In partnership with The Effective Syndicate, Scott welcomed Enrique Alvarez and Beau Groover for Part II of the Coach’s Corner in the Leadership Matters Series.

“I think celebrating mistakes is important. I think the more open companies are for people to make mistakes, the better their organizations will be. And the more they learn, the less likely they are to repeat those mistakes.”

-Enrique Alvarez, Managing Director at Vector Global Logistics

No matter what business or industry you work in, the most critical and valuable resource is people. Although this is a simple truth, it is no easy matter getting people to do what the company needs them to do and making them feel good while they do it. Even traditional notions of leadership may fall short in the face of this challenge. Enter “The Coach”, hat and all.

In this conversation, Host Scott Luton was joined by Beau Groover, Founder and President of The Effective Syndicate, and Enrique Alvarez, Managing Director at Vector Global Logistics. They took audience questions live and provided answers about everything from leadership to culture, engagement to diversity.

Beau and Enrique answered questions such as:

-How can leaders influence enterprise culture?

-How should a company keep their workforce engaged and motivated, especially when there is a change management effort underway?

-How do we deal with the fast pace of change and the overwhelming amount of information coming at us daily – and still find a way to foster a more collaborative workplace?

-What “rules” should we be breaking? What workplace/leadership norms need to go out of style and how do we go about updating them?

[00:00:05] It’s time for Supply Chain Now Radio. Broadcasting live from the Supply chain capital of the country. Atlanta, Georgia, Supply Chain Now Radio spotlights the best in all things supply chain the people, the technology’s the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.

[00:00:29] Good afternoon. Welcome to Supply Chain Now Radio. We’re back live with you. Welcome to the show. Today’s show is the latest installment in our Leadership Matters series, which is, of course, is sponsored by the Effective syndicate. But there is a twist on the old routine, just like we announced last time. So this is another coach’s corner edition of Leadership Matters. We asked for your questions in the last few weeks. And now our panel here is going to stand deliver. So stay tuned. Like all of our series and Supply Chain Now Radio, you can find a replays on a wide variety of channels, including our podcasts, YouTube, wherever else you find your podcast from, as always. We’d love to have you subscribe so you don’t miss a thing. So let’s welcome in our featured guest today, Mr. Bo Gruver, of course, founder and president of the Effective syndicate. Bo, how you doing?

[00:01:16] Doing perfect. How are you? Perfect. That’s a new one. I know. What a great week. Great day.

[00:01:21] It’s been a great week. Been a great run and a great day.

[00:01:24] Ok. We’re going to learn more. All right. And then we also have a new to the coach’s corner, new to leadership matters. We have Enrique Alvarez, managing director at Vector Global Logistics, of course, what who hosts our studio here. And he’s got some exciting news. He’s about to launch a new Supply chain Innovation Center right here in Atlanta Enrique.

[00:01:44] Yeah, that is correct. Thanks for having me again, Scott. Always a pleasure. And yeah, it’s been a great week and an amazing day. What does this are? One of my best asexually. Really? Yes, they are. OK.

[00:01:56] Well, we’re going to hook go into the power grid and power the rest. The city from a electricity standpoint. Lots of positive vibes here. So today’s show, we’ve got our work cut out for you already. Yeah. Have you had your guidance? Yes.

[00:02:10] Cinnamon coffee list out there. Yeah.

[00:02:15] We were talking in the warm up conversation about a couple different things, but vitamins and coffees will stick to. OK, so we’ve got four or five questions that we’re going to tackle. They all submitted by listeners and folks that are curious about different elements of, you know, from leadership to culture to engagement to diverse, you name it. And Bo, where are we starting?

[00:02:36] So I wanted to start, actually, a guy that I used to work with years ago named Jason. Watch. Jason, thanks for the question. His question is, I saw one come in already regarding culture, and that’s a big one for most places. I’m always interested in learning more about how to influence culture. A wise man once taught me that culture is simply the results of behaviors within the organization. His question How do leaders play into that result? And what should be some key indicators of the direction those results are trending? So good backdrop. Good. Good question. Who was to lead us off?

[00:03:12] Well, you know, I’d love to. One of the great things when we confirmed you, Ricky, was going to be on the show. They’ve got an incredible culture here at Vector Global Logistics. So I think. Let’s start with you.

[00:03:23] Yes. No, thank you very much. And that’s a very, very good question, Jason. Thanks for bringing it up. I think that’s on every every thecompanies mind. And I think that as we continue to push forward in today’s world, this is very important. This is one of the main questions that most CEOs out there are probably trying to answer. And I think it’s important. So for me, this has different, different answers. But one of the most important ones for me is just having purpose. I think in order for people to be able to just have this incredible organization and how people that are leading the organizations can have a role into what their team’s behavior is. It’s really used through purpose. There has to be a common goal, a common vision, something that everyone can rally around and something that will also hold people accountable when results are not there.

[00:04:17] Mm hmm. I’m with you. And I love the common goal, a common purpose that rallying that that pulls people together towards a singular mission that is such a powerful element, I think, of real successful cultures. A couple of things. When it when I saw Jason’s question and I was thinking in my mind, you know, what makes for that compelling culture? I think a couple of things struck me. First off, of course, it’s all about the people. Right. And that’s easier said than done.

