Hello, everyone. Welcome to Real Talk with Tia and Jill. We are so happy to have you today on Monday morning. Yes, thank you for kicking off your week with us. Yes, yes. And if you are new here with us, welcome. Welcome to Real Talk by Catalyst Food Leaders. This is where we have honest conversations to lead people forward in food. So I am Tia. This is Jill. And today's episode is all about six shifts food leaders can't ignore in twenty twenty six. Yeah, I'm really excited about this because I think when we're in the food industry, we get so caught up in just the day to day trying to get everything done that sometimes we need just this moment to pause and look like at the bigger picture. Like what's happening? What do we need to consider in the next six months, twelve months? And going into the new year is a great time to do it. Of course it is. It just goes together. It does. I think as we think about just the different labor dynamics we're having, leadership demands, like you said, we have a lot going on. We need to stop and pause and think about how do we lead differently so we can move forward and do things differently in twenty twenty six so that like most people, right, we get to the end of the year and we're like we're in the same spot we were in at the beginning of the year or we haven't made the type of progress that we hoped we would make. Yeah, and I think this is all about, it's also about business risk. Because when we think about hiring talent, retaining talent, growing talent, like these aren't just trends that are, ooh, that's cool to have and kind of flashy and shiny object over there. But these are the things when you think about how do I build my team? How do I be a better business partner? These are the things that flow into it. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Absolutely. So we're talking about that today, right? Like what are some things as a leader as you prepare to go into the new year? What are six, we just have six top things, right, to kind of think about as you prepare for the new year? yeah absolutely so are we gonna dive right in yeah let's dive let's dive right in typically we have a what's trending topic but i did not do one this week so it's okay because these are trending all six of these right exactly exactly so we'll jump right into our topic which really the first shift is really around belonging and the fact that belonging is a business strategy It is, you know, we talk about this all the time. Like, how do you create safe spaces? How do you make sure people feel like they matter and they're heard? But to think about this as an actual strategy is next level. Yeah, it really is. And I feel like the organizations that get this right, they're not complaining about retention the way that the rest of the industry is, right? They're not complaining about not having the right talent. They have the right plans in place, right? People stay because they feel like that they belong there. Yeah, not trying to compare like your work team to a family team, because that's not my favorite analogy when people talk about where like why you show up to work. But I'm going to play on the whole part about right. They always say in a family, there's like the black sheep, you know, the person who's kind of like on the outs that doesn't really belong. They don't get to be included. They're not in the fold. They're not thought of. They don't feel like they matter. You don't want people on your team to feel like that. Right. Because the people who are together are the ones who are willing to pitch in. They're excited. Not maybe every day, but they are like, we're in this like we're committed yeah and think about like the people just thinking about you know i'm the black sheep of the family or people feel like they're the black sheep of the family like they're not as engaged right they're not as engaged they're not you know making the holiday list they're not going shopping they're not they show up when they feel like they must in that right they don't add to the dynamic um and that's not really what you want on the team No, and I think this is one of those things this year has really gotten some attention in the news and in the U.S. here in the administration because there's been a lot around DEI that has been shifting. But even though DEI is shifting, like what I would love people to take away is it's evolving. Like DEI and belonging are like peanut butter and jelly together. And the more you can think about how these all fit together, this is what... this is what creates magic in your team. When you don't have everybody who looks the same, thinks the same, does everything the same. Like having people belong is powerful. And I think the foundations of diversity, equity, and inclusion has been here for a long time. And organizations that value it and that have actually invested in it, they see the benefits of it as a business strategy, right? And it is a part of their business strategy and growth. Because here's the thing, we sell food to everyone. Right. And it's important. It's those things that are important. And belonging is something that started to come up even being, you know, becoming a part of the acronym of DEIB. And it's because of exactly what you're talking about, where when people feel like that they belong, cultures thrive. And not just I'm here, I want to be here, but they're engaged. They are having conversations and you actually get better business results when people feel like that they that they belong. And so you're right. I think it evolves over the years. Someone had said, you know, I think it was actually I think it was Larry Keener. If anyone knows, knows Larry. If you don't, then you should. um look him up um but he kind of talks about how um dei has how it evolves like every twenty years or so um and a lot of it is being driven by um by politics um but what we see is that element on the end of it it comes back different but it comes back stronger because really businesses see it as valuable because they need their cultures to survive, right? Like they need people to feel like that they belong because they need people to show up, right? They need people to show up at work. Yeah. In fact, you know, we have a stat here. Harvard Business Review says that studies show teams with high belonging see a fifty six percent increase in job performance