Creating a Culture of Opportunity | Mark Monchek | Episode 222

Scott McCarthy [00:00:00]:
On episode 222 of the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast, we speak to Mark Moncek, and he’s gonna tell you how you can create a culture of opportunity within your organization. That’s right, folks. It’s all about culture today. Are you ready for this? Let’s do it. Welcome 1, welcome all to the Peak Performance Leadership podcast, a weekly podcast Series dedicated to helping you hit peak performance across the 3 domains of leadership. Those being leading yourself, leading your team, am leading your organization. This podcast couples my 20 years of military experience as a senior Canadian army officer with world class guests, bring you the most complete podcast of leadership going. And for more, feel free to check out our website at movingforwardleadership.com.

Scott McCarthy [00:01:01]:
And with that, let’s get to the show. Yes. Welcome 1. Welcome all. It is your chief leadership officer, Scott McCarthy. And so great to be speaking to you yet again, the leader. The leader who wants to be that peak performing leader are who wants to perform across those 3 domains, leading themselves, leading your team, and our topic of conversation today, leading your organization. And no doubt, you’ve heard that culture is uber important.

Scott McCarthy [00:01:41]:
In fact, one has said that culture eats strategy for breakfast. You see, culture is what brings your organization together, and in the worst cases, culture is what breaks it apart. The culture of your team and the culture of your organization is going to make or break it. Now things are ever changing, and your culture needs to ebb, flow, and adapt with those changes as well. And that’s why we brought Mark in for this episode because Mark is all about seizing opportunity when it pops up and know that you as a leader, you want to do the same as well. Right? You want to seize those opportunities because, well, 1, enter an opportunity, but 2, it’s a way to either push your team or your organization ahead further. And that’s what this episode is all about. We talk about so many different topics in this show.

Scott McCarthy [00:02:51]:
Know, we talk about what a culture of opportunity actually is and how to keep your team inspired to look for these opportunities when you feel like the cards are stacked against you. And no doubt there are many leaders out there who feel this way right now. We talk about why disruptions are neither good or bad. They just are a reality such as the disruption going on right now. We talk about how to make remote work work as in be successful. We talk about how to develop that culture of opportunity across teams, across multiple continents. So if you’re dealing with distributed teams from, you know, maybe in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, etcetera, We talk about how meetings kill the culture of opportunity, but how to also generate loyalty through meetings. So effective use of meetings.

Scott McCarthy [00:03:50]:
And finally, we talk about how to create that culture of opportunity in any organization.

Mark Monchek [00:03:57]:
Mark, is

Scott McCarthy [00:03:58]:
a author, of course, bestseller, Culture of Opportunity, How to Grow Business in the Age of Disruption. He’s also the founder and chief opportunity officer or OpportunityLab. That’s his company, which is focused on helping business drive through disruption. So I feel like this is very timely for everyone. He’s worked with a lot of different organizations as I read the list here. You know, Google, Apple, JPMorgan Chase, GE, Goldman Sachs I’m just gonna stop because it just keeps going and going and going. You get the point. Mark, is well known, well respected.

Scott McCarthy [00:04:39]:
And the reason why he’s worked with all these companies for that, but he also gets results. So that is enough for me for the intro. So why don’t you sit back, relax, and enjoy my conversation about creating a culture of opportunity with Mark Mark, my friend, welcome to the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast, sir. So great to have you here.

Mark Monchek [00:05:19]:
Scott, my pleasure. So excited to be with you today.

Scott McCarthy [00:05:22]:
So we’re talking about creating a cult organizational culture of opportunity. And I gotta ask. Like, it’s the 1st time I hear that expression, a organization of opportunity. So what is a culture of opportunity in the 1st place before we even divide dive into how we create one?