[00:04:45] All right. If you think about the structure, the policies, how organizations are run, oftentimes the people are lost in the shuffle. They’re lost in the process or lost in the bottom line. Lost a lot of things. So I think the most successful cultures, powerful cult. Maintain that it’s all about the people. I think that leaders that set the these compelling cultures, I think they are really good at not just encouraging contributions, but letting folks contribute. Right. Right. It’s not just about it. You’re getting a team that to write some ideas and put in a bucket. You know, every Thursday afternoon, it’s about generating ideas and then letting folks step up and lead it. Right. And that’s really important. And then, you know, for me, at least, leadership and culture are inseparable. Right. And I think some of the more successful leaders that that establishes cultures, they are also incredible followers. And I think that is such an important element related to successful, empowering, compelling cultures.

[00:05:54] Yeah, well, I think the thing that he was also hitting on was was the result. Right. And so I spent a lot of time with organizations. And when there’s, you know, admiring the results, good or bad. And really, I think the leadership component of this is looking at the inputs. Yeah. And so if you’re not getting the result that you want, instead of saying, hey, why don’t you try harder? Which, you know, I’ve never thought of that ball. So I guess I’ll try harder next week. It’s just a kind of silly. But what are the inputs that are producing that result that you want? So if you talk about sales revenue as a perspective, what are the inputs to sales? Well, it’s your marketing engine is your number of sales calls. What are your sales people doing? Who is your target market? There’s a lot of inputs that go into it. And then how do you coach through that? So, look, it’s not punitive. We’re not getting the result that we want. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna beat you up and mean you’re gonna get penalized or anything like that. But there’s something broken in our process that’s not producing the results that we want. And so from a coach’s perspective, it’s really kind of pulling people in to say, look, you own this thing. What do we need to do to get it working right. In a very positive, uplifting way, not in a punitive. You’re screwing up kind of way.

[00:07:01] I think to your point. But I think that just and I don’t know what the celebrating is the right word, but I use it a lot. I think celebrating mistakes is important. I think the more open companies are for people to make mistakes, the better organizations will be. The more they’re going to learn, the less likely they are to repeat the mistakes. So on. This is exactly what you’re talking about, right? It’s about focusing on results, making sure that everyone has a very clear understanding what’s expected of them at a weekly, monthly, quarterly basis, and then also being open enough and humble enough to recognize that making mistakes is the only way to truly learn and truly impact your culture and truly grow as individuals. And as more individuals grow, the more the company will grow. And so part of setting up a culture and trying to influencing a culture has a lot to do with being honest, an open and mature enough to allow people to make mistakes.

[00:07:58] Great point. We’ll put it as silly or as non-intuitive as it sounds. You guys celebrate failure Ryder. Because if you’re not failing, you’re not getting yourself out there. You’re not you’re going to stymie innovation. You’re gonna stymie creativity. Right. Because if folks fill it, folks that are part of organization feel that there will solely be punished. If the projects fail, the new ideas fail. You can stay in the current state forever, right? Right. All stick and no carrot. Yes. So any of the comments around this first question, what a great way to start it. Jason, what’s quick again to our audience? This is love. So you can you can tune. I think we might have a one and a half second delay.

[00:08:40] So tune in if you want to. We’ve got I think we’re live tweeting. I think we’re alive. Instagramming, I believe if you want to comment on anything you hear here, pose new question or your own observation will do. Do your best. Do our best to get you involved in the conversation. Jason, what’s what an outstanding lead off question before you go to question number two. So you’ve got a new hat?

[00:09:02] I do have a new hat. And I wasn’t sure the right time, but I want to thank you. So is our second version of Coach’s Corner. And last week we were joking around about, hey, I want to have coaches had or, you know, we had to have coaches Sheer or something. And so I showed up today and hopefully see it on the camera. I showed up today and Scott has provided me with a nice coach’s hat. So I feel very official. And his head, by the way, I feel like I’m qualified to serve as a coach now.

[00:09:29] Love it. Yeah, we’re kind of illustrating. You’ve got to have fun. Absolutely. Cultures, everything can’t be 1987. IBM has got especially these days right now also, especially where work oftentimes follow people follows people home. Right.

[00:09:44] You can be reached on your smartphone device, email or social or, you know, business role does not stop. So. So the time that we spend together, I think it’s been incorporating the fun factors that are really important item to your point and something with Lu care a lot about here at.

[00:09:59] As you’d like. We don’t believe in work life balance, and we believe that’s a very old fashioned mentality because everything’s just life, right? Individuals are individuals, regardless of whether you’re here or at home or with your family or with your son or your kids. So I think that to your point, it’s very, very important to us to have that maturity as a company and as individuals and as leaders and also followers to use on their stand that we’re all here together. We only have one life and we want to make the best of it in all different aspects of what that entails.

[00:10:33] Yep. Like that. Well said. Great. OK. So moved right along. Thanks again, Jason. Was that leadoff question? Question number two, this comes from one of the strongest leaders I’ve worked around, Jessica Clayton, founding partner at Talentstream and Jessica states. I agree with Scott that culture is a big piece of any company’s success. I think an important aspect of that is a leader’s ability to motivate their employees. How do you keep your workforce engaged and motivated, especially when it comes to any type of change? So who’d like to lead off there?