and a fifty percent reduction in turnover. That's pretty significant in this industry where we've been plagued with turnover. Yes. I mean, just imagine if you had a fifty percent reduction in turnover. Most people listening will be like, yes, I will take that any day. Because like you said, turnover has plagued really the industry over the last few years. Right. But even just the increase in job performance too, right? The people you already have here all do more together. Yes. Like you don't need to go hire more people. You don't need different systems. You just need to leverage the people that you have. And I like to say, right, like that takes leadership skill to be able to do that, to be able to connect with people and build that trust and build the safe spaces. yeah so you know i think as if i'm you know being in the seat that i'm a leader and if you're in the food industry you're a leader regardless of the seat you're in but you know it really may be beneficial for you to think about like what systems or behaviors in your company or in what you're doing are making people feel like they belong or don't um yeah That's a really good question, right, to think about. And as you go into twenty twenty six, ask yourself that question. Right. Explore it and sit with it and really explore, you know, what systems I like. I like to the way you put it, what systems, you know, or behavior. So it might be your behavior or might be a system that you're upholding. Mm hmm. Yep. Pause and think about belonging. Yes. Yes. The first shift. Yep. The second shift is. The rise of intentional generous generalist. I know that's a mouthful, isn't it? Yeah. You know, I think this one is really powerful as well, because especially in our area, you know, right. We've spent a lot of time in food safety and quality and it seems like. In the food industry, people like to be kind of like hyper specialized. Yes. Like I do this and I do it really well. And I know all the things about this one thing. But as a leader, and I think this is one of the challenges that we see in functional areas of food, I'm not going to pick on just food safety and quality. But we know our area so well that we need to really be intentional about looking at other areas and understanding, once again, how do we fit as business partners? Yes. Because it's not about us. It's about everybody. That's such a good point. When I think about different cultures, you know, the cultures that struggle are more in silos, right? They really don't collaborate as well across the aisles, right? In other places where, like you said, they're really focused on this is what I do, right? Like even as we think about, you know, some clients that we work with, if we walk in and people are like, this is mine, that's not mine. We automatically see, okay, there's some collaboration issues happening on the team and across functions because people feel this is mine, right? I'm going to keep this. This is yours. You go and do that. Yeah. You know, and I think it's also important to not mistake this for understanding your responsibilities. These are two different things, right? The things that you're responsible for are, you do need to hang on to. Those are your things. You are accountable for those. You're responsible for getting those done. This is that next level of like, of how you work together, of how you view yourself. your work integrating with others or understanding its impact across functions. So this intentional generalist is someone who has that vision, who has the ability to step back and go, how does this impact in other places? And like you said, you're able to lead at a different level. It reminds me of, I don't know why I knew so much about our warehouse management system back But quality is really connected to it. It's the way that, you know, we put product on hold and how we release and all all those type of things. And I remember we had someone in our supply chain team or logistics team, and she was walking through, like, how does the warehouse management system works? And we were kind of talking about it and she was explaining it wrong. And I said, I said. I don't think that's the way it works. It works this way. Let me show you. And I actually taught her how to use the system in a way. And she's like, oh, oh, OK. I didn't realize that. But for me, it's really important that she knew how to use the system from a food safety and quality standpoint. But it allowed me to be able to lead in a different way, a different person. right in a different space um and now right like we have this commonality we're able to talk she's able to ask me more questions because she knows i will help her along the way and so even when we think about this sense of belonging and being able to collaborate across silos no making sure that you can reach across the aisle whether it's learning about different things whether it's listening to different conversations whether it's being curious about what's happening It allows you to lead in a very different way when you know just a little bit to have conversations. You know, and I think, you know, we have a big audience that's food safety quality professionals. And one of the things that I always talked with our teams and even our clients about is we are, if you're in this function, you're in a unique position because a lot of what you do does already touch other areas. Yes, it does. So that's pretty amazing in itself. And we know that's a, big load to carry. So in twenty twenty six, when you think about like, how does this apply for you? You think about where are the spaces that you maybe are like, oh, we're checking the boxes, getting things done as I work across teams. Where are spots where you can pause and go, hmm, am I inviting people in? How how am I making sure people know that they matter in this space versus like that's just their job to do it? that's going to make a difference on how you think about, you know, success across roles, across teams, even across, you know, priorities. And when you think back, right, this hyper specialization, it used to be the gold standard. But as we move into twenty twenty six leaders who can connect the dots across roles and departments and priorities will be key to unlocking innovation. ultimately growth right yes exactly yep so shift number three yes yes right um this i love this one