Mark Monchek [00:05:44]:
You know, there was a quote from Peter Drucker, who was arguably one of the most famous, if not the most famous management theorist of all time, And he said that culture eats strategy for lunch. And that was always the idea that Culture is the dominant force, and that strategy must be subservient to culture. So if Peter were alive today, I’d say, Peter, in today’s highly disruptive world when the things have changed dramatically just in the last 2 years, culture and strategy must eat lunch together. And the reason I call it culture of opportunity is that we thought we think of a strategy as there’s a plan that we’re going to set forth about how our business is gonna grow from where we are now to the next, let’s say, 5 years or 10 years or however. And then there’s the culture, which is the company actually operates, its values, what it believes in, how it feels about itself, how it feels about its customers, so forth. So often strategies fail because strategies are good for a particular point in time. And, you know, that worked when things were stable for periods of decades. But when I wrote my book, Culture how to grow your business in an age of disruption back in 2017.

Mark Monchek [00:07:03]:
I thought that was disruption at its height. You know, fast forward to 2022. We are disruption 5 point o just in the last, you know, 5 years. And today, really culture of opportunity is more relevant than ever, I think, because it you have to have a culture that actually sees opportunities in a moment in a moment of, adversity and sees how that adversity could be turned into an opportunity and is constantly evaluating opportunities that come to the company, decided which ones you want to launch, which ones you wanna put on the side table, and which ones are just not right for you. And the culture is constantly learning, constantly Seeking new opportunities, constantly growing, and expanding in their awareness about customers, about associates, and the communities they do business in. So that’s my short definition of why we call it culture of opportunity.

Scott McCarthy [00:07:59]:
That is an interesting one definition, but 2, take. Because you have to find and and I know the Peter Drucker, quote, obviously. But you have to find that dichotomy between culture and strategy. Culture being more the humanistic side of an organization were strategies more of that, you know, ones and zeros, black and white kind of aspect, you know, the manage it well, I shouldn’t say management decide, but more of that, you know, that that numbers and all about how we’re gonna to expand and how we’re going to, you know, launch new products services and all this stuff. So it’s definitely interesting that you want to bring those 2 together. Now and then finally, you know, having that idea of having people looking forward to opportunities even in times of extreme difficulty, extreme disruption, as you said, like, we’re going through you know, we’re still going through right now. It’s been crazy the past couple Right? Like, just just madness.

Mark Monchek [00:09:10]:
So I think the first

Scott McCarthy [00:09:12]:
thing that come to my mind now as we talk through this is that when I see organizations going through these periods of disruption, it’s difficult for people to look, you know, for opportunity, you have to be looking, you know, at things in a positive light. But when there’s so much negativity around you, how can you get your people motivated, inspired to look for that positive aspect and find the opportunity to go after and seize it.

Mark Monchek [00:09:41]:
Let me give you a very, very recent example, actually one that’s still happening that’ll answer your question. So When 2020 occurred, March 2020, we were about to launch a 5 year strategic planning process with one of our clients. I get a call on March 11th. We must postpone this retreat because we are gonna have to lock down our company, and we’re gonna have to move all of our employees remote except people in the store and people in the distribution center. So that was what you would think of as a negative consequence. Right, this is gonna have a severe disruption. This is a company that never had people working remotely. It was not something the company accepted.

Mark Monchek [00:10:25]:
It’s not something they used to, there were few people who did it, but it was not the norm at whatsoever. This is a national retailer have consumer electronics, almost a $1,000,000,000 company with a 1,000 employees with 7 different divisions. So you would think this is a negative experience and this is gonna be bad for us. We helped our clients see this is not negative or positive. This is just reality. So when you define reality as this is what’s happening, it’s not good or bad. It’s just the reality. Then you say, okay.

Mark Monchek [00:10:57]:
What do we do with this reality? So The company had a culture of loyalty and and passion for being in this community that supported all kinds of people’s personal lives Throughout all the 45 years of this existence. So they moved 80% of their people remotely within one day, and the people were so incredibly appreciative of how quickly they did it and how nicely they did it and how well customers continue to get served under extremely dire circumstances. So the ownership and leadership said, our 2 goals are to keep people safe, to keep them functioning, and to serve our customers in the best possible way. That led to this culture of opportunity, which I’ll tell you more about in a minute, but I just wanna leave you with that, specific example. It’s not negative posit it to what is the reality, and where’s the opportunity in it for us.