[00:11:09] I’ll take the first shot at this one, so go ahead. I could talk about what we could talk a lot about this when I’m sure. I think the most important component, or at least one of the most important components is to involve them. When you talk about the change aspect, you know, the pace of change right now in business is nothing short of breathtaking. And so our workers, our employees, our teammates, our colleagues are all dealing with the same thing on top of the rest of their life. Their husbands and wives and mothers and fathers and all of those other roles that we serve. And so change at work. We know psychologically speaking, the majority of people aren’t excited about change. They want to find a routine. They want to get in the groove. And so when change comes, most people, psychologically speaking, feel it as a loss. And so our our best shot at overcoming or counteracting that with our employees is to simply involve them and say, hey, guys, here’s what’s coming. Here’s why it’s coming. Here’s what it looks like from where we’re standing. Wanted to involve you. What do you think? You know, how does this make you feel? Let’s talk about it. And it’s not a kumbaya. Let’s hold hands and roast marshmallows thing.

[00:12:24] It’s look, this is happening, right? I mean, can you imagine? I can bid it business around a campfire roasting marshmallows. But I mean, think about the cases that we talk about all the time.

[00:12:37] Think about Blockbuster watching nicollet. Think about, you know, I’m still boggled at why it took Wal-Mart so long to counteract the Amazon two day delivery thing. They already had the supply chain. They already had locations. They had a distribution that it was second to none. Why did it take y’all so long and lose so much market share to respond? It’s just kind of boggling. So that the change thing is a great conversation starter in our experience to say let’s involve people, let’s talk about what’s going on and let’s get them involved and how do we overcome it and how do we counteract?

[00:13:09] Yeah, I think the more we openly talk about the company and the more we’re honest and transparent with everyone that works for the company, the more we’re going to get them to be engaged. I totally agree with you. The other aspect I would mention is just being used caring like truly caring for people. And just by caring, I mean taking the time because there’s really no shortcut when it comes to getting to know someone, but really taking the time to getting to know someone, getting to know people, getting to know everyone that works in your company or working as a peer of yours and just going from there because everyone has a certain different take on life. They have different values, different cultures. And it’s important that you get to know everyone to make sure are once engaged and everyone feels heard and contributing.

[00:13:55] Great point. We all have a different lens. All right. Well, you know, for her process, the world and what goes on around us differently. Right. But part of what makes us the what is the human element? So I think communication goes what was one of the big themes I heard. And as you know, how you talked about engagement and processing change and leading change and motivate employees. And then all of the love, the care factor, right. That that gets lost in the shuffle or you can’t fake it.

[00:14:21] Right. It’s just what you were saying about my job and roasting marshmallows together. I mean, you can’t really fake that kind of relationship with people and it just doesn’t. There’s no Elinor’s you takes time. A lot of time to develop. But I think if you do it and you go through the challenge of what that entails, it’ll all be good for the company overall.

[00:14:43] Agreed. sybilla. Given their talking engagement, I’m surprised you didn’t start with the Gallup numbers that I know you love to share because you know, I think engagement. It seems like to me can in one of these topics that it can be soft. Or more intangible. And because of that, it can be kind of dismissed.

[00:15:05] But when you look at numbers, you Gallup has a variety. There’s a variety of polls. But one one the Gallup polls released the last few years, 32 percent of employers in the U.S. are successfully engaged and that’s successfully engaged. So the flipside, do my quick southcarolina math.

[00:15:23] Sixty eight percent are in get our disengaged on some level. And I was reading one of the blog articles around this and it’s engaging is tougher to kind of maybe define than it is just to kind of illustrate. You think of you think of employ.

[00:15:41] I think that we’re getting a shipment in.

[00:15:45] But you think think of employee a an employer, be an employee a is actively engaged. He or she arrives ten minutes early each day and there they are consumed with what they’re doing. They love what they do. They’re being heard or being engaged. They’re getting they’re contributing. Right. So think about that mindset and then you think about someone who’s actively disengaged. It doesn’t just impact punctuality, but it impacts everything that they contribute, everything they touch, every interaction they have within an organization. And so not only are they very negative, negatively impacted, but the organization is also very negatively impacted. Right.

[00:16:25] Absolutely. And it takes root if it’s not aggressively manage or assertively at the least, but some more statistics. So according to Deloitte and I don’t remember the year of this, 94 percent of executives in 88 percent of employees believe that a distinct workplace culture is important. According to Forbes, companies with a strong culture, SOI four times increase in revenue growth, according to Bain and Company. Over a period of seven years, companies with more engaged workers grew revenue two and a half times as much as companies with less engaged workers. So I think we’re at a precipice, if you will.

[00:17:01] I think there’s a turning point happening right now and we’re becoming more and more aware of how important the culture is. And you’ve got that exacerbated with the remote workforce. You’ve got the generational change. So I think there’s an awakening happening right now within a lot of organizations that look, this culture thing we used to call it soft skills. It ain’t soft. It’s really damn hard. And so as the awareness grows, I think we’re getting better at it. And just to piggyback on what Enrique was talking about, the courage to care is a huge leadership lever. So if you’re willing and able to be vulnerable and care about a human being, not just on the surface level of, hey, I know Scott’s gonna do the assignment that he said he was going to do, I trust Scott. That’s that’s like surface level trust. But when it gets down to holy crap, Scott is going through something and I care about him. So I’m going to call him at eight o’clock at night because I just saw his e-mail. Scott, are you OK?

[00:17:57] I saw what you’re dealing with. You know, that light bulb keeps clicking on and off on.

[00:18:03] But the the ability to genuinely care, I don’t know humans who don’t respond. Well, I’ve not met humans who like, man, I really want to be a punk. But you’re around a bunch of people who don’t care anything about me. I haven’t met those human beings yet.

