What Happens When You Make A Successful Company Culture

Welcome to beyond you'd why podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Gary Sanchez. At the why Institute, we've helped over 40,000 people discover, make decisions and connect using their why. This show will be much more powerful for you once you know your own why. So head over to whyinstitute.com and discover your why. Today you're going to meet one of the leaders who've discovered their why with us and is going to share their story and the powerful lessons they've learned.

Welcome to beyond you'd why Podcast, where we go beyond just talking about your why and actually helping you discover and then live your why. So if you're a regular listener, you know that every week we talk about one of the nine whys and then we bring on somebody with that why so you can see how their why has played out in their life. And so today we're going to be talking about the why of contribute. About 22% of the population has this why. And so if this is your why, then you yearn to be part of a greater cause. Something greater than themselves, than yourself. You do not want to be the cause, rather to contribute to it in a meaningful way. You want to make a difference in the lives of others in an organization or a cause that you believe in. You love to support others and relish the success of the greater good, the company growth and victory of the team. People with this why seek to add value in all that they do, do their part and help in whatever way possible. You are often behind the scenes looking for ways to make the world a better place. When you show up in a more public forum, it is often to trumpet a message or support a movement. People with this why are go to people, the ones you look for. When you need help with just about anything. You make reliable and committed teammates. Virtually every organization must have contributors in order to operate successfully. They act as the glue that holds everyone else together. They use their time, energy, resources and connections to add value to other people. So today I've got a great guest for you. His name is David McLennan and let me read you his bio. He says, I started my career in the insurance and financial services industry and worked my way through college achievement. High performance and self development through success. Habits have been my calling card. I've built several businesses through creating relationships and adding value by solving challenging problems. I've met those challenges through the power of working with others. Culture, development and team growth have been instrumental in my success. As part of several startups, Intentional Culture helped grow the company rapidly and numerous fast growth awards. I help leaders execute their strategy by forming their own success habits, building their people, and intentionally creating a winning culture. David, welcome to the podcast.

Gary, thank you so much. It's so great to be here. It's interesting to hear you read that. As I just got done figuring out my personal why, how and what. So thank you for letting me be here. This is great.

Well, let's talk about that for a minute. So those of you that are listening, David and I just the last two hours we have spent together with him and some of his tribe, helping them go through discovering their why, how and what. So what was that like for you?

Well, it was really fantastic because I think that as I thought through the process that you developed, it really helped me to discover more about myself and it really helped me to really bring some clarity, I think, around not only what I do, but how I do it and really how to talk about what I do. So, you know, it goes back to starting with why and starting with that contribute that I want to be able to contribute to a greater cause and add value. Yep.

And so tell everybody what is your why, what is your how? What is your what?

So my why is to contribute to a greater cause and add value. How I do that is by challenging the status quo. What I bring is a trusting relationship.

So that's awesome to know about you. So his why is contribute is how is challenge and his what is trust. So he is that guy that's going to find a way to have an impact in your life by getting you outside of that box that's kept you where you are now and he's going to bring it to you in a trusting, loving way where he kind of like grabs your hand and says, here, let me help you down the process and we'll do it together. How does that feel to you?

Yeah, it feels. I mean, it feels spot on. I mean, it feels exactly. It describes the way I've built businesses that I've helped, helped my clients and really been able to create, I think my, you know, success in my own life.

Yeah, so it's really interesting to read what you had before because I didn't know that. I didn't know what you had written there as far as your bio. And now read it from the perspective of your why, how and what. And this is the same thing with other people. So there were other people on there with us. And what do you. What did you see in them?

Yeah, I saw the light bulbs going off because they were really discovering more about themselves. And it's kind of like I saw head shaking, like, oh, yeah, that's me. Oh. Oh, yeah. Oh, now that makes sense. And so there was a lot of that going on. And really being able to have that enlightenment to oneself, I think it's a great thing. I mean, as a coach, as a culture development person, I enjoy helping people discover more about themselves because when they can discover more about themselves, then they can not only contribute and they could live off their why and their purpose.

Yeah. And, you know, so that fits perfectly with your why. So another way to think about your why, for those of you that are listening, the why of contribute is people with this why feel like they're that little pebble that you throw into the pond and it creates that ripple effect so that they can have a bigger and a bigger and a bigger impact. So you have a bigger impact by helping other people have a bigger impact.

