable,
(28:34):
yet, it's, it's very important.
How are you presenting yourself?
Are you talking about this withthe senior leadership team? Are
you are you correcting behaviorin accordance with those values,
yet, there was initialresistance, but then by taking
the long term approach, we'reactually able to have a positive
(28:55):
impact on the culture becausebecause of the common reference
points, and revisiting thisidea, it was able to reinforce
behavior, behavior changehappens slowly over time, is
repeated interventions.
Zoran Stojkovic (29:12):
It does and as you mentioned before, some of
that skepticism is quiteexpected, because we're human in
your experience, what separatesthe culture of good companies
from great companies?
Adam Kreek (29:25):
Purpose, common purpose, when we talk about
values being the invisibledrivers of our behavior, purpose
is almost the you know, thehigher "why", 'why are we doing
something?' and when everyone inthe company feels like they are,
(29:48):
are moving towards the samegoal. So they have the same
purpose in mind one and two.
They feel supported by theorganization by the executive
team by one another, where thethat's that's a high performing
team. And I'd say it'snot....the idea of psychological
safety is coming to mind, you'renot ever held to the fire, you
(30:11):
are held accountable, you'reheld accountable for results.
And you're supported. You'rechallenged. And you know that
there's an element of safetybehind, you know, there's,
there's two types of leaders,you can be a results driven
leader or a commitmentengendering leader, so I drive
(30:33):
results or gain commitment frommy people. And if you if you
focus too much on commitment,then you create a bit of a
country club, environmentresults start to suffer, you
don't deliver that highperformance. And if you focus
too much on on results, whathappens is you start to have
(30:55):
turnover, anxiety. And, youknow, people feeling insecure in
their roles, and there'sinternal fighting. And so the
truly admirable leader, andthere's, I've seen very few of
these in, you know, in my careerin my profession, but the truly
admirable leader is one who canboth engender that that
(31:17):
commitment for to their team andreceive that commitment back
while also driving results,holding people accountable. And
that comes from a very wellintegrated leader who is clear
on their values, and clear onthe purpose that this
(31:38):
organization is driving towards.
And that's, that's what itdoesn't. [LAUGHTER] It sounds
simple when I talk about it, butwhen I think of the practices,
it's actually truly hard to findsomeone who's truly living their
values and driving a purposethat they that they feel deeply
about, and, and have the skillsto implement it.
Zoran Stojkovic (32:00):
So what I'm hearing you say is having that
purpose, and that shared purposethat the whole organization is
aligned on, that does have tocome from the leader, and also
having those those values thatget lived by in that you
mentioned commitment, and also afocus on results. Because
results are important. That'swhat you know, selling the
(32:20):
product, getting the metal thatis important. It's not the most
important thing. But it isimportant for a measure of
organizational success. And soif we have those three things,
that's that that might besomething that separates great
companies from good companies.
Adam Kreek (32:37):
Very much so you know, let's say you're making me
think of the Jim, Jim Collins,what he like his philosophy when
he's written the, you know, hisfirst book on excellent
companies, and they were aboutGood to Great and built to last
and why how the mighty fall andbuild a bunch of white papers,
but he's, what I like about hishis analysis is that if you take
(33:00):
all all influencers on a greatculture, and remove leadership,
because we don't leadership hasa very powerful impact on
culture, what other thingsimpact culture and make make
companies great? And so we had areally, he had a lot of really
great principles that came outof his books like the, like the
(33:20):
hedgehog principle, that's onethat I constantly come back to,
which is, you're nodding,because you know that one, too,
right? You want to do somethingthat you like, that you're
passionate about, that you haveskill on, and there is a market
for that. So these sorts ofideas that, you know, that can
(33:41):
drive great, great cultures andgreat organizations.
Zoran Stojkovic (33:44):
Are there behaviors that are toxic for
team culture? And how have youdealt with them? Or how have you
advised leaders to deal withthem?
Adam Kreek (33:52):
There are a lot of behaviors that are toxic, and
what I've, what I'd sayoverarchingly, inconsistent
behaviors are perhaps the mosttoxic, because you can have a
culture that's been developedand you could walk in and it
would be very uncomfortable, andyou wouldn't, it wouldn't allow
(34:12):
it wouldn't feel right yet thatculture seems to resonate. And
so I think of the very strongresults driven organization
where many people wouldn't,wouldn't feel comfortable, they
wouldn't thrive within that, andthey might label some of these
behaviors as toxic yet thecorporation continues to drive
results. And the individualshave very strong commitments to,
(34:38):
you know, to the organizationitself. And that's, that can be
okay, and that's out there. ButI'd say that's more of an
exception than a rule. You know,so we want to try to figure out,
how can the rest of us, youknow, not the, not the ones, you
know, who are the outliers.
What, what behaviors are aretoxic, it's 'the disease of me',
(35:01):
that's what I would say isperhaps the most toxic piece of
the puzzle where you have nostatus. And power is a is a real
driver in individuals,especially as they move up the
ladder in an organization, youhave to be very competitive, you
(35:25):
have to have a strong dominanceorientation. You've, you're
constantly pushing for yourideas of what you think is best.
All those traits are verybeneficial to the organization,
you get the expression, right,if you express those traits in a
(35:47):
way that is too aggressive,there's, there's something where
I'm, you know, I'm disregardingyour rights, your feelings or
I'm unaware, I'm unaware of howmy behaviors affect you, and I'm
walking around, and that thatcan be very, very toxic. And,
you know, it makes me think ofthis idea of being assertive.
(36:07):
And I'm a big believer, I lovethis, the assertive a triangle,
which is a great tool, I comeback to on a regular basis. And
if you think of the bottom ofthe triangle, you have
aggression on one side, and theother side, you will have being
passive, also, and then you moveup passive aggressive. Now
(36:29):
you've crossed a line to thetop, which is assertive. And
assertive behavior is greatbecause it means that you're
okay. And I'm okay, there is ahealthy dose of respect. In our
relationship. There's a healthydose of relationship in our
culture, the way that we'recommunicating. Passive
aggressive behavior is when youcommunicate, something feels
(36:52):
wrong. And at the end of theconversation, I feel bad, you
feel bad, so everyone leaves aconversation feeling horrible.
He made a snide remark and leavethe conversation feeling
unhappy, aggressive behavior weknow in, you know, yelling,
abusive, too dominant forcertain types of people or
(37:16):
certain environments. And sothat means I'm okay, I have an
idea. And I need to make thatidea happened. And it doesn't
matter, but you just get my ideadone, aggressive. And passive is
constantly deflecting. You are,you are okay, you are okay, at
the, at the price of me. And soI'd say from we say toxic
(37:39):
behaviors within a culture, youknow, let's call it the disease
of me, or non assertivebehavior, so aggressive, passive
or passive aggressive behaviorthat undermines the way that
information and ideas are, areexchanged and the way that work
(38:00):
gets done.
Zoran Stojkovic (38:02):
So you're saying assertiveness is a good
character trait?
Adam Kreek (38:04):
Yes, 100%.
assertiveness is very good. Moreof that, please.
Zoran Stojkovic (38:11):
Agreed, like look, culture gets a bad rap for
not for being fluffy andtangible, up in the air hard to
pinpoint. How can leadersmeasure and assess team culture?
Is there a tools or ways thatyou've found to be effective?
Like either through focusgroups, interviews, questions?
Adam Kreek (38:32):
Well, if you're if you're measuring engagement,
from an HR perspective, so ifyou have different surveys that
measure engagement levels ofyour staff, high engagement is
usually a positive indicator ofreally good culture. I think
that's, that's a great way tosee if your culture is working.