[00:18:19] It cannot be overstated. The care factor cannot be overstated. A quick to the audience. Our marketing team has corrected me.

[00:18:26] So if you want to get engaged in this episode, you can direct messages on Instagram with any questions and you can tweet atest ask questions or Sheer your observations and we’ll get those passed right along to us. Any of that? Great question by Jessica Clayton again. You can check out Talentstream Talentstream staffing dot com.

[00:18:46] They they do a lot of great recruiting staffing across the into in supply chain. You have something but.

[00:18:51] Yeah, well, just to to counteract and I agree, it was a great question, good conversation. But I also am a firm believer in Mel Robbins. If you guys are familiar with her work. But five seconds, the five second rule, one of the things that she talks about in this, this is more of an individual coaching than a team kind of thing. But if you’re coaching a human being, motivation is garbage. Right. So I can listen to as many inspirational videos as I can. I can read as many books and read devotions, whatever things it is that feeds me my motivation. And at some point I’m going to be tired. It’s too early. It’s too late. It’s too dark. It’s too cold is too hard is too something. And so what we’ve got to be coaching our colleagues to and the mentees, if we’re serving as a mentor, which a coach is, is look, it’s discipline. I understand that you want to feel motivated. I understand that, you know, we all have that need. But at some point that’s going to fail. And what you’re left with then is can you still get the job done? Can you still get your butt out of bed? Can you still make it to the gym? Can you still get the report done? We’re all tired. It’s all been a long day. We’ve all got sick kids. So at some point, again, from an individual coach. Perspective. Hopefully some folks are out there listening for this purpose. Is look. Motivation is great, but at some point it stops. So what you’ve got to develop also as individuals is that discipline. I’ve gotta figure out the way to get it done any way you know that.

[00:20:12] That reminds me. It’s like a football game, right? You can have the best motivational pre pre-game speech, you know, going into the first quarter. Or you can have the best halftime speech. And it will impact early third quarter, but end the day in that late second quarter or late in the fourth quarter where you’ve got to just reach down deep in its guts, as Dabo says, bring your own guts. Wise. Gee, I love that because it illustrates your point. You know, there’s only so much from a motivational standpoint, leaders can do it in the day. Folks have to kind of make their own decision if they’re going to power through some of this stuff, right? Absolutely.

[00:20:48] No, I totally agree with that. And I think that for that to happen, it has to come from like a very honest, very open place. Right. If you’re an individual and you’re caring for your family and you’re having your job. The only way that you’re going to give that 110 percent is if you really believe in what this work is all about. And so it has to be something more than yourself, more than your team. Something more inspirational, something that you really care about. And that’s just something that you can find. If you take the time to 1, get to know the people that are working with you enough. And then, of course, if you as a company have a very clear purpose of why you’re doing what you’re doing, because that’s what at the end of the day, when the days are cold or too hot or too dark or too light, as you put it, mom. That’s really what’s going to just take us out of bed and try to give our best. Right. Agreed. Agreed. The only other thing I think you mentioned this before is God tackling the first question.

[00:21:41] But I think it’s actually very relevant for the second one, as well as leadership and leaders in general just over glorified. I really think that it’s the first followers anon. There’s also a good TED talk about this called How to Start a Movement. If you guys want to Google it or search for it. I forgot who was the one that presented it. It was like a five to 10 minute TED talk called How to Start a Movement. And on its big stoop to that point, its really first followers make a loan, not a leader without those followers who would all just be loan nuts out there. So so just try to try to keep that into consideration as you’re going with your teams about this. And what I do is I just don’t consider myself a leader at all. I’m just part of this team. I’m here to cheer them. I’m here to work with them. And I’m just part of the team. So I think that’s something that could potentially impact the engagement levels of employees as well.

[00:22:38] I love that. It’s like a spin and different spin on servant leadership. And it was that was a Derek Seavers start a movement. S had you Google at v._c._r.s. Well, this this technically came from Malcolm in the research team, but Malcolm on the research team.

[00:22:52] Thank you very much for. Yeah, Seavers.

[00:22:55] Check it out on how to start a movement, a great tech talk that’s been well received. Okay, so that moves us right along to question number three. Right. And Enrique.

[00:23:06] Yes. And this question comes from Sarah Barnes, some free rock and roll star and the supply chain industry. Very nice, outstanding person who is doing a great, great job and supply chain. Thanks, Greg. How to create a more collaborative environment in business. How do we deal with the fast pace of change and the overwhelming amount of information coming at us daily? Smiley face?

[00:23:33] So one simple comment, because the first thing when I saw this question, which is such a great question in this age that Sara responded with. First thing I thought of is simplicity, right? Simplicity, keeping the small things small, you know, not majoring in the minors, whatever cliche you like. But may in this day and age when we’ve got we’re getting bombarded from podcasts, social media. If there’s Alan, is a good meal coming now. Well, these days. But all the thing all the information is that we’re getting bombarded with so much of it is meaningless. So much of it is noise. And then from an organizational standpoint, you know, how can we Keith as leaders or as team members or as just good colleagues? How can we keep simple thing? How can we how can we just optimize the amount of simplicity in our day to day?

