GFEP 3 | Houston Texans

 

Are you ready for some football? Teams of the National Football League, the “granddaddy of all sports,” opened training camps this week in preparation for Opening Night on Thursday, September 10. And the Houston Texans, led by President Jamey Rootes, are up first as they kick off the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs. In the middle of all this hustle, Jamey takes a timeout to chat with Rob Cornilles about the unprecedented challenges facing the NFL, the impact one player (J.J. Watt) has had on a sport and a city, and the leadership lessons learned from working for two of the most iconic families in sports history. They say everything is bigger in Texas and Jamey and his team prove that they can handle Texas-sized success pretty darn well.

Watch the episode here:

Jamey Rootes | Texas-Sized Success

They say everything is bigger in Texas. It’s true for barbecue, live music, and football. If you’re Jamey Rootes, the President of the Houston Texans of the National Football League, the job of leading a team that hasn’t yet won a Super Bowl in a demanding market with many social, safety, and sales issues staring you in the face, you better come ready to play. That’s why Jamey Rootes is this episode’s of the show.

We’re with Jamey Rootes, President of the NFL’s Houston Texans. I can’t say this about a lot of people, but a long time friend of mine in the industry, which means Jamey is as old as I am. Jamey, I appreciate you joining us on the show. This is a busy, hectic time for people in the NFL, especially you in your position, but thanks a lot for spending a little bit of time with us and talking about what it means to be a game face executive.

Over the past years, I haven’t told you, “No,” and I wasn’t going to start now.

That’s true. Thanks, Jamey. I want to point some things out. I’m wearing the brand of the Houston Texans. We have known each other for a long time, but I got this shirt from you several years ago because you’re a good guy. We’ve worked together over the years and we’re going to talk about that, but I want to take the readers back to the beginning of your career. Before we go there, we’re in the midst of a lot of uncertainty in every market in the country and I got a big question mark on the economy. We’re going through a pandemic. Hopefully, we’re starting to see not the end of that but at least the tail end of it.

We are talking at a particular time when there has been a lot of protests, even some civil unrest. I know these are issues that are important to you personally and also to the McNair family for whom you work and the Texans organization as a whole. I’m wondering if you could allow us to open the door a little bit to the boardroom of the Texans and talk to us a little bit about the conversations that you’re having during this unusual and prickly time. How does an organization with as much prominence in a community as the Texans has, and even in the state, not to mention the league as a whole? Give us some insight into the principles that guide those conversations and those decisions you’re making now.

I’ll try to give you a clear response on that. Broadly, someone told me one time that challenge is the crucible of leadership. It’s a stick. If you pick up a stick, you can’t just get one in. You can’t be a leader and not address challenges. This is natural. Life is hard. Once you accept that it’s hard, that doesn’t matter anymore. What are those challenges that we’re dealing with and what do we need to do about it? As an organization, we’ve had to deal with a number of crisis situations. A lot of it has been around hurricanes because we’re here on the Gulf Coast. This is like a hurricane, but a hurricane is like a sprint. This is more like a marathon. While it’s similar to what we’ve done before, we’ve had to do it for a much more prolonged time. The most important thing is the attitude that people bring to the table. One of the principles that we established as we were approaching the NFL lockout, which was about six months of complete uncertainty is positively focused. You have to discipline yourself to balance the negativity that you’re seeing and embrace that it’s not all negative. There are positives.

You have to look hard for them, but you’ve got to balance out. Also, you have to focus squarely on the things that you can control. The easy part is focused on what I control. What can I do to make a difference? The hard part is having the discipline to reject things that you can’t control because the things that you can’t control are a complete distraction. You have to put up a stop sign and set it aside. Occasionally, in an environment like this, you’re going to have a little bit of self-indulgence and a little bit of complaining like, “Why is it hard? We worked so hard to put this together and we have to take it down again?” Get yourself back to what can we do about it. If you do that consistently and get everybody within the organization thinking about what are the priorities? What can we do about it? It’s amazing what a group of individuals coming together can accomplish.

The things that you were talking about are all the details, the decisions, and all of that falls into place if you have this positively focused mindset. You also have to pull your time horizon. In great times, we can dream about the beautiful future. In challenging times, you can only look about 1 or 2 weeks in advance. Those are the only certain things. It’s amazing that once you do one thing, it opens up the next thing, but if you look five steps down the chain, it completely falls apart. It’s all part of controlling what you can control, but your time horizon needs to be pulled in, make the next logical move, and keep going forward.

[bctt tweet=”Challenge is the crucible of leadership. ” username=””]

Jamey, first and foremost, you work for an entertainment company as well, but your primary property is the NFL football team. In today’s world, can you remain a football team or do you have to become something bigger and larger? Are the expectations greater now than they were many years ago for a sports team to be more than a Sunday product?

That’s a good point. The expectations of our sports teams have increased exponentially since I’ve been in the industry. Fortunately, during the time that I was in Columbus, which was a long time ago, but the last several years with the Texans, our philosophy has always been that we were bigger than an athletic organization. We talk about the Texans and this has been the same from the beginning. We have what I term the three imperatives win championships. At the core, we are a competitive organization that is trying to win a championship annually for our community and for our fans. Second is we create memorable experiences. People are investing in coming to our games to be part of something bigger than themselves, to engage with their family and their friends in a way that they can’t Monday to Saturday.

On Sunday, we come together as one. We are Texans, the most diverse city in America, and nothing brings us together like the game of football. Number three is to do great things for Houston. Certainly, that we contribute $35 million that we’ve given to important organizations across this community. We’re the number one per capita contributor to the United Way in the City of Houston and always have been since we’ve been here. The way that we conduct ourselves does great things for Houston. When you see the Houston Texans on Sunday Night Football against the Green Bay Packers, that’s being across the planet. People may not know anything about Houston, Texas, other than what they see with those fans coming in their battle red shirts to tell the Packers, “You’re not playing 53 now. You’re playing 71,000, all of us together.”

All of the other events that we’ve brought to Houston, in 2002, when we had played our first season, Houston was not even on the radar as a soccer market. We brought the first international game here in the USA and Mexico in 2003. Now, Houston is one of the leading soccer markets in America, a viable competitor to host the World Cup when it comes to America. We’ve hosted the greatest brands whether it’s Manchester United, Manchester City, Barcelona Real Madrid, and all of these great teams, we resurrected the college football bowl game in Houston. In the last several years, we have taken it from obscurity to one of the leading bowl games in America, 1 of the 5 best-attended bowl games in America. Those are the things, not just dollars, but how we conduct ourselves and the breadth of entertainment offerings. We don’t have to do that. Football teams wouldn’t normally do that, but we step out of our comfort zone in order to be something bigger for the city.

You’re the most diverse community in America. I wasn’t aware of that, but it makes sense to me. The times that I’ve been in Houston and we’ve worked together, a lot of people don’t realize that Houston is the fourth largest city in the country. You got New York, LA, Chicago, and then Houston, unless that’s changed.

That’s right. We’re fourth and we’re right on the tail of Chicago. There are over 100 language languages spoken in this community and we embrace diversity. We see diversity as our greatest strength going forward as a community. We look like America will look many years from now.

There’s one player on your team when you talk about being more than just a player. We all know J.J. Watt. He’s a transformational player, not just on the field, but what he does in the community. Can you talk a little bit about that? I don’t know if what came first, J.J.’s attitude towards the community and giving back or the Texans culture, or if they were a perfect blend. Tell us a little bit about that player that we read about, and we see on SportsCenter, but he’s more than a player. He’s an active participant in the community. You can tell he cares. He’s not just lip service. Share with us some insights about working with such a transformational player.

It is one of the greatest blessings of my career to have the opportunity to work with JJ Watt. You asked the question, “Was it him? Was it our environment? Was it both?” It started with him, that I think him coming into our environment, which embraces completely community service, you feel it in the walls of the organization that we’re about the city. We want to do great things for Houston. It started with him and we helped him to elevate even higher. When he first started with us, we had drafted him. It was a controversial draft pick. Our coaches thought he had a great motor and had huge potential.

I will tell you a funny story that one of our coaches said about it, but it was during the NFL lockout. One of the rules of the lockout is teams could not communicate with their players until it was resolved. It didn’t get resolved until July. I got a call that there was a horrible accident, a family here in Bel-Air that was coming back from Colorado. They were in a tragic car accident that the parents’ perished. The daughter wound up being okay, but the boys were paralyzed. A friend called and said, “Can you send some players over to comfort these kids?” I said, “I’m sorry, I can’t call the players because of the lockout.” That night, I turned my TV on, who was over at the hospital with those kids? JJ Watt.

GFEP 3 | Houston Texans

Houston Texans: It is a great blessing to have the opportunity to work with J.J. Watt. He is a triple-threat athlete.

 

I knew from that point we had something special. I talk about JJ as being the triple threat. He’s the only triple-threat athlete that I’ve seen. He has tremendous God-given talent. He’s a great athlete, but not only that, he adds to it that magic of work ethic. He has a tremendous work ethic. I have a saying that is posted on the back of my computer that, “Success isn’t owned. It’s leased and rent is due every day.” That was from JJ Watt. We have it in one of our conference rooms as well. The third is understanding that as an athlete, you have a shelf life to be able to make a difference. You’re in a privileged position, the same way that we feel about the Texans.

We’re in a privileged position. For better or worse, people look to us for leadership. How should I act? J.J. understands that. When he says something, people will listen. When he does something, it will make a difference for people. He has maximized every bit of the opportunity that a professional athlete has by taking his God-given talent, working his tail off, and recognizing that he can be bigger than the sport. The interesting story is Wade Phillips, who was our defensive coordinator at the time and was integral in our selection of JJ. He was asked right before training camp, “What do you think about JJ?” He said, “I think he’s got a great sense of humor. JJ is going to be a bust in Canton.”

He was quite prophetic. Wasn’t he?

He saw the talent, the work ethic, the character, the integrity, the love for the game of football that JJ had and all those things came together. We’re fortunate that he’s in our community.

You probably can’t see it, but right there at the top is Dom Capers’ signature. Explain who Dom Capers was.

I remember Dom Capers. He was the first head coach of the Houston Texans.

That’s right. I was in your office the day that you announced this logo. I know you don’t remember that, but I’ve spent many days in your office. On that particular day, I got one of these autographed helmets from the coach. It’s a beautiful logo. I know you guys wrestled over which logo to use back in those days. What year was that?

We announced the logo in 2001.

[bctt tweet=”Success isn’t owned. It’s leased and rent is due every day.” username=””]

You joined the Texans in 2000. I was curious because you left Major League Soccer.

Before we go there, I’ve got a comment on the logo. We were in the process of the design and you’re right. It is a beautiful classy identity for the team and screams Texans. We wanted the name Texans, but we couldn’t find an identity to go with it. Nobody liked anything in the focus groups that we’re doing. We showed them all kinds of artwork and colors and nothing resonated. I told Bob McNair, “Bob, I think we’re going to have to scratch the logo launch.” He said, “Why?” I said, “We haven’t found anything that anybody likes.” He said, “Where are you testing this?” I said, “We do it at focus groups.” He said, “Why don’t you invite me to your next focus group?” I said, “Okay, I’ll bring in so you can see the challenges we’re dealing with.” That was the first focus group. It wasn’t exactly the logo that you see, but it was generally a bull and the star. We showed it to the fans and they were pounding on the table. “That is perfect. That’s exactly what you need.” I looked at Bobby, he looks at me and he said, “This marketing stuff’s not that hard.”

Timing is everything. I want to talk about Bob McNair. For those who don’t know, he passed away a few years ago as the owner of the Texans. He was the one that brought the club into Houston. He is an institution within the state. He was a successful businessman, a wonderful philanthropist. His family has continued his legacy. I want to ask how the whole love affair began between you and Bob. Tell us a little bit about what you learned from the man.

