0:07

Welcome to the Entrepreneur to Employer podcast

0:09

. I'm your host , brian Montes , founder

0:12

of Scalocity Works and the Entrepreneur

0:14

to Employer coaching and membership community . So

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congratulations is in order . If you've built a

0:18

successful freelance business that has grown to

0:20

the point where you need to hire , you have achieved

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a huge milestone . If you're

0:25

already past the point of making your first hire and your

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team is now growing well , congratulations

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is in order to you as well . So

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, regardless of where you are with scaling your team

0:33

and your business , whether you're at employee number

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one or employee number 100 , this

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0:40

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them build better work environments . Welcome

1:05

back to another episode of the Entree to Employer podcast

1:07

. Today I'm excited to have a guest

1:09

on that is going to add some real value

1:11

to the Entree to Employer community . Today we have

1:14

Claire Chandler of the Talent Boost

1:16

. She is the president and founder of Talent Boost . She

1:18

specializes in aligning HR and business

1:20

leaders so they can deliver strong strategic outcomes

1:23

both today and in the future . Claire

1:25

taps into over 25 years of experience

1:27

in people , leadership , human resources and business

1:29

ownership to help leadership teams work together

1:31

more effectively in less time , with

1:34

less cultural resistance , so they can accept

1:36

their business growth . Now , who doesn't want that right

1:38

? I mean less time to execute , quicker

1:40

and in less time , because the only thing we're fighting is

1:42

time as business owners and business leaders

1:44

. Claire has a broad-based expertise in less

1:46

time , because the only thing we're fighting is time as business owners and business leaders

1:48

. Claire has a broad-based expertise in management teams , due diligence , organizational design

1:51

, acquisition , integration and onboarding of new employees . She

1:53

also has a deep expertise in strategic

1:55

planning , executive coaching and performance acceleration

1:58

. So she is my guest today on the Entrepreneur

2:00

to Employer podcast and we're going to talk about

2:02

how all of these things can help impact

2:04

businesses as they grow and allow

2:06

you to grow your business without losing team

2:08

members and keeping the best on board . So

2:11

, without any further ado , let's get into the conversation

2:13

with Claire . Welcome back to the Entrepreneur

2:15

to Employer podcast . I am your host , brian

2:17

Montes , and the founder of Scalocity Works

2:19

. Today I am excited we have a

2:21

guest on the show . It's been a little while since we've had

2:23

a guest on the show , but as we go into 2024

2:25

, I promised that we were going to start getting some

2:27

more high caliber guests onto our show

2:29

. So we continue giving all of you

2:32

business owners , different perspectives and

2:34

different insights into running and growing your business

2:36

. Claire Chandler , who her and I met

2:38

last year and

2:47

it's interesting because what Claire does is focus on keeping your talent , which is so hard

2:50

in today's environment , making sure that we're building programs for retention and helping

2:52

our staff stay with us for longer

2:54

so that they have a reason to continue working with

2:56

us . She has her own firm called Talent

2:58

Boost , and she's also a Forbes writer

3:00

as well . So if you start following her after

3:02

this podcast , I'm sure you'll be able to find some

3:04

of those Forbes articles , and maybe we'll even have a link

3:06

to one in the show notes . So , claire , thank

3:08

you for joining us today .

3:10

Thanks , Brian . It's so great to be here . I've been looking forward

3:12

to our conversation .

3:13

Well , welcome . We're looking forward to it . I'm excited

3:15

. All right , I like to start out every

3:17

conversation and ask this one question

3:20

what is one life experience

3:22

that you have had that taught you something

3:24

that you still carry with you today in the business world

3:26

?

3:27

I would have to say it's a phrase

3:29

that has become one of my business core values

3:31

and it's called own your walk and

3:33

if you will indulge me , I'll tell you a very quick

3:35

story . That kind of will

3:37

set some context . So I

3:40

am both a corporate survivor

3:42

and a cancer survivor . That kind of propelled

3:44

me out into my entrepreneurial journey

3:46

. Thank you very much . Yes , survived

3:49

both . And here to tell the tale . And about

3:51

a year or so before

3:53

I left corporate , I

3:55

was walking down the hall back to my office

3:57

and my boss stopped me and

4:00

he said you need to tone down

4:02

your walk . And I'm like like

4:04

what ? And he goes your walk . It's your walk , and I'm like like what ? And he goes your walk

