From Factory Floor to Executive Suite - Culture Lessons on Belonging, Commitment & Ownership with Billy Ray Taylor

If you make people visible, they will make your culture valuable!

Our guest is Billy Ray Taylor, CEO of LinkedXL and author of The Winning Link.
He joins us to chat about how the physical presence and actions of the leader outweigh material gifts or billboard slogans in establishing meaningful connections with any workforce.

In his journey from the factory floor to the executive suite then business owner, Billy Ray discovered critical culture tenants built on helping all employees feel a strong sense of belonging, commitment to the company, and job accountability/ ownership - all elements of a healthy culture!  

Billy Ray discusses his experience as a young leader when he struggled to implement cultural change -  attempting to make changes "to the people, not with the people."
He learned quickly that providing the reasons for change with structure, clarity, specificity, next steps and continuously requesting feedback from staff - changes occurred "with people;" employees felt empowered to help facilitate critical next steps. 
 
Tune in to discover the secrets behind creating a workplace where employees don't just show up — they belong and help implement change.

Connect with Billy Ray on LinkedIn

Book on Amazon: The Winning Link -A Proven Process to Define, Align, and Execute Strategy at Every Level

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Transcript

William Gladhart: 0:00

Welcome to the Leadership Levers podcast. I'm your host, Will Gladhart, CMO at The Culture Think Tank. Our Culture Think Tank community is committed to advancing workplace culture and well-being. We're a virtual hub for authors, investors, leaders, managers and employees worldwide to connect, engage in candid discussions, share ideas and explore resources for cultivating a healthy work environment. We're here today to learn about the actions leaders have taken to address cultural change. Our guest today is Billy Ray Taylor, CEO and founder of LinkedXL. Thanks for taking the time to join us.

Billy Ray Taylor: 0:39

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to engage with you.

William Gladhart: 0:42

Perfect. I thought we would start by having you share with our audience a bit about yourself, your organization and your background.

Billy Ray Taylor: 0:49

Yes, one again, thanks for having me. Actually, I spent 30 years with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and so I started as a third shift supervisor. So, thinking once I had an electrical engineering degree, instead of going to engineering, I went to the back shifts for about six to 12 years and then ended up leading North America, so worked my way up understanding the people aspect of it and that's what I really learned around, just operational excellence. So after running North American operations for 30 years I retired and so a lot of the practices we had built along the way I was going to write a book, which I wrote called the Winning Link.

Billy Ray Taylor: 1:29

But I had friends that were leading companies in Australia, they're PPG and so I actually would go in just to help them on a friend-to-friend basis, and what we saw is seeing the tangible results. So how do you define a line and execute winning? And so from that started a company called Linked XL where I was the founder and CEO, and what we do now is architect the operating. And so we go in and help companies architect and build their own system using those core principles of operational excellence in Toyota.

William Gladhart: 1:59

Excellent. Well, I'm really looking forward to the discussion today. We'll be discussing three questions as a warm-up to start our conversation. Would you share why you believe a healthy culture is critical?

Billy Ray Taylor: 2:09

Well, I think culture is that sense of belonging, and if you think of, you cannot outsource commitment, you cannot outsource accountability, you cannot outsource ownership. Culture brings all those things together, it governs those things, and so without those three components, your probability of success is very low, right? People don't feel committed, people don't feel engaged, they don't know what they own. And so I think culture, when you talk about it, in itself wow, and in some cases you can't define it, but you can see it, you know what it looks like, you know what it feels like.

Billy Ray Taylor: 2:47

But, some people say, hey, we have a great culture on the bulletin board, but when you get in there it's not that.

William Gladhart: 2:53

That's a great point. So what do you see? You've worked in a whole variety of industries. You work with a lot of different clients. What do you see as the biggest challenge leaders face when addressing cultural change within an organization? Or, from your personal background, what were some of those challenges you faced?

Billy Ray Taylor: 3:09

I can give you an example. When I was a young manager and I had the title, I had this conversation with a friend last night. I'm all of 27. And I'm going in this organization, right, and I'm talking change, we're going to do change, and I failed miserably. And why did I fail?