Let me start with the love affair because I’ve been blessed to only work for two ownership families in sports, Bob McNair and the Hunt family, Lamar Hunt. Both of them are sports royalty and amazing people. Leaving Lamar and his family was difficult, but the first time I sat down in Bob’s office when I visited Houston, they speak differently, but there’s so much similarity between these two families and these two people. Bob had me at hello. That’s how that went, but in terms of what I learned from Bob, I’ve got an MBA from Indiana, but I feel like I got a second MBA working from Bob.

There were a lot of holes in my skillset and my experiences that Bob was able to fill through the conversations that we had regularly over almost twenty years. Of all the business experiences I had with them and the insights that I gained, what’s more important is how he developed me as a person. I had married. When we got to Houston, we had our first child. He helped me to understand how to be a good husband, a good father, and a good community citizen. It wouldn’t like lectures or advice. It was the more the way he was. He modeled the behavior. He walked the talk. He modeled the way for me. His integrity, his character is focused on honesty and on fairness in all things.

Even if you occasionally get taken advantage of, you always have to have a spirit of fairness and the importance of relationships. He did a wonderful job building and trusting relationships with people. That’s why he was successful. He was positive and optimistic. He was interviewed by one of our media personalities and they asked him, “Bob, you’re always positive and optimistic. Why is that?” He said, “I’ve never seen a successful person who wasn’t.” He was a spectacular man, a great role model for me like a father figure and treated me as part of his family. He has inspired me to be my best and for our organization to be our best.

When he recruited you away from the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer, which you had led for five years at that time, how was he successful doing that? You worked for Lamar Hunt and the Hunt family who is an institution, not only they were pioneers in soccer, but they were pioneers in the NFL. Ironically, you left the pioneering family that started and helped to start Major League Soccer. You went to the league that they helped start, which is the NFL. How was Bob McNair successful in getting you away from that? Was it simply the lure of the NFL of working for the King of sports?

Having a comfort level with Bob and his family was important. This would be a winning organization. I felt that from the first time I visited with him. I felt like over five years in Columbus that I had done what I had come there to do. I had established a professional sports franchise that was successful. I had a great season ticket base. I had a great business that was on an awesome trajectory. We had built the first soccer-specific stadium in America, built the first training facility specifically for an MLS franchise. I was like, “I could probably stay here in my mid-30s until I retire, but I don’t feel like I’m done.” As I reflected on that, I was like, “What do I think is missing?” This has been a great success in a sport. That is the primary sport that I grew up playing and coached like, “I can do it in that environment.”

Columbus is one of the smallest professional sports markets in America. I wanted to prove to myself that it wasn’t about the comfort level with soccer. It wasn’t because it was a small market why I go to the NFL, which is the elite of sports properties. In a market that supports the fourth largest market in America, I wanted to prove to myself that I could be successful there as well and it worked out. Buffy Filippell of TeamWork Consulting is the one who was doing the recruiting. She called me when I was at my house in Columbus.

GFEP 3 | Houston Texans

Houston Texans: Leadership starts with the desire to lead. You can have some of the traits, but if you don’t want it, it’s not going to happen.

 

We’d built something special there. She asked me if I’d be interested in working in the NFL. I said, “What? This is a great call. I’ve been having those thoughts.” She said, “What about in Houston?” I said, “That would be great, but Houston doesn’t have an NFL team.” She said, “They’re going to have. This guy, Bob McNair is about to pay more than anybody’s ever paid to relaunch the NFL in Houston.” She gave me the opportunity to come down and visit with McNair and it went from there.

When you were at Major League Soccer, you were Executive of the Year, the first year of the league existed. You were recognized immediately as not only a talent but as a mover and a shaker. Someone who could have a great influence on the sport. You mentioned the opening of Columbus Crew Stadium in 1999. I don’t expect you to remember this, Jamey, but Game Face, our company was working with Major League Soccer quite extensively in those first few years. We were traveling to each of the clubs. Mark Abbott, who is the President of the League now is one of the people who wrote the original business plan for Major League Soccer, didn’t he?

He transitioned from the World Cup in ‘94.

Mark has been with Major League Soccer longer than anybody since its inception. He called us and invited us to participate. We were the official sales coach for Major League Soccer for the first 3 or 4 years. One of my highlights in that relationship was being invited by you and by Mark to come to Columbus Crew Stadium opening night. What an event that was. It was a milestone for soccer in America because it was the opening of the first soccer-specific stadium. They’ve since renovated the stadium. Do you remember what happened at the end of that wonderful evening with traffic and parking?

Yes, I do. It’s amazing that you bring that up because I was sitting after the game in our post-game party area and I could see the traffic. I had a report that the traffic was ridiculous. I was sitting with the mayor, Greg Lashutka who has been a dear friend and remains a great friend. Greg said, “It looks like you got some traffic out there.” I said, “I don’t know what’s going on.” He said, “I think you need to hire the city of Columbus Police to provide your traffic direction because we are using the state troopers because we were on their property.” They had directed the traffic from a downtown festival right in front of the stadium and nobody could get out. The next game we adjusted our call for police and had much better traffic flow.

These are little details, things that you don’t anticipate. That was a very momentous evening. You mentioned your background is in soccer. You started as a college soccer player at Clemson University. You won two NCAA titles with them. You were also the student body president at the time if I’m not mistaken.

That’s correct.

You have leadership skills from day one. Were you the captain of the team as well?

I wasn’t. The captain was selected by the coach. My dear friend, Paul Rutenis was the captain in my senior year when we won the championship. My dear friend, Charlie Morgan was the captain in my freshman year.

[bctt tweet=”You can’t be working on the business if you’re working in the business.” username=””]

You should be the captain if you’re also the student body president.

I didn’t have time for it.

Straight out, you’ve got leadership skills and talent. Where does that come from?

I’ve always had a desire to lead. I’ve always wanted to organize and be the one to help everyone else be successful. I do think it starts there because you can have some of the traits, but if you don’t want it, it’s not going to happen. You’re not going to spend the time. You’re not going to have the JJ Watt work ethic addict. I’ve always treated leadership as a craft. When I was in college, was I a good leader? I am not, but I had an interest. I built and built and had new opportunities to lead. When I came to Columbus the entry-level president, I had to learn on the fly. I made lots of mistakes, but I would always break those down. I’m a pretty self-aware person and reflective of what I’m doing. Is it getting me the results that I want? If not, what do I need to do differently? I’m fortunate that I’m okay with failure, that I’m willing to take risks and have a creative mind.

Most people would hate to be in a startup environment. You have a blank sheet of paper, for me, it’s a dream. The Columbus part was easy, starting with nothing, putting it together and building it. In Houston, I was doing the same. My transition was around 2006 or 2007 when I was still treating the organization like a startup. It was proven to me that I am being a micromanager. In that startup environment, you’ve got to be. You’ve got to have your hands on to ensure that all the plants are growing the way that they should in perfect parallel. Everybody understands who we are, how we operate, what matters most, but eventually an ongoing business. You can’t be working on the business if you’re working in the business. That was a transition for me, going from this micromanager meddling person to a leader of leaders. I was leading followers. I had to elevate the leading leaders. I liked it much better where I am now. I manage people by remote control. I get great people. I give them a clear direction. We have a solid understanding of how we operate.

We have tremendous trust in each other. They trust that I have their back and I trust that they have my back. I don’t have to watch over them to set clear expectations and then hold them accountable for those results. I can spend my time on the things that matter most, the who, how, and why, the people, the talent, and the organizational environment that we provide them to give their best every day. The how, the culture, the habits that we want from our people and ensuring that culture remains strong and create ways to reinforce culture. The why and what’s the purpose? We are keeping everybody sites, not on now. We were talking about crisis situations, we’ve got to deal with the crisis, but when championships create memorable experiences, do great things for Houston. All of us want that. That makes the hard work worthwhile reminding that there’s a reason.

Like in sports, there’s a reason why you’re doing sprints at the end of practice. It was Tom Landry who said, “Leadership is getting people to do what they don’t want to do in order to get what they do want to get.” You can’t be doing those things if you’re meddling and having your eyes over people’s shoulders. You’ve got to trust that they’re professionals. They have a great desire to win. Sit with them and help them understand what winning looks like. Let them go out and do it. When they have problems, they can come to you. When they need resources, they can come to you, but otherwise go get your job done.

Jamey, in all of those years of leading teams, when I say teams, I should go back even longer than that because you lead teams in university. In those years, there’s got to be times when you have chosen the wrong people or you’ve inherited the wrong people. How does a leader deal with that? What do you do about that?

What you have to avoid is what I term in the sports business when a GM selects a player in the draft, you want them to succeed. Sometimes you’ll work hard that you keep the wrong people around for too long. In general, we’re way too quick to hire and we’re way too slow to fire. What I’ve had to do within our organization because it’s not me, I’ve got my leadership team and I’ll deal with them. Down the line, I’m going to make sure that on a regular basis, we’re getting the people that don’t fit. It’s not around performance. It’s around cultural fit. We talk about the attitudes that we’re looking for from our people.

GFEP 3 | Houston Texans

Houston Texans: Keeping the wrong people on the bus is unfair to all the right people. As a leader, you have to nip those problems in the bud.

 

The talents that we want are a great work ethic and a winning attitude, a positive, optimistic, team-oriented and a demonstrated commitment to operate consistent with our values, which are being innovative, memorable, passionate, accountable, courageous, and working as a team. Those are where people get off track that they don’t fit. Several times a year, we go through every employee and the manager reports out who are the tails. Think about a bell curve in any population. Usually, almost everybody’s right in the middle. There are some people that are stars and there are some people that are problems. I asked them anybody in the middle, don’t worry about it. Let’s talk about your stars and your problems. As a team, they get 360 feedback on everybody, within their department.

When we have problems, once they’re out there, sunlight is the greatest disinfectant. Once it’s known that we have a problem, then it’s on them. They know the clock is ticking. You got to work with them. You got to do a performance plan. If it doesn’t work out, it’s time to part ways. It’s better for the employee and it’s better for us. Our chair coordinator at one time said to me when she came in, “I’ve got this one cheerleader that I need to kick off the team.” I knew her, her family, and her story. I said, “Shouldn’t we reconsider? She got a great background.” She said, “Jamey, let me stop you there. Keeping the wrong people on the bus is unfair to all the right people. We think there’s not a cost to keeping somebody around as not a fit. There is a cost. It does frustrate people. As a leader, you have to nip those problems in the bud. It’s like a garden. Gardeners will tell you if you’re to go out and weed is better to weed too much than to weed too little. If the weeds remain, they’re going to take over the good stuff. You got to be a great gardener in order to maintain a talented base.”

Do you mind if I ask, how does your boss measure you and your performance?

Fortunately, at the head of the organization, he’s got a lot of great metrics to look at. There’s the subjective component and it’s always been a conversation coming over to the house. I will say that it’s incumbent upon me to tell my story. Regularly, I am summarizing the victories that we have. At the end of the year, it’s not difficult to evaluate me, and all those things that I have communicated, in addition to the financial results are there. We sit down and have a conversation about it, and then move forward. I do my own personal evaluation and that’s my test. That test is then graded by our ownership and they reward me how they see fit.

In all those years both at The Crew and at The Texans, has there been one decision that you can go back to? I’m not going to ask you a decision you regret. I, personally, don’t like looking backward. I tried to learn from it, but I don’t try to dwell on it. Can you identify a decision that perhaps was the most difficult that you had to make? I know there have been many in the positions that you’ve held and the prominent positions that you’ve held. Has there been one that you can share with us that was particularly difficult and you wrestled with?