because this is we totally get behind this one as well but like upskilling is your culture yes yes Like, I don't think that's something that people often think about. But when you think we are in a growth mindset organization, that includes upskilling and growth, not just innovation and products. Innovation and products is not the same as upskilling culture. I want to be clear. That should be framed, right? Because organizations think a lot about like, okay, in order to growth, we need to innovate, innovate, innovate. But they leave really their people behind where eventually you're going to be obsolete, right? You're not going to be able to innovate. You're not going to be able to grow if you don't upskill your talent, if you don't continuously invest in your talent. And not just like a one-off training, right? Like some organizations we run into, it's like a one-off, oh yeah, we do this one time. Or like, oh, I love talking to people and they're like, oh yeah, I took a leadership course maybe about five years ago. Look how much has changed in five years. You know, like we have seen the most change in five years. So if you're listening and you're one of those people that's like, hmm, I haven't taken a leadership course in five years, you're behind, right? You're behind. You don't have the necessary skills you need in order to lead effectively today. That's just what the data says because of how quickly things are changing in industry right now. Yeah, not just things, but people. I mean, we have people constantly coming in and shifting. And sometimes when we talk about building the skill, is it once again, it's not about you. It's about how do you build space for those around you? Yes. So upskilling has the benefit of you get to learn, but you also get to work on some of those other shifts we've talked about, like belonging. Right. Exactly. Exactly. It frees you up to have this higher level, this higher level thinking. Right. And strategy around the business. And it's like there's opportunities at every at every turn. You know, we think about in our organizations, we have annual training for safety and annual training for food safety and annual training for H.R., Like we all know those can get really dry. And I know people that are sponsoring those really try to go, how do I shake this up? How do I provide something different? So another way to think about that is instead of just doing training for training, like how can you add in something around some new skills that people might be needing in your organization that maybe you haven't been able to address as much before? Yes, yes. I used to think about training as like, okay, what are the things I have to do, you know, that's a part of either compliance or, you know, I need to cover this so that we can check it. It's like the checkbox, right? But then what are some things that I need to upskill my team or to provide more value? I never let a training go by that I wasn't trying to make some type of connection there, some type of conversation. Sometimes it's more around like, oh, I need to understand what's really going on behind it. Sometimes it's like, I just want to know what are people thinking? What are people thinking? Do they feel like they belong? Do they feel like they're having issues? What's top of mind for them? And I like the way you put that where we know we have some training that we have to do. Right. That's just a part of the industry that we live in. But how are you embedding this learning into the way that you do work right into the way that you show up every day into your culture? Because that's that's the meaningful times. It is. And I think it's also within this, this shift is also kind of a, I'm going to say a generational mindset shift. Because I would say, and I'm in, I'm part of this fifty-year-old generation and above, right? Where it's like, we're just getting through what we need. We don't need extra training. Like, we're doing our thing, right? No news is good news. We're that generation. Or, you know, on the cusp of those. Yeah. But we all know from all the data shows that the newer generations coming in, like they want to be in places where it is about growth. Yes. They are not coming to be in a spot where they're like, I get to go work for a couple of years. And even if I make a boatload of money, like if I'm not growing, that's not the place for me. Yeah. So upskilling and culture, you know, upskilling as a culture, isn't just about like, gosh, people, they just want to grow. But like, if you want to attract talent and retain that talent, Like this needs, you need to think about how this is a core strategy and what you're doing as a leader. Yeah. Even LinkedIn workplace learning report for twenty twenty four said that companies that invest in skill building are twice as likely, two times as likely to retain top talent. There you go. Right. Like that's just investing in those in those skills and leadership skills. Right. In order to. And we we've seen it right when a high performer or someone that is doing so well at their job move into a leadership role and do not do well. Right. Not a good fit. And we've seen those people go to another organization and do extremely well because that organization invest in them. So we see it, and I'm sure people have been listening to us today, like you hear, right? You hear, and you personally have seen times that this has happened, or maybe it's even happened to you, where it's, if you just had those skills before, right, you'll be able to do so well at your role. But as an industry, unfortunately, we're in this path of like pushing people in roles, but not giving them the skills that they need in order to be successful. Yeah. So, you know, when you look across your team, like what skills and opportunity for growth have you not been addressing? Mm hmm. I think it's important for leaders to ask themselves that question as they go into the new year. And think about how it connects to the broader strategies of the organization, you know, in the next year or five year. You know, some organizations have twenty five year goals out there. Use that information and think about, yeah, what leadership skills do you need in the future and how do I start building that? Yeah. All right. Shift number four. Yes. Output to outcome. Yes. I love the shift because we think so much about outputs