Aligning Workplace Culture - Active Listening, Shared Intelligence & Intentional Leadership with Brant Lingle

Want to strengthen workplace culture and organizational performance by developing active listening skills, building shared intelligence, and improving intentional communication?

In this episode of the Leadership Levers, we are joined by Brant Lingle, Process and Strategic Consultant at Scott Hackman Ventures, to explore the intersection of leadership, culture, and performance.

Brant shares his passion for simplifying leaders’ lives by focusing on people-centric strategies, leadership development, and fostering emotional intelligence within organizations.

Brant emphasizes the critical role of a healthy workplace culture in retaining top talent, enhancing productivity, and driving profitability. Drawing from his experiences as a consultant and leader, he highlights how addressing process and communication gaps can significantly improve organizational outcomes. 

By practicing what they preach, his team uses tools and assessments to identify and address internal gaps, showcasing how thoughtful strategies can transform workplace dynamics.

A key takeaway from Brant’s interview is the power of active listening as a leadership skill. He illustrates how active listening fosters trust, collaboration, and engagement within teams - turning toxic environments into productive and supportive spaces. 

By valuing shared intelligence and creating a culture of inclusivity, leaders can build environments where employees thrive and contribute meaningfully to organizational goals.

Brant concludes with a powerful reminder that leaders’ words and actions shape culture. He urges leaders to be mindful of the messages they convey through their communication and behaviors, reinforcing the importance of intentionality in cultivating a thriving workplace.

This episode offers actionable insights for leaders seeking to strengthen culture, improve performance, and drive sustainable growth.

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Transcript

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Leadership and Organizational Change

WIlliam Gladhart 0:00

Welcome to the Leadership L Podcast . I'm your host , will Gladheart , cmo at the Culture Think Tank . At the Culture Think Tank , we empower leaders with metrics that strengthen culture , drive performance and return . We're here today to learn about the actions leaders have taken to address organizational change . Today , our guest is Brant Lingle , process and Strategic Consultant at Scott Hackman Ventures . Thanks so much for taking the time to join us .

WIlliam Gladhart 0:33

You're welcome , will , glad to be here .

WIlliam Gladhart 0:35

Excellent . Well , let's start today by having you share with us and our audience a bit about yourself , your background and your organization .

Brant Lingle 0:43

Absolutely . Yeah , again , Brant Lingle , I love making leaders' lives a little easier . That's kind of what really motivates me . Then most of my workday collaborating with executives , c-suite folk , business owners , senior managers , and really kind of focusing in on the people side of business so my background has been an executive leader myself - so my background has been an executive leader myself .

Brant Lingle 1:06

A lot of my work has been in nonprofit and organizational leadership been served on boards , helped build boards , and really I kind of was thinking about the other day in terms of management , like since day one I had people reporting to me and so just to learn a lot through those experiences plenty of bumps in the road , mistakes I've made , that I've learned from and I like to just offer to people that I work with , whether it's consulting , coaching , advising or on strategy or on process . Again , most of that has to do with people , leadership development , and that's really what our company , skyhack Adventures , is all about . We train , we coach , we consult , all on business strategy , the people side , a lot of emotional intelligence , kind of language and culture , things that we talk about . Yeah , so that's a little bit about me and what I do day to day and what I love about it .

WIlliam Gladhart 1:56

Perfect . Well , we'll be discussing three questions today as a warm up to our conversation . Would you share why you believe a healthy culture is critical ?

Brant Lingle 2:07

Yeah , what , as I mentioned earlier like one of my driving passions or my why is to make leaders' lives a little easier , and the reason is because , if you look , if their lives are a little easier , they'll do their job of the leader a little bit better . The organization will just kind of function and work a little bit better .

Brant Lingle 2:23

I really feel like workplaces shouldn't be terrible .

Brant Lingle 2:26

I think they should be a place where people feel they can thrive , they're energized , they enjoy what they do .

Brant Lingle 2:33

It doesn't mean there's not challenges or headaches or frustration , but it's just like it shouldn't be a place that makes people like , oh , I hate my job , I hate where I work , I hate the people I work with , that kind of thing . Because I just feel like we're at a point now where organizations can really be exceptional and really invest into people to grow and almost develop , even as humans as well . So I think a lot of that has to do with culture . I think it's a pretty known statistic that most people quit their manager or boss and quit because the culture of the workplace is horrible . Those are some of the primary reasons , and so I just really feel like having a healthy culture keeps you in business , keeps top talent part of your team , helps you to grow . There's obviously a profitability aspect that comes with healthy culture and at the end of the day , you're helping humans in your organization become even better humans when there's good culture . So to me it's essential .