The most difficult decisions are people-related decisions. I always agonize those because you’re dealing with people’s lives, their livelihoods, and their careers. There’s a book called The Dichotomy of Leadership. It’s by two Navy SEALs and they talk about all the dichotomies that it consists. For a military leader, the most difficult dichotomy, and I will talk about an investment sense, is having to love your people and know that for the good of the unit, you may have to put them in harm’s way. It’s the same way in business too. To be able to manage that dichotomy, they say, “Genius is being able to keep to opposing thoughts in your mind at the same time and not going crazy. To be able to know that you have to operate on both of those planes as a leader is something you have to accept.”

Challenge is the crucible of leadership, but the one decision that I will mention to you is several years ago, we had built this amazing tailgate experience for our fans. They loved it from day one. It was like the barbecue cook-off ten times a year in our parking lots. There are 30,000 people are having a meal before the game. There are bands out there, big-screen TVs, and inflatables. It’s not hot dogs and hamburgers. It was gourmet food. Across the freeway, there was an empty lot from the Astroworld coming down. They had leased that lot to a ticket broker in town. He went on the TV before our season started and said, “Tailgating is amazing at NRG Stadium, but you don’t have to have a ticket. Come here and you can walk across and you can go and tailgate.” We didn’t think much of it to begin with. In the first few games, we had a few 1,000 people that did it. We then had a game, we played the Cowboys. I think we had 20,000 people without tickets in our parking lots squatting on the parking spaces. There weren’t parking spaces for the people who had bought them. They rolled their coolers in there and there were fights before and after the game.

The decision that we had to make was, “Do we go take what was turned into the draconian measure and try to make NRG park a ticket in the environment?” Nobody had ever ticketed the parking lots before, but that’s the decision we took. There was tremendous media backlash of how awful the experience was going to be. On the game day, we set a post-game, press availability to be able to answer the media’s questions because they are all out of the parking lots. None of them showed up. It went back to normal. It was a wonderful, magical family-friendly experience. They don’t always work out that way, but the important part was the time that we spent evaluating and had to ask ourselves at the end of the day. As Bob McNair likes to say, “You can never go wrong by doing what’s right.” We had to tell ourselves, “This is the hard thing. This is full of risk. We could completely blow up what was important with our experience, but we knew it was the right thing to do and we went ahead.” Sam Houston had a saying, “Courage is doing what’s right. Accept the consequences and once you figure out what’s right, it doesn’t matter what the consequences are.”

[bctt tweet=”‘For every ten players that can handle adversity, there’s only one that can handle success.’ – Dom Capers” username=””]

You talk about the unusual position of an NFL franchise especially in a football-crazy state like Texas has. As far as the attention and the scrutiny that you get, not only from a rabid fan base, which every team hopes for, you want a fan base that’s invested, not apathetic. You also have a media that is constantly looking over your shoulder, second-guessing every move you make. Every CEO, every president of a large organization, a multimillion-dollar organization like you run has that scrutiny. Could you share with us a little bit about the peculiarities of running a franchise or any organization like you do? You have networks devoted 24/7 to doing nothing but talking about you, your failures, or your missteps. You have sections of newspapers that are dedicated to nothing but your industry. It’s an unusual place in sports that you have. What’s that like? How do you finally get used to that or do you ever?

You accepted as a fact of life about the stick. You pick up the stick, you get both ends. You want to be at the pinnacle, you’re going to have tremendous attention. I guess I come at it with a perspective that helps because of where I came from to be spent five years in a fledgling soccer league and franchise desperate for attention. It’s a great blessing. The exposure is a tremendous blessing. We serve the media. We want the media to be engaged in what we’re doing because we know how important a conduit they are to our fans. I believe that the way you treat the media is how the fans think you treat them.

We’ve won the Rozelle Award a number of times as the number one media service organization in the National Football League because we do know how important they are. It comes with the territory. Everything’s a mixed bag. When I was in Columbus, I wanted the attention here. In Columbus, you could do all crazy stuff and it didn’t work. Not all that many people saw it anyway. You tried something else. When you come to the NFL, there’s much more. It’s got to be much more deliberate and intentional because whatever we do, everybody’s going to see it. The expectation is we win at everything that we choose to do.

I want to ask you two more questions and they both relate to the future. Let’s talk about the future of the NFL. How do you see it from your vantage point? From where you sit, what does the future of the NFL look like?

I’ll preface this with a phrase from Yogi Bear. I never make predictions especially about the future. The NFL is at the top and importantly, there’s this mentality in a locker room. I call it the get better mentality and in our sport, it’s simple, but it’s powerful. Every game gets broken down completely and the coaches and the players think about how do we do this better? The military after-action review and the league approach it that way from game-to-game. From season-to-season, what’s better? How do we get better? As a team, we’re the same way. The future is incredibly bright for the National Football League.

I can’t tell you exactly what it’s going to be, but as long as we do not get complacent and we handle success, you mentioned Dom Capers earlier. Dom has a great line. He says, “For every ten players that can handle adversity, there’s only one that can handle success.” We have to be that one that can handle success. If we ever start drinking our own Kool-Aid, that’s when you start going over the crest. We have to constantly be reinventing ourselves. That’s what where we’re committed to doing.

You reminded me of another question. I’m writing a book about sales game-changers. It’s about methodology. It’s also about the people who are game-changers. When it comes to that industry, you’ve been a game-changer. You went into Major League Soccer as a young professional. You were given the title of a general manager. I think you are worthy of it. Some people may have thought, “Who’s this guy coming out of the collegiate ranks, who has got a fancy MBA and he’s running an expansion franchise?” You are a game-changer in Columbus. You helped to innovate for that league. You’re doing the same thing with the NFL. What role do sales play in your success, the ability to persuade and influence other people?

I was fortunate that my first experience was with IBM. I spent nine months to a year in sales training. It was a sales MBA from one of the great sales companies of all time. When I went to Procter & Gamble, it’s a different level, but it was still sales it was brand management. You’re trying to influence consumer behavior remotely, whereas sales are that one-on-one. I had the advertising and promotion component and I had the direct sales and sales management experience. I still rely upon those principles because at the end of the day, as you go up in an organization, it’s less and less about the things, and it’s more and more about the people. All-day long, you are looking to influence people to get the outcomes that you’re trying to get.

It’s not fairness. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s not like you’re trying to coerce people because people do things of their free will. What you do have to do is get into the shoes of somebody else. I want to get here. How do I motivate them to help me to get where I want to go? How can we do this together? What’s going to be a win-win? A lot of my job is around negotiation. All sales principles trying to get to yes and figuring out a place that everybody feels good about it. I would say sales and sales principles have a role in my life every day, my work life every day, and always have. I’m blessed that I started with such a solid foundation.

GFEP 3 | Houston Texans

Houston Texans: The way you treat the media is how the fans think you treat them.

 

IBM revolutionizes the way companies sell and you were part of that training. Let’s talk about your future. I’ve known you for many years. It’s been a pleasure to be a friend of yours and to be able to work with you and your franchises over those years. Where does Jamey Rootes want to be or see himself being from 10, 20 years from now? What do you still need to do in your career for you to be fulfilled and say that, “I’ve made the difference and the impact I wanted to have?”

As my career has progressed, my family has become a much bigger component. They would laugh and they’d say, “Dad, we know how much you work.” My family is important to me. I am ensuring that my kids get off to a great start in their life. My daughter is a rising junior in high school. My son is a rising freshman in college. He’ll be headed to TCU. My wife, Melissa, is finding some great things that fulfill her and things that we do together. That’s all good, but professionally, I am focused on trying to be great, where my feet are. I love what I’m doing, but I do see on the horizon you’re writing a book, I would like to put it down on paper these principles that have helped to guide these two successful franchises. The things that I’ve learned and some of the stories along the way, not that anybody would want to read it, but it would be good to get it down.

Maybe at least my children could have a much better idea of what their father was doing while they were growing up and going to school. That would be something on the horizon. I want to win a championship. I want to be part of a Super Bowl-winning franchise. I felt for the last few years that I got to get that done. Before, I look beyond the organization that I’m a part of. I’m blessed to be part of McNair’s organization. They give me such latitude and such an opportunity to do that for our team, to do amazing things for us to live out our best life right here in Houston. I can’t complain about anything, but a book would be as far as I’m looking. Hopefully, someday that will be a reality. As you open your question, it’s been a great blessing to be a friend of yours and have huge respect and look forward to reading your book.

You are a true professional. That’s one reason why I wanted you to join me on the show because a lot of us can continue to learn from you, watching you, and interfacing with you. I congratulate you on all that you have done and all that you are doing, sincerely.

Thanks for your friendship.

Thanks, Jamey. We know you’re busy. Let you get back to running one of the best franchises in the NFL.

Thanks, Rob. It is good to be with you.

Important Links:

About Jamey Rootes

GFEP 3 | Houston TexansJamey Rootes serves as President of the Houston Texans and is responsible for all business functions of the club. Since joining the Texans, Rootes has overseen the team’s efforts to secure stadium naming rights and sponsorship, coordinated radio and TV broadcasting relationships, engineered the club’s successful ticket and suite sales campaigns, led the creation and launch of the team’s identity and developed the team’s highly-acclaimed customer service strategy.

Rootes also serves as President of Lone Star Sports & Entertainment (LSSE), a sports management agency associated with the Texans. LSSE has been a catalyst for some of Houston’s most significant sporting events.

Rootes maintains an active role in the community by serving on a number of boards, including the Greater Houston Partnership and the United Way.

GFEP 2 | Building Trust

 

If you think about any conflict or impediment to progress, it’s probably due to a lack of one thing – trust. Over the past two decades, no author or speaker has taught more people, organizations, and societies how to build this essential element of human relationships, both internally and externally, than Stephen M.R. Covey. Stephen is the author of The Speed of Trust, which is now in its second edition with over 2 million copies sold. In this episode Stephen joins Rob Cornilles and shares his practical yet profound concepts that encourage honesty, integrity, and caring for others – in any environment. At a time when remoteness increases the need for trust among co-workers and managers, Stephen, the epitome of a game face executive, provides valuable advice that can “change everything.”

Watch the episode here:

Stephen M.R. Covey | Trust Changes Everything

If you think about any conflict, an impediment to progress that you’ve experienced at work, or you’re seeing in your home, community, and world, it’s probably due to a lack of one thing, trust. My first guest this season has convincingly taught the leaders, workers, and families for that matter throughout the world that trust, once established and maintained, changes everything. It is my distinct honor and pleasure to welcome a friend and a bestselling author, world-renowned lecturer and thought leader, Stephen MR Covey.

Stephen, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Rob. I’m thrilled to be on this show and to be with you again.

When I get to visit with you, I walk away better, stimulated, and more thoughtful. As we launched this show, I thought, “Who could be the best person to set the table for this show moving forward and give my audience instant value?” Your name came to my mind immediately. I’m grateful that you are willing to be a guest and we have many things we want to talk about. Let’s get right to it. First of all, one of my all-time favorite books, whether you’re talking business or social relationships in the home, it doesn’t matter, The Speed of Trust, which Stephen published in 2006.

It’s a New York Times bestseller with over two million copies sold. It’s been a number one Wall Street Journal Bestseller as well. It is jam-packed full of goodness and wisdom that’s being used all over the world. I have to ask you, you wrote this book, it took years of thoughts and observations to put it together but it came out in 2006. You’ve reprinted it again in 2020. How is it different writing it in 2006 from rewriting it in 2020? What’s different now that makes your book even more valuable for your readers?

One of the reasons why I came out with this updated edition is because our world is changing rapidly around us that I wanted to reflect on how relevant and timely trust especially is now. It was vital and relevant in 2006 and even more so as we’re operating in a world of declining trust. We’re seeing trust going down in many of our institutions whether it be the trust in government, media, business, other institutions, or society at large. We’re seeing that reality but in such a world of disruption, change, and transition. The pace, type, amount of change, disruptive technologies, and all kinds of things happening. On top of that, in every sense in the digital age, we’re truly transitioned out of the industrial age where knowledge work is important. All these factors and many others have come together with such that in this new world, trust is the ultimate currency.