versus thinking about the type of outcome we want to have and how we want and how are we going to sustain that outcome? It's almost like the output. I want this audit score or I want these amount of cases made or I want all of that is just outputs. But really to think about like what outcome do we really want? Like what are we actually trying to achieve? What type of culture do we want to have? Yeah. Right. This is the classic like build a solid process and you'll get what you're hoping to make every time. Mm hmm. same thing it's just here when we think about focusing on outcomes you know as a leader it's thinking about more about people and how they're feeling and their attitudes and like how we're interacting all of those things are what's driving outcomes so that we get outputs and we definitely feel like culture metrics will join safety quality financials on the scorecard and when you think about this when you think about outcome that will help you get the type of metrics that you even want to see on a scorecard i mean how many times are we asked like oh what should we measure what should we measure when it comes to culture when it comes to food safety culture what do we measure and people are really only thinking about the output You know, they're really only thinking about, again, my audit score or, you know, these sort of outputs that come to us. But when we really think about what do we want to see in our cultures? What is the outcome we want to get? Then metrics start to fall into place, right? We want a culture of belonging. What do your leaders need to do in order to get that outcome? Yes. And, you know, everybody's always thinking about what are leading metrics versus lagging. Exactly. This is the perfect place to lean in because we're not just focused on the lagging metrics. We need to think about these leading it's. If we want to retain talent, then are we making sure everybody's getting growth opportunity? Are we making sure we're doing leadership development? What are the things that are leading to people leaving, and then we need to work on the other side? Right, right, exactly. And it doesn't mean that you don't put audit outcomes and all of those things on there. Sure, that's absolutely fine. Just know that that's your lag metric. Right. That's you're not going to be able to see that and then do something about it and change your outcome. Right. It's really just an output of your of your of your process. Almost think about it as like we've been having a lot of conversations around engagement scores. You know, like engagement scores is a lag metric. And I was having a conversation with someone about engagement scores and engagement surveys. And this person was like, yeah, we don't even do them as often anymore. And I was like, yeah, that's right. Organizations have kind of moved to every other year when in the past they used to do them every single year. So now they're in even more of a lag metric because we put so much time in between them where that if you are seeing negative results on your engagement survey, you you've already been in that place probably for a few years. Yeah. You know, I think there's those broader categories like those big surveys, but you can also bring it back and be real just in your area. You know, one of the things I think that comes to mind is, you know, when we have people in our programs, our goal is to get people all the way through their program. Right. I mean, we want to make sure that they are having a good experience. And the way that we do that, in part, is every time we have a session, we have a session survey. Right. We don't wait till the end of the program to say, gosh. How did this work? Did it have impact? Did it have value? Did you feel like it was welcoming? Whatever. Like every time we get together, we're asking those questions to say, was it worth your time? Like, what was your takeaway? We're making sure along the way things are on the right path. And the most important thing is we do something about it, right? Like as people say, I want to talk more about this or have this going on or this next topic relate to what I have going on because of X, Y, and Z. We shift in order to talk about those things because You know, we want people to, like you said, have a good experience, get something out of the course, but it's also a part of this belonging when they're with us, right? Like we want them to talk about relevant things. We want them to solve relevant issues. And we want them to be able to relate leadership skills to relevant work so that they can continue to practice even after the course. Doing something, you know, once you have this information is so important. It's so important, right? Versus like the times that we keep asking the same questions over and over and we're not doing anything about it. Eventually people will say, well, you really don't care how my experience is. Yeah. You know, this is the classic, it's not necessarily where you're going, but like how you're getting there. Yes. So really thinking about how you're getting there is more important as we think about going into the next year as well. And that's how I kind of think about the difference between like output is like I'm just interested in that the last number of it versus the outcome. How how do you want to show up? Right. How do we want our culture to be regardless of what the output is? You know, and it really have you know, it really makes you think about what leaders to think about as they go into twenty twenty six is do your metrics reflect what really matters? Or are they just outputs that someone said you should put on your scorecard? Right. Just measure these. Right. Measure these things. It's funny, like when we talk to people about their metrics, they're like, huh, I never thought to measure that before. Well, this is what you're looking for, right? This is the type of culture you want to be. Measure that. Measure that. Measure that. Which really flows into our next shift as well. yes because this one is really about people systems are more important than heroics yes yes this is a really good one because it makes me think about firefighting right how often do we hear people talk about we are so stuck in firefighting and this how often do yeah and how often are we like how are people getting the message that they're being rewarded for firefighting