1707 – The Most Valuable Investment: Professional Development for Mid-Career Professionals with ClearPeg’s Todd White

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0:58with us right now todd white todd you are the founder ceo of clear peg you're found on the web at clearpeg.com todd thank you so much for joining us thank you for having me josh all right well todd give us an overview of the work you do and what you do with clear peg we're focused 100 on professional development we work specifically with the c-suite to help them build the tribe of their future that they desire why is that so if there's someone right now and you know within the organization you know they're kind of the c-level um why would a company i mean it sounds like a silly question to ask but let's ask it anyway.

1:44Why invest in professional development for your future leaders? Oh, that's a great, I love that one. Because if you're not investing in your future, who is? If you've left the development of your mid-career professionals that are, they're your top people in most cases, you want to invest in them. And if you're not doing that, who is? You've left it to chance. They're relegated to the internet, whatever they can pick up buy big buy big borrow or steal and what we know is um there's different places where people are in terms of their career but people in that middle third of their career um they're often the moines that are most poachable there if somebody approaches them you can assume they're safe but if they get a little bit of sideways or questioning whether they're wanted or i'm in the right place investing my time somebody approaches them and they they steal them from you and i go wish that hadn't happened.

2:40Yeah. And tell me about, share a little bit about your background, because I know you've been in this world for quite a while. You've got some longevity and certainly some authority and experience. Give us a little bit of background about where you've come from and what makes you, obviously, you've got some really great clients today, but how has your past prepared you for the work that you do today? That's a dangerous question, Josh. I will attempt to answer that, but I'm a recovering engineer. My first 10 to 15 years, boots on the ground, mechanical engineer, a bit of a knuckle dragger is kind of a derogatory term, but that's how you learn.

3:20That's where you get dirt under your fingernails and understand how things work. My last 15 and 20 have been strategy consulting, business assessments. I've done those globally, more than 50 across the world. I've lived in Dubai, lived in China, went to China, set up operations over there, specifically growing the territory. And then it was time for me to move, move, move away, get back to the States, was asked to take over global HR, did that for a couple of years. So I've reinvented myself no less than five times. I've worked across more than 20 different industry verticals, hands-on with a lot of just pretty much every function you can imagine.

3:59And that's what enables me to have a specific or unique approach to working with any individual coachee, top to bottom, bottom to top, comfortable with any conversation, meet people where they are and help them grow from there. Right. You've worked in environments where, and this is a really interesting conversation here, question, I think. We'll see. But this idea of when you've got, and I think we can all identify with this. Let's say you've got an organization or a company, you've got a culture, and you've got kind of like your white shirts in the corner offices and kind of the C-suite. And then you've got all of these amazing, very technically minded engineers, you know, just technical, both doers and leaders.

4:47And I think sometimes they're in organizations, there can kind of be a bit of a chasm there. Can you address that? Because I know you've got experience with that. Well, like I think I mentioned earlier, I look at careers in thirds. So your first third, in a lot of cases, this is where HR fundamentally lives and HR will dispute this, but compliance, commitment, regulatory, here's your seat, here's your role, here's your function. And you got a lot of people there that are just figuring things out for a period of time. And you've got people, that's all they want to do. They're fine. Leave me alone.

5:25I work nine to five. Don't bother me. I'm comfortable. And then you got folks that are moving beyond that. So they've earned their bona fides. They've got their degrees. They've got a little bit of experience. They're moving their way into the second, the middle third of their career. And then you got the folks like the white shirt you're talking about up to the last third of your career. And at that point, they're kind of like, leave me alone. I'm maybe trying to figure out my white horse into the sunset. I've been there, done that, those elements. And then you got the ones, they're on fire, you know, they're working 40, 50, they're just consumed, right?

