Discovering Your Compass Within with Robert Glazer

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0:34Because truckers unite the world. They unite kids with their first drum sets and parents with earplugs. But truckers can't do this if they're not on the road. That's why Progressive has over 360 heavy truck employees to help truckers stay on time and on track. Quote truck insurance today in as little as eight minutes at ProgressiveCommercial.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. integrity honesty teamwork trustworthiness did i just figure out your business's core values in this episode i'm sitting down with the world-renowned robert glazier and we're going to go through how you should actually be defining the core values not only for your business but for you personally we're going to take a stroll into his upcoming book and we're going to unleash the things that you as a leader can and should be doing so that your team is following the right path for you ladies and gentlemen i present my good friend mr robert blazer robert how you doing today brother thank you mick i heard all sorts of new things uh about myself there i didn't realize so i i like that no it is all true it is all true man you know you are someone who i've admired from afar.

1:53We've gotten to really know each other personally lately. And I can't thank you enough for just who you are because you actually pushed me to be a better leader for my team and a better leader for my community. So bro, I just wanted to say thank you face-to-face, eye-to-eye. Honestly, that means a lot coming from you and given what you do. So I appreciate that. Maybe we can talk about how to bring that magic to everyone who's listening. Oh, let's do that. And I want to start with just that. Like, what is, what's your purpose, your mission behind why you do what you do and the lives that you touch and the companies that you change?

2:31And I call it your because, right? That thing that's deeper than your why. What's your purpose? What's your mission? Robert, what's your because, brother? Yeah. So I, if I look at my time, I spent 99 % of my time trying to find better ways and share it. And, and, and I really, it ties to value. I've identified a few years ago that what sort of lights me up the most is sharing ideas that help people and organizations grow. I love it. I love it so much. And now let's shake the room a little bit. Let's shake the viewers and listeners. You're the guy I go to, especially when I talk about all things culture.

3:11And we can't talk culture without talking about core values. I'm pausing because companies are getting it wrong, right? Their core values are just words that are on a wall and they usually stay on a wall. Talk to us about what core values truly mean. And one, how can companies really tie into developing real core value, not just words? Yeah. So I think you and I share a similar viewpoint. And when I was going to write a book on core values. And the reason why I ended up doing the parables, I just felt like a lot of people would tune out when they hear it because we see the same companies and the same wall art.

3:50And I didn't believe in any of this stuff years ago. And then I saw some truly extraordinary companies and cultures and their core values didn't sound like respect and integrity and team. And they weren't just on the wall. They were completely operationalized in the business. They were what the leaders talk about. They were what they rewarded. And I realized that, yeah, it really is the ultimate sort of foundation of culture. But if I had the guess, I'd say I see it in like one or two percent of companies. So it's not surprising. So, I mean, I have a personal definition of personal core values and I'll kind of switch it back.

4:31I think core values are the non-negotiable principles that guide your behaviors and decisions. So in an organization, they need to guide your employees' behaviors and decisions. for an individual. I think they're intrinsic, not aspirational. They reflect who you are, not who you wish you were. In fact, when you figure them out, you kind of look back and you see I've always been that way. They're consistent across all aspects of life and work, relationship, personal decisions, and they're clarifying. They help you make better choices about who to spend time with, what work to do, where to live.

5:02We talked about kind of the big three in the book. So that's for individuals. For companies, every company, and I think you and I share this, they have core values. They just may not be the things on the wall. We're training a puppy, right? And we have, you know, good girl and bad girl and sort of all that's what happens. It's the behaviors that you reward are ultimately the core values and the culture. And so sometimes those match what's on the wall. Most times they don't, but they kind of exist. Because if you start asking people, all right, what's the type of behavior around here that gets rewarded or doesn't, you'll very quickly get answered.

5:39And that's why it was pretty funny when Enron was going out of business, pretty much, you know, they had integrity and respect and, and those things when really the core value was probably like, act, don't ask, and, you know, be incredibly aggressive. You know, that's actually what got you a bonus, or got you a promotion at Enron. So for the viewer listener right now, that's like, oh, Robert, that makes a ton of sense. I'm looking at my wall right now and I see integrity and trust and teamwork. How do they take integrity, trust and teamwork and turn those into actionable core value? So when I've done sort of consulting work with organizations on this, we end up talking to their employees and we ask them a lot of behavioral based questions to try to understand what are the behaviors that you value most in your peers.

6:34And then we look at the core values and we say, which one of these rings true to you and which one doesn't? And we're trying to solve the say-do gap. So there's some stuff that the company is saying that it's not doing. But then it's interesting. employees can always identify a couple of things that like they really love or they value in their peers, or that's kind of a prize behavior that that's not being said. And so we can align those things and we can kind of update the values and we can move away from one word and we can run them through the rubric of it's got to be action oriented and decision.

