Today I’m joined by the incredible Harlan Hammack, business coach. Tune in to hear his story and more importantly, his experiences!
Partial Transcript:
Harlan: There are a lot of places that I’ve, I’ve worked that the culture was toxic. And and mainly because you had people set up, to where they were competing, or they felt they were competing against their colleagues, competing for raises, competing for recognition, whatever it happened to be. Those people, they keep knowledge to themselves. They don’t share, they don’t help. If they see somebody struggling, you know, they they point the finger at them. Look, they’re struggling, but I’m not. So they can keep that spotlight on them. That’s very toxic. I work for one company that was the exact opposite. We had people it was a big project, big software implementation project. And when somebody got done with their work, they went around all the cubicles, knocking on the cubicles, asking, what can I do to help you? How can I help? And they would do almost anything right to try to get things done, because that was the way that their company was set up, is that we live or die as a team. We survive, we grow, we thrive as a team. And so everything was focused on teamwork. And if somebody was struggling and you didn’t at least offer to help, you had a conversation, right? You took a little walk outside the building, to have a conversation about that, because that was what was so important. And that’s what I try to get in with my clients, is that you want to try to build a team that isn’t out for individual recognition. They’re trying to do whatever it is they can to make the company as successful as possible. Because if the company grows, everybody grows, everybody benefits, right? So with the business leaders, the business owners, I try to teach them, take care of your employees. If you take care of your employees, your employees will take care of your customers, your customers will take care of your business, and your business will ultimately take care of you. And that’s really what you want to do, is try to get that thriving kind of, culture going in your business.
Dave: Wise words. Just fantastic, actually. I really appreciate that and a couple of things going on in here. So if a business owner comes to you and you go in and you spot some deficiencies in culture. What would be the first area that you might work on? So if you take a, company through a process, until I’m using the consultative language here, but taking a company through a process of changing culture. What would be the kind of ABC of success that you would take people through?
Harlan: What I try to do is start with, the core values, right? Everybody has, a, set of core values. Whether you acknowledge it or not, every decision you make is based on your personal core values. Well, same thing in business. You set up the core values of the business. What are we in business for? What are we trying to accomplish? Why are we doing what we do? I help the company set up their core values and then teach everybody in the company, these are our core values. So every decision the employees make are based on those core values. If they aren’t making them on the core values, who knows what they’re using as their foundation, right, for their decisions? one client that I’m working with, Michael we’re doing that. We put his core values in place slowly teaching everybody. At every Monday morning meeting, they go through the core values again to let people know, this is exactly what this means to us.
Find Harlan on LINKEDIN and at https://www.ib4e-coaching.com/
Get in touch on [email protected]