Equipping Organizations and Visionaries - Interview with Summer Dixon Goldberg

File 23:  In today’s file, the team welcomes Summer Dixon Goldman of Dixon Strategies.  She offers fractional Chief Operating Officer services for owners, founders and CEOs.  Dixon Strategies brings order to chaos.

Meet Summer Goldman

Summer had a 20-year, corporate career.  She has a background in agriculture and lending.  The majority of her corporate experience was in leadership roles related to sales and operations teams.  She eventually made the decision to start her own company. 

Summer begins by explaining fractional chief operating officer services looks different for different organizations.  She focuses on startups, small businesses and family-run businesses.  She either serves as a fractional COO, or as a consultant to the existing operations team. 

Summer also has a Vistage practice.  She serves in the peer-advisory role and as a coach.  Her practice is comprised of an entrepreneurial group of CEOs, although still focused on startups, small businesses and family-run entities.

Challenges People Need Help Solving, Today

Jamie asks about the trends in the types of challenges Summer is seeing in today’s marketplace.  One issue Summer sees is the location of the workforce.  She has an advanced manufacturing client with locations across Kentucky.  The challenge for this company is sourcing local talent, in a very competitive environment.

Another issue is the multi-generational workforce.  Each group has its own unique needs and desires.  This can lead to misunderstandings between the generations and challenges for the company leadership trying to manage the diverse issues that arise. 

There’s also the ongoing challenge of being clear when attempting to communicate/establish expectations with various groups of people and/or individuals.

Jason comments that he recognizes the issue of geographic locations of the workforce.  It’s been a challenge for growing markets in Kentucky.  Bowling Green, for instance, is exploding.  Manufacturing is a growth-area that’s especially hot in Warren County.  He discusses how Bowling Green has addressed the workforce issue head-on and the result is Bowling Green becoming the fastest growing market in Kentucky and one of the fastest in the country. 

How Are Companies Addressing the Workforce Issues Relative to Misplacement or Displacement?

Jason asks Summer about her perspective on how other Kentucky areas are dealing with what Bowling Green had to overcome.  It begins with communities finding effective ways to communicate the various opportunities available in their respective, geographic areas.  On the surface, certain industries may not seem as attractive, until you begin to understand the advantage they offer to the individuals and the communities, at large.  Branding the workforce experience for those particular industries is important.

Summer goes on to stress the importance of meeting people where they are, in a very broad sense.  This encompasses their physical location, skill set and their personal goals.  It’s a question of figuring out how to blend and balance both the business’ and personal needs. 

Addressing the Skills Gap

The team focused on this in the previous file, with Amy Rudy.  Summer hones in on the advanced manufacturing space.  We’ve lost a lot of those jobs.  However, she points out that the coal industry workers actually have skills that lend themselves to those of advance manufacturing.  There’s also a similar fit for certain areas of agriculture.  Skills in areas such as diesel mechanics, livestock or crop production and others are actually quite applicable.

Jamie refers back to the 3-Part series WTF recorded on Peeling the Workforce Onion (Part 1).  A key point was to avoid being overly rigid in the specific attributes you use to screen prospective employees.  Transferrable skills exist, but the individual may not recognize this fact.  Thus, they never connect with the potential employer. 

Summer recalls how File 14 also offered suggestions on finding overlooked candidates.  Immigrant populations and veterans can be ideal candidates. 

Molley discusses how individuals can leverage transferable skills, or up-skill themselves to equip them to qualify for those new types of jobs.  Molley’s company, Incipio, is actively matching individuals with positions that have “like” skill sets, based on the information they’ve submitted.  The software is highlighting matching skill sets, some of which you may not have previously considered.

What Are Leaders Missing in Terms of Workforce Development?

Jason asks about what Summer is seeing as potential blind spots she’s seen leaders fail to recognize.  She notes that many founders/owners struggle with understanding why members of their teams aren’t as passionate as they are about the business.  In reality she points out that they’re not going to be.  It’s not their baby.  They most likely don’t have their life’s savings invested.  The answer might be to work on creating a culture of people who are passionate about you.  This is particularly relevant in the entrepreneurial space where often the founder is the brand.

You can develop a team that’s passionate about working in that environment or with that particular leadership style.  It may be the work or the mission that attracts them.  For Summer, this is an ongoing puzzle she’s trying to solve. 

Jason relates his own leadership experience, as it relates to his team.  He feels an immense responsibility to cultivate and equip his employees for success.  They’re real people, not inputs.  You’re developing their careers.  That’s a powerful north star.

Summer points out that the leaders with whom she works often feel a deep responsibility to their employees.  The challenge is helping the people to see that’s a key advantage of working is those specific organizations.  It’s a way to create passion, and can be a differentiator.

It’s not about making this part of the marketing communications.  As a leader, it’s about showing up and being consistent with that level of focus on the team.  But, it must be done authentically.  The results will follow.

What Advice Could Summer Offer to Leaders and their HR Partners?

One of the first questions Summer asks of a prospective client is, “Who’s your HR partner?”  It may be internal, but when the partner is external, she follows up with, “Have you considered…”  HR challenges are going to surface.  Leaders need to ensure they have a structure including and beyond the job description.  Have leadership training.  It’s a core area ranging from the technical piece to strategy. 

As the HR partner, you have to have a level of understanding when you’re working with a visionary.  It’s incumbent upon that partner to ensure they are speaking to the audience.  Pick the priorities.

Jason points out that sometimes there’s a person who serves as the interpreter or liaison between the visionary and the team.  It may be an operations role that recasts what the visionary was trying to convey, albeit in a more appropriate or understandable manner. 

How to You Coach a Visionary to Recognize the Need for and to Find that Intermediary?

The group agrees this is almost like matchmaking.  Summer recommends explaining to the visionary that he/she needs some clarity around something.  It doesn’t have to be everything.  Expectation-setting is an important step in this process.  The intermediary should be ready to ask a lot of questions of the visionary, in an effort to determine the actual risk-tolerance of that leader.  A balance needs to be struck at the foundational level.  HR may be able to cultivate the benefit to having the visionary buy into bringing on the person to fill this role.  It may take courage to approach the idea, but it’ll be worth it in the end.

Would You Like to Contact Summer Dixon Goldman?

LinkedIn:         https://www.linkedin.com/in/summerdgoldman

Website:          https://dixonstrategies.com/

Phone:             [phone]

 

That’s where we’ll leave the conversation for today.  Before we close the file, we invite you to reach out to us with questions, suggestions or other comments.  We’d love to hear from you.

 

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Need Help Supporting Your Company’s Recruiting and Staffing Goals?

We’re here to help.  You can contact us via our individual websites, depending on your specific needs or questions:

·      Jamie Swaim, SPHR – www.ParcelKnows.com

·      Molley Ricketts – www.IncipioWorks.com

·      Jason Heflin – www.CrowdSouth.com

 

We hope you found this file insightful and helpful.  Thank you for listening!