right yeah there's i mean how many times do we hear the question or even the encouragement that people should participate in firefighting because this is how we learned you know and we do we do learn in chaos but we also learn when there is not chaos yeah and you know i think when you consider how to have our brains receptive for learning and gathering a fire typically isn't the spot right so yes we can learn but just think how much more like how deep and how broad and how lasting learning can be when you do it with intention Exactly. Exactly. And how it helps you build your culture. Even thinking about your body and the stress that it takes on when you are firefighting is not the type of culture that most people would say, yes, I want to be in all the time. Right. It feels like it used to be, this sounds horrible, but almost trendy to be like, oh, I'm so busy. I have so many meetings. I'm so this. I'm so wanted. Right. and it was really i mean when i think about where that fits with coaching you know that's a lot or even yoga you all know i do a lot of yoga that's ego that is our ego needing to feel important and believe me my ego needs to feel important just like everybody else's but recognizing when it's my ego flaring out versus is this working for us is like our culture yeah like a good culture is able to support people at kind of their core and that belonging and that they matter. And when we do that, our egos don't have to flare up nearly so much. Right, right, exactly. And really we're at peace, right? We're at peace when we don't have this chaos where we feel like our ego needs to flare, right? Yeah, and no longer, I think once again, this might be generational, but no longer is that burnout badge something people are looking for, right? The next generations do not value that. They're like, not the award I want. No, no. And there's, there's a lot of reasons for that, but we, but one important reason is that we've kind of taught them not to. Yeah. The reward is not worth being burnt, completely burnt out. No, the physical toll, the mental toll, the emotional toll. People sit in that because that's what they know. And it's amazing how long we'll sit in something that's not good for us just because we don't know what the other side looks like. That's why I think when we consider our role as leaders, we need to help people move from that space because we, well, one, it's good for them, but it's also good for us. And it's possible. You know, sometimes people in our industry think, I think many people in our industry think that it's not possible, that we're always going to have fires, that we're always going to be in this chaotic state. But it's not. Nope, nope, nope. There's some cultures that's not in this chaos. Right. And every time we go in a fire, how many times do people say, oh, gosh, that could have been preventable? Right. Right. Every single one is. And, you know, what if we think about the amount of fires that we're fighting is really kind of like an inverse relationship to the strength of our systems? Yes. I think it is. Well, I'm sure there's data out there. I just don't have it at my fingertips to say if we're firefighting all the time, that means we have weak systems. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Whether it's weak process systems, product systems, people systems, something is not working well. Yeah. And we've seen it, right, in our experience. When we have systems in place that work, people, right, that's bought into the systems and they are closing gaps and helping it run smoothly, we don't see as many fires. And it's not saying that there's not fires that come up, right? Like we learn there's things that happen, right? And we solve it. We get to root cause. And then we build a system around it to ensure we don't fall into that fire again. That's when you know culture is working. That's when you know people are engaged and people want to be a part of the solution versus like, whoo, fire. Put that out. Now let's move on to the next. Let's move on to the next. Let's move on to the next. If you find your people are doing that, they're probably overworked and they're about to earn the burnout badge. Right. But those are things that as leaders in this industry, you cannot ignore because that is not a sustainable model. It's not firefighting is not sustainable. You all know that it wastes money. It wastes people's energy, not sustainable. This is such an important topic. We include it in our leadership boot camp where we spend time on a full module talking about firefighting and how to eliminate it and how to start working towards stepping outside of really that heroics of I need to be involved to do I need to be involved and how do I build systems around or put systems in place in order for these fires to not keep popping up. I feel like if we eliminated firefighting in this industry, like I feel like. Forty percent of the problems would be gone. You know, I just feel like there will be a huge slash of problems that we see all the time that would just be gone and people will feel very differently about the industry. Yeah, I would venture. I'd even bet higher than that. Yeah, me too. Really? Because if we think about all these fires are our symptoms of systems that aren't working, then the less fires we have, the more systems are working. So the more we're being proactive and all of that stuff. And you're right. All that stuff. See how technical I am today on this Monday morning. But you're right. Our egos are driving it. Like I need to be involved. I need to be a part. I need to be a part of this solution. You know, why? Why? And even some cultures like have it set up where when this happens, Jill, because you are in this role, you need to go. Why? Just build a system, right? Empower your people, empower the people that are there to get work done so that people don't feel like they're always in this urgent fire all the time. Yeah. Yeah. There's so many parts in here that we could go deeper on. Right. I think even one of those, like every time in a workflow, you see like when this happens, stop contact management. Like every time you see one of those, I would challenge you to look at why that is. Right. Right. Yeah. It doesn't mean that it's not necessary. Doesn't mean it's not necessary, but way too often we see this happen. Yeah. You're creating this false urgency or this, you know, this false fire when it really doesn't need to be that way. Yeah, exactly. Like having to get others involved in the work that you do every day. