Dr. Katie Ervin's Blueprint For Building Profitable Organizational Cultures
Oct 31, 2023
William Gladhart
Can a thriving culture revolutionize your workplace and skyrocket profits?
Dr. Katie Ervin, CEO of Catalyst Development, is our guest as we unearth the secrets to creating a robust foundation that can transform your organization's culture.
Dr. Ervin, equipped with experience from corporate HR and higher ed administration, provides a compelling narrative on how a healthy culture is comparable to the foundation of a house....without it, everything can topple.
Don't miss her surprising financial figures and cultural research about the positive impact of investing in culture, as well as a discussion about the challenge of cultural change - particularly leaders' struggles with self-awareness and vulnerability.
In any cultural scenario, leaders must adapt and evolve like never before. Dr. Ervin offers practical advice on embracing feedback and fostering a growth mindset, guiding leaders through these challenges.
Our conversation showcases the importance of collaboration, team building, and ensuring everyone, even the most disagreeable employee, has a voice at the table.
This episode is a goldmine of advice for building a strong and healthy culture that boosts morale and profits.
Seeking to discover additional insights on how to strengthen your company culture, improve performance & impact your company's bottom line? Book a time to chat with us. No sales, no strings...just a candid conversation about company culture.
Can a thriving culture revolutionize your workplace and skyrocket profits?
Dr. Katie Ervin, CEO of Catalyst Development, is our guest as we unearth the secrets to creating a robust foundation that can transform your organization's culture.
Dr. Ervin, equipped with experience from corporate HR and higher ed administration, provides a compelling narrative on how a healthy culture is comparable to the foundation of a house....without it, everything can topple.
Don't miss her surprising financial figures and cultural research about the positive impact of investing in culture, as well as a discussion about the challenge of cultural change - particularly leaders' struggles with self-awareness and vulnerability.
In any cultural scenario, leaders must adapt and evolve like never before. Dr. Ervin offers practical advice on embracing feedback and fostering a growth mindset, guiding leaders through these challenges.
Our conversation showcases the importance of collaboration, team building, and ensuring everyone, even the most disagreeable employee, has a voice at the table.
This episode is a goldmine of advice for building a strong and healthy culture that boosts morale and profits.
Seeking to discover additional insights on how to strengthen your company culture, improve performance & impact your company's bottom line? Book a time to chat with us. No sales, no strings...just a candid conversation about company culture.
Welcome to the Leadership Levers podcast. I'm your host, Will Gladhart, ceo of Connect2Metrics. At Connect2Metrics, we help organizations strengthen their culture, one action at a time. We're here today to learn about the actions leaders have taken to address cultural change. Our guest today is Dr Katie Irvin, the CEO of Catalyst Development. Thanks so much for making time to join us today.
Dr. Katie Ervin:
Thanks for having me. I'm excited for this.
William Gladhart:
Excellent. I thought we would start by having you share with our audience a bit about yourself and your background.
Dr. Katie Ervin:
I always like to tell people it's been a windy, interesting road. So I spent 14 years in corporate HR. S my undergrad is Sociology and Psychology, and my master's is Human Resources Development. And did 14 years of corporate HR and was like I don't want to do this. I don't care about all of the minutiae that HR has and I love HR people like they're my heart than where I started my company, the reason why but it's just HR.
Dr. Katie Ervin:
People know you're wearing 80 hats and doing so much, so left HR and went into higher ed administration. It's been another 12 years in higher ed administration and during that time finished my doctorate in adult education leadership. And while I was in higher ed the world just kept pulling me over to leadership skill development. And over the last five or six years I've served on a lot of committees in Kansas City where people talk about the skill gap in Kansas City and there's a workforce skills gap and I knew I had tools to fill that gap and so about 16 months ago I started Catalyst Development, which is a leadership skill building company. So I tell people we're not consultants, you're business partners. If you want someone to come in and tell you why you should be a leader, buy a book, but if you want someone to come in and really do impactful leadership skill building, then Catalyst is your company.
William Gladhart:
That's really cool. Thank you so much for sharing that. You definitely sit in an interesting role because you're the partner to leaders, but also you and you are a leader of a team of people as well, and I think you'll have some very interesting insights to share with us. Today we'll We'll be discussing three questions. So, as a warm up to start our conversation, would you share while you believe a healthy culture is critical?
Dr. Katie Ervin:
Yeah, I mean to me. I always talk about the workplace as a house and healthy culture. Culture in general is the foundation of the house, and so if you don't have a strong foundation to build on, then everything else will eventually crumble. And there's so much research out there that tells you the importance of culture, and the one I always go back to with my clients is Deloitte did a research study that if you invest in your culture, your profits will go up over three years 587%, Like. If that's not.
William Gladhart:
It's shocking, it's amazing.
Dr. Katie Ervin:
I know it's like I love when clients say we don't have a budget or time for that and I'm like, oh, let's talk about some numbers, but more importantly, like, forget the numbers of it all, just from the human value point of view, like to have a healthy culture. People will want to be there. So my doctoral research is workplace motivation, employee satisfaction. So how do we create an environment where people will be more productive and more happier and more loyal and get more done? And it's rooted in having a strong culture. If you have a strong culture, people will want to be there and they will invest in your organization.
