For You Leaders

Restaurants have a notoriously high failure rate and the ones that survive often have razor thin margins. 60 percent of restaurants close or change ownership in the first year of business, 80 percent fail within five years.

The fact that Kerbey Lane Cafe in Austin, Texas serves food is almost where the similarities end between Kerbey Lane and most other restaurants. For over 25 years, they’ve done business differently: from hiring to training everyone (down to the table bussers) how their role contributes to the company’s EBITA goal.

Today we are talking to Mason Ayer, the CEO of this unique business. He explains how this family-owned restaurant chain, started by his parents, has always seen their business as more than merely serving food. That passion made Kerbey Lane Cafe an Austin Icon with seven unique locations. Mason, the recent winner of the Best CEO award by the Austin Business Journal, shares the insight he’s learned from running the business from a genuinely open book and a big heart.

You’ll hear the victories - and struggles - they encountered on the way. You’ll also hear how their leadership style made it all possible.

This episode of the For You Leaders Podcast covers a lot of ground, some of the highlights include:

• The advice Mason shares with people on the verge of making a significant change in their life.
• The secret sauce Mason attributes to Kerbey Lane Cafe’s continued growth and success and how you can apply these same principles in your business.
• How Kerbey Lane Cafe uses Open Book Management to empower employees with financial information to help meet the goals of the business.
• Why Kerbey Lane Cafe gives every hourly employee financial education, even when Mason knows that most employees will not stay at Kerbey Lane Cafe.
• Mason’s journey from pivoting in a career as an attorney to becoming the CEO of the family business.
• How Mason intentionally got out of his comfort zone to be an incredible, For You Leader.
• The way he views work/life balance with his wife as the controller of the business.
• Mason’s favorite restaurants (besides Kerbey Lane Cafe!)
• The one job he recommends everyone have at least once in their life.
• The impact of having ESPN College Gameday at your business 

What comes to mind when you hear human resources?

A lot of us think about rule enforcers, 401k administration or resolving vacation time issues. HR can - and should- be so much more.

Human resources can be an asset to drive the company's goals. HR can be a true strategic partner and asset within the C-Suite.

Does that sound like your HR team?

Today’s podcast is a short interview that reminds us of the powerful possibilities of a different type of HR.

Our guest is Ryan Robinson, the Chief People Officer (CPO) of Bazaarvoice. Ryan is unlike any other HR professional you’ve ever met (his title doesn’t even have “HR” in it).

Just like a salesperson has a clear thought process and strategy around sales, or a product manager thinks about how they manage product, Ryan has a very clear process around how approaches people.

He’ll share his Pillars of People Performance in this episode and you’ll quickly see he approaches people in a unique way.

Compare this to your HR team. If you shared this interview with them - what would their response be? While Ryan is obviously a rare find, your HR team can step up and approach people in a similar fashion.

Today’s Topics Include:  

• The Pillars of People Performance Ryan uses at Bazaarvoice.
• How HR should always circle back to company performance.
• How overall organizational performance involves coaching CEOs and other senior team leaders.
• Employee culture/engagement: How Ryan focuses the business on creating the employee culture to drive organizational performance.
• How to pay attention and develop the talent already within the organization.  
• The importance of earning the trust of the team around you.  
• How to approach confidentiality as an HR executive.
• The importance of compensation and benefits.
• How to approach incentivizing and equity to find and retain top talent.   

Takeaways:  

Having someone like Ryan on your team is incredibly valuable.

He is obsessed with having the goals of Bazaarvoice on the forefront of everything that he does. People are our most valuable asset. If you don’t have someone to align people to your strategies, it may be time to take a step back and look at your process.  

We hope you are enjoying the For You Leaders podcast. We’d love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below or on iTunes.

dando 

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Leadership Podcast

People often think that success just happens. Anyone who has ever been in business knows it’s not true. There is no such thing as overnight success. It’s a constant journey.

Today’s episode is all about the journey of growth.

Kirk Dando was a leadership keynote speaker at a recent event at Galvanize in Austin, TX. Listen in as he shares his experience about the journey to the top. He’s been the personal Sherpa to thousands of CEOs have they’ve embarked on the journey of growth.

This is a special episode, giving you the rare opportunity to hear the advice Kirk Dando shares with leaders around the world.

