Building a Vibrant Culture: Leadership, Energy, and Unlocking Potential with Nicole Greer

What does it really take to create a workplace where people feel energized, valued, and motivated to do their best work?

In this episode of The Culture Secrets Podcast, Chellie Phillips sits down with leadership coach and culture strategist Nicole Greer, founder of Vibrant Culture, to explore what leaders can do to build organizations where people thrive.

Nicole works with companies across the country to help leaders develop stronger teams, unlock individual potential, and create cultures that are intentional rather than accidental. Through coaching, mentoring, and leadership development, she helps organizations shift from simply managing employees to truly empowering them.

During this conversation, Chellie and Nicole dive into what makes a workplace culture truly vibrant, why leadership behaviors matter more than mission statements, and how leaders can bring clarity, accountability, and energy into their teams.

The discussion also connects Nicole’s work with Chellie’s V.A.L.U.E. Culture framework, exploring how vision, accountability, leadership, uniqueness, and engagement work together to shape the employee experience.

If you’re a leader who wants to strengthen your team, increase engagement, and build a culture that people are proud to be part of, this episode is packed with practical insights you can apply immediately.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn

•  What defines a “vibrant culture” and how leaders influence it 
•  Why coaching and mentoring are essential leadership skills 
•  How leaders can unlock the potential inside their teams 
•  The connection between leadership behaviors and employee engagement 
•  Practical ways to strengthen culture through daily leadership actions 

About Our Guest

Nicole Greer is the founder of Vibrant Culture and a leadership coach, consultant, and speaker who helps organizations build thriving workplaces by developing strong leaders and empowering teams.

Through her work with companies and leadership teams, Nicole focuses on helping individuals grow in self-awareness, leadership capability, and personal accountability so they can contribute to a more energized and productive workplace culture.

Learn more about Nicole and her work at:
 www.vibrantculture.com

Connect with Nicole

Website: https://www.vibrantculture.com

LinkedIn: Nicole Greer

Connect with Chellie Phillips

Website: https://chelliephillips.com

Podcast: Culture Secrets Podcast
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Because great cultures don’t happen by accident — they’re built intentionally.

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Check out my website www.chelliephillips.com for more great content. Follow me on LinkedIn.  

Transcript

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Chellie Phillips: Welcome back to Culture Secrets Podcast. This is where we explore how leaders build organizations where people thrive and cultures actually work the way they're intended to.

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Chellie Phillips: I'm your host, Chellie Phillips, I'm the author of Culture Secrets, Secrets Leaders Use to Build a Value Culture. And each week, I try to talk with leaders who are helping organizations create workplaces where people feel engaged, valued, and energized.

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Chellie Phillips: Today's guest is someone who has spent her career helping organizations do exactly that. Nicole Greer is the founder of Vibrant Culture and a leadership coach, speaker, and consultant who helps organizations build cultures where people work at their full potential.

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Chellie Phillips: Through coaching, training, and keynotes, she focuses on developing leaders who can bring clarity, integrity, and energy into the workplace so teams can truly thrive.

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Chellie Phillips: Nicole believes that work should be a place where people experience growth, purpose, and even joy.

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Chellie Phillips: And that vibrant cultures are created where leaders intentionally develop people through coaching, mentoring, and strong leadership habits. Today, we're going to talk about what it really takes to build a vibrant culture, how leaders can unlock the potential inside their teams, and how intentional leadership behaviors shape the environments people experience every day.

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Chellie Phillips: Nicole, welcome to the Culture Secrets Podcast.


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Nicole Greer: Hi!

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Chellie Phillips: Hey, how are you?

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Nicole Greer: I'm really good, how are you?

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Chellie Phillips: Good! I'm so glad we were able to connect and do this!

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Nicole Greer: Yeah, thank you so much for the opportunity, I'm grateful.

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Chellie Phillips: Yeah, absolutely. I want to do a quick screen grab before we get started, because I…

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Nicole Greer: Okay.

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Chellie Phillips: For…

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Chellie Phillips: Promo ahead of time.

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Nicole Greer: Okay.

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Nicole Greer: Perfect.

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Chellie Phillips: Alright.

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Chellie Phillips: Save that so I don't lose it.

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Nicole Greer: Yeah, lots of moving parts to this thing, isn't there?

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Chellie Phillips: Okay, now I got that off the screen. I don't do video with my podcast, just audio, so…

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Nicole Greer: Okay, okay.

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Chellie Phillips: Um, feel free to make as many weird faces and do whatever you want to do behind the scenes, it's alright.

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Nicole Greer: Okay.

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Chellie Phillips: Um, and at any, you know, anytime you want to start over or something, like, no, I don't like where this answer's going, let me start over, just say, let's start it over, and then we'll start it over, and everything.

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Nicole Greer: Oh, I like the way you roll!

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Chellie Phillips: So, I did a little inf…

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Chellie Phillips: Not my first rodeo, so… and I know I screwed up all the time, so it's like…

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Chellie Phillips: Um, so I did a little intro, used your website, talked about what you do and all that kind of stuff.

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Nicole Greer: Perfect.

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Chellie Phillips: Um, and so… and I'm… and I also referenced that in the show notes that they can get ahold of you through your website and, um, email and everything that were… was, um, that you've sent to me and everything, so all that'll go out on their, um.

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Chellie Phillips: whenever it rolls live, which should be next week, I hope, so…

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Nicole Greer: Oh, good!

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Chellie Phillips: So, um, I'm in a weird podcasting phase right now. I'm only doing one real full interview a month, and then I have a little series that I'm doing five for 55.

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Chellie Phillips: Which is 5-minute leadership lessons, because I turned 55 this year, and it just seemed like fun.

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Chellie Phillips: And so, um… so I'm having more fun with them than I am the… the…

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Nicole Greer: Ah.

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Chellie Phillips: Like, it's much easier, actually, to come up with 5-minute podcast than it is to do set-aside interviews and edit and do all this kind of stuff for weekly…

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Nicole Greer: Oh, I know.

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Chellie Phillips: So, um, I've been real picky about who I am… I am interviewing, um…

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Chellie Phillips: Right now, so this worked out really good.

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Nicole Greer: Oh, well, I'm honored!

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Chellie Phillips: So, um…

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Chellie Phillips: Anyway, so I base these around my format that I have, which are the… I do value culture, which is vision, accountability, leadership, the uniqueness of the people, and the engagement that this all creates. And so.

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Chellie Phillips: Um, the questions are kind of derived from that, so, um, first one's super soft… is I'm gonna, like, basically throw it to you and be like, okay, so tell me, what is building a vibrant culture, and where does this come from, and that kind of thing, and then the other ones will lead into.

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Chellie Phillips: the different pieces, how you're… how you structure things, you know, like, some of the things that I've kind of jotted down were…

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Chellie Phillips: Um, like, some of the things I see is sometimes the gap between what leaders say they value and what employees actually experience.