Right, right. Yeah. And it's interesting too, because I named my company Impact Leadership Consulting. So, I mean, it's kind of like starting to kind of fall into place. And I'm really seeing, you know, putting the pieces of the puzz. So it's really pretty fascinating.

So you've gone from a feeling to a knowing.

Right, Right. Yeah. It's one of those things where you can kind of feel it, but now you know it in your head and you can really put those two things together. And I think for me, it's being able to articulate it better and articulate it in a more concise way as well. As I think about my bio, I'm going to actually go back and rewrite it now.

So one of the things that. What he's talking about there is one of the things that we do in the workshop is I actually try to get everybody to make it very concise, very simple. Sixth grade English, Right. No big fancy words. We don't need to sound impressive because nobody's impressed with us anyways. Right. The more we try to make ourselves impressive, the less impressive we become. Because they don't know what the heck you said.

Exactly.

And you did a great job with that.

Thank you. Thank you.

So let's go back in your life a little bit. Let's talk about how did you get into coaching and helping people with their culture.

Yeah, it's interesting, Gary. So I started my career in the insurance industry and I was a partner with my dad. So my dad was actually my first mentor, and I helped him to begin to build a business. He. For the first time in the history of the state of Indiana, the Blue Cross Blue Shield association in the state back in 1985, I think it was, created a general agent contract and so he needed help doing that. And so I literally, I was working my way through college selling life insurance. Here I am, a 20 year old, 21 year old kid selling life insurance to these, you know, 35, 40, 50, sometimes 60 year old people. It was pretty an interesting time in my life and is quite a learning journey. But that beginning really helped me to realize or understand that I wanted to be able to contribute to somebody else's success. In this case it was my dad's success and that really followed me throughout my career. The last company that I helped create was a company in the technology and wellness space and I was a part of the contribution team. And so it's funny now that I'm looking back on it to see how that has worked in my career.

And so your. How being challenging the status quo. Tell us about that. What kinds of things do you do to help people? What do you mean by that? And tell us about it.

Yeah, so as I look at things I always ask why? Why is that? Or what else could we think about? What are some other possibilities? As I look back, especially in my last company that I was a part of, which actually took me to your part of the world and gave me a love of Albuquerque and New Mexico as a state in general is challenging the status quo really helped me to help that company to do things in a way that they may not have thought about in any other way. And so there was one way of looking at things and then I took it to a different level and said, hey, well what if we did it this way? And so I had a lot of leeway because we were a startup, I had a lot of leeway and could actually, you know, to use a, an overused phrase, think out of the box or beyond the box, so to speak.

Yeah. So is that something that you pretty much do everywhere you go you find a way you want to help somebody. So you look at the box they've put them in themselves in and say, okay, how do we get out of this box?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I think a lot of companies and business owners, they will get stuck in the way they're doing things and the way they're thinking. And so I help them to be able to look beyond that, to look into the possibilities of what else exists or what other possibilities, what other ways could we do that and really think beyond where they are right now and that whether that's with Culture, whether that's with their executive leadership team, but being able to help them to grow. I mean, at the end of the day, my job is to help them to grow and help them to think beyond where they are right now. And so challenging the status quo is a great way to help them to do that, to think in a way that's. That's different than what they're thinking right now.

So let's talk for a minute about culture. What is culture? What are we talking about? People say, I gotta. I gotta work on my culture. What is culture?

I think of it very simplistically, and I think of it's the way we do things around here. So at the base level, it's really about behaviors. And so I talk a lot about behaviors as culture and not mission, vision, and values. And I have to say, you know, that mission, vision, and values are incredibly important. Don't get me wrong. But the way I look at it is that the behaviors are how we live out our values and how we move towards and live out our mission as well. So really, for me, it is all about behaviors. And then taking it one step further, then it is not just about, like, articulating the behaviors that will contribute to our success, but. But it's actually creating habits. And we create habits through rituals. So I take my clients through a process of not only just articulating their behaviors, but then creating the rituals that will lead to their people consistently carrying out those behaviors in the organization so that they can then live their purpose and live their mission.

