December 3, 2024 • 33 mins
In this insightful episode of the Schmidt List, host Kurt Schmidt sits down with Joe Schmit, the renowned sports director from Channel 5 and an accomplished keynote speaker. With over three decades of experience in sports journalism and a thriving career in motivational speaking,
Joe brings a wealth of knowledge to the table. Joe delves into his "culture first mindset," a philosophy emphasizing prioritizing organizational culture over strategy, especially crucial in the post-pandemic world. He discusses the significant challenges companies face today, from recruiting and retention to maintaining meaningful connections in a remote work environment.
Together, Kurt and Joe explore the importance of employee engagement, the pitfalls of superficial cultural efforts, and the critical role of leadership in nurturing a positive work environment. Joe shares practical tactics and strategies, including involving employees in defining core values, fostering a sense of belonging, and encouraging professional development.
The episode also addresses the cost of employee turnover, the toxic influence of disengaged workers, and the benefits of storytelling as a leadership tool. Listeners will gain valuable insights into building trust, fostering compassion, and creating clarity within their teams. Tune in to hear how Joe Schmit's approach to leadership and culture can transform your organization, making it a thriving, happy, and productive workplace.
Don't miss this engaging conversation filled with actionable advice and personal anecdotes from two experts passionate about people and culture.
Visit Joe:
www.joeschmit.com
joe@joeschmit.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/joe-schmit-speaker
There is too much Schmidt to List!
Check out https://www.kurtschmidt.me for more show info.
Visit Kurt’s coaching site at https://schmidtconsulting.group
Subscribe to The Road Map Newsletter and unlock the secrets to achieving a harmonious work-life balance as a leader. https://bit.ly/RoadMapNewsletter
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/schmidt-list-business-insights--2664825/support.
Joe brings a wealth of knowledge to the table. Joe delves into his "culture first mindset," a philosophy emphasizing prioritizing organizational culture over strategy, especially crucial in the post-pandemic world. He discusses the significant challenges companies face today, from recruiting and retention to maintaining meaningful connections in a remote work environment.
Together, Kurt and Joe explore the importance of employee engagement, the pitfalls of superficial cultural efforts, and the critical role of leadership in nurturing a positive work environment. Joe shares practical tactics and strategies, including involving employees in defining core values, fostering a sense of belonging, and encouraging professional development.
The episode also addresses the cost of employee turnover, the toxic influence of disengaged workers, and the benefits of storytelling as a leadership tool. Listeners will gain valuable insights into building trust, fostering compassion, and creating clarity within their teams. Tune in to hear how Joe Schmit's approach to leadership and culture can transform your organization, making it a thriving, happy, and productive workplace.
Don't miss this engaging conversation filled with actionable advice and personal anecdotes from two experts passionate about people and culture.
Visit Joe:
www.joeschmit.com
joe@joeschmit.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/joe-schmit-speaker
There is too much Schmidt to List!
Check out https://www.kurtschmidt.me for more show info.
Visit Kurt’s coaching site at https://schmidtconsulting.group
Subscribe to The Road Map Newsletter and unlock the secrets to achieving a harmonious work-life balance as a leader. https://bit.ly/RoadMapNewsletter
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/schmidt-list-business-insights--2664825/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Schmidt List, the longest running leadership podcast
in the Twin Cities. Today's guest is Joe Schmidt, kstp's
veteran sports director and a sought after keynote speaker. Joe
will enlighten us on his culture first mindset, compelling storytelling,
and strategies for enhancing workplace culture in this post pandemic world.
(00:25):
Get ready for some game changing insights you won't want
to miss.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Let's dive in. Joe, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Life is pretty good, Kirk. I think having a couple
of Schmidt brothers on on the air, we could set
a ratings bonanza.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
We s're good, we sture good. Joe, for the audience
that I might not know in your background and the
work you're doing these days, do you want to give
us a little little taste.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I'm still at Channel five. I'm there five nights a week.
I'm been the sports director for the most part since
the nineteen eighty five, so I've done a lot of sports.
But during the process, I started speaking bunch of different
charities and clubs and athletic banquets, and I developed a
keynote speech, and now I have myself a little speaking business.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
That's great, that's great. Tell me, tell me about what
you've been speaking about, lady. What have been what has
the sports helped and the work you've been doing over
the years helped you become more and more passionate about
that you want to go out and speak about.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I'm a storyteller and I love to find out the
story behind the story. If you're old enough, you may
remember when Paul Harvey was on the radio.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
You remember that in Paul with Oh Yeah. I love
Paul Harvey story.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
So that I specialized in stories like that using my
reporting skills, because I talk about people who make an
impact and now they're more aware and intentional with the
impact that they have, and how this works well into
becoming a great leader. And then I'm taking to the
next step. During the pandemic, I realized that coming out
of the pandemic that culture was going to be a
(01:55):
huge issue for companies. I did some research, interviewed can
Pass clients, a bunch of CEOs different companies, and came
up with I call a culture first mindset. It means
how to win today, how to make an elite culture today,
or people are happier, healthier, and want to be there,
and it's a little bit trickier today than it ever was.
(02:18):
What I'd like to say, curt Is people have a
financial plan, a crisis management plan, a business plan, but
do you have a culture plan? Because if you don't
have a culture plan, you're playing with fire.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Yeah, I agree it. Talk to me a little bit,
Joe about some of those challenges you have seen specifically
in the last few years. What are some common themes
that you feel people are having to deal with, struggle with,
or opportunities around.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
The number one thing is recruiting and retention. The number
two thing is people trying to connect because the connections
have gone away when we do more online. And then
ultimately it's just a mental health and happiness of your people.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
And you know what I.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Teach culture first mindset is that culture is more important
than strategy, that people are more important than profits. But
the by product is when you put your people first.
The by product is profits, The buy pruct is wild
customer service. The byproduct is relationships that are meaningful and
deep loyalty. You recruit and you retain your best talent.
(03:23):
It's one of those things where people have to change
the way they thought about doing business. I've worked with
businesses where I would go into a meeting and they
would start off with the profit and laws statement, they
talk about their biggest business issue of the month, and
I'd go, now, no, you're doing it all wrong. Let's
start out talking about what the people are doing, what's
important in their lives. Let's figure out who they are.
(03:45):
Don't be afraid to connect with your people. And it's
worked really well for a lot of different organizations.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Yeah, it makes sense. I think there is a transactional
nature inherent into business. Where as you grow and you're
building business, you do care about your employees. But you
think the way I care about my employees is by
making sure the business is super healthy and then they
can have a job. And I think what you're saying
(04:14):
is unless the employees are happy, nobody's going to have
a job.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
In a very simple nutshell, that would be it. And yeah,
it's very easy for anybody in management leadership to get
caught up in dollars and cents and profit and loss.
But ultimately, if people feel you care more about money
than you care about them, how are you going to
get them to go the extra mile when they need
(04:40):
to go to the extroma. How are you going to
get them to like the company? We do some research
sometimes the companies that ask questions like would you recommend
a friend to have a job at your company? That
says a lot about what the culture is of that company.
