Send Mark Age with airSlate SignNow

Send mark age

[Music] [Applause] [Music] all right hello and welcome to another expert inside interview my name is John golden from sails pop online says magazine and pipeliner sales pipeline a CRM and today I'm joined by Mark Babbitt who is in Colorado how you doing mark I'm doing fine John how are you great and Mark after a diverse career in Silicon Valley mark is now a mentor facilitator and speaker helping people all over the world and he c co author of the bestseller a world gone social how companies must adapt to survive and this is what we wanted to talk about today because mark is one of the experts on the transition from the Industrial Age to the social social age so let's just kind of baseline this mark what do you what do you mean by the transition to the social age well we you know we especially we leaders in in the corporate world but also everybody that that that has had the privilege of following some really dynamic leaders understand that leadership itself has changed dramatically over the last decade or so maybe even the last two decades that we we needed to transition from that autocratic decisive bold I'm in charge you're just lucky to have a job kind of guy we call it we now call it old white guy disease and we mean that quite literally it was older boomer males that that were the primary leaders you know 20 30 years ago and we've had to make this transition now to to to be leaders that are more collaborative and more vulnerable and and and less decisive and and and and perhaps more open to other people's suggestions and it's been it's been a transition that we especially corporate America in Western civilization in general just look at what's happening in Washington DC right now has not made very gracefully at all and it's a it's it's a challenge that that that requires our attention so how do you so how do you guard against when you go through big changes like that you have the autocratic on one side one end of the pendulum and then you have the other end of the pendulum you know maybe overly collaborative maybe overly sensitive in all how do you strike the balance because often what happens in a transition is the pendulum swings all the way over here and there has to be a settling period right well and it has and and if you don't mind me saying it's even taken kind of a hybrid form I mean you look at the at the Brock culture that happened in Silicon Valley that wasn't an old white guy disease that was hey let's all be buddies and let's act like we did in college and that as we've now proven over and over again that's not a great solution either right so so when we work with leaders we we talk a lot about yes be vulnerable yes be an active listener of course you want to be collaborative but you're still the leader and and and you can delegate a lot of things you can delegate research in and process but you can't delegate decision Authority and and it's actually been quite reassuring to see people especially in the last five or six years ago you know what I do own this and ultimately this is my decision and yes I'm gonna listen to as Mini's I'm gonna surround myself with amazingly smart people but the end of the day this is my thing and I got a or our thing and and we I or we have to make the best possible decision for us and and so it did swing you know late late last decade we saw a huge swing and unfortunately having to write when the recession hit is and now everybody wants to be vulnerable well we're not we're not getting anything done we're not we're not we're not correcting this this economic downturn we're in because nobody wants to make a decision and and it's it it hurt us and you know back then I will also add the the divisive nature especially here in the u.s. of our politics started playing a role there you know we stopped it stopped being for us and about me and and that didn't help either yeah I I'm and I agree with you and I think that's it's an interesting dynamic that we have in the workplace now where you know people people I mean I of fear nowadays that number when people are walking on eggshells a lot of the time there's people are very averse to conflict right and yes there used to be far too much conflict in the workplace but once upon a time now it's like everybody avoids it again it's like how do you how do you how do you show people what are the right things to be focused on on what are things that really you're making the place you're making the environment worse by doing oh well the first key to that John is to file you to focus just as much on values as you do results right if we know the kind of company we we strive to be and here are the behaviors we needed to show to be that then and everybody agrees to that and one from another either either either through helping with a decision-making process or or just by learning it through onboarding and and and you know learning more and more about the company culture once you agree to that when you're not exhibiting those behaviors then it's easy to say hey guys timeout I know this is a tough conversation to start god knows we're all we all want to avoid conflict right now but I don't think we're I don't think we're on our best behavior right now I I don't think we're we're we're exhibiting those behaviors and so let's take a timeout just regroup a minute and let's start that tough conversation because we got to get that out of the way and and and that's what we tell these all the time John is part of being a good leader now is certainly being willing to start the tough conversations and then and then talk new a little bit about so you say where we're transitioning into the social age and most people like equate that well it's all with social media and all of that right but in some ways social media and all this connectedness has made us kind of slightly more disconnected maybe certainly more superficial maybe hiding behind technology too much so when you're talking about companies building culture and living values how do you leverage the the technologies and the social elements social media elements in the best way but not you but not allow them to become something to hide behind well what a great question so first of all we especially with our leaders but but also with our culture clients we talk a lot about don't don't allow social media digital