(38:52):
Results are another way. If youknow, are you are you creating
the results that you want? Andyeah, and like you said, focus
groups conversations, because itis a, you know, it's a fluffy,
you know, we've, it's, it's hardto put your finger on culture,
(39:13):
you know, it, you know, a goodculture when you see it, or...
You can feel it. Soyou can feel it. And and, you
Zoran Stojkovic (39:16):
You can feel it.
know, when it's not there, youknow, when it's not there, you
know, and the beauty of a reallygood culture is that you can
have people who, at the core maynot necessarily be 100% values
aligned with the organization.
But the culture pushes them intocertain behaviors because of
(39:39):
because of its force. So how doyou measure it? Engagement
conversations.
How do you measure engagement?
Adam Kreek (39:49):
How do you measure engagement? Surveys, surveys.
You ask...there's a number ofdifferent ways to measure
engagement. You take varioussurveys. I'm not I'm not a an
actual in measuring engagement,but I know that there's a lot of
tools out there that youdistribute to your staff. And
it's a regular metric that youuse within the HR department to
(40:13):
know how engaged are myemployees? What is what is the
engagement score? And you knowovertime, you get a sense of
what the trend is Yourengagement score, because it is
it's a, it's a qualitativemetric. It's not quantitative.
And so we say quant...yet it'sit's hard data. Qualitative is
(40:33):
very relative. And the way wemeasure fuzzy things, you have
to measure engagement over anumber of years so that you can
establish a baseline and say,you know, this is happening.
Google has an engagement scoreof 90 out of 100. And Hewlett
Packard has an engagement scoreof 60 out of 100. You know,
(40:56):
Hewlett Packard could have abetter culture, and better
engagement, it's just that thisis, you know, the way that they
run the survey, the way thebrains operated, the people who
work in the organization aredifferent, and they just, you
know, they would never give 100%and anything over 50% is
excellent. Yeah, that's anextreme example.
Zoran Stojkovic (41:17):
I'm one of those people. There's no tens,
no tens for me. A 9.5? Well,because then you don't leave
room for improvement. And mywife gets really mad at me,
because I sometimes rate thedinner. And I'm like, Oh, honey,
this is this is amazing. This isa 9.5. She's like, what am I
gonna get the 10? And I'm like,well...[LAUGHTER] No, it's
(41:38):
terrible.
Adam Kreek (41:39):
Keep trying honey...[LAUGHTER]
Zoran Stojkovic (41:40):
And it's not it's not even a quality thing.
It's just the thing of, I thinkthere's, there's always
improvements that can be made.
And if you if you say somethingis perfect, then you you don't
leave that bit of rooms up.
Yeah, I don't know, that's justa personal personal view.
Adam Kreek (41:55):
I might say that in any given moment, something can
be perfect. When you when youmitigate the when you try to
ignore the future state, or thepast day, you say, right now, I
can't think of a more deliciousmeal than I could have ever had.
Zoran Stojkovic (42:14):
Oh, yeah.
Adam Kreek (42:15):
And that might get you more brownie points with
you. Right?
Zoran Stojkovic (42:18):
Yeah. So Adam, what like what's one, and you've
mentioned a bunch of practicaltools. But what's one practical
tool leaders can use tomorrow tocultivate the culture of their
team?
Adam Kreek (42:30):
Well, I would say values, articulation,
affirmation and action. That's avery simple tool, there's a lot
of resources out there, or youcan find a coach to help you
through or psychologists to helpyou through that. Attend a
course, taking an online course,but to gain, to gain clarity on
(42:54):
your values and to put intoaction, the values that are the
most meaningful to and mostrelated to your work in your
profession. I think that willhave a big impact on your
culture, that's probably thebest tool if you're not familiar
with what values are, then evengoing through, you know, some
(43:14):
values education to to betterunderstand what is a value? And
where did they come from? Whatwas what's their origin? What's
their application? What's theirusefulness? Where do they sit in
the realm of personality theory,within the realm of culture
theory, and better understandingwhat they are, what their
(43:37):
usefulness is, how you can useit, and then identifying,
confirming that these are thevalues that you truly value and
then orienting your life andyour profession around them.
That's, that's very, verypowerful. It's it's very
powerful. And it's it's lifechanging. All it takes is one
values intervention, in one inyour life to drastically change
(43:59):
the course of that life.
Zoran Stojkovic (44:01):
Definitely.
That's a solid suggestion. Myfinal question to you, Adam is
what does cultivating yourculture mean to you personally?
Adam Kreek (44:09):
When you think of cultivation, I think of a
garden. And when I think of aculture, we talk about this
invisible force...this invisiblehandshake, that can help people
grow. Culture can be afertilizer for behavior. And so
when we say what does it mean tocultivate your own culture?
(44:32):
We...we in our lives have thingsthat we can control the things
that we can't control. One ofthe things we can control is the
nature of our environment. Thenature of our working
environment, the nature of oursocial environment, the nature
of nature of our family, and ourhome environment. So we talked
about cultivating our culture,you know, it's figuring out
(44:54):
different behaviors you can taketo cultivate culture. So for an
example, at dinner time, ourfamily has a tradition to
cultivate our family culture,you know, three children, wife,
dad, we say, what did you dowell, today, what are you
grateful for? What are youlooking forward to tomorrow? And
(45:18):
we, we talk about that. So ithelps, helps cultivate a
positive mindset and helpscultivate the virtue of
gratefulness, it helps cultivatethe idea of the forward thought.
And so that's a way to cultivateyour culture. Another way to
cultivate your culture is to putinto place resources, so that
(45:42):
when the spirit moves you orwhen opportunity arises, you can
you can live your values moreoften. So, you know, in my own
personal life, I'll have youknow, in just outside of my
office, I've got a chin up bar.
So when I walk with a chin upbar, I pay the tax, and I do the
chin up. So I'm able to dosomething physical, I'm able to
(46:06):
live my values. Within anorganization, you can have, you
know, if you're cultivating yourcultivating your culture, then
you value openness and your openfeedback, then you create some
kind of system that allowspeople to deliver feedback to
their management to their theircolleagues, on a regular basis
(46:27):
in a way that that's positive,supportive, and also drives
improvement. And so you set upthe system electronically, you
know, that you're the app thatpings up on your on your company
phone says, "culture time", youknow, answer this question and
you answer the question and moveon. So I think when we talk
(46:49):
about cultivating your ownculture, it's focusing on what
you can control. It'sunderstanding what you as an
individual value, and what theculture of the organization or
the family or the community thatyou belong to, what those values
are, what values you want tocultivate, and drive. And then
you know, acting upon that andrecognizing that you're adding
(47:13):
fertilizer to the culture byenacting these rituals and
behaviors and exercises.
Zoran Stojkovic (47:25):
I love that, the fertilizer, nuts! That's
gonna stick with me and and andI love what you do with your
family before dinner time thatthat ritual that you have for
developing a more positive andgrateful mindset. I think that's
really powerful. Tell me aboutyour book, The Responsibility
Ethic.
