Don’t Blame the Fish — Fix the Fishbowl: Michael Dixon on Leadership and Culture

In this episode of Activating Greatness, Alec McChesney sits down with Michael Dixon of UNeMed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center to explore what it takes to lead with intentionality, build culture by design, and create environments where people and performance thrive. Michael shares how leaders must consistently choose culture over chaos, why accountability and trust are built through clear expectations and ownership, and how empowering people to grow in areas where they are energized drives both engagement and results. From hiring the right people to avoiding leadership fads and maintaining alignment over time, this conversation delivers practical insight into building sustainable, high-performing teams. If you are focused on building culture, strengthening trust, and leading with clarity, this episode is a blueprint for intentional leadership.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Activating Greatness, the show where we dig into what it really takes to lead with purpose, inspire performance, and create lasting impact. As always, I'm your host, Alec McChesney. And every episode, we sit down with leaders, thinkers, and change makers who are unlocking potential in themselves, their teams, and their organizations. Here we talk about the real stuff: leadership that drives culture, strategy that creates momentum, and the mindset that turns good intentions into game-changing results. Because greatness, it isn't a title, it's a choice. It's something that you have to activate every single day. So thank you. Thank you for listening, for showing up, and for being part of a community of leaders who refuse to settle for good enough. Now let's dive in and meet today's incredible guest. Today's guest is Michael Dixon, a senior leader with extensive experience building teams, setting standards, and leading through growth and change. Michael currently serves in a leadership role where he is responsible for creating environments that enable people to perform at a high level while continuing to grow and adapt. Throughout his career, he has been known for his focus on intentional leadership, being deliberate about how teams operate, how expectations are set, and how leaders show up when gaps emerge. Michael believes great leadership isn't accidental or episodic. It's forged over time through clear conversations, thoughtful decisions, and a commitment to helping people grow where they're most energized while still ensuring the work gets done. And today we're going to talk about intentional leadership. We're going to talk about how leaders intentionally create environments where people can grow, adapt, and excel and why that intentionality is the foundation of accountability and performance. Michael, I'm really excited for this episode. We were just talking before we went live that it feels like it was maybe two weeks ago when we had our prep call. And turns out it was about three months ago. So I appreciate you still taking the time out of your day to share your expertise with the activating greatness audience. And before I start running and take this thing all over the place, would love to have you, you know, maybe do a little bit of a further introduction to yourself for those who aren't familiar with Michael.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Yeah, no, happy to. Thanks so much for the great intro, Alec. And uh yeah, man, time really does fly. It's crazy how how quick it's moving. Um, but yeah, for those of those that don't know me, Michael Dixon. I'm with uh Unimed here at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. And our mission really is to make sure that the research that occurs at the university can turn into things that help people. And so there's uh 250 million just on our campus here at the Med Center alone. Um, that leads to roughly uh 125, 130 new ideas every year. And those new ideas come to our office. I've got a team of 11 uh that vet those ideas. We file intellectual property, we market, we talk to venture capital, we help start companies, we license some things to existing companies, all with the goal of creating the next generation of therapeutics, diagnostics, software tools um that can help make us uh make the world a better place. So um it's been great. I've had a fantastic opportunity here at the university to build and grow a team, and we're doing pretty complex things. So it's it's a lot of fun. No two days are the same. Um, and that's the challenge and and the opportunity for us.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

I love it. And and I I said I was excited for this episode. There's a lot of reasons why. One of them might be that you're only the second guest out of 30 and the second guest out of 80 plans that share the city with me. We had uh Jeremy Maskell, the chief communications officer for the Omaha Public Schools, on his episode actually aired today on April 2nd, talking about strategic communication. And now we we get you talking about intentional leadership. And I think you might only just be four minutes across the way uh from me here in Midtown, which I I love. I want to I want to start with the intentionality as a leadership discipline. One thing that really came out from our initial prep call was you were talking about intentionality, not just as a thought process, but something that leaders must actually choose over and over again. And it sounds great, it's a great buzzword, but what is what does intentional leadership actually look like, Michael? And and why is it so easy for us to drift away from it to not practice it on a day-to-day basis?