Today’s Topics Include:

• What happens to every business on the journey to success.
• Analogies you can use with your team about growth and scale - including the powerful analogy of Mt. Everest
• Who’s the Sherpa? Sherpa’s know that there will be tough parts of any climb. But they also know how to change the language when scaling a mountain. Business leaders need to change the conversation to change the language to change the outcome in business.
• How success can mask potential problems during periods of rapid growth.
• Why you can’t brute force your way through a crisis and the three elements of a business “at the top.”
• How to get real focus and clarity around goals using an operational cadence.
• How to define your management culture.
• The importance of breaking the vision down to action.
• Why the transition from doing the work to managing the work is so hard.
• The leadership mindset needed for scale.
• The three kinds of leaders: for you, against you, for themselves.

Links and Resources:

• The Business Growth Lifecycle Handout Kirk references in the podcast.
• Learn more about the Business Growth Lifecycle

Sam Decker (@samdecker) is an experienced start-up executive and advisor who has worked at iconic tech companies like Apple. Sam was the founding CMO at Bazaarvoice, founder of Mass Relevance (now Spredfast) and recently founded the digital optimization company, clearhead.

However, it turns out there is a very low-tech way Sam accomplishes so much. He’s learned the secret for startup success is to simply “get uncomfortable.” As you’ll learn, this practice has helped Sam push himself to start new companies and fill the gaps of knowledge.

In this episode, we also talk about:

• How to be a student of the game
• The advice he thinks most startups need to hear
• The biggest mistakes new startups make
• What tying knots, race car driving, and flying helicopters have to do with startups
• How time tradeoffs are like “pruning a bonsai tree”
• His time-management process, looking at desired outcomes
• Sam’s role in Kirk’s book, Predictive Leadership

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“Many organizations draw the bullseye after they fired. They claimed success when they didn’t intend it.” - Tim Hawks

Almost every organization has a strategic plan of some sorts. That’s the first, and easiest, step. The missing piece in the planning process is typically around communication and alignment. It’s the leaders’ role to communicate the plan in a way that creates alignment. Employees need to be able to connect their every day role back to the goals.

Communication of a plan is not a one-time occurrence. There needs to be a process to state and restate the goals. You need to measure the progress continuously. The real work of strategic planning comes after the plan.

That’s exactly what we are unpacking with today’s guest, Tim Hawks. He describes how they operationalize their strategic planning process. Tim dives into their meeting cadence, their communication process and a lot more. Listen in to hear how you can operationalize your strategic planning process to reach your goals.

Today’s Topics Include:

• How Tim and his organization approach their strategic plan
• How they communicate the plan so everyone understands their role
• Using the strategic plan as a tool to get and keep everyone aligned
• The importance of getting many involved in the process
• The number of goals you need to be successful in strategic planning
• Using clear goals to make sure you reach them
• 1 Year from Now, if we are wildly successful, what is different?
• In 90 days, what do we need to accomplish to meet the goal in 1 year?
• 30 Days from now, what needs to happen?
• The mantra of “every team advances every goal every month”
• How to check on progress against the goals
• Does Tim think the strategic planning process is worth it?
• How Tim prepares every week to speak in front of thousands of people
• How you can prepare for your next talk by starting with Know, Feel, Do. What does that mean and how can you use it?

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Everyone on your team is connecting to something. Some connect to their paycheck. Others connect to a title or their influence.

What if you could connect them to their sense of destiny?

That’s the challenge and approach our podcast guest, Tim Hawks, takes with his organization. Tim is the head of an organization that inspires over 7,000 people around a common mission, vision and goal.

Tim is the head pastor at Hill Country Bible Church in Austin, Texas. Before you stop reading, I encourage you to listen to this podcast with an open mind. You are not going to hear a sermon, but you are going to hear Tim’s unique perspective as a leader.

Tim is an incredible communicator that leads a volunteer-led organization. He speaks candidly about how he accomplishes the work through staff and volunteers.

Today’s Topics Include:

• How Tim accomplishes a lot, without paying a large number of people within his organization
• How his organization has many of the same issues of a for profit organization
• How Tim inspires thousands of people by aligning them around a common goal
• We talk about how more communication can sometimes lead to more confusion
• What to do as a leader when people make a mistake
• There is a sense of destiny in the heart of everyone

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GENE AUSTIN - BAZAARVOICE - PART TWO

Today, we continue our conversation with Gene Austin, the CEO of Bazaarvoice. In the last episode, Gene talked about the unique aspects of being the CEO of a publicly traded company. He also talked about the view from the other side of tough decisions.

Gene also said he's the least likely CEO to have a Chief Operating Officer, due to his very operational approach. Today, we discuss how Gene conducts his one-on-ones and the operational cadence he uses to focus the business.

He describes how he translates the strategy to an executable and measurable plan. This episode is short on fluff and full of actionable advice you can start practicing today.

