Ep. 62. Arrive, Drive, Thrive: Josh Saterman on Building High-Performing Organizations

Speaker A: Uh, a leader is somebody that people respect. It's not about liking someone. It's about respect.

Speaker B: Welcome back to the Truth HR Podcast. I'm your host, Taylor Bradley. There are some conversations that leave you with new ideas, and then there are ones that quietly change the way you think. Today's episode is one of those. I'm joined again by Josh Saterman, CEO, entrepreneur, and now author of Arrive, Drive and Thrive. We explore what separates people who simply show up from those who create lasting impact, why career success is about far more than climbing the next rung of the ladder and the small decisions that compound into meaningful leadership over time. But as always, we start at the ground floor by asking Josh what is his book about and what inspired him to write about this particular topic.

Speaker A: I'm just vaguely passionate about the subject. So my journey was very fortunate to have sponsors and allies and executive coaches. And so I essentially wrote the book as what I would call a love language or a leadership framework around how we show up as individuals, how we show up as teams or functions, and how we show up as enterprise leaders. So that's an input. Another input is the title, which is truly Arrive, Drive, and Thrive around arriving as an emerging leader, driving as a growing leader, and thriving as a senior leader. And that's a lifetime journey. And oftentimes what I was experiencing, experiencing at the leadership levels is almost this need to unlearn, to relearn because of unfortunate behaviors or lack of access or different environments that, uh, created limited learning. And so we developed Arrive, Drive, Thrive because we felt the urgency of how you show up. Again, another ism of Arrive, Drive and Thrive. Right? You show up as this individual arrive, you drive as teams and functions, and you thrive as a senior leader. So I repeated that on purpose because this does tie back to how we think about lifetime learning as leaders.

Speaker B: I love how you've put it into almost a character arc. So let's start breaking that down is there's these three different segments that you've eloquently described. What are some of the hallmarks of each one of those segments as someone's progressing through that part of their career journey or leadership journey?

Speaker A: I love that. Let me use change as the example. It's a topic du jour alongside AI. So if we're looking back on this 10 years from now, let's see if those topic du jour evolve or not. But change nonetheless has become such a pervasive word, and truly, it is a big word. There are so many layers to it. When you're learning as an emerging leader, what that looks like, you really are managing through that change, right? When you advance or you're driving and you're growing, you're starting to lead through or navigate that change. And then as a senior leader, you are looking to lead through that change along the journey. If I go backwards, as a senior leader, you are leading through change, you are navigating that change and you are managing through change. As a growing leader, you are navigating the change and certainly managing through the change. And so this ecosystem, leadership development, the way that we develop the tools, the academies, right? Both in our open enrollment programs and our proprietary company programs, right? One on one with an organization, we brought these academies into the organization so that if change was something the organization was facing, instead of creating a flavor of the month, which unfortunately many companies are still doing, we really stay focused on what is the source of what's happening at an organization. And if we use changes, that example, we then create sizable, scalable, sustainable solutions for the emerging leader or the new people leader. Similar topic, more advanced level. For some of those what we'll call managers in the middle, it could be director, it could be vice president, it could be senior director so they know how to lead through. And then we talk about that leadership level of how that punctuates the vision, the strategic direction, the core objectives of the company. So we're combining culture building with business centricity and change is one of those critical skills that can be accessed now at all levels of leadership in an organization.

Speaker B: One thing that's resonated through what you've described and, uh, throughout my career is when you enter each one of these phases, it's always important to turn around and look who's coming up behind you and helping them climb up that ladder or progress to that next stage of their arc in their career. What advice do you give leaders that are at, uh, let's say the emerging part of their career?