It’s what makes our world go round. While that was technically true in 2006, it becomes more obvious and even apparent in 2020 and beyond. It’s what makes everything works in a world of declining trust. To be trusted in a world of low trust is a huge asset and advantage for any person, leader, or salesperson to be trusted when people aren’t quite sure who they can trust. All these factors have conspired. Things like having multiple generations at work with the Millennials and Gen Z in much of our workforce, their social contract, and the expectations that they have. Even now with what’s going on with people working from home, that requires trust to do it well because if you try to micromanage from a distance instead of trust people, it won’t be near as effective. These factors have made this important topic even more important and relevant now. That’s what’s become clearer. That’s why I wrote an afterword of why trust is even more relevant now than it was when I first wrote this.

I will continue to encourage people to reread your book. It’s been on my desk, behind my chair in my office, sitting there for many years and I refer to it. I’m glad and grateful that you updated it. Not that it needed updating, but it helped to reinforce the principles that you talk about throughout. I want to start with the word trust. Where is trust born and where does trust die?

[bctt tweet=”Trust is the ultimate currency.” username=””]

Trust is the confidence that comes from having both character and competence. I believe trust is most quickly born out of our competence, delivering value for someone, and result coming through so that you make their life better. It’s built first on competence and that’s where it’s born. Where it dies fastest is on a character where we violate the integrity, have self-serving agendas, motives, or intent. Both character and competence are vital. To build, sustain, and keep trust, you need both character and competence. You built that fastest to your competence and you distract fastest through your character.

It was born through competence and it dies through character. I could flip it and show you how it works in the other direction too. In our environment with all that’s going on in the midst of this pandemic as well as other things that are happening in society, I’ve always said, “You build trust faster through competence, delivering results, creating value for somebody.” I’m going to amend and say that with all that’s going on in our society, I’m not so sure that we don’t build trust fastest through our character as well. To show someone that you understand them, listen to them, demonstrate care and concern for them at a time when there’s much uncertainty and for people to feel like you not only have their back, but that you care about them, not because of what they can deliver for your company but you care about them as a person, as a human being, their family, safety, welfare, and well-being. That is demonstrating an extraordinary care concern.

That’s a character dimension that right now, especially, is building trust fast. In a sense, it’s born in character fastest now and demonstrating that care. I saw this article where the person says, “We need Chief Empathy Officers, CEOs that demonstrate caring and concern more than your useful asset for our team to produce results. What about the person and showing that care matters enormously?” It’s hard for me to separate character and competence because you need both. I’ve always said, “You build it fastest through competence. You lose it fastest through a character.” That’s generally true. Especially now, we might go that fastest through character as well.

For me to add to anything you say because of your experience and the work that you do around the globe is truly impressive. As you’re saying that however, some thoughts are coming to my mind. First is character reminds me of the heart. It’s who you are. If I may, it’s your soul. Competence reminds me of your brain, skills, and abilities. Are you suggesting that it starts with the heart? If you are, how does one develop a heart of character, concern, and empathy towards others, especially in a world where trust is difficult to build or to find?

That’s a good assessment of it. Character and competence, heart and mind. It’s an overlapping piece, but it was accurate. You start with the heart. I always say that character and competence are equal, but the character is first among equals because it’s the right starting point. I use a metaphor of a tree with a character being the roots and the trunk of the tree. Competence is being the branches and the fruits of the tree. If you want to have branches and fruits, you’ve got to deliver, perform and come through but you’ll never have that without roots and a trunk with stability and foundation. That’s the character and heart. You do start there. Here’s a way of thinking about how you start with the heart. Using the tree metaphor, the roots are our basic integrity and it is the idea that we are who we say we are, and we do what we say that we value.

It includes honesty and truthfulness but it’s even more than that because honesty is when our words conform to reality. Integrity is when our reality conforms with our words. We are who we say we are. We’re real and authentic. That builds trust with people. It’s when you’re authentic, real, and a person of integrity. People can say, “I trust this person. They’re authentic, real, and not trying to pretend or to seem rather than to be.” That’s a foundation. If you always look in the mirror and you try to say, “Who am I? What do I value? What’s important to me? Am I living true to that?” None of us are perfect. We all fall short, but we’re striving.

We’re trying to be real, authentic, a person with integrity. That’s the roots. We all need to start there and get better. One way of getting better is to clarify what’s important to each of us. What do we value? You can’t have the integrity to your values if you’re not clear on what your values are. You focus on my value so that I could then be true to them. A whole other half is the trunk of the tree. That’s our intent which is our motive in our agenda. This is where I get back to caring, the motive that best builds credibility and trust is caring.

When I care about the people that I’m serving, lead-in, and I’m selling to, I care about their interests, business, wins, success, they know and feel that I care about them. When they believe that, feel that, they tend to trust me. If they don’t think I care or think that I care only at a superficial level, but then my real agenda is to make the sale, to get the deal, get the commission that I only care superficially, they tend to not trust me. They wonder if I’m trying to manipulate or use techniques on them versus my agenda to help them succeed because I care. Caring is the motive and the agenda is to seek mutual benefit.

GFEP 2 | Building Trust

The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

That’s called a win-win. There’s nothing wrong with me wanting to make the sale and winning. I want to do that but I want to do that because I care about your win as a customer. I’m going to help you succeed and I want you to win too. That’s the only sustainable approach. It challenged us to look in the mirror, to go deep inside, and say, “Am I a person of integrity and authenticity? What’s my agenda and motive? Am I seeking mutual benefit? Do I care about those that I’m serving selling to?” That makes such a profound difference when it’s real and authentic. That’s why you start with integrity so that when you say my intent is to serve, you want to be true to that and not just give lip service to it. It makes such a profound difference. There’s a lot I packed into that. That’s the starting point. I would say, let each of us look in the mirror and try to say, “Who am I? What’s my integrity? What’s my real intent? Is it to serve or is it to make a sell to serve me?”

Do you think that quality of care is inherent in people or do you think it’s a learned characteristic?

There are elements of both but it’s also learned. At some level, some of this is inherent of us because we’re social beings and we like to interact with people. We’ve learned over time that if you’re in an interdependent world, win-win is the only sustainable long-term solution. The reason I say that is while we may have had a desire to be connected and interdependent, much of our life and our scripting is more towards win or lose. It happens in school, we have sometimes forced grading curves and there are many A’s because there’s got to be many fails and many B’s, D’s, and so forth. You grow up in a home with 1 or 2 siblings and sometimes you’re compared, “How come you can’t be like your brother or sister?” It’s almost like there are winners and losers. In sports, it’s an independent reality where two teams want to feel to play. There’s only one winner. You might have a tie in some sports and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Most people hate ties in sports.

There are only a few sports in which that continues. The reality is there are a winner and a loser. In sports, that’s okay because the nature of that reality is independent. There’s a broader interdependent reality which is we have sportsmanship and rules that we all agree to so that we can have this competitive environment. I love sports and the environment but it tends to script us towards win or lose. School tends to script a score when losing the family home and how we’re raised. There’s a lot of win-lose scripting.

There are a time and a place for that in competition. Most of life is not competition. Life is interdependent, collaboration, cooperation, and working together. Innovation is a team sport. Working to do things together as a team and increasing sales is team-based. There are some individual-based and some team-based combinations but we’re trying to help each other and that’s collaborative. That’s interdependent. That’s where we need to learn win-win, skills of interdependence and collaboration because we’re often scripted in how we’re raised growing up.

Fundamentally, I do think it’s learned, but it is innate in us that most people are good with a desire for integrity, social people, and care about others at some level. We might’ve been scripted in a different direction. We’ve got to become intentional and deliberate about saying, “This will work better if I am focusing on helping my clients succeed.” When that becomes my dominant mindset flowing from my heart, then all the skills that I learn and I do is in the context of intent that is about helping them succeed because I care about them. That then gives context for my skills and everything else I’m trying to do. Your intent matters more than your technique.

The innate desire to be helpful and serve people is in all of us and because of our environment, upbringing, or our experiences, it starts to dissipate. Cynicism, doubt, and suspicion start to come into our lives. I love one of the examples in your book where you talk about, “We learn to stay in our lane when we’re out on the freeway or out on the street. We don’t cross over into the other lanes. We know that’s not appropriate. It’s not safe. It’s not only not safe for us, it’s not safe for other people.”

[bctt tweet=”Trust is born through competence and dies through character.” username=””]

To me, the innate desire to win, personally, coupled with the training, “One way you can win is to stay in your lane and don’t do harm to other people. In order to make that happen, you have to learn the skill of driving properly and you need to obey certain rules.” What’s causing a lot of disruption in our society is that some of the rules that we have become accustomed to whether in business, in societal interaction, or even in family life, those rules seem to be dissipating and getting fuzzy. As a result, at least as I see it, trust is being negatively impacted. Correct me if I’m wrong.

You’re right that there’s overlap, contention, and sometimes a violation of the norms and rules where you start to question, “Are there even norms anymore such that we can trust and confidence in this?” I love how French sociologist, Émile Durkheim put it. He said, “When mores or cultural norms are sufficient, laws are unnecessary. When the mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.” If the mores break down, then it’s hard to even enforce that. We have overlap. That’s part of the danger of a low trust world. That’s what’s happening and increasingly in our society, trust tends to be going down in a variety of different ways.

The danger of a low trust world is that it tends to perpetuate itself because we all become a little bit more careful, cautious, and guarded because none of us want to get burned. It’s natural as a defensive mechanism but then we lead out more guarded, protected, cautious, and people respond more guarded, protected, cautious, and we respond back the same. We can find ourselves perpetuating a vicious downward cycle of distress and suspicion, creating more distress and suspicion, and everybody feels justified in the process. Distressed is contagious. Thankfully, the converse is equally true. Trust and confidence can create more trust and confidence where people respond to it and they become inspired by it. To be trusted is the most inspiring form of human motivation. It brings out the very best in all of us, we want to live up to it and respond to it.

Warren Buffett, the great investor, acquired some 77-plus companies. These people that get acquired their company, they’re all now independently wealthy without a contract and employment agreements, they choose to stay and work with and for Warren Buffett. They don’t need to work again because they don’t have a need for money. There’s no contract that says you’ve got to stay with the business and they stay because they’re inspired by Warren Buffett. He trusts them abundantly. No one wants to let Warren down. I talked to one of these CEOs, Grady Rosier from McLane. He said, “We did the whole deal. We sold our business. This was a $23 billion business. We did it after one meeting of two hours, and we had a handshake deal, closed the deal in 29 days, no traditional due diligence and I’ve stayed.”

This was several years ago since I talked with him. He’s been there many years, no contract, and he doesn’t need to be there. I said, “Why do you stay?” He said, “Warren inspires me. I don’t want to let him down.” That’s what trust does because Warren trusts him. It’s inspiring. People are inspired by that. We need to be inspired and nothing inspires by being trusted. It can work in the downward direction of distress and suspicion grading more of the same and that’s going on in our world. Also, we can create in our own world relationships, team, those we associate with in our homes or communities an upward spiral of trust and confidence creating more of the same.

We get people a model of someone that can be trusted. We give a model of someone that’s trusting as well. A model of someone who’s inspiring and try to create that upward trend as well. In either direction, that’s going to happen. Even though it’s a low trust world, I’m optimistic that there’s a lot we can do as leaders and as salespeople to create an island of trust, perhaps in a sea of distrust, and become a ripple effect of impacting trust with those around us.

I love that sentiment and the sincerity that you shared with us is unquestionable. Let’s get into the nitty-gritty a little bit. Let’s say that I am a leader of a team whether I’m a CEO or a sales manager. In this new era that we’re living through, I have been forced to send my people home and have them work from home remotely. There’s no more managing by walking around and leaning over cubicles. If it makes me uncomfortable, how do I build a sense of trust with my own people to allow that to happen and I can sleep comfortably at night? Is there something I need to do? Is there something they need to do? What’s your prescription?