Adam Kreek (47:41):
The Responsibility Ethic, well it's a good book. So
in the book, it's a it'spartially biographical. Each
chapter focuses on a differentethic that I think is important
for leadership for personalleadership for corporate
leadership, for self leadership,I talk about failure, I talked
(48:05):
about making sure you don't settoxic goals, talk about
resilience, talk about recovery,leader, leadership, shared
leadership, teamwork, coaching,mentoring, an idea called
Providence, you know, thecombination of faith and hard
work that drives results. Eachchapter starts with a story,
whether it's me capsizing in theBermuda Triangle, or winning the
(48:28):
Olympics, or, you know, atranscendent experience, I had
training with my team, or anargument I had with my Olympic
coach. These stories, then driveit to different leadership
principles, you know, forexample, you know, the three
principles in the book that Italked about are character
competence, and courage, youknow, three drivers of culture
(48:49):
within a team, and you discussthose. So it's, it's for people
who like a, you know, acompelling sports action
adventure...[LAUGHTER].. piece,they want some positive
philosophy that doesn't go toodeep in each topic. So it's a
bit of an overview you, you canpick and choose the ideas that
(49:11):
really resonate with you, andwe'll help you and then there's
a few exercises at the back tohelp help you design your
narrative more effectively setgoals, more effectively. some
suggestions about the books youcan read if you're reading
oriented.
Zoran Stojkovic (49:30):
Nice, thank you for sending me a copy. I that's
the next book I'm gonna bereading. So I look forward to
reading about character,competence and courage.
Adam Kreek (49:41):
And it's gonna be an audio book soon, too. We just I
just sent off the audio files toto Audible.
Zoran Stojkovic (49:46):
Oh, great.
Adam Kreek (49:47):
Well, it's, it'll be an even better listen, I think
because that seems to be amedium that people use more
often, especially if people arelistening to this podcast.
They're probably more orientedtowards an audio book.
Zoran Stojkovic (50:03):
For sure. Adam, tell us what you're up to right
now and where people can connectwith you.
Adam Kreek (50:08):
Well, you can connect with me on LinkedIn or
through my website. And what I,what I'm doing right now is
executive business coaching. Soif you are a leader or aspiring
leader, you can follow me tojust consume some content to
boost your leadership presenceand leadership outcomes. If
(50:31):
you're a leadership and duringchange, or you're an HR manager,
and you see some one of your,the leaders that you're you're
supporting, or the people thatyou're supporting, who's going
who's going through change orrecent promotion, or looking
forward to, to a successionplan, having to create a
succession plan. That's what Ido. I work with leaders, it's
(50:52):
not a it's not a whole lot ofwork. It's takes a little bit to
ramp up. But it's usually onceonce a month, one conversation
drastically changes the theoutcomes or for this individual
leader. So it's pretty powerfuland what executive coaching is,
and it's a gift, it truly is agift, you know, supporting these
(51:14):
leaders supporting theseindividuals to bring their best
self to their their career tothe professions and if people
want to reach out to me, like Isaid, LinkedIn and my website
kreekspeak.com, twitter. I'malso on Twitter. Find me there
too.
Zoran Stojkovic (51:30):
Solid. Adam, it's been grand thanks so much
for taking the time to shareyour your wisdom and insights on
corporate culture, team culture,and leadership.
Adam Kreek (51:40):
Thank you, Zoran.
Zoran Stojkovic (51:44):
Hey, thanks for tuning into cultivate your
culture, rate and reviewerpodcast on iTunes. Any websites
and resources mentioned in thepodcast as well as the guests
information can be found on theshow notes at
www.kizo.ca/podcast. Here's asneak peek of what's coming up
in our episode next week.
(52:08):
Wow, that's a wrap for seasonone. We had 10 fantastic
teachers who have shared easy toapply tools and techniques to
cultivate culture in any teamyou're a part of. Among the
guests were three Olympians, aCoach of the century, three
business coaches, an esportsperformance coach, a serial
entrepreneur and a coacheducator. Season Two will be
(52:30):
released in the fall of 2021. Ifyou want to make sure you get
notified of the launch, go tokizo.ca/podcast and sign up for
the newsletter. Thank you forsupporting the show. Thank you
for being here for spending timewith me and the guests. Many of
you have shared the show withfriends and colleagues. I
appreciate all the messages bothproviding feedback and praise.
(52:52):
If you'd like to connect with meor provide any suggestions for
how the show can be improved.
You can do that through socialmedia @kizoperformance, on L
nkedIn or by email through zran@kizo.ca. I hope you have a f
ntastic rest of the week and hpe to see you in season two.
Let's design the values, which are a bunch of
shiny words. Everyone feelsreally good after the exercise,
right? It's, they've done thislike lots and lots, right?
[LAUGHTER] You do the valuesexercise. People are like, "Oh,
yes, those are our values.
That's what we value. That's howwe operate. Oh, it feels good."
And then you maybe you put heron the wall, and then you forget
about.
Zoran Stojkovic (00:25):
Hello, I'm your host, Zoran Stojkovic and
welcome to cultivate yourculture. This podcast we'll be
discussing how leaders can buildconnected high performing teams
in business and sport usingactionable tools, evidence-based
systems and simple processes. Sowith us today, we have Adam
(00:46):
Creek Adam is one of NorthAmerica's top executive business
coaches who specializes inleadership development and
strategic planning. He hasdegrees and certifications from
Stanford University, UBC SauderSchool of Business and Queen's
Smith School of Business. He's aguest lecturer at the University
of Victoria and teachesstrategies and skills of self
(01:07):
leadership, leadership, highperformance and perseverance to
corporate and government teamsglobally through keynotes,
workshops and online seminars.
Adam has coached trained, andtaught hundreds of thousands of
people including teams atMicrosoft, General Electric, and
Mercedes Benz just to name a fewcompanies. As an entrepreneur,
Adam runs two small corporationsCreek Speak...love the
(01:32):
rhyme...Creek Speak BusinessSolutions and Airgo Eco
Solutions, a low carboninitiative that connects small
businesses with smallgovernment's. Long term clients
include leadership teams fromAerospace, Finance and Public
Service, Nutrition and CleanEnergy Sectors. A two time
Olympian, Adam holds 60International medals. That's
(01:53):
quite impressive, includingOlympic gold and multiple Hall
of Fame inductions in 2013, Adammade the first ever attempt to
row unsupported across theAtlantic Ocean from Africa to
America, the subject of the NBCdateline documentary "Capsized".
Adam's best selling book, "TheResponsibility Ethic" teaches us
(02:14):
the 'how' of self leadershipdriving personal and
professional results inindividuals and organizations.
Adam, welcome to the show.
Adam Kreek (02:24):
It's great to be here, Zoran.
Zoran Stojkovic (02:26):
Tell me about your journey. I mean, what what
is your your backstory of howyou got involved in sport to
Adam Kreek (02:33):
Well, my current profession is to be an executive
where you're at now?
business coach, I work withexecutives who are undergoing
some form of transition. Theyhave recently been promoted, or
they're suffering from a bit ofleadership anxiety, wanting to
get more, faster from theirleadership role, or people who
(02:56):
are getting ready to retirelooking to leave a legacy. So I
got into this career, itcertainly wasn't what I imagined
when I was a young kid, I, Ithink I wouldn't be a farmer
when I grew up. [LAUGHTER] As akid, it's the it's been a bit of
a, you know, a wandering path,if you want to call it that. I
(03:19):
grew up in London, Ontario. Inthe center of Canada, it was a
small sort of Midwestern typetown. And then after high
school, moved out to Alberta,where I worked on the oil rigs
and in the resource sector for awhile, then moved to Victoria,
British Columbia on VancouverIsland, where I trained for my
(03:40):
first Olympics, and during theend attended the University of
Victoria. During that time, Iwent to a couple of World
Championships had an Olympicexperience that was very
upsetting, I suppose, wehave...we expected to win, we
finished far off of the podium.