4:06

. It's so bouncy , it's so happy

4:09

, and people are going to wonder if you're up to something

4:11

. Do you know something ? They don't . And

4:13

I thanked him for those pearls of wisdom , went

4:15

back to my office and spoiler alert

4:17

I didn't change my walk , but it was so

4:19

. What's interesting to me is obviously

4:22

that story stuck with me , but it sort of grew

4:24

over time to become very emblematic

4:27

of corporate cultures

4:29

done wrong , right ? Companies

4:31

that advertise for entrepreneurial

4:33

spirit and then kind of slap you

4:35

on the wrist as soon as you don't conform to

4:38

their idea of what a corporate employee

4:40

looks like . You know companies that say

4:42

here is where you will be able to bring your authentic

4:44

, full self to work , and then

4:46

they kind of go yeah , but that's not what

4:48

we meant right . And

4:56

so that story in hindsight has kind of grown and amplified to the point where today that

4:58

has become one of my core values is owning your walk . I do believe that

5:00

you will have the most fulfilling professional

5:03

and personal experience if

5:06

you are as authentic to your genuine

5:08

personality as possible .

5:09

That's a great story . That's a great story

5:11

.

5:12

People don't believe that actually happened , but I am here

5:14

to tell you it is true .

5:15

And it's unfortunate right , but it's kind of that wake-up

5:18

call .

5:18

Yeah , yeah , there have been a few

5:20

, for sure .

5:21

When that happened was that sort of the moment where you

5:23

said , okay , I know , I don't want to stay in corporate America

5:26

permanently , I want to be my own boss someday

5:28

. What thought process happened after

5:30

that exact experience ?

5:32

It wasn't that exchange . That

5:34

exchange , unfortunately , was

5:37

sort of typical of an exchange

5:39

that I had with that boss . Really

5:42

, what woke me up was getting

5:44

that diagnosis of cancer , which happened a

5:46

little bit later , either that same year

5:48

, I don't actually recall , but that

5:51

is what really woke me up to

5:53

. This knowledge of life is short

5:55

, right . I always kind of say

5:57

that the year that cancer diagnosis

6:00

happened and I was forced to go

6:02

from 150 miles an hour professionally

6:04

to zero to taking a month off of work

6:06

, having surgery , having treatment , you know the whole

6:08

bit . But I always say that that diagnosis

6:11

, that experience , was such a gift because

6:13

I do sincerely believe if I had

6:15

not had that experience that forced

6:17

me to deal with my

6:20

own mortality right , my own health

6:22

, my own priorities , my own set of values

6:24

, I might still be in corporate

6:26

and I might still be convincing myself

6:29

that's good enough , right

6:31

, that that trajectory is okay for me . So

6:33

I am deeply humbled and deeply grateful

6:35

for that opportunity because

6:37

it really did shake me out of

6:39

my bubble and of my

6:42

sort belief that

6:44

this is as good as it gets

6:46

. It was a great gift because it propelled

6:48

me to leap into the entrepreneurial unknown

6:50

.

6:51

Good for you . How much longer did you stay in corporate

6:54

before you made that transition ?

6:56

I had surgery on June

6:58

2nd of that year . I took about a month

7:01

after surgery to recover , come

7:03

back to work and then kind of spent

7:05

the summer really sort of reevaluating kind

7:07

of where I wanted to be . I made

7:09

some calls to people in my

7:11

inner circle professionally

7:13

who I have seen as both formal

7:15

and informal mentors , just sort of

7:17

sharing with them . Hey , here's something I went

7:19

through . Here's kind of what it made me realize

7:22

. Am I nuts to even think

7:24

that I can make it on my own right as an entrepreneur

7:27

? Because I think so many people in corporate aren't

7:29

necessarily totally fulfilled but

7:32

they tell themselves that the alternative is just

7:34

too daunting , it's too scary , it's too

7:36

unpredictable . And I remember

7:38

one business mentor in particular

7:40

that I called and I said here's kind of

7:43

what had been going on , here's what I'm thinking

7:45

about . Am I crazy for

7:47

thinking this ? And he said

7:49

it's totally the opposite . I've

7:51

been waiting for your call . He said

7:53

I've been waiting for you to get to the realization that

7:55

you are destined for something different , something greater

7:57

. And so he

8:00

knew before I did . He saw because

8:03

of the way that we had worked together in

8:05

the past . He was an outside consultant to the organization

8:08

. He saw me in moments

8:10

that lit me up and he

8:12

knew that crafting a life

8:14

around work around

8:16

my jam was really going to be the path

8:18

toward fulfillment , and so it ultimately

8:21

left in mid-October

8:23

of that same year .

8:25

So it moved pretty quick from that time . Might have been November , but yeah

8:27

, it was about yeah , five six months

8:29

.