WIlliam Gladhart 3:33

Yeah , no , I love that you touch on kind of that whole human approach but also the value of guiding and developing your human capital assets in the organization . And I think we've all probably had that one instance or job where we had to stand outside for 90 seconds and convince ourselves to walk in the organization . And I think we've all probably had that one instance or job where we had to stand outside for 90 seconds and convince ourselves to walk in the door , so which is terrible , but also I think , a lot of leaders or even C-suite individuals can relate to that .

WIlliam Gladhart 3:57

So we'll begin with question one . It's the kind of experience that leaders tend to struggle in three key areas people , process or profits , or sometimes interchangeably . In your role as a consultant , but also as a leader , could you identify one of these areas that presented a challenge within your organization or how you went about solving that ?

Brant Lingle 4:16

Yeah , I'll kind of maybe mention kind of two aspects . One in the organization . So I'm part of a consulting firm , Scott Hackman Ventures , and we have had process challenges and I'll kind of share a little bit of how we went about resolving that . But we have different personalities on the team obviously . We're people experts . We've all taken DISC and Hogan and predictive index and working genes . We use a lot of these assessments for our clients .

Brant Lingle 4:43

So we kind of like really work with practice , what we preach , so to speak , and we've just kind of recognized the time we have a process gap . So one quick example that is , we did working genius with one of our consultants who's certified , and our whole team did it and we talked we have a galvanizing gap . So we like to discern things and ideate and we come up . We can talk all day long about all the great things we do or could do , but moving into , okay , let's we kind of ideated and discerned this to death , let's say where's the galvanizing opportunity ? How do we move this forward in a way that is productive ? So that's one example that we've used internally .

Brant Lingle 5:30

And then I would say , with most of the time we're brought into organization , we come in through the C-suite typically the CEO , the COO , the CHRO VP of people and culture , something like that and they just recognize that they either are either having a leadership challenge or they're wanting to recognize that if we really invest in our human capital , invest in developing our people , we'll grow . It's almost like if we're not doing that , it could hold us back in terms of growth , and so we'll come in in , help , do a lot of assessments , especially around leadership personality teams , and then we'll help them identify where the gaps . A lot of times there's communication gaps . It's so easy to create misunderstandings on a day-to-day basis and so we'll help them minimize those gaps and notice how they're either getting in the way of productivity , getting in the way of profitability , and so that's a lot of the work that we do within a client system .

WIlliam Gladhart 6:26

Yeah , I love that you touch on that , looking at kind of the process and operational piece but also bridging that gap over into the people , performance and profit area , because it's really important not only to keep the people but the people that are driving your productivity . How do you continue to improve that ? And , like yourself , we find the breakdown in communication often happens across the board . Micromanaging sneaks in because of either personality or leadership styles and or trade gaps . So it really is a I like that you really take , kind of , like ourselves , a more holistic , balanced approach . You kind of identified a couple of those different challenges and how they both impacted yours and other organizations . Could you maybe share like kind of the one thing that you identified in a lot of your work that really helped impact a culture or performance positively ?

Brant Lingle 7:20

Yeah , the number one leadership skill that's necessary . I said in 2024 , but now it's going to be 2025

The Impact of Active Listening

Brant Lingle 7:27

.

Brant Lingle 7:27

Active listening across the board . Active listening and what I'm finding Will - when we do training on it . We might have a whole day workshop , we might cover all kinds of topics . That's the one that people can easily remember . They know how to work on it . It keeps coming up . That's what I'm noticing . We'll check in 30 days , 90 days , and it keeps coming . We hear feedback . Yeah , my active listening , I've been working on it .

Brant Lingle 7:52

Here's how and when people practice active listening , it has an immediate impact to improve the feel in the moment and that can get contagious . So typically , what will happen is if you're practicing active listening with me , what do I feel , what do I experience ? We're really focused on what is the impact or experience that you have that you create , in other words , what's their experience ? And we often ask that question to leaders . I'm not sure how do you know , but this is what happens when someone's doing active listening . The other person that they feel heard , obviously right , they feel valued because you , you pay the and like , you engage and just want , like , huh or just like ignore or just move on , and they also feel understood . And I think when humans have that experience , they hey , they want more of it , like , but they also reverse engineers . That conundrum that you said like 90 seconds at the door , maybe I don't really want to walk into the place today . Right , it creates more of like . I'm looking forward to it because my teammates you know , they listen to me Like , we work together , we collaborate .