And so that was upsetting. Wentdown to Stanford University in
California spent three yearsdown there came back up,
(04:02):
rejoined the Canadian Olympicteam, we won a World
Championship then we won theOlympics. After winning the
Olympics, I had the opportunityto go on the speaking circuit.
So I would go speak at differentconferences and found that I
really enjoyed that profession,and started to branch out into
(04:22):
the training space. During thattime as I was doing more public
speaking and professionaltraining. I partnered with a
couple of gentlemen down inSeattle, we built a project to
roll across the Atlantic Ocean.
We It took us a while to buildthat...that...project. We did a
(04:47):
preparation by Mikecircumnavigating Vancouver
Island. And then we launchedfrom Dakar, Senegal and rode for
73 days before we capsized inthe Bermuda Triangle. [LAUGHTER]
We recovered, we...we've comeout of it safely. Well,
obviously I did. They didn't do.
And, and when I got back, I, Ileaned in that time I had one
(05:15):
child and one on the way. And Istarted to lean into more of my
professional career as a speakerand a trainer. And then after,
you know, after taking a fewcourses and being asked by a
number of senior executives, Ifinally agreed to say to you to
move into the executive businesscoaching realm. And so that's
(05:39):
where I've been for the lastfive years or so, working with
with top performers in the inthe corporate space.
Zoran Stojkovic (05:50):
So you've worked on Team culture, as well
with leaders and withperformers. And maybe we start
off by telling me what teamculture isn't.
Adam Kreek (05:57):
Team culture is not a quick fix is, that's one thing
I would say team culture is not.
They say, if you want to copysomeone's strategy, you know, it
would take, you know, might takea few months, if you want to
copy someone's product mighttake a few weeks, but if you
want to copy someone's culture,that's years and years to
cultivate, to establish, andeven to change. So there's,
(06:21):
there's a lot to be said aboutculture in that it's a strong
and driving force in any groupof people who are trying to
achieve something together. Sowhether it's the culture of a
country was the culture of thecity, the culture of a sports
team. My Olympic team,obviously, they had a culture,
(06:41):
whether it's the culture of anorganization, and so I work with
a lot of organizations to, youknow, to unpack their culture
and figure out tools andtechniques to to impact that
culture and to hone it.
Zoran Stojkovic (06:57):
So out of your saying, team culture isn't a
quick fix. So then what is teamculture? How do we define it?
Adam Kreek (07:04):
How do we find team culture? Well team culture is
the unspoken understanding ofhow work gets done. Culture is,
is often unspoken, and we we tryto speak it. Language is a
foundation of culture, and youcan influence the way a culture
operates by using that language.
I remember when I moved fromathletics into the professional
(07:27):
world, I was working with amajor bank, RBC up here in
Canada, the Royal Bank ofCanada, they head the Olympians
program, and I remember workingwith the bank, and it made my
head turn a little bit, becausethe language they used in that
professional setting was unlikeanything I had been exposed to,
as a student, as an athlete, as,as a worker on the oil rigs
(07:52):
[LAUGHTER]. You know, on myprevious experience, but it
dawned on me this is this is adifferent place. This is a
different culture and thelanguage, I could tell that it
was, you know, that the languagewas actually impacting the bank
and how it operated. And theywould train us they would train
(08:13):
everyone who worked for the bankto speak in a certain way. And
the way that we speak,influences our behavior, the way
we speak, influences how wethink. So you're by controlling
language, you're alsocontrolling thoughts.
Zoran Stojkovic (08:28):
What I'm hearing you say is, culture is
this unspoken understanding orthis invisible handshake that we
shake...[LAUGHTER]... that we dowhen we when we enter work,
workplace and language is a bigpart of shaping culture, and it
shapes some of that some ofthose behaviors and actions. Why
(08:49):
is it important for businessesor sports teams to cultivate the
culture?
Adam Kreek (08:53):
Yes, and also add rituals, rituals are very
important within culture aswell. And you can design
language, you can designrituals, you can, you can try to
make the unspoken spoken bydefining things like values,
which I think will, we'll touchon later. Your question is why
is culture important? And yourculture is important? Because it
(09:14):
drives us to be our best, youknow, we can we can feel
supported, we can feel driven,we can find mastery with the
right, the right culture thatsurrounds us. So the, you know,
the best high performing teamshave leaders that consciously
cultivate the culture withinwithin their organizations.
Zoran Stojkovic (09:38):
So, let's say somebody buys into this and a
leader buys in to this and okayI get what culture is what it
isn't, why it's important. Now,how can culture be cultivated?
What's the starting place? Imean, who who has to be in those
conversations?
Adam Kreek (09:51):
The leadership team has to be in the conversation
certainly. Culture trickles downand I'd say culture trickles up
as well. You know, the issuethat I see within larger
organizations, if you're theleader of 500 people, or even
5000 people, there are a lot ofeyeballs that are looking at
(10:11):
you. And so the more people thatlook at you, the more your
behavior is under microscope,and people will will judge you,
they will emulate you, they willrespect you. So I think it's
very important to be, I mightsay, guarded, but that's
probably not the right word,professional is probably is
(10:33):
probably the right word, todrive, to drive your culture
forward. And so I think itcultivating culture is, you
know, it's led by example. So ifso, for example, strong
character will be a foundationof culture. When we say
character, it's, it'sidentifying these traits, and
(10:57):
these values that the leaderlives intuitively. So you know,
as an executive coach, some ofthe work that I do with with
clients is to help people, youknow, articulate, you know, the
values and the character traitsthat they hold closest to their
heart, and that they actuallylive and express on a regular
(11:18):
basis. Help them to articulatethose, then affirm those values
and character traits withinthem. And then encourage them to
act upon those those charactertraits. And so as the leader, we
say, how do you cultivateculture, you take a you take a
leader, you develop theircharacter, and you help them
(11:39):
broadcast these positivecharacter traits that are
innate, that have beencultivated over over a lifetime.
And even, you know, generations,your, your your values, and your
character traits come from yourfamily, from the schooling you
received, from the places thatyou've been raised. From the
(11:59):
experiences you've had in life,the clearer you are on your
personal values, and the betterable you are to broadcast those
values, the more effectiveyou'll be as a leader. And
you'll see that leaders selfreport as being 25% more
effective, when they're veryclear on their values. And they
that they broadcast their valueseffectively. And even more so,
(12:21):
when the people they lead areasked about the effectiveness of
the leader, they rate leaders asover 45% more effective when the
leaders are clear on theirvalues, and they cast their
values effectively, there is anincrease in performance when
values are broadcast. And valuesare the underpinning of a
(12:43):
culture when the the way I liketo look at it is that you know,
every culture has unspokenbeliefs that exists and it's
hard to, it's hard to wrap youryour head around a feeling,
which was which is often how abelief is experienced as, 'I
just feel this way', 'have anintuition', 'I have a gut
(13:03):
experience'. And value...valuesand value judgments are the
first level of logic in our inour mind, and when we were able
to articulate the values of aculture, and then incorporate
that into the rituals that wehold, whether it's hiring,
firing, rewarding, periodicreviews, celebrations, if we're,
(13:29):
we're incorporating these valuesinto the culture consciously,
then we can, then we cancultivate that as well, the
leaders have to live thosevalues, because every leader is
under a microscope. It'svery...it's stressful, but it's
also part of the job. This iswhy you're paid more as a
leader. This is why you'vestepped into the spotlight, you
(13:50):
have your gifts that have beenbestowed upon you that you have
developed. And now it's time toexpress them away that in a way
that's that's more contributory.
And so then, by living thosevalues as a leader, the culture
then becomes even morecultivated.