media to become an unproductive time suck and and it it's it really has just just like our transition from the the the Industrial Age to the social age it really has come full swing I mean I was I was recently in New York's Witte in New York City and I was on the subway and Rich's it was there was a single person who was looking up right and everybody's heads were in their phone every stop every time we got banned with everybody's heads would go there was zero conversation zero eye contact and maybe in New York City that's not a bad thing but it was I looked around I kind of chuckle don't went wow we have gone way too far and here so here's the key John is is we now have the ability to connect with more brilliant people than we ever have in our lives but it can't stop at social media we have to pick up the damn phone we have to find out how we can work together to create a mutually beneficial long lasting relationship that both of us will thrive within in and that's where we're stopping that's where that's where the you know if if all we're doing is is is thumb keyboarding and we're not actually building that human to human interaction we we have kind of failed the the the system and we certainly haven't lived up to the potential that social digital media offers us yeah I have to agree and it's it is amazing nowadays I mean you go into a restaurant whatever even the people sitting next to you at the table aren't talking to each other and they're all on their phones which makes that happen by the way that happens in our home dining rooms to which I think it makes it it makes certainly makes it easier for people to go and eat on their own because once upon a time you used to be if you were sitting in a restaurant on your own you were conscious of the fact that everybody was looking at you now they're not looking at you so it's at least there's an upside there somewhere yeah so when you've done work with companies can you give me some examples you have to name companies but just some examples where you've seen this transition being executed really well and how that was done and what the results were well I I will tell you that that are our best clients fall into one or two categories it is quite often that old white guy who wakes up one day and he says you know I'm I am getting up there and it's time to start thinking about not just the third quarter results but my legacy what what have i what am i brought to the world and what am i leaving behind and when that epiphany happens when that transition that personal transition happens now they start looking in their company and going well what what is our culture what are we known for what do we want to be known for what's the gap between current and ideal and and so often that that epiphany drives change right and and that that is maybe the best of all scenarios because there's little little selling that has to be done there it's like okay I just need to get it done what what our next steps right now the other probably just as common is is the leader who based on marketplace demands including calls for different leadership says if I'm not the right guy to lead this company right now I better delegate it to somebody who is and and maybe I don't need to be social maybe I don't need to be big on digital maybe I don't need a great relationship builder but I better have a right-hand person that does this that says that all of that really well and that is becoming more and more common as as we as we break into the latter half of this decade where where they just they're self-aware enough to realize I'm not the right person but I know who is right and and and then they become a mentor of sorts right and in that that's that is not a bad way to make a transition either so you mentioned culture there and in a lot of organizations culture happens organically or is left to happen organically it's not an active thing or something that's focused upon when you work with clients how how difficult is it to to help a company develop a a deliberate culture as opposed to just have an organic one spring up will you use the word organic we use the word accidental and either one it can be can be appropriate most cultures are organic some especially when it turns a negative like the bra culture kind of did it becomes accidental and and it almost always takes on the personality of the primary founder or the CEO right the leader and and so we sit down and we we actually don't ask the leaders what kind of culture they want we ask the employees mm-hmm and and we have a wonderful tool created by human Synergistics where we can actually survey the employees and say so what is it if you'd like to work here now and how would you like it to feel and that provides us with that almost instantaneous quantified number of how far are we apart from how things really work and how we want them to work and then we take that to the leaders and go okay here's here's where we're not quite in line current versus idea but the good news is here some levers for change and here's how we can start making a difference right away and and we haven't had in the last ten years we haven't had a leader that once that said oh no we're not doing that right they they want to build everybody wants to build a great company everybody wants to be a bleep a great place to work and so once we show data then it's it's it's not too hard to start building a plan to close that gap between current and ideal and so when you do this assessment this with with the employees what are some of the common things that you found that come up you know on a regular basis well almost in in almost every case there's three that come to the surface communication both top to bottom and bottom to the top people want to be listened to they want to know they have a voice second is that is it is this innate sense of fulfillment that we want from our work now you know people are tired tired of trading dollars for four hours and they they want to know that they're contributing something bigger than that paycheck and bigger than themselves and so that's number two and number three follows along the same lines they want to be recognized for doing good work and and the Industrial Age well the fact is that kind of kind of beat the crap out of us on that issue right we just do your job do what you're paid to do earn your money