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Chellie Phillips: And in your work, what do you think causes that disconnect? So, um, I will have some kind of tie-in to my value formula that I use.

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Nicole Greer: Sure, sure.

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Chellie Phillips: Um, but I want you to focus in on what you do and what you've seen, and obviously don't feel like.

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Chellie Phillips: You know, you have to keep tying it back to anything like that or anything, so…

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Nicole Greer: Okay, we're on the same team, we're trying to do the same stuff.

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Chellie Phillips: Alright.

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Chellie Phillips: All right, well, we'll jump in there, and so I'll do a little countdown so I know where the real stuff starts, and…

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Chellie Phillips: Um, 3, 2, 1. Nicole, I'm so glad you could come to the Culture Secret podcast this week. Uh, do me a favor and tell my listeners a little bit about you, what your business is, and how you got started doing this.

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Nicole Greer: Yeah, no problem. So, I'm grateful to be here, by the way, thank you so much. Yeah, so I started working when I was 16 years old, and I realized very quickly that there's a culture in every business. I don't think I knew that when I was 16, but I definitely figured it out when I was in my 20s.

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Nicole Greer: Because I realized there are some places I like working, and some places I don't like working. And what is the difference between these two things? Well, it's a lot to do with the core values that the people that own the company or own the organization are talking about and instilling in the behaviors and the.

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Nicole Greer: activities and the work that we do. I also think it's important to work for a company that has an established vision.

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Nicole Greer: And, uh, the best company I ever worked for was this company called Summit Properties. I used to be in the restaurant business, and then I got into property management.

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Nicole Greer: And when I got into property management, uh, I was recruited by a woman named Nancy Freeman, and.

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Nicole Greer: She, uh, said, you know, this is where this company's going. We're building new properties. There's gonna be opportunities for you to become an assistant manager, to become a manager.

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Nicole Greer: Uh, and then you, you know, work in the home office someday, and I thought, you just met me, how do you know that I could do that? And she's like, well, I don't know that you could do it, but it's a possibility. And so she was talking career pathing from the get-go.

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Nicole Greer: This is exciting to a 20-year-old person who wants to make money, get married, have a family, buy a car, do a house, all the things, right? So, uh, I was like, wow, this is different.

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Nicole Greer: And so I went and I just worked my little butt off for those people. I worked so hard! Um, and that's when you know you have a vibrant culture, is when people feel plugged in.

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Nicole Greer: They feel loved, they feel they're part of a bigger, better future for themselves personally and professionally.

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Nicole Greer: And, um, and so I try to help leaders get all that in place. So, I'm just trying to repeat my own personal experience. And so, Vibrant Culture does several things. One.

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Nicole Greer: We do executive coaching. Two, we do leadership and development training. I have a catalog that has, like, 50 programs in it that I do. I've just been at this a long time.

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Nicole Greer: Uh, and then I help do boutique recruiting and some HR auditing and HR process consulting. So, that's what I do!

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Chellie Phillips: So I imagine you've seen a little bit of everything throughout your experiences, especially working with other organizations and everything, and so what's the one thing when you walk into a place that you go.

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Nicole Greer: Mm-hmm.

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Chellie Phillips: Oh, yeah, they need vibrant culture.

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Nicole Greer: Yeah, well, um, I can tell you two stories. One is, I walked into an organization.

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Nicole Greer: And it was dirty.

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Nicole Greer: the building, it was just dirty, it was old, it was worn out. Um, I had driven an hour to this business, and when I got there, I was like, may I use the ladies' room? And they said, yes, it's down, you know, around the corner.

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Nicole Greer: And so I went down there, and this is too much information for your listeners, but I had to hover while I was going potty, because I wasn't putting my fanny on that seat, if you're with me right now. I mean, like, let's just be…

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Chellie Phillips: Oh, I am so with you!

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Nicole Greer: Let's just be honest, okay? I was like, I would not…

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Chellie Phillips: Any female listener understands exactly what you're talking about right at this moment.

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Nicole Greer: I was like, I would never work here. It is so dirty. I can't even imagine working here.

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Nicole Greer: Um, and, you know, they had a lot of people that felt very comfortable there that had been there a very, very, very long time, but the mood.

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Nicole Greer: The, um, you know, there's an old book called Think and Grow Rich, and in there, uh, Napoleon Hill talks about.

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Nicole Greer: You can feel stuff in the ether and I could feel like kind of the.

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Nicole Greer: complacency or something that was in the air. I mean, if we're not going to replace the carpet after.

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Nicole Greer: 40 years. I mean, what are we doing for the employees? And the thing is, is this was a nice group of people, a very nice group of people.

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Nicole Greer: Faith-based, uh, wanting to do the right thing, but just kind of.

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Nicole Greer: asleep at the wheel in terms of what people were experiencing inside that culture. And so, I started helping them. But, you know, I think environment's huge. I have this little diagram called.

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Nicole Greer: Uh, U101, and it talks about what people… how people are made, but there's several inputs.

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Nicole Greer: into a human that gets them what I call lit from within, so that they shine, that they work hard, that you have a vibrant culture. And one is environment.

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Nicole Greer: It doesn't have to be brand new, but it has to be clean. Um, and then, you know, the relationships that we have.

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Nicole Greer: vertically, uh, in the business, horizontally in the business, um, you know, how we're interacting with people, the level of communication.

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Nicole Greer: and rapport, um, and then I, you know, I also think, uh, the thing that impacts us is that we know how the business is doing.

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Nicole Greer: Like, we're clued in. Like, somebody is telling us how the business is doing. Uh, to me, what I call that is open book management. Like, that's… that's what we call it in MBA school or whatever.

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Nicole Greer: So, I mean, I think those things really help build a vibrant culture. So, that environment and.

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Nicole Greer: And whether or not the business is doing well, and how people are talking to each other, treating each other is.

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Nicole Greer: Dead ringer. What? What do you find? I bet you find the same things.

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Chellie Phillips: Yeah.

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Chellie Phillips: Well, it's true, I mean, like, you can tell a lot when you just walk into a place, like, you, you can feel the atmosphere a lot of times, it's so true.

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Nicole Greer: Oh, yeah, yeah.

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Chellie Phillips: I mean, so, one of the things I often see is a gap between what leaders say they value.

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Chellie Phillips: But then what the employees actually experience in the workplace and everything. So what do you think causes that disconnect? When somebody, in their mind, they're thinking, I need to be doing all of these right things, but yet there's a disconnect with how it's coming out? What do you think causes that?

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Nicole Greer: Well, it's integrity. I mean, that's what I would just boil it down to. So, um, so I… in my, in my coaching work, for many, many years, I used other people's models as.