Zoran Stojkovic (14:08):
Wow, Adam so you saying... What I'm hearing
you say is these charactertraits would be the starting
place for for the leadershipgroup and the leaders and at
first, it would be aboutclarifying and developing them.
Adam Kreek (14:20):
I wouldn't say clarifying and developing them,
I'd say clarifying them. We willdevelop some character traits in
a leader. But I'd say thestrongest values or the most
influential values that you can,that you can broadcast... I'm
interchanging character traitsand values are slightly
different, but they're veryrelated. When you're able to
(14:43):
articulate, affirm and act uponvalues that are natural towards
you and broadcast those out intothe organization, you will have
a greater impact on the cultureand you'll be more effective as
a leader. Your leaders candevelop character traits and
develop different values and toincrease their competencies, but
they're especially, you know,the leaders that I interact
(15:05):
with, in, you know, welldeveloped people, high
performers in, you know, intheir 40s, in their 50s,
there's, there's room for somedevelopment, but the core of
their personality isn't going tochange, and the core of their
strength isn't going to change.
So it's figuring out what thosestrengths are, and how to
(15:25):
harness those strengths. So thatwe can amplify them and, and
have maximum impact upon theculture of the organization.
Zoran Stojkovic (15:35):
So you're saying those values are actually
the same as character traits.
And the character traits areactually part of the
personality, which as we getolder, is more stable, and
doesn't change as much and wedon't develop it as much.
Adam Kreek (15:49):
A personality is the way other people see us. So our
personnel, you'll say, "Okay,look, there's that Adam Kreek,
he's a, he's an outgoing guy,right? He likes to laugh. And,
yeah, he's thoughtful,"or maybethere's , "Okay, this is this is
how I see Adam Kreek." Whereasa value would be something that
(16:10):
I hold, I hold dear to myself,and something that's an internal
driver, but there's a fewdrivers within me, so I, I've
articulated my value. So Ipersonally value, a generous
impact. So anything I can dothat delivers a generous impact,
I will move towards that. I alsovalue vital physical sensations.
(16:33):
I'm a former athlete, I was veryphysical. So if I can have a
physical sensation, for example,I, I took some time off this
summer to rip out the chimney ofmy house and what I enjoyed
ost about that was just theeeling of exhaustion
fterwards, some people don'tike that, I like it, but I'm
iving my values through that,ou know, and all of us have
(16:53):
ore drivers that but yououldn't necessarily see it, as,
s me looking to you, I wouldn'tee Zoran's core drivers. And
hen a character trait islightly different, in that it's
, it's a trait that I that Iee in myself, or you can see in
yself, you could say Adam is aenerous person, or I'm a
(17:16):
enerous person, which islightly different than a
ehavior.
Zoran Stojkovic (17:22):
So then I want to clarify this are our
behaviors, are they artifacts ofour personality, or values, or
both?
Adam Kreek (17:31):
Behaviors are observable. And so they are,
they're driven by our beliefs byour values, the they are. And so
behaviors are closer to apersonality, a personality would
be observable behaviors that aredirectly correlated to our know
how we present ourselves in theworld. Whereas a character trait
(17:55):
would be the nature of thatbehavior. And value would be a
driver of that behavior.
Zoran Stojkovic (18:00):
I appreciate you clarifying that, that that
makes a lot more sense. Thesevalues have to be integrated as
a leader, they have to beintegrated within your culture,
and you have to live inalignment with these values.
Adam, how have you helped shapeteam cultures by training
leaders are by directly havinginfluence over the culture?
Adam Kreek (18:21):
Well, I'll give you one example I've worked with a
an aerospace company, there isindividual he was promoted into
the senior executive role. Andwhen he came in, one of the
traditions are the rituals iswas to recultivate the values of
the organization, realign them,and make sure that there was
(18:44):
clarity throughout theorganization and kind of, you
know, celebrate the leadership,celebrate the culture, celebrate
the employees, celebrate thecompany, and and help everybody
understand what the company isall about. So we worked through
a process of where I coached himindividually, I worked with the
senior leadership team on abiannual basis, and then work
(19:08):
with the entire organizationover a couple of events. And so
we ended up doing wasarticulating the values as an
organization. So it's importantwhen you talk about values,
organizational values, thatorganizational values are not
aspirational. They're notsomething that I wish my company
(19:28):
was like this. But instead,values of an organization's are
when we show up at our best.
This is how we operate. And thisis how we operate. When we show
up at our best. Often companieswill have a lot of values that
people don't remember, theycan't you ask them what the
values are of the organizationthey forget it. So it's
important to design values in away that people can can recite
(19:50):
it because memorization is thefirst step of integrating
certain ideas, especiallycomplex ideas, like values. So
we decided upon after week orweekend retreat, we worked
through some exercises came upwith, with R.O.I. so Respect,
Openness and continuousImprovement. So we wanted to
(20:14):
have respect with one another.
We wanted to have open back andforth dialogue. And we wanted to
have make sure that we wereconstantly driving to improve
the engineering company,manufacturing refurbishing
company. And so through thatprocess, we were able to clarify
what our values were, which ishow we live the culture in the
(20:38):
company. So when when I'mtalking to you, Zoran, and
you're turning wrench on a jetengine, and I'm coming to you as
the as the manager and I seesomething that might not be
working properly, I'm going tocommunicate with respect and
openness and with the desire todrive improvement. And likewise,
when you see something that'swrong in the way that I'm
(20:58):
operating, you'll communicateaway that's with respect,
openness, and continuousimprovement. We talk about it,
we put it on the wall, you havein the you know, in the regular
huddle seats, you know, themanagers would like to recognize
you, Peter, and you know,Harjeet for, you know, for
displaying openness this week,and this is how you did it. So
(21:20):
giving you recognition,reinforcing, having people talk
about one another, and, youknow, build them up by
reinforcing these, these values.
And then, not only do we havethe values, which was for the
entire organization, but whenyou moved up to middle
management and seniormanagement, they're part of a
multinational organization, theyare based in Germany, the issue
(21:44):
was that German company withwith Serbians, with Canadians,
with Chinese with polish, andeven at our Canadian factory,
there's 60 different countriesrepresented in on the floor. So
people from all over the worldwho are working together. And
(22:06):
because you don't have the same,you know, if everyone grew up in
the same valley of West Saxony,Germany, who went to the same
church and spoke the samelanguage, had the same
schooling, there'd be a deeper,invisible handshake as that was,
that would be a commonunderstanding, but because that
wasn't the way the organizationdecided to roll out some
(22:30):
leadership values. So the waywhen in so when we talk about
leadership values, you know,this is the way that I, I will,
I will influence you. So what Ineed to influence you, I will
have, you know, I'll use certaincharacter traits to go to
influence you. So beinginspirational was one of them,
(22:51):
we do we had organizationalvalues, we had leadership
values, and then you haveindividuals. And so we work with
individuals understand whattheir personal values are. So
what do you value as anindividual, and how do those
values line up with the culture.
And so when you see how yourvalues interplay with the
(23:11):
culture of the organization, youcan then pull out the values
that you have that orient yourprofessional stance more
effectively to the earth andhelp amplify that culture. And
you also recognize where thereare pieces of your career that
aren't being served. So wetalked about the personal. So
there's, we touch I share twovalues of my vital physical
(23:32):
sensations and generous impact.