8:30

Five six months from getting the , from having

8:32

surgery , dealing with cancer , coming back and going

8:34

. Yeah , I'm going to take my

8:36

shot , I'm going to take my shot .

8:37

Good for you , good for you , and

8:40

I think a lot of business owners have . There's a

8:42

lot of them , not all of them . There's a catalyst , right . There's

8:44

something that causes all of us to say we want to start

8:46

our own business . And the challenge with that

8:49

is we may be very good

8:51

at what we're doing or that business that we're going

8:53

to start because we solve a problem right , we're

8:55

a great chef or we could build a widget better

8:57

than somebody else , but where we

8:59

lack , right , is we don't have

9:01

all the other skills , right . We're not good bookkeepers

9:03

, we're not strong on the HR side , we're

9:05

not good at hiring or talent development . These

9:08

business owners become very good at what they do , which

9:10

is what makes them successful , but then

9:12

, all of a sudden , now you're running a whole business

9:14

unit and you're not just part of a cog at a

9:16

wheel and you've got to deal with all these other

9:18

things . Hence the reason where you

9:21

come in with Talent Boost and sort of what you do

9:23

. So when you left , did you go

9:25

right into Talent Boost , or was there

9:27

some other version of it ? What does that

9:29

story look like ?

9:31

So it was about two years after

9:33

I left corporate that I founded

9:36

Talent Boost . So I left corporate late

9:38

in 2011 and I founded

9:41

Talent Boost in September of 2013

9:43

. So I'm , you know , 10 and a half years in as a

9:45

business owner . It legit took

9:47

me about two years to

9:49

kind of figure out and I think a lot of entrepreneurs

9:51

relate to this Of all the things

9:53

that I could do . Right , there's sort of

9:55

this like Venn diagram . Right , there are things

9:57

you could do , there are things you enjoy doing

10:00

and there are things that other people will pay you

10:02

to do for them or with them

10:04

. Right , and

10:06

it took me about two years to

10:09

kind of fill the top of that funnel with

10:11

all the different things that I could do based on my skills

10:13

, based on my interests , based on people were looking

10:15

for this need and I could fill it . And so

10:18

there was a little bit of I don't want to say trial and error

10:20

, but it was really exploration right

10:22

Around . Really , what was the work

10:25

that , yes , would bring in

10:27

good revenue ? Yes , I

10:29

could do . That was within my sweet

10:31

spot of natural talent and

10:33

was also something that I

10:35

could get up in the morning not being

10:37

a morning person and look forward to

10:39

my day because of all the things I get

10:41

to do . Be energized day

10:46

because of all the things I get to do Right , energized , yeah . So it took me a good two years

10:48

to kind of get narrowed into what is the brand , what is

10:50

the unique selling proposition , what is that

10:53

unique offering that I'm going to

10:55

share with the world and build a business around

10:57

.

10:58

Nice , okay . So you went through that

11:01

two-year journey and then it

11:03

started to slowly come together for you and I

11:05

get it A lot of business is trial and error , right what's

11:07

going to work , what's not going to work ? So

11:09

talk to us about Talent Boost

11:11

and what you're doing there and what the focus is .

11:14

My sweet spot is helping

11:16

businesses large organizations

11:19

grow in a more sustainable

11:21

way . There's sort of this tagline

11:24

. If you will , my mantra is all around growth

11:26

on purpose , because I do believe not

11:28

only is culture foundational to the success

11:31

of a business a truly successful

11:33

business and a solid

11:35

, growing culture

11:37

is all built around

11:39

a solid , clear , magnetic purpose

11:41

. My jam , if you will there's

11:43

that word again is really to advise

11:46

executive leaders in large , growing

11:48

organizations on how to expand

11:50

their business without losing their best talent

11:52

.

11:53

Okay Now , was this what you

11:55

were doing when you were in corporate , or was this

11:57

a passion you had that you weren't doing

11:59

in corporate , and you developed it as you made that

12:01

transition ?

12:02

So a little of both . It was something I had

12:05

been doing in corporate a

12:07

role or two before the

12:09

last role that I was in when I

12:11

left . When I left corporate America , I was

12:13

the vice president of human resources and

12:15

it was a large , global , growing organization

12:18

and it was really an opportunity

12:20

for me to get more broad-based

12:23

HR experience , because

12:25

you talk to most HR professionals , they grew up in

12:27

the field , right . They have always

12:29

spent their career in HR . I was a late

12:31

bloomer when it came to human resources

12:34

. I always like to say I snuck in through the side door

12:36

. I was in customer relations

12:38

for a couple of years after starting out , spending

12:40

several years in communications and marketing

12:43

, and there was an opportunity

12:45

for somebody to come in and

12:47

head up the training department within

12:49

HR After swearing , by the way , I would never work

12:52

in human resources , right , I

12:54

had good friends who worked in HR and I said great

12:56

for you .