Now is a great opportunity for leaders and organizations to build trust with their people in an accelerated fashion because we’ve got people working from home and the numbers went from 30% to 68% overnight. It’s is a huge opportunity if we do this right as leaders. Your question is a good opportunity. Number one, if you can show that you care about your people during a time of crisis and disruption, that’s important. That’s why I said the character is important. Show that you care. The second thing is be deliberate and intentional about trusting your people. If they’re going to be working from home rather than not trusting them from a distance and trying to hover over a micromanage from a distance which will convey even more profoundly that’s like, “I didn’t trust you before when you were right under my thumb, not with me. Now that you’re in your home, I trust you less even because I can’t see you.”

GFEP 2 | Building Trust

Building Trust: Innovation is a team sport. Working to do things together as a team and increasing sales is team-based.

 

There are productivity tools that can be useful, I’m not against them, but they also could be surveillance tools that some companies are using that taking screenshots of their employee’s screens every ten minutes. It’s one thing if the real intent is to try to increase productivity, we’re trying to get best practices and learning but it’s a whole other thing if your real intent is, “I don’t trust my people. I want to make sure that they’re doing this.” That is screaming to your people. “I don’t trust you. You’re working from home because I have no other choice.” It will amplify the distrust.

What I’m saying is here’s the opportunity to say to your team and people, “I do trust you.” Here’s how you can do it. If you’re a little leery and worried about that, you’re extending trust what I call a smart trust as opposed to a blind trust. A blind trust would be like, “I trust you, indiscriminately. One-size-fits-all without expectations and accountability.” That’s not going to work. Without expectations of accountability, it’s going to be not very smart and at some point, it’s going to be abused, taken advantage of, and you’re going to say, “I try trusting people but it didn’t work. I’ve got to go back to control.” You’ve got to always have clear expectations and accountability to the trust being given.

You do that together. You create a stewardship agreement, a trust agreement together. Some type of saying, “I trust you to work from home. Let’s be clear about what we’re trying to do together. Let’s get on the same page. Here are the desired results that we’re after and what we’re trying to achieve. Here are the guidelines to work with. There are some limits or some guardrails to make sure that we stay true to our values and don’t do anything illegal or stay in compliance with basic guidelines. Here are the resources we have to work with.”

It’s all results-oriented around the results. “I want to get these outcomes, get these results within these guidelines, and with these resources.” Simultaneously, to clarify those expectations, we also bring in an agreed-upon process for accountability which might say, “Once a week or once a month, you check in with me and against the agreement we created together, tell me how you’re doing.” If you agree upon this upfront, then what’s happening is the agreement is governing and it’s not me having to come in as the manager or the boss and hover over and saying, “Let me see what’s happening. Let me check on you.”

That feels like micromanagement. Instead, it’s the person coming back to the leader saying, “As we agreed, we’re going to check-in, and here’s how I’m doing against the criteria that we laid out of how we assessed how I’m doing.” It looks and feels different. It has a different impact. There’s a great opportunity to accelerate the building of trust with your people by telling them, “I trust you, let’s have the agreement governed as opposed to me micromanage over you.”

It’s a different approach and there’s a great opportunity. The nice thing is the agreement helps the leader feel like, “I’m not blindly telling people I trust them. I’ve got the expectations and the accountability built into a process.” What an opportunity to increase trust. I hope that we see this for what it is. This is an opportunity that accelerates, amplify, and grow trust if we’re intentional about it and deliberate as opposed to having it go the other direction because people now feel micromanaged from a distance.

I don’t mean to put myself underneath your umbrella. In my world, advising and consulting with sales leaders, I’ve been saying to them in this era that we’re living through right now, we have an opportunity to rewrite the sales playbook. The way sales are being done now is totally different than the way it was being done before. It’s exciting that we get to rewrite. You’re talking about this from a trust aspect how a leader of an organization or an office can rewrite a new way and trusting to their people tasks, assignments, and responsibilities, building accountability along the way. It makes me think about the idea of athletics. We have a rule book.

The referee is supposed to abide by that rule book. When the referee to the observer appears to be breaking the rules or not adhering to the rules then trust is broken, isn’t it? We blew the ref. We don’t think that they’re being honest and we feel slighted or whatever word you want to use. The player feels like, “You’re picking on me. You’ve got it out for me.” I want to ask you about the player inside an office. Let’s say that their boss doesn’t have your training and counsel, what does that person do? How do they approach that boss so that they can perhaps rebuild trust?

[bctt tweet=”You build trust fast when you create value for somebody.” username=””]

I bet that many of us have experienced that. Many of our readers are saying, “That describes me or my situation.” The more you focus on your credibility as a salesperson or employee, whatever your role might be, the more credible you are, the more courage, influence, clout, and permission that gives you to have conversations with your boss and leader. The less credible you are, the more it sounds like you’re whining so you’re not credible to have a conversation with your boss.

You always look in the mirror. The point is if we think that the problem is out there as everybody else, that thought often is the problem because we’ve disempowered ourselves. We may do have a non-trusting boss but we’ve got to still look in the mirror and say, “What can I do to show my boss that he should trust me because I deliver, perform, and get the job done? I’m a person of credibility in both character and competence. I’m delivering and performing.” That’s job one. I start with that. I can work on that.

If you do that first, that gives you far more confidence, clout, and influence to have the conversation. You have to do the second thing I’m going to say. Start with yourself. Second, make it less about the weaknesses of your boss and more about what you can do to earn their confidence. Here’s a way of doing it. Rather than going to your boss and saying, “How come you don’t trust me? You’re micromanaging me. You’re doing all these things.” That’s like, “What’s wrong with you, boss? You need to learn to trust people.” You’d have to feel confident yourself to have that conversation of, “You don’t trust me, boss.”

That’s focusing on the weaknesses of the boss. Turn it around and say, “Boss, what could I do so you have more confidence and trust in me? I want to be that player for you. I want to be someone that you can have confidence in and you can rely upon. I’m willing to do what I need to do to earn that from you. What can I do so that you feel like I’m your go-to person and I’ll deliver for you? I want to be that person.”

I flipped it instead of saying, “Why don’t you trust me?” I say, “What can I do to earn your trust? I’m willing to do it.” Most bosses, even if it’s a non-trusting will think about it. They might say, “I’ve got to know you’re going to deliver, get it done, and you need to report on it. That’s why I hover over. I need to know.” You’re trying to listen and understand what’s important to the boss so you’ll be trusted by the boss and they’re not going to do this. You listen and say, “I’m hearing this. Anything else? I’m going to work on that and try to do it.”

Try to deliver and do that. If the boss says, “I’ve got to be involved.” Report back frequently. “Boss, I want to report back. I had this sales call. It went great. Here’s what we did.” He said, “Here’s what your next steps.” You say, “I’m going to do that.” You keep doing that over time. What happened if the boss says, “That’s great. Why don’t you tell me at the end of the week?” They have more trust in you. Let me tell you a little story on this. We saw this happen in an organization where there was a micromanaging boss that’s visionary but didn’t trust anyone. Everyone bad mouth the boss behind his back and got together.

She was the boss of the lead. I say, “What’s wrong with this person?” Everyone complained but one person took this other approach and said, “This boss is a visionary in a lot of ways. He doesn’t trust people. When the boss asks for something, I wonder why he’s asking for that. This may be what he’s worried about. He projected a little bit. I’m going to do more. I’m going to do this.” He then would present to the boss what the boss had asked for and more, he said, “You asked for this, here it is. I also thought that you’re worried about this. This is the reason you’ve asked for this. I also analyzed this.” The boss is like, “That is helpful. Thank you.”

It happened again and bit by bit, this person working in his circle of influence. That circle of influence expands. He worked on what he could do, not on the weakness of the boss but what I can do to add more value and be more credible to the boss. What happened is over time, that boss started to have confidence and trust in this person. He’d sit around the table and tell people, “Go do this, go do that.” He dictates but when he turned to this person, “What do you think? What’s your opinion?”

GFEP 2 | Building Trust

Building Trust: With more than half of people working from home, now is a great opportunity for leaders and organizations to build trust with their people in an accelerated fashion.

 

This person had built that trust. The point is, if a boss can do it with one, you can do it with another but you do it from the inside out. This is not easy. If it were easy, we’d all be doing it. This is hard especially when the boss doesn’t trust. If you become more credible and then you make it about, “What can I do to earn your trust?” You listen, you hear it out, and then you do what you said you were going to do. You can find yourself earning the trust of that boss and getting to where the boss can now start to trust you. In a sense, you’re leading your boss but you’re doing it from the inside out. You’re modeling that. You’re giving the boss a vision of what they could do with others by learning how to do it with you.

It reminds me again of what your father taught which is, “Seek first to understand.” When you go to that boss and you say, “I want to understand how I can provide a greater value to you.” Your father meant it more in a listening context when someone was sharing an opinion, thought, complaint, or seek to understand. In this case, it’s suggesting to us that we need to try to get inside the boss’s head a little bit because some bosses are not communicative.

They don’t know how to express their fears and why they mistrust or distrust people. I like what you’re saying. In The Speed of Trust, you’ve talked about thirteen behaviors. One of the behaviors has always been important to me because it’s one of the founding principles that we have gained phase try to teach and reinforce with our clients. That principle is the behavior of results. My clients and friends who are reading this, I hope they don’t roll their eyes when I say that because they know that’s my favorite word. Always produce results. Think about results more than your product. Don’t talk about your product or your service. Talk about the results it brings. Can you expand a little bit from your perspective, why is the result one of your top thirteen behaviors?

It’s back to what I was saying at the outset. The fastest way to build trust with someone on the competence side, in particular, on the results side. You deliver results for them and you create value for them. If you, as a salesperson, can demonstrate and you will do what you say you’re going to do, you’ll deliver. I learned to make commitments that add some value and then do it even if you’re in the process and you don’t have the deal yet, but you say, “I’m going to get you a copy of that survey and I’ll get you this other thing.” When you do it, you say, “As promised.” It’s saying, “I’m adding some value and I’m delivering some results. I’m doing what I said I was going to do.” It starts in little things but then over time, you can get bigger and you’re creating more value. You’re delivering results and performing. You’re helping your clients succeed and you do it in the sales process as well as after the sale. You build trust fast when you create value for somebody.

In this context, especially if you’re part of a sales team and the results are not being delivered, no fault of yours. What do you do in that situation? Do you go and palms up with your prospect or your client and say, “We’re not delivering?” When the results are not being produced as you promise, what should you do at that point to maintain or at least to try to build trust?

First, you’ve got to talk to your team like, “Team, we’ve got to deliver and perform or else we’re better off not making these promises.” If you make a promise and then don’t deliver on that, you will lose trust fast. You make a promise and deliver on it, you can gain trust fast. In either direction, you can build or lose trust fast on making and keeping commitments. Before you make that promise, you make sure with your team and you’re clear on what you can and can’t do. You’d be better off not making the promise than to make it and not deliver on it. I was at an architect’s conference with all the managing partners of architectural firms. We’re talking about sales and they’re trying to grow their firms.

When a managing partner was saying, “We lost business one time to another architectural firm that was making a promise to the client that they knew they couldn’t deliver on.” The client was saying, “Can you help us design this thing for this amount of cost?” The design was far too sophisticated and everything. This gentleman’s firm said, “Not for that cost. We could do another thing for that cost but to do what you’re wanting, it would cost a lot more.” They were upfront and honest about it. Another firm said, “Yes.” Knowing that they couldn’t do it. They got the deal but that deal went south. That deal got unraveled when they couldn’t deliver on that.