Have you received positive feedback within the past ten days?
(05:00):
And then I'll go, yeah, nobody ever quit a job
because somebody's patting on the back all the time. People,
especially with all the different generations in the workplace today,
people need to be secure. It's secure. No, They belong
to know that as the company flourishes, they have an
opportunity to flourish.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
And what are some of those things, Joe, that you've
seen work in some of these places when they are
making that mindset change? Are their tactics, policies, actions. I
know we talk about mindset a lot, but what are
some of the boots on the ground sort of things
that you've seen work or that you might suggest to people.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
First of all, I tell them to have a conference
and bring me in hire me. Now that's a joke,
but it's a good idea first. But not behind the
joke is that there's professional development there. They actually care
about me. They want me to get better, they want
me to be happier, they want me to be healthier
and mentally healthier. That's part of it. But the other
(05:58):
thing I tell is you have to make sure people
are part of the process. Too many times a company
will come out and say, here are our six core values,
and they'll post them up on a bulletin board, or
they'll put them in a newsletter.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
What have you.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
How about getting all the company together to find out
what makes them tick. One of the things that I'd
like to do. The exercise is what I'm working with
a company is I'll say, let's come up with a tenant,
a principle, a feeling you want when people walk into
your organization. What is that feeling? The people who work,
they're not the customers. That's a whole different animal. But
(06:35):
how do you want them to feel? And I'll make
them come up with a word or phrase that's memorable
or repeatable, and that's what they build everything off of.
For example, one company came up with the word belonged,
we all belong And as simple as that sounds, if
you take the productive employee and juxtapose them against an
(06:57):
unproductive employee, nine times out of ten employee who's unproductive
doesn't feel they belong. So how can you make everybody
feel they belong? And connect another company, I work with
ESOPs quite a bit of employee owned businesses, and they
came up with the theme, we own this company. They
own this problem, we own this solution, we own the
(07:19):
we own how we treat people, we own our customer relationships,
and what everybody feels like an owner. It just works
a lot better. They use it. They use that phrase
we own this. They use it in the newsletters. They
it's almost gotten to be a joke where they go
around and say it, but everybody lives it and breathes it,
and eventually, because as memorable as repeatable, then you can
(07:42):
base your plan off of that. Yeah, how comes we
make everybody feel like they belong? You can't put a
football table in the break room and say that's our culture.
Those days don't work anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
No, they don't.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
And a couple of things that you know that your
statement maybe think about it is that there's also a
there's a you talked about like posting stuff up and
not making people a part of it. Because I've seen
I've been a part of cultures where maybe there's a
squeaky wheel or a couple of squeaky wheels in there,
and then the you know, about culture or things, and
then the company be like, all right, we listened to
(08:17):
all of you, and here's the new values for things
since you never talked to anybody except for the people
that were just really annoyingly loud. And seen that happen
a few times where they don't engage with all of
the employees. And I've I've seen leaders feel like some
of this stuff, they're worried that they're distracting the employees.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yeah, but if they care about the employees, then they
should be more worried about this employee. Feel I care
about that and their lives. How are you making that connection?
What are the things that I do? Is an exercise
and that always tell management. I said, I am giving
you some free research here, so listen closely, so I'll work.
Because I talk a lot about making an impact and
(09:02):
how little things are the big things. And on my
tagline on my first book, Silent Impact, is we make
our biggest impressions. Well, we're not trying to be impressive,
and it's all about little examples of people who change
because they're just moralware and intentional with their impacts. So
I'll tell a couple of stories that people get it,
and then I'll say, okay, let's do what I call
(09:23):
impact resolutions. Every month, you take a trait or a
value that you're going to concentrate on that will help
you be better at your job, that will help you
build this culture of your organization, that will help you
take your game to the next level. So we'll have
tables of the eight or whatever, and I'll let them
(09:43):
work out it for seventy eight minutes, and then I'll
go around with the microphone and see what people come
up with. So I'll tell management. I'll say, now, listen,
if three tables I ask them for free each. If
three tables out of the five I talked to mentioned communication,
that's what you have a communication problem. I'm doing some
free research and development there for you where they're in
(10:06):
an honest and a safe place. I've had companies where
people just felt that the company was hiding stuff from them,
that they just were not transparent to us. The company
can't be totally transparent in some things, but they can
be more transparent where if the employees don't trust management,
that's a really bad place to start trying to build
a culture. I went back after that meeting and I
(10:29):
talked to the managements. So you have to figure out
a way to get these employees to trust you, and
one of them is just by being a little more
open and honest with what's going on.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Yeah, I've seen again people reacting, and leadership is really
guilty of this, is that they'll just react to things
instead of trying to sort out what maybe the root
of the problem is. And one of the businesses I've
rant before, I remember talking to an employee said we
should all share our salaries with everybody. That's what other
businesses are doing and we should do the same thing.
And I was like, what is the problem that you're
(11:00):
trying to solve? Is it that you're being paid fairly?
Is it that others are being paid fairly? And we
started talking to the employees and then we found out
later that just instituting some pay bands for different ten
years and levels took care of the problem and we
didn't have to go and share everybody's dirty laundry because
a few small folks did. But I think, to your point,
(11:23):
if they are interacting and truly being empathetic with the
employees and get to the root of the problem. They
can actually solve it instead of putting some duct tape
over it.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Yeah, the three I break it down in the three
areas when I go to culture first, mindset, school, compassion,
connection and clarity. Compassion do you let your people know
you care? And it's simply it's as simple as that.
And not just caring about their production, not just caring
about how they perform at work, but caring about them
as a human being too. Are you being flexible enough
(11:56):
with them? Are they getting the feedback they need?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Are they getting the communication meeting?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
The second area is connections. What are you doing to
connect with your people and what are you doing to
have your people connect with each other? Because the research
overwhelmingly shows people will stay at a business longer if
they feel connected to the people they work with and
connected to the goal of the organization, which leads to clarity.
Clarity is the catalyst of growth, and nowadays you have
(12:23):
to be more than just a company that's trying to
make money. You have to be more than just a
company that pays you every two weeks. What are you
doing for the greater good of your community, your people,
your world. Companies that do this and that are transparent
about it, but not doing it just for the pr
stake of it. They're legitimately into it. It works, it works,
(12:47):
and that's where the clarity is. It's a little bit
also like this. You know that the old saying is
a confused buyer never buys, a confused employee never produces.