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Nicole Greer: a way to coach people. Um, and I got my first little coaching certificate back in 2007, and then, like, one day I woke up and I'm like, I think I have a handle on this now for myself. You know, I have a thought process about.

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Nicole Greer: how people are hardwired, and how you can help them do better in their work. So, uh, it goes with my.

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Nicole Greer: um, vibrant culture is I came up with the SHINE coaching methodology. So the first thing is self-assessment.

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Nicole Greer: And this, this ties into your question. Leaders need to turn the mirror inward and take a hard look at themselves and ask themselves this very important question.

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Nicole Greer: Which is, what is it like to experience you?

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Nicole Greer: And so when we say the leader says one thing and the employees experience another, there's some kind of disconnect.

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Nicole Greer: Uh, in the experience of the leader, right? So the leader… yes.

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Chellie Phillips: The self-awareness… don't you find that self-awareness is so hard for some people? Like.

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Chellie Phillips: You know, I mean, it's kind of like you need that best friend that says, girl, you're not going out of the house like that, really, are you? You know, like, because in our mind, I'm looking in the mirror going, I look fabulous today, you know, I mean.

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Nicole Greer: Right.

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Chellie Phillips: And so, self-awareness is that… it is, it is a struggle for some people to really.

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Chellie Phillips: actually diagnose what's going on, that I may think this is happening, but this is not really what people are experiencing when they experience me.

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Nicole Greer: Yeah, well, people, um, justify, rationalize, they do all sorts of things. I'll tell you a really quick little story about, like, a blind spot, because we… the self-assessment.

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Nicole Greer: helps you remove the blind spot that you have. So, I was working with these leaders, and we were doing this.

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Nicole Greer: Experiential called group dialogue, because we're trying to get everybody to listen to each other.

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Nicole Greer: Imagine that, everybody listening to each other. And so we're doing this thing, this little exercise called group dialogue, and so we took, like, a subject matter.

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Nicole Greer: And we said, you know, do your homework on this subject matter, because it affects everybody in this room, and we're all in different departments.

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Nicole Greer: And so everybody's like, okay, and so they all come, and then I said, we're going to also practice, uh, active listening, and we're going to practice asking powerful questions. And so I teed the whole thing up.

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Nicole Greer: You know, and I'm like, you know, and here's the thing, when we're delivering our powerful question, or we're stating what we're stating, we're gonna also do this thing called emotional intelligence.

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Nicole Greer: Everything's cool, everything's alright, there's no reason to get fired up, we're just gonna talk about this issue, let's see how we do.

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Nicole Greer: And this woman in the group says.

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Nicole Greer: I have a question. I said, okay. And she, she says.

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Nicole Greer: Now, Nicole, I listen to everything you just said, but sometimes I'm blunt.

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Nicole Greer: And things need to be blunt sometimes, I mean, we get to get to the brass tacks, so sometimes I may not ask a question, I might just tell somebody how I think about it.

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Nicole Greer: Is that okay? And I said, no! Did you just hear everything I just said? No, that's not what we're doing right now. Now, you may do that when you go out and have a one-on-one or in a different group setting.

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Nicole Greer: But right now, we're gonna practice, and see, this is the H in my Shine coaching methodology.

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Nicole Greer: habits. We're going to practice the habits of just relaxing. You know, most companies I work with are not curing cancer. In fact, I don't think I work with a company that's curing cancer. Maybe… if you're trying to cure cancer, I want to help you. Call me.

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Nicole Greer: But, like, nobody is, I mean, like, we're welding things, we're manufacturing parts, we're.

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Nicole Greer: uh, firefighting, which is important, um, but, like, we're talking about, you know, what we're doing together versus the actual firefighting. I don't teach on that. But, you know…

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Nicole Greer: It's like, we all need to just kind of relax, but this woman just, she's, she's decided that her leadership style is blunt and to the point and she's not gonna tolerate this or that.

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Nicole Greer: And it's like, that's the very thing that is the problem with this team, is you're like that.

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Nicole Greer: And that's self-assessment and that is habit work so you do have to put people in these scenarios where they practice.

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Nicole Greer: What they don't understand.

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Nicole Greer: It's crazy. Yeah.

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Chellie Phillips: So true. So, the A in mine is accountability, and that's kind of a little piece of what you're talking about, you know, and so I look at that a lot, and you know, a lot of leaders tell us they want strong cultures.

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Nicole Greer: Same answer, yes.

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Chellie Phillips: But I don't think they ultimately realize the role that they personally play in creating it. A lot of times we think, okay, I've made the decision, this is going to happen, and now everybody else is going to make it happen for us, and that kind of thing.

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Chellie Phillips: So what are some of the behaviors that you think leaders, um, consistently need to model if they want the culture to reflect a certain set of values?

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Nicole Greer: Okay, that is a great question. The number one… well, I'm gonna call it a mindset first, and then I'm gonna give you the behavior. So the mindset is.

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Nicole Greer: Um, I get an employee, my role is to develop this human.

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Nicole Greer: To the max potential.

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Nicole Greer: And here's why. It makes all the sense, because the business is over here, it's on one side, and the people are here on the other side.

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Nicole Greer: The business.

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Nicole Greer: equal sign people. Like, you might have a product, you might have a service, whatever it is that you're selling.

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:05.000
Nicole Greer: It's not going anywhere unless the human beings can.

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:10.000
Nicole Greer: Sell it, market it, build it, package it, ship it, whatever the stuff is.

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:16.000
Nicole Greer: Um, so you have to develop the people, so if I have a team full of amazing.

00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:27.000
Nicole Greer: lit from within, shining people, I have a vibrant culture. And buddy, we're selling, we're shipping stuff out the door, and we're making money. We're making hard cash.

00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:36.000
Nicole Greer: Because everybody's working at performance. So, if you think about, I'm the owner of this business, what's… why do you have a business? Because the business.

00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:47.000
Nicole Greer: produces profit, or it supports a passion, or there's some kind of big output you need, and the people within have to be developed.

00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:56.000
Nicole Greer: How do you develop people? Well, the number one thing we have to do with people is we have to work them through shine. So, I'll go back to it just for a hot second. So.

00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:10.000
Nicole Greer: you need to constantly do self-assessment with your people. So, you know, there's this thing called employee performance management, which you're very familiar with, but very few companies do employee performance management, but what that is.

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:13.000
Nicole Greer: As I sit down with my employees.

00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:23.000
Nicole Greer: Once a week, that's my dream, is I would have a company that would say, I'm gonna do this, come heck or high water, we're gonna sit down once a week and talk to our people. If you can't do once a week.

00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:32.000
Nicole Greer: Do twice a month, okay? And if you can't do 2 times a month, at least sit down and talk to your people at least once a month, so 12 times a year.

00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:39.000
Nicole Greer: And when I sit down, I fill out a document as the employee that says, Nicole.