12:56

You grew up in this stuff .

12:58

Yeah , exactly , Boy you learned things the

13:00

hard way , right . And so , yeah , lo and behold , I

13:02

brought over my box of my picture frames

13:04

on my house plant from my other job

13:06

and went over to HR and

13:08

that evolved over time . So

13:10

it came in as the head of training and development

13:13

. That then sort of morphed into

13:15

recruiting and staffing and talent

13:18

and career and executive coaching and

13:20

succession pipelining and all those things

13:22

, and as it grew , every

13:25

other thing that I pulled into my orbit I

13:27

was hooked . But then of course I was

13:29

starting to get groomed to be on

13:31

more of an executive track and to do that

13:33

I really needed broader HR experience

13:36

and I spent about a year in that role

13:38

and it was another great gift because

13:40

I had an amazing team that I had the honor

13:42

and privilege to lead and to manage and

13:45

to motivate . That was a wonderful experience

13:47

. But it also proved to me that

13:50

wasn't really where my heart was . And again

13:52

, had I not been diagnosed with

13:54

cancer and kind of forced to take a month off and

13:57

sit and recover and not look at

13:59

emails and not be in conference calls

14:01

all day long , right , I

14:04

think I would have still been outrunning that voice

14:06

in my head that had been trying to ask me are

14:09

you doing what you're passionate about ? When

14:11

I finally acknowledged the answer to that was no right

14:13

, that the role that I was in was really

14:15

not what I wanted

14:18

to be doing as a career or what

14:20

I found was fulfilling , I looked back

14:22

at that previous role as head

14:24

of talent and career development with nostalgia

14:27

and with longing . But as my mom

14:29

always says , never go back

14:31

, always move forward . And so I knew

14:33

that that was not something that I could do within

14:35

that company . So all of those stars aligned

14:38

right , all of those pieces

14:40

kind of came into focus and I think had I not

14:42

had those years as head of

14:44

talent and career development , it would have

14:46

taken me even longer to kind of figure out

14:48

if I'm going to make that leap , what it is

14:51

that I'm going to specialize in .

14:54

So it helped you set the foundation .

14:55

It absolutely did . And then , of course , over time being

14:57

a business owner now for 10 plus years working

15:00

with some amazing clients and helping them through

15:02

their own growing pains , I took that

15:04

foundation of that corporate experience and have

15:06

continued to build upon it and sort of amass

15:09

, you know , best practices and proven frameworks

15:11

that really kind of get the job done .

15:14

Nice , Well , yeah , so you're 10 years in now . You're definitely

15:16

doing something right . Congratulations on a 10-year anniversary

15:18

.

15:18

Something's working right .

15:19

Yeah , something's working . So you've probably

15:21

worked with hundreds of companies and leaders . What

15:23

are some of the pain points and challenges that you see

15:26

them have ?

15:30

are some of the pain points and challenges that you see them have . There are three