Scott McCarthy [00:11:50]:
Love that quote. You know, it’s not negative. It’s not positive. It just is. And I think too many leaders get wrapped around the axle of, you know is this a positive thing? Is this a negative thing? They end up into what I refer to as the blame game some often. Whose fault is it that, you know, this is happening. Someone’s gotta pay. Someone’s gotta be accountable.

Scott McCarthy [00:12:18]:
But reality is is reality. And I love that because that actually puts you into a mindset of being proactive now, vice reactive, much along the lines of what you said about that company in that they were able to quickly move their workforce to remote. They were quickly able to transition to keep, you know, providing services goods and services to their customers, and basically almost make it seem, you know, seamless overnight. Now I’m sure there was plenty of bumps along the roads, but guess what? They’re able to make that pivot pretty quick. And why do that mentality of it’s not good. It’s not bad. It just is. Love it.

Mark Monchek [00:13:02]:
Yeah. And, Scott, you know, it’s it’s bad either because we didn’t expect it or because we didn’t want it. That’s why we call it bad. Right? If we want it and expected it, then we call it good. Right? So in this particular situation, the company did and this this company is is called Adorama, and I’m using its name because it it is a Iconic New York brand name. And I’m very proud of being affiliated with the company for 17 years as an adviser, and I I so appreciate what they’ve done through a difficult time. So they started doing things that they’ve never done before. They called customers, and they were told, call your customers and ask them how they’re doing.

Mark Monchek [00:13:39]:
Just ask him, how are you doing? Are you safe? Is there anything we can do for you? Didn’t try to sell him anything. This is in their in their several commercial divisions. And the customers, you’re you’re calling me to tell me, ask me if I’m okay, if I’m safe, and it it was just so deeply appreciated. And we were hearing from customers that we can’t get PPE equipment. You know? We can’t get, hydroxyl generator, various things to to keep the company safe. And and our client was never in that business. However, they had relationships in China. They had relationships with different distributors.

Mark Monchek [00:14:11]:
They were able to get PPE equipment and various other related equipment. And they were able to sell it because they were able to get it and they had distribution channels to actually do it, they only heard it because they were asking customers, oh, what’s going on? How’s how things in your community?

Scott McCarthy [00:14:28]:
You know, that’s that’s just being are a good person in the end, really, you know, checking in. Like, hey. How can I help you? Oh, no. I don’t deal with that, but I know someone who does. And that’s, you know, exactly what a person, you know, in a neighborhood when when, you know, a storm we recently, this past weekend, had a big storm come through. And and, you know, there’s lots of damage and stuff like this. Not where I live specifically, a bit further north of me. But you see it in the community, people coming out.

Scott McCarthy [00:14:57]:
You know? How can I help? I was camping with my friend who’s had some damage on his property. I’m like, hey. How can I help? Yeah. Oh, you got a big branch, you know, good chunk of a tree down? Cool. You want me to get my chainsaw? Like, I I know someone who can, you know, lend us your, x, y zed tool. He’s like, yeah. Do you mind? I’m like, no. I’ll go do it.

Scott McCarthy [00:15:16]:
So I drove 45 minutes each way to grab my chainsaw and the tools and go back another hour up to his place and got my, you know, my man fixing by chopping up some wood. But but, you know, it’s the moral of the story is you’re there. You’re helping. You’re finding opportunities to help. So I really like that story that you brought forth to us.

Mark Monchek [00:15:35]:
Yeah. And it started kinda changing, the whole relationship between the associates and the company. Because what happened was when the associates moved, remotely, The company was like, are are are they gonna perform properly? Are they gonna really feel motivated? They’re gonna be able to work in such an independent fashion. What they found, Scott, is in the 3 hours they were saving commuting, 2 of those 3 hours went back to the company Because they felt, hey. Finally, I can go to a doctor’s appointment. I can kid go to my kid’s, soccer game, or I can, you know, actually be out in nature when I never did before. So there was a whole different balance and and a more of a collaborative relationship between associates and and the company Because they saw this as the reality, okay, what’s the opportunity? Opportunity was employees have more flexibility, employees have, you know, more ability to do their work when they want to, and the company got actually great productivity, and and better communication that was actually happening with customers and with their teams than than they ever had before.

