“There’s 10.1 million positions open [in the post-COVID workforce], there is this great resignation, a great reconsideration: What am I doing? Do I feel attached to my company? Do I feel like I have purpose?” – Mike Sullivan, CEO of the LOOMIS Agency
The 7 Elements of Great Culture
The pandemic changed the landscape of the working world as we know it. Team members’ priorities have shifted into focus, and in much of the workforce, there has been a mass exodus as they search for companies that align with their purpose or values.
One element that can provide stability and longevity against this backdrop of rapid change is culture. As the CEO of The LOOMIS Agency, Mike Sullivan knows this firshand. Culture is a hallmark of strength in an organization that team members overwhelmingly respond well to. The proof is in the pudding: LOOMIS retained all team members during and after the pandemic.
My previous discussion with Mike Sullivan established why a strong culture matters. Now we’re delving into what it looks like with his 7 elements of a great culture, pulled from his and Michael Tuggle’s book, The Voice of the Underdog: How Challenger Brands Achieve Success through Culture.
Culture Starts with Safety
[05:23] “Until people feel like they are safe, and they can bring their full selves to their employment situation, they’re not going to be as concerned about tapping into a purpose at work, for example, which is the second [element of culture] – what is it that I’m here to do?”
Don’t forget clients also attract (or detract from) security:
[17:53] “One of the things that I focus on is, again, the kind of clients that you bring into an organization. What I was trying to do when I built my culture was create stability, first and foremost. So if a situation is stable, if your work environment is stable, now you feel safer, now you feel more connected, now you feel like you belong.”
Connection is Founded on Communication
[07:20] “Communication is leadership … if you’ll slow it down, and let folks know, ‘I don’t have all the answers. Nobody seems to have all the answers. But give me your feedback, help me set our policy.’ And inviting them into that discussion, I think is really powerful.”
Creativity Changes the Game
[15:56] “There is no problem that can’t be solved with creativity. But all the other things need to be in place to be on top of your game from a creative standpoint. You really do need to feel like you belong, you have a sense of purpose like, ‘This is going in the right direction. I feel good about the people I work with – now I’m able to bring my full self.’ And that’s when creativity catches fire.”
“Ultimately, I decided I just wanted to create the kind of place that people want to work on Monday morning – they want to come, there’s no Sunday night dread. And again, it doesn’t mean that it’s perfect. But what it does mean is that we’re focused on the right things.” – Mike Sullivan, CEO of The LOOMIS Agency
A Strong Culture is a Competitive Advantage
Mike Sullivan speaks with experience and authority. As CEO of the LOOMIS agency, he and his team have made it their mission to help challenger brands win more market share. And he has observed that no matter how great the branding is, if the culture stinks, the company will struggle.
LOOMIS boasts half the turnover rate of other agencies. They themselves are a challenger brand that continues to crack the culture nut with multiple, year-over-year wins as a Best Place to Work. And as a result, they produce award-winning creative.
But what is a challenger brand, and why is culture so important? I sit down with Mike and we discuss challenging the status quo, how culture and brand are inextricably linked, and how he and his team keep culture alive at LOOMIS. We also discuss brands that have successfully nurtured culture by including it in their purpose, values, and leadership competencies.
What is a Challenger Brand?
“Really challenger brands are those that are certainly challenged from a resource standpoint, but they’re also oriented towards disruption. They’re oriented towards shaking up the marketplace, changing the rules, in a way that favors them… People within an organization need to think of and understand themselves as challengers.“
Clients Impact Culture, Too
[11:30] “Culture is going to reflect in large part by the company that you keep. If you’ve got difficult, challenging, unreasonable clients, then that’s going to infect your culture. It’s what you tolerate.…
[12:30] “What I always look for is the way they [potential clients] treat [our] people and the way they treat their people – how they interact, how they engage.”
Company Culture – Build an Extended Family
[15:33] “The number-one word people use to describe rich, rewarding, and supportive cultures is family…they do become sort of an extension of your family…
[15:14] “And I always think about that, you know, are these the kind of people that I want to put in relationship with our [team], because I think the world of our folks…who do you want to bring into your family, so to speak?”
Podcast art: The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai
The Art is the First Iteration. We take it from there.
The poet reminds us that art is a product of inspiration and interpretation. The artist initiates us with their work and then it’s up to us to add our own meaning.
Hokusai rolls first by offering his art – the most well known is his beautiful woodblock series, Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji. Roger S. Keyes, an art-historian and poet picks up the dice and rolls again by offering an interpretation of Hokusai’s work. What it meant to him. I must say I like the meaning he made of the great Japanese artist’s paintings.
