Let Them Lead

Started in 1887 in Chelsea, Michigan, just outside of Ann Arbor, Chelsea Milling was pretty run-of-the-mill until the wife of the second generation, Mabel Holmes, figured out how to create a baking mix, called Jiffy Mixes, “so simple, even a man can do it!”Fourth generation CEO Howdy Holmes won two state hockey titles for Ann Arbor High before starting his own Indy Car team, becoming rookie of the year at the 1979 Indy 500.

In 1987 Holmes returned to transform the family business. Today, JIFFY is the market share leader in retail prepared baking mixes. The company never advertises, and rarely relies on outside help, creating a completely vertical company from making the boxes to trucking them around the country. Howdy’s son Howard is now the company Vice-President and COO.

We talk to both of them about the unique challenges of running a five-generation family business. Some takeaways: Don’t run your family with your head or your business with your heart, or you soon won’t have either. Thinking long-term will beat short-term every time. And hire for character over credentials.

For info about the book or this podcast please visit our website:

http://www.letthemleadbybacon.com

http://www.johnubacon.com

You can connect with John via these platforms:

https://www.facebook.com/johnubacon

https://twitter.com/Johnubacon

Bev Plocki, born and raised in Pennsylvania steel country, earned All-American status in gymnastics at Alabama and West Virginia, before becoming Michigan’s gymnastic coach at the ripe age of 23. The team had gone 0-13 in the Big Ten the previous year, shared facilities with the Michigan Marching Band and IM basketball games, and hadn’t worked out the entire off-season.

Plocki got to work changing attitudes, habits, and the culture. Her teams have since won 24 Big Ten titles – the most of any coach in any sport – while she has been named Big Ten Coach of the Year 11 times, and NCAA coach of the year twice.

The highlight, however, came during what should have been Michigan’s most trying year: 2020-21, the Covid Season. With the team shut down twice for two-week spells, the athletes worked out at home, by zoom, and in four shifts of three each day. Instead of complaining about what they didn’t have, they decided to be grateful for what they did – and went on to win the NCAA title, the first for any Big Ten school.

On this weeks episode we have a special treat. A few months ago, the people who created and run The Next Big Idea book club, Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink, all big names and the leadership field, nominated Let them Lead for inclusion in their fall lineup.

They asked us to record about 15 minutes of my top five book bites or big ideas from Let them Lead ,the book.

Get your own copy of Let Them Lead: Unexpected Lessons in Leadership from Americas Worst Hockey Team at Http://LetThemLeadByBacon.com, which has links to everything from your local bookstore, to Amazon.

Ron Warhurst won two NCAA titles as a member of the Western Michigan cross-country team in the 1960s. He graduated in 1966, volunteered for the Marines, then repeatedly asked to “walk point” through the Vietnamese jungle, which resulted in two Purple Hearts, before he was honorably discharged in 1970. He learned a simple lesson: “The world doesn’t stop because you’re scared.”

Three later the University of Michigan named him their varsity cross-country coach, with little experience. Warhurst’s teams won 18 Big Ten cross-country titles, his star Greg Meyer won the 1983 Boston Marathon, and many others ran in the Olympics, including several medalists. Warhurst also created a famous training regimen still called “The Michigan,” which thousands of competitive runners have used for decades.

Ronnie’s philosophy is straightforward, but difficult: 1) preparation, structure, and flexibility – a hard combination. 2) Don’t look over your shoulder because the race is in front of you. And 3) on any given day, there are people on the starting line who don’t want to be there because it’s too hot, too cold, raining, or snowing. Your job is to beat those guys.

Since 2006 Steve Schram has served as the Executive Director and General Manager of Michigan Radio. With stations in Ann Arbor, Flint, and Grand Rapids, Michigan Radio serves more than one million listeners each month, and was named the Public Radio Station of the Year by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters for ten of the last 11 years. In this two-part podcast, Schram tells us how he first caught the radio bug as a newspaper boy with a transistor radio taped to his handlebars, and how his father and an unlikely radio hero both fanned these flickers into a flame. In telling us how he rose from producing lunch time radio for his classmates at Catholic Central through Detroit’s top commercial radio stations to Michigan Radio, Schram underscores three take-aways: 1) Don’t say “No, because,” but “Yes, if…”; ; 2) Don’t focus on the next job, but being good where you are; 3) “Always be recruiting,” long before you might need to hire them. Bonus: sending handwritten thank you notes will separate you from the crowd.