Scott McCarthy [00:16:41]:
That’s that’s amazing. I love hearing stories like that because are often get pushed back. Oh, remote work can’t work. Distributed work settings don’t work. And I call ball. Like, we can still develop teams. We could still develop relationships. We could still have communication.

Scott McCarthy [00:17:02]:
You know, great communication without everyone being physically present in the same room. It’s just different. Is just slightly different, and I I call bull. And I’ll give you example. Not too long ago, about 2 weeks ago, I think, 3 weeks ago now, yeah, about 3 weeks ago now, came down with COVID. And I had to isolate myself away from my family and tune in my basement, but I have my work computer home with me. And I was like, my and my deputy. So by day, I’m not sure if you follow, follow me that close or not.

Scott McCarthy [00:17:37]:
But by day, I’m actually a senior Canadian army officer. So I work for the Canadian Armed Forces. And I was talking to my deputy, and he was yeah. He’s like, so you want me to go all to all your meetings and stuff? Like, no. We got remote dial in. I’m there. I I’m still effective. I will make this remote work work.

Scott McCarthy [00:17:57]:
And that’s what we did for 7 days. We made it

Mark Monchek [00:18:00]:
work.

Scott McCarthy [00:18:00]:
So I really like hearing, you know, stories like that. You know, going after those opportunities.

Mark Monchek [00:18:06]:
You know, Scott, it can work. What I think is different, and when it works the best is when the companies understand they have to be much more intentional about how people work, when they work, and where they work. Right? So, yes, people people can work remotely. However, some people are very good at it. The people who are self disciplined, the people who really have the motivation and that self structure, The people who are not good at it are people who are used to structure of going to the office. They need the physical space. They need the militia of other people. So we had to help our clients create a more intentional way of working remotely and in a hybrid fashion because as people started coming back to the office, most people wanted that flexibility.

Mark Monchek [00:18:52]:
They actually wanna be in the office, but they wanna be in the office when other people are in the office and to do the things that you can’t do remotely. So we started a program called ShareLab, which is really about 3 things, helping, associates feel cared about, functioning and communicating effectively with their peers, with their customers, and, you know, with the company itself. And so in our Sharelabs, we actually got information about what associates needed to work remotely or to work in a hybrid fashion. We found it about what customers were saying. All kinds of things, Scott, that were never communicated before when people are going in the office because there was no structure to do that. So to give you a really specific example, we had 1 gentleman recently, a very, very top performer who was working mostly remotely and his He just wasn’t really doing very well. He didn’t have that internal structure. So his manager said, you know, I want you to come in the office 4 days out of the 5, and I will come in the 1st week, and I’ll be with you to feel you that I care about.

Mark Monchek [00:19:56]:
He did that. The guy worked much, much better. Then he this gentleman, The week later, he said, you know, I’m coming in 2 days. I’m loving it. People are there. The other 2 days, nobody’s in the office. So I said to his manager, you know what? There are a few people in the office, but not his peers. Why don’t you get him a laptop instead of a desktop and do, like, a co working space in the company where sit him near other people who were in that day, which might not be his regular peers in another department, but at least there’s some camaraderie and some communication.

Mark Monchek [00:20:24]:
So he’s coming in to at least to be with 3 or 4 people rather than to sit by himself with nobody next to him. And they were able to adjust really quickly, and now The person is actually working in a way that works even better because that culture of opportunity is constantly searching for new opportunities big or small like that.

Scott McCarthy [00:20:43]:
So the moral of the story I’m hearing from you in that story is don’t just immediately give up because it’s not working. You know? That the supervisor could be like, oh, I can’t remote work, then he’s useless. Or, I can’t he can’t work, so come in all the time. And everyone has to come in. You know? Those extremes, right, that we we tend to go towards. All or nothings. But rather okay. That didn’t work.