5:58So they, they've got their own path, their own desires. Doesn't mean they don't need a helping hand and some guidance here or But between the first third and the last third is this middle third. And they're the ones, am I making enough money? Am I valued? Am I appreciated? And am I investing my time in the right company for the right reasons? And if they ever get to this thing, am I wanted? They're poachable. They're at risk. And they're the ones that are largely left to chance. Everybody assumes they're safe. But in today's, particularly if you're a high knowledge technology worker, you know, you're on fire, you're into a lot of technology.

6:36I call them technology workers. They're very, very poachable. And so somebody can just swoop in very quickly and offer them a nice, a more attractive compensation package or make them feel valued and they'll jump ship. And it's a surprise to leadership. How did we lose that person? Now we got to find somebody to replace them. They're not easily replaceable. I'll have to spend time, energy, money, finding somebody. Then I got to re-educate those people. So when you look to what it actually costs you to replace one of those high performers that are growth mindset, it can easily be, my experience, it's probably at least one times their annual salary, maybe more.

7:17And it takes you six months or a year to get them ramped up to speed. And guess what? In today's, there's such a gap in expectations between employers and employees. They may join your organization, never physically meet anyone because they're remote. They're not getting the attention and they'll quit before you get a chance to onboard them. So it's you ask. It's it's a very dynamic situation. But if you're not building your tribe and building your the people that want to follow you, want to fit your culture, if you leave that the chance, don't be surprised if you lose them. Yeah, yeah. I want to talk just a bit, Todd, about when you are working with an organization or working with a client, what does that typically look like?

7:58What does professional development look like with ClearPag? We do is we work with the C-suite and we help them identify, work with them or give them the characteristics that, you know, where do you invest your money? Where do you invest if you're buying stocks or companies or whatever? You invest where you honestly believe you're going to get the best return. And so what we do is we've established it. If you probably look to the growth mindset with Carol Dweck, there's another couple of people, but there's 10 or 15 things that identify a growth-minded person. But what we look to, there's five specifics that we look to and share with leadership.

8:34So one of the things, the people are becoming or they already are subject matter experts. So they bring something specific to the party. So they're valued for that particular thing. They're also accountable. These are the people, they don't make excuses. They're accountable. They're going to get the job done. They don't, they're just going to get it done. You know, they're going to get it done. They're also not afraid of failure. they don't want to fail backwards but when they fail they fail fast they learn fast they fail forward they keep going and you recognize those people oh well i wish they hadn't done that but i'm glad they did because they needed to fail because now they understand what it takes and we can help them we can build them to grow the other thing is is really it's on the effort side people ask me well hey what's the return on investment of this professional development executive coaching well it might be zero if it's not it's not so much the coach as it is the co-chief.

9:30When they're willing, they care, they're willing to put in the effort, they listen, they adopt whatever needs, they're taking ownership, again, accountability, their care, they're putting in the effort, and that makes the difference. So it's really return on effort. You have to have congruency there. And leadership recognize that. You can't really measure the most important things. You just kind of know it based on those people and how they engage, but they're willing to put in the effort. And the other thing, the fifth element that we look to in a growth-minded individual, they're not consumed with considering or jealous of what others have.

10:07Somebody else got this opportunity. Somebody else got a new car or a new relationship. They're not consumed. They're not eat up with others. And so more of that fixed mindset is it's always somebody else is holding them back or somebody got something. It's just, we did nothing we do is in context of remediation or being punitive, or I know some organizations, they get selected for coaching and they only find out later when they're reporting back to their boss or their manager. Oh, wow. You made it through that. We didn't think you were going to make it. You know, and, and, and I know we talked about this earlier, but, you know, just kind of painting a vision for, you know, we can put a pin on it as ROI, you know, but, you know, just thinking about, you know, what is the org, what is the type of organization we want?

10:56Oh, I do want to ask you about this, Todd. It's the advantage of bringing in an outside consultant versus trying to do it in-house with, let's say, a book club or something. And I don't mean to make light of that, but I mean, you know, the value of having an independent voice, someone who's kind of be a little bit more, maybe less married to some ideas, maybe a little bit more objective. Sorry, I don't mean to lead the witness here. That's kind of what I would immediately think of why that's so valuable. And these consultants that we've brought into our organization, again, I'm so sorry. I feel like I'm answering your question, but I just want to throw this in there, right?