[00:24:29] Is that a really good question? Really, really good question. Indeed. And I think that’s one of the main issues this day, is that there just too much of everything, right? Information, literally everything. Yep. One thing that I like to do when I think about this is I think it has to be when it comes to the team and hiring a good team and just the environment, the environment and your company and your culture, I think it has to start from the very, very beginning, from the time that you’re hiring people. So what I would like, what I usually do or what I like to do with new candidates is just look for adaptability as this candidate adaptable and just ask a couple questions that will give you a little bit more information about his or hers stand when it comes to how quickly they can adapt to change. Because for all, especially in Supply chain, it is very critical. So just hire for that kind of people from the very beginning, even if they don’t have like all their skill sets. I think just adaptability is its key.

[00:25:30] Agreed. Yeah. I think you talk about core behaviors or target behaviors or core values. The collaborative one I think is a powerful one. And you know, we spend a lot of time on those core behaviors or target behaviors. However, you want to work that helping organizations, they look, it’s not a thing that you hang on the wall. It’s how do you interact with one another and you hold each other accountable to it. So if if collaboration is one of the things that you’re striving for. You tell people about it when you’re interviewing them. You talk about it during the reviews. You’re having conversations in the meeting and say, you know, if somebody is not participating with say, hey, guys, remember one of our core behaviors is collaboration and I’m not hearing anything. You know what’s going on on that side of the table or what’s going on with that conversation? To again, there’s the leadership component of whatever role you’re playing. If you’re seeking collaboration or you’re seeking teamwork or you’re seeking trust. You have to articulate. That’s what you want. You have to reinforce it. And you have to communicate it constantly in order so that it can become a true core behavior. Because once it becomes habitual, you will have to think about it anymore. That’s just the way we roll here. We’re collaborative.

[00:26:42] You know what kind of what both you are sharing through a couple different of these answers makes me think is prioritization. You know, I think, you know, going back to that singular mission, it just in in in a in a normal day. Right. What’s the what’s the three most important things we’ve got to get done to day, you know? Thanks. We think of the Lu Holts thing. You know what’s most important now? What’s most important now is simple of of a tool that is ticking. Ask yourself after you complete, you know, Project A-B-C and then you’ve got that that that glorious moment when on your laundry list of things that you can cross it out. Right. That that is such a satisfying thing. Asking yourself, OK, what is the most important thing to do now? I think when we’re moving as fast as we’re moving organizationally, individually, I think effective prioritization and the communication of those parties are also critical in terms of how we can we can deal with this fast paced environment we’re in now.

[00:27:38] Coupled with that, I would say that also saying, no, I think we’re terrible at saying this. Right. I think I’m guilty of that. That’s one of my main areas of opportunity, if you will, because I just always want to participate. And there’s so many different interesting, cool things happening around me that one of the main things is you saying no. And so one of the things that I believe companies and employees and just people all over need to start doing is just being true to themselves, knowing what they really want to accomplish. But then also what they really like, what gives them their positive energy, what drains them from energy. And then just saying no, and it’s OK to say no and it’s OK to push back. It doesn’t even matter if it’s your supervisor or your peer or your friend or your son or daughter or whoever. It’s up some points you have to say no, you have to be comfortable saying no on the other. People should have to be or should feel comfortable being said no. I mean, you guys shouldn’t or people shouldn’t take it as a personal attack of any. It’s just they don’t get personal. Like, listen. No, I said no, I can’t. We can’t focus on anything. Right.

[00:28:44] So just to piggyback on that. And I couldn’t agree more. But turn it off. Right. So, you know, maybe we’re back to the self discipline thing. The only way all of this stuff is coming at us is because we’ve got a computer screen, a tablet, an iPhone, a something in our face all the time. So we have the ability to say no, but turn in the darn thing. All right. And there’s a great book called The Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Surreal, written in the 80s.

[00:29:12] It makes me hungry for pasta.

[00:29:14] I think it’s better to thecollege and proably probably it sounds more Italian to me than on of. I think about pomodoro sauce. Maybe I’m butchering that. Anyway, I’m sorry. Go ahead anyway.

[00:29:26] His technique is that you worked in 25 minute chunks, so it’s not unlike the agile plan for software development. But you work in twenty five minute challenge. You turn off your e-mail, you turn off your phone, you turn off your text. You know, if you want to have music in the background, that’s fine. But for twenty five minutes, you just grind on whatever it is in front of you. And then you take five minutes. You stand up, you stretch, you texture your wife back, you grab a glass of water, and then you come back and you set the timer and you grind again for twenty five minutes. And I’ll tell you, this is one of my time management techniques and I can get done in. Hurley for hours what used to take me six or seven just because I’m not every five minutes checking my email again and every three minutes responding to a text and every five minutes answering a call, I just shut the world out for twenty five minutes. So if something’s an emergency, it ain’t going to change in twenty five minutes. Right. So it happens. And when you when you take the break, you respond to whatever it is and then you keep going. It’s a brilliant, brilliant, simple technique.

[00:30:24] Agreed. Love it. Love the palm of their effect. Let’s wheel it. We’re gonna add that link to the show notes. I think that’s real powerful. Okay. I know we’re gonna try to we’re trying to keep Timbits a question or so to kind of keep moving. Yes.

[00:30:38] Enrique, on that particular question, I know you want to fast. I got a curveball. Go ahead. Go ahead. Well, now I’m a little insecure about what I’m allowed to say, because then I will get the curveball and I will just backfire.

[00:30:49] But I think we have to realize that our organizational structures are not. Made or designed to handle this kind of fast pace and overwhelming information, and I think that the other piece of this puzzle and of course we don’t know the answer, I don’t know the answer yet, but the other piece that we should probably look into is just the organizational structure. I mean, it’s that has to change. We have to work in smaller, more efficient, more nimble teams.