Scott McCarthy [00:21:13]:
Let’s let’s look okay. How might we tweak it? How might we tweak it a little bit more? How might we tweak it a little bit more? And constantly looking for, you know, as you say, those opportunities to improve the situation, to improve the process, to improve whatever it might be. Now I got a question. I I wrote a Facebook group of a free Facebook group out there, as well as a mastermind community. And I had a question come up or actually a scenario come up that you may be able to help me with and actually help someone with. And I I posed the question in our free Facebook group. I said, you know, what is your biggest leadership challenge right now. And one of the members popped up saying, you know, about remote work, but working with teams in multiple time zones across multiple plant continent planets continents.

Scott McCarthy [00:22:03]:
God. So how might we find the opportunity to really bring synergy to these teams and work in a cohesive, you know, company, when we got people that are, like, 8 hours away from us in in time difference or 6 hours, etcetera. You know, some in Europe, some are in North America, some might be in South America, etcetera. What’s the best way develop that culture of opportunity for those teams?

Mark Monchek [00:22:34]:
Oh, that’s a great challenge, Scott. So there’s, there’s the mindset challenge, and then there’s the actual logistical challenge, which has a tech technological solution to it. So the mindset challenge is, we need to find a solution that is are the, greatest good to the greatest number. And in that mindset, right, there’s some people who are gonna get a better solution and some people who are not gonna get as as perfect a solution. But if the greater good is the value system, then we gotta say, alright. What’s the greatest good for the greatest number knowing that we can’t have the ideal situation for everybody, people understand that that is the value and that some people will get the greatest good on one situation and not on the other. If they realize that that’s the intent of the company, at least that mindset of collaboration and and teamwork is there. The logistical challenge is you have to ask probably through a survey, and there are there are apps to do this.

Mark Monchek [00:23:36]:
Okay, Scott. You are in Canada. You are in the Eastern Standard Time zone. What is your ideal range of when you best want to meet with this particular team. Then we ask somebody in Singapore and somebody in Vancouver and somebody in Hungary, and then we’ve got the data that shows, okay, these are the ideal times. Probably works really well for the guy in Hungary or somewhat well for the guy in in Toronto, not so good for the guy in Singapore. Right? But at least we have tried to get the greatest good for the greatest number, and something some other things will favor the guy in Singapore.

Scott McCarthy [00:24:21]:
Yeah. It makes a lot of sense. Yeah. No. It totally makes sense. And there’s gonna be gives and takes, across the board, right, for for every part of member of that team. Would you suggest, like, okay, let’s develop a standard standing meeting, you know, or meetings time so that people then can work their schedule around that. So you, you know, you pick that you know, you look at the different time zones and when people would prefer, operating and say, okay.

Scott McCarthy [00:24:49]:
We got this 1 hour window, Mondays and Thursdays, you know, maybe it’s 8 AM EST or maybe it’s 6 AM EST, and then it’s, like, you know, 8 or 7 PM EST on Thursdays, like, pick those 2 windows and then, like, okay. Now you guys can work around those periods. Something like that, be helpful for the team leaders out there.

Mark Monchek [00:25:13]:
I think having a standard meeting time is is good for stability, for predictability. If you want the greatest good for the greatest number, then what you would do is you have a standard time, let’s say, quarter by quarter. So in Q1, we’re picking a 1 o’clock on a Tuesday. That is good for some people, not as good for others. Quarter 2, we’re gonna pick an 8 PM on Wednesday. That is better for the guy in Singapore and not so good for the guy in Vancouver. However, you’re saying, alright. You know what? We’re gonna do the solution quarter by quarter, so every region gets some preference quarter by quarter.

Mark Monchek [00:25:50]:
You have predictability, but you also have that flexibility to help people feel cared about no matter where in the world they’re operating from.

Scott McCarthy [00:25:59]:
Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I like that actually change it up. You know, make it fair for everyone. Everyone feels included, you know, valued. Okay, and, you know, that predictability. As I I think people want that the most.