Like a lot of my my work isconversations based use a lot of
consulting, a lot of reading,there's a lot of research,
there's a lot of computer work,there's not a lot of room for
vital physical sensations in myprofessional career, that's not
a you know, that's not thepurview of my chosen career
path. But by knowing that I'mmotivated by vital physical,
(23:54):
physical sensations, I can makesure that I go out for a run,
that I've, you know, I goswimming in cold water, and I,
you know, I feel alive, or Ihave, you know, I build a sauna.
And so I can go and you know,have a steam bath and, and have
those experiences, which I knoware very important and important
drivers in my life. Because theflipside of not living your
(24:19):
values, which I will say theflipside of not living your
values is that you selfsabotage, and you start falling
apart. So it's like, valuesdiscovery is particularly
beneficial. When someone ishaving a breakdown or someone is
(24:40):
feeling despondent, or someoneis having a moment of crisis,
because, you know, even when weexperienced COVID, itself, the
change was not itself a crisis,the change, change becomes a
crisis when a certain value isviolated. So I value security
and that value is violated, thatchange has also moved from
(25:03):
something new into a crisis. Soit's that. So by identifying
what you value, and then settinggoals around those values of
moving towards those values, youcan become more integrated as an
individual and be a bettercontributor to your
organization, and help thatorganization exist in its own
(25:23):
state of values, you know, it'sits own entity, that, and again,
that invisible handshake thateveryone shares within the
organization is, is dictated bythese values.
Zoran Stojkovic (25:36):
Wow Adam so that's quite a lot of gems and
golden nuggets in that and fromthe story of, of working with
the Aerospace executive who wascoming in being promoted and and
having to come up with a freshset of values and how you came
up with that and, you know, theorganizational values, the
leadership values and theindividual values being
important in that, was there anypushback? How was the buy in?
Adam Kreek (26:00):
Well, the buy in is, is interesting, because there is
a healthy dose of cynicismwithin the corporate
environment, because we are allhuman. And humans have desires
that come in conflict with our,our virtuous self. And so
(26:21):
there's, you know, there'sgreed, there's anxiety, there
is, you know, insecurity,there's people who don't always
live a virtuous existence. And Ithink that's, that's how you
have to move up in the corporatehierarchy, if that's your, if
(26:43):
that's what your desire is, youhave to you have to understand
how other people operate, howyou're seen in the world, how
you can present yourself so thatyou can be more effective and
achieve more of your goals. Butthe you know, the cynicism that
came from, you know, from seniormanagement and middle management
is that while we've gone throughthis value process before, I've
(27:04):
seen leaders who don't livetheir values, we talk about
respect, and my leaders yellingat me, right? He's, he's reading
me out, I don't feel respected.
I don't respect him. We've gotthis thing on the wall that says
respect, but it's not beinglived right here. So values are
most powerful when they arelived, when they're reinforced.
(27:26):
But we were able to actuallymake some headway by having, you
know, I know myself as a, havingmyself as a consultant engaged
over a number of years, itwasn't, 'here's the workshop,
let's design the values', whichare a bunch of shiny words.
(27:46):
Everyone feels really good afterthe exercise, right? It's done.
Like, lots and lots, right? Youdo the values exercise, people
are like, "Oh, yes, those arevalues. That's what we value.
That's how we operate all thatfeels good". And then you maybe
you put her on the wall. Andthen you forget about where it
becomes very useful in in thecultivation of culture is every
(28:11):
quarter having conversationswith the senior team, the senior
management team, havingconversations with the CEO? How
are you living the values? Howare you expressing the values?
How are you reinforcing thevalues? This is the culture that
drives excellence is the culturethat drives performance? And
we've...you were cultivatingsomething that's indescribable,
(28:34):
yet, it's, it's very important.
How are you presenting yourself?
Are you talking about this withthe senior leadership team? Are
you are you correcting behaviorin accordance with those values,
yet, there was initialresistance, but then by taking
the long term approach, we'reactually able to have a positive
(28:55):
impact on the culture becausebecause of the common reference
points, and revisiting thisidea, it was able to reinforce
behavior, behavior changehappens slowly over time, is
repeated interventions.
Zoran Stojkovic (29:12):
It does and as you mentioned before, some of
that skepticism is quiteexpected, because we're human in
your experience, what separatesthe culture of good companies
from great companies?
Adam Kreek (29:25):
Purpose, common purpose, when we talk about
values being the invisibledrivers of our behavior, purpose
is almost the you know, thehigher "why", 'why are we doing
something?' and when everyone inthe company feels like they are,
(29:48):
are moving towards the samegoal. So they have the same
purpose in mind one and two.
They feel supported by theorganization by the executive
team by one another, where thethat's that's a high performing
team. And I'd say it'snot....the idea of psychological
safety is coming to mind, you'renot ever held to the fire, you
(30:11):
are held accountable, you'reheld accountable for results.
And you're supported. You'rechallenged. And you know that
there's an element of safetybehind, you know, there's,
there's two types of leaders,you can be a results driven
leader or a commitmentengendering leader, so I drive
(30:33):
results or gain commitment frommy people. And if you if you
focus too much on commitment,then you create a bit of a
country club, environmentresults start to suffer, you
don't deliver that highperformance. And if you focus
too much on on results, whathappens is you start to have
(30:55):
turnover, anxiety. And, youknow, people feeling insecure in
their roles, and there'sinternal fighting. And so the
truly admirable leader, andthere's, I've seen very few of
these in, you know, in my careerin my profession, but the truly
admirable leader is one who canboth engender that that
(31:17):
commitment for to their team andreceive that commitment back
while also driving results,holding people accountable. And
that comes from a very wellintegrated leader who is clear
on their values, and clear onthe purpose that this
(31:38):
organization is driving towards.
And that's, that's what itdoesn't. [LAUGHTER] It sounds
simple when I talk about it, butwhen I think of the practices,
it's actually truly hard to findsomeone who's truly living their
values and driving a purposethat they that they feel deeply
about, and, and have the skillsto implement it.
Zoran Stojkovic (32:00):
So what I'm hearing you say is having that
purpose, and that shared purposethat the whole organization is
aligned on, that does have tocome from the leader, and also
having those those values thatget lived by in that you
mentioned commitment, and also afocus on results. Because
results are important. That'swhat you know, selling the
(32:20):
product, getting the metal thatis important. It's not the most
important thing. But it isimportant for a measure of
organizational success. And soif we have those three things,
that's that that might besomething that separates great
companies from good companies.
Adam Kreek (32:37):
Very much so you know, let's say you're making me
think of the Jim, Jim Collins,what he like his philosophy when
he's written the, you know, hisfirst book on excellent
companies, and they were aboutGood to Great and built to last
and why how the mighty fall andbuild a bunch of white papers,
but he's, what I like about hishis analysis is that if you take
(33:00):
all all influencers on a greatculture, and remove leadership,
because we don't leadership hasa very powerful impact on
culture, what other thingsimpact culture and make make
companies great? And so we had areally, he had a lot of really
great principles that came outof his books like the, like the
(33:20):
hedgehog principle, that's onethat I constantly come back to,
which is, you're nodding,because you know that one, too,
right? You want to do somethingthat you like, that you're
passionate about, that you haveskill on, and there is a market
for that. So these sorts ofideas that, you know, that can
(33:41):
drive great, great cultures andgreat organizations.
Zoran Stojkovic (33:44):
Are there behaviors that are toxic for
team culture? And how have youdealt with them? Or how have you
advised leaders to deal withthem?