[00:31:16] Perfect. OK. That’s a perfect Segway. And you know, you’re making a Segway. So we got a question from Instagram, Chris from Instagram. Thank you, Chris, for tuning in and engaging. So, Chris, ask as a young professional, what, quote unquote, rules should we be breaking? What workplace slash leadership norms need to go out of style and how do we go about updating them? Question is a good question. So is anything come to mind? Well, let’s let’s break it up. Let’s think about the rule.

[00:31:50] You say the first thing that came to our minds. Yes, please. I would say everything. At least that’s the way we approach work here, Victor. Right. There’s just no there’s no rules. I don’t think that rules are particularly interesting or important. And I’ve of course, I’ve always had a little bit of an issue with authority, and I recognize this. But I think that the more you try it’s it’s more like a test environment these days. So you go and try try if it works, if it doesn’t work, then just come back to the drawing board and try something else until you get it right. And honestly, I don’t think we should seek for perfection. I don’t think we should seek for getting anything right because the culture will continue to evolve as quickly as we are figuring it out. So it’s really more about just trying to to adapt as quickly as you can. You’ll be okay by constantly adapting and never really selling.

[00:32:43] Yeah, well, and I think. Thanks, Chris, for the question. Love the live interaction. This is this is the idea behind this format. We’re excited about this. But I think I would echo that and try what it is that you think is holding you back. So do whatever it is that you think is in your way. And then watch how the organization responds. If it’s a hard and fast culture that that is, you know, steeped in tradition and it comes down heavy on you, maybe that’s not the right place for you. And so for me, from a personal leadership or self leadership perspective, if I think there’s a rule that’s holding back the team or holding back the thing, again, I’m going to I’m going to take my shot and see what happens. And hopefully I’ve got a supportive team. This is hey, that was a good try. But we missed you know, what could we do different to win next time? But if they come down and, you know, it’s a it’s a beat down and they they tell me how bad I screwed up and how much I suck. Yeah. Maybe that’s not gonna be the culture that I want to fit into. Right. Because I have a choice just as much as the company has a choice. There’s no change or we’re not trees. So if we don’t like it, we get up and leave. Correct. Right. So it’s an interesting question for sure.

[00:33:50] Scarily really. Good question. Yeah. From Chris. Great question. So one quick answer to that that I would have is, you know, the days of of needless stuffiness and a formality. That’s one thing has got to change, right? Well, sometimes I think organizations especially I think of the 80s culture in the modern business, we create these needless rules and formality.

[00:34:17] And in it, what’s the what’s the impact? What’s the advantage? What’s the benefit? I think of some of these decision made matrix where you’ve got to get four or five signatures on some very simple decision.

[00:34:29] No. When it’s time for that. Yeah. No one asked us right now when I time for that slot that nobody got to have that thought for sure when you go there.

[00:34:38] Great question, Chris. And you know what, we ought to bake this into the next because I bet if we set sat down and really thought about it, there’s probably a variety rules that we’ve got to be better do a better job of breaking.

[00:34:51] All right. So but yeah. So last hour, I think we’ll be the last question. Yeah. From a timing perspective, this one comes from Amanda.

[00:35:02] I’d love to hear your perspective on inclusion and having diverse teams in the workplace. How do you encourage organizations to step out of their comfort zone and hire or promote or build teams with more diverse perspectives, experiences, backgrounds, cultures, genders, et cetera in mind? Great question, very poignant and relevant right now.

[00:35:22] Yep. So I’ll I’ll leave first here. So a couple examples. I think that that will be recognizable people that first off, Microsoft. Microsoft has a chief accessibility officer. They’ve got a staff with resources. They’re very deliberate and intentional of getting out of their comfort zone and in seeking out diversity and seeking out diversity in a meaningful way that they’re going to bring on the team. I think, you know, if you don’t have dollars and leadership currency behind any initiative, you’re not to do it. Right. Right. So being deliberately intentional of, hey, we’re going to do this. And here’s some resources of how we’re gonna do it so that we can take action and not give lip service. So Microsoft clearly is invested there.

[00:36:09] I think also equally as important is communicating why it’s important. It’s not because it’s the hip thing to do or it’s cliche or whatever it is. It’s because it makes us better. You know, Harvard Business Review is published studies where a diverse team solve problems better. That’s that impacts the bottom line. McKinsey and Company studied 180 companies. Now, think here in the last couple years, 180 global companies and the teams with more diverse leadership teams that up at the top Morde versus there were the ones that were the top financial performers again. But we’ve got to communicate that. That’s why diversity is important. Right. Enrique, your thoughts?

[00:36:50] Yeah. For me, there’s a couple of things there. One very in line. What would you have said? I think creativity and breakthrough comes from conflict and struggle and challenges. And I’m not talking about like the comfort that can break a company, but the actual conflict that can enrich a company, that can make it grow, that can make it learn, they can make it be just a better company. And I think that you you’re just going to have that Froome confrontation and an honest feedback and pushing back. And I’m just arguing about everything or most things that might be important. And so having diversity and recruiting diversity and making sure that your company has people from all different backgrounds, experiences and cultures is very important, because without that, you cannot be creative. You can not be relevant going forward. That would be my main takeaway. Yeah, that question.

[00:37:39] Well, I think you’re going to like this guy. So you’re open door policy is lame.