Speaker A: Great question, Taylor. We talk a lot in section two, which is drive around this idea, uh, of delivering results with your team, with the team, not at the team, right? When we delegate, as the example, we're not delegating at the person, we're delegating with the person. So it's not in the book, but I do talk about this a lot. Our company talks about this a lot as part of our academies. And the work that we do in off sites and coaching is we have a 5T's model. The 5T's model starts with we teach someone something. We teach them something, right? We Train them. Training does not mean I sit down for 30 minutes, I dump on somebody and I run away. Training is more than just compliance. And this concept of training is a syllabus, a strategy, 90 day goal, something you're going to commit to with your person, your team, your direct report, your peer, you're going to invest in them. Because the other three T's are tolerate, transfer or terminate. And so we don't want to get there. We don't want to tolerate bad. We don't want to transfer per se unless somebody has a different skill set. And we certainly don't want to get to that place of termination. Right? And while we know in HR those elements happen, the best advice I can give to leaders is find a way to transfer your knowledge.

Speaker B: Right?

Speaker A: You want to one day replace yourself. And so when you think about what you just asked Taylor around, how do we invest in emerging leaders? We coach, we develop, we empower by practicing earned autonomy. What does it mean to earn autonomy and decision making. And we do this by understanding the power of how we teach and train as part of our responsibility.

Speaker B: And to be respectful of my audio engineers that I work with, I'm not going to do a slow clap. So just silent, silent snaps of agreement here. First off, this is one area and I hope the listeners are queuing into this and I love doing about this podcast. Every now and then you get the with not at such a simple thing, but in a way profound, because if you implement that, that very simple litmus, am I working with folks or delegating at them could completely change how you're working with your teams. And sometimes simple is so beautiful in that. So first silent snaps for that. And then the second is the concept around training, where too often I see this in the community where we think that training is, to your point, a half hour session, we're going to dump all the data and then you're good to go. Josh, I just trained you on what to do and I appreciated how you've made it practical for leaders. If it's an ongoing concept and for some listeners this may be. Well, of course. Right. But back to basics on some of these aspects. Now, we've talked, Josh, a lot about what goes well when you're implementing these things and. But I'm sure you get brought in because things aren't going well. What are some of the common scenarios that you walk into when your organization and you are brought in to assist leaders?

Speaker A: Uh, I can talk about that for hours. Let me share two things. I'm hearing a lot. Today I'm going to talk about the skill sets of prioritization and resource management. That's the context of what I'm about to share. Two places that we begin our journey with organizations is where do we sit in common language. Because oftentimes what I find is happening is we have miscommunication, we have unhealthy collaboration, we have lack of curiosity. When I think about prioritization and resource management that requires healthy communication, healthy curiosity, healthy collaboration, healthy change management or leadership, and ultimately healthy commitment, alignment. So I hear a lot in organizations a bit more of a disconnect around those five Cs. Um, for anyone that's familiar with Lencioni's model, the five dysfunctions of a leadership team, he talks about this concept first and foremost of building trust, moving into healthy conflict management, ultimately into commitment, accountability and results. And these two frameworks, lanciones functions or dysfunctions of a leadership team or team in general. And our 5C's model is typically where we A begin and B, because this is what we're seeing in organizations. The other thing we're seeing in organizations, and I talked about this a lot, it's fun to talk with again with in conjunction with our wonderful troop community. Because AI I mentioned this earlier, AI is a topic du jour and pendulums swing. Companies try to balance that. Because when companies swing pendulums too far, you see the results, right? If Coke is not trying to be Coke and they're trying to be Walmart, it's a problem, right? Because that's not who they are. So what happens with things like AI is we tend to try to swing to the shiny object and the counterbalanced AI is human intelligence or hi. And you're seeing a lot about that. I did not invent that term. I'm borrowing it because I appreciate the value of emotional intelligence. Slowing down to process the data.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: AI works best when you have good data in to get great data out. It will amplify the good, it will amplify the bad. So the reason why I share that Taylor is because what we're working with organizations on is connecting those two. When you have healthy communication, people are clear. When people use AI, they know what the outcomes need to be. So there's the symbiotic relationship between healthy communication and clear next steps. Healthy collaboration and maximizing people resources to deliver results. Healthy questions, asking AI healthy questions. Right? So good data in, good data out. So I do want to reintensify that as part of that is the arrive, drive, thrive focus. Right. That's that relationship I talk about between individuals, teams and enterprise and how that relates back and connects back to that 5C's model.