They got the deal but they lost the trust. The client left that other firm and they came over to this firm and said, “We’re coming back to you because from the beginning, you told us the truth. You could not do that but that here’s what you could do and here’s what it would take to deliver what we wanted. We went with his other firm that told us what we wanted to hear but they can’t deliver on that. We didn’t like what we heard from you but I learned I can trust what I’ve heard from you. I want a relationship of trust.” It’s the same thing with your team. Make sure you’re clear on what you can and can’t deliver so that you can go in with confidence and make some commitments that will be value-added commitments that when you deliver on them, you’ll not only do what you said you’re going to do but you added value.

[bctt tweet=”You build trust fast when you create value for somebody.” username=””]

You delivered some kind of result even if it’s a process result. Something in between, getting back to someone with some value-added piece, and over time you do that. I’d first meet with my team. They sure were clear. If we’re not coming through, I’d meet with my team again and say, “We’ve got to deliver.” Finally, you would go back to your client and you’d say, “We’ve told you we’re going to do this. We are falling short now, we’re going to make up for it and come through on this.” What you don’t want to do is go into that prospect and say, “I made you this commitment. It’s not my fault. I got this person in my team that can’t deliver this.” When you do that, you’re bad-mouthing your team.

Your prospect is thinking, “This guy is not responsible, bad-mouthing his team, and is going to be bad-mouthing me too.” Instead, if you own it, take responsibility but you’re going to also right the wrong. They might not like it at first but if you do right the wrong, you own it as a member of the team, and not throw the rest of the team under the bus, you can earn that prospect’s trust by righting the wrong, behaving your way back into the trust, and you’ll be in a better place than trying to think, “It’s not my fault. It’s my team member’s fault.” That’s not inspiring and attractive.

It’s evident that you would be the manager director leader and also you were a CEO that people would want to work for and work with. I remember when you were the CEO of the Covey Leadership Center. At that time, you wrote a mission statement that always intrigued me. I’d like you to talk a little bit about that and give us some insights into your leadership as well. The mission statement, if I can remember, it was, “To increase the economic well-being and quality of life of all stakeholders.” The first part of that is interesting to me which is the economic well-being. You didn’t say the social well-being or communal well-being, you said the economic well-being of your employees, customers, shareholders, whatever the case may be. Why was that such an important part of that mission statement?

We called this the universal mission statement. We did apply it to ourselves and we said, “This is a universal one that everyone can take and apply.” We had another customized one too, for us, but this universal mission statement is to increase the economic well-being and quality of life of all stakeholders. Twelve words but each word is filled with meaning. Why economic well-being? It’s because that’s results, outcomes, and economics matters to all of us. We say, “Of all stakeholders.” I want to increase the economic well-being of salespeople. I want them to make more money because when their economic well-being goes up, they’re happier. Life is better and more fun. I also want to increase the economic well-being of my customers and all stakeholders.

That includes my salespeople and customers because when they’re succeeding and their profits and revenues are higher, life is better for them too. There are results. I want to help my clients succeed and increase their economic well-being. We separated out economic well-being to emphasize the point that you emphasize with your focus on results that I say, the quickest way to build trust is results, competence, economic well-being is the quickest way. You’re improving someone’s life and someone’s business if you impact their economics, revenues, and profits. For a person, their income. That’s improving their life. That is an objective as a universal mission for all stakeholders. With my suppliers, I want them to win too. When they’re more successful, they’ll stay along.

If I have a supplier whose economic well-being goes down, I’m going to lose them as a supplier. If I go lose with a supplier, at some point, that’ll be a loss for me because they’ll be gone. I want them to win too. I want their economic well-being to improve. The whole idea is an abundance mentality. There’s enough for all of us to win. The pie can get bigger versus a scarcity mentality which is there’s only so much in a pie and if someone gets some, there’s less for me. That’s scarcity. Abundance has grown the pie, expand this, we can have multiple winners here so I want to increase the economic well-being of all stakeholders. That is everybody, including my salespeople, clients, distributors, suppliers, colleagues, and peers within the business to increase their economic well-being and also their quality of life.

Before I tell you about the quality of life, I start with economic well-being because that’s the fastest way to build trust, add value to someone, change their world by changing their economic well-being. It speaks volumes and it shows also that you care. It’s a survival need. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you’ve got to start with that. We also did add quality of life and that’s meant to hit all those other issues of communal, social, mental, and spiritual, all kinds of other needs. You want a high quality of life.

There’s not enough to only do economic well-being. We want to have a quality of life which is trying to cover every other need out there. It’s like an umbrella to cover them all but we put economic well-being first because that comes first. It’s the hierarchy of needs and it’s the quickest way to gain value and to build trust with people. That’s the universal mission statement, to increase the economic well-being and quality of life of all stakeholders. Any team and business can apply that to go along with their other mission statement that they might have. It’s a powerful way to build trust.

GFEP 2 | Building Trust

Building Trust: That’s the universal mission statement – to increase the economic well-being and quality of life of all stakeholders. It’s a powerful way to build trust.

 

Do we have permission to use that?

I hope you do. It will be valuable. Economic well-being, quality of life, all stakeholders. We’re trying to increase all of it.

When you talk about trust as you do, I’ve often wondered, would you mind sharing with us, in your life and career, is there a person or an institution or a group that has been consistent in earning and keeping your trust? How does that happen? How do they win and keep your trust?

I’ll get personal and I’ll broaden it. My father passed away many years ago, he was someone that I trusted enormously, for many reasons, because he was so trustworthy and a person of great integrity, but also his intent, love, and care for me, I knew he had my best interest at heart always. I never questioned that. That enabled him to sometimes correct me and improve me. Also, not only was he trustworthy, he was trusting. He trusted me. For those that have read his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he talks about the story of Green and Clean, how he thought his son who was me, a seven-year-old boy how to take care of the lawn and yard. Long story, as I was as a seven-year-old boy, I was given the responsibility by taking care of this huge yard and lawn. This is in the days before automatic sprinklers.

You had to manually do it. It was a big thing. People didn’t think a seven-year-old could do this but I did. My father trusted me and my father would use that story of teaching me how to take care of the yard. He called it Green and Clean. “I want the yard green, I want it clean.” Those are what? They are the words of the results. It wasn’t nice, but it was green and clean. He was delegating the responsibility for results to me, “Here’s how we’ll be accountable. Let’s walk around once a week, let’s walk the yard.” That way, there was accountability built-in. It wasn’t him blindly trusting me. We had expectations, green and clean, results-oriented words. We had accountability to work the yard once a week and see how we are doing.

I would tell him how I’m doing against the standard of green and clean. He was trusting with me as a seven-year-old my whole life. If I display those two things I learned from my father, being trustworthy and trusting, and say, “I find the people and the groups that I tend to trust the most and go deepest with are those who first look in the mirror and they’re trustworthy.” That means they have credibility, character, and competence. They’re authentic and real. They deliver results. They do what they say they’re going to do. That’s all part of being trustworthy. In The Speed of Trust, I had those thirteen behaviors. The first twelve are about being trustworthy and the credibility piece that’s about being trustworthy. That’s vital but it’s not enough.

You could have two trustworthy people working together and yet no trust between them even though they’re both trustworthy. If neither person is willing to extend trust to the other. You would have trustworthy teams in your department working together and both on paper, they’re trustworthy, and yet no trust between them. It’s neither team, department, nor function is willing to extend trust to the other. There’s a second part of what triggers trust and that is to be trusting. You’ve got to give it to get it. There’s a reciprocity of trust when you give it, people receive it, they return it. When you withhold it, they withhold it. I’ve seen sales teams and organizations where the trust is so low between sales and engineering or sales and marketing sometimes. Some of them are under the same roof, competing or, there’s distrust between them, sales organization, engineering, or operations.

They’re trapped in a distrustful cycle versus being partners. Part of it is that making on paper, they’re both trustworthy but they’re not trusting and extending trust to each other. Even on a sales team, people not extending trust to each other on the team. Look at it this way. How are you going to build trust with your customer if you don’t trust your own teammate? It’s got to be inside out in the long run. Be trustworthy and be trusting. I learned it from my father and we got to do both. Is trust earned or is it given? Both. It is earned. How do you earn it? Through your character, competence, behavior, delivering results, but you’ve also got to give it. You’ve got to be trusting, you’ve got to extend trust and that inspires people.

[bctt tweet=”Be trustworthy and be trusting. We need more of both in the world today.” username=””]

It brings out the best in them. They rise, engage, perform better, and they give it back to you and you begin that virtuous upward viral. I would add one more thing that is relevant. You want to model, trust, and inspire. We need inspiration now. There’s a difference between motivation and inspiration. Motivation is a good thing. You move up a hierarchy. The highest form of motivation is an inspiration because that’s intrinsic. It’s inside of people. You’re trying to tap into that. If it’s pure motivation, that’s extrinsic, external, that’s carrot and stick, there’s nothing wrong with that per se. You get rewards if you perform and you motivate people. That happens in sales all the time. There’s nothing wrong with that inherently.

If that’s the only form of motivation, then what you’ll get is people wanting more rewards. You want to tap into the intrinsic motivation of inspiration. What’s inside of people, a desire to contribute, to add value, to increase the economic well-being and quality of life of all stakeholders. A desire to make a difference in the world, significance and mattering. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m also motivated by a sales incentive and I’m inspired by adding value, making a difference, and impacting lives and people. I want to tap into both, get into inspiration. When I have a leader who models it, who trusts me, and inspires me by connecting to why it matters to me, what’s important to me, in a sense of belonging on a team and the work that we’re doing, why it matters to the world and as a society into our clients.

There are lots of ways to connect. The stories told of John F. Kennedy. In 1962, he said, “We’re going to put a man on the moon.” We got to the moon in ‘69. In 1962, a NASA site walking the grounds and he sees a janitor. He comes to the janitor and says, “I’m President Kennedy, what’s your name? What do you do?” The janitor says, “I’m working to put a man on the moon.” That is an inspiration. That’s connecting to why at any level. You can do this. You can connect a why and that inspires people. Everyone can inspire. You don’t have to be charismatic to inspire. There are a lot of charismatic people who don’t inspire, they might motivate, but they don’t inspire the whole Level 5 Leader that Jim calls about in Good to Great are not charismatic, but they’re all inspiring because they inspire because of who they are as a person, they model because of how they lead.

They trust because they also connect people to why it matters. Even if all the connection is, “What matters to you, salesperson? What matters to you, client?” We can connect the dot. Everyone can do it and can inspire. We need inspiration in our world now. It will change our world. We need more trust and more trusting people to help us do it. You can’t do that if you’re not adding any enormous value and have a relationship of trust. You can see how trust is vital to every dimension and an aspect of both sales, leadership, and life. It’s the currency of our world.

I much appreciate what you’re saying, what you’ve taught. We are concluding but I’d like to ask you one last question. You’re a global thought leader. It runs in the family. Your siblings have had a great impact on business and society. They’re leaders as well. You are the oldest of the Covey children. You perhaps knew your father as well as anyone. If you look at his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, one of the greatest business books of all time and we look at The Speed of Trust, one of the most impactful business books in many years. Imagine your father was with us now, but he wasn’t with us, he was with you. It was Stephen R. Covey and Stephen MR Covey sitting in your office chatting about the world now, where we’re at in 2020. Can you give us a little bit of a peek into what that conversation would sound like between these two worldwide global thought leaders, but also a father and son?

First of all, thank you for your kindness and kind thoughts about my father and me. I appreciate it. It’s generous. What was most important to my father always was relationships. He said, “Relationships are more important than things.” He also taught that contribution is more important than accumulation. He taught us as kids that it’s a hierarchy. You go from survival to stability, success, and significance. In other words, success is not the end game, significance which is mattering making a difference, giving back, adding value, contributing.