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Yeah, I it's it's funny. After our conversation, I don't often put the words to things we do as as much. So it's let led me to think a little more about some of those things. And you know, I I think um the really challenging part is is as leaders, we we we get hit with so many different things, and it's just a constant barrage and it never ends. The din continues and it it never goes down, it always goes up. And and what I found is that if you don't consciously redirect yourself to make sure that you're handling the things that that enable the culture that you want, it's really easy to say, I've got 25 things on my checklist that I need to get done. I'm just gonna focus on those. And so, you know, that that conscious effort to say these are things that are really important. They they aren't gonna show up on a metric tomorrow, they aren't gonna show up on my board report next quarter, but they're the things that are going to lead us to be successful a year, three, five, 10 years from now, um, are really important. And and um a lot of it comes out as I meet, talk, do things with a team. I can tell, I can tell when that dial isn't turned up right. So as we continue to do things, you you you get the little pieces, you'll you'll hear pieces like we need to work on this, we need to work on that. And and so being intentionality is a really good phrase for that, but just being thoughtful of culture and and really making sure that you don't get buried in everything else that goes on and all the other fires that are going on, they're really important. You need to take care of them, but you also need to make sure that that you don't let the culture slip away um and and miss miss the forest for the trees as you're doing that. So, you know, as I think of intentionality, it's really to me, it's culture. It's being intentional about your culture. If you get the culture right, if you get the people right, they will help you continue to maintain that culture, it's kind of like a fish tank. Um, get get the get the environment right and and the uh the um habitants that that live there will help keep it keep it up for you.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Yeah, I I love that you talked about intentionality being tied in with culture right out of the gate. Because when we talk about culture here at velocity, we talk about it from the top down and the bottom up, right? This is not words on a wall, it's decisions that we make every day, it's how we treat one another within the organization. And in today's market, today's environment, it's shiny objects, it's noise, it's task, it's do this, do this, do this. And there's always another thing. And you can go three months and suddenly pick your head up and say, Holy cow, has it been three months? I haven't checked in in this way, or I haven't, I haven't done X, Y, or Z. And I just thought, oh wow, how great would it be to be able to do that? And it gets lost, and that's where that culture, you start to have friction amongst the teams, and and ultimately, if you're not intentional about the culture, culture will create itself. Uh, it will find a way one way or the other for better or for worse.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

It'll it'll actually take more of your time. It's again, it's it's like a fish tank. If you lose control of it, it's gonna take a lot of your time to try to get that back. You really, if when you're intentional about it, if you just spend a little bit of time working on it consistently, it's gonna be fine. You're gonna be great, but you ignore it for a couple of weeks, you come back from a vacation, no one's taking care of it. You could have some problems you got to deal with.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Yeah, I I have not heard the fish tank analogy, but that's why we're here on the Activating Greatness podcast. We had we had uh uh a CEO on a couple of weeks ago who his episode's out now, John Stenberg, and he talked about uh basically being a leader is an adult version of would you rather? And I said, John, I've I've never heard this. Um tell me more. And he's like, Well, everything. Would you rather fix this or would you rather fix that? And there's always an alternative option. And I love this fish tank analogy because of the environment that you have to create. If the environment's poor, yeah, then the fish tank is poor. If the environment's poor, the the the culture is poor, and so on down the line.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