15:32

or four main symptoms that they kind of show up at my door complaining

15:34

about , right , the sort of the foundational aches and

15:36

pains . The first one , absolutely no doubt

15:38

, is what I'll call low attraction

15:40

. They are just not able to

15:43

find and acquire

15:45

enough of the right talent , and

15:47

that can stem from a whole bunch of things , whether

15:49

it's their employer brand is not known

15:51

, is not liked or respected , whatever

15:54

it might be , so there's sort of this low attraction

15:56

pain . The second one is low retention

15:58

Obviously translates into high

16:00

turnover . So many companies will

16:02

come to me and say we are bleeding

16:05

talent and typically

16:07

that is a symptom of a deeper problem

16:09

, right , I think . The third one

16:11

is what I would call low engagement

16:13

. Most companies by now

16:15

do engagement surveys and

16:18

most companies that do engagement surveys don't

16:20

do enough with what their employees

16:22

are telling them that they need . As

16:24

we know , when employees are not engaged

16:27

they're only going to do just enough to

16:29

get by , to not attract negative attention

16:32

, to kind of get through their day . There

16:34

is a reason we have so many memes about

16:37

work , right ? Don't Monday , my

16:39

Sunday . If

16:41

we were supposed to enjoy it . It wouldn't be

16:43

called work , right ? That's

16:45

all kind of expressions of this low engagement

16:47

, yeah . And then I would say

16:49

the fourth pain is low internal

16:51

hire rate or low internal fill rate

16:53

it's all different ways to say . We

16:56

have a leaky talent pipeline . We don't

16:58

have enough of a bench strength that

17:01

, as people are moving on in their career , as

17:03

people are retiring , the average tenure

17:05

, especially as you go up the leadership ladder , is

17:08

a lot shorter than it used to be . Nobody's

17:11

staying in the executive wing of the

17:13

same company for 20 and 30 years anymore . They're

17:15

there for three to five . They're making their

17:17

mark , they're padding their resume and

17:20

they're going on to something bigger and better . And

17:22

what ends up happening is these

17:24

organizations have not done

17:26

enough to stabilize the bench

17:28

, to give people a reason to join

17:31

, to give people a reason to stay

17:33

, to give people a reason to engage

17:35

and to contribute , of course , to

17:37

advance and grow their career . And so

17:39

all of those different things so I guess

17:41

that was four of them , I would say are

17:44

the biggest pains or the biggest symptoms that

17:46

I've seen .

17:47

Yep , it's across all industries . Right

17:53

, it's not an industry specific problem , it's across all industries and it ties back to your leadership

17:55

, your culture , your employee brand , everything you mentioned . What size companies do you

17:57

typically work with ?

17:59

The sweet spot for me is somewhere

18:01

around 5,000 employees

18:03

, 3,500 , maybe up till

18:05

about 10,000 . Once they get into kind of

18:07

the mega population they

18:09

get a little bit more unwieldy . Not that I turn

18:12

down the opportunity . If it's the right alignment

18:14

, right , and if the leader is somebody that I enjoy

18:16

spending time with , that is a must have for

18:18

me . But yeah , that's kind of the sweet spot 3,500

18:20

to 7,500 employees , Okay .

18:23

And you're working with the leaders , you're working with the employees

18:25

combination

18:31

of both .

18:32

How does that look ? Top down , as much as I can . It's interesting because several years ago I was doing a

18:34

lot of public speaking prior to COVID . This is going to come out wrong , but I was focusing on the wrong

18:36

end of the talent spectrum , and what I mean by

18:38

that is I was doing workshops with employees

18:40

, with individual contributors , with middle managers

18:42

, frontline supervisors , about rekindling

18:45

their passion for what they do . Right

18:47

, I had this great experience , this

18:49

epiphany that happened through my cancer experience

18:52

, and I wanted others to benefit from

18:54

the transition and the transformation

18:56

that I went through without all the pain , right

18:59

. And so I was doing a lot of workshops to

19:01

help people tap back into

19:03

what they truly are

19:05

passionate about and then help guide

19:07

them to have those types of conversations

19:10

go back into their corporate jobs armed

19:13

with . This is what I want to do . This is how

19:15

I think I can realign my job

19:17

to kind of fit in with that and

19:19

have that conversation with their boss . And

19:21

the reason I say I was focusing on the wrong end is

19:24

I was absolutely reigniting that

19:26

flame for them and I was sending

19:28

them back into their corporate bubbles , but

19:30

because their managers were not as enlightened , they

19:32

weren't very receptive to the concept of

19:34

modifying a job description , maybe having

19:36

them rotate through a couple of different roles , right

19:39

, and so I was really setting them up for disappointment

19:41

, and what I found was when

19:44

I come into an organization and work with

19:46

the highest level of leadership I possibly

19:48

can . First , that's

19:50

who we have to convert . Leaders

19:53

have to understand that they have the biggest

19:55

impact on the culture of a company how

19:58

they show up , how they behave , what they believe

20:00

and how they interact with their employees . Are

20:02

they trustworthy , Are they genuine , are

20:04

they vulnerable , are they authentic ? It's all of

20:06

those things which translate into are

20:08

they followable ? And

20:10

if they're not , everyone

20:13

else is watching . Right , your employees

20:15

are kind of like your children , like they hear

20:17

everything you say , even when they

20:19

say they're glued to their tablet . Right , your

20:21

employees see what gets

20:23

rewarded , they see

20:25

what kind of behavior gets promoted

20:28

and they see who ends up

20:30

staying with your company and who's running for the

20:32

exit . And so leaders have

20:34

the biggest impact on a culture

20:36

. But that also means they have the greatest

20:38

opportunity to do more with their organization

20:40

. And so I know that , if

20:43

I can get in and work with the executive

20:45

level leadership and get them to understand

20:48

and embrace and own this awesome opportunity . And get them to understand and embrace and own this