So give us an example then of a good culture versus a more challenging culture.

Yeah, so I think of a good culture. I always go back to an example of mine that I. That I love, and it's the Ritz Carlton. If anybody has ever stayed at Ritz Carlton, you know, the experience of walking into one of their properties. And the cool thing is about the Ritz Carlton is that every human being in that organization, at every property, everywhere in the world, at the start of their shift, they're going to go through a ritual. And that ritual is. We're going to talk about our daily basic. So that daily basic could be something like, you know, and I don't have those memorized, but it's something like, you know, provide an amazing experience for our guests. Well, an amazing culture, and a great culture is going to have that element of some kind of ritual. And sometimes when we use the word rituals, people get, you know, kind of weird things in their heads. But if you think about it right now, in any Industry, you're going to have either a startup huddle could be a startup meeting at the beginning of a shift. I know that in manufacturing, I have some clients that are in manufacturing, they have a lean startup meeting. So they talk about the SQVD boards. And so as you go through that process, you can also implement conversation about your culture in terms of behaviors. For example, you know, maybe this week's behavior statement is look ahead and anticipate. So that ritual of talking about looking ahead and anticipating can help us to implement that into our business. So that's kind of the long answer to your question, Gary, and that is that a great culture has some elements of, first of all, having a definition of, you know, how do we do things around here? And then secondly, having some ritual to be able to create a way that we practice over and over and over and over again.

I love that.

Yeah.

You know, I went through some training with the Ritz Carlton last year, and they showed us the video that they use to welcome somebody into the team.

I don't know if you.

Have you seen that one?

I have. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. Where it says, if you were the best golfer in the world, you'd be Tiger Woods. If you were the best actor in the world, they picked Jackie Chan. If you were the best this in the world, you would be this. And they had a few of them go on with this great music. And then if you were working for the best customer service company in the world, you'd be working for the Ritz Carlton. And you are. And it was like, yeah, almost brought. I'm not doing a great job of explaining, but it almost brings you to tears. When I was sitting there watching, man, I would want something like that.

Well, and you know, in the language that you use, Gary, it's really connecting to the limbic system. It's the limbic part of the brain. It's connecting to the emotions. And so it's helping that person connect to the organization's why. And frankly, a good culture does that. A good culture connects to the company's why.

Ah, so you think it might be valuable for the company to know their why?

Absolutely, absolutely. You know, and really, it's interesting because I believe that companies who know their why are going to outperform companies that don't. And I've seen it, you know, time and time again. And as I've worked with companies and leaders and leadership teams, it's so true, because those companies are able to be aligned and put people in the right seats, on the right seats of the bus. And so when a company knows their why, they will find their way and they will actually lead the way.

So when I think about culture, how does a, where does the company. The culture comes from? The why. But if companies don't know their why, then does that mean their culture is kind of more scattered? Or how do you, how does that fit together?

Yeah.

So let me ask you this, hold on. Is there, does culture exist whether it's defined or not?

Yeah, it's a good. Yeah, great question. Yeah. A culture exists whether you define it or not. I'll often say that, you know, you can either have a culture by design or by default. Most companies, it's by default. And so what I see in great companies and companies like the Ritz Carlton like we were just talking about, they've designed it. World class companies design their culture and they create a very specific and intentional way to work within the organization and the way they, that they do things.

Yeah. So if I'm listening to this and I've, and I'm thinking, man, I really need some help with my culture. I don't even know what it is. What are the steps to creating that culture other than calling you so they can call you, which is okay too.

That's okay too. Yeah, yeah.

But if they haven't yet, what would be the steps to creating a great culture? What do you see that works the best?

I'm glad you asked that because I use an eight step framework when I help companies to implement a high performing culture. And the first step is to define the culture and define it in terms of behaviors, go through, think into what are the, that I see our people doing that lead to success. One of the things I'll often do in a facilitation session with the senior leadership team is that I'll ask them, you know, what is it that drives your CEO crazy? And then think the opposite of that. Or another way to think of it is who is it in your organization that you would love to clone? I mean, think about it, you know, think, you know, and when they, you know, there's a light bulb that goes off and somebody has, you know, always comes up with, oh, it's Karen. Oh yeah, we would love to have 150 Karens around. Well, why is that? What does Karen do? And then we start to, you know, hear, well, gosh, she's a fanatic about response time. Oh man, she, she, you know, she listens generously. So you hear some of those behaviors and then you can articulate those behaviors. So the first step, any culture Development is to define your culture in the success behaviors that lead to your success.

