Leadership Levers
This podcast spotlights leaders' actions so they may enhance their organization’s performance and culture.
We feature CEOs and industry-recognized Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who share their experiences and insights on three key challenges: people, performance, and profit.
If you are a leader who wants to learn from your peers about improving performance and financial returns, please join us.
Leadership Levers
From the Bench to the Boardroom – Building Culture That Wins with Chris Teahan
What does it take to build a winning culture - on the court and in the office?
Highlights Covered
- Why process and mindset matter more than results
- How a “Pyramid of Success” model shaped team performance at KU
- The hidden cost of one bad actor on a high-performing team
- Leadership takeaway - be a star in your role, even if it’s behind the scenes
- Mindset principle: Live life in the hills and valleys, not at the peaks or the bottom
Summary
This episode explores the parallels between elite athletics and business—showing how mindset, culture, and role clarity can determine the difference between mediocrity and momentum.
Will Gladhart is joined by Chris Teahan, financial advisor at Merrill Wealth Management and former University of Kansas basketball player and NCAA national champion.
Drawing from his time competing at the highest level of college athletics, Chris shares how the lessons of team culture, role clarity, and mindset resilience have shaped his approach to business and leadership.
At Kansas, Chris and his teammates were taught to focus less on results and more on the “bottom half” of their Pyramid of Success - thinking right, acting right, and speaking right. That internal process, he explains, is where culture lives.
Chris illustrates how one toxic influence can derail even the best team, using a memorable “ice cream analogy” shared by Coach Bill Self - one bad ingredient spoils the whole. The solution? Clear expectations, shared values, and alignment around a common goal.
Today, in a demanding role where he regularly approaches high-net-worth individuals decades his senior, Chris reflects on the mindset that keeps him grounded - living in the hills and valleys instead of the highs or lows.
For leaders and teammates alike, he emphasizes the power of owning your role, leading with intention, and staying even-keeled through both rejection and success.
Connect with Chris on LinkedIn
We'd love your feedback on how we can improve - send us a Text!!
Seeking to align your culture, boost performance & impact your bottom line? Let’s chat—no sales, just real talk about your challenges.
Not ready? Join our Culture Think Tank Community for free insights!
Welcome to the Leadership Levers Podcast. I'm your host, Will Gladhart, 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. Our guest today is Chris Tehan, a financial advisor at Merrill Wealth Management. Thanks for taking the time to join us.
Chris Teahan:Hey, thank you for having me on. I'm honored to be considered a CEO, but I won't really talk too much about that, more about the leadership side and everything else. But thank you so much for having me on.
William Gladhart:Perfect. Well, let's begin by having you share with our audience a bit about yourself, your background, and not only your organization, but then I think there's some other things we're going to talk about in terms of, like sports teams, building, winning culture. We'll let you kick off and lean into that.
Chris Teahan:So obviously I'm Chris Tehan, a third year financial advisor over at Merrill Lynch. Early on in my career you know, trying to navigate, networking, client acquisition, all the fun things in life, especially as a young gentleman. But I do have a little bit of an interesting background Played sports throughout my whole life at a very, very high level. Played at Rockhurst High School football and basketball. Got some recognition there but then ended up going over to the University of Kansas and playing basketball there for five years and was on some very high level teams. My last year there we ended up winning a national championship.
Chris Teahan:So you know, there's some things that I've learned along the way that I continue to bring into my personal life and my business life about culture, the way that you attack each day with a certain mindset and just kind of you know the ebbs and flows of how life kicks you and pushes you back up and then kicks you down again. So there's some insights that I've learned that I'm very happy to share with everybody again. So there's some insights that I've learned and I'm very happy to share with everybody. I've been very transparent since my time at Gantt has been over about things that have really helped me kind of tick going forward.
William Gladhart:Absolutely so. We'll be discussing three questions today as a warm-up to start our conversation. Tell me why you believe a healthy culture is critical.
Chris Teahan:So you know, a healthy culture is basically the building blocks of a team, of a program, of a work, a business, whatever it may be. The culture that is where you live your life. You live your life not in the actions or the results that come up, but the culture is the foundation of a house. No matter what you want to build on top of it, if you have cracks in your foundation it's going to collapse at some point or there's going to be areas where you have to go back and address that, looking back in the rear view, when in reality you should be looking either in the present or into the future.
Chris Teahan:So the culture is something that I've really have tried to change in my life. I think that people think of a culture as a conglomerate, a group of people, but I think there's also culture in each and every one of us the way that you wake up in the morning, the attitude, the effort that you put towards working. You know whether it is hey, taking my daughter to a basketball game or taking your dogs on a walk. There's a culture that goes into the way that you address that, the way that you are intentionally doing that and what you're trying to get out of many things. So culture is something that I think I'm very fairly well versed in it, but you know, there's definitely the building blocks of life and that is able to propel you to do the things that you want to do Excellent.