20:50

awesome opportunity that they have to shape

20:52

a culture that will actually nourish their

20:55

talent pipeline , will attract the right people

20:57

, will put them in the paths where their performance

20:59

just skyrockets and where they

21:02

have not only to buy in but

21:04

the skill and the will to

21:06

execute your growth strategy . It

21:09

actually becomes easier to grow than

21:11

the job that they're doing right now . Right

21:13

, they're kind of making it too hard on themselves , and

21:15

so that's really where I focus in . I work

21:17

with the executive leadership first . I

21:20

don't want to say convert them that sounded a little bit set

21:22

in the head , but you know , really kind of work with

21:24

them a little bit on what they can be doing differently

21:26

. Then they sort of introduce me to

21:28

their teams . I typically work with the HR

21:30

organization because they are the ones tasked

21:33

with building out culture and supporting

21:35

the employees and attracting and retaining

21:37

and engaging the right talent . And

21:40

part of that conversion of leadership

21:42

is to get them to understand that every single

21:45

person in your organization impacts talent

21:47

. Everyone is talent . You're either

21:49

using them or you're not . You're either appreciating them

21:51

or you're not , but every manager has

21:53

a responsibility to nurture talent . It's

21:56

not just the job of HR . It

21:58

is not a check the box exercise to have

22:00

a career conversation or developmental

22:02

conversation or correct some budding

22:05

conflict . That is the job of

22:07

every manager . But a lot of HR organizations

22:10

are still structured and still functioning like

22:12

it's the 1990s . They're still

22:14

kind of walking around with their metaphorical clipboard

22:16

, looking for somebody's wrist to slap because

22:20

that's what the business has asked for them to do and

22:22

instead they should . They need to

22:24

and it's part of what I try to bring out in them . They need

22:26

to embrace the opportunity to lean into the business

22:28

, be the feedback loop to

22:31

help leadership understand the

22:33

impact of their words , the impact of

22:35

their decisions , the impact of their communications

22:37

or lack of messaging on the

22:39

overall health and strength of the company .

22:42

Yeah , they're there to support and , unfortunately

22:44

, HR does still in a lot of organizations is still back in the 90s and that's

22:46

why HR for the most part is not trusted and dis does still in a lot of organization

22:49

is still back in the 90s and that's why HR for

22:51

the most part is not trusted and disliked in

22:53

a lot of organizations . Right , because you

22:55

only see HR when somebody's getting fired .

22:57

Well , you know , that's the thing HR's reputation is

22:59

we're the people who hire , fire and keep you out

23:01

of jail . Yeah , and while that

23:03

still happens , right , that's like , still

23:05

, that's the foundational price of entry

23:08

to be an HR organization . But

23:10

they are no longer just the compliance department

23:13

. No , they are equipped and they

23:15

are motivated and they are knowledgeable enough to

23:17

elevate the conversation to

23:19

actually help the business achieve

23:21

its growth strategy . And

23:23

if I can just get on my soapbox for just half a

23:25

second , I am so inspired of if I still

23:27

hear HR people saying , but we just

23:30

need a seat at the table , I have to

23:32

hold myself back from slapping them . Now

23:34

, I'm not a violent person by any stretch , but

23:36

it's like , could you stop complaining that you

23:38

don't have a seat at the table ? If by

23:40

now it's 2024 , you don't have

23:42

a seat at the table , then you haven't done

23:44

enough to walk into the boardroom , pull out a chair and

23:46

sit down . Yeah , and once you

23:48

do sit down , contribute value , talk

23:51

in the language of business . I

23:53

was talking to a client the other day and they were like

23:55

they're trying to get a more consistent

23:58

vocabulary around how we

24:00

speak about talent in the business

24:02

, and I'm looking at some of their draft

24:04

communications . The methodology

24:07

is amazing and it's really

24:09

going to help elevate conversations

24:11

and clarify expectations around

24:14

performance and behavior , but

24:16

they're talking about things like we're going to operationalize

24:19

the core values and we're going to have a unifying construct

24:21

and I'm like , if you use those terms , yeah

24:24

, let's just play HRBS bingo

24:26

for another lap around the sun . It's

24:29

not that you have to use highfalutin business

24:31

words . You have to use words

24:33

so that the business is going to resonate with . If

24:35

they don't see a direct connection between nurturing

24:38

talent , having a consistent language

24:40

for clarifying expectations and how

24:42

it's going to stabilize their

24:44

foundation for growth and for profitability , they're

24:47

not going to do it . Stabilize their foundation for

24:49

growth and for profitability they're not going to do it . They're

24:52

going to see it as another .

24:52

HR exercise , that they just have to wait out until HR gets tired of nagging them and moves

24:54

on to something else . That's right . That's right . Communications need to be clear

24:57

, not clever .

24:58

You fall in love with it . Yep , that's right .