Okay, well, let me. Before we get to step two, I struggled for the longest time with understanding why culture was so important. I get that it's good for client team retention. I get that it's more fun. But I didn't understand how it impacted the bottom line for an organization. I heard it. When it finally became real to me is when I went to the course with the Ritz Carlton and she talked about it and so what's been your experience? How does having a great culture lead to a better business?

Have you discovered your why yet? You can join us for that essential first step in a live virtual event with myself and the other leaders from the Y Institute. Head over to yinstitute.com and register for the Y Discovery Live webinar. Now let's get back into it.

One more profit.

Yes, absolutely. So, you know, anecdotally I can also, I mean, I could talk about my clients and how they've improved their bottom line, but when I, when I talk to people who are, you know, mastery or better way, I talk about the Harvard Business professors who did a study at companies who have created an intentional culture. And there's a book called Conscious Capitalism by Raj Sisodia, and I think it's John Mackey. And in the appendix of that book, they actually give the citation and some of the study results. The companies. I'm doing this from memory, but I think the profit of companies who were intentional with their culture was something like 900% greater than those companies who didn't invest in their culture and who didn't intentionally create and drive and lead their culture. So there are some actual studies, some scientific studies that show companies have created their culture in a very intentional way outperform those who don't. And so I always look to those things for more, like quote, proof of the concept. But at the end of the day, most CEOs have a gut intuition that, look, I know this is going to drive my bottom line results. Matter of fact, I've done a workshop with Vistage people. So that's a peer group of CEOs. And you know, when I ask the question, you know, how important is culture to the bottom line results of the organization? On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being, you know, it's super important, it's critical, and then one being, no, not so much. I mean, 99% of them are either 10 or, you know, maybe nines, you know, and so they know that intuitively when you look at the scientific studies, then that kind of proves it out.

One of the things I learned from that event, from the Ritz Carlton was how they proved that culture had a direct correlation to their bottom line. And they said the reason that they believe that culture is so important is because when you have a great culture, people want to spend time with you, your business. And when they spend time at your business, they spend money at your business. And that's what they figured out. Which, for example, if someone's going to go, they're going to. At lunchtime, they're going to be hungry, they're going to go somewhere. So if we can create a culture where they want to be here and spend their entire time with us, then they're going to spend a lot more here than if they go somewhere else. That was interesting.

That is. That's really fascinating. Yeah, they've. They're definitely one company that's. That's figured that out. I absolutely love their story.

Even here. As a dentist, if. If people come here and they just can't wait to get out the door, you know, it's gonna be hard to schedule whatever's next. But if you're like, they like to talk to everybody and they like hanging around, which is actually the case here, then they're like, okay, well, what am I supposed to do next?

Right. Versus Absolutely.

How do I get out of here?

Exactly. I need to get out of here quick. Right.

Okay. So we got, number one was define it.

Yes. So number two is to create rituals or define those rituals, because every company has certain cadences. If you want to call them a cadence or a rhythm, every company has those. And so create the rituals or the cadences that will lead to people practicing. So let me give you an example. Most of the companies that I work with will have a cultural insight of the week. And so it typically will start with the CEO. When we're first starting these, we'll start with the CEO, and that CEO will talk about the leadership insight or the culture insight of the week around that cultural behavior. So let's take, for example.