Billy Ray Taylor: 3:25

So one of the things that I see is a struggle that people struggle with is they go in and do change to the people, not with the people. And what I've realized is in the successes I've had, not once did I have total resistance to change. When it was done with them, they on board it, they embraced it. But whenever I did change to them, it was an uphill battle. And so, being specific, what has changed with them versus to them?

Billy Ray Taylor: 3:52

Right, it's when I do the strategy, I get your voice, I give them a structure, I get your voice. I don't always agree with everything you're bringing to the table, but we come to a consensus is this is the best way to go forward? And they still feel that they had a voice at the table. You asked the union leader. I remember inviting him into my strategic planning meeting and I said to him I need your help, jim Wansley, I need your help. And he says in 30 years no one ever asked me for help, they never asked my opinion, and so that itself broke down the wall of me fighting with union reps or me fighting with hourly people. It was our strategy.

William Gladhart: 4:30

I really like that and you've kind of touched on our second question. But, as you noted, asking someone for help, asking for their buy-in, asking for their commitment what do you think leaders can do to address those cultural challenges they're facing? And you gave an example, but if you have another, I'd love to hear one. What have you done?

Billy Ray Taylor: 4:49

To create that culture, I think you have to have structure. And one of my friends, actually, he was leading one of my plants at one time and he was a head financial person and we moved him to a plant manager role. Very charismatic, very articulate, but what he did was he talked to me about structure, environment and capability. He says, Billy, those for me, what I've seen in operations tend to be missing. Leaders don't tend to focus on structure, environment and capability. Those components shape your culture. And so what I meant, what I mean now the example, is structure.

Billy Ray Taylor: 5:26

What's your daily management system? What's that system going to govern everything you do and foster repeatability, deliberate practice where you're doing it. Repeatable. People see you walking in your gimbal walk, people see the strategy in action. Environment it's that point where there's scoreboards, where people own what they run, own what they do, because sometimes accountability is a bad word. When I say to you, okay, william, you are accountable to the liberal results and to meet this quota every day you are accountable, you're like, oh, but if I say, listen you, you own the results, what do you need from me Now? You kind of lean into that and so that part of it, that environment, that is psychologically safe to engage in capability, I mean. That speaks for itself.

William Gladhart: 6:20

I love that you shared some of those specific components around the like. You mentioned that thread of buy-in, the accountability, helping people grasp ownership, but also helping them feel like they are really part of the journey in the next step. So are there any other thoughts or parting ideas you'd like to share with other leaders?

Billy Ray Taylor: 6:42

Yeah, and, as a leader, it's not your opinion that really matters, more so the people that you're leading, right? I say make people visible, that'll make you valuable, right? And so it's just like when I go into a hotel or check into a hotel, I look at the badge and I call the person by their name when I leave and say thank you, leave them for my key, thank you. And when I come back, they say hello, hello, billy, hello, mr Taylor, welcome back. That's that mutual value proposition. But, more importantly though, think about it Make people visible, they'll make you value.

Billy Ray Taylor: 7:19

What do you crave more than anything in relationships? Jobs that you feel value. And so leaders may think I'm the leader. I don't have to speak. Well, I had the two foot rule you give. Within two feet of me. I said hello every time. If we make the Billy Taylor two foot rule, hi, that changed everything for me, especially in just being transparent. People put a lot of focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and it's really been authentic and comfortable who you are, and so, when I went into these places as a minority leader, that in itself changed the way I showed up, when I started saying hi, how are you doing? Hi, I'm Billy, good to see you that make people visible. They would stop me. Mr Taylor, can I show you this? Mr Taylor, can I talk to you? And so that's important. Leaders, your presence is more important than your presence. Parents, your presence is more important than your presence.

William Gladhart: 8:16

Okay, I love that. I think if many of us not only an organization has been in life practice the Billy Taylor two foot rule, we probably would all be a lot happier. So, Billy, thank you for joining us on our Leadership Lovers podcast. I've enjoyed your insights.

Billy Ray Taylor: 8:33

Thank you for having me again. It's been my pleasure.

William Gladhart: 8:36

Thank you for joining us on the Leadership Levers podcast. You may find all our Leadership Levers episodes in our Culture Think Tank Community at w ww. culturethinktank. ai. Join the community at no charge and tune in weekly as we invite leaders to share their experience and strengthen culture, one action at a time.