How does Poetry Inspire Action?
Listen as I read and notice what happens with you. Taking the poem in, I want to slow down. I want to pay more attention to my surroundings and to appreciate them. And to appreciate the individual and collective trajectory of our human and non-human lives.
I want to visit a museum and wonder about a piece of art or sculpture. What is the artist saying through their work?
Being impressed and then motivated to new action is a final phase of reading poetry. You can find the Guide to Reading Poetry, along with a copy of this poem. In Episode 18, I interview a colleague who reads David Whyte’s Start Close In and we discuss ways to take in poetry.
What’s the link between Poetry and Leadership?
I have opinions about how reading poetry elevates our leadership and our lives. I think it deepens our experience. If we use the poem as a practice for taking on another person’s perspective like Keyes did, we can increase our empathy and ability to deal with paradox, complexity and conflict.
We can read poetry to build the muscles of our imagination, which can lead to creativity and innovation – highly sought after elements of our work and lives.
“Look at sales in a very simple definition – that is delivering value for what someone needs. If you look at sales in that light, that’s a very noble profession. It starts with helping make sure that companies have the right people in their organization and Sales[people] who have the right knowledge, mindset, approach, cultural fit for the business, but also work with other areas of business.” – Chris Goade
Aligning Sales and company culture
Sales is arguably the face of the business – and foundational to an organization’s success. It’s intrinsically connected to each function of the business, interfaces directly with customers, and delivers the revenue and profits necessary for growth. This is why it’s critical to develop solid sales processes and talent.
Chris Goade is the co-founder of 360 Consulting and saw an untapped market to build, rebuild, and restructure sales organizations while developing its people. He discusses the importance of a sales culture and that it aligns with company culture. This happens by finding the right people, building the right processes, and nurturing cross-functional relationships.
When done well, this creates a win-win relationship for the business and the customer.
People, Mindset, Process
[11:09] “Work to make sure you have the right people, the right mindset, a clear understanding from everyone in the organization of what you do in sales: How do we develop leads? How do we articulate our value proposition? How do we create winning relationships?…It’s a process like accounting, production, operations.”
About CRMs
[17:26] “If you start off with, ‘do we have the right tool configured correctly? Do we have the right processes in there? And always keep an eye on what the ultimate goal is – this changes the whole belief system around what a CRM can mean for your business.”
Change driven by Goals and supported with Accountability
[18:54] “Get participation from everyone on the team…And now it’s not just someone saying, ‘Hey, you’re gonna do this,’ or ‘This is policy’… that’s a whole different kind of mindset and position to come from when you start to hold people accountable…
“We don’t change for the sake of change, but change to get to the goals. … [When] they have some ownership in that in that change, then it’s not so scary.”
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” – Viktor Frankl
Unlocking our freedom from within
When we think of independence, we often think of it as an external event, like Juneteenth or the Fourth of July. But freedom and independence, including personal freedom, is actually a process and practice that requires ongoing effort.
Internal freedom is our ability and willingness to live into our own creative potential. It’s a mindset and comes from within. To achieve internal freedom, spend time reflecting on your values, motivations and authentic desires. Double-check that the dreams you’re chasing are yours and not someone else’s. We unlock greater personal power when we recognize self-limiting beliefs and behaviors that inhibit our internal freedom.
The benefits are great: when we gain internal freedom, we live from a creative and empowered mindset.
What Internal Freedom looks like:
[07:46]“It looks like creating visions for our own life and then taking steps toward those visions. We’re honest and clear about what we want, not what someone else wants of us, or what we feel obligated to do.”
“Using discretion and intention for where we place our focus and attention…Know where you want to spend your time and attention and create boundaries and practices so that you find that sweet spot.”
How we hold ourselves captive:
[12:35] “Complying, staying small, and not rocking the boat. Staying quiet in meetings and agreeing.”
[14:47]“Not recognizing and valuing our own worth, expertise, contribution, impact – a feeling of not belonging.” For example, “’Everyone at my company has specific expertise…I run customer support so don’t have much to contribute.’” One way this belief impacts someone is in feeling unable to say no in an attempt to prove one’s worth. Burnout and resentment follow.
Rise Leaders Radio Episode #13 with David Emerald: Three Vital Questions for Transformative Results and #33 with Jerry Magar: Putting Your Values Into Action (www.rise-leaders.com/podcast)