So they have to be crystal clear on what their
role is and why their role is important, why they
are important to this organization. Otherwise they're just going to
go through the motions, put it on cruise control and
(13:08):
be an average employee.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
And you will be just one stop on their journey
to even fur their success, right.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, and until they get into a culture where they
think they can grow, where they trust, where they really
believe that if the company flourishes, they'll flourish, they're going
to be in cruise control there too, and they're just
in a job hop every two years, hoping to find
this elusive happiness that they will never find.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. One of the
things that I've run into and I want to know
if you've experienced this, but maybe how to deal with
this is that and maybe less mature leaders I've maybe
that's the fault here, is that I've run into. Many
business owners are people who were people that started the
businesses because they were very good at the craft, and
(13:54):
then they built the business up and kept building and
they view themselves as one the team, and that's not
how everybody else views them. And I remember talking with
a friend who's a business owner and letting them know,
everybody is watching you for ques on what is acceptable
and what isn't. And he was like, no, I'm just
like they don't pay attention to me. I'm one of
(14:16):
the team. I'm just in and out. And I was like, no,
they're weighing on. They're reading every word you post in
an email or you say in a conference call or
something like that to understand what good looks like and
what bad looks like. And I want to get your thoughts, Joe,
because is that sort of approach and attitude Sometimes because
(14:38):
a person doesn't understand the weight they have. Is it
because they haven't been coached well enough or where does.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
That come from?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
It's probably the old axiom that your greatest strength is
your greatest weakness. And because they have been probably a
grinder who worked hard to make it happen that they
think they can stay the same as they start managing
more people. It's why if you look at some industries
that tend to be dysfunctional, I'll just name one because
(15:09):
I've worked with a few over the years, dental offices.
So what happens in dental offices? Five guys or five
men and women who graduated from a dental school together,
all of a sudden get together and open up an office. Well,
guess what they're all really good at? Fixing your teeth?
Not one of them might have any business gifts and
how it manage it or how to manage it office.
(15:32):
And unless they hire somebody, unless they figure out how
to do it, they run into all kinds of personal problems,
personnel problems. So just because you have one skill doesn't
necessarily mean mean you have another one unless you decide to,
like you said, get help, try to learn from somebody,
maybe get a mentor whatever the case is. You have
(15:52):
to be able to look at what your blind spots are.
And one of the things another exercise I do, I
call the triple play, is so I like to do
a lot of the interactive stuff. So I'll tell stories,
I'll run videos, I'll do little interactive things that correlate directly.
So there's some takeaways. So there's some tangible takeaways. And
one of the things I do is, after we talk
(16:14):
about management style, we talk about what kind of leader
you are and how are you making an impact? I said, okay,
now take a personal inventory. What are you going to stop,
where are you going to start, what are you going
to continue? And then under each of those are the
three results that will happen when you start, stop and continue.
So I always say, Okay, what am I going to start?
(16:34):
I'm going to start scheduling myself some impact time. In
other words, I get busy like everybody else. I want
to make sure I go and check on people, find
out what's going on. How'd their kid doing the softball
tournament this weekend? What else is going on? You went fishing?
Where'd you go fishing? Let's catch any walleye? What are
you going to stop? I had to stop starcasm. I'm
a sarcastic guy. My reason's under sarcasm, and every in
(16:56):
sarcasm there's truth. It could hurt somebody be confused. They
all won't know whether you're serious or joking. And what
am I going to continue? I'm going to continue giving
out lavish praise. I had a bosser early in my career.
They gave a lot of praise and it made me
feel good. And it goes back to the thing I
said earlier. Nobody ever quit a job because somebody's patting
(17:16):
on the back all the time. Don't wait until the
project's over to reward somebody, reward progress, And then I
get people to look at themselves to find out what
their blind spot might be and where they need to
focus their attention.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
The key to me sometimes is, and you've alluded to
this in the threat of our conversation, Joey, is people
just have they have to have some better self awareness.
You mentioned blind spots, and I find that certain leaders
don't have an understanding of those things. Gardner does a
ton of reporting on and they talk about forty percent
(17:55):
of people are looking for their next job, and seventy
percent of people are disengaged at work and all these things,
and I find that some employers don't really take those
types of things as seriously as they should until it's
probably too late, or they just excuse it off as
always that person not our culture, or I don't see
(18:18):
an opportunity there. So I feel that having some self
awareness is really important. How does somebody How do you
help somebody Joe go and become more self aware?
Speaker 3 (18:28):
I think you point out and sometimes it depends on
who it is. Sometimes you have to let them know
it impacts the bottom line. Yeah, if they're a if
they're a bottom line in person, you just have to say,
you know what, you'll make more money if you make
your people happier.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
And you're right.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Sometimes you got to hit them over the head with
a sledgehammer, and that's the best way to do it,
to talk money. And you can quickly tell what some
motivation is for some people. And a lot of times
the people have the biggest problem with this human approach
are people who simply want to make money. And there's
nothing wrong with them. Leading that's what business is for.
And the more money most companies make means that hopefully
(19:05):
they trickle that down and hopefully it builds jobs and
all those kinds of great things that happen or a
successful company.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Yeah, And I think with your experience in sports. I
think the mental game is so important to be a
successful leader, whether you're leading a team on a field
or you're leading a team through business, and you've got
to you've got to have that ability. One of the
things you talked about is storytelling, which I love, and
that's something that I always recommend to other leaders is
(19:34):
don't go read just another business book. Read a book
on how to become a better storyteller, because that's how
people and you wouldn't have attached so much prominence to
this unless you understood, like this is the best way
to come to get ideas out and into other people
where they actually sync in versus ricochet off. Right.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, use your own material. And it's a great way
to phrase an honor your people because you know, every
organization will get stories back from somebody who went the
extra mile, somebody who when it was twenty below zero
was out in the parking lot starting cars for somebody
to make sure people got home to the holidays, whatever
the case might be. Every organization has these stories. How
(20:18):
are you honoring your people with that, whether it's a newsletter,
bringing it up at a conference, just figure out ways
to let people know they really are Number one. I
just did a presentation for a company that owns about
twenty resorts, and they had their whole thing was doing
(20:39):
it from the heart, and they told story after story,
and everybody who was mentioned in these great stories they
got this nice little plaque. Wasn't a plaque. It was
like a piece of arc with a heart on it.
And you know, that's what they would give out for awards,
letting them know that those little small connections really become
huge and it can inspire others to do that. It
(21:00):
will inspire you to go the extra mile. And then
what I like to do is find out what impact
did that have? And that's what I tell a lot
of my stories. On I'll find out a story. One
of my stories I wrote a children's book with Joe
Mauer on it. On it Joel Mauer before it was
a superstar athlete in high school and he walked a
young student who was blin into the lunch room and
(21:22):
invited him to sit down at his table every day.
And anyway, what I did is I went back and
I found the blind student of six other guys who
sat at that table and found out the impact that
it had on him back then. And the impact that's
still having today becomes pretty powerful. And that's why I
remark remind people your impact can be negative too, the
(21:44):
way you treat people, and is that what you want
your legacy to be? What kind of impact do you make?
And we all get busy and we all make mistakes. Yeah,
but if you're a little bit more aware and a
little bit more intentional about the positive impact you can make,
it's just going to make life life a lot easier.