[00:37:44] Yeah. Right. So I told the leaders and they say, well, I have an open door policy. It’s like art.

[00:37:48] So you want your employees to walk through the office, through all of their colleagues to come into your office and talk to you about a problem. It’s lame. Go talk to your folks. And I think the same thing is true. We know human nature, right? We know ourselves. Now, it’s no mystery that we typically hire folks that are like us, look like us, sound like us. Maybe we you know, we you click on the first conversation. I mean, I really like this guy. Well, you should. He’s just like you. Right. That’s not going to help. And so waiting for people to show up is to me a losing strategy, but saying, all right, how do we go drive this diversity? How do we become proactive and say, all right, we need to reach into different areas because all of our candidates look the same. And I don’t mean physically, I mean similar backgrounds, similar education, similar experiences, similar economic circumstances that they grew up on. And my opinion, you know, they it sounds like you’ve got data to support. It’s got my opinion is those diverse teams that know how to mix it up and really get into it with each other. They’re amazing at solving problems. And, you know, once you get there, again, it’s back to the culture. Once you get the culture right. You go through that storming phase of arguing and fussing and cussing with each other. You come out with a great solution and those people are more close together. They’re not right. It doesn’t break the company. They’re closer. They’re tighter.

[00:39:02] I think in this day and age, in the era of global supply chain global business, we’re never going back. Right. I think if your team is more diverse in a very meaningful, successful way, it is not a leap of faith to believe that you’re your communication across that global supply chain and the problem-solving and the in the open to new ideas. I mean, I think your teams can be better suited for all of that, right?

[00:39:30] Absolutely. Yeah. No, totally. All right. So, honestly, I think that the way I see it right now, I think this is a really good question and it’s very valid.

[00:39:42] But companies that are already kind of trying to figure this out are very late and very, very late to the game. I think this was a probably a good question back in the 80s. But if you’re a corporation or a company or someone that’s still kind of questioning the benefits of having diversity out there, you’re late. You might as well just close shop and start something else because it’s way too late for this. Like there’s shouldn’t be any kind of argument around the fact that diversity creates better teams.

[00:40:09] It’s just too dated for me. So so let’s I want to share something that we’re big here. We’re. Big believers, well, not we’re we’re we’re big believers and taken action. We hate lip service leadership, Ryder act hate lip service leadership. So I think you got to be honest with yourself. Right.

[00:40:28] So here at Supply Chain Now Radio, about three or four months ago, we looked at at the time we part had about 120 episodes. Right. Of of a wide variety of thought leaders. Unfortunately, when we were really honest with ourselves, when we went back, looked all the pictures and very well that all the all the the guests.

[00:40:48] It was a very monolithic wall of thought leaders. Right. And so, first off, you gotta be honest with yourself. Right, when you identify the problem. And then what’s the simple thing? What even some of this most simple things you can do to help your the best of intentions. We didn’t set. We didn’t set out back in May 2017 to offer one universal point of view. We with who we partner with and core to who we are, we wanted to represent a wide variety. But unfortunately, at that point in time, six, eight months ago, we weren’t successful enough in doing just that. So we started create different series that would help us write very be very intentional and do a better job of baking into our master equation. A formula better is something that some produce better results. And I think it just how we learned that from a content generation standpoint, I really think you’re some business lessons there that can be learned when it comes to talent acquisition to manage when it comes to just for that matter, moving past talent, making sure that once you have a diverse workforce, that all all parties are listened to and have an opportunity to contribute and lead and and be successful, right? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Okay.

[00:42:05] But but I mean, I think you’re describing the problem as it exists. Right. So your circle at that time looked a certain way, not by any intentionality. It just happened just happened to be that. And then when you started reaching out into it, what you were getting was a very monolithic perspective. So you changed your approach, you changed the input back background, the earlier question, because you didn’t like the result that you saw. So it’s a it’s a great metaphor for what we’re talking about here. But again, you were proactive, right? You said, hey, there’s a problem, I’m going to change my input. So you went and did it.

[00:42:37] And I think your show was better for it. By the way, I agree. We still got a long way to go. We still have a long way to go. But, yeah, it is a journey. And it but you got to call time out, I think, for you. You got to be honest with yourself. And I think that that is so that applies to all these questions. I think we’ve got we’ve gone through here today, and I think the most successful, effective leaders are just that folks, that they embrace reality as it is. Any any final thoughts around this, this last question that came in from the one and only Amanda Lewton?

[00:43:10] I think just listening right again, I think that it is very true that the world is getting smaller and smaller, whether we like it or not. It is true as well that we’re it’s getting very segregated in different ways. Right? There’s different. We’re all through social media or through technology or through our friend circles or anywhere you want it. We’re hanging out with people that are Lu more like us. We’re liking people are like us. And I think one of the problems we have is that we’re just starting to take sites and there’s tons of sites and there’s way too many sites. And we should all realize that we’re all in this together. We’re all in the world together, we’re all human beings. We’re all have the right to be free, to pursue happiness, to work hard, to have passions, to have goals. And so it’s just listen to each other, no matter if you’re left, right, cold, warm, whatever you want to call each of the different sides out there, just be open to two people.

[00:44:14] And General, hard to pick sides on a round rock.

[00:44:18] That is true. And we found a way that we did. But, you know, very kind of successfully sometimes. Yeah. So. Okay, that’s a good one. That is a. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:44:29] Any final comment? So this was a thought. We had a slate of wonderful questions in the first session that, by the way, we were really publishing here in the next few days. This would this might have been a more challenging slate of questions, I think.