11:35It's amazing when you do bring someone in who can read the label. I mean, we're inside the bottle. I can't read the label. Right. And we're, we're, it's, it's hard for us to sometimes be objective to different ways of looking at things or new ideas. And also too, I know how we do things. I don't necessarily know the intricacies of a lot of other organizations, including organizations that are going to be a few steps ahead of us that, you know, So I'm totally, well, Josh, it's been great having you as a guest here. Oh, hey, Todd. Let me get your point of view on that. Go ahead and reveal your pain.

12:17We'll work through that solution. There we go. There we go. No, I'll let you take that on. Yeah. There was a whole lot to unpack with that one, but I love it because you immediately flipped in to your pain and what you see and the value of bringing in an outsider. As an outsider, you don't have, as we say in the South, you can't tell, but I don't have a dog in that fight, right? I can come in, I can see, I can tell you the truth. I'm not, you can say certain things as an outsider that an insider wouldn't necessarily get away with. The other, the significant value that we bring, and this is specifically on our B2B side.

12:57Once we select the coachees with the executive team, it's a third party, hands off, client, doctor, attorney, privilege, those types of elements. Because the true leading with authority or leading brilliantly or whatever you want to call it, the true leaders out there, they know my people need a safe place to have a conversation. And we all know, been there, done that, what's nonjudgmental today becomes career limiting or relationship ending tomorrow. We've all said something at somebody to a family member or a significant other or somebody that, oh, you said such and such a year ago, or they don't forget.

13:41So you need that third party private confidential conversation. And you can meet people where they are. You can have consultative as well as prescriptive conversations and dialogue, but you need to diagnose. And then you understand this person I need to have based on their maturity. I can have a very consultative piece of dialogue. But others, they've not been there, done that, had that experience. They can be very technically adept, but now they're in a different set of waters to swim in and they're having to build and grow a team. So they've gone as an individual contributor of one to now they're leading the team of who knows how many or they were functionally in a role doing successful.

14:20Now they're a completely different area. But it's listening, engaging with people where they are, feeding them in real time what they need. It's not a cookie cutter. It's not. I was talking with a guy one time. He said, yeah, I was using a coach. And the first conversation was, well, name three things that you're really afraid of. And the guy named them off. and the guy says well you have to recognize those three things could never happen to you and lewis just hung up the phone he's like i don't need that but engaging with people where they are it's amazing the conversations we bundle these people up i say bundle but we work with them for a year it's a weekly 50 minute conversation lots of times it's good morning how are you what's going on the world is great other times it's like The wheels have fallen off the bus.

15:10I'm stuck. Right. And people need a conversation when they need it about what's important to them. Yeah. So, Todd, your website is clearpeg.com. Someone's been listening to our conversation like, OK, I feel like they've been talking to. I feel like Todd's been talking directly to me. Josh had been talking a little bit too much sometimes to me. But where, you know, someone's been listening to a conversation like, listen, at least I'd love to have a conversation, you know, kind of maybe pick your brain and see if maybe there's an opportunity to, you know, have you help out in some way. What do you recommend to folks?

15:44It's kind of that next step. Well, clearpeg.com is an excellent place to start. There's you can learn about you learn about Clearpeg, but there's a there's an insights tab on there. I don't know. It's more than 30 different articles, things like that. that it's information. You can grab, you can go there. You can also schedule time on there for grabbing a spot on my calendar. You can find me on LinkedIn. You can look to Todd White or you can just do hashtag ClearPeg. I love meeting people on LinkedIn. Another, if you want to just ping me direct, I'm okay with that is Todd at ClearPeg.com. Yeah.

16:22Todd White, again, founder, CEO of ClearPeg on the web at ClearPeg.com. Todd, it's been great chatting with you. Thank you, Josh. It's been a pleasure being with Up My Influence. Thank you. Take care.

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