You're going to be happier, healthy, or going to have
more meaningful, deeper relationships. You're going to build the cattle
(22:06):
loyalty you really want to have in your organization. And then,
like I said from the very beginning, then success, wild success,
and fantastic customer service. Those are the byproducts.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
That's one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Again, I've had those people because I've had bad bosses,
and they say, you'll forget jobs, you'll forget projects you
worked on, but you'll never forget your bosses or your
managers because they really shape you. And becoming somebody's boss
or manager should be taken with care. But what I've seen,
and this is something Gardner recently released report on as
(22:41):
many people say this person's the best at this job,
so I'm going to put them in charge of the
team that does this work. And this happened to me
early on in my career. Oh, you're one of our
better designers and developers, so I'm going to put you
in charge of the design and development team. And it's
two things that are terrible. One is you're losing your
best employee at that and number two, in a lot
(23:05):
of cases, those people don't want to manage people. But
because of the way we've structured businesses these days is
that in many cases, the only upper mobility is to
manage people, and it's the only way to get more responsibility,
more authority, more pay and all those things. And I
(23:26):
find that many people have found their way because they're
very good at certain things into these leadership positions and
now they're stuck there and they don't know what to do.
And that's where I feel like, I think why having
a coach or having some sort of help, outside help
is so important. You mentioned this from the very beginning joke,
(23:47):
having somebody from the outside that doesn't that isn't inundated
with all the stuff that you have. I think it's
huge coming in from the outside to just pick through
these things.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
And I will never stand somebody's industry as well as
they do. And I always tell people, if you're bringing
me in because you think I have this great BFA
MBA background, forget about it, because I don't. But I'm
going to teach the soft skills. You're going to find
out that the soft skills, it's a lot harder to
(24:20):
succeed if you don't have them, And the importance of
those and just how you prioritize it. And I always
tell people that culture is a living, breathing organism within
your organization, and what are you doing to water it,
to hold it, to give it fertilizer. How are you
making it? How are you making it grow? Sure? One
(24:41):
of the things that I challenge people on. We did
research on this. We ask people, if they were a
going away party tonight at your organization, who would the
most people show up for. And when they think about
that for a second, all of a sudden, they find
out that person has a lot to do with the
culture of the organization. That person is really good at connections,
that person really is crystal clear on what their values are.
(25:03):
That person shows a lot of compassion to be c
as I talked about, and then I say, how can
you be more like that person? Then I asked the
opposite question, who at the least amount of people show
up we're going away with? And in many cases, this
was the person who felt that they didn't belong. But
then I said, we dug down a little deeper, we
peeled the onion back a little further, and we found
(25:24):
out that many times this person is not succeeding because
they don't have the help that they need. Job is
too big for them, so they are frustrated, which means
they become a pretty bad employee. They don't have a
great attitude, they don't go the extra mile all those
things are hoping for. So you can literally save that
person by getting them some help. Now, sometimes it's just
(25:47):
a bad fit. Somebody made a mistake hiring this person,
and it's better off if they leave. But many times
you can save this person by lifting them up and
figuring out what is really going on with them, or
maybe they're just in the wrong position. Maybe you just
got to slide them over attain to have a different responsibilities.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
I agree, I agree, you just you nailed it right there.
Because the idea of what because I get asked, what
does it mean soft skills when you talk about that
and you just define it's instead of just reacting at
the surface layer of what you're hearing or what you're
being told, being able to peel the onion back, so
to speak, and being able to see where is this
(26:27):
coming from, how to how is this driving this surface
level thing that I'm getting approached? And you also said
that culture piece and those that engagement piece has got
to be on your mind every day. It can't be
just something you review once a quarter. Oh, let's bring
us Let's bring in a survey team and they'll survey
(26:49):
the employees and we'll do that once a year and
then we'll react to the survey. And because I remember
being a part of businesses that would do that every year,
they would hire that, they would hire modern survey and
this is a team that would come in survey all
the employees and then they would send the results back.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
To the leadership team.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
And then the leadership team would come out and say,
all right, this is what we heard and this is
what we're going to do about it.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
All right back to work.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, Yeah, it's interesting because we did have a friend
of mine who's in the valuation business, and I asked
him to run some numbers for me, because Kidsey says
that it's fifty to seventy five percent of somebody's salary
to replace a person. No, let's say the person was
making sixty grand, thirty to forty thousand dollars. You lost
(27:38):
just on this sixty grand a year employee, and then
on top of it, you might replace them with somebody
who's not as good as they are. If you lost
a good employee. If you take an organization, then maybe
is a fifty million dollar organization. And let's say you
lose ten people a year. Yep, ten people a year.
How much is that going to impact your bond line?
(27:59):
It was pretty interesting as we put the numbers down
and put it about ten years out, and I would
throw that in front of some CEO. Then they list
they bet they did, yeah, because it was millions of
dollars on what the company value is over an extended
period of time. Just because you're losing productivity, you're spinning.
You're hoping to hire someone who is better than the
(28:20):
last person, and as you well know, sometimes the company
fails because the wrong people leave. The good people leave
and the bad people say the bad people can't find
another job.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
No, they can't, and they're toxic people and nobody wants
to touch them.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
And guess what, that's contagious. And just as belonging and
feeling good and having a world class culture can be contagious,
all that negative stuff is contagious too. I've seen it
happens in the broadcasting industry all the time, and quite frankly,
in the sports office. I just don't allow it. We
can bitch about something or whatever, and I'll just say, Okay,
(28:54):
here's what we got to deal with. It is what
it is. We're not going to change you guys. Yeah,
I'll always gent accomplish it. Let them get their frustration out,
let them go through the seven stages of grief and
tend let's figure out how to move on.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
That's the one thing I seen leaders get confused about,
is that. And that's the one thing that I've even
done some talks on this where there's a big difference
between a real problem and venting. And it's okay for
people to vent. You want to have to release valve,
but then you know, when the venting is done, we
get back to a real problem. I can't tell you
how impactful it was for me when I first took
(29:27):
over my biggest team, which I had fifty people I
was managing, and to be able to sit down and
do one on ones with these people and be able
just to be intentional like you mentioned, and say is
this a real problem or are we just venting? And
they would say, oh, no, I'm just venting. I'm like, great,
because I'm not taking any action from this stuff you're
(29:49):
complaining about. And just so we are clear, this is
just a time for you to just talk about how
sales is selling stuff that they shouldn't be and let's say,
and now we'll go back to work.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
It's funny, chirc, because I sometimes I will you get
you'll get a call somebody's thinking about bringing you in
to to do a speech or a seminar or a session.
They've got like year long program, some different options for people,
and they're going to be talking to two or three
different people because they want to make sure they get
the fit. And quite frankly, I don't want to go
to a company that's not a good fit for me.
(30:24):
And I sometimes use it as a sales line, but
I sometimes use it just to remind people that it's universal.
I say, my stuff works really well for people who
feel they are overworked and underappreciated, and oh, that's us,
that's our team. It's pretty much every team in the world.
So I feel kinds are cheap using it, But that's
(30:44):
what my stuff works well for people who feel overworked
and underappreciated, because I'm going to try to figure out
how they won't feel overwork when you make sure they
are appreciated.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's huge.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
All right, Joe, I can talk to you all day
and it's and honestly, it's such an honor to speak
with someone like yourself and the amount of goodwill that
you've brought to our community. I thank you for and
I appreciate it. And if people want to get in
touch with you, if they want, have you come and
speak to their organization or at there of it. Where
can we find you? Where can we follow you? And
(31:19):
also grab copy of the book?