Scott McCarthy [00:26:13]:
Right? The the understanding, the predictability. Like, okay. This quarter, I got my time slot. Next quarter, I need to make some changes or in my personal life because my work schedule is going to shift a little bit. And that could be done as long as it’s predictable. They know it’s upcoming. People need to change their lives and stuff like this, so it definitely helps.

Mark Monchek [00:26:32]:
Well, they want predictability, but they also want flexibility. So how do you balance those those 2 things?

Scott McCarthy [00:26:37]:
Right?

Mark Monchek [00:26:38]:
When you wanna find out what the quality and culture and the the attitude in a company is, if it’s a knowledge company where you’re basically knowledge workers, right, just it’s not, a factory situation. A company we have a lot of meetings, ask people, so how do you like your meetings? And Scott, I gotta tell you. Very few people say, I love meetings. It’s exciting. I we get so much work done, and I’m so inspired. They usually say, we had way too many meetings, and they’re really not bad. They’re boring. Why is that? One, because there’s not intentionality about the human side of meetings.

Mark Monchek [00:27:15]:
So they’re they don’t open up On the human side, they don’t close-up on the human side, and there’s often not permission to say the thing that nobody else maybe wants to hear. So the way that we solve that in our company with our clients, we open up on the human side. We have a round robin check-in. So our team of 5 people rotate to opening the meeting. So you might be on our team, Scott, and you might say, I’m opening the meeting. I’m gonna tell you the most book that I’ve read in the last couple of weeks that really inspired me and why this is. What is your most exciting book, Mark? And then we get that conversation on what is inspiring us intellectually or creatively or what have you. Another person is gonna talk about, they wanna do a meditation.

Mark Monchek [00:28:00]:
They wanna bring in a 5 minute meditation, get people to be quiet and really present. So we get everybody to contribute to open the meeting in some kind of personal way. And I gotta tell you, it actually the meetings become so much more productive, and you might take up 15 minutes start. The rest of the meetings really just fly by because people are energized, and they’re connected in a in a human way. And we have a culture of say whatever you need to say, as long as it’s in a respectful way. Whatever it is, you could say anything as long as it’s said with respect. And when you get that openness, you get a challenging the reality and then that culture of opportunity happens where somebody says, I think we should stop doing this. It’s not helping anybody.

Mark Monchek [00:28:42]:
Oh, no. We’ve been doing this for a long time. What are the results of what we’re doing? So when people challenge each other in a respectful way in meetings, think they become very inspiring and very dynamic. People wanna go to meetings because the meetings actually help them solve a problem, help them feel connected.

Scott McCarthy [00:28:58]:
Oh, wow. I love that. I have a I have a huge heartache with meetings, as a leader, I you know, one part of me says, you know, deposit aspect of meetings is I get to be with my team and check-in on my team and stuff like this. But 2nd part is is productivity killers truly are. They’re productivity killers, especially when they’re not run right. Are. I like that part that you mentioned about, you know, giving some ownership of the meeting to the team members and bring that you know, it’s it’s something new because we all know, especially these standing meetings. We all know, okay, this is what’s gonna get discussed.

Scott McCarthy [00:29:35]:
And, Dave over there. We know Dave is gonna go on a preaching rant for about 15 minutes about his department and how important it is and all this stuff. You know, we’re getting these mundane routines, but adding that aspect, you know, kinda changes it up. And I like that. I really like that. That’s a great actual item for all the lead for the leader out there who’s listening to this in in their meetings. I’m are gonna add something to that to mine and and see how my team on our weekly meeting, how they how they, respond. So thanks for that one.

Mark Monchek [00:30:11]:
You’re welcome, Scott. And the person who opens the meeting with the with the check-in, they often facilitate the entire meeting. So it’s not just they got the opening, but they get a chance to facilitate, so you get different facilitation style, different energies. And we also have a a bandwidth check-in. At at the very beginning after the kind of connective check-in that I just shared with you, the next one is, okay, what’s your how’s your bandwidth, Scott? And what does that does is It gives everybody a chance to voice how overloaded they are, or maybe they have a little extra bandwidth. Scott, I could take something off your plate because you know what? I actually have less things due because I completed a huge project. I don’t have a new one coming on. I’ve got a few extra hours.