00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:43.000
Nicole Greer: How do you think you're doing? See, this is… she's self-assessing.

00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:56.000
Nicole Greer: On the next page, it says, what habits are you working on? So, I just had a quick story about habits. I was just, uh, coaching a young lady, and she does this thing all the time. It drives me crazy, I'm trying to get her to stop. She says.

00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:01.000
Nicole Greer: Does that make sense? Does that make sense? Does that make sense?

00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:09.000
Nicole Greer: And I'm like, stop doing that, it's almost like you need everybody to verify what you say, you're saying is true.

00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:14.000
Nicole Greer: Just say, and that's my position on things, or that's how I see it.

00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:18.000
Nicole Greer: Or, uh, this is how I want to move forward.

00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:26.000
Nicole Greer: Don't keep looking for approval, uh, that you're not insane, talking about what you're talking about, because what you're talking about makes total sense.

00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:32.000
Nicole Greer: You know, so, so there's little habits, right? And so it might be that you have an employee that does that, and you're like.

00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:37.000
Nicole Greer: Stop doing that, okay? Um, uh, so, whatever the habits are, being late.

00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:44.000
Nicole Greer: being self-deprecating. I have a lot of women that I work with still that are like, well, I'm not sure if this is right, but this is what I think.

00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:57.000
Nicole Greer: knock it off! Just say, this is what I think. You know, leave out the I'm not sure if it's right part, you know, because you're probably right, because you have a lot of expertise, and you've been here 30 years, you know, like, just say it.

00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:03.000
Nicole Greer: Then there's the I, which is integrity, right? So, integrity is about character.

00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:14.000
Nicole Greer: Okay, and integrity is such a funny thing. Everybody thinks they have it. And here's the truth about integrity. It comes and it goes. I mean, and I'll just say it for me.

00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:19.000
Nicole Greer: Like, Nicole Greer is not always the best version of herself, because I'm a human.

00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:30.000
Nicole Greer: And there are moments where I mess up, I say the wrong thing, I sometimes… I don't think I'm like that woman that's like, I'm gonna be blunt, I'm not like that, but, um, but sometimes I'm like.

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:32.000
Nicole Greer: Frustrated, and you know it.

00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:43.000
Nicole Greer: I'm not being emotionally intelligent every second of the day, right? So, um, so really, really looking at, um, character, and so I use a tool called the tilt.

00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:56.000
Nicole Greer: And it is a self-assessment that helps people look at the quality of their character instead of just their personality. Like, we've all taken the disc and the Myers-Brigant and all the stuff, and I love all that stuff, I'm certified and all that stuff.

00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:02.000
Nicole Greer: But, taking a hard look at our character, like, I, you know, what do you need? I need to be more patient.

00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:07.000
Nicole Greer: I'm so impatient with people, I over-talk people, I interrupt people.

00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:20.000
Nicole Greer: There's all that stuff, right? And so, it's habit work, and it's integrity work, and then next right steps. Between this time we sit down together and the next time that we get together, what are you gonna learn? What are you gonna do? What project are you working on?

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:31.000
Nicole Greer: What is your next right step? And then there's energy, right? Energy is everything in a business. Stuff only gets done if somebody applies energy to it. And so, there are 6 energies.

00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:34.000
Nicole Greer: Um, and I can talk about that or not, but…

00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:40.000
Nicole Greer: Developing those humans that are your direct reports is the magic.

00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:45.000
Nicole Greer: To a vibrant performance culture.

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:55.000
Nicole Greer: If Nicole has a leader that sits down, talks to her, and says, you need to be working on this, you need to be working on that, and I love you, and I know you can do it, you know what I do? I jump up from my desk, and I go prove it right.

00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:59.000
Nicole Greer: So, I get very passionate about that, I'm sorry.

00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:05.000
Chellie Phillips: I love it, because, you know, I say all the time, like, thriving cultures create thriving businesses.

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:07.000
Nicole Greer: Amen.

00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:23.000
Chellie Phillips: And, like, I was like, you know, I come from the utility world, and so, I mean, like, people think nothing of, you know, $300,000, $400,000 for a bucket truck, but you ask for a professional development program that might be $10,000. It's like, you've asked for the world, kind of thing, and so.

00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:24.000
Nicole Greer: Right, right.

00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:35.000
Chellie Phillips: And so, it's like, you want to, like… but if you invest in these people, they're going to do what they need to do to make all this other work for you and everything else, and so… so I get this, and I appreciate your enthusiasm, because I'm…

00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:36.000
Nicole Greer: Yay!

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:40.000
Chellie Phillips: I feel like we're, like, beating the drum here together for the same kind of thing.

00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:38.000
Nicole Greer: Yeah.

00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:40.000
Nicole Greer: That's exactly right.

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:48.000
Chellie Phillips: And so, the accountability piece, uh, you know, I was talking about, you know, that people have to take ownership and they have to take initiative.

00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:50.000
Nicole Greer: Mm-hmm.

00:26:48.000 --> 00:27:02.000
Chellie Phillips: And so, what does that look like practically for employees? So, say they're walking through your program, and we're on the habits piece of it, and so you're wanting them to develop that. So, how do you get them to take ownership of that habit development?

00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:08.000
Nicole Greer: Okay, the leaders to take, uh, ownership of the habit development.

00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:20.000
Chellie Phillips: Yeah, or like the employee that they're working with, like if you've worked with, you've worked with your leaders and, and inside your organization and you're like, okay, you need to work on these things, we've all agreed that this is the habits that you need to practice.

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:12.000
Nicole Greer: Oh, okay, oh, yes.

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:30.000
Chellie Phillips: How do you get them bought in? How do you get them to take ownership of that and be like, yes, I need to do that so I can be reflective of that out to the other people that are working with me?

00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:38.000
Nicole Greer: Yeah, 100%, I'm with you now. Okay, so, um, I have this thing called the accountability formula. So, if you have a pen, everybody write this down.

00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:47.000
Nicole Greer: Um, so, let's say that I am doing employee performance management, and one of the things is, is that, um, I need to work on my patients.

00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:51.000
Nicole Greer: Okay? I talk over people, and I interrupt them.

00:27:51.000 --> 00:28:00.000
Nicole Greer: So, I'm the leader, and I ask the employees sitting in front of me, I say, I think that is awesome self-awareness. Now, first of all, we're reinforcing.

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:12.000
Nicole Greer: SHINE, like a madwoman, a madman, because we want people to start self-coaching. Like, that's when things are really lit, is when you can take somebody and you can move them out of the corporate office and.

00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:22.000
Nicole Greer: into another state or another country, and they start up that location for you. I mean, you know, and they know how we're rolling. They know how we roll. We shine, we're a vibrant culture.

00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:28.000
Nicole Greer: So, the first question for that employee would be, what are you going to do.