Our guest today is Steve Schram, the executive director and general manager of Michigan radio. Steve has been in radio management and worked as an on-air personality since before graduating from Catholic Central high school. Steve holds a Bachelors degree in Television and Radio from Michigan State University and an MBA from Eastern Michigan University.

Steve started his radio career by creating a closed circuit radio style program for his high school and the rest is history.

He’s functioned as on-air personality, program manager, and so many other positions since. Currently he holds the position of executive director and general manager of Michigan Radio, the states largest NPR listenership.

On this weeks episode we discussing Steve’s beginnings, where his passion for all things radio and media comes from, and how it was fostered by his school and his father. We also further discuss how he got his start officially in the business and worked his way up the ranks.

Next week we will dig even deeper into Steve’s more recent work as he progresses into higher level leadership roles.

GREG MEYER, 1983 Boston Marathon champion; 5-time state champion coach

In 1983, Greg Meyer won the world’s most famous race at the peak of the American running boom, beating his friend and training partner, Bill Rodgers, a.k.a. Mr. Marathon. Even more impressive, Meyer ran a sub-4:00 mile, and set American records in the 8K, 10K, 15K, 25K, and 10 mile – despite carrying 155 pounds, 30 more than Bill Rodgers, and 40 more than today’s champions. In this conversation Meyer talks about how U-M coach Ron Warhurst knew how to motivate him; how he came back from a heartbreaking setback in 1981 to win Boston in 1983; how he helped Dexter (MI) high school’s cross-country team win a record five-straight state titles; and how he has applied all these lessons to his current work in health care. Three take-aways: you have to visualize what you want; bad weather is your friend, because someone else doesn’t want to run in it; and you have to learn how to disagree without being disagreeable if you’re going to get people’s honest opinions, and still be respectful and kind.

RED BERENSON, former NHL and University of Michigan player and coach

At the ripe age of 18, Berenson had the courage to turn down the Montreal Canadiens’ offer and pursue college hockey. Four years later he proved Montreal’s general manager wrong when he became the first player to jump directly from college hockey to the NHL – and also the first to wear a helmet before suffering a serious injury. After a 17-year NHL career, Berenson earned the NHL’s Coach of the Year award – and was fired the next year. A few years later he took over the University of Michigan, and in his sixth year started a 22-year streak of NCAA tournaments. In this episode Berenson talks about how he overcame his lack of knowledge of modern college hockey by having a clear vision for the program he wanted to lead; how a leader can’t waffle when laying down his expectations, and enforcing them; and the importance of caring about your people, and making them feel their role is important.

Anne Curzan, the granddaughter of legendary Michigan State University president John Hannah, attended Yale, where she participated in some-two dozen intramural sports. After earning her Ph.D. in English language and Literature at the University of Michigan, she served on the faculty for 17 years before becoming dean of the U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) in September of 2019. In those roles she has learned a lot about the unfairly maligned Millennials and Generation Z, and is eager to defend their ambition, work ethic, and vision. Two take-aways from this podcast include: today’s young people are mission-driven; when faced with a crisis like Covid, re-boot, re-imagine what you can be, and “recombobulate”; and good ideas come from everyone, so the leader's job is to elevate them. Her personal website: https://acurzan.english.lsa.umich.edu/

Entering her 38th season at the University of Michigan, Carol Hutchins is just six wins away from winning more games than any softball coach at any level, nationwide. Though she couldn’t guess it within a hundred, her win total currently stands at 1,631, with 31 Big Ten season and tournament titles, 18 regional NCAA crowns, 12 appearances in the College Softball World Series, and the NCAA title in 2005 – the only Eastern and Northern school to do so, the equivalent of Alabama winning a Division I hockey title. She has been named Big Ten Coach of the Year 17 times, and twice nationally, but what’s more impressive is how she’s done it: getting young women to take responsibility for themselves, realize they’re accountable to each other, not just her, and never forgetting it’s an honor, not a privilege, to be a part of the team. As one of her players said, “I came here a girl with potential and left here a woman with no limits." Hutchins is proudest of the fact her players have gone onto do great things far beyond softball.