Mark Monchek [00:30:53]:
Can I take something off your plate, Scott? Really? I had no idea. Like, Thank you. So that bandwidth discussion next mixed with the check-in kinda gives a lot of collaboration structure to the meetings.

Scott McCarthy [00:31:06]:
Yeah. That bandwidth one is crucial. Actually, I do something very similar. I don’t call it the bandwidth, but, what I get my team to tell me, you know, what they’re up to. I don’t know exactly 100% everything they’re doing on a day to day basis. Like, I’m I’m not in their shorts. If I did, I’d be micromanaging. That’s not not my style.

Scott McCarthy [00:31:25]:
Right? So I say, hey. You know, what’s going on? What do you have working on? And, actually, one of the one of my team members today was like, I don’t have a whole lot. I can help out with that project. I can jump on that. I can take that one there. We’re like, hey. You know? And then it turned into a little bit of a joke because they’re all the same themes. We’re like, oh, you’re that guy now.

Scott McCarthy [00:31:44]:
But that was the point was, though, that person had the ability to pick up some slack and not overload the rest of the team. And it enables that, you know, that sense of camaraderie now, that trust. In so many great ways. And, again, you know, back to the theme of this interview, this podcast, I should say, is opportunity. He sees the opportunity to take something on. 1, take something on, but I would suggest more importantly, 2, take something off someone else.

Mark Monchek [00:32:16]:
Yeah. Exactly. And then, Scott, for the learning, component because every meeting should have a learning component and should have a A different kind of learning component every time. So we at toward the end of the meeting, we ask, 2 questions that are rotating they’re they’re different every time. So one might be, what is most inspiring you and what is most troubling you. Another set might what is your biggest learning and what is it you most want to learn. What is your biggest insight, and what is it you would look most like to have an insight about? What are your customers most excited about? What are your customers most frustrated about? So we we mix questions that are very provocative and thought provoking, and then that gives a lot of learning happening in each meeting.

Scott McCarthy [00:33:01]:
Oh, I love those generative questions. Absolutely. And it also humanizes everyone, right, to show that, you know, maybe the thing that inspires the most something personal or the thing that is, you know, troubling them the most is, you know, something personal and humanizes people. And then as a leader, you go, oh, wow. Like, you know, I didn’t realize that was going on in your life. Excuse me. Maybe I shouldn’t give this big project I have sitting here in the corner ready to go to you right now because, 1, you you did your bandwidth check-in and you’re overloaded and stressed out and 2, you have got issues at home with your children, etcetera. Okay.

Scott McCarthy [00:33:40]:
Maybe it’s not the time for you to take this on right now. Maybe it’s time to give it to Dave over here. So I realized that.

Mark Monchek [00:33:48]:
Scott, when you do that, the depth of loyalty, the depth of appreciation, It creates a, instead of a vicious cycle, it it creates a virtuous circle. There’s a there’s a generosity Circle that becomes part of the company’s culture when you really humanize the experience and you really give people a chance to ask for what they want and offer what they have to offer.

Scott McCarthy [00:34:14]:
Absolutely. Now, Mark, we talked about a whole lot of different stuff, and I’m sure we’ve answered this question, but I would like to get a little bit more formal response from you. It’s like, I assume, that you have some kind of framework or some kind of ideology sequence or something along the lines of creating that sent that opportunistic culture an organization. So from you, how might leaders go about doing that?

