Stories Matter! - Helping Leaders Transform Lives

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast." - Peter Drucker Steve Spiro, a renowned business consultant and expert in organizational culture, joins us today to uncover the power of culture in driving business success. Get ready for an insightful conversation that will challenge your perspective and leave you hungry for a culture revolution! [Why This Is Important] Objective: Understand the importance o...

"Our major culture and all our values revolve around family." Steve Spiro shares the story of how El Pescador transformed from having only 3% repeat guests to reaching 39% return guests. In 2022, El Pescador experienced a significant increase in return guests, going from 3% to 39%. "Sometimes our employees think my wife and I are their parents and not just general managers!" Become a person worth...

Steve Spiro shares a heartwarming story about a customer's mink coat and the values of Bloomingdale's. "They believed that this (Bloomingdale's) was their home." Steve recalls a customer who bought a mink coat 22 years ago for her daughter's wedding and returned it, only to find out it had deteriorated due to improper storage. Steve reveals that the store had a policy of accepting all returns, eve...

"Culture is just many values that accompany beliefs." Steve's experience with Mrs. Jones and the coat return incident. Objective: Become a person worth listening to so you can understand the importance of culture and customer service. Learn from Steve's story to emphasize the significance of upholding values and providing excellent service. Bloomingdale's success is attributed to its culture and v...

Leaders tell stories for the sole purpose of influencing their listeners’ behavior. As such, Donald Davis’ elegant format of People in a Place with a Problem, and there is Progress requires additional tweaking Paul Smith posits we need: A Relatable Hero Facing a Relevant Challenge Requiring an Honest Struggle Resulting in a Worthy Lesson Take one of the stories you’ve been working on and run it th...

The process of growing leaders is one of instilling values. Jack Welch, the former GE CEO, said, “Values are behaviors that can be measured.” Storytelling is THE most effective way of coupling our direction with the desired behavior that we model. There are three components to growing leaders. First, explain your values - the behaviors you measure. Second, live by your stated values. Third, tell s...

Stories are THE best invention for delivering mental models that drive behavior. A Story is a sequence of events where something Changes. If nothing changes, there is no story. You need four things for a story: People In a Place With a Problem And there’s Progress. i.e. change of some sort. (See above) Previously, you were asked to identify your heroes. Now, ask yourself if any of the examples you...

Stories are THE best invention for delivering mental models that drive behavior.  You can be a more effective leader if you improve your ability to craft & tell intentional stories. Stories work better than just telling people what to do. Stories work better than just walking the talk and modeling the behavior you want. Stories are not enough on their own, but coupled with clear direction and...

Dale Fickett is an entrepreneurship professor, investment advisor, and CEO of Open Trellis . He helps people overcome barriers to business ownership, and helps business owners become more financially secure. He's worked internationally with leading financial institutions, universities and government agencies. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dalefickett/ Gayle Turner is President of The Storytellers Ch...

Dale Fickett is an entrepreneurship professor, investment advisor, and CEO of Open Trellis . He helps people overcome barriers to business ownership, and helps business owners become more financially secure. He's worked internationally with leading financial institutions, universities and government agencies. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dalefickett/ Gayle Turner is President of The Storytellers Ch...

"If you're looking for some free money, there are options there, but you have to be a 501 C three. And then if you do the for-profit option, that you can do there." The main objective is to become a person worth listening to so you can help others, as demonstrated by story XYZ. The episode message revolves around finding a conversation and understanding someone's pain to provide assistance. It's i...

"I can't tell you the number of times I go to Open Mic events or storytelling events. And it's a mess. But nobody ever talks about the progress. And that's where the power and the story is." The main message is to democratize the process of sharing people's stories and getting them to a national or international platform. You don't need much to get started. Just a cell phone with 4k shooting capab...

"I've started all over again at least four times in my life." Objective: Become a person worth listening to so you can learn from my story and the main message regarding story XYZ. Understand the power of asking questions, listening, and clarifying values for personal and organizational growth. Take action by embracing strategic planning processes, uncovering intelligence, and telling meaningful s...

"1 Million Cups is a national organization that focuses on breaking down barriers and supporting entrepreneurs. With over 375 entrepreneurs presenting and 10,000 people benefiting from the Richmond, VA chapter, you never know who you're going to meet and what kind of conversation will come out of it." The objective is to become a person worth listening to so that you can initiate sustainable chang...

A Quilt of Good & Bad Viewed from a distance, life’s ups and downs compliment each other. This Is Important because, if we approach our failures as learning opportunities versus penal opportunities we are better equipped to face our next challenge. What you need to know: We may not achieve all of our goals. All Action Steps needed - Select a sample of your projects that did not meet expectatio...

EGBAR Everything Gonna Be AlRight  Hang in there. Everything will work out in the end and if it’s not alright, it’s not over yet. What you need to know is as long as we’re alive we have the opportunity to grow. Our attitude drives everything.   Do this now! Take a step back and discern your goal and then do one thing, the next right thing you can do to move you in the direction you want to go. And...

Celebrating Find ways to notice and acknowledge progress. Otherwise life becomes ceaseless drudgery. Measuring, monitoring, and celebrating incremental progress is critical to maintaining morale. Identify the milestones of your projects and take the time to recognize and celebrate when they are achieved. There will always be more to do, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying your progress along...

I Like People But Not All That Much There’s only so much you can do for someone else. In the end, they have to take action themselves,  As a leader your job is to discern what your people need from you to do their job. If they don’t have the ability or the desire to meet their obligations you can offer training and/or attempt to inspire them or you can reassign them or let them go. Remember, you c...

Hiring a Not-for-Profit Executive Don’t underestimate yourself. Corporate leadership capacity and management experience are transferable. However, middle management experience is not the same as governance.   Do your research to learn the difference between tactical decisions, how something is to be done, and strategic decisions, what is to be done. Management makes tactical decisions. Boards of D...

Interviewing a New Boss Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run. - Kenny Rogers  It behooves you to be humble. To live as close to the truth as possible. The truth about yourself. The truth about others. The truth about the world we live in. Understanding what you don’t know is as important as understanding what you do know. Invest some time and effor...

Breaking in New Bosses It’s easy to manage when you hire the right people. Managing UP is much more difficult than managing down. Learning to deal with a boss who doesn’t understand what you do requires finesse. It’s not uncommon for your boss to look back to previous solutions. Build the story of your solution and then build a coalition among your peers to support your solution. First step, liste...

Putting a Man on the Moon When opportunity knocks, answer.  You think you’re choosing your career when you choose your courses in college. Life is changing so fast, for many of us, the courses we took in college were obsolete by the time we graduated. We need to learn how to discern what information we need, how to query the available research sources to find answers and then how to distill and pr...

Dale Fickett is an entrepreneurship professor, investment advisor, and CEO of Open Trellis . He helps people overcome barriers to business ownership, and helps business owners become more financially secure. He's worked internationally with leading financial institutions, universities and government agencies. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dalefickett/ Gayle Turner is President of The Storytellers Ch...

Dale Fickett is an entrepreneurship professor, investment advisor, and CEO of Open Trellis . He helps people overcome barriers to business ownership, and helps business owners become more financially secure. He's worked internationally with leading financial institutions, universities and government agencies. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dalefickett/ Gayle Turner is President of The Storytellers Ch...

Superior thinking doesn't come from being smarter, it comes from learning how to think differently. The ability to think critically and creatively is essential to stay ahead of the curve. Gayle Turner, a leadership development consultant, explains how we can become better thinkers and bring more value to the table. "We need to change with these turbulent," he says. "We need to become better proble...