William Gladhart:
So let's begin with question one. What do you see as the biggest challenge leadership faces for cultural change within any organization, or maybe even specifically your own?
Dr. Katie Ervin:
I think the biggest challenge is self-awareness and the fear of being vulnerable. When we talk about culture in the workplace, it's really everybody's responsibility and everybody's job, but I feel sometimes those in the executive chairs or other leadership roles they take it personally when there is a culture problem in the organization. I used to work for a higher-end institution and I would say look, I wish this was hyperbole, but we are in a culture crisis. Here's the quotes that people are saying each day about this organization. The president of the university is like that's not true, that's not true, that's not true. And it's like look, I'm not saying this about you. I'm not telling you you're about later. I'm just saying that the organization is in crisis and we need to come together to pull it together. I think too often, leaders will take it personally when we talk about an unhealthy culture. As leaders, what we really need to do is say, okay, why is it unhealthy? And let's move forward to fix it and not take it so personally.
William Gladhart:
Thank you for sharing that. I love that you highlight self-awareness and being open and vulnerable to those critiques and criticisms that may come from staff, because they're ultimately the voice of the organization. Leaders can't be blind and or unaware to that, and helping people feel that they've been understood, heard and listened to, which is absolutely critical. I'm glad you identified those challenges. What do you think leaders can do to address the challenges in this capacity that they're facing?
Dr. Katie Ervin:
Leaders need to celebrate when your people complain, when your people say, hey, here's the problems, instead of shutting it down, instead of denying it, leaders should really celebrate, because it's when they get quiet that we really should worry. Leaning into the struggles, leaning into the feedback, leaning into the willingness to share, I think is so important, really shifting to a growth mindset. When they give you that feedback, okay, that is fantastic. How can we grow? How can we get better? Then, building strong teams around that. Leaders in title don't have to do all of the work. When we really empower our people, when we support them to help make change and to bring about culture or strong culture in the organization, they're going to buy in more. When we allow them to be a part of the conversation, they're going to be more vocal.
Dr. Katie Ervin:
I tell people all the time I love going i next to the grouchiest person in the room, the person that is the biggest complainer, the person that is the most negative to me. I love that person because once we get them on board, you're looking at everyone else. You're like what's a safe name? Mildred's on board, why aren't you on board? She complains about everything, figuring out that loudest voice, that grouchiest person and getting them on board, hearing their problems. It's such a gift. But so often I've seen leaders say we don't want that person on this committee because they'll derail things. Well, you better have them on the committee, you better have the voice in there, because they're going to derail it afterwards if they're not a part of the solution.
William Gladhart:
Absolutely. Well, yeah, why go to all the work and then have the one employee that has the loudest voice who's not bought in, that the leader doesn't feel is worthy of having a voice, and then it continues that underrunning current of dissension within the organization and changes hard. Cultural change is even harder because it's a process. It's over time. I love that you point out that it's important to collaborate to build that team, that the leader doesn't have to do it alone and it's not personal. So what really cool insights. Is there anything else you'd like to share or add to a culture or leadership challenge, or any advice you'd have for leaders?
Dr. Katie Ervin:
I love this question because, as leaders, we think we have to know it all, be it all, do it all when we don't. And first of all, what does even it all mean? I just did a keynote recently and it was like you remember back when we were young in our career and we're like we want it all, and then it's like, what's that even mean? And then what do we have to sacrifice to have it all? But I would say to leaders don't stop growing, don't stop learning, don't stop that process.
Dr. Katie Ervin:
And so too often we get comfortable in our leadership seats and think that that we're there, and so we stop our own personal growth, we stop remembering what it was like to be in those chairs, and so we start then unintentionally doing the things that we hated when people did to us, and it's just we lose sight and we lose touch. And so stay in touch, be involved, keep people involved. You know, if you work in a brick and mortar situation, walk the floor, see your people, be engaged, find out what they want, because if not, they're going to leave you. They're going to leave you for a healthier culture, and I just think that's I think that's the most important is to just keep growing.
William Gladhart:
And I love you point that out because at this point in time at least, juncture in the workforce, we hear it from everywhere workforce, workforce talent, workforce skills, workforce leadership. What's lacking in the environment presently, today? And it all stems from communication and culture and deficit of leadership or not understanding how to lead. You know, I have a feeling you're going to be very busy and continue to be busy at Catalyst. So any other parting final thoughts, or else we can just wrap up.
Dr. Katie Ervin:
I will say it, exactly what you said. There is just such an opportunity from my research that I did five years ago, the desire to belong, the desire to have the skills, the desire to have the autonomy that I found in my research is actually more powerful now since the pandemic. And so, as leaders, lean into that, give into that, don't shy away from that, because it's just really going to make you a force to be reckoned with as an organization and increase it raises your profits when you pay attention to all those other things.
William Gladhart:
Dr Irvin, I've enjoyed having you on today. Thank you so much for your insights.
Dr. Katie Ervin:
Thank you.
William Gladhart:
Thank you for joining the leadership levers podcast. You may find all our leadership levers episodes on our website at connect, the number two metricscom forward slash podcast. Tune in weekly as we invite leaders to share their experiences in strengthening culture, one action at a time.