Work Positive

EP 212 | See It, Shift It, Shape It | Elizabeth Dixon Elizabeth Dixon keeps a jar on her desk that her daughter made at camp. Rocks go in first, then rice, and everything fits. Rice first, and the rocks overflow out the top. After 20 years at Chick-fil-A and the launch of the Trilith Foundation, Elizabeth knows the story you tell yourself decides which goes in first. In this week’s episode, she shows Dr. Joey how to see it, shift it and shape it. What story does your team hear from you tomorrow? ABOUT THE GUEST Elizabeth Dixon helps brands and people leaders create remarkable customer experiences and live with purpose. She brings 20 years of leadership at the Chick-fil-A Support Center and partnerships with brands like Southwest Airlines, the Ritz-Carlton, Zappos and Wegmans. She served as the founding CEO of the Trilith Foundation, a nonprofit that inspires human flourishing across the creative industry. She is the author of The Power of Customer Experience and The Strength of Purpose, and a fellow at Baylor University. She founded two companies: Possibility Co, which helps brands grow their customer experience from mindset and culture outward, and Slumber Sleepwear. She loves to make the daunting doable, and her See It, Shift It, Shape It practice equips people leaders to edit the stories that shape how they show up. She speaks to companies, associations and organizations through elizabethdixonspeaks.com. Key Insights Fear and excitement share one core. Elizabeth teaches you to choose how you express it. “I’m afraid to go to that interview” becomes “I’m really excited to go learn more about this job.” See it, shift it, shape it. Pay attention where there’s tension. See the story you tell yourself, shift it to one that serves you better, and shape how you show up. Edit the movie. Dr. Joey adds that the reticular activating system holds those stories like movies in your brain, and you edit every one of them. Purpose is your golden thread. Why you do what you do outlasts what you do. You string that golden thread through every season and every stage. Model, create and allow. Elizabeth calls negativity “a prison with an open door.” People leaders walk out first, create stability, and empower what reinforces positive narratives. Put words to your values. At Chick-fil-A, everyone knew you catch up with people on the elevator instead of talking on your phone. Clear values let top talent decide, “Is that for me?” Keep delivering on the promise. People want purpose, path and paycheck. You deliver on what you promised in the interview, every day, and you keep saying thank you. Choose value creation over busyness. Put the rocks in the jar first. Your family, your health and your most important work fit, and the rice fits around them. Your Do One Thing Challenge Elizabeth’s Do One Thing (DOT) for you this week: Put words to where your culture is today and where you want it to go. “The more that we put words to that and define where we are and where we wanna be, we can naturally start to close that gap,” she says. Write both on one page this week, and share it with your team. Connect with Elizabeth Dixon Speaking: https://elizabethdixonspeaks.com Possibility Co: https://possibilityco.com Slumber Sleepwear: https://slumbersleepwear.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethdixonspeaks/ The Power of Customer Experience on Amazon: https://link.amazon/B09pIAc8H The Strength of Purpose on Amazon: https://link.amazon/B02AO1SlS At elizabethdixonspeaks.com you discover her keynotes and how to invite her to speak to your company, association or organization. Connect with Dr. Joey Podcasts: https://workpositive.today/podcasts Newsletter: https://workpositive.today/newsletter YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@workpositive7529 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjoeyfaucette/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorkPositiveToday/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workpositive.today/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.joeyfaucette

EP 211 Choose Positivity Each Morning | Dr. Courtney Beck she waited to salute, she rehearsed her routine and talked to herself: “Arms straight, you could do this, Court. Let’s go.” Years later, after her first pharmaceutical sales call, her manager asked her one question: “Did you listen to their needs?” In this week’s episode, Dr. Court shows Dr. Joey how communication, connection and community create a positive work culture. What energy do you choose for your team tomorrow morning? ABOUT THE GUEST Dr. Courtney Beck is the founder of Plenty of Positivity, a platform that creates a positive community for a better tomorrow. She hosts the Plenty of Positivity with Dr. Courtney Beck podcast and leads Courtney’s Korner, a monthly book club that celebrates education, literacy and critical thinking. She holds a PhD in sport