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So as leaders, as you're going into twenty twenty six. Right. And you want to shift really to more people's systems. Think about, you know, reflect on, are your leaders set up to scale? Good question. Really good question. All right. That flows us in to shift number six. Yes. Yes. This is one of my favorites. Yeah. Coaching mindset is a core competency. Mm-hmm. And we also want to clear up coaching because everybody's coached these days, right? Everybody's like, oh, I coached here. I coached there. I'm a leader, so I'm a coach. Like, I'm training my dog right now, so I'm a coach. Coaching is about not having all the answers. Right, yeah. Coaching is about... recognizing that people already have the means, ways, and knowledge to move forward from where they are. You just have to create space and awareness so that they can take that step. It's not going to work for them. No, and it's not about telling, advising. I'm going to even say mentoring because this is about recognizing that we are whole and complete humans. And when we can do that and recognize that we're all whole, complete humans, Like that in itself is going to set you apart as a leader and help you be a better business partner. Because it helps you grow and it also helps the people around you, around you grow. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the International Coaching Federation, ICF, in one of their stats that we have from twenty twenty four, Teens with coaching style managers are forty percent more engaged and productive. Forty percent. Yeah. But can you imagine if you had forty percent more engaged and productive people, like not just different people, but the people that you have are more engaged and productive? Yeah, and that in itself is a skill set because we know people have always been rewarded for having answers. for being the ones who raise their hand to do things, for being people who step in and save. You know, we just talked about firefighting and heroics. Coaching really asks you to not do any of that. Yeah. at all right away from them it's really hard because that's how people for a long time have felt that they can be helpful and coaching asks people to be helpful in a completely different way which for many people and we see this even in our programs is at first a bit uncomfortable oh because it feels like we're giving up control yes and the reality is we never had control to begin with we just finally are recognizing that we can approach this relationship a bit different and share that control that power with others because really it's both of us in this situation yeah like how you said we never really had control anyway we're just trying to hold on to something that is just not real but also we're limiting our own growth and the growth of others around us Yes, yes. Yeah. And when we think about where we all want to go as businesses in twenty twenty six, like we need everybody like it is amazing what people can do when they have the right environment to do that. Yes. Yes. And when they have the right skills. Right. In order to build this space of belonging. Right. In order to coach. Right. And shift into this coaching mindset. And it doesn't mean other things of giving advice and mentorship and those things are not important. They are. They're very important. in the right space and time right exactly it's like having the right tools for the right job you know as you lead one of the things that we just have forgotten is just how important it is to step into this coaching mindset and i mean i don't know if we've forgotten it or if it's just new information as science has advanced but what we're learning is that we mentioned a few times that the new generations are really demanding this type of style and we I like the way the Mercer Report put it a couple of years ago, where organizations that don't get behind this will lose the world talent. They will not retain people. They will not have engaged and productive people because, like you said, the younger generation, they're not in it for burnout. They're not in it to be talked down to or to live in the space where they don't feel like that they belong or feel like they're happy in. And coaching just opens that up, right? It allows you to lead in a different way because you are learning about the person versus inserting yourself into the conversation. Yeah, and I think it represents that kind of that ultimate shift from command and control to, let me say, autonomy. And that can be really scary because I think that what comes up is that question of like, well, if we just let people do what they want to do or what they think is best with what they know, like, is that really the best in all of our interests? But this is why your coach or coaching mindset is what helps you guide people, because those are the questions you ask. Well, if you take this action, is that an action that benefits you or does it benefit everybody? Like, these are things that you learn to ask so that you can guide people and also understand perhaps even where your strategy or where things aren't actually aligned and fitting. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, exactly. You know, it's about asking those questions. And I think that also just relates to our first shift of belonging and why it's so important. And people, leaders who have this coaching mindset have this space of belonging just because they ask different questions, right? And it's built around curiosity versus, yeah, really like the command and control piece. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's also like kind of this power differential as well. You know, when you think of someone who's a boss, that inherently just feels like power differential. Yeah. Yeah. But when you think of someone who's more of a coach, at least the way we define coaching, that's like, we're here together. It's just your role is this and mine is that. And I'm just asking questions to help you move forward. Right. Exactly. Like it's partnership. And yeah, you know, that takes a really different mindset to step into as well. Yeah, I agree. I think this is really insightful what you're saying because many, many people come to us and they're saying, I want to empower my people. My people need to have, they need to feel empowered to make decisions. They need more autonomy. They need to take ownership. It's impossible to do that if you're in a command and control environment. Yeah. You have to be willing to give up that power if you want others to be able to receive it. And that's scary. Like you said, to say, I have to give up this control, you know, or I need to I need to take a step back or you might not be the only person making decisions. And that's okay, right? Because you want your team to have authority. You want your team to have ownership. You want your team to feel empowered. That means you have to step back. You know, we talk about this in our empowerment workshop, right, around this transfer of power. I always think about it like energy, you know, is not being destroyed or created. Energy is, it is what it is. And so if you want to shift it, I have to give up some in order for it to go somewhere else because you can't create new ones. You know, you can't create extra energy. You have to shift it. And that's what it means to empower someone else is to shifting that power from you to someone else. And that can be scary, right? It can be done poorly if you don't have the right skills. But when you do have the right skills, it can be extremely rewarding. Yeah. You know, when I think about this year, we were asked to talk a lot about compliance to commitment. It's probably people have been hearing it. all year this whole struggle of why does it feel like food safety or you know insert other other requirements it people just do them for compliance like we need better commitment we need people to feel like we're doing like this represents who we are and how we show up every day yeah and i I'm curious, Tia, out of all the six things we've talked about, is there one that stands out to you as really powerful when you think about leaders who are trying to move from compliance to commitment? um i would have oh so many all of these i know it's a trick question no it is a trick question but you know i think that i'm going to go with the first one of belonging you know belonging really being a business strategy and how important belonging is Because, you know, one of the reasons why people are not moving to commitment is that you really just don't have that buy-in, right? People don't understand, you know, what's in it for me or what is the benefit that they have from it or why should they do this when they have so much on their plate? And I'm not talking about the why that we lean into all the time in food safety of like, tell them the why, why it's going to hurt someone or why it's important. you know from that standpoint which is super important and should be said we should also say why it's important to them why should they care about these things and that why could be very different than my why and i don't think that you find out their why unless there's a sense of belonging Right, because I'm not going to share something so personal to me if I don't feel like this is the space that gives a hoot of whether I'm here next week or next month. If I'm just hands to you to do some work, I'm not sure that's where I feel like I'm committed to be here. Exactly. Exactly. So I think it's the foundation of moving to commitment, because like you said, people don't share. They don't share their true feelings or true self if they don't feel like it's a safe space. And that's where we run into the piece of like, well, they comply, but we don't have this commitment of speaking up and solving problems. And, you know, they're going to let it go down the line because it's not their job. Yeah, that's a really good point. It makes me think of, well, it's hard to top what you just had. But I think in part, something that can lead to belonging is really leaning more into this coaching mindset and human skills and soft skills. Like, the other part is when we think about how to create the space where you are belonging, that's a skill. That's something where when you think of where I am today and you might be like, gosh, I feel like I already create that. Because if you would have asked me twenty years ago, I would have been like, well, yeah, I'm nice. Like it's an open door policy. People can come see me. That does not equate to people feeling comfortable to just pop in and see you. Right. So I would say really that part of kind of like the coaching mindset, like really leaning into my role as a coach is really to connect more to like soft skills and hard skills together. Yes. And until I'm willing to really look at myself and go, how are people experiencing me as a leader? How are people experiencing the space that we have? I think it will be hard to get to the belonging part. I agree. And therefore, you might not make it to the commitment. Right. You're still going to be stuck and being like, I don't know. We're all so nice here. We all get along. Well, you know what? There's more than just being nice. Right, exactly. Like that's been popping up, I don't know, for the past few weeks for me, like nice, nice and nice. And you could tell probably by the way I'm even conveying it right now. Like I'm not loving the term nice. Nice right now. It's true, right? It's from like, you know, nice to kind or nice to compassionate or right, nice to belonging, where it really, the other words really just stand in this place of letting people be who they are, letting them express who they are. Even if you don't feel like it's nice, right? Sometimes people are not nice. Sometimes people have different thoughts or they need to get out, hey, this is what I think is wrong. And you can say it in a kind way, right? You can still be kind. You can still be compassionate. Those are the things that we want in people versus like just being nice. I think nice feels like compliance, right? It gets the job done, but it doesn't get you any further. I think that's why it keeps annoying me when I hear the word nice lately. Because people are longing for more than nice when they show up at work and in life. Yes, I agree. Okay, I looked up the definition of nice because I'm like, okay, let me look and see what this says. So nice is pleasant, agreeable, satisfactory. Fine, subtle. So it's like it's agreeable, right? Like if you're