00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:31.000
Nicole Greer: To practice patience.

00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:37.000
Nicole Greer: So, it's one thing to say be patient, which, like, I don't know how many times have you been told that in your life? I've been told that a lot.

00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:40.000
Nicole Greer: be patient, Nicole. So…

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:45.000
Nicole Greer: How do you practice it? So that person, we don't give her the answers, and now we're coaching, right?

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:48.000
Nicole Greer: So we say, what do you need to do? And she's like.

00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:53.000
Nicole Greer: I need to literally put my hand over my mouth in meetings.

00:28:54.000 --> 00:29:04.000
Nicole Greer: and sit there and think about not speaking until she is finished. Like, I'm going to physically change the position of my body, which, that's called somatic, right? So, I could do that.

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:17.000
Nicole Greer: Uh, I could ask one of the other gals or guys in the meeting to give me a wink, or kick me under the table, or pinch me if I start interrupting people. You know, whatever the thing is, but have them come up with a strategy.

00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:26.000
Nicole Greer: to be patient. Instead of speaking up, I'm going to write down what I would say, and when she's done speaking, then I will read what I wrote down.

00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:31.000
Nicole Greer: Okay, whatever the thing is. So the second question in the accountability formula is this.

00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:41.000
Nicole Greer: Uh, when are you going to do this? When are you going to start? What's your… what's the timing on this? Okay, so people have to be committed to some kind of time frame.

00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:50.000
Nicole Greer: For you to hold them accountable. So, um, you're… you ask your employee, what is the time frame? When are you going to start this? And she says, the very next meeting.

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:57.000
Nicole Greer: Say, okay, well, you'll be in 2 meetings, because we're going to meet in 2 weeks, so I want you to report back on how you did in both those meetings.

00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:06.000
Nicole Greer: And so the person says, okay, all right, so now we have a time frame. In 2 weeks we're gonna talk about it, and we're, and see, this is where the leader might, might.

00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:08.000
Nicole Greer: Fall off the wagon.

00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:13.000
Nicole Greer: Is not keeping track and not talking about it 2 weeks later.

00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:23.000
Nicole Greer: That's… and don't miss this, accountability is the heavy lifting of the leader. The leader has to remember all the dang things that they're asking people to do.

00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:29.000
Nicole Greer: And they have to follow up. Accountability is actually on the leader.

00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:37.000
Nicole Greer: being accountable is on the employee. So, accountability is owned by the leader, or the manager, or whatever, the human in charge.

00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:42.000
Nicole Greer: Now, the third question is, how will I know that you are successful?

00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:48.000
Nicole Greer: You notice that is an appreciative inquiry question. How will I know that you are successful?

00:30:49.000 --> 00:31:02.000
Nicole Greer: Please don't fail. So, you know, I will tell you in our meeting how I am successful. I will send you an email, I will send you… I will put a post on Teams, I will call you on the phone, whatever it is.

00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:09.000
Nicole Greer: But there has to be a point in time where the two humans come back together, and that is where accountability fails.

00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:17.000
Nicole Greer: Two humans with 2 minds, with two brains, 2 mouths, and four ears have to come back together and talk about it.

00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:26.000
Nicole Greer: And say, that was a success. That was a success, here's how you can improve next time, or that was a success, just keep doing what you're doing. That was a failure.

00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:32.000
Nicole Greer: What are you gonna do differently next time? It's the coaching moment.

00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:35.000
Nicole Greer: Around accountability that makes it magical.

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:45.000
Chellie Phillips: So, I want to dive into that a little bit, because, um, leadership now has gotten more and more where it is more of a coaching mindset than.

00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:39.000
Nicole Greer: Yeah.

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:47.000
Nicole Greer: Good.

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:51.000
Chellie Phillips: Anne dictatorial kind of mindset that a lot of us kind of… when we first got into.

00:31:51.000 --> 00:32:00.000
Chellie Phillips: uh, the business world or whatever is kind of what we experienced, the hierarchical of, this is, you just do what I say because I told you to do it kind of leadership mindset.

00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:01.000
Nicole Greer: Right. Right, right.

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:10.000
Chellie Phillips: And so, um, why do you think coaching is so important for businesses to bring into their organizations? And even dive a little deeper into that.

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:20.000
Chellie Phillips: About even, like, working specifically with some of your leadership with personal coaching and everything to develop personal styles and personal skills that they can actually use.

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:22.000
Chellie Phillips: To better the whole organization.

00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:29.000
Nicole Greer: Yeah, okay, I love what you're saying. So, so here's the thing, um, there's 4 responsibilities.

00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:39.000
Nicole Greer: that a person who's leading has, okay? So, I'm gonna talk about 2, and then focus on coaching. Or, I'm gonna talk about 3 and focus on coaching. So, the first one is leading people.

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:47.000
Nicole Greer: And so, people are very confused between leading and managing. Leading is, hey, come on everybody, we're going over there.

00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:54.000
Nicole Greer: Here's the number we're gonna hit, here's the thing we're gonna build, here's the bigger, better future.

00:32:54.000 --> 00:33:04.000
Nicole Greer: I find that is not articulated very well in many places. It's just like they're going through the motions to make the widgets. It's not this exciting.

00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:06.000
Nicole Greer: sexy.

00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:15.000
Nicole Greer: future, right? And notice when I talked about Nancy Freeman, she's like, we're building properties all over the Southeast, we're hoping to have 90 by the end of 2000. That was a long time ago.

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:25.000
Nicole Greer: And we're going to be doing this, and we're going to be growing that, and we're going to be starting to do fee management. I was like, that sounds great. What's that? What's fee management? I didn't even know! I was 20! I didn't know nothing!

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:33.000
Nicole Greer: So, that's leading, and so you have to, and people are scared to talk about the future that way, I don't know why.

00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:38.000
Nicole Greer: Because they think they have to be right, or certain it's going to happen.

00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:45.000
Nicole Greer: But you don't have to be certain, you can say, this is what we're doing, we're hoping it'll turn into this thing.

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:57.000
Nicole Greer: Because that's how life works. You gotta make up a vision and then make it happen. Now, how do you make the vision happen? Is you manage stuff well. So there's the second responsibility.

00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:08.000
Nicole Greer: So now, I'm managing process, I'm managing people, I'm managing policy, I'm looking at a scorecard, looking at KPIs, key productivity indicators, okay.

00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:15.000
Nicole Greer: And that's where most people are, that's all they're doing, they're looking at that stuff, okay? That's really important stuff, but.

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:22.000
Nicole Greer: But not the most important. Then the third responsibility is mentoring. And I bet you have this, I have this all the time.

00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:27.000
Nicole Greer: Leaders will say, how come they don't know? They should know that. Why don't they know? They don't know.

