Understanding the Balance of Results and Relationships in Leadership with Charlie Leichtweis

Release Date: 06/01/2021

Creative Retail Talks with Clint O'Rear

Stories from David & Adam Blumenthal covering 144 years and five generations of an iconic yarn brand in the creative industry. From how it got its name to what keeps it strong and growing. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Lion Brand has been around for 144 years Lion Brand was the sole supplier of yarn to Target for many years up until Target discontinued the category Lion Brand has been on the web longer than Google The key to keeping the business within the family and successful is that no family member is forced to be a part of the company. Every member of the Blumenthal family that has worked for...

Revisit Servant Leadership and Company Culture with Jim Iyoob

Creative Retail Talks with Clint O'Rear

When your company has a Dean of Leadership Development and twelve Character Commitments, you know they take servant leadership seriously. , Chief Customer Officer of , shares the culture that began with a vision “to make a remarkable difference for each other” — clients, team members, and community. KEY TAKEAWAYS Etech is an outsourced contact center that has organically grown from 400 to 3500 employees that focuses on making a remarkable difference for their customers Continuous growth and training are essential for all levels of employees Servant leadership comes...

A look back at how Happy Customers + Happy Employees = Healthy Business

Creative Retail Talks with Clint O'Rear

Retail authority shares his philosophy on how Happy Customers + Happy Employees always leads to a Healthy Business [Podcast first published November 2021] KEY TAKEAWAYS Happy Customers + Happy Employees = Healthy Business If you reduce employee turn 20% you increase profits by more than 20% Happy employees make Happy customers AVID Insights creates a Health ID score to measure the level of satisfaction and engagement of both employees and customers. Employee engagement is the #1 driver of customer satisfaction. 95% of products are developed with ZERO research - a huge mistake! Key areas to...

Taking a Look Back at How to Create Happy Employees Who Create a Happy World

Creative Retail Talks with Clint O'Rear

, retired CEO of WD-40, is this amazing combination of a confident leader and a very humble servant who has led his tribe very well. Although he was in the oil products business, in this episode we talk about a lot of things that have nothing to do with oil but everything to do with how to grow your business and grow your people. [Podcast first published May 2021] KEY TAKEAWAYS 70% of people who go to work everyday are disengaged Aristotle - “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” From Ken Blanchard’s class at University of San Diego in the Masters of Leadership program,...

ETech’s commitment to servant leadership for the next generation of leaders

Creative Retail Talks with Clint O'Rear

As Dean of Global Leadership Development, Melissa Wood spearheads all learning and development business-building programs for . She shares insights into the next generation of leaders and how you can build your personal leadership development program. KEY TAKEAWAYS John Maxwell had a tremendous influence on Etech and Melissa ever since he spoke at an Etech company event. Etech is more than willing to invest in leadership development tools to produce the next generation of leaders. Melissa’s passion is working with people one on one and helping develop their leadership skills. Lessons...

Purpose and Insights from David and Adam Blumenthal

Creative Retail Talks with Clint O'Rear

Creating a more colorful, connected, comforting and caring world with yarn. KEY TAKEAWAYS Lion Brand has an amazing Purpose Statement with four key words Colorful Lion Brand produces high-quality, uniquely colored yarn that stands above the competition Connected Lion Brand stays connected to the craft and the community that the craft creates Comforting Knitting gives people comfort and stress relief Lion Brand employees feel comfortable and supported working for the company Caring Lion Brand puts lots of care behind every decision they make, products they produce, and...

Producing the Next Generation of Leaders with Melissa Woods

Creative Retail Talks with Clint O'Rear

When employees and leaders choose to share their talent with your company, give them opportunities on their journey. Melissa Wood shares the 12 character commitments of culture and the 5 Pillars of Education to produce the next generation of leaders. KEY TAKEAWAYS Etech has 12 character commitments for their company culture Humility Integrity Positive influence Communication Creativity Courage Accountability Teamwork Valuing people Adaptability Teachability Vision Etech has 5 Pillars of Education to help with ongoing learning and producing the next generation of leaders Aspiring Leader ...

The social impact and customer loyalty inspired by yarn

Creative Retail Talks with Clint O'Rear

A comment on the Tonight Show leads to a 30-year partnership with Vanna White. The mindset of giving back and making a difference has led to #HATNOTHATE, donations to charities like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a wider spectrum of skin tones (Skein Tones), and sustainability. KEY TAKEAWAYS Lion Brand has stayed in the family because family members like Adam have wanted to come back and work for the family business Lion Brand Yarn was selected as the outstanding family business in New Jersey Vanna White was a customer of Lion Brand’s and talked about knitting on Johnny Carson....

