IT Leaders

00:38:09:23 - 00:38:35:07
Unknown
So I am going to refer to my slides because this will be the first time that I've talked about this. Let me give you a little background. So I'm Bob Francis in the CIO for Steel Dynamics. We're a we're vertically integrated steel company. We do everything from collect scrap at our Omni source division through selling steel joists at our new and building systems division.

00:38:35:09 - 00:39:14:22
Unknown
We are also in the copper market. Nick is here from our our copper works division. And there we make we recycle copper and we make rod and wire are both recycled copper and virgin copper. We are entering the aluminum market for a for a long time we've had a company called Superior Aluminum. That's in New Haven. But we are in the process right now of building the first aluminum mill to be built in the US in in 30 years in Columbus, Mississippi.

00:39:15:00 - 00:39:57:16
Unknown
We've grown from in from 1993 to today, from $0 in revenue to 22 billion last year, largely while a combination of greenfields construction and and acquisitions. And we've been we're fairly active for our entire history in expanding and increasing our footprint horizontally and vertically. My history with the company goes back to the beginning of the goes back to the beginning of the company as a consultant for four years and then came on as an employee, absolutely loved the company and and hadn't wanted to go anywhere else ever since I've been there.

00:39:57:18 - 00:40:26:02
Unknown
I wake up every day and say, I don't want to go to work today. Not going to. I haven't had a day in 30 years that I've woken up and said, I don't want to go to work today. Lots to do. We're constantly moving. So I'm going to start off with something. Jennifer still here, which is okay. So I heard this is the second time I've heard Jennifer or been with Jennifer.

00:40:26:02 - 00:40:47:21
Unknown
The first time was in an area meeting. She had some incredibly poignant questions for her. How she approaches management aligns very well with what SDI does. So I'm always interested to hear what she says in addition to the book that she had there. I'd suggest, if you like what she has to say, it's a book called Crucial Conversations that encompasses a lot of what she's saying.

00:40:47:21 - 00:41:13:15
Unknown
Also. You can read that for her book, comes out and then read her book for my talk. When I talked to Clifford and Doug about talking today. At the time, I was I was thinking a lot about various management books I'd read and trainings that I'm doing for my for my managers. And we put people through a lot of training courses.

00:41:13:15 - 00:41:38:04
Unknown
We suggest reading a lot of books. And there was a theme that I had seen through a lot of the things that I'd read that that I didn't think any book covered. I'm going to say in-depth, and it's the it's the thought of vulnerability and management. So I had a slide that brought up the basically the history of management.

00:41:38:08 - 00:42:10:10
Unknown
And if you if you think back 500 years, you you had a management style that was very directional top down. You had kings and serfs and, and management was you tell somebody to go and do something and they do it or you give them some land and then you go and basically take half of what they make or more.

00:42:10:12 - 00:42:14:17
Unknown
Right? So it had nothing to do with the worker.

00:42:14:19 - 00:42:42:07
Unknown
As you, as you moved along, it kind of stayed that way until I would say right around World War Two. Coming back from World War Two, there was this change that started thinking about the individual and the group and the individuals as a group. And but it wasn't really focused on it was really focused on managing people. It was managing outcomes, task oriented.

00:42:42:13 - 00:43:15:13
Unknown
You had a bunch of people and they did this thing and then I would say mid-sixties to through the seventies. There's got to be a lot of research done on on just how to manage. And that moved into that moved into thinking more about people and how the people could do their tasks and how you make them a team.

00:43:15:15 - 00:43:37:07
Unknown
And then I'd say sometime in the eighties, somebody with academic background could probably give you more exact timing on it because sure, it had to do with the studies and papers that were going on, but it really started being more focused on the individual how how to support an individual and getting what they wanted to be done, done.

00:43:37:13 - 00:44:08:17
Unknown
And that continues to today. And when you look when you look today, there's a lot of there's a lot of focus, as there should be on people as individuals. And management is about management today, I believe is about giving people what they need in order to be able to get them as far along as they can until they need a which reached their level of incompetence.

00:44:08:19 - 00:44:24:03
Unknown
Right. So you want to progress somebody until so that you're pushing them so that they're so that they're growing to the maximum point that they can grow. But everybody hits a point where they've hit the point where that's a you don't you if you're looking at a career ladder, you don't go any further because you don't have the ability to.