00:34:27.000 --> 00:34:35.000
Nicole Greer: How come they don't think the way I think? Yeah, and, and, and the thing is, is people just don't know everything.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:41.000
Nicole Greer: Like, like when Nancy Freeman's telling me, we're gonna be doing fee management, you know, and I'm young and so I'm stupid and I think she doesn't.

00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:53.000
Nicole Greer: know that I don't know and I'm like, oh, okay, you know, and I'm thinking, I gotta look that up when I get home in a dictionary so, you know, I didn't know what this stuff was and so, um.

00:34:53.000 --> 00:35:00.000
Nicole Greer: being so authentic to just say I don't know, right? And so, some people need to be given what I call dots.

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:10.000
Nicole Greer: So we have this head up here, and in our head, we have neural passageways, and the distance between these neural passageways are like little nodes, and so I call them dots.

00:35:11.000 --> 00:35:18.000
Nicole Greer: And sometimes people are missing dots, so that woman that's like, I'm blunt, and I'm like, oh my god, she's missing a dot.

00:35:19.000 --> 00:35:34.000
Nicole Greer: I don't, you know, I don't… I don't… I don't, you know, I don't have time to fiddle around with why doesn't… why doesn't she have this dot? And how did… was she raised by wolves? I mean, you know, I don't get into all that. You know, I'm just like, oh, she's missing the blunt dot. Okay, so let's talk about being blunt for a minute.

00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:39.000
Nicole Greer: You know, like, you can be straightforward, you can be a straight talker.

00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:44.000
Nicole Greer: But you can't use your words like a weapon, and that's what blunt is.

00:35:43.000 --> 00:35:46.000
Chellie Phillips: To be a jerk, yeah.

00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:51.000
Nicole Greer: Right! You know, it's like, you know, like, don't be so stupid. That is being blunt, okay? Or you could say.

00:35:51.000 --> 00:35:56.000
Nicole Greer: Oh, that's not the way I see it. I see it this way.

00:35:56.000 --> 00:36:01.000
Nicole Greer: That's a way to say the same thing without hitting somebody with your words and making them feel dumb.

00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:09.000
Nicole Greer: So, anyway, so, so that's mentoring and so, leaders, you have to slow down and give people dots.

00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:14.000
Nicole Greer: And don't miss this, if you sit down with people, and you know, I'm saying, sit down with people.

00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:18.000
Nicole Greer: Once a week, they're like, what in the world are we going to talk about every week?

00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:31.000
Nicole Greer: You're going to develop them, you're going to teach them, you're going to give them dots, you're going to show them a P&L, you're going to take them for a walk, you're going to explain something that they don't understand, so they can be as smart as you.

00:36:31.000 --> 00:36:36.000
Nicole Greer: So there's the mentoring. Now, coaching. You said, why is coaching so important? Here's why.

00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:39.000
Nicole Greer: Once people have dots.

00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:41.000
Nicole Greer: We want them to use them.

00:36:41.000 --> 00:36:48.000
Nicole Greer: And coaching is facilitating a conversation where people connect the dots.

00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:53.000
Nicole Greer: And they go, oh, that's why we do that, exactly.

00:36:54.000 --> 00:37:02.000
Nicole Greer: Right? So, if you talk about business acumen, which is really, really important, we don't do much of it.

00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:13.000
Nicole Greer: Um, I was so lucky with that Nancy Freeman, I adore her. Let me just… Nancy, if you're listening, I love you. So, she sat me down one day, and she's like, this is called a P&L. This is revenue.

00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:17.000
Nicole Greer: This is expenses, and this is called net operating income and I'm like.

00:37:19.000 --> 00:37:24.000
Nicole Greer: You know, and so she, like, you don't know till you know.

00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:29.000
Nicole Greer: And so she's like, well, you subtract the expenses from the income, which is obvious if you have an MBA.

00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:36.000
Nicole Greer: But if you don't have anything but a high school degree, you may have never heard these words before, so you're learning language, you're learning.

00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:41.000
Nicole Greer: Philosophy on business, being an entrepreneur, I didn't know this stuff.

00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:47.000
Nicole Greer: And she's like, that not operating income and I'm like, what's all them numbers down below that? She's like, oh, that's cash flow and this and that.

00:37:47.000 --> 00:37:54.000
Nicole Greer: Like, wow, this is complicated, you know? But when you, you teach somebody how to read a P&L.

00:37:54.000 --> 00:38:03.000
Nicole Greer: That's mentoring, and then later on, when Nicole Greer's P&L is printed after she's run the apartment community for a month.

00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:08.000
Nicole Greer: And you stick that P&L under her nose, and you say.

00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:11.000
Nicole Greer: How did we get to this number?

00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:21.000
Nicole Greer: What did you do to increase this number, Nicole? I don't know, I just worked hard. You know, but then she says, well, let's go line item by line item.

00:38:21.000 --> 00:38:26.000
Nicole Greer: How'd you get the revenue number up? Well, we leased a lot of apartments last month.

00:38:27.000 --> 00:38:29.000
Nicole Greer: And she's like, exactly.

00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:35.000
Nicole Greer: When you lease those apartments, you get them in, you get the, as my dad would say, get the heads and the buds and the butts in the seats.

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:37.000
Nicole Greer: Then this number gets bigger.

00:38:37.000 --> 00:38:46.000
Nicole Greer: Then we have lower electric bills, because now the resident is paying the electric bill. You charge them a pet fee. I mean, she's going through, and I'm like.

00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:52.000
Nicole Greer: Oh! So now, when I go to lease an apartment, I'm like, you got pets?

00:38:52.000 --> 00:39:00.000
Nicole Greer: There'll be a pet fee. You know, and we really need you to move in as soon as possible. These apartments are in high demand, so now I'm a better salesperson.

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:09.000
Nicole Greer: So, coaching is helping people understand how the business works and then how they show up.

00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:14.000
Nicole Greer: So, if somebody was to say, what is it like to experience Nicole Greer as an apartment manager?

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:21.000
Nicole Greer: Hopefully, you know, in year 2, Nancy would say, Nicole really knows how to make that P&L sing.

00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:32.000
Nicole Greer: She's ready to be a regional. She's ready to do what I did with her, with her own region. Give her 5 managers at 5 apartment communities and let her go to work.

00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:45.000
Nicole Greer: That is how you get a vibrant culture. And so, the other part of that is, you know, I was talking about energies. One of the energies is financial. When I got promoted to regional, I made a boatload more money than I did running one property.

00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:52.000
Nicole Greer: You know, like, so it all goes together, so you have to teach people how to, how to be a business person.

00:39:53.000 --> 00:39:59.000
Chellie Phillips: So, I do love… I love that you call yours vibrant Culture, and…

00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:04.000
Chellie Phillips: I love that you use energy in what you do, because, like I said, I come from the utility world, and it just…

00:40:03.000 --> 00:40:05.000
Nicole Greer: Yes!