management and serves as an adjunct professor. She began her career in pharmaceutical sales, where two managers taught her the power of undivided attention and active listening. She competed as an elite gymnast at the University of Florida, where she became an NCAA All-American and a member of two SEC championship teams. Her Three Cs, communication, connection and community, equip people leaders to create positive work cultures. She speaks at corporate events and associations, and you discover her work at plentyofpositivity.com. Key Insights Choose positivity each morning. Dr. Court teaches that positivity is a choice every person makes each day. As a people leader, your team feels the energy you bring. See the human in front of you. After the U.S. Surgeon General named loneliness an epidemic, Dr. Court slowed down in the checkout line and told herself, “That’s a human being, Courtney.” Talk to yourself like a champion. On the balance beam in front of 15,000 fans, Dr. Court rehearsed her routine with positive self-talk. You bring that same self-talk to your work culture as you name what your team does right. Give your undivided attention. Her best managers in pharmaceutical sales kept their phones out of the conversation and asked where she wanted to be in two, five and 10 years. Communication, connection, community. Dr. Court’s Three Cs start with communication. Communication grows connection, and connection grows a positive community. Listen to their needs. After her first sales call, her manager asked, “Did you listen to their needs?” Active listening became her foundation. Show top talent they belong. In an interview, a follow-up question that picks up one word the candidate said, “Tell me more about that,” tells them they belong on your team. Ask how each person prefers to communicate. With up to five generations at work, you ask, “Do you prefer a text or a phone call?” Reverse mentoring then lets every generation teach the others. Your Do One Thing Challenge Dr. Court’s Do One Thing (DOT) for you this week: Choose positivity each morning. “Each and every individual has the opportunity each morning to choose positivity,” she says. Before your first meeting tomorrow, choose the energy you bring into the room, and watch it reach your team. Connect with Dr. Courtney Beck Website: https://plentyofpositivity.com Podcast, Plenty of Positivity with Dr. Courtney Beck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneyannbeck/ Email: [email protected] At plentyofpositivity.com you discover her story, her podcast, the Courtney’s Korner book club and how to invite her to speak. Connect with Dr. Joey Podcasts: https://workpositive.today/podcasts Newsletter: https://workpositive.today/newsletter YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@workpositive7529 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjoeyfaucette/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorkPositiveToday/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workpositive.today/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.joeyfaucette   Enjoying the show? Leave a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts so more people leaders discover the Work Positive Podcast. It takes a minute and helps the whole community. Know a leader who would be a great guest? Send your recommendation to [email protected].

EP 210 | You Finish First | Dr. Joey Faucette Mac Whitman stood at his plant whiteboard looking at 43 quarterly initiatives. Seven were checked. Three weeks earlier, a second-shift supervisor left with one sentence on his exit interview: “I came here to finish things. We finish nothing.” That night, Mac found his son’s three robotics kits in the basement, two started and one unopened. In this Work Positive Culture Live Experience, Dr. Joey shows you the five practices that transformed Mac’s team, and how they transform yours. What does your team leave a meeting with, one thing to do or 43? ABOUT DR. JOEY Dr. Joey Faucette is the creator of the Work Positive Culture framework. He serves people leaders as a Culture Architect, Executive Coach and host of the Work Positive Podcast. He helps you transform your work culture, so you attract top talent, reduce turnover, and grow productivity and profits. Dr. Joey is the bestselling author of 19 books, including F.O.R.G.E. @ Work: Five Practices That Transform How Your Team Achieves, a #1 Amazon best-seller in business teams. He invests four decades of culture work in every live experience, and he works from Pleasant Gap Farm in Dry Fork, Virginia. Key Insights You finish first. The team you lead finishes what you finish and stops where you stop. People leaders who transform their teams finish first, and the team follows them. Focus on the One. Goal-setting research from Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, summarized across more than 1,000 studies, shows a team given one specific