00:44:24:05 - 00:44:57:04
Unknown
I will never be the CEO of Steel Dynamics. I don't have the skill set. I would be completely incompetent at. So maybe I've reached my level of incompetence. But but anyways, from a from a management standpoint, today there's there's a lot of developing your your people and and part of that is getting them to trust you right. You need to you need to develop a relationship with them.

00:44:57:04 - 00:45:11:23
Unknown
That doesn't mean that they have to like you. That doesn't mean you have to like them. You can you can have an employee that as a person you'd say, I would never go out for drinks with this person. That doesn't mean they can't be a productive member of the organization. It doesn't mean how they are is wrong. It's just your personality.

00:45:12:01 - 00:45:30:04
Unknown
Don't click from a management standpoint, it doesn't. It doesn't really matter. They should be able to trust you whether or not you like them or they like or they like you.

00:45:30:06 - 00:46:03:04
Unknown
So I had a quote that I was going to do. I wonder if I can still do it. If I if I. So how many of you know about have ever heard about the Johari window? So it's the Johari window. So So the Johari window is there's four quadrants. Quadrants to a Johari window. There's so there's things that you know about yourself.

00:46:03:06 - 00:46:25:04
Unknown
Right. There are things that you don't know about yourself. There are things that others know about you. And there are things that others don't know about you. So the question the question that I would have and let me bring up the quote because Will because I think there's a picture of, oh, well, you're not going to be able you're not going to be able to see it because of the way I did the quote.

00:46:25:06 - 00:46:50:07
Unknown
So anyways, my question was going to be for you, what quadrant of those things, things that you know about yourself, things you don't know about yourself, things that other people know about you and things that other people don't know about you. If you bring that up into four quadrants for a leader, for people in leadership or people in terms of positions which quadrant do you want to make?

00:46:50:07 - 00:47:21:10
Unknown
The biggest, you know, the both The both. So you want to make the biggest one, the one that both you and the people know, correct? Correct. What you what you want to do is grow the the things that you know about yourself and the things that other people know about you. The quadrant that is things that you don't know about yourself and things that other people don't know about you.

00:47:21:12 - 00:47:47:18
Unknown
In theory, you can find more out about that quadrant through hypnosis. Psychotherapy, a hard quadrant to get there. Historically, if you if you go back 20 years and further, many leaders tried to make the things that you know about yourself and things that other people know about you as small as possible. Right. Because they it was a protection thing.

00:47:47:18 - 00:48:42:12
Unknown
They didn't want people to know things about you because that was a long time ago, viewed as a danger. Right. If somebody knows something about you, they can do something that that makes you that that hurt you. And and I'd tell you that that is still in movies, the you know, the strong leader that that nobody really understands but gets things done is is still portrayed but it's not true that the the the idea of letting other people know things about you that they that they that they don't necessarily need to know about you is is what helps you build a relationship in order to do that.

00:48:42:12 - 00:49:10:23
Unknown
When you think about it you've got to be vulnerable, right? Because you've got to you've got to be able to put things out there that that make other people understand that you're willing to be vulnerable and that there is a that there is a chance that they could I don't want to say use the information, but ridicule you, kill you over or not sympathize with you about.

00:49:11:01 - 00:49:45:13
Unknown
But what really happens when you do it is is somebody starts understanding that you're trusting them. Right. And and as you do that, the trust will that the trust will come back, will come back to you. So there's there's another there's another slide that I that I had that was about a major study that was done. And it was of 20,000 leaders, leadership hires over three years.

00:49:45:15 - 00:50:17:15
Unknown
And what the study revealed is 48% of those people had problems within the first 18 months. Now, there I've got five different five different things that that the people in the study that the people in the study broke down as, hey, these are the problems. So the five things are motivation, emotional intelligence, technical competence, temperament and coach ability.

00:50:17:17 - 00:51:04:07
Unknown
Can you repeat those on motivation, emotional intelligence, technical competence, temperament and coach ability. So of those five, which do you think caused the biggest problem that got somebody either disciplined or fired? Correct. Coach ability is the number one thing that people had that that people have problems with. What do you think the second one is help of emotional intelligence.

00:51:04:09 - 00:51:31:05
Unknown
Two things that are that are that are very big in in in management. If you listen to Jennifer's talk, you think about you think about her story, about the person, her her subordinate that came in and said, hey, I've got this person, I want to discipline them. They're not doing their job. They're doing their job. That was a coaching session between her and in her and her subordinate.