00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:11.000
Chellie Phillips: Nates with me and everything like that, and so I talk about the energy that a leader brings with them.

00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:08.000
Nicole Greer: Yeah.

00:40:11.000 --> 00:40:22.000
Chellie Phillips: So how does that person… what… the energy that they bring with them, how does it impact the engagement that they get from their team, and the buy-in that they get from their team when they're trying to shift cultures?

00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:23.000
Nicole Greer: Mm.

00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:28.000
Nicole Greer: It's huge. It's linchpin stuff, okay? So it's the E in Chime.

00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:39.000
Nicole Greer: And so, there are 6 energies that the leader brings and that the employee brings, and the goal is to stoke all these energies, so I'll go through them.

00:40:39.000 --> 00:40:45.000
Nicole Greer: The first one is intellectual. Now, here's the thing about Nancy Freeman. She was, she was not.

00:40:46.000 --> 00:40:53.000
Nicole Greer: excited like Nicole Greer is behaving right now. She wasn't that person. She was pretty solid, pretty serious.

00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:58.000
Nicole Greer: But, like, she had a vibe, like, I'm teaching you this so you can be successful.

00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:04.000
Nicole Greer: And she never said, I love you, or I care deeply about you, or anything like that, but I knew she did.

00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:12.000
Nicole Greer: Because she was bringing emotional energy underneath it, and spiritual energy, so intellectual is one, emotional is one, and spiritual is one.

00:41:13.000 --> 00:41:17.000
Nicole Greer: So emotional energy is the seriousness that she had.

00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:22.000
Nicole Greer: Was kind of telling me, Nicole, if you want to have a career.

00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:27.000
Nicole Greer: And make good money, and support your family, and do your stuff.

00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:33.000
Nicole Greer: This is serious and so I would actually calm down when I was around her. I was like.

00:41:33.000 --> 00:41:40.000
Nicole Greer: Miss Nancy's talking to me right now, behave yourself, like I would talk to myself like that, you know, and, but like, I never thought.

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:50.000
Nicole Greer: she wasn't spirited about things, you know what I mean? And that's the third energy, and that… and I'm not talking about religion right there, what I'm talking about is, like.

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:58.000
Nicole Greer: I love this company, I care about our mission, I care about our vision, I care about your vision, and your mission for your career.

00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:03.000
Nicole Greer: And you could feel her want to save me.

00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:10.000
Nicole Greer: Okay, so I'll throw that little spiritual thing in there, but she was like, if Nicole doesn't learn this, she'll be in trouble!

00:42:11.000 --> 00:42:23.000
Nicole Greer: Right? So that matches the other stuff. So, you know, she wanted to help me, and I really felt that. And it was genuine. And leaders do have to sometimes fake it till they make it.

00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:30.000
Nicole Greer: You know, like some people get promoted, they should have never been promoted because they don't like people. If you don't like people, you should get, you should.

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:40.000
Nicole Greer: do some thing in the corner with Excel or something. I don't know what you should be doing, but you should not be leading people if you don't like them, or you don't care about them, their future.

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:48.000
Nicole Greer: Um, okay, so intellectual, emotional, spiritual, the next one is physical, so physical energy is huge. That's why we all have wellness programs in our benefit package.

00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:57.000
Nicole Greer: You know, and um, I'll tell you, we need to feed people better, like, I go so many places and do training and they're like, we're having pizza and I'm like, really?

00:42:57.000 --> 00:43:03.000
Nicole Greer: Again, some more? Like, let's have a salad with a grilled chicken and like water with a.

00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:18.000
Nicole Greer: cucumber and a lemon in it. Let's do that instead. I don't care if they complain, it's better for them. Alright, then we have, uh, and we should take walks, we should have walk and talks, we should walk, we should have Fitbit contests, we should do all sorts of things around physical energy. People who feel good in their bodies work harder.

00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:23.000
Nicole Greer: That's just the truth. If your knee hurts and your butt hurts and your finger hurts, it's hard to work.

00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:31.000
Nicole Greer: Uh, the next energy is social. You have to bring people into a room and have them connect. You gotta slow down to go fast.

00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:36.000
Nicole Greer: Everybody's like, we don't have time for training. I got news for you. You don't have time to not train.

00:43:36.000 --> 00:43:41.000
Nicole Greer: You are spinning your wheels and working twice as hard as you need to because you don't train.

00:43:41.000 --> 00:43:48.000
Nicole Greer: So, there's that. And the last thing is the energy of money. Um, and here's what I know, the more profitable.

00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:53.000
Nicole Greer: Because, see, I'm not saying do all this fluffy stuff and not make money. I'm saying…

00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:59.000
Nicole Greer: Develop your people, you'll make more money, promise. Um, so, we develop the people.

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:08.000
Nicole Greer: Um, and they… you have, and they are working harder, being more innovative, doing more stuff, and guess what? Now we have money for bonuses, and.

00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:13.000
Nicole Greer: I believe in bonuses for merit.

00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:23.000
Nicole Greer: I don't believe in, you've been here 100 years, you get a whatever, you get a watch or a plaque or something. I mean, that's fine, you can do that, but also have.

00:44:23.000 --> 00:44:33.000
Nicole Greer: Merit. Because there'll be 2 people in a job, and dare I even say this, there might be one that's been there 20 years, but they are doing the same thing they did 20 years ago.

00:44:34.000 --> 00:44:36.000
Nicole Greer: And you'll have somebody new.

00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:42.000
Nicole Greer: And they are learning everything under the sun and killing it. You have to give that person.

00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:44.000
Nicole Greer: More money, because they're better.

00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:52.000
Nicole Greer: And if you do employee performance management, and you're keeping track, you will be documenting.

00:44:52.000 --> 00:44:54.000
Nicole Greer: How they're doing better.

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:57.000
Nicole Greer: So it's not a debate.

00:44:57.000 --> 00:45:06.000
Nicole Greer: But you know, Susan's been here a long time, I don't… I care about Susan, but we have sat with her, we have coached her, she doesn't want to do anything but answer the phone.

00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:13.000
Nicole Greer: Well, then she gets the pay that you get paid for answering the phone.

00:45:13.000 --> 00:45:20.000
Nicole Greer: Now, this other gal, Joanne, she's gonna get paid for answering the phone, and when the phone's not ringing, she's doing 17 other things. She gets more money.

00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:25.000
Nicole Greer: Because she's more valuable to us.

00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:31.000
Nicole Greer: But if you're not doing it in a structured way.

00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:34.000
Nicole Greer: Then you're gonna get in a mess.

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:41.000
Chellie Phillips: So, I'm going to kind of wrap us up a little bit. I got a couple of rapid-fire questions for you.

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:43.000
Nicole Greer: Oh, I like rapid fire, let's go!