Speaker B: And what I love about the 5 dysfunctions of a team is, and we'll drop a link of this into the description for those that aren't familiar is it's just trust is the base and be human. Right is paraphrasing. But the same goes with AI. And most importantly, what I really appreciate about what you've highlighted, Josh, is the pendulum. And oftentimes I have found, especially in the troop community, which has incredible HR leaders in it, is we have to also be the voice of reason and moderation inside the organization of when pendulums are swinging too far in any program. I don't want to single out just one. I think AI is a really good one, a good lightning rod at the moment. And, uh, as Josh knows, but sharing with the listeners. I work at an AI infrastructure company, so I'm incredibly bullish on AI, but I see so many organizations tripping over themselves of doing it in the wrong way. That's also causing fierce pushback from the human population of what they're doing it, but not even effective in actually implementing. So Josh is spot on there. But Josh, as we come here towards a landing, couple other quick thoughts, if you will. If you'll indulge me. We've used the word leadership a lot in this discussion today. How do you define leadership?

Speaker A: First of all, snaps to what you just said prior to this on AI, uh, and snaps to what that question is. I try to be as simple as possible because our businesses are complex enough as it is in its simplistic format. Anybody can be a leader. A leader is somebody that people respect. It's not about liking someone, it's about respect. Right? And so leadership can come because voice can come, ideas can come. Creative ideas can happen. When you really elevate all voices in an organization. That's why diverse thinking and access and equity and ultimately inclusive leadership is at the core of our work. So leadership is everywhere. When I say leadership, I am not only referring to somebody with a title. A title is hierarchy, which is an executive. And not all executives are actually good leaders. Quite frankly, they're not even leaders. Right. Fancy title does not mean anything. So I will qualify leadership when I say senior leaders because that allows people to understand where they sit in that hierarchy. And hopefully through our work and many others that are part of the true community, we can elevate leadership. Lots of room for everyone as part of the true community to do this work because Lord knows we have lots of leadership development. I talk about managers separately. Managers are different. Managers can be managers of a function for anyone that's in the world of biotech or manufacturing manufacturing. A uh, manager can be simply a point person within a business unit or a business function that gets to make a decision. So managers are decision makers and are they clear on those decisions? Is a different subject. Circular reference back to our Arrive, Drive Thrive. Love language. Right. But managers are decision makers at various levels of the organization and we call them managers or directors or vice presidents. But that's, that's a management title to understand decision making. So managers are decision making rights. Leaders are throughout the organization. Executives are a title. They can all work together. They can all work separately.

Speaker B: Love the call out of not every executive is a leader and not all leaders are people managers.

Speaker A: That's right.

Speaker B: It's a uh, behavior impact that people make inside organizations. So great definition. Very supportive of that. Final question for you. Going to be the easiest. I want to get a book, I want to get a hold of you. How do I do those two things?

Speaker A: So sadermanconnect.com is our website. You can certainly follow us at Sederman Connect on LinkedIn. You can certainly reach out to Michael who's our head of business development in terms of what that looks like and of course Amazon houses our book. So I say our website first because there is that link to Amazon. But good old Amazon, we love a good distributor. So that's how you can find Arrive, Drive Thrive and that's how you can learn more about our Arrive, Drive and Thrive leadership academies, workshops and coaching experiences.

Speaker B: Incredible conversation with you today Josh. I could talk to you for hours.

Speaker A: Likewise.

Speaker B: So I recommend everyone else doing the same reaching out to Josh and developing that same relationship. And next time I see you of in front person Josh at one of our events I want to get my copy signed. So thank you for being on the podcast today.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Thank you Taylor.

Speaker B: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Troop HR podcast. If you've liked this episode, we would encourage you to like and subscribe. If you would like to learn more about the troop HR community, you can reach out to troophr.com in the meantime, keep living the dream.