William Gladhart:So it's been our experience that leaders tend to struggle in three key areas people, process or profits. In your role as a fellow leader, could you maybe identify which of these areas represented the greatest cultural challenge or challenges in your team environment?
Chris Teahan:I would say the people is a big one, but I would say the process is the one that you focused on the most. Once you have that process correct, that is where you can kind of propel yourself going forward. So at Kansas we had a thing called the Pyramid of Success. John Wooden had his version of it, the University of Kansas had their version of it. First couple of years when I was there, we had a struggle. There was big personalities on the team, just like you have in any big time business or family or whatever it may be. And so what we had was we had the pyramid of success, which was basically the bottom half of it, was where you lived your life, and that was acting right, speaking right and thinking right. And then the top of the pyramid was actions and results. When a lot of people look at the result of an action they think about, or the result of the action, they think about what went wrong during the action. They didn't think about what happened on the bottom half of that period or of that pyramid. So you're looking at was I communicating with my team correctly? Was my thoughts and intentions in the right place and was I actively not being selfish in any way, but making sure that all of that was working together to create the action. And once you get to the action, you've already done all the work. So I think that there's issues with obviously processing people. I think those both go hand to hand. I think they're both kind of one conglomerate.
Chris Teahan:When I was at the University of Kansas, we had the pyramid of success, which basically was there was two sides of the pyramid, there was the base and then there was the top. The top of it was the action and the result. And a lot of people live up in the top where they think that the action caused the result and that was the issue. They'll go back and think about okay, what play could I have changed in the game? What sentence could I have changed in the sales pitch? They never think about what led up to what was happening.
Chris Teahan:And at the University of Kansas, we had three things that we did, which was speaking right, acting right and thinking right. Were you communicating well? Were you communicating in a clear, concise way? Were you getting too far ahead of yourself? Were you asking too much? Were you thinking the correct way? Were you thinking, hey, here's the task ahead, here's what I need to do to get my team there? Or were you thinking about I can't wait for this to be over?
Chris Teahan:And then acting right was just the way that you treat people. There's going to be people in business that you're not going to get along with. You're going to have a team of 10 to 15 people. As much as I would like to say that I get along with every single person and every single person I've met, like me, it's not going to happen. So it's acting right, knowing that, hey, we're working towards a common goal. Between these walls, between the eight hours you're at work, between the three hours that you're at practice, are you treating these people as somebody who's on the same exact level as you, has the same exact set of values? Because, in reality, when you're working towards a common goal, that should be certain things that are there.
Chris Teahan:So we would always live our lives in the bottom half of that pyramid, when we would lose a game or have a bad season, whatever it may be. We were never looking towards what happened in the game. We were looking back to what happened in that scouting report. Was the scout team coherently working together and working together on the same page? Was practice? Was everyone putting their best effort forward. So this kind of I'll wrap this into the people part of it.
Chris Teahan:Coach Selfie could tell this great story all the time about what one bad person can do to culture. He says you're coming home from work, you get your favorite pint of ice cream, you got a gallon of ice cream, whatever your best favorite flavor is I'm a chocolate ice cream guy and you open up that pint of ice cream and there's just a tiny little piece of turd in the top right. Tiny little piece. You have a gallon of ice cream. There's a ton of space that's not being touched by this one singular turd that's in there. What do you do with the ice cream? The answer is you throw it away.
Chris Teahan:So why out of a business of 100 people if you have one or two bad eggs that can completely destroy the result, or one or two bad actions, or one or two bad communication areas that can completely destroy the result, or one or two bad actions or one or two bad communication areas that can completely destroy the result of the action? So that's something that I've always thought of. Going forward is keeping making sure that everything is on the bottom half of that period. Am I speaking right? Because in the end of it, you can't control the result in business. You can't control the fact that a small company is trying to land a big company's business and they don't have the wherewithal. But the fact that you're in that third or fourth stage of the negotiation sales, whatever it may be, that's all that matters.
William Gladhart:Right, Absolutely Well. I love that you speak about the ice cream example because it's very apropos in terms of you know, we have heard from other leaders that there was a top performer but that top performer was toxic to the whole organization and how did they go about exiting that individual? Or they had a specific process that the company had done for years but it wasn't working. But when everyone understood what the mission was or they were all on the same page, they were moving as a team and people were being communicated with, things move forward and everyone got on board really quickly. So it was that reflective that you talked about, but also the ability to be able to be moving forward and looking at other elements. Yeah, I really appreciate you sharing that and identifying that. Was there any specific challenge as you were playing on a team or that kind of negatively impacted performance or something within the organization itself?