Today’s Topics Include:

• Gene's format for one-on-ones: an open forum that removes obstacles in the way of the employee
• How Gene keeps a pulse on the business
• The first area Gene investigates when he suspects a management issue
• The three things Gene always wants to know about what is going on in the business
• Bazaarvoice's Management Framework: the operational cadence they use to stay on track
  • Operational Reviews
  • Product Council Meetings
  • One-on-ones
  • Staff Meetings
  • The metrics important to Gene
• The mistakes made by fast growth companies and their tendency to cut the wrong corners
• The most important hires in any startup
• Blocking time on the calendar and how to get on top of your work
• Urgent vs. important - how do you prioritize?
• Gene's thoughts on using coaching in the business

What did you think of this episode? Like it, hate it or indifferent - we'd love to know. Please leave a review on iTunes so we can get better.

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We’ve talked to startups, financial institutions, and even dads. What about a company that has graduated from the startup stage to being publicly traded? How is this different? How is this the same? If you were ever curious about how managing and leading a company changes as it grows, this episode is for you.

Today’s guest is Gene Austin, the CEO of Bazaarvoice. If you've shopped online, you have probably used Bazaarvoice and didn't know it. Bazaarvoice is behind many of the online review and ratings systems on many eCommerce websites.

Gene has more than 30 years of experience growing technology companies. Gene talks candidly about his path to CEO of Bazaarvoice and the clear differences between running a small company to a post-IPO organization.

Today’s Topics Include:

• The different seasons of a company's growth and the different requirements of growth
• The unique requirements of a public company CEO
• Board of Directors: How to use them correctly
• The true role of a Board
• How to use your Board
• Gene's path to Bazaarvoice, including previous experience at other tech companies
• How Gene’s leadership and work ethic have roots in Boy Scouts 
• How to inspire and get people excited around a cause 
• The leadership style Gene uses to be as transparent as possible
• The culture Gene believes works best: it's one that rewards the right attributes, celebrates the right successes, and takes stock of the right failures
• Does the CEO get the straight scoop as the company grows?
• How Gene builds a relationship with trusted advisors
• How he keeps his finger on the pulse of this large organization
• The communication nuances of a publicly-traded company
• How Gene is intentional about building bridges

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GABE KRAJICEK - PART TWO

This is part 2 of our interview with Gabe Krajicek the CEO of Kasasa. If you missed Part One of the interview, make sure you listen to that episode first. Gabe explains more about Kasasa and how they are taking on Goliaths.

Today we talk with Gabe about company core values. Kasasa lives and breaths their core values. Instead of empty words on a page, Kasasa decided to take a different approach to core values. They created a shield, which represents their four core values: Interdependence, Five Star Leadership, Love, and Badassitude.

Kasasa will even pay if for someone to get a Kasasa “shield” tattoo.

In today’s episode, we talk about how Gabe became obsessed with company values and culture. Listen in and learn why Gabe focuses on core values and culture.

Today’s Topics Include:

● Why being obsessed with culture changes the outcome of the business
● How to create a culture that lasts
● Culture starts in the heart of the leader
● Why he created a symbol for their values
● How having and renewing their symbolic values affects Kasasa
● What does it look like to test and challenge employees on the company’s values?
● Who makes sure the best ideas float to the top?
● What kind of leader do people lean on?
● The difficulties of growing a culture with an organization
● How to operationalize culture and values
● An interesting concept….Badassitude

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The story of David and Goliath is a classic business fable. The big guy takes on the little guy...and wins. It sounds great, but how do you actually do it? Our guest today, Gabe Krajicek, is currently taking on some of the largest businesses in the world. As CEO of Kasasa, he’s taking on the likes of Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase.

Kasasa partners with community banks and credit unions to wage a war on Mega Banks. Today, Kasasa’s partners make Kasasa the 6th largest bank in the country - and they are still growing.

However, the journey wasn’t always easy for Gabe and Kasasa. At one point, Kasasa had three months of runway when regulators notified them their product was illegal. In this episode, Gabe talks candidly about that moment and the steps he took to from there to take on the Goliaths of the banking world.

Today’s Topics Include:

• How the road to heaven does go through hell. What makes it a day trip or a daily trip?
• Scattered focus leads to scattered results
• What happens to your company when you have crystal-clear focus
• Gabe’s doubts in challenging the largest banking institutions
• What a mentor told him when he was ready to quit
• The subtle and not-so-subtle clues leaders can give to cause buy-in and alignment
• What does Kasasa mean? How did they come up with name?
• The “-ER” marketing strategy that causes many companies to fail
• The way uniting small financial institutions creates competition with Mega Banks
• The role market research has played with Kasasa and their growth
• If customers vote with their wallet, not research, how do you know what will work and what won’t?

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