7:07And it's got to be something you would say to someone, you're doing a good job at this and you're not. But at the end of the day, If leadership isn't bought into that and doesn't hold that accountable from the top, it's really not going to matter. My favorite email I got this year was from a hospital system that we had worked with to refine their core values. And someone who came into that from a different group that I had helped him before. And it was funny because we have these values. And they always love their acronyms. And I won't tip off here, but there was a guy who really wanted heart as one of them.

7:44And I'm like, can you tell me one of the things under heart? Can you remember what it is or tell me how it's, you know, rewarded? So we spent a lot of time looking at, you know, particularly the teaching hospital, you know, and it was those like elevate yourself with others. Like that was like a core thing that needed to be in a teaching hospital that they wanted to do. And so my favorite email I got was I said, how's it going? You know, it's been four months since we did this whole thing and rolled it out. And they said, look, it's going great. Here's what it's going on. We just instituted behavioral-based interview questions that align to our core values.

8:17We actually have this newsletter where we're doing core value shout outs. We got the HR team to incorporate these core values into the performance reviews and the conversations. We have the first core value awards coming up next quarter. And so this is, to me, someone who's actually taking it seriously. Look, we're going to live by these, and these are going to be the things that people are judged by. I love that, man. That truly does make it actionable. If we're going to have awards, if it's a part of performance, if it's a part of everyday dialogue, then that truly is who you are. I've always wanted to ask you this question, and I'm going to ask it for the audience, but I'm asking it for a couple of my friends in particular.

9:00how many core values slash pillars are too many because like you i think we like these acronyms right like happiness well to me that's far too many core values or pillars that you need to have right well you'll see some corporations i remember a fancy hotel chain years ago and they were kind of exemplar for their values and the guy pulled out the card and you know there was a thing it was service and he read the thing. I'm like, if you need a card, you're already losing. In our company, everyone knew Own It, Embrace Relationships, and Excel and Improve. If you were there for more than 30 days because you heard it all the time.

9:41We had three in our company. I have five personally. I think three to four is that sweet spot. But even my personal values, find a better way and share it health and vitality self-reliance respectful authenticity and long-term orientation i like i remember them and it's important to remember them because when someone brings something in front of me that's my that's my litmus test so i i like three to four i'm sure you've seen in business like goals and stuff there's something magical about three um but four fours four is not a bad sweet spot yeah i'm a four guy right like to me four makes sense with what I do, but I don't do any more than four.

10:23I tell, again, I'm not going to mention one of my really good friend's names, but he's all about having 10 to 15 so that it can spell a word. And I'm like, dude. Company or personal? First company. Yeah. Like at that point, you've lost the, honestly, anytime you hear an acronym with a core value, see if people can get more than one of the things in the underlying. They always remember the acronym. I was in this hospital and and i won't again i won't give it away they they had the badge with the acronym on it that they all wore every day with them on the back and when i asked people to tell me what they were in the meeting i couldn't get anyone who could like recite them all off because it was on the badge but no one ever mentioned them or if it was on your performance review yesterday if someone had a shout out for you or a nominee like that you're gonna know what it is right i mean that's the different yeah and another one of the things that and just so everybody listening and watching understand robert and i are here to help today we're gonna we're gonna break some old truth and redefine we'll get into the one words too yeah that'll be right right robert you know this about me i'm not a believer in mission and vision statements i'm a believer in because statements Yeah, because I feel like, again, if you and your team and your clients don't understand your mission and vision, then you really just had a marketing company come do something that sounds cool.

11:54Like our vision is to be the number one trusted fill in the blank in our in our space. Our mission is to fulfill our community with fill in the blank. Like everybody sees that, everybody hears that, but no one really understands it that works with you, that works for you. My personal feelings, though, Robert, I'd love to get your take on the traditional mission and vision statement. Real talk. I remember staring at a thirty five dollar overdraft fee thinking they just charged me money for not having money. That is broken. Chime fixed it. Chime is fee free banking built for you, not the one percent.

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14:47Not yet available in California, New York and Virginia. Well, first of all, if you ask company, most people get them backwards. They think the vision's the... I mean, in theory, one's supposed to be kind of a 10-year view and one's supposed to be kind of a three-year view. Like one would last forever. I similarly like the why, which is a version of the because. We looked around our team like, okay, screw all the... Why do we get up every day? And we were like, because we think we can make things better, right? We think we can make our clients' businesses better and the community better and our employees better and just a much more direct thing.

15:22I don't hate, like most things, I don't hate them if they're actually well done. But again, they're usually marketing that people never see again. And if you can't recall it and if you're not using that day to day, then it doesn't have a lot of teeth. so the problem is that as we talk about this is the majority of the examples are are the performative ones not the people actually doing it well another thing i i love about you is we share some similar thoughts here i want i want the audience to hear the thoughts from robert blazier himself i believe that we've become addicted to hustle and the hustle culture and And I have this saying, hustle without strategy is just burnout.