25:01

Well again , what you're talking about is obviously

25:03

great for big enterprises , but

25:05

even smaller business , right ? Business owners , they're the leader

25:07

, right ? The same lesson applies

25:10

how he or she walks into that business

25:12

, how they conduct themselves , how they engage their employees

25:14

right . It doesn't matter the size of the organization

25:16

, those practices

25:19

and those behaviors are . They

25:21

cross any size .

25:23

I would actually argue that it is more

25:25

important when you're a smaller company . You

25:27

know the bigger companies . When they make a misstep

25:30

, whether they hire the wrong talent

25:32

, they misuse that talent right , they don't put

25:34

them in the right role , where they don't pair them with

25:36

the manager who's going to nurture them . The

25:38

larger the organization , the

25:40

less of a ripple effect one bad

25:42

hire or one bad decision is going to make

25:44

throughout the business . But

25:46

when you think about that as a big pond is

25:49

going to make throughout the business . But when you think about

25:51

that as a big pond , a

25:55

small company , when they make a bad hire , when they make a bad decision , when they either make a misstep

25:58

in their communication , say the wrong thing , the ripple effect of

26:00

that in a small organization can

26:02

absolutely destroy their

26:04

business . It's magnified right , absolutely

26:07

, absolutely If you do think about

26:09

it as the analogy of the pond and you throw

26:12

a rock in the middle of the pond . It

26:14

takes a far shorter time for those ripples

26:16

to hit the shore in a small pond

26:18

than in a big one . In a big one , by

26:20

the time you get to the shore , that ripple hasn't even

26:22

made a dent Right . So

26:25

it's hugely important .

26:26

Yeah , Thank you Excellent point . What

26:29

are two or three things

26:31

that leaders can do

26:33

immediately in their business ? If they start

26:35

, they're identifying that they're having these problems

26:38

? Right , the low attraction , high

26:40

turnover , low engagement

26:42

right , if they're seeing that and they know it but don't know how to

26:44

fix it , what are a couple of things before

26:46

bringing you in , of course , what are a couple of things

26:48

they could start to do ?

26:49

So I think the first one , especially around the

26:51

low attraction or even attracting

26:54

the wrong talent , is

26:57

that they need to clarify , they need to get really

26:59

, really clear on their purpose . There is

27:01

a reason . My methodology , my mantra , is growth on

27:03

purpose , but this is one of your do not pass

27:05

go fundamentals of business

27:08

. But

27:10

this is one of your do not pass go fundamentals of business . Simon Sinek , I'm sure you've

27:12

heard of great thought leader around the space of this concept of start

27:14

with why . And basically he

27:16

said every company knows

27:18

what it is that they do . Most companies

27:21

, if they're kind of been around a while , have figured out

27:23

how to do what they do , but

27:25

it's the companies that differentiate themselves , are

27:27

the ones that are truly dialed into why they

27:29

are in business to begin with . And

27:31

so that is one of the four

27:33

pillars of my growth on purpose methodology

27:36

. That first one is aspiration

27:38

. It is all around helping organizations

27:40

. If they're not crystal clear on

27:43

why they're in business to begin with , is

27:45

their mission magnetic enough that the right

27:47

people get closer to your orbit and

27:49

the wrong people kind of stay away

27:51

. And that's employees , that's vendors

27:54

, that's partners , that's clients , right . So

27:56

that is a very first step that any

27:58

company can do is to

28:01

reevaluate . Do they actually

28:03

know why they are in business

28:05

to begin with ? And

28:08

here's a little tip it's in answering

28:10

that question you're starting to pull up your

28:12

company website and dig out the mission

28:14

statement . You're

28:16

looking in the wrong place , because

28:18

a mission statement too often is

28:20

really sort of the public facing flowery

28:23

language that the shareholders or

28:25

the stakeholders or whatever wanna read . It

28:28

is very rare , especially the older

28:30

it gets , that it is in complete

28:33

alignment with what you deeply

28:35

believe . If you're an executive leader and

28:37

what I have found to be true this is sort of

28:40

a second part of that insight for any

28:42

business owner is the clearer

28:44

you are about your aspiration , your purpose

28:46

, your mission , your why , and

28:49

the more it's aligned with what you deeply

28:51

believe to be true about what

28:53

you want your business to be about this

28:55

is a company of any size the

28:57

easier it becomes for

29:00

people the right people to follow you

29:02

, for the right employees to want to take

29:04

part in that , for the right clients to want

29:06

to be in your world . Because

29:09

if it's aligned with what you deeply

29:11

believe , you as a leader

29:13

don't have to go and convince anybody

29:15

that your mission is a good

29:17

one . Instead

29:19

, you get to stand in your conviction about

29:22

what you believe , and there is a huge

29:25

difference between convincing

29:27

and conviction , and

29:29

so that is one very

29:31

necessary , relatively

29:33

simple step Doesn't

29:38

mean it's easy that

29:42

any leader in any company , of any size can do . First is start with self-reflection

29:45

and have conversations with your fellow leaders and your employees to say why

29:47

are we here , what are we trying to accomplish ? And why are we here ? What are we trying

29:49

to accomplish and why does that matter ?