Listen generously. That's a common behavior in companies. And so he or she will talk about why is it so important to listen generously? For example, like you're in your world as a dentist. You need to listen generously to your patients as they come in to be able to understand why are they here? Is it pain or. Or is it vanity? Is it because I want my smile to look good and so I need to get my teeth whitened or I Need to get them fixed. So listening generously is a way to connect with our people. And so that insight going out every week is a way to be able to help their people recognize why this particular cultural behavior is important. Now, the next week, it may be practicing blameless problem solving, whatever that is, but on a weekly basis, that leadership insight goes out via email to all employees. Another ritual could be as I was maybe referring to a little bit earlier, and that is a startup meeting. So having a quick conversation about, hey, today, you know, our leadership or I mean, our cultural behavior is practice blameless problem solving. Hey guys, what gets in the way of us practicing blameless problem solving? Then having like a two minute conversation in that startup meeting doesn't have to be long, but then that keys in everybody's head to think about, oh, we need to practice blameless problem solving. So when things go bad today or go, you know, not the way we wanted them to go, let's look at the process of practicing blameless problem solving. And that is, hey, let's fix the problem first and then let's figure out what, you know, what went wrong and why it went wrong. And then maybe if we need to, let's fix the process. So there's steps involved in that. But having that conversation really keys everybody in every day of the week. And so most companies will take that behavior one a week for every week of the year. And it creates an environment of, hey, this is always top of mind and it helps to be able to teach that. And I really think that teaching culture is a leadership function.

I love that. Have you got ritual cards?

Yeah, absolutely. Actually we do. I'm pulling one out here right now. So one of my clients has put together these little like we call them the way cards. So essentially what they are is these are the listing of their fundamentals, their cultural behaviors, and then they can practice this every week. So, you know, if the first one is be customer experience focused, we know what we're going to, we're going to read that, we're going to talk about it and have a quick conversation about that.

Oh, I love that. I love that we have vision cards here. Our office, kind of a similar thing, you know, where we talk about where we're going. But okay, so one, we got define it. Number two, we got to define the culture. Number two, we got define rituals.

Yep.

What do we got for three?

So number three is to select people based on those behaviors that we found are going to contribute to our success. So when we select the right people, that's Going to create the environment that will be contributing to our success. You know, and you take a look at, again, like the Ritz Carlton, they're looking for people who want to provide that service that's above and beyond everything else. And they want to be able to create a service that is just beyond what they get at, say, a Marriott, for example. Yeah.

Okay, so then number four, we got. So number one, defined it. Number two, define the rituals. Number three, select the people that want to deliver it.

Yep. Number four is integrating the people. So it's an integration process. Some companies will call this orientation or onboarding, but I like to use the phrase integration, and I use that word very intentionally because it's taking someone who is, you know, somewhere else that they've been in another company. And now we're putting our jersey on them, we're putting our brand on them. And so we want to integrate them into our culture. And it's a process of letting them know what our cultural fundamentals are, what they. And why we're doing what we're doing. So it's connecting to our why, and it's. It's really being able to then, in a sense, putting the prescription lenses of. On the people who are hiring so that they understand how we do things around here.

Okay, and then number five is.

Yep. So. So five is communicating. Communicating it everywhere we go. A lot of companies will have, you know, you. I think I can see successories type of things on the. On your wall. So a lot of companies will have those success labels all over their wall or pictures on their wall. So doing something like that, having your fundamentals on the wall, on screensavers, on mouse pads, on, you know, little cards that articulate them. So communicating in certain common language helps to solidify the organization's culture. So communication is so key.

Okay. And number six.

Yep. So coaching our culture is really the sixth step. Coaching it. When we define our culture in terms of behaviors, it is so much easier to teach it and to coach it and to give feedback on behaviors. So coaching is a critical step in helping our people to really live out and behave and create the environment that we want.

Awesome. Okay, now number seven.

Yeah. So number seven is. And this is the part that scares a lot of leaders, but it's leadership example. It's leading by example and living out the behaviors. Now, is everybody going to be perfect? Are leaders going to be perfect? No, absolutely not. Matter of fact, I had one CEO that I was working with, and we were in the boardroom and we were discussing this idea, this framework. He said, you know, guys, I love this idea, and I know that we need to do it, but I'm really scared because I know that I'm not going to live up to these behaviors all the time. And I stopped him and I said, you know, I think, Pat, one of the things that you need to do is when we roll this out to your employees, you need to talk about that, and you need to be very vulnerable and transparent with your people, because that's the one thing that will help them to know that we don't have to have this perfect, but we want to be able to. These are what we are aspiring to. And he did, and I was super proud of him because he got up in front of his entire employee population and said, hey, look, these are our behaviors that will contribute to our success. You may see me not living up to these, and I need you to help me because I want to be able to live up to them. And it's. So leadership example is one of the keys of a great culture. It's also hard, and it's something that scares a lot of leaders, but it's super important.