priority finishes more than a team given five vague ones. Protect the focus. Cal Newport found the average knowledge worker spends roughly 60% of the day on email, meetings and status updates. You name the one priority and protect the conditions to work on it. Own the Intention. James Clear teaches that identity-based intentions outlast outcome goals. Name the identity in the room: “We’re a team that ships work on the date we name.” Release the Trailer. Perfectionism is the trailer strapped beneath the boat. Atul Gawande’s surgical checklist cut complications 35% and deaths 47% because the minimum ships and the work iterates. Go Feed-forward. Marshall Goldsmith’s feedforward replaces “What went wrong?” with two questions: “What would you try differently next time?” and “What would help you try it?” Endure the Pace. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s research on flow shows daily rhythm sustains high performance. Mac’s 11-minute morning huddle named one priority, one obstacle and one feed-forward question. Your next best step. Pick the F.O.R.G.E. practice your culture does well right now, then the one that offers your team the best opportunity to transform how it finishes. Your Do One Thing Challenge Here’s your Do One Thing (DOT) this week: Focus on the One. Schedule a fifteen-minute call with each direct report and ask one question: “What’s the one initiative you finish by [a date you choose] regardless of what else gets cut?” Listen, take notes, and answer with one sentence: “Okay, that’s the one.” Your free gifts Message Dr. Joey on LinkedIn for a free digital copy of F.O.R.G.E. @ Work: Five Practices That Transform How Your Team Achieves https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjoeyfaucette/ Take the free Work Positive Culture Assessment and discover where your culture currently is on its Work Positive Culture journey: https://workpositive.today Connect with Dr. Joey Podcasts: https://workpositive.today/podcasts Newsletter: https://workpositive.today/newsletter YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@workpositive7529 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjoeyfaucette/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorkPositiveToday/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workpositive.today/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.joeyfaucette   Enjoying the show? Leave a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts so more people leaders discover the Work Positive Podcast. It takes a minute and helps the whole community. Know a leader who would be a great guest? Send your recommendation to [email protected].

EP 209 | Make Retention a HABIT | Dr. Sharon Grossman An engineer at Hewlett-Packard ran into his manager’s office with a breakthrough. The manager wanted to say thank you on the spot. He reached into his lunch bag and handed over the only thing he had: a banana. It became the Golden Banana Award. In this week’s episode, psychologist Dr. Sharon Grossman talks with Dr. Joey about the fifteen-minute daily habit that keeps your top talent on your team. Who on your team earned a golden banana yesterday? ABOUT THE GUEST Dr. Sharon Grossman is a psychologist, keynote speaker and retention strategist. She helps organizations reduce turnover, strengthen leadership and create work cultures where people are motivated to stay. She combines behavioral science with practical systems that improve engagement, performance and retention, and she has for more than 25 years. Her executive coaching helps leaders recover from burnout, and her retention work extends that care to frontline teams. Her HABIT system equips people leaders to do five things in a fifteen-minute daily huddle: Huddles, Appreciation, Barometer, Improvement and Tracking. She’s the author of several books, including Don’t Buy Their Lunch! Buy Their Loyalty. You discover her books, speaking, coaching and consulting at drsharongrossman.com. Key Insights Know your turnover cost. Replacing one person costs two and a half to 10 times their annual salary. Dr. Sharon starts every engagement with your turnover rate. Equip the top talent you promote. Your best frontline performers often step into management before anyone trains them. A simple daily system equips them to lead. Huddle for fifteen minutes at the start of each shift. Most of the huddle centers on people, with small sections on operations and performance. Turn your values into observable behaviors. “Safety first” becomes “If you see something on the ground, pick it up.” Check the barometer. A QR code asks, “How are you doing today?” The huddle leader sees the team’s mood in real time. Appreciate someone every day. Name one person and what they did the day before. Then open the floor to peer recognition. Ask what your people need to do an even better job. Come back the next day with a follow-up report, and your people feel heard