29:52

It's a good first step . Everything's

29:54

got to take a first step right A hundred percent

29:56

, and those can be hard conversations , depending

29:59

on where you're at and where your ego's at .

30:00

So if it . Oh yeah

30:02

. Yeah , you're about to trip over a landmine

30:05

about ego , but yeah , it's true , and

30:07

the longer it's been since as a business

30:09

owner or a leader that you have

30:11

actually asked yourself why you're there , the

30:14

harder that conversation is . I think the global

30:16

pandemic it's just like I said cancer was a gift and

30:18

I'm an optimist by nature , so I look for the silver

30:20

lining and everything . But I think the global

30:22

pandemic was also a great opportunity

30:25

coming out of it for people

30:27

to do a hard reset , for

30:29

people to kind of refresh their perspective on

30:32

what their business was going to be all about

30:34

and how they were going to get the right people

30:36

not just to join but to stay and to contribute

30:38

and to help them grow .

30:41

Definitely made a shift for a lot of people , totally

30:44

.

30:44

Yeah .

30:46

Well , good , Any other insights or pearls

30:49

of wisdom you'd like to to make what you just gave

30:51

them ? I mean , you could probably go on for hours

30:53

.

30:53

I know we could , we could , and you're going to hopefully

30:56

ask me in a minute or two if there's any kind of other

30:58

action that leaders can take . I'll

31:00

look forward to answering that . But that whole aspiration

31:02

conversation and clarifying

31:05

exercise is so foundational

31:07

. It's a do not pass go moment

31:09

, but it's so true . I

31:15

think leaders and owners and businesses and employees need to kind of check their

31:17

alignment with the mission of the company actually employees , because

31:19

right now it's a candidate's market and

31:22

if your employees are not feeling it like

31:24

they're not feeling like they belong in your company

31:26

, they don't believe in your mission and

31:29

they don't kind of jive with the people that

31:31

you're asking them to follow . They're

31:33

telling you that with their feet , which is why companies

31:36

are seeing unprecedented turnover .

31:38

Yeah , okay , for everybody

31:40

listening today , there's your action item coming from this

31:42

podcast . Right Is to do that reflection . That's

31:44

an important exercise where that's a good

31:46

starting point . So , claire , I've enjoyed the conversation

31:49

. We could easily go on for hours because there's so much to

31:51

continue unpacking on this , but we

31:53

will go ahead and wrap it up . I've enjoyed having you on

31:55

the podcast . How can they get a hold

31:57

of you ? Do you have anything for our listeners ? What

32:00

would you like to partner with ?

32:01

Yes , love that . So , on social media

32:03

, I tend to spend most of my

32:05

professional time and attention on LinkedIn

32:07

, so I encourage your audience to come connect

32:10

with me , say hello . You can

32:12

also check out . I have two websites

32:14

. The company website is talentboostnet

32:16

. My more personal branded website

32:18

is clairechandlernet . And

32:21

the gift I have , or the invitation

32:23

I have for your audience , is to go

32:25

to growthonpurposecom

32:27

. I

32:32

am working with my publisher on a book of the same name , so you can pre-register for the book

32:34

, so you can be among the first to know when it hits physical

32:37

and virtual bookshelves . But also

32:40

, more immediately , there is a link

32:42

to a growth on purpose assessment

32:44

. It literally will take you five minutes

32:46

to complete and you will immediately

32:48

get some findings in terms

32:50

of how ready you are to expand

32:53

your business without losing your best talent

32:55

. So I encourage anybody who can , who's

32:57

listening to this conversation , to go take

32:59

that assessment . It's free , it will take you five

33:02

minutes and it might just change your business .

33:04

That sounds like an excellent use of five minutes . For

33:07

sure , everything she's mentioned will be in the show notes

33:09

as well . All the links will be there . We'll make sure everybody

33:11

has access to it . Claire , I've enjoyed

33:13

the conversation . It was wonderful having you

33:15

on . Thank you so much for being a guest today .

33:18

Thanks , brian , it's been a pleasure .

33:20

Thank you .