He expresses with contribution is infinitely more important than accumulation, which is more success and wants to give back. I learned those principles and he had a great expression to live, love, learn, and leave a legacy. That describes all the elements, all the needs of a person or an organization to live as the survival, the economic need, to love this as social-emotional lead, to learn as the mental-intellectual need to use your strengths and run with them, to leave a legacy as the spiritual or integrity need, the need for purpose, contribution and meaning in the life.

These are some of his constructs that I’ve had in my whole life. I think he would come back to these but then he’d also overlay it with are the challenges in our world now and how it’s increasing in a low trust world and how there’s distress. He would say what you said, each of us needs to do far more habit five which is, seeks first to understand than to be understood. What’s happening now in our society, we’re all trying to be understood. We need to seek first to understand. That’s a principle of influence, that will have far more influence with others when others feel we understand them and understanding does not necessarily mean agreement.

GFEP 2 | Building Trust

Building Trust: Success is not the end game. It’s significance, which is mattering, making a difference, giving back, adding value, contributing.

 

You may agree. You may disagree. You may see it differently. It means you’re understanding them to their satisfaction. Once they feel understood to their satisfaction, they become far more open to understanding you and being influenced by you. The key to influence is to first be influenced and your influence when you seek understanding of another person and not waiting your turn and listening, but trying to understand to their satisfaction, both their content and feeling. That’s powerful. He talked about that. We need more understanding in our world because that’s the foundation from which we can then create third alternatives and synergy that can innovate. It requires a mindset of think win-win. A mindset of an abundance mentality but here’s a skill. Seek first to understand than to be understood. That enables people that see the world differently to create things differently.

It’s the essence of great cells. You diagnose before you prescribe. You try to understand needs before you sell solutions, to go in and start selling products and not understanding needs so that you can then have solutions to needs. You miss the bullet point or you’re jumping the gun. The sequence matters. These are all things he talked about. The need for significance in the world, the need for understanding, but also, he would say that it’s easy to see this low trust world and to think that, “What can you do when it’s distressed all around me at societal levels, country levels, and organizational levels? What if you’re in a bad low trust company? What if you got a low trust boss?”

All these things. I also try to do this with my work with The Speed of Trust, that each of us needs to look in the mirror, start with ourselves. Use the airline metaphor before helping others that, “You put your own mask on first, and then we’re in a position to help others because we’re modeling and leading it.” I would say this and my father would concur, “We need models, not critics.” Models then can become mentors rather than being critical, be a model of what’s possible. Be that island of trust in a sea of distrust. Be the island of excellence in a sea of mediocrity. Be an island of selling the right way where you’re adding and creating value, where you’re getting the deal and building a relationship of trust in a world where everyone is over-promising and under-delivering, making the sale, but not building long-term relationships.

Model first then mentor. A mentor is a model with a relationship. You can’t mentor if you’re not a model. You’ve got to be a model first, then a mentor. We get enough of us doing that. We build a critical mass. We can begin to change our world. If we can change our world, we can change the world. We work from the inside out. We can do this and he’d be hopeful and optimistic. He wouldn’t be pessimistic about what’s going on. He’d be saying, “All more reason why we need models who can become mentors.” Start with yourself, look in the mirror. I take a similar approach to The Speed of Trust. I call it The Five Waves Of Trust. It’s inside out.

All trust begins with self-trust. Trust in yourself, give to your team a leader they can trust, give to your client a salesperson they can trust, and then rippling out from there to your relationships, team, organization, customers, partners, and society. We need to build trust from the inside out. We need to change this world from the inside out and we can do it. I’m hopeful. I’m optimistic. Each of us can do it in our world. Starting with ourselves, even if all we do is affect our own home, neighborhood, people around us, team at work, the teams around us, and you watch it ripple out. That’s what it would be. I would conclude with this and say that, “It takes two or more people to have trust, it only takes one person to start.”

Each of us can be that one. I want to say to our readers how much I admire you, Rob. Not only we’ve been friends for many years but we’re colleagues. I admire you and your work at Game Face and your book, The Sales Game Changer. If we can do sales the right way, that is a game-changer. That’s what you’re all about. I see you as a colleague appears in a friend and I’m grateful to have this opportunity to be part of your show. I wish you every continued success and I admire the contribution you’re making to people and leaders everywhere. I thank you for that.

Thank you, Stephen. You’ve given us a lot to think about. There has been enough said and a lot for us to digest. Hopefully, we’re going to become better Game Face Executives because we were an audience to you now. Thank you again. We wish you continued success and even more influence with The Speed of Trust. If our readers haven’t read it, I’m sure they’re going to grab a copy. If they have a copy, dig into it again. Stephen MR Covey, thank you for being with us.

Thank you, Rob. It’s great to be with you and our readers.

Important Links:

About Stephen M. R. Covey

GFEP 2 | Building TrustStephen M. R. Covey is a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The SPEED of Trust—The One Thing That Changes Everything. He is the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, which, under his stewardship, became the largest leadership development company in the world. Stephen personally led the strategy that propelled his father’s book, Dr. Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, to become one of the two most influential business books of the 20th Century, according to CEO Magazine.

As President and CEO of Covey Leadership Center, Stephen nearly doubled revenues while increasing profits by 12 times. During that period, the company expanded throughout the world into over 40 countries, greatly increasing the value of the brand and enterprise. The company was valued at $2.4 million when Stephen was named CEO, and, within three years, he had grown shareholder value to $160 million in a merger he orchestrated with Franklin Quest to form FranklinCovey.

Stephen co-founded CoveyLink, a consulting practice, which focuses on enabling leaders and organizations to increase and leverage trust to achieve superior performance.

Stephen recently merged CoveyLink with FranklinCovey, forming the Global Speed of Trust Practice, where Stephen serves as Global Practice Leader.

GFEP 1 | Sales Game Changer

 

Who decides whether you’re successful or not? You or the people along your journey? In this inaugural episode, Rob Cornilles explains why he is launching Game Face Execs, a podcast for and with sales game changers. He discusses the qualities that people who wear their game face in everything they do possess and pays tribute to the individuals that helped him launch – and shape – his career as a sales coach to tens of thousands. Rob Cornilles, a business consultant, executive coach, skills trainer, author, and educator. He is the founder and CEO of Game Face, Inc. and the bestselling author of The Sales Game Changer.

Watch the episode here:

Rob Cornilles | The Sales Game Changer

Welcome to episode one of this show. I have jumped off buildings twice. It all began when I jumped out of airplanes. Several years ago, I had this desire to jump out of an airplane. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that feeling yourself. If you’ve ever flown commercial, you probably have. In my case, I wanted to have this sense of floating in the air. I went and took a skydiving class. I jumped out of an airplane and I’ve done it a couple of times. I then wanted to graduate to jumping off a building, but not the way you might imagine. I decided that I would rappel down the side of a 42-storey skyscraper.

I did it for charity. It was for a good cause to raise some money, but I’ll never forget that experience of walking to the edge on the roof, looking over at the concrete below and seeing these little specks we call people. I’m thinking, “Am I crazy to do this?” I was all roped in and they turned me around so I couldn’t see. They said, “Rob, put your feet up on the ledge and lean back.” “Are you serious, just lean back?” That’s what I did. I leaned back and I began to descend. It was a great experience. I had a lot of fun. That was a little fearful at times but rewarding. That’s what I’m doing here now.

I’ve decided to start this show. I’m just going to lean back and see what happens. I don’t think I’m going to put you in danger. We’re going to have a lot of fun. We’re going to learn a lot together through this show. We’re going to talk about ways that we can all become even more successful in whatever role that we may play. Do you remember years ago when we used to carry these VIP cards in our wallets? I say years ago because I don’t do it anymore because everything seems to be electronic. These are those VIP cards that we’d get from hotels, rental car companies or airlines where we’d frequently fly.

When we got these, we knew we had arrived. This is their way of saying thank you. This took a lot of work. It took a lot of sacrifices and a lot of time but eventually, we earned these privileges. You’ll notice that these companies were the ones that decided when we qualified. It wasn’t something we could determine on our own. I feel the same way about a show. There are a lot of people out there who feel, “I’ve got an idea. I’ve got a microphone. I want to say some things.” In my opinion, a good podcast is one where the viewer or the listener says, “You’re qualified to take my time.” I value your time seriously.

Credit Where It’s Due

I never want to waste it. I’m going to make sure that we have conversations, topics, guests that will be meaningful and have an impact on you that will bring even greater results to your life. How are we going to do this? Let’s start and talk about people because my business has been in business for many years. We help individuals create even more significance in their careers. When I started my business, it was because of people that had brought me that far. I’ve never had that opportunity publicly to acknowledge and thank certain individuals that helped me get there.

I want to do that now on this launch episode of the show. By that, I want to thank four particular individuals. These people are ones that I don’t see regularly and I don’t necessarily communicate with them often, but they always will have a special place in my heart. These four people began in 1991. In 1991, I was working in Hollywood, California at Universal Studios. What was I doing there? I used to speak fluent Japanese. I was hired to be a tour operator for the Japanese tourists. At the time, Universal was owned by Matsushita, which is a Japanese conglomerate then.

We got a lot of Japanese tourists and Japanese executives from Matsushita. My job was to go and interpret for them and show them around the backlot and introduce them to the stars. It was quite an eventful and fun job. I also saw it as a bit of a dead-end because it wasn’t what I wanted professionally. I had this itch that I couldn’t scratch and I didn’t know what it was. I got a pager from the first of the four individuals I want to talk to you about. His name was Charles. By the way, if you don’t know what a pager was, it’s those things we used to carry on our belt. It would buzz and it tells us to call the individual. That’s what I did.

I called Charles. I didn’t know who it was. “Charles,” he says as he answers the phone, “How can I help you?” I said, “Charles, my name is Rob Cornilles. You paged me.” “Yes, Rob. It’s good to hear from you. Do you remember we met several months ago at a party?” I vaguely remembered and he said, “Rob, the reason why I wanted to talk to you is because I’d like you to apply for a sales job for a company where I work.” I thought, “Sales job? I want nothing to do with sales.” He said, “Rob, as I recall our conversations at that gathering, you might have some qualities that would land themselves well to a sales career.”

GFEP 1 | Sales Game Changer

The Sales Game Changer: How to Become the Salesperson People Love

After some cajoling, I decided, “I’ve got nothing to lose. I’ll go interview for this position,” and I did. After that first interview with Charles, I was intrigued. He then introduced me to the second person, Carl Lahr. He interviewed me in my second interview. After that one, I was interested. After the third interview with Charles and Carl, I wanted that job. Thankfully, both Carl and Charles saw something in me and they hired me. Where was that company? It’s the LA Clippers basketball team of the National Basketball Association. This is 1991.

For those of you who don’t follow sports, the ’91 version of the Clippers was not positive. Sports Illustrated called them the worst franchise in the history of sports. My job was to go in and sell tickets, just smile and dial. I didn’t know any better. Though I didn’t ever want to be a salesperson, I figured, “What the heck? This will be fun. I’ll see some free games. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll go back to Universal.” As it turns out, the first several weeks were difficult. I struggled mightily and I couldn’t figure out how to be successful. Meanwhile, my wife, Allison and I are living in an apartment off Melrose Avenue. It was a complex of 32 apartment units, 31 of which were vacant when we lived there because the building had been condemned by the city. They were about to tear it down and build a new high rise in its place.

The landlord felt sorry for me and Allison because she was eight months pregnant and I was a commission-only salesperson for the LA Clippers basketball team. We stayed until we could finally move out because I was able to learn how to sell. When I say that, it wasn’t because I came across some ploy to trick people or to deceive them into buying a product they didn’t want. Rather I was able to learn a way to get people the results they desire through my product. All of that story is told in the book, The Sales Game Changer.

After having some success with the Clippers, they promoted me. I was enjoying my job. I was making better money than I ever had and enjoying a position of responsibility. I started to get an itch of wanting to get more because my wife and I were looking to grow our family. We wanted to move into a house, but to do so would only extend my commute further in order to find a home that we could afford. It was already an hour-long commute. I was struggling to decide what to do next. I didn’t want to leave the Clippers. I figured if I put my head down and work as hard as I can, something will come up and it did. It was a phone call by individual number three.