Melissa Wood turns the table and interviews Clint

Creative Retail Talks with Clint O'Rear

Melissa Wood turns the table and interviews Clint about his WHY and his passion for servant leadership. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Melissa Wood flips the interview on Clint and interviews him for a few minutes Clint talks about the influence his Dad had on teaching him about Servant Leadership starting with listening to cassette tapes of Zig Ziegler Clint also learned Servant Leadership from many of his football coaches in high school and college Clint has also been influenced by Garry Ridge, outgoing CEO of WD-40, and his principles of Servant Leadership and Tribe Culture Melissa is similar to Clint...

h+h americas and Darrin Stern

Creative Retail Talks with Clint O'Rear

If you make a living in the fiber arts, whether it's a side gig, full-time gig, small store, mega store or multinational store, h+h americas 2022 is the place to be. h+h americas will become the U.S. based sister event of the German h+h cologne, the world’s leading trade fair for the handicrafts industry. Starting in 2022, h+h americas will take place every June in the Chicagoland area. h+h americas June 22 - 24, 2022 Chicago, Illinois Donald E. Stephens Convention & Conference Center in Rosemont The event is open to anyone who makes a living in fiber arts, no matter what background...

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In Part 2, Charlie Leichtweis, founder of Experts in HOW LLC, digs into Results and Relationships in leadership (100% of both). Charlie shares the value of no longer doing what you're not getting paid for with his unique Direct Profitability Model.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Leadership has an equal emphasis on Results and Relationships.
- When you build the relationship you can get laser focused on results without running over people, or without being negative.
Set goals and metrics tied to the results you want to achieve, and when things aren’t going right look for root causes and solutions instead of blaming people.
- Figure out what the barriers to success are, and engage everyone on the team to mitigate the barriers.
- Tie compensation and bonuses to employees’ contribution to achieving results.
Communication from the top down and across functional areas is key - it’s important to give people hope about what you’re building and to help them understand how their role ties to the overall results.
- An important part of the communication process is to give people a voice to share issues, concerns, and frustrations.
- Everyone has a right to ask questions, and everyone has a right to get answers to their questions - open communication!
Measure both leading and lagging indicators and understand the data that you need to help people get better at what they do - business intelligence.
DPM - Direct Profitability Model
- Product level - foundational direct cost
- - Customer level - aggregate of products for that customer
  - Market level - aggregate of customers in that market
- Identify fixed costs not directly attributed to the aggregation of product, customer, and market cost and understand who is directly responsible to measure and report on those costs to get to enterprise profitability.
- - Goal is to stop doing what you’re not getting paid for.
Golf swing example - connecting the dots
- The perfect golf swing involves multiple elements - grip, posture, club, etc. - you won’t have the perfect golf swing by focusing on each one individually, you have to relate them to one another to produce a result.
- In business you have to avoid silos and share knowledge and data across functions in the organization to produce the results you want and execute sustainable profitable growth with your customers.
Main takeaway
- Learning “How” is not a problem - nobody knows “How” before they start doing things.

SUGGESTED ACTIONS

Understand and apply the balance of relationships and results in leadership.
Set goals and metrics for the results you want to achieve and communicate those goals and metrics to everyone involved in achieving the results.
When things go wrong, look for root causes and solutions instead of blaming people.
Create open communication on your team where everyone has a voice and has the opportunity to ask questions and share issues.
Understand your direct costs and your fixed costs - make sure someone is responsible for measuring and managing the fixed costs that aren’t direct.
Stop doing what you’re not getting paid for!
Share knowledge and data across departments and functions to produce results.

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𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗟𝗜𝗘 𝗟𝗘𝗜𝗖𝗛𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗜𝗦founder of Experts in HOW LLC

𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗟𝗜𝗘 𝗟𝗘𝗜𝗖𝗛𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗜𝗦 is the founder of Experts in HOW LLC, a business consultancy focused on helping businesses learn HOW to identify, prioritize, and eliminate barriers to success. Charlie is the author of top selling books including The Power of Respect in Business and Qlikview Your Business. He is also a popular speaker, a Forbes Business Council member, and serves as a member of the Board of Directors for a number of companies.

You can reach Charlie Leichtweis at expertsinhow.com or find him on LinkedIn at Charles Leichtweis.

𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗧 𝗢’𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗥, president and owner of Creative Sales Consulting

𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗧 𝗢’𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗥, president and owner of Creative Sales Consulting, has worked in the Retail industry since 2000. Clint and his team connect suppliers & retailers in the creative arts industries for stronger relationships and strategic sales growth, in order to bring joy to consumers through artistic creative and decorative products.

For more insightful conversations with leaders in the Arts & Crafts Retail industry visit CreativeRetailTalks.com.

If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast, reach out to Clint O’Rear at [email protected].

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Music:

"Carpe Diem" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

KEY TAKEAWAYS

SUGGESTED ACTIONS

TOPICS