How to Build Workplace Cultures that People Want to be a Part Of – In Just 7 Minutes with Matt Davies

Resources/Links:

• Want to know how you can change the world through your brand? Click here: www.mrmattdavies.me

Summary

Have you been struggling with keeping your team aligned? Do you want to know the secret of how you can keep your team intact without the need for constant rehires or micromanagement?

Rehiring isn’t always the answer to your problems. Building a workplace culture that will keep your team aligned and all ideas valued is crucial to the growth and success of your business.

Matt Davies is a brand and culture strategist. He helps business leaders develop and align around powerful brand strategies which inspire. He was also recently listed as one of the UK’s Top 50 Business Advisors.

Sit back and listen to Matt as he talks about one of the best strategies for saving your team and business– making a workplace culture through your narrative.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 02:12 – Matt’s ideal client: So I like to work with Maverick leaders, Maverick CEOs, usually, or it could be anyone on the C-suite who basically wants to make change happen. But when they look behind them, they just feel like they slowed down.
• 03:03 – The problem he helps solve: I think what they see when they look inside their organization is misalignment. There is no kind of glorious kind of narrative that everybody’s sort of pulling towards. Often, people are in it for themselves.
• 04:10 – The symptoms of the problem: I think one of the biggest things is they see a lot of churn in the business. So I mean, this is quite an obvious symptom. There’s a lot of people coming and going.
• 05:42 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Matt: So really interesting. I think what some leaders do, you know, is that they try and fix bits, right? So they’ll parachute themselves in, or they’ll try and go in, and they’ll sort something out.
• 06:45 – Matt’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): So I’ve got a framework, which kind of takes people through what I call, first of all, “Finding the big idea”. This is kind of known as your brand purpose.
• 07:46 – Matt’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want to know how you can change the world through your brand? Click here: www.mrmattdavies.me
• 08:21 – Q: How many years did it take me to grow this beard? A: Many years is the answer. Many, many years!

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“You've got to find your big idea, which is at the heart of your narrative, and everything needs to ladder into that.” -Matt Davies Click To Tweet

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings, everyone, and a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I am joined today by one of the world’s great endurance athletes because this is actually the fourth time we had this interview scheduled. And with COVID, and it’s all been my bad, I’ve had to ask Matt to postpone three times. So the fourth time’s the charm apparently, Matt. A very warm welcome to the show. And thank you so much for your persistence.

Matt Davies 0:34
I’m so excited to be here. Thank you, Tom.

Tom Poland 00:36
Where are you hanging out? Whereabouts in the world are you?

Matt Davies 00:39
I am in a place called Carmarthenshire show which is in Wales in the UK. I come from London and the Midlands in the UK, and we recently landed here, but it’s a lovely part of the world. Beautiful, lush green landscapes! So if you’re in Australia, think about that.

Tom Poland 00:54
Beautiful! And what, I have to ask, what took you to Wales? Was it love? Or was it work? Or was it just the lifestyle?

Matt Davies 01:00
It was the lifestyle, really. We’ve always wanted to get rural. I’m a London lad, originally. And this is as far away from London as I could probably get. So yeah, but I’m back in London every now and again. But it’s nice to get, you know, a nice rest, a nice break.

Tom Poland 01:13
Good on you! So values-driven lifestyle, move from London to South Wales. That’s probably pertinent because that’s a brand and culture strategist. And these are really, branding as a culture are really two wings of the same bird. People often don’t associate them but you’re going a little bit about more why they are intertwined in a moment. He helps business leaders develop and align around powerful brand strategies, which inspire- I mean, you can attract top performance. You keep top performance. You sleep better at night. It’s good karma when your brand is aligned with the culture. Interestingly, he was recently listed, and get this- drum roll, I think it deserves- one of the UK’s top 50 Business Advisors. Now, there are about a million in the UK, so this is terrific. Kudos! Matt, thanks for being on the show. Our title today is, “How to Build Workplace Cultures that People Want to Be a Part Of”. Our time starts now, seven minutes. Who’s your ideal client?

Matt Davies 02:12
So I like to work with Maverick leaders, Maverick CEOs, usually, or it could be anyone on the C-suite who basically wants to make change happen. But when they look behind them, they just feel like they slowed down. They’re like wading through a treacle, lots of people are pulling in different directions. They want to grow. They want high growth, right? But they’re sort of stopped. And so I, kind of like, I’m wheeled in to add the energy, to add the framework around how we’re going to take ourselves from where we are today, to the potential of tomorrow.

Tom Poland 02:42
So tell us a little bit more about but you might have already answered this. But, question two is the problem you solve. Take them from the treacle or molasses of today, feeling a bit sticky and stuck to where they want to get to tomorrow. Maverick entrepreneurs, so they’re thinking outside the nine dots and probably a bit frustrated with how slow things are. Anything else you want to add to describe the problem you solve?