[00:44:45] I think so. And I think, you know, hopefully the series continues to grow and we get the traction that we expect it to because we want to hear from folks who are dealing with things that maybe they don’t have a different outlet to reach out to. So we will have different co coaches. Thank you, Enrique, for joining us.

[00:45:01] Thank you very much for having me. It’s been it’s been a pleasure, as always. And it’s been a lot of fun. So I I enjoyed it. Good.

[00:45:06] Yep, absolutely. And check out Vector Global Logistics vector g l dot com. That’s correct. And your hiring. Thank you so much. Always. Yes.

[00:45:16] Always. Always. I’ve met. Sheer new team members here, and as well as one of the new leaders of the Innovation Center, which is the make side, and to kind of keep her finger on the pulse of folks can reach out to Enrique at Vector Geoduck Common Bohun kinfolks plug in with what you’re doing. I mean, you’re you’re all over the place as well. You’ve got a couple of keynotes coming up. Of course, you’ve got a panel event next week. The Georgia Manufacturing Summit. How can folks learn more and plug in more to your perspective and an expertise?

[00:45:44] Absolutely. So and by the way, my panel at GMH is wildly diverse. So I’m gonna get the diversity award on the panels for sure.

[00:45:53] Yeah, I think the best way would be to connect with me on LinkedIn. That’s Beau B.A.U. Gruver G R O VR and you can check out me there. And we publish a lot of stuff around culture, leadership and teamwork. And then obviously check out my company Web site, the effective syndicate dot com.

[00:46:11] Outstanding. And if for some reason you can’t you’re not finding what you’re looking for. You can shoot us a note to connect at Supply Chain Now Radio dot com and we will make sure to get you plugged in. However, we again. All right. So just a couple of events, actually. You’re going to find Beau Enrique there. Teams you you’re find us. We’re broadcasting live all from the Georgia Manufacturing Summit Wednesday, October 9th. So if you’re if you’re tuned in love, you can take that little nugget and you can go to Georgia manufacturing alliance dot com and you can still register. I think registration is still open open for the next 24 hours. If you’re hearing this and replay side, you have missed a wonderful summer.

[00:46:48] That’s right.

[00:46:50] In the future. But if you are a veteran, we’ve got 50. Jason Loston in the GMH has set aside 50 free seats and they’re still available. You can use the promo code USA vet to obtain a free seat and all that. That is no strings attached. Jason really wants to help veterans make connections and and build their network and learn best practices and and and find opportunities and market intel. So USA vet used the Georgia manufacturing alliance WSJ.com Eurail and sign up for the summit. Looking past the summit, which really excited about rheumy in Charleston with the South Carolina Logistics Tech Talk Broadcasting live on October 23rd, you can learn more at SC Competes dot org. Course are going to Austin. We’ve been touting that for a long time. We’re excited about as Greg who were missing today. Keeping it weird in Austin, I believe is the tag line. November 7th and 8th at the twenty nineteen Logistics CEO forum there in Austin, which our friends at EFP you’re putting on. And then the Reversal Just Association Conference and Expo in Vegas in February and of course, Moto X right here in Atlanta in March. And we have secured our keynote for the 2020 Linas Supply chain Awards, which Moto X 2020 is hosting.

[00:48:09] Christian Fisher, President CEO, Georgia-Pacific We’ll be serving as our keynote. Moto X is free to attend, Modoc showed com. And of course we’re gonna be publishing our registration and our nomination links for the Atlanta Supply chain 2020 link supply chain awards in the next few days. Nitty gritty. All right. Big thanks to our guests here today on the latest installment of The Coach’s Corner on the Leadership Matters podcast series right here on Supply Chain Now Radio, which is sponsored by the Effective syndicate. It’s been hosted by Vector Global Logistics Enrique Alvarez with Vector. Wonderful addition to your network. You can find your on your LinkedIn as well. Yes, a mover and shaker link dancer. Check him out there. As Bobe mentioned, bows all over LinkedIn. Folks are are consuming their hunt, their hunt you down for your content. If you knew that, I didn’t. But I’m glad. Yeah, I stopped some people coming here with a big net. They’re going to take you back to their organization and put you in front of a microphone. Not lots of blog articles. Of course, podcast keynotes. I’m looking forward to your panel bit next week, but you can connect with Bo Groover and it’s spelled B.A.U.

[00:49:16] Groover and you can check them out. Linked-In, big thanks to you both for joining us. Thanks for having us. You bet. For having us. And thanks to our audience for for tune and end. The questions from Amanda and Jessica and Jason, Zara and Jason and Chris. Man, that was tough to stand and deliver.

[00:49:36] And they walk through some of this, but that that’s critical to this formula and getting great input. Frank questions from from folks that are that we were all trying to get better. Right. And that’s a critical component. Sustained. So stay tuned for more additions of the coach’s corner and we’re gonna be looking for more tough questions. All right. So to our audience also, be sure to check out other upcoming events, replays or interviews, other resources at Supply Chain Now Radio dot com. You can find us just about everywhere. Apple, podcasts, SoundCloud, YouTube, all the leading sites where you find your podcast. Be sure to subscribe. So go and see thing on behalf of the entire Supply Chain Now Radio team. This is Scott Luton wishing you a wonderful week ahead and we will see you next time on Supply Chain Now Radio. Thanks everyone.