agreeable all the time, like we've been around those people, that's just agreeable. And I just want to be like, I want to hear your thoughts. I want to hear exactly what you're thinking, like what's good, what's bad, what doesn't work, what like I want to hear those things versus like just being agreeable. I feel like that's the number one thing that I say to my team. in the beginning is that you do not need to agree with everything that I say. I actually want you to disagree with me. I want to hear your thoughts. Especially as a leader, most of the time you haven't even worked in this space as long as the people that you're serving. So I know I don't have all the answers. I don't need you to be agreeable. Right. I need, I need to know. And I feel like that's why nice doesn't really sit well with me because like, you know, I am not the type of leader that I need you to say yes to everything that I'm saying. Otherwise, like, you know, I'm trying to make the right decisions and I know I don't have the, I don't have the best thoughts every time. Cause I might not know everything. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. That's actually really interesting. As we think about like things, you know, our whole, our whole show right now is right. The six things that food leaders can't ignore in twenty, twenty six. And that maybe even kind of sums a little bit of that up, like being nice. Like if everything is nice, this is nice. That's nice. That that might be the theme to you don't ignore when you see nice in places. Right. Exactly. If you find that everyone is just being nice to you or just being agreeable to you, you know, or we were talking to someone last week and they're like, well, we get into a room. Everyone's like, yes, yes, yes. Let's move forward. And then when we get out, no one's doing anything. Right. No one's. Right. To me, that reminds me of this. Nice. Everyone is agreeable. But when they leave the room, they're like, I'm not I'm not doing that. You know, or I had the great intentions of doing it, but now I'm too busy. So I'm not going to do it. Right. Like that's just you're being nice versus saying, hey, I think this is a great idea. What are some things that can come off my list to support it? Or this is where I think that I'm going to I'm going to fall down or this is where I need your support. Like that's more than just being agreeable. Yeah. And I think that actually plays into all of our, our shifts because, you know, belonging is a business strategy, create space so that you don't have to just be nice. People can share rise of the intentional generalist. Like if you're nice, you're just kind of like sitting in your space versus we need people connecting dots and thinking about cross-functional and, you know, just more collaboration if we're nice we're okay with where we're at versus we're looking for growth like how many times do we talk with businesses that are like I'm cool with where I'm at in a year like upskilling is culture and so we need to lean into that um output to outcome Like outcome requires us to have some more conversations about how we're getting there. Those can't just be nice. I mean, it doesn't mean that they have to be unkind. It just means we have to be honest and truthful. Thinking about people, people systems are more important than heroics. Yeah. Like it's nice when people step in and help us firefight, but like we need systems that are built so that we don't have to always be doing that. And of course, our last one on coaching mindset, like we need to look further than the surface in ourselves and in those around us if we if we want to have improvements and go further. Yes. So, you know, we are curious. And as you really walk away from today, think about what's one shift that you're ready to make and how you lead in twenty twenty six. If you feel like you can't do all of these, what's that one? That one. Yeah. You know, and I think even to consider like these, these insights aren't just predictions. Like these are really invitations for you to look at where can you create more clarity? Where can you create more connection? Where can you be more intentional as a leader in twenty twenty six? Because these things won't just magically happen unless you're intentional. That's right. You have to be, you have to be intentional about it. Yeah. So, you know, with that said, if you go on out to our website, catalystfoodleaders.com under there's resources and there's a resource hub, find that there are multiple freebie downloads that can help you navigate through where you are today and what you want for twenty twenty six. Yep. And, you know, we just shifted the leadership summit date. Yes, now it's going to be. April eighth. So we still do have the early bird promo though, going through December thirty first. So if you are like intentional about what you want to do for next year, sign up so that way you can connect with other leaders, get new perspectives and insights on helping you move through that next year. And ensure that you actually shift so that this time next year, right, you feel like you are in a different spot and you are a better leader. Then in the future than you are today and the impact that you can make as a leader will be felt versus you might be feeling a little bit on maybe I didn't do everything I wanted to do or maybe my culture isn't where it should be or you feel like you're not really shifting at all. right yeah and leadership isn't isn't done in a vacuum it's not a one-person show it's not done without interacting with others and culture certainly doesn't grow on its own so it takes a system it does it does and we appreciate that you have been here with us today we really hope that this was impactful for you um and if you found that it was and you're starting to think about these shifts Send this, send this to someone that you know that is leading with purpose and with grit and that really looking to be a different leader in twenty twenty six. Make sure you subscribe and like the show as well. That way you will never miss one. You'll never miss us on YouTube and on your favorite podcast. Subscribe to us and together. Right. Together we can continue to grow because we know when leaders grow, cultures change. Absolutely. So thank you everyone for being with us for this episode. Enjoy the rest of your week. Bye everyone.