00:51:31:07 - 00:52:22:01
Unknown
And her subordinate was coachable, went out the emotional intelligence question first. And that would be an interesting thing to dig deeper into because she had to coach that person on, Hey, go find out what's wrong. And for for that person, maybe they should have already known that that's what they should do, because starting with starting with any conversation with somebody about, hey, I'm going to have a problem with you before you go to your whoever, whoever is above you in the chain of command, Maybe what you need to be doing is figuring out the why.

00:52:22:05 - 00:52:43:04
Unknown
And the why is the emotional intelligence of, hey, does this person have you know, what does this person feeling? It's something that we miss a lot. 90 Right. We're very we're very fact based. I know when I started managing, it was all about the fact that the what a person felt about what they were doing on a project.

00:52:43:06 - 00:53:04:01
Unknown
It didn't concern me at all. It it doesn't take long in management before you find out that you're not very effective like that. And if you're only like that, people quit pretty quick, right? People want to be on other teams if you don't care about them, they're they're going to find someplace else to do, someplace else to go, something else to do.

00:53:04:04 - 00:53:43:20
Unknown
So, yeah, so that study was really interesting because again, it was 20,000 people. It's very rare to have a study that is that large that is not college students. Most of these studies are done by college professors and they do a study and they take in people that are in their master's programs, in their doctorate programs, and it gives you kind of a warped from a research standpoint, I think kind of a warped sense of what the world is like taking 20,000 people that have been just put into management positions, looking at where where they've had problems and laying them down.

00:53:43:22 - 00:54:12:13
Unknown
The the study aligned with with what I've seen when we're hiring coach mobility is one of the first traits that we look for, whether or not the person we intend, the person to go to go into management, that just makes them a better team member. So so how do you become how do you become more vulnerable in a way that's intelligence?

00:54:12:15 - 00:54:43:00
Unknown
I think it starts with self-awareness. You've you've got to understand your self, your emotions, your strengths, your weaknesses, and honest. Look at yourself. You've got to recognize that vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness. And again, I think that historically that is that is a change in and how we look at managing people and how people expect to be managed.

00:54:43:02 - 00:55:25:21
Unknown
You've also got to embrace your imperfections, right? I, I may overdo this with my with my team, but if I see something in myself when I'm looking at it and say, listen, I don't do this well, I, I put it right out there because what I'm looking for for them is help. I recently pulled all my leaders together here in Fort Wayne for a summit, had a lot of grand plans for what we were going to do, started planning it four months ahead of time, got tasked with doing some things that that pulled me away from it, picked my head out and said, Oh my God, the summit in three weeks.

00:55:25:23 - 00:55:45:19
Unknown
I haven't started planning it. I haven't started the agenda for what I'm going to talk about now, six months before my plan was I'm going to reach out to everybody. I'm going to talk to I'm going to see what I'm going to see, what issues they want to talk about. I'm going to bring some people into up for my team to do talks on their own and grand plans of what to do ahead of time.

00:55:45:19 - 00:56:08:15
Unknown
It's nope, nope. I've got to put together an agenda. I cannot tell my team. Okay, I need you to do a talk on this because I haven't given them time to prepare. So I did the whole thing myself and apologized 20 times during the during the talk because it was me up there talking about subjects that we really needed to talk about, but not what I intended to do.

00:56:08:17 - 00:56:30:04
Unknown
I got a lot of good feedback after the seminar from my people of, Hey, listen, I like this, I didn't like this. And and next time maybe you should do this. And, and I really appreciated that because what it told me was my people weren't afraid to tell me you could have done this better by doing this, this and this.

00:56:30:06 - 00:56:48:00
Unknown
And I'll take that into account. And on our next seminar, we'll do it better with some of the things that I was thinking of and a lot of things that they were thinking of. So the next part is open and honest communication.

00:56:48:02 - 00:57:21:01
Unknown
And Jennifer talked about this a little bit about this. You can't avoid problems, right? You you can't there's multiple ways of resolving conflicts. Avoiding is sometimes the way to go, but not often. It's not a never, but it's not often. It's got to depend upon the problem and and whether or not avoiding it is going to let it fix itself.