16:13How do you help people balance high performance from burnout? Yeah, I have very similar views on this to you. I think this is where the notion of personal core values and look, they are distinct but related to company core values. Companies have things that they value. The book I wrote is about understanding your personal value so you can see which of these situations to attach or to detach. And I think burnout comes from when you're doing stuff that really doesn't align with your value. It's not the amount of time because there's stuff that you and I could do that we would do it for eight hours and for free and we're in a zone and it feels great and it's energizing.

16:53And that's usually kind of value aligned. I think the other thing that high achievers really struggle with is just making everything about a destination. And then unfortunately, the destination doesn't provide the view that one thought would make up for all the journey. And instead of sitting and contemplating on that, what do high achievers then do? They think, oh, I just have to pick a new destination that's higher and that will make it all worth it. And I kind of think like the anecdote to that is to focus on what are you doing? Like focus on the climb, like not the destination and doing the climb.

17:34It doesn't mean that it's easy, but think about, you know, just what work and what thing that you could do that would feel really good. That doesn't mean it's fun every day. You and I are both launching books. It is as much as I love this book. It is like the hardest, most exhausting thing I've ever done. So, but, but, but I'm willing to push through because I, you know, I, I believe, I believe in the topic. So yeah, I think that's where a lot of people they're getting kind of bullied into a climb or a summit that, that doesn't, isn't something that they really want to be doing. Agree completely.

18:10And you just opened the door for me to talk about you. You're my friend. So this is a little hard in a good way. yeah you are also one of the best authors that i know um you got to read more books then you know i i read a lot i read a lot i read a lot and and here's why because every book that you've written from elevate to elevate your team and and i i'll list them all in the show notes and descriptions with links, because if you're a leader, you need these books. If you're a manager, you need these books. If you're an entrepreneur, you need these books. If you're a significant other, if you're a parent, if you're a community leader, you need these books.

18:59But what I appreciate is that you give clear roadmaps. You're not just writing from thought. You're literally writing as if you are helping the person that's on the other side of that book. And so I wanted to give you kudos for that because you have genuinely, I mean, I said it in the opener, you've genuinely changed me as a leader, me as a community leader, because I can put the principles of the things that you talk in action or the things that you write in action. I want to start with Elevate before we go to the new one. So we've got Elevate. There's an interesting line of how that leads to this so that's that that's that's interesting yeah so elevate and then elevate your team walk me through or walk the listeners and viewers through why you decided to write the book elevate obviously because there has to be a purpose to do it you just don't wake up and say yeah i'm gonna write a book because um you know i tend to be pretty direct i i wrote the book elevate because the book I wanted to write got rejected by everyone, which, which is, which is actually a learning.

20:15So, so I had this Friday forward newsletter, which you mentioned before. And, and I had, you know, all these people who love these stories. And I was like, I'm going to write a, a, a synopsis. I'm gonna take the 52 back stories once a week, and I'm going to write, I'm going to pull them out. I'm gonna create a book. And so I pitched it to a lot of, uh, um, agents and everyone's like, look, publishers don't like compilation books. And then one agent said to me, look, I love your writing. I love these stories. Publishers don't like compilation books. However, I think there's like something deeper in here.

20:50Like what is the story behind the stories? I would encourage you to think that. And so I spent 18 months kind of writing and going through it and being, okay, I've been writing these stories. They've been resonating. Why am I doing it? What is it? And that whole search, soul searching came up with, this is about building capacity. And if I look at all of these stories, they fall across one of these four dimensions of building capacity, spiritual, intellectual, physical, and emotional. And that became the framework for the book. And then rather than going and grabbing the individual stories, I actually did publish that book later on.

21:26But I went and took the thematic things and organized it around that principle. So Elevate was how to build your personal capacity, because I think a lot of growth these days is kind of steroid artificial growth. We grow from growing from within, not because we're dragged into a growth situation. And how do you start with the spiritual piece, which is, again, your values and what you're good at? And that led me to the problem of everyone saying, hey, I'm with you on this core values thing. And how do I do it? And I'm like, well, I don't have an easy thing to send you. Intellectual capacity, which is how you learn, plan, execute, get better.

22:04Physical capacity, which is your mental and physical wellness. And emotional, which is how you relate to people and the locus of control and all the things kind of outside of you. So in Elevate, it was about how you apply it to yourself. And then in Elevate Your Team, it was the same framework. but how do you apply this as a leader in an organization? How do you build a team that builds a task? Okay. And you said, and now that I understand the purpose behind it, the compass within ties it together for me, right? So new book. The thing I got asked the most about Elevate was like, I'm in on your, I need to understand my values.