Mark Monchek [00:34:46]:
Well, our mission is to build resilient companies with shared abundance. And we do that through our 3 programs, strategy, leadership, and culture. As I mentioned at the beginning of the show, we think that you need to have a strategic culture, a culture of opportunity where the culture develops an emergent strategy that resonates with what’s happening in the world. And our programs, as you could see by how we run meetings, right. The meetings are very strategic because they have a result that has high impact, but it’s a culture of collaboration, of generosity, of high level of communication, and we’re learning leadership skills in every single meeting and in in everything that we do. So We help our our clients develop a resilient strategy with shared abundance, and then we teach leaders how to be leaders that lead companies that are creating abundance for their customers, for their associates, and for the communities they do business in, You know, through that culture of opportunity, and the share lab is our our culture program. So we think that strategy, leadership, and culture have to all, you know, work together. And the the first start is just a conversation with us about what’s the problem, you’re trying to solve, what’s the result you’re trying to get, and what have you tried that hasn’t worked.

Mark Monchek [00:36:08]:
And through that discussion, we understand the mindset. It’s it’s very often, Scott, it’s the mindset of the company that is causing the problem not to be solved. Because most problems in business have a solution. It’s you gotta shift the mindset from competition to collaboration, from I to we, you know, from, scarcity to abundance. And when you make those mindset shifts, often the the problems just get solved through that different type of dialogue.

Scott McCarthy [00:36:41]:
No. You definitely got the conversation first. Mark, my friend, this has been a eye opening, conversation, no doubt. Before we wrap up, I do got a couple of last questions for you. And the first being a question I ask all the guests here at the Peak leadership podcast. And as according to you, Mark Moncek, what makes a great leader?

Mark Monchek [00:37:05]:
Great leader, knows her or his purpose for serving, why you’re serving, why you’re here on Earth, what is it you’re here to do. So it creates a sense of service to the world itself and through your particular organization. Leaders understand that it’s the collective wisdom of the group that has the most power, not the smarts or the knowledge of any individual, But it’s really the collective wisdom that that really, really has tremendous power, and it’s the openness to feedback to continually ask them, Scott, how can I serve you better? Tell me what, you’d like from me that maybe you’re not getting. So there’s a constant dialogue about what is going well and what is it maybe that we wanna change.

Scott McCarthy [00:37:55]:
That’s great great, answer. And a follow-up question of the show, how can people find you? How can they follow you? It’s all that you know.

Mark Monchek [00:38:05]:
Well, we’d love people to come to our website, oplab.com, 0pplab.com. We have a lot of free resources. We have podcast appearances, that I’ve done with other podcasts. Yours will be on there shortly. We have a free ebook, and we host I know you host mastermind communities, which is phenomenal Facebook groups. Every month, We have a community that we’ve developed since the beginning of the pandemic called opportunity community. It is usually the 3rd Thursday of every month from 4 to 5 Eastern Standard Time. You can sign up for it for free, and we really help companies thrive through destruction by meeting other leaders from around the world and having kind of these deep dive dialogues like you and I are having, today.

Scott McCarthy [00:38:51]:
That’s amazing. Absolutely love it. And for the listeners always, it’s easy for you. Just go to lead don’t boss.comforward/triple22222. And the links are there in the show notes for you at the bottom. Mark, my friend, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule, talking to me, but most importantly, the leader out there today.

Mark Monchek [00:39:12]:
Scott, thank you. It’s a great pleasure.

Scott McCarthy [00:39:16]:
And that’s a wrap for this episode, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting the peak performance leadership podcast. But you know what you could do to truly support the podcast? And no, that’s not leaving a rating and review. It’s simply helping a friend, And that is helping a friend by sharing this episode with them if you think this would resonate with them and help them elevate their performance level, whether that’s within themselves, their teams, or their organization. So do that. Helped me, help a friend, win win all around. And, hey.

Scott McCarthy [00:39:51]:
You look like a great friend at the same time. So just hit that little share button on your app, and then feel free to fire this episode to anyone that you feel would benefit from it. Finally, there’s always more. There’s always more lessons around being the highest performing leader that you can possibly be. Whether that’s for yourself, your team, or your organization. So why don’t you subscribe? Subscribe to the show via moving forward leadership .comforward/subscribe. Until next time, lead, don’t boss, and thanks for coming out. Take care now.