Adam Kreek (33:52):
There are a lot of behaviors that are toxic, and
what I've, what I'd sayoverarchingly, inconsistent
behaviors are perhaps the mosttoxic, because you can have a
culture that's been developedand you could walk in and it
would be very uncomfortable, andyou wouldn't, it wouldn't allow
(34:12):
it wouldn't feel right yet thatculture seems to resonate. And
so I think of the very strongresults driven organization
where many people wouldn't,wouldn't feel comfortable, they
wouldn't thrive within that, andthey might label some of these
behaviors as toxic yet thecorporation continues to drive
results. And the individualshave very strong commitments to,
(34:38):
you know, to the organizationitself. And that's, that can be
okay, and that's out there. ButI'd say that's more of an
exception than a rule. You know,so we want to try to figure out,
how can the rest of us, youknow, not the, not the ones, you
know, who are the outliers.
What, what behaviors are aretoxic, it's 'the disease of me',
(35:01):
that's what I would say isperhaps the most toxic piece of
the puzzle where you have nostatus. And power is a is a real
driver in individuals,especially as they move up the
ladder in an organization, youhave to be very competitive, you
(35:25):
have to have a strong dominanceorientation. You've, you're
constantly pushing for yourideas of what you think is best.
All those traits are verybeneficial to the organization,
you get the expression, right,if you express those traits in a
(35:47):
way that is too aggressive,there's, there's something where
I'm, you know, I'm disregardingyour rights, your feelings or
I'm unaware, I'm unaware of howmy behaviors affect you, and I'm
walking around, and that thatcan be very, very toxic. And,
you know, it makes me think ofthis idea of being assertive.
(36:07):
And I'm a big believer, I lovethis, the assertive a triangle,
which is a great tool, I comeback to on a regular basis. And
if you think of the bottom ofthe triangle, you have
aggression on one side, and theother side, you will have being
passive, also, and then you moveup passive aggressive. Now
(36:29):
you've crossed a line to thetop, which is assertive. And
assertive behavior is greatbecause it means that you're
okay. And I'm okay, there is ahealthy dose of respect. In our
relationship. There's a healthydose of relationship in our
culture, the way that we'recommunicating. Passive
aggressive behavior is when youcommunicate, something feels
(36:52):
wrong. And at the end of theconversation, I feel bad, you
feel bad, so everyone leaves aconversation feeling horrible.
He made a snide remark and leavethe conversation feeling
unhappy, aggressive behavior weknow in, you know, yelling,
abusive, too dominant forcertain types of people or
(37:16):
certain environments. And sothat means I'm okay, I have an
idea. And I need to make thatidea happened. And it doesn't
matter, but you just get my ideadone, aggressive. And passive is
constantly deflecting. You are,you are okay, you are okay, at
the, at the price of me. And soI'd say from we say toxic
(37:39):
behaviors within a culture, youknow, let's call it the disease
of me, or non assertivebehavior, so aggressive, passive
or passive aggressive behaviorthat undermines the way that
information and ideas are, areexchanged and the way that work
(38:00):
gets done.
Zoran Stojkovic (38:02):
So you're saying assertiveness is a good
character trait?
Adam Kreek (38:04):
Yes, 100%.
assertiveness is very good. Moreof that, please.
Zoran Stojkovic (38:11):
Agreed, like look, culture gets a bad rap for
not for being fluffy andtangible, up in the air hard to
pinpoint. How can leadersmeasure and assess team culture?
Is there a tools or ways thatyou've found to be effective?
Like either through focusgroups, interviews, questions?
Adam Kreek (38:32):
Well, if you're if you're measuring engagement,
from an HR perspective, so ifyou have different surveys that
measure engagement levels ofyour staff, high engagement is
usually a positive indicator ofreally good culture. I think
that's, that's a great way tosee if your culture is working.
(38:52):
Results are another way. If youknow, are you are you creating
the results that you want? Andyeah, and like you said, focus
groups conversations, because itis a, you know, it's a fluffy,
you know, we've, it's, it's hardto put your finger on culture,
(39:13):
you know, it, you know, a goodculture when you see it, or...
You can feel it. Soyou can feel it. And and, you
Zoran Stojkovic (39:16):
You can feel it.
know, when it's not there, youknow, when it's not there, you
know, and the beauty of a reallygood culture is that you can
have people who, at the core maynot necessarily be 100% values
aligned with the organization.
But the culture pushes them intocertain behaviors because of
(39:39):
because of its force. So how doyou measure it? Engagement
conversations.
How do you measure engagement?
Adam Kreek (39:49):
How do you measure engagement? Surveys, surveys.
You ask...there's a number ofdifferent ways to measure
engagement. You take varioussurveys. I'm not I'm not a an
actual in measuring engagement,but I know that there's a lot of
tools out there that youdistribute to your staff. And
it's a regular metric that youuse within the HR department to
(40:13):
know how engaged are myemployees? What is what is the
engagement score? And you knowovertime, you get a sense of
what the trend is Yourengagement score, because it is
it's a, it's a qualitativemetric. It's not quantitative.
And so we say quant...yet it'sit's hard data. Qualitative is
(40:33):
very relative. And the way wemeasure fuzzy things, you have
to measure engagement over anumber of years so that you can
establish a baseline and say,you know, this is happening.
Google has an engagement scoreof 90 out of 100. And Hewlett
Packard has an engagement scoreof 60 out of 100. You know,
(40:56):
Hewlett Packard could have abetter culture, and better
engagement, it's just that thisis, you know, the way that they
run the survey, the way thebrains operated, the people who
work in the organization aredifferent, and they just, you
know, they would never give 100%and anything over 50% is
excellent. Yeah, that's anextreme example.
Zoran Stojkovic (41:17):
I'm one of those people. There's no tens,
no tens for me. A 9.5? Well,because then you don't leave
room for improvement. And mywife gets really mad at me,
because I sometimes rate thedinner. And I'm like, Oh, honey,
this is this is amazing. This isa 9.5. She's like, what am I
gonna get the 10? And I'm like,well...[LAUGHTER] No, it's
(41:38):
terrible.
Adam Kreek (41:39):
Keep trying honey...[LAUGHTER]
Zoran Stojkovic (41:40):
And it's not it's not even a quality thing.
It's just the thing of, I thinkthere's, there's always
improvements that can be made.
And if you if you say somethingis perfect, then you you don't
leave that bit of rooms up.
Yeah, I don't know, that's justa personal personal view.
Adam Kreek (41:55):
I might say that in any given moment, something can
be perfect. When you when youmitigate the when you try to
ignore the future state, or thepast day, you say, right now, I
can't think of a more deliciousmeal than I could have ever had.
Zoran Stojkovic (42:14):
Oh, yeah.
Adam Kreek (42:15):
And that might get you more brownie points with
you. Right?
Zoran Stojkovic (42:18):
Yeah. So Adam, what like what's one, and you've
mentioned a bunch of practicaltools. But what's one practical
tool leaders can use tomorrow tocultivate the culture of their
team?
Adam Kreek (42:30):
Well, I would say values, articulation,
affirmation and action. That's avery simple tool, there's a lot
of resources out there, or youcan find a coach to help you
through or psychologists to helpyou through that. Attend a
course, taking an online course,but to gain, to gain clarity on
(42:54):
your values and to put intoaction, the values that are the
most meaningful to and mostrelated to your work in your
profession. I think that willhave a big impact on your
culture, that's probably thebest tool if you're not familiar
with what values are, then evengoing through, you know, some
(43:14):
values education to to betterunderstand what is a value? And
where did they come from? Whatwas what's their origin? What's
their application? What's theirusefulness? Where do they sit in
the realm of personality theory,within the realm of culture
theory, and better understandingwhat they are, what their
(43:37):
usefulness is, how you can useit, and then identifying,
confirming that these are thevalues that you truly value and
then orienting your life andyour profession around them.