22:46And at that point I had just figured it out for myself. Um, and I was starting to train our team on it and I had built a program and I was like, look, I don't, I can send you some resources, but they're not good. I spent three months going all through them. I I'm teaching it to my, uh, team, but I don't, I, it's not super easy. I don't have a quick fix because it just wasn't out there for me. And so I went and kind of built it. And so what happened was eventually I turned it into a course, that curriculum into a course, because I was like, this is really working. We're using it in leadership training.

23:18People are figuring out what they value. They're getting comfortable leading from that authentically. I love the outcome this is getting. I'll turn into a course. I shared it with a lot of people. Thousands of people have taken that course. They've sent me notes from all around the world. I quit my job. I did awesome stuff. And I was like, I need to get this to more people because too many people won't jump into a course. and I was like, I want to write a book. But I had this vision, Mick. I tell the story of literally being in Barnes & Noble and my book called On Values, On the Shelf, and everyone walking by it and no one wanting to pick it up, being like, I'm going to pick a book on values.

23:56I just was like, it's going to be, I have this framework. I really believe it's different. It's going to be boring to read as a non-fiction book. And, you know, things happen in life, like getting rejected from the Friday Forward book. And, you know, my daughter was joking me one day, I pushed my kids a lot to do things outside of her comfort zone. She's like, you're Mr. Nonfiction. You read nonfiction. You write nonfiction. Like, you should write a fiction book. That would be hard for you. And I was also finishing one of Patrick Lencioni's books, who I love. And I was like, huh. I was like, I actually think this would work well if I could show it in a parable format.

24:35at. And I have no idea how to do that, but I'm willing to give it a try. And that's basically how the book was born. For a small business owner, every day is full of surprises. Some great, some not so great. Like when a client cancels their order at the last minute. But here's a surprise you will like. Progressive provides small business owners with 30 customizable coverage options to help keep their business going strong. So go ahead, surprise yourself. Get a quote in as little as eight minutes at progressivecommercial.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates and third-party insurers.

25:11Coverage is not available in all states or for all vehicles and coverage selections. Wow. And speaking of Patrick Lencioni, he gave you a great endorsement on the conference, right? Saying that, you know, I'm going to read it so that I don't mess it up because it's Patrick, but it's a timeless parable that illuminates the power of living and leading in alignment with your core value. That's powerful. When Patrick Lencioni says that about your book, like when you saw or when he reached out or when you reached out and he wanted to do an endorsement for you, how did that make you feel? Well, look, both Bob Berg, who wrote The Goal Giver, who I knew, Patrick, I kind of sent them drafts and I was like, I felt a little like, you know, a finger painter sending something to Picasso.

26:03So, you know, I was like, so, you know, what, what do you, what do you guys think of this? And they were both like, we really like it. And, and, and I asked Pat about the title. He's like, I'm very good at titles. He's like the compass with it, you know, he, he, and some options. So I, and, and it gave me the confidence, I think. And, and I had to convince a publisher that, you know, I could, they don't love parables, but what's so interesting to me, Jamie is the protagonist in this story. and you watch him go through struggling with what I call the big three, his community, his vocation, and his partner.

26:41And the people who have read the book and the early book, they all say to me like, oh, I saw him. They just see themselves in James. They remember that conversation with their boss, that thing in their town. He just kind of serves as a mirror. And I think as I have discussions with people like you about this, it proves that like, because people start with, and they might've started listening to this episode. They're like, oh, core values. This is so abstract and whatever. And then we get down into like the nitty gritty of what does it look like and actionable in these decisions. And they see it in the book and they're like, oh, I buy this.

27:15Like this is different. So look, we'll find out in a few weeks, but I think it's working. It seems to be resonating. I've gotten some really personal notes from people where I think it just reflected something in their own life for them. Yeah, I dig it. Let's give the audience, the viewers and listeners, just a couple of parables that that you have in here as it relates to those values. Yeah. You mean a couple of the stories? Yeah. Yeah. So so so Jamie is a young up and coming 20 year old. He's engaged and his boss, who he loves, leaves his his leaves his work, which which gives him some opportunity, but also exposes him to the company and the culture in a way that he hasn't before.

28:07And so he has this opportunity, but he also has some things that feel a little bit off. At the same time, he and his wife and his fiance are sort of getting married. They're trying to figure out where to live. They move to this young up-and-coming town that they thought would be perfect. But there's some fissures in the culture of the town they identify. And he's really kind of struggling with all these things. And I won't give away too much, but he connects with a mentor, basically. And the framework that I had built all these years on how to discover your core values, and that framework is given to you in the last chapter of the book, but you watch the mentor and Jamie go through it live and sort of how that comes out and the stories.