And then number eight.

So the eighth step is accountability. There's nothing without accountability. And we have to be able to let people know that culture is ultimately important and normally ask the question. I'll ask you, Gary, what do you think is the ultimate form of accountability for our culture? How would you answer that?

Ultimate form of accountability.

Accountability to yourself.

Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one. What else?

Ultimate form of accountability. Give me an example. Maybe. I'm not sure how to answer that one.

Well, we started with a selection process, right? So really, I think the ultimate form of accountability is a deselection process. There are times when we create our fundamentals, our behaviors that at one time, there was a person that fit where we were as a company, but maybe they don't fit where we are now. So we have to deselect them and help them to be able to move on in their career to a place that maybe better fits for their behaviors. And so, at the end of the day, we have to be super serious about it. And I give this example because a lot of times companies will have people who hold certain things that they fear losing. Salespeople, for example. If you have a salesperson who is super, super great at what they do, they're bringing in tons of revenue, but they're a jerk, you know, and they. They just cause trouble within the organization. What you're really saying is Is, hey, if you bring in lots of money, but you're a jerk, that's okay. But when people get really serious about their culture, they say, no, I don't care if you're, you know, if you're bringing in tons of money. If you're a jerk, you don't belong here. So it's really being able to take that seriously. And most CEOs have a real difficult time with that component because they fear losing that salesperson or that IT person or, you know, that CFO who really has intimate knowledge of their business. So, anyway, so accountability is the eight step. So that's, that's the eight step framework. We.

Define. We create rituals, we select. We select people based on those behaviors. We integrate, we communicate, we coach, we lead by example, and then we create accountability for our culture.

And so when you have the right culture, you can have a bigger impact.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

And that's right up your alley.

Indeed it is.

Well, listen, David, thank you so much for being here. You know, if there are people that want to get ahold of you, I know you do more than just culture. How can people get ahold of you? What's the best way for them to connect with you? Because I love the way you laid that out.

It makes it.

It makes it, to me seem possible. Sometimes culture just seems like this mysterious thing that we're never going to be able to figure out. And you just put it in a sequence there where if I had somebody holding my hand through it, I think I could even do it.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It's really just a practical approach. But to answer your question, people can reach out to me. I'm on LinkedIn an awful lot, so I do a lot of posting on LinkedIn and sharing some cultural knowledge, leadership content. Reach out to me on LinkedIn. You can also send me an email at Davidavidmcglennan.com youm better spell McGlennon. Yep, it's MCG L E N N E N. So it's DavidMcLennon. M C G L E N N E N dot com.

Oh, and then go to your website and learn a lot more about you too.

Yes, absolutely. Sure can.

Well, you and I just got to spend three hours together.

How about that?

Three hours. And I am full of energy still. And I know you are too.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and you know, Gary, I mean, it is really true because when you connect with your why, it is energizing. And so I want to be able to be aligned with that. And when we are, man, it just brings so much energy, and it brings such a difference to our day. Yeah.

And so you have a whole team like that. So when you talk about integrating the right people or selecting the right people now, it becomes a little easier to do that. Putting the right person on the bus and in the right seat where they're going to have that energy.

Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.

And I can't imagine you're saying everybody has to be the same.

Oh, no.

Yeah.

No. Yeah. And a lot of times I'll say, look, we want people to have the same values as we have and be okay with these behaviors, but they need to think differently. Because just like each one of our whys is different, there are nine different whys. And so each one of those whys help us to be able to see the business from a different angle and really help us then to live our mission and our vision and our values in a way that's more complex and it's more robust. Yeah.

Awesome. Well, David, thank you for spending three hours with me. It's been a lot of fun and I really appreciate it.

It's been a blessing.

And look forward to staying in contact as we move forward.

Absolutely. Gary, thank you. Appreciate all you eat, all that you do.

Thank you. Take care. Thank you so much for joining me for today's episode. Every listen, share and review helps others learn about their why, how, and what. Together, you and I can help 1 billion people find their why. If you haven't discovered your why yet, head over to to yinstitute.com and discover yours today. See you there, my friend.