Matt Davies 03:03
Yeah, I think what they see when they look inside their organization is misalignment. There is no kind of glorious kind of narrative that everybody’s sort of pulling towards. Often, people are in it for themselves. I often, like, kind of, I feel sorry for some CEOs, particularly new in-post, because I kind of see them as like trying to herd kind of a pride of lions, right? Because everybody’s got there. All cats but more lions because these are not just normal cats, Tom, right? These are ferocious people who basically have got to where they’ve got to because they’re fantastic at what they do in their function. But now they’ve got to kind of all work together. And lions don’t like working together and it’s difficult. And so if you’re thrust into the pride as the top line, suddenly you’ve got to kind of get these people moving in the same direction. You know, there are often old powerful personalities, and most of them I do, Tom, to try and navigate that.

Tom Poland 03:54
Wow, that’s challenging! So let’s go to symptoms. Question three, what are some of the typical symptoms? So you’ve got this leader of an organization that Maverick who’s trying to herd these lions? What else is going on in the daily business life that would give them a heads up they need to reach out to you?

Matt Davies 04:10
Well, I think one of the biggest things is they see a lot of churn in the business. So I mean, this is quite an obvious symptom. There’s a lot of people coming and going like just look at the maths, right? If you’ve got it over, I would say 5% of your business every year as in posts leaving, I think that’s a challenge for you. So you know that and there’s obviously a cost to rehire those people. And there’s often, you know, a bit of an understanding that in some parts of the business, it’s kind of like this toxic culture, right? There are kinds of people at each other’s throats. There’s a lot of bad behavior. I often look at it and I’m often wheeled in when there’s a lot of siloed thinking. So each- you know, you might even have a high-performing function, but they might just be on their own and not talking to anyone else in the business. So what we’ve got to try and do is bring accountability. Bring a way you know, a culture, that people kind of can is high performing, but actually enjoy what they’re doing. And, you know, it comes with a commitment to that from the leadership team. And then the willingness to hold themselves accountable, and their teams accountable towards something other than their own kind of tiny short-term metrics that they’ve been given. So if the leadership team is open to that, then half of my job, sometimes, is to persuade them to be open to that. Then I think you can start to make the tracks, start to make progress, and ultimately, right, create the momentum and the scalability that often these businesses really desire, particularly from, at the top.

Tom Poland 05:35
So three minutes left, sir. What would you say are a couple of top mistakes that leaders tend to make in these situations?

Matt Davies 05:42
So really interesting. I think what some leaders do, you know, is that they try and fix bits, right? So they’ll parachute themselves in, or they’ll try and go in, and they’ll sort something out. That’s one thing they do, but then they don’t look at the whole, right? So I think you have to look at the whole system and ask yourself the question, “Is this system operating correctly? Have I got the right design in place for that?” I think the other thing that they try and do, Tom often is, maybe, and I see this in a lot of HR, or, you know, people teams, is they’ll do something like a little initiative, and everybody can have their birthdays off or something. And they do that and they feel then that that is enough to create the culture that they want. And it’s kind of like a token gesture, you know. Yeah, it doesn’t work. I think, again, you need to look at the whole system. You need to have something that all makes sense. So right, you know, I can help people with that, basically.

Tom Poland 06:34
Okay, so thank you for that. So let’s go, two minutes left, so I better hurry. One top tip you can give people. Whether they work with you or not, what’s one thing they could sit down and do that might take them a step in the right direction?

Matt Davies 06:45
Sure. So I’ve got a framework, which kind of takes people through what I call, first of all, “Finding the big idea”. This is kind of known as your brand purpose. There’s a lot of stuff about out there. So I think you’ve got to do that. And by the way from there, usually, you can build on that and create values, which are the things that you really want to hold yourself accountable to, your behaviors, and how you see those values show up. And then you can create a framework from which to create and invest in activities, which actually will enhance and encourage and reward and recognize those in an organization. So my first, my kind of big tip, would be you’ve got to have that walk, right? You’ve got to find your big idea, which is at the heart of your narrative, and everything needs to ladder into that.

Tom Poland 07:27
Right. Because that’s the thing that people can gather around. That’s the thing that they can- that’s the narrative you’re talking about it, I suppose, at least a part of it. So that’s one minute left. Two questions to go. A valuable free resource. Where can people go opt-in and find out more about your work and get more value on these ideas?

Matt Davies 07:46
Sure. So a couple of places. First is my website mrmattdavies.me. That’s Mr, M-R. Matt, M-A, double T. Davies, D-A-V-I-E-S, .me. And on there, you know, after a couple of seconds you’ll be an annoying box that will jump up and alert you to the fact that you can download a free ebook called, “Think Brand – Three essential tools to align your people around brand thinking”. And that really is my message, really, brand and the thinking of the brand is the Trojan horse.

Tom Poland 08:13
Terrific! Mrmatt, and two T’s, Davies, I-E-S, .me. Go get it! 12 seconds left. What’s the one question I should have asked you, but didn’t?

Matt Davies 08:21
Well, I’ve got a big beard. You know, how many years did it take me to grow this beard? Many years is the answer. Many, many years!

Tom Poland 08:27
How many is many years?

Matt Davies 08:29
Ah, probably about 10 years now going on.

Tom Poland 08:31
All right. Matt Davies, thanks so much for your time. Cheers!

Matt Davies 08:34
Thank you, Tom.

Tom Poland 08:36
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.