Chris Teahan:I would say that the people part of it was probably the biggest challenge to overcome. I think that everybody in business can say that unless you're scientific or some area where you just can't figure out a certain equation, you know when you're looking at a regular business, it's usually the people that that hurts you, and it's by not having a great leader and it's also by not having the core values and a common goal to work towards and everybody knowing their role.
Chris Teahan:There was many times when I was at Kansas that seasons would be ruined very early into the season because three or four guys who were key contributors doesn't matter if they were averaging 20 points or they were on the scout team or they were needed to play five minutes a game were not playing their role. So those were things that it took a while for even Coach Self to figure out, and that's kind of why we implemented the pyramid was to make sure that, hey, everybody was on the same page. Specific examples I can't really think of one or can't really say some of the specific examples that I have, but I always would say be a star in your role, that's the most important thing. You have role players in your business, on your team and in reality, those are some of the most important people Having somebody who has a role that doesn't get the recognition it deserves. Having someone in HR, having someone who's putting together the marketing tools not the salesperson, not the person who's the front of the business, not the guy who's averaging 30 points a game, but the people in their role and having someone who takes their role as an honor and gives himself 100% to that role, knowing that when they make the ultimate goal, when they meet it, when they get there, the pie is big enough for absolutely everybody.
Chris Teahan:My role at Kansas was not to play and score that 10,000 points. When I was there, my goal was to get the scout team ready, was to watch a ton of film, make sure everybody knew exactly what they were doing and then also be a leader in an aspect that no one else would see. In the 10,000 hours 100,000 hours that I was at Kansas, no one ever saw 95% to really 90, like probably 99% of what I had done. But you know, I felt that that role was something that was valuable to my team and everything going forward.
William Gladhart:Yeah, I think that's really interesting to share and we sometimes see this in mergers and acquisitions and also private equity venture capital that sometimes there are challenges around the right people, the right fit. High growth or a quick change often causes shifts, but being intentional about people and living the values of the organization or setting those out clearly, one thing about Coach Self is he is a master at doing some of those elements and it's why you guys at the time kept going to championships and continue moving forward. It's creating that winning culture, that winning team. Chris. Anything else you'd like to add or share with fellow leaders?
Chris Teahan:I want to be as much of help as I can when I sit back and think of certain things that I've learned over the course of my time. Coming from a 25-year-old, this may not hold a ton of value, but there's certain things that I think that I've taken from what I've done, and there's one thing that I would say that everybody needs to do, or everyone needs to at least think about. If they do it and it is where do you live your life?
Chris Teahan:Do you live your life on the top of mountain peaks or do you live your life at the bottom? Both of those answers are not the best answers. You don't want to be always so high. You're going to get to a certain point where you're going to be looking over the mountains being like I conquered it, and you're going to be 45, with however many kids and whatever it may be, and you're going to think, okay, this is the peak of what's happened. Or, when you're really down on yourself, are you in the bottom of that canyon where, hey, I don't know if I can do this anymore. I'm going to give up, I'm going to quit my job, I'm going to stop doing the startup that I've dreamed of doing for so long? Or do you live your life in the hills and the valleys, and the hills and the valleys flow like this when you have a great success, it is great. Hey, take a second, congratulate yourself, take an hour, take a night, take a couple of days to sit there and really reflect on what it was that got you there. But never be. Hey, this is the almighty moment. And then also, on the downside, you never want to get too low.
Chris Teahan:I have a job where, right now. I'm a 25-year-old male who goes up to people who are 65, 50, 45, who are very high income network individuals who've worked their whole life to attain this, and my job is to get their money and bring it over to me and have me manage it. So what do you think most people's reactions are? It's no, and it's constant no, and it's constantly getting kicked down and whatever it may be and I think of that as a learning experience from my point of view getting the kick down, getting the knockdown, knowing that I can pick myself back up, but also knowing that, hey, I got that meeting. I sat there, I took something away from it. I don't think there's ever been a meeting that you've had, that I've had, or that anybody's really had, where you can walk away being like I learned absolutely nothing, even if it's hey, I'll never get in a meeting with somebody like this again, you've learned a little bit of something.
Chris Teahan:Yeah, those are some things that yeah.
William Gladhart:No, I really like that. I think that's sage advice, thinking about living in the in-between versus the super high and the super low, because I'm sure there were those experiences on the basketball team but, as you noted, also within your job role and you know, changing markets, changing environment, et cetera. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts, Chris. I've enjoyed having you on our Leadership Lovers podcast. Really appreciate your insights.
Chris Teahan:All right, Appreciate it Well. Thank you for having me on.
William Gladhart:Thank you for joining us on the Leadership Levers podcast. Find all our Leadership Lovers 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.