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yeah, that's My website is Joe Schmidt dot com and
it's s C H M I T NO D one
T no D yeah, or my email is Joe at
Joe Schmidt dot com and Yeah, just reach out. I
pick up the phone and I do everything myself on
this because I don't want anything to get lost in
translation and audio.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
You know it is, krect.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
The more personally involved you can get, the better it works.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
And Yeah, the better choices everybody makes. Yeah, and I have.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
It's funny how those past clients have become friends. And
that's always to me. Yeah, one of the great byproducts
of doing a job and working Howard and making sure
that I have the impact that I'm talking about out
of the organization.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
Joe, Thank you so much for your time today. I
really appreciate you joining me. It means a lot, and
I know people are going to get a lot from
this episode.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Thank you, Kurt, keep doing it. I give you congratulations
for being persistent out there in the world of podcasting.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
We appreciate you taking the time to listen to this
episode of Schmidt List.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
The stories shared by our guests are genuinely inspiring and
offer insightful knowledge. It's important to remember that success doesn't
happen overnight and requires collaboration, learning, and perseverance. If you
want to broaden your professional connections, check out Kurt's book
The Little Book of Networking, How to Build your Career
one Conversation at a time on Amazon. Please stay connected
(32:52):
with all things schmit List on social media, leave a
review for the podcast and join our community of like
minded entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Thank you for being part of Schmidtlist.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Keep innovating, collaborating, and chasing your entrepreneurial dreams.
Welcome back to Schmidt List, the longest running leadership podcast
in the Twin Cities. Today's guest is Joe Schmidt, kstp's
veteran sports director and a sought after keynote speaker. Joe
will enlighten us on his culture first mindset, compelling storytelling,
and strategies for enhancing workplace culture in this post pandemic world.
(00:25):
Get ready for some game changing insights you won't want
to miss.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Let's dive in. Joe, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Life is pretty good, Kirk. I think having a couple
of Schmidt brothers on on the air, we could set
a ratings bonanza.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
We s're good, we sture good. Joe, for the audience
that I might not know in your background and the
work you're doing these days, do you want to give
us a little little taste.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I'm still at Channel five. I'm there five nights a week.
I'm been the sports director for the most part since
the nineteen eighty five, so I've done a lot of sports.
But during the process, I started speaking bunch of different
charities and clubs and athletic banquets, and I developed a
keynote speech, and now I have myself a little speaking business.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
That's great, that's great. Tell me, tell me about what
you've been speaking about, lady. What have been what has
the sports helped and the work you've been doing over
the years helped you become more and more passionate about
that you want to go out and speak about.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I'm a storyteller and I love to find out the
story behind the story. If you're old enough, you may
remember when Paul Harvey was on the radio.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
You remember that in Paul with Oh Yeah. I love
Paul Harvey story.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
So that I specialized in stories like that using my
reporting skills, because I talk about people who make an
impact and now they're more aware and intentional with the
impact that they have, and how this works well into
becoming a great leader. And then I'm taking to the
next step. During the pandemic, I realized that coming out
of the pandemic that culture was going to be a
(01:55):
huge issue for companies. I did some research, interviewed can
Pass clients, a bunch of CEOs different companies, and came
up with I call a culture first mindset. It means
how to win today, how to make an elite culture today,
or people are happier, healthier, and want to be there,
and it's a little bit trickier today than it ever was.
(02:18):
What I'd like to say, curt Is people have a
financial plan, a crisis management plan, a business plan, but
do you have a culture plan? Because if you don't
have a culture plan, you're playing with fire.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Yeah, I agree it. Talk to me a little bit,
Joe about some of those challenges you have seen specifically
in the last few years. What are some common themes
that you feel people are having to deal with, struggle with,
or opportunities around.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
The number one thing is recruiting and retention. The number
two thing is people trying to connect because the connections
have gone away when we do more online. And then
ultimately it's just a mental health and happiness of your people.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
And you know what I.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Teach culture first mindset is that culture is more important
than strategy, that people are more important than profits. But
the by product is when you put your people first.
The by product is profits, The buy pruct is wild
customer service. The byproduct is relationships that are meaningful and
deep loyalty. You recruit and you retain your best talent.
(03:23):
It's one of those things where people have to change
the way they thought about doing business. I've worked with
businesses where I would go into a meeting and they
would start off with the profit and laws statement, they
talk about their biggest business issue of the month, and
I'd go, now, no, you're doing it all wrong. Let's
start out talking about what the people are doing, what's
important in their lives. Let's figure out who they are.
(03:45):
Don't be afraid to connect with your people. And it's
worked really well for a lot of different organizations.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Yeah, it makes sense. I think there is a transactional
nature inherent into business. Where as you grow and you're
building business, you do care about your employees. But you
think the way I care about my employees is by
making sure the business is super healthy and then they
can have a job. And I think what you're saying
(04:14):
is unless the employees are happy, nobody's going to have
a job.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
In a very simple nutshell, that would be it. And yeah,
it's very easy for anybody in management leadership to get
caught up in dollars and cents and profit and loss.
But ultimately, if people feel you care more about money
than you care about them, how are you going to
get them to go the extra mile when they need
(04:40):
to go to the extroma. How are you going to
get them to like the company? We do some research
sometimes the companies that ask questions like would you recommend
a friend to have a job at your company? That
says a lot about what the culture is of that company.
Have you received positive feedback within the past ten days?
(05:00):
And then I'll go, yeah, nobody ever quit a job
because somebody's patting on the back all the time. People,
especially with all the different generations in the workplace today,
people need to be secure. It's secure. No, They belong
to know that as the company flourishes, they have an
opportunity to flourish.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
And what are some of those things, Joe, that you've
seen work in some of these places when they are
making that mindset change? Are their tactics, policies, actions. I
know we talk about mindset a lot, but what are
some of the boots on the ground sort of things
that you've seen work or that you might suggest to people.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
First of all, I tell them to have a conference
and bring me in hire me. Now that's a joke,
but it's a good idea first. But not behind the
joke is that there's professional development there. They actually care
about me. They want me to get better, they want
me to be happier, they want me to be healthier
and mentally healthier. That's part of it. But the other
(05:58):
thing I tell is you have to make sure people
are part of the process. Too many times a company
will come out and say, here are our six core values,
and they'll post them up on a bulletin board, or
they'll put them in a newsletter.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
What have you.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
How about getting all the company together to find out
what makes them tick. One of the things that I'd
like to do. The exercise is what I'm working with
a company is I'll say, let's come up with a tenant,
a principle, a feeling you want when people walk into
your organization. What is that feeling? The people who work,
they're not the customers. That's a whole different animal. But
(06:35):
how do you want them to feel? And I'll make
them come up with a word or phrase that's memorable
or repeatable, and that's what they build everything off of.