That's, that's very, verypowerful. It's it's very
powerful. And it's it's lifechanging. All it takes is one
values intervention, in one inyour life to drastically change
(43:59):
the course of that life.
Zoran Stojkovic (44:01):
Definitely.
That's a solid suggestion. Myfinal question to you, Adam is
what does cultivating yourculture mean to you personally?
Adam Kreek (44:09):
When you think of cultivation, I think of a
garden. And when I think of aculture, we talk about this
invisible force...this invisiblehandshake, that can help people
grow. Culture can be afertilizer for behavior. And so
when we say what does it mean tocultivate your own culture?
(44:32):
We...we in our lives have thingsthat we can control the things
that we can't control. One ofthe things we can control is the
nature of our environment. Thenature of our working
environment, the nature of oursocial environment, the nature
of nature of our family, and ourhome environment. So we talked
about cultivating our culture,you know, it's figuring out
(44:54):
different behaviors you can taketo cultivate culture. So for an
example, at dinner time, ourfamily has a tradition to
cultivate our family culture,you know, three children, wife,
dad, we say, what did you dowell, today, what are you
grateful for? What are youlooking forward to tomorrow? And
(45:18):
we, we talk about that. So ithelps, helps cultivate a
positive mindset and helpscultivate the virtue of
gratefulness, it helps cultivatethe idea of the forward thought.
And so that's a way to cultivateyour culture. Another way to
cultivate your culture is to putinto place resources, so that
(45:42):
when the spirit moves you orwhen opportunity arises, you can
you can live your values moreoften. So, you know, in my own
personal life, I'll have youknow, in just outside of my
office, I've got a chin up bar.
So when I walk with a chin upbar, I pay the tax, and I do the
chin up. So I'm able to dosomething physical, I'm able to
(46:06):
live my values. Within anorganization, you can have, you
know, if you're cultivating yourcultivating your culture, then
you value openness and your openfeedback, then you create some
kind of system that allowspeople to deliver feedback to
their management to their theircolleagues, on a regular basis
(46:27):
in a way that that's positive,supportive, and also drives
improvement. And so you set upthe system electronically, you
know, that you're the app thatpings up on your on your company
phone says, "culture time", youknow, answer this question and
you answer the question and moveon. So I think when we talk
(46:49):
about cultivating your ownculture, it's focusing on what
you can control. It'sunderstanding what you as an
individual value, and what theculture of the organization or
the family or the community thatyou belong to, what those values
are, what values you want tocultivate, and drive. And then
you know, acting upon that andrecognizing that you're adding
(47:13):
fertilizer to the culture byenacting these rituals and
behaviors and exercises.
Zoran Stojkovic (47:25):
I love that, the fertilizer, nuts! That's
gonna stick with me and and andI love what you do with your
family before dinner time thatthat ritual that you have for
developing a more positive andgrateful mindset. I think that's
really powerful. Tell me aboutyour book, The Responsibility
Ethic.
Adam Kreek (47:41):
The Responsibility Ethic, well it's a good book. So
in the book, it's a it'spartially biographical. Each
chapter focuses on a differentethic that I think is important
for leadership for personalleadership for corporate
leadership, for self leadership,I talk about failure, I talked
(48:05):
about making sure you don't settoxic goals, talk about
resilience, talk about recovery,leader, leadership, shared
leadership, teamwork, coaching,mentoring, an idea called
Providence, you know, thecombination of faith and hard
work that drives results. Eachchapter starts with a story,
whether it's me capsizing in theBermuda Triangle, or winning the
(48:28):
Olympics, or, you know, atranscendent experience, I had
training with my team, or anargument I had with my Olympic
coach. These stories, then driveit to different leadership
principles, you know, forexample, you know, the three
principles in the book that Italked about are character
competence, and courage, youknow, three drivers of culture
(48:49):
within a team, and you discussthose. So it's, it's for people
who like a, you know, acompelling sports action
adventure...[LAUGHTER].. piece,they want some positive
philosophy that doesn't go toodeep in each topic. So it's a
bit of an overview you, you canpick and choose the ideas that
(49:11):
really resonate with you, andwe'll help you and then there's
a few exercises at the back tohelp help you design your
narrative more effectively setgoals, more effectively. some
suggestions about the books youcan read if you're reading
oriented.
Zoran Stojkovic (49:30):
Nice, thank you for sending me a copy. I that's
the next book I'm gonna bereading. So I look forward to
reading about character,competence and courage.
Adam Kreek (49:41):
And it's gonna be an audio book soon, too. We just I
just sent off the audio files toto Audible.
Zoran Stojkovic (49:46):
Oh, great.
Adam Kreek (49:47):
Well, it's, it'll be an even better listen, I think
because that seems to be amedium that people use more
often, especially if people arelistening to this podcast.
They're probably more orientedtowards an audio book.
Zoran Stojkovic (50:03):
For sure. Adam, tell us what you're up to right
now and where people can connectwith you.
Adam Kreek (50:08):
Well, you can connect with me on LinkedIn or
through my website. And what I,what I'm doing right now is
executive business coaching. Soif you are a leader or aspiring
leader, you can follow me tojust consume some content to
boost your leadership presenceand leadership outcomes. If
(50:31):
you're a leadership and duringchange, or you're an HR manager,
and you see some one of your,the leaders that you're you're
supporting, or the people thatyou're supporting, who's going
who's going through change orrecent promotion, or looking
forward to, to a successionplan, having to create a
succession plan. That's what Ido. I work with leaders, it's
(50:52):
not a it's not a whole lot ofwork. It's takes a little bit to
ramp up. But it's usually onceonce a month, one conversation
drastically changes the theoutcomes or for this individual
leader. So it's pretty powerfuland what executive coaching is,
and it's a gift, it truly is agift, you know, supporting these
(51:14):
leaders supporting theseindividuals to bring their best
self to their their career tothe professions and if people
want to reach out to me, like Isaid, LinkedIn and my website
kreekspeak.com, twitter. I'malso on Twitter. Find me there
too.
Zoran Stojkovic (51:30):
Solid. Adam, it's been grand thanks so much
for taking the time to shareyour your wisdom and insights on
corporate culture, team culture,and leadership.
Adam Kreek (51:40):
Thank you, Zoran.
Zoran Stojkovic (51:44):
Hey, thanks for tuning into cultivate your
culture, rate and reviewerpodcast on iTunes. Any websites
and resources mentioned in thepodcast as well as the guests
information can be found on theshow notes at
www.kizo.ca/podcast. Here's asneak peek of what's coming up
in our episode next week.
(52:08):
Wow, that's a wrap for seasonone. We had 10 fantastic
teachers who have shared easy toapply tools and techniques to
cultivate culture in any teamyou're a part of. Among the
guests were three Olympians, aCoach of the century, three
business coaches, an esportsperformance coach, a serial
entrepreneur and a coacheducator. Season Two will be
(52:30):
released in the fall of 2021. Ifyou want to make sure you get
notified of the launch, go tokizo.ca/podcast and sign up for
the newsletter. Thank you forsupporting the show. Thank you
for being here for spending timewith me and the guests. Many of
you have shared the show withfriends and colleagues. I
appreciate all the messages bothproviding feedback and praise.
(52:52):
If you'd like to connect with meor provide any suggestions for
how the show can be improved.
You can do that through socialmedia @kizoperformance, on L
nkedIn or by email through zran@kizo.ca. I hope you have a f
ntastic rest of the week and hpe to see you in season two.
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