His name is Doug Piper. He worked along with a gentleman by the name of individual number four, Jon Spoelstra. They were business partners in a firm that they call the SRO Partners. This was a prominent firm in the sports industry at that time. Jon Spoelstra happened to be and still is a guru in sports marketing. He wrote the book on how to fill up a building. For Jon and Doug to call me was almost like a surrealistic experience. What happened was they had heard about my work at the Clippers, and they asked me if I would be interested in interviewing for a position with their young firm and I would be the third member of the firm.

I was excited at the proposition. I was shaking when they were talking to me on the phone. They flew me up to Portland, Oregon, where they were located. After half a day with them, I was offered the position. It didn’t take long for me and Allison to decide that this is what we wanted to do. For two years, we worked with Jon and Doug and had a wonderful experience. I learned so much more about the industry of sports, and the craft of selling and marketing teams. I then decided it was time for me to start Game Face because I wanted to produce a different service to the industry that was non-existent at the time.

On good terms, I said goodbye to Jon and Doug and began Game Face in 1995. Here’s the point, I could not have made that career move, and Game Face could not be what it has become, hopefully, a great contributor to people’s careers and livelihoods, if I had not won the trust of Charles, Carl, Doug and Jon, and if they had not seen something in me. They gave them a sense of hope and optimism that this guy can do something to contribute to our company. I didn’t see it but they did. I’m forever grateful for them for trusting me and for giving me that shot.

3 Game Changer Attributes

Tim McGraw says in his famous song, “We should all be humble and kind,” and that’s what I found from Charles, Carl, Doug and Jon. I hope to pass that on and I hope all of us will. There were three other characteristics that I have found to be universal about those people who wear their game face in whatever they do. I’d like to share with you three stories that personify these characteristics. The first characteristic is that of humility. I experienced this. I observed it in an individual who I never expected would possess it. In 2008, while living in Portland, Oregon, I got a phone call from an individual who was related to a political campaign.

[bctt tweet=”Treat everybody as though they’re the most important person of your day.” username=””]

He was working for a gentleman who was running for president of the United States. He called me and said, “Rob, are you free tomorrow and the next day?” I’m running my company and I’m not free, but I was intrigued. I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Our candidate is coming into Portland. He’s going to be spending about 24 hours there. I was wondering, would you be interested and willing in driving him around Portland to his various events and meetings?” I thought this would be intriguing. This would be interesting. I said, “Sure, I’d be happy to,” and so I did. They picked me because I had a suburban. It was a black suburban at that.

At the appointed time, I was able to drive my suburban out on the tarmac of the Portland International Airport. I picked up the candidate who had arrived in his private jet with his entourage. The candidate was Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney was running for president in 2008 and later in 2012. He had completed his term as the governor of Massachusetts. Previous to all of that, he was also the Chairman of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee. He essentially saved the Salt Lake Winter Olympics because of his leadership. It was a real privilege for me to be able to pick him up and drive him around in my car.

As I opened the door to my suburban, I noticed that there was a lot of luggage on the tarmac being emptied out of the airplane. I ran over to grab the luggage and put it in the back of my car. I happened to grab Mitt’s suitcase and his suit back. He put his hand on mine and said, “You don’t need to do that. I’ll take care of my own luggage.” I said, “I insist, sir.” He goes, “No, please. I just appreciate you being here and taking care of us.” We got in the car and we began driving into Downtown Portland. All through that drive, Mitt was talking to me rather than talking to all of his aides who were in the car with us on their phones and talking among themselves.

He was asking questions about me and showing interest in me. He asked me about my family, my car, my business and what we do. I felt that I had picked up a friend at the airport. This continued throughout the day and into that night when I drove them to their hotel. I picked them up the next morning and he continued to show interest in me asking me again about my family, my employees and my work, talking about other topics that were of interest to both of us. Finally, after 24 hours, I returned them to the airport. I was amazed at the humility of this man who was running for the most prominent, most influential position in the entire world.

Juxtapose that to what happened next. I immediately went from the airport to the office of a prominent Portland area business to meet with their middle management about a possible relationship with our company, Game Face. As I arrived, they escorted me to the conference room. I noticed, according to my watch, that the people that I was to meet with were late by about 5, 10 minutes. Fifteen minutes passed and still, no one has entered the room. Thirty minutes after our appointed time, they finally arrived, at least 2 of the 3 of them. They mildly apologized to me for being late.

They tell me how busy they are and how important their job is. They essentially said, “What do you got?” I felt as though I was an imposition and I wasn’t good enough to be in their presence. Eventually, the third person entered the room and within ten minutes, they had to excuse themselves because they “had to get to a dental appointment.” This was such a strange and disappointing experience. Compare it to what I had just gone through with a candidate for president of the United States, put aside his politics and policy, that’s not material right now. It’s the personality of the individual. That characteristic of humility. He made me feel welcome. He made me feel that I mattered.

Whereas these lower-level people, they acted as though I was fortunate to be in their presence. By the way of those three individuals, I have no idea where they are now and what they’re doing. I’ve never heard of them since. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney eventually got the nomination to his party to run for president. Now, he’s a US Senator. It’s an interesting example, something we can all learn. It doesn’t matter your status, your position and your background. It doesn’t matter your experience or income. Treat everybody as though they’re the most important person of your day.

The second example, the quality is gratitude. Speaking of politics, some of you may know that I too dipped my toe into politics. A few years later, I ran for US Congress. When you run for Congress, you gain a lot of friends. You meet a lot of wonderful people, volunteers, contributors, and people who want to educate you on the issues. One of those people was someone I never thought I would meet, but it turned out to be a great blessing to my life. The name of the person is Phil Knight. You probably recognize that name. He’s the cofounder and emeritus chairman of Nike. We had met and talked about the issues that were important to him, his family, his business, our community, our country, and he decided to support me and endorse me.

He turned out to be my largest contributor, not just financially, but he was also a contributor of good advice. Eventually, I lost that race. I felt a sense of responsibility that I needed to return to Phil and everyone else who had put forth a lot of time, effort and money on my behalf to thank them and also to hold myself accountable and report to them on the work that I thought we had done. Anything that we had done wrong, where we had miss-steps, and also where we had made progress in our campaign on important issues.

I paid the visit to Phil’s office and as his wonderful assistant escorted me into his office. I expected maybe a quick handshake and a pat on the back and get out of my office. Instead, I got a response and a reception I’ll never forget. Phil walked around from his desk and instead of extending his hand to me as I anticipated, he put his hands together and he bowed. It was a sign of gratitude and appreciation. I failed in my attempt, but he appreciated the attempt nevertheless. It was his way of saying, “Rob, job well done.” Granted I’ve made mistakes and some things you wish you could do over again. Phil had the presence, the experience and the wisdom to recognize someone’s best effort.

GFEP 1 | Sales Game Changer

Sales Game Changer: In times like this, when we need to feel more a sense of family, togetherness and unity, you’re going to find messages on the show that will bring us together.

 

That sense of gratitude from someone who is at the pinnacle of his career, the pinnacle of the industry, where my career was born, he was voted the most influential person in sports that year. For him to make that gesture to me was humbling. It was also a great lesson for me to learn that I should always show gratitude to everyone for their best effort. The third characteristic I like to share with you is one of service. We often talk about servant leadership. In our show, we’re also going to spend time talking about servant selling. The particular example that I like to share with you is of a person whose name you’ve never heard of before most likely.

Let me tell you what happened. Several years ago, my young family at the time I have three sons, we had a pet. His name was Brooks. We loved our Dalmatian Brooks and we cherished him, as you can imagine a family of three young boys would. On one particular year on Easter Sunday, I had to fly from our home in Portland, Oregon across the country, across the pond to London, England to visit our office that we had there. I was going to be gone for almost two weeks. I left that night. After arriving in London, I remember calling my wife, Allison, to see how things were since I had departed. She reported some sad news. She said, “Rob, not long after you left for the airport on Sunday night, we got a knock on the door. It was a policeman informing us that Brooks had been hit.”

My three sons who were in their pajamas overheard this conversation and you can imagine how devastated they were. I asked Allison, “What did you do? How did you handle it?” She said, “The policeman gave me a few options of what to do at that moment. I didn’t like any of the options and I didn’t want to leave the house, nor did I want to take our sons to where Brooks was. I thought of one and only one alternative and that is I called Dee Christiansen.” Dee was our next-door neighbor. Dee was an older man, but still working. He had his own construction business.

As the story goes, I returned home from England several days later, and Dee came and knocked on our door. It’s the first time I had seen him since the incident. I wanted to thank him. He said, “Rob, do you mind if I speak to your boys?” I said, “Please.” We all gathered together and he sat them on the couch and he said, “Boys, I want you to know what happened several days ago. When your mom called me and told me about Brooks, I went and retrieved him from the street. I put him in the back of my pickup. The next morning after covering them up through the night, I had to drive from the Portland area over Mount Hood on my way to Central Oregon. As I was at the summit of Mount Hood, I decided that I would stop, pull off the side of a little dirt road where few people would ever find me. I decided to dig a grave for Brooks and I buried him there. I said a prayer. I want you to know this, boys, because now every time you look up at Mount Hood, you remember your pet Brooks.”

Dee was a servant. He was a man who did things above and beyond what anyone would ever expect. He didn’t look for recognition or reward. He simply wanted to serve other people. He is an honorable man and someone that we miss greatly since his passing a few years ago. When I think about these three characteristics of humility, gratitude and service, these are the characteristics I want to bring to light in the show. These are the kinds of guests I’m going to invite. Those who have demonstrated this, not only in my observation of them but throughout their career. People that I can learn from and people that you will learn from as well. I mentioned that several years ago in over two different occasions in my life, I have resided in Japan. I love that country. One particular apartment I’ll remember was steps away from a Shinto Shrine. At the entrance of that shrine, there was a plaque. It read, “Let only the eager, thoughtful and reverent enter here.” That’s the theme for this show.

Here’s what I mean. I’m only going to invite the eager to be my guest. When I say eager, I mean people who demonstrate ambition and aspiration, but not at the expense of other people. I will invite thoughtful people, leaders and influencers, people who are thought leaders in all kinds of industry, business, sports, entertainment, academia, etc. I will also be inviting and asking people who have a sense of reverence to join us. When I say reverence, I don’t mean spirituality in this case because you should know that the same word for reverend in Japanese is also the word for respect. These are people who respect others, their position, their industry, their competition, their craft and the stewardship that they carry to it.

My background is in sales, they also respect sales the way it should be done. I’d like to share with you something that an author wrote. His name is Terrance Olson. He said, “Respect is an expression of our sense of universal brotherhood or sisterhood, a testimony of our membership in the human family.” In times like this, when we need to feel more a sense of family, togetherness and unity, you’re going to find messages on the show that will bring us together. We’ll find common ground. We’ll find areas where we all aspire to become and in positions that we all want to emulate, and the people that are universal role models. I thank you for joining me on this launch episode.

We’re going to have some fantastic guests and I’m pleased to announce that our first guest appearing in episode two is Stephen M. R. Covey. He is a world-renowned lecturer and best-selling author of The Speed of Trust. Stephen is going to share with all of us insights on how trust in business, in your personal life and your social life changes everything. It’s a fantastic discussion. You’re going to gain great wisdom and knowledge from a man who’s traveled the world to talk about the importance of trust, how we can build it, how we can lose it, and the impact it can have for us as individuals, as companies and organizations. Thanks again for joining me on this initial episode. Please tell your friends, invite others to join us. We’re going to have a lot of fun. We’re also going to learn a lot and grow together. I’ll see you in the next episode. Thanks

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