For example, one company came up with the word belonged,
we all belong And as simple as that sounds, if
you take the productive employee and juxtapose them against an
(06:57):
unproductive employee, nine times out of ten employee who's unproductive
doesn't feel they belong. So how can you make everybody
feel they belong? And connect another company, I work with
ESOPs quite a bit of employee owned businesses, and they
came up with the theme, we own this company. They
own this problem, we own this solution, we own the
(07:19):
we own how we treat people, we own our customer relationships,
and what everybody feels like an owner. It just works
a lot better. They use it. They use that phrase
we own this. They use it in the newsletters. They
it's almost gotten to be a joke where they go
around and say it, but everybody lives it and breathes it,
and eventually, because as memorable as repeatable, then you can
(07:42):
base your plan off of that. Yeah, how comes we
make everybody feel like they belong? You can't put a
football table in the break room and say that's our culture.
Those days don't work anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
No, they don't.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
And a couple of things that you know that your
statement maybe think about it is that there's also a
there's a you talked about like posting stuff up and
not making people a part of it. Because I've seen
I've been a part of cultures where maybe there's a
squeaky wheel or a couple of squeaky wheels in there,
and then the you know, about culture or things, and
then the company be like, all right, we listened to
(08:17):
all of you, and here's the new values for things
since you never talked to anybody except for the people
that were just really annoyingly loud. And seen that happen
a few times where they don't engage with all of
the employees. And I've I've seen leaders feel like some
of this stuff, they're worried that they're distracting the employees.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yeah, but if they care about the employees, then they
should be more worried about this employee. Feel I care
about that and their lives. How are you making that connection?
What are the things that I do? Is an exercise
and that always tell management. I said, I am giving
you some free research here, so listen closely, so I'll work.
Because I talk a lot about making an impact and
(09:02):
how little things are the big things. And on my
tagline on my first book, Silent Impact, is we make
our biggest impressions. Well, we're not trying to be impressive,
and it's all about little examples of people who change
because they're just moralware and intentional with their impacts. So
I'll tell a couple of stories that people get it,
and then I'll say, okay, let's do what I call
(09:23):
impact resolutions. Every month, you take a trait or a
value that you're going to concentrate on that will help
you be better at your job, that will help you
build this culture of your organization, that will help you
take your game to the next level. So we'll have
tables of the eight or whatever, and I'll let them
(09:43):
work out it for seventy eight minutes, and then I'll
go around with the microphone and see what people come
up with. So I'll tell management. I'll say, now, listen,
if three tables I ask them for free each. If
three tables out of the five I talked to mentioned communication,
that's what you have a communication problem. I'm doing some
free research and development there for you where they're in
(10:06):
an honest and a safe place. I've had companies where
people just felt that the company was hiding stuff from them,
that they just were not transparent to us. The company
can't be totally transparent in some things, but they can
be more transparent where if the employees don't trust management,
that's a really bad place to start trying to build
a culture. I went back after that meeting and I
(10:29):
talked to the managements. So you have to figure out
a way to get these employees to trust you, and
one of them is just by being a little more
open and honest with what's going on.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Yeah, I've seen again people reacting, and leadership is really
guilty of this, is that they'll just react to things
instead of trying to sort out what maybe the root
of the problem is. And one of the businesses I've
rant before, I remember talking to an employee said we
should all share our salaries with everybody. That's what other
businesses are doing and we should do the same thing.
And I was like, what is the problem that you're
(11:00):
trying to solve? Is it that you're being paid fairly?
Is it that others are being paid fairly? And we
started talking to the employees and then we found out
later that just instituting some pay bands for different ten
years and levels took care of the problem and we
didn't have to go and share everybody's dirty laundry because
a few small folks did. But I think, to your point,
(11:23):
if they are interacting and truly being empathetic with the
employees and get to the root of the problem. They
can actually solve it instead of putting some duct tape
over it.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Yeah, the three I break it down in the three
areas when I go to culture first, mindset, school, compassion,
connection and clarity. Compassion do you let your people know
you care? And it's simply it's as simple as that.
And not just caring about their production, not just caring
about how they perform at work, but caring about them
as a human being too. Are you being flexible enough
(11:56):
with them? Are they getting the feedback they need?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Are they getting the communication meeting?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
The second area is connections. What are you doing to
connect with your people and what are you doing to
have your people connect with each other? Because the research
overwhelmingly shows people will stay at a business longer if
they feel connected to the people they work with and
connected to the goal of the organization, which leads to clarity.
Clarity is the catalyst of growth, and nowadays you have
(12:23):
to be more than just a company that's trying to
make money. You have to be more than just a
company that pays you every two weeks. What are you
doing for the greater good of your community, your people,
your world. Companies that do this and that are transparent
about it, but not doing it just for the pr
stake of it. They're legitimately into it. It works, it works,
(12:47):
and that's where the clarity is. It's a little bit
also like this. You know that the old saying is
a confused buyer never buys, a confused employee never produces.
So they have to be crystal clear on what their
role is and why their role is important, why they
are important to this organization. Otherwise they're just going to
go through the motions, put it on cruise control and
(13:08):
be an average employee.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
And you will be just one stop on their journey
to even fur their success, right.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, and until they get into a culture where they
think they can grow, where they trust, where they really
believe that if the company flourishes, they'll flourish, they're going
to be in cruise control there too, and they're just
in a job hop every two years, hoping to find
this elusive happiness that they will never find.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. One of the
things that I've run into and I want to know
if you've experienced this, but maybe how to deal with
this is that and maybe less mature leaders I've maybe
that's the fault here, is that I've run into. Many
business owners are people who were people that started the
businesses because they were very good at the craft, and
(13:54):
then they built the business up and kept building and
they view themselves as one the team, and that's not
how everybody else views them. And I remember talking with
a friend who's a business owner and letting them know,
everybody is watching you for ques on what is acceptable
and what isn't. And he was like, no, I'm just
like they don't pay attention to me. I'm one of
(14:16):
the team. I'm just in and out. And I was like, no,
they're weighing on. They're reading every word you post in
an email or you say in a conference call or
something like that to understand what good looks like and
what bad looks like. And I want to get your thoughts, Joe,
because is that sort of approach and attitude Sometimes because
(14:38):
a person doesn't understand the weight they have. Is it
because they haven't been coached well enough or where does.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
That come from?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
It's probably the old axiom that your greatest strength is
your greatest weakness. And because they have been probably a
grinder who worked hard to make it happen that they
think they can stay the same as they start managing
more people. It's why if you look at some industries
that tend to be dysfunctional, I'll just name one because
(15:09):
I've worked with a few over the years, dental offices.
So what happens in dental offices? Five guys or five
men and women who graduated from a dental school together,
all of a sudden get together and open up an office. Well,
guess what they're all really good at? Fixing your teeth?
Not one of them might have any business gifts and
how it manage it or how to manage it office.
(15:32):
And unless they hire somebody, unless they figure out how
to do it, they run into all kinds of personal problems,
personnel problems. So just because you have one skill doesn't
necessarily mean mean you have another one unless you decide to,
like you said, get help, try to learn from somebody,
maybe get a mentor whatever the case is. You have
(15:52):
to be able to look at what your blind spots are.