00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:51.000
Chellie Phillips: So, um, in your experience, what's one leadership habit that has the biggest positive impact on culture?

00:45:51.000 --> 00:45:55.000
Chellie Phillips: And what's one that can quietly destroy it?

00:45:56.000 --> 00:46:04.000
Nicole Greer: Uh, the best is asking powerful questions, and the worst is not being seen by the people that follow you.

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:14.000
Chellie Phillips: What advice would you give a leader who genuinely wants to build a healthy, vibrant culture, but feels overwhelmed by the responsibility of doing that?

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:25.000
Nicole Greer: Get a coach who can help you get a plan in place to strategically implement it on a Gantt chart and make it the same thing you would do as if you were releasing a new product.

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.000
Nicole Greer: Let's release a new culture, just like we're releasing a new product.

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:37.000
Chellie Phillips: Um, if every employee answered this one question honestly, what's it really like to work here?

00:46:37.000 --> 00:46:43.000
Chellie Phillips: What are the top 3 things that they could say that you would know that they had built a vibrant culture in this organization?

00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:46.000
Nicole Greer: Uh, I love who I work with.

00:46:47.000 --> 00:46:54.000
Nicole Greer: Um, I know I have a future here, or I'm about to get promoted. If there's talk of promotion growth.

00:46:54.000 --> 00:46:58.000
Nicole Greer: Um… and it's fun.

00:46:59.000 --> 00:47:05.000
Chellie Phillips: I like that you used the F word. That's not a bad word in the workplace. I'm just so glad.

00:46:59.000 --> 00:47:01.000
Nicole Greer: One is.

00:47:02.000 --> 00:47:05.000
Nicole Greer: It's the best F word ever.

00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:11.000
Chellie Phillips: So, what's the leadership lesson that you've had to learn the hard way?

00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:09.000
Nicole Greer: Yeah! Fun!

00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:17.000
Nicole Greer: Not everybody can be saved.

00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:21.000
Nicole Greer: That's the worst one.

00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:22.000
Chellie Phillips: That's hard for people like us, isn't it?

00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:31.000
Nicole Greer: Oh my god, it slays me, you know, but I, but I do, I have had people circle back around, like, years later and, and like, reach out to me and they're like, you know.

00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:34.000
Nicole Greer: Oh, I should have listened to you kind of thing.

00:47:34.000 --> 00:47:44.000
Nicole Greer: Um, so, you know, you get as old as me, you know, you'll start having people circle back around, you know, it's like, I really screwed up, you know, when I didn't listen to you.

00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:49.000
Nicole Greer: You know, and then they're like, do you have a job for me? And I'm like, no, I don't.

00:47:49.000 --> 00:47:51.000
Nicole Greer: But anyways…

00:47:49.000 --> 00:48:03.000
Chellie Phillips: So, and I always close out, um, by asking a question similar to this, and so for you, I've got… so if a leader were listening today, and they wanted to improve their culture starting first thing tomorrow morning.

00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:05.000
Nicole Greer: Hmm.

00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:07.000
Chellie Phillips: What's the very first thing that they should do differently?

00:48:11.000 --> 00:48:23.000
Nicole Greer: Uh, they should get out of their office, and they should go walking around. There's this really old book called The One Minute Manager, and I still love it. And, um, and it says, one of the things you need to do is manage by walking around.

00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:31.000
Nicole Greer: So, I'd go for a really good long stroll, maybe an 8-hour stroll, and go through the different departments, check in on people.

00:48:31.000 --> 00:48:37.000
Nicole Greer: Talk to them, uh, be very observant, come back and look at your notes.

00:48:37.000 --> 00:48:39.000
Nicole Greer: It's the first thing I would do.

00:48:38.000 --> 00:48:43.000
Chellie Phillips: I love it. I taught… when I was writing my book, I talked to someone, and they told me to watch the parking lot.

00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:45.000
Nicole Greer: Ooh.

00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:54.000
Chellie Phillips: how people come to work in the morning, and how they leave in the afternoon. And so, if they sit in their car until 7.59 and 30 seconds, and they've got a clock in at 8.

00:48:54.000 --> 00:49:03.000
Chellie Phillips: then something is wrong, or if they make their mad dash at 4.59, because as soon as the door shuts, it'll be 5, and they can't wait to get out of the parking lot.

00:48:56.000 --> 00:48:57.000
Nicole Greer: Yes.

00:49:03.000 --> 00:49:13.000
Chellie Phillips: then there's something else that you need to look at, too, so… so I love that. Get out of your office and see who your people are. Nicole, I have had such a great time talking to you today.

00:49:09.000 --> 00:49:11.000
Nicole Greer: Right.

00:49:13.000 --> 00:49:21.000
Chellie Phillips: Tell my listeners how they can find out more about you, how they can get ahold of you, tell them where to find you on social media, give them all the scoop.

00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:35.000
Nicole Greer: Okay, fantastic. Thank you so much again for letting me be on the show. So, uh, go to vibrantculture.com, my phone number is in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage, and you can call me, and I'll answer the phone, unless I'm working with a customer or a client, so…

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:42.000
Nicole Greer: Leave a message, I'll call you back before the end of business. I'm on LinkedIn, I put all of my things on LinkedIn, uh, that's where I hang out.

00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:51.000
Nicole Greer: And I have a newsletter on there, a newsletter that I put out. You can also sign up for a 30-minute talk with me. You're like, I want to talk to her.

00:49:51.000 --> 00:49:57.000
Nicole Greer: Just go right onto that homepage, and there's a place where you can sign up, you can speak with me directly, and we'll hang out.

00:49:57.000 --> 00:50:08.000
Chellie Phillips: Well, I highly recommend they have the talk with you, because it's been fabulous chatting with you today, and I appreciate your time and you taking time out of your schedule to share what you're doing and how you're making an impact.

00:50:02.000 --> 00:50:04.000
Nicole Greer: Thank you.

00:50:08.000 --> 00:50:11.000
Nicole Greer: Thank you so much, it's been a pleasure.

Chellie Phillips: Nicole, thank you so much for joining us today. I love the reminders that building a vibrant culture really starts with leadership.

Chellie Phillips: With the choices we make, the energy we bring, and the way we invest in the people around us. You've shared so many practical insights that leaders can start applying immediately, and I know my listeners are going to walk away with some great ideas.

Chellie Phillips: If you'd like to connect with Nicole or learn more about her work helping organizations create vibrant cultures, you can visit her website at vibrantculture.com.
 Nicole, thank you again for being part of the Culture Secrets podcast. I've truly enjoyed our conversation. And thank you to everyone listening. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to follow the Culture Search Podcast and share this episode with someone who's working to build a stronger culture where they lead. Remember, culture isn't being built in big moments, it's built in the small leadership choices we make every day. Until next time, I'm Chellie Phillips.