00:57:21:03 - 00:57:51:00
Unknown
That often very rarely happens. You need to lead by example, Right? So show your thoughts. But as you're showing your thoughts, be willing to listen to what other people have to say. And as I said a couple of times in this act of listening, right, you you've got to engage your team in communication and hear what they have to say and not hear it just through the lens of what you want to hear.

00:57:51:01 - 00:58:17:13
Unknown
But what they're saying, that can be a tough one. And for me, that one actually, I can't do it in the moment. That actually for me requires reflection, because when I'm having a conversation with somebody about something that I've got a planned path. What I found in myself is that I often am steering them down the same path that I'm going.

00:58:17:15 - 00:58:40:23
Unknown
I've gotten much better at actually listening to what they have to say and not pounding them down the path that I'm going. But I've but I still, when I'm sure I want to go in a certain direction, I in the moment don't hear what the other person saying because I'm focused on where I want to go. And I've gotten better at reflecting on it and and doing it.

00:58:41:01 - 00:59:23:08
Unknown
And then the the last the last piece I'd say is to is to build trust. And this is this is again, it goes back to the vulnerability. But you got to build trust gradually, right? You can't just your your position doesn't dictate the people trust you. As a matter of fact, I would tell you that the further up you get in management, the more your position makes you makes people distrustful of you because they tell you a lot of people figure that you got where you got by stepping on somebody else or by not caring it.

00:59:23:08 - 00:59:58:21
Unknown
So so you got to what you're going to do is start with small, small sharing, small things that are relatable, that help the person understand who you are over time and who you really are. Right? Your flaws, your strengths, the whole bit, consistency and reliability in how you act. Jennifer had said that she never that she never disciplines when she's angry.

00:59:58:23 - 01:00:27:00
Unknown
You can blow a relationship with somebody and their trust in you by legitimately being angry about something that you should be angry about. When things when things go really wrong. And and for reasons that you look at and go, that should not have happened. It's okay to be angry, right? Don't take it out on anybody. Let yourself cool off.

01:00:27:02 - 01:01:13:11
Unknown
Look at what you need to do in order to to correct it and do it in a way that is that is measured. And when you're when you're in control of your emotions, the people that work for you will really appreciate that because they'll know when you're mad. Right. And your ability to your ability to go your ability to go and deal with the situation, with the situation, not not avoid it, not put it on forever, but dealing with it in the right way after year after year over your anger, emotion will will will make people trust you and it will make them want to not get you to a state where you're angry.

01:01:13:11 - 01:01:47:18
Unknown
They will be more careful about what they do. They will think more about what they do. If you're measured and then I've said this before, the last piece of of building trust, gradually. So the third bullet point, because I always do three bullet points and never any more, never any less encourage feedback from your people because when you're listening to them and when you really listen to them, that is that's a huge component of, of building a building trust.

01:01:47:18 - 01:02:05:16
Unknown
Now, there's a vulnerability aspect there too, because what you've got to do if you're really listening to them, is admit you wrong. And in cases right, you might have this direction that you're going and you say, This is how I'm going to do it. And somebody comes up to you with a completely different idea or a different way of tackling it.

01:02:05:16 - 01:02:24:16
Unknown
And you think about it and you go, you know what? They're right. What your show, what they're there's some vulnerability there, right? Because what you're saying to them is, listen, I told you this and we should do it this way. You came to me and said this. And you know what I'm telling you? You're right. Which doesn't necessarily mean you're wrong, but you're admitting, hey, you figured out a better way and maybe you weren't.

01:02:24:16 - 01:02:50:05
Unknown
Maybe you look at it and say, you know, I was actually, you know, given what you've told me, I didn't think that through. You're right, I'm wrong. But you got to be willing to do that. So. So when you when you think through this, that was a meandering way through the history of the history of management and and the Johari window and, and, you know, study and and what you do.

01:02:50:05 - 01:03:12:15
Unknown
But these things are all in various you'll read pretty much everything I've said in various books that are out there. And Simon Sinek and a couple of his books will touch on vulnerability. But it's interesting when I read it, it's kind of like a passing, it's in a paragraph, and then you move on to the next thing and and it didn't make sense.

01:03:12:15 - 01:03:31:05
Unknown
So again, when I was talking to Clifford, I was thinking, I want to stitch that all together. So apologize for not having slides. I promise you it would have been better with them. The cahoots would have been fun. But yeah, that's. That's all I've got. Any questions?