And one of the things another exercise I do, I
call the triple play, is so I like to do
a lot of the interactive stuff. So I'll tell stories,
I'll run videos, I'll do little interactive things that correlate directly.
So there's some takeaways. So there's some tangible takeaways. And
one of the things I do is, after we talk
(16:14):
about management style, we talk about what kind of leader
you are and how are you making an impact? I said, okay,
now take a personal inventory. What are you going to stop,
where are you going to start, what are you going
to continue? And then under each of those are the
three results that will happen when you start, stop and continue.
So I always say, Okay, what am I going to start?
(16:34):
I'm going to start scheduling myself some impact time. In
other words, I get busy like everybody else. I want
to make sure I go and check on people, find
out what's going on. How'd their kid doing the softball
tournament this weekend? What else is going on? You went fishing?
Where'd you go fishing? Let's catch any walleye? What are
you going to stop? I had to stop starcasm. I'm
a sarcastic guy. My reason's under sarcasm, and every in
(16:56):
sarcasm there's truth. It could hurt somebody be confused. They
all won't know whether you're serious or joking. And what
am I going to continue? I'm going to continue giving
out lavish praise. I had a bosser early in my career.
They gave a lot of praise and it made me
feel good. And it goes back to the thing I
said earlier. Nobody ever quit a job because somebody's patting
(17:16):
on the back all the time. Don't wait until the
project's over to reward somebody, reward progress, And then I
get people to look at themselves to find out what
their blind spot might be and where they need to
focus their attention.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
The key to me sometimes is, and you've alluded to
this in the threat of our conversation, Joey, is people
just have they have to have some better self awareness.
You mentioned blind spots, and I find that certain leaders
don't have an understanding of those things. Gardner does a
ton of reporting on and they talk about forty percent
(17:55):
of people are looking for their next job, and seventy
percent of people are disengaged at work and all these things,
and I find that some employers don't really take those
types of things as seriously as they should until it's
probably too late, or they just excuse it off as
always that person not our culture, or I don't see
(18:18):
an opportunity there. So I feel that having some self
awareness is really important. How does somebody How do you
help somebody Joe go and become more self aware?
Speaker 3 (18:28):
I think you point out and sometimes it depends on
who it is. Sometimes you have to let them know
it impacts the bottom line. Yeah, if they're a if
they're a bottom line in person, you just have to say,
you know what, you'll make more money if you make
your people happier.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
And you're right.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Sometimes you got to hit them over the head with
a sledgehammer, and that's the best way to do it,
to talk money. And you can quickly tell what some
motivation is for some people. And a lot of times
the people have the biggest problem with this human approach
are people who simply want to make money. And there's
nothing wrong with them. Leading that's what business is for.
And the more money most companies make means that hopefully
(19:05):
they trickle that down and hopefully it builds jobs and
all those kinds of great things that happen or a
successful company.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Yeah, And I think with your experience in sports. I
think the mental game is so important to be a
successful leader, whether you're leading a team on a field
or you're leading a team through business, and you've got
to you've got to have that ability. One of the
things you talked about is storytelling, which I love, and
that's something that I always recommend to other leaders is
(19:34):
don't go read just another business book. Read a book
on how to become a better storyteller, because that's how
people and you wouldn't have attached so much prominence to
this unless you understood, like this is the best way
to come to get ideas out and into other people
where they actually sync in versus ricochet off. Right.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, use your own material. And it's a great way
to phrase an honor your people because you know, every
organization will get stories back from somebody who went the
extra mile, somebody who when it was twenty below zero
was out in the parking lot starting cars for somebody
to make sure people got home to the holidays, whatever
the case might be. Every organization has these stories. How
(20:18):
are you honoring your people with that, whether it's a newsletter,
bringing it up at a conference, just figure out ways
to let people know they really are Number one. I
just did a presentation for a company that owns about
twenty resorts, and they had their whole thing was doing
(20:39):
it from the heart, and they told story after story,
and everybody who was mentioned in these great stories they
got this nice little plaque. Wasn't a plaque. It was
like a piece of arc with a heart on it.
And you know, that's what they would give out for awards,
letting them know that those little small connections really become
huge and it can inspire others to do that. It
(21:00):
will inspire you to go the extra mile. And then
what I like to do is find out what impact
did that have? And that's what I tell a lot
of my stories. On I'll find out a story. One
of my stories I wrote a children's book with Joe
Mauer on it. On it Joel Mauer before it was
a superstar athlete in high school and he walked a
young student who was blin into the lunch room and
(21:22):
invited him to sit down at his table every day.
And anyway, what I did is I went back and
I found the blind student of six other guys who
sat at that table and found out the impact that
it had on him back then. And the impact that's
still having today becomes pretty powerful. And that's why I
remark remind people your impact can be negative too, the
(21:44):
way you treat people, and is that what you want
your legacy to be? What kind of impact do you make?
And we all get busy and we all make mistakes. Yeah,
but if you're a little bit more aware and a
little bit more intentional about the positive impact you can make,
it's just going to make life life a lot easier.
You're going to be happier, healthy, or going to have
more meaningful, deeper relationships. You're going to build the cattle
(22:06):
loyalty you really want to have in your organization. And then,
like I said from the very beginning, then success, wild success,
and fantastic customer service. Those are the byproducts.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
That's one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Again, I've had those people because I've had bad bosses,
and they say, you'll forget jobs, you'll forget projects you
worked on, but you'll never forget your bosses or your
managers because they really shape you. And becoming somebody's boss
or manager should be taken with care. But what I've seen,
and this is something Gardner recently released report on as
(22:41):
many people say this person's the best at this job,
so I'm going to put them in charge of the
team that does this work. And this happened to me
early on in my career. Oh, you're one of our
better designers and developers, so I'm going to put you
in charge of the design and development team. And it's
two things that are terrible. One is you're losing your
best employee at that and number two, in a lot
(23:05):
of cases, those people don't want to manage people. But
because of the way we've structured businesses these days is
that in many cases, the only upper mobility is to
manage people, and it's the only way to get more responsibility,
more authority, more pay and all those things. And I
(23:26):
find that many people have found their way because they're
very good at certain things into these leadership positions and
now they're stuck there and they don't know what to do.
And that's where I feel like, I think why having
a coach or having some sort of help, outside help
is so important. You mentioned this from the very beginning joke,
(23:47):
having somebody from the outside that doesn't that isn't inundated
with all the stuff that you have. I think it's
huge coming in from the outside to just pick through
these things.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
And I will never stand somebody's industry as well as
they do. And I always tell people, if you're bringing
me in because you think I have this great BFA
MBA background, forget about it, because I don't. But I'm
going to teach the soft skills. You're going to find
out that the soft skills, it's a lot harder to
(24:20):
succeed if you don't have them, And the importance of
those and just how you prioritize it. And I always
tell people that culture is a living, breathing organism within
your organization, and what are you doing to water it,
to hold it, to give it fertilizer. How are you
making it? How are you making it grow? Sure? One
(24:41):
of the things that I challenge people on. We did
research on this. We ask people, if they were a
going away party tonight at your organization, who would the
most people show up for. And when they think about
that for a second, all of a sudden, they find
out that person has a lot to do with the
culture of the organization. That person is really good at connections,
that person really is crystal clear on what their values are.