and valued. Track the data. Trends in mood, retention and performance tell you what to ask next. Huddles, Appreciation, Barometer, Improvement and Tracking spell HABIT. Your Do One Thing Challenge Dr. Sharon’s Do One Thing (DOT) for you this week: Appreciate your people every day. “The more people feel appreciated for the work that they do, the more likely they’re going to stay,” she says. Name one person at your next team meeting and the specific thing they did yesterday. Then invite the team to recognize each other. Connect with Dr. Sharon Grossman Website: https://drsharongrossman.com LinkedIn: Dr. Sharon Grossman | LinkedIn Book: Don’t Buy Their Lunch! Buy Their Loyalty https://link.amazon/B04PA1Xq0 At drsharongrossman.com you discover her books, speaking, coaching and consulting on burnout and employee retention.   Connect with Dr. Joey Podcasts: https://workpositive.today/podcasts Newsletter: https://workpositive.today/newsletter YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@workpositive7529 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjoeyfaucette/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorkPositiveToday/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workpositive.today/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.joeyfaucette   Enjoying the show? Leave a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts so more people leaders discover the Work Positive Podcast. It takes a minute and helps the whole community. Know a leader who would be a great guest? Send your recommendation to [email protected].

EP 208 | You Invest. Your People Invest Back. | Katherine Kobs About a decade ago, a company told a young team member, "We wanna send you to college and we'll pay for it." Kate Kobs said yes. Nearly a decade later, she invests in people the way that company invested in her. In this week's episode, Kate talks with Dr. Joey about attracting top talent with total rewards and retaining them as you follow through. Who on your team waits for you to invest first? ABOUT THE GUEST Katherine (Kate) Kobs is a human resources leader who creates people-first HR functions. She created them across manufacturing, municipal government, energy, and retail companies. She loves translating compliance into practical guidance managers use to positively influence their culture. Today she leads HR for an organization with entities spread across Wisconsin. She also serves as a human resources sergeant in the Wisconsin Army National Guard. Kate lives in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. She shares inspiring stories about work culture on LinkedIn. She welcomes your questions there. Key Insights Attract top talent with total rewards. Base pay is one part of the package. Boomers through Gen Z each weigh it against their own values, from paid parental leave to time to care for an aging parent. Let candidates hear your values lived out. A car dealership supervisor once walked Kate from site to site and told his team, "Tell her your story." Follow through on every interview promise. Kate says, "If you invest in people, they're gonna invest back in you." Listen, then tell your people what you heard. Stay interviews, exit interviews, and pulse checks work when you say, "We heard this. In response, we're doing this." Little things retain people. One team asked Kate to bring back Doughnut Fridays. She brought them back. Hire for culture fit. One rotten fruit in the bowl spoils the fresh fruit faster. Dr. Joey calls those team members, Eeyore Vampires. Give continuous feedback. Kate asks, "Why wait until your annual review?" Check in before anyone needs you. Kate calls her store managers so a call from HR becomes a touch point. Your Do One Thing Challenge Kate's Do One Thing (DOT) for you this week: Invest in your people. "They're gonna invest right back in you," she says. Discover which benefits your culture offers that align with your team members' values. Then use your total rewards to attract people who fit your culture. Connect with Kate Kobs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-kobs/ Kate welcomes your LinkedIn message with a question about how she leads HR. Connect with Dr. Joey Podcasts: https://workpositive.today/podcasts Newsletter: https://workpositive.today/newsletter YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@workpositive7529 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjoeyfaucette/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorkPositiveToday/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workpositive.today/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.joeyfaucette Enjoying the show? Leave a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts so more people leaders discover the Work Positive Podcast. It takes a minute and helps the whole community. Know a leader who would be a great guest? Send your recommendation to [email protected].