Brant Lingle 8:56

I had a manager at a client that we work with . We did training on active listening , intelligence , things like that , and he maybe said six months ago before you guys were here , whenever we were in a management team meeting and how we problem solved , we just yelled each other , we fought , we competed . It was like we just . It wasn't very productive and it was frustrating and it just felt like a waste of time and we didn't really solve problems , we just fought . You know kind of idea . He said now what we do is we come to solutions much quicker , we listen to each other better , it's much smoother , more efficient , it's just more of a pleasant experience and it just feels better .

WIlliam Gladhart 9:40

And it was just really cool to see like they were really implementing active listening as a resource and a tool that they could use . Yeah , I love that you bring that up and also share from the perspective of what was happening before . There was knowledge of active listening and better communication to the results of the better outcomes of that , and we've heard frequently managers , upper-level managers , supervisors , et cetera , go well , I'm not a therapist , I don't have to know or do these things , but that's different than engaging , the active listening , having empathy , understanding that you don't have to solve the problem , but simply listening may alleviate some of the anxiety , may improve wellbeing and generally can give you insights into how to better manage and help that individual .

Brant Lingle 10:24

Yeah , absolutely . I mean we'll say that all the time . We'll say we're not therapists I mean , my wife actually is , so I know what that is and I know that's not what I do and I have obviously a high respect for it . But I think , yeah , it's like what happens when there's that kind of listening environment , like it really takes into consideration the whole person , it really creates more of that like belonging type of environment , inclusive , Like we're . You know you are a part of the team , You're , you're an important part of the team .

Brant Lingle 10:57

One of the terms that we'll talk about sometimes is shared intelligence . No one person has all the right answers or all the best ideas . You know . Sometimes , especially in a leadership role , you can have the misnomer that somehow I have to always know what to do . I always have to be the one to save the day , come up with a solution . Shared intelligence is like look , here's the situation . We need a little bit , we need different perspectives so we can collectively come up with the best idea . That doesn't mean everything's a vote or you always ask everyone's opinion on every issue . I'm not saying that . But you really are bringing about , like that idea of shared intelligence and you know just some of those values that we bring in , how , the way we do our work . We see more and more like the clients that we work with . They start to adopt those kinds of practices , those habits , those mindsets , those values and it's like their cultural impact and health of it just continues to increase . And it's like their cultural impact and help of it just continues to increase .

WIlliam Gladhart 11:50

Yeah , we've heard a lot from leaders that have stepped into challenging situations , challenging organizations . They may have been the change agent , turnaround people and with that , listening , engaged and involved , has been a driver of change but also has helped people actually ask better questions , step up , move the needle forward . And so it's been interesting to observe that , and so I love that you really focus on , kind of , some of those elements of the cultural space . So , as we wrap up , is there anything else you'd like to add or share with fellow leaders ?

Brant Lingle 12:23

Just one other aspect . It's a little bit of maybe reverse engineering the act of listening , but we'll often train , especially senior leaders . Your words create culture . So the language that you use , the word , the way you respond or don't respond , like just that creates culture , whether you like it or not . So consider , what kind of culture are you creating , do you want to create , and what kind of language and words and kind of almost even tone and body , all those pieces like it really does have an impact . And so what is it that you're creating ? What do you want to create ? Get feedback on , is that actually being created ? So just kind of that whole idea of like , whenever you speak , you are creating culture . As a leader , be mindful of the culture you are creating .

WIlliam Gladhart 13:07

Yeah , I love that thought , Brant . I've enjoyed having you on our Leadership Levers podcast . Thank you again for your insights .

Brant Lingle 13:14

Absolutely . Thanks , Will , for having me . Great to have the conversation together and really encourage all leaders out there to continue to produce healthy culture in your organization .

WIlliam Gladhart 13:26

Thank you for joining us on the Leadership Levers podcast . Find all our Leadership Levers episodes on the Culture Think Tank website at www . theculturethinktank . com or listen on your favorite streaming platform . We'd love to hear from you about the challenges you have faced as a leader . Tune in weekly as we invite leaders to share their experiences in strengthening culture and performance , one action at a time .