(25:03):
That person shows a lot of compassion to be c
as I talked about, and then I say, how can
you be more like that person? Then I asked the
opposite question, who at the least amount of people show
up we're going away with? And in many cases, this
was the person who felt that they didn't belong. But
then I said, we dug down a little deeper, we
peeled the onion back a little further, and we found
(25:24):
out that many times this person is not succeeding because
they don't have the help that they need. Job is
too big for them, so they are frustrated, which means
they become a pretty bad employee. They don't have a
great attitude, they don't go the extra mile all those
things are hoping for. So you can literally save that
person by getting them some help. Now, sometimes it's just
(25:47):
a bad fit. Somebody made a mistake hiring this person,
and it's better off if they leave. But many times
you can save this person by lifting them up and
figuring out what is really going on with them, or
maybe they're just in the wrong position. Maybe you just
got to slide them over attain to have a different responsibilities.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
I agree, I agree, you just you nailed it right there.
Because the idea of what because I get asked, what
does it mean soft skills when you talk about that
and you just define it's instead of just reacting at
the surface layer of what you're hearing or what you're
being told, being able to peel the onion back, so
to speak, and being able to see where is this
(26:27):
coming from, how to how is this driving this surface
level thing that I'm getting approached? And you also said
that culture piece and those that engagement piece has got
to be on your mind every day. It can't be
just something you review once a quarter. Oh, let's bring
us Let's bring in a survey team and they'll survey
(26:49):
the employees and we'll do that once a year and
then we'll react to the survey. And because I remember
being a part of businesses that would do that every year,
they would hire that, they would hire modern survey and
this is a team that would come in survey all
the employees and then they would send the results back.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
To the leadership team.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
And then the leadership team would come out and say,
all right, this is what we heard and this is
what we're going to do about it.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
All right back to work.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, Yeah, it's interesting because we did have a friend
of mine who's in the valuation business, and I asked
him to run some numbers for me, because Kidsey says
that it's fifty to seventy five percent of somebody's salary
to replace a person. No, let's say the person was
making sixty grand, thirty to forty thousand dollars. You lost
(27:38):
just on this sixty grand a year employee, and then
on top of it, you might replace them with somebody
who's not as good as they are. If you lost
a good employee. If you take an organization, then maybe
is a fifty million dollar organization. And let's say you
lose ten people a year. Yep, ten people a year.
How much is that going to impact your bond line?
(27:59):
It was pretty interesting as we put the numbers down
and put it about ten years out, and I would
throw that in front of some CEO. Then they list
they bet they did, yeah, because it was millions of
dollars on what the company value is over an extended
period of time. Just because you're losing productivity, you're spinning.
You're hoping to hire someone who is better than the
(28:20):
last person, and as you well know, sometimes the company
fails because the wrong people leave. The good people leave
and the bad people say the bad people can't find
another job.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
No, they can't, and they're toxic people and nobody wants
to touch them.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
And guess what, that's contagious. And just as belonging and
feeling good and having a world class culture can be contagious,
all that negative stuff is contagious too. I've seen it
happens in the broadcasting industry all the time, and quite frankly,
in the sports office. I just don't allow it. We
can bitch about something or whatever, and I'll just say, Okay,
(28:54):
here's what we got to deal with. It is what
it is. We're not going to change you guys. Yeah,
I'll always gent accomplish it. Let them get their frustration out,
let them go through the seven stages of grief and
tend let's figure out how to move on.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
That's the one thing I seen leaders get confused about,
is that. And that's the one thing that I've even
done some talks on this where there's a big difference
between a real problem and venting. And it's okay for
people to vent. You want to have to release valve,
but then you know, when the venting is done, we
get back to a real problem. I can't tell you
how impactful it was for me when I first took
(29:27):
over my biggest team, which I had fifty people I
was managing, and to be able to sit down and
do one on ones with these people and be able
just to be intentional like you mentioned, and say is
this a real problem or are we just venting? And
they would say, oh, no, I'm just venting. I'm like, great,
because I'm not taking any action from this stuff you're
(29:49):
complaining about. And just so we are clear, this is
just a time for you to just talk about how
sales is selling stuff that they shouldn't be and let's say,
and now we'll go back to work.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
It's funny, chirc, because I sometimes I will you get
you'll get a call somebody's thinking about bringing you in
to to do a speech or a seminar or a session.
They've got like year long program, some different options for people,
and they're going to be talking to two or three
different people because they want to make sure they get
the fit. And quite frankly, I don't want to go
to a company that's not a good fit for me.
(30:24):
And I sometimes use it as a sales line, but
I sometimes use it just to remind people that it's universal.
I say, my stuff works really well for people who
feel they are overworked and underappreciated, and oh, that's us,
that's our team. It's pretty much every team in the world.
So I feel kinds are cheap using it, But that's
(30:44):
what my stuff works well for people who feel overworked
and underappreciated, because I'm going to try to figure out
how they won't feel overwork when you make sure they
are appreciated.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's huge.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
All right, Joe, I can talk to you all day
and it's and honestly, it's such an honor to speak
with someone like yourself and the amount of goodwill that
you've brought to our community. I thank you for and
I appreciate it. And if people want to get in
touch with you, if they want, have you come and
speak to their organization or at there of it. Where
can we find you? Where can we follow you? And
(31:19):
also grab copy of the book?
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yeah, that's My website is Joe Schmidt dot com and
it's s C H M I T NO D one
T no D yeah, or my email is Joe at
Joe Schmidt dot com and Yeah, just reach out. I
pick up the phone and I do everything myself on
this because I don't want anything to get lost in
translation and audio.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
You know it is, krect.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
The more personally involved you can get, the better it works.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
And Yeah, the better choices everybody makes. Yeah, and I have.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
It's funny how those past clients have become friends. And
that's always to me. Yeah, one of the great byproducts
of doing a job and working Howard and making sure
that I have the impact that I'm talking about out
of the organization.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
Joe, Thank you so much for your time today. I
really appreciate you joining me. It means a lot, and
I know people are going to get a lot from
this episode.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Thank you, Kurt, keep doing it. I give you congratulations
for being persistent out there in the world of podcasting.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
We appreciate you taking the time to listen to this
episode of Schmidt List.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
The stories shared by our guests are genuinely inspiring and
offer insightful knowledge. It's important to remember that success doesn't
happen overnight and requires collaboration, learning, and perseverance. If you
want to broaden your professional connections, check out Kurt's book
The Little Book of Networking, How to Build your Career
one Conversation at a time on Amazon. Please stay connected
(32:52):
with all things schmit List on social media, leave a
review for the podcast and join our community of like
minded entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Thank you for being part of Schmidtlist.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Keep innovating, collaborating, and chasing your entrepreneurial dreams.
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