earn your keep and and you know the trade is the trade real and it's fine and now people are gonna know it's not good enough and and I really besides a paycheck I want to be recognized for doing good work mm-hmm and tell me a little bit about this the second one in particular this idea of fulfillment because this is one that I find particularly interesting because we all want to feel fulfilled and we want to be we want to feel that there's meaning in the work that we're doing but maybe some people take a little too far but so how do you how do you help people and organizations uncover the meaning and purpose in what they're doing well but another great question that the reality is first there has to be some level of alignment right if my personal values if my career goals don't match the the values of the company and in the trajectory or the company then we have misalignment and we're never we're never going to see I die right we're gonna we're gonna trade dollars for hours period right so that's the first thing second thing is we we have to figure out how we want to be recognized I mean the reality is everything so we'll throw a pizza parlor and we'll and we'll get Betty a plaque and we'll embarrass her in front of 400 people well not everybody appreciates that right it's it takes them well out of their comfort zones so so and this is where things John like employee engagement right we've been working on this employee engagement thing trying to treat everybody the same cued by a fancy software program that says hey it's Betty's five-year anniversary go get her a plaque right right we've been we've been playing that game for 30 years and and we spent billions of dollars to fix employee engagement and it's even worse now than it was mm-hmm because people don't need the plaque they don't need the the pizza they they just want a pat on the back figuratively or literally and say wow you nailed this today right and then that walked from the front door to the car to the train there there's a little bounce in the step there and that's so that's what we help companies do is realize there's especially when it comes to recognition and value and purpose there there has to be first alignment and there has to be a human connection and and that's something that a software program a plaque can't give us right it has to be one-on-one yeah I couldn't agree more and I know and you know you worked in Silicon Valley I worked in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era and I remember well and today some organizations still repeat the the whole mistake of thinking a foosball table and a massage chair that fixes everyone yeah that fixes everything but guess what after after a month or so foosball table is about this taken dust massage chairs broken never gets used again and nothing has changed right I mean you think to your point it comes down to people people want something personal right they want to feel personal satisfaction they don't want to be thrown a toy and said they're your good little chap off you go well and that's it exactly and unfortunately I would say 80% of the companies from our experience are still fighting that to this day John that that we think if we buy the new toy if we if we have them chase the shiny object right that the especially among sales teams yeah right do a good job and we'll send you to the Bahamas for a week right well that's great until a new job offer comes along with more money and in a two-week cruise and then you're gone right right we we know now that the key to fulfillment the key to satisfaction the key to values and purpose on Lineman isn't that isn't that shiny object it's creating that sense of community a sense of belonging like if I left here today I would actually miss the people that I work with I'd miss my team I'd miss the dynamic I'd miss the work and if when you create that kind of environment nobody wants to leave yeah enough not only do they not want to leave but now they start referring their friends right and and and we know we all know now how how employee referrals can dramatically improve our hiring process well for sure because that's face it hiring is still one of the hardest things and and that's it just regular hiring when it comes to sales hiring it's you can another magnitude so that idea of a of a shared purpose a shared community shared goals that's really that's really what's that at the heart of this social age right yes and and we we have a we have a term for that we use here at work IQ and on our career site over at u-turn and we call it workplace intelligence it's what kind of leader will you respond best to what kind of culture will you thrive within it is your is your purpose aligned with with the companies and also your values and is there that sense of belonging right and if you can look at that measure your own workplace intelligence and then certainly try to determine the company's workplace intelligence the hiring process gets a whole lot easier because then we know going in there's a match exactly when listen markets being great talking to you we're bumping up against the end of our time here but before we go we'd like you to tell the viewers a little bit more about yourself about work IQ and about your recruitment side - well we about 10 years ago 10 years ago next week actually we launched a site called u-turn that helps young professionals college students recent graduates ascended into the workforce perhaps a little bit more gracefully than they would if they just said hey I got my degree I'm now employable which has never been the case and so we do a lot of pro bono work over there and then we pay we pay our bills with the with this concept of workplace intelligence and work IQ comm where we help companies identify where their strengths are in leadership and culture and purpose-driven performance and so I divide everybody to check us out over there and that's wor qi q comm yeah and and i would i would encourage people to check it out and i think that's the great if you want an initiative for 2019 I would say it's number one figure out what your culture is figure out what you want your culture to be and who do you want to be as an organization wonderful advice alright listen thanks mark my name is John golden says pop online says magazine pipeliner CRM C offer another expert interview soon thank you