I I had a I had a former boss on the fish tank analogy, maybe why it's in my mind. But as I was looking to hire, he he warned me, said, Look, you you've got a fish tank now. Every time you introduce a fish, it changes, it changes everything. So be really thoughtful as you add or subtract because you change your environment. So I've often thought of our office as a fish tank, and you know, we've got this culture, we've got our plants, we've got all this stuff. But as we add or subtract, it changes the environment, it changes how people react to things, which is really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Yeah, it's uh, and I'm not just I'm not so intrigued by this just because I remember when I was maybe in seventh or eighth grade and we had a fish tank, and you brought a shark and uh one of those like tiny baby sharks into the picture, and it was fun for about 30 minutes, and then all of the other fish were gone, and you realized this is not a fish tank anymore. It's a really first part. But it goes to designing an environment where fish can grow, designing an environment where people can grow. And one of the things that stood out from our initial conversation was it's so clear that you're passionate about helping people grow in the area where they're energized and where they're capable. And again, another comment that some people can say, hey, that's great, but we still have to get the job done. We still have to do this. And I'm curious, just in your perspective, how can leaders, how do you create that environment and create those conditions where you can say, okay, Alec, I can tell you're fired up in this area. Go, go be better in that area.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Um, to me, this is one of the really hard parts of being a leader because you have things you've got to get done all the time. And so that's you know, call it meat and potatoes. We've got to get this done. I, you know, whether you subscribe to the 20%, be creative, some of that. My thought process has always been again build build your environment where your strengths are, some of the Gallup training I've had and some of those pieces. But as teammates come on and they show a lot of aptitude in areas, we'll shift duties, we'll move somebody over a little, and then we'll move them into this other space. And you know, sometimes that shift is a big shift, and sometimes it's just little shifts uh throughout. So, so we don't, you know, just hey, next week you're all this, you're all that, but we allow them to experiment. Hey, that's a really cool project. Let's try it out, come back, build it, develop some more. And I've had, you know, I had a uh PhD licensing, marketing. He he only had science. Um, he was really interested in Salesforce development, and we needed a new CRM. Like, let's try it out. Yeah, we built our CRM and we have a custom Salesforce implementation since 07. Saved me a ton of money. We still use it, it saves us money every year. He has since moved on. He is now a Salesforce developer, would have not been, you know, what I would have expected. But he he had an interest, he built it, he got more interested. It added value to our team because it built this really great product that we'd have had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for. He was an employee, he was still doing everything else. But I found when people are passionate, they really like something, you'll get a little something more out of them. They'll spend the night, you know, working on a website or developing this really cool marketing piece while still getting the bulk of their work done, which is which is really what we need. The added productivity in an office of 10, 11, 12 makes a huge difference. That force multiplier of I'm really excited about this. I'm gonna take this project on, I'm gonna build this ambassador program, I'm gonna build this accelerator, helps us a lot because we have the meat and potatoes, everyone knows we have it. But when you can do some fun things too, or things you're really interested in, some things that allow for growth. We found that at least with within our teams, that motivation kicks in and the productivity, it it's a multiplier, it's it's not additive, it's it's um it's something to where we see more, yeah, and we see kind of happier employees, which is you know really nice when you've got to process 125 inventions. Not that's not all happy days. That's sometimes you just gotta bear down and do a lot of searching.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

I so much good there, Michael. Uh, I want to start at the end at the the happier the employee, the happier the relationships. Like that's you know, our our co-founder wrote the book uh uh called the true competitive advantage, and it's all about relationships. And if you have positive relationships, you have positive, happy individuals, it's a competitive advantage in the market, uh, especially when times get tough and it comes back to that culture element when you have a culture that can withstand 125 engines coming your way, and there's some times where you just gotta you gotta take the medicine and it doesn't crumble. That it's such a positive. And I love this example of the the Salesforce build, and you know, that individual no longer working with you is a comment that I hear every now and then about leadership development, about culture. What happens if we train them or we let them do this and then they leave the company? And I've always thought that was such a frustrating line of commentary because good for them. We want them to go and flourish. Give me a little bit on that. That's not a question, but just give me a little bit on that, Michael.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

I could not agree more. That that's a phrase that I get frustrated with all the time, too. Ultimately, my goal is to train people to take over my job or to find jobs like mine to take over because they are bright, really, really good at what they do. They need to continue to grow and and and get better. If they find things they love, if we can give them opportunities to do above and beyond, and it keeps them here and really productive and happy, that's awesome. But ultimately, you know, I had a colleague recruited to another big university, and she was really sad. She's like, I really like it, everything here, but it's more money, it's more this is a great opportunity. Go do it. Go now. She's at a big company. I call her up, I say, Hey, I need some information. There's there's a it's an asset that we have. So we've got we've done a ton of training. We we bring fellows in and we train them, and then they become our licensing or they move on. Yeah, so now we've got a network across the nation where you know, if I need something from Cedar Cyanai or or somebody in Emery, um, I got had somebody to wash you. Now we've got a few company people. So that network is really valuable to us. Um I had an old boss that used to say, no matter what, hire people better than you. That's your goal as a manager is always to hire someone who's better than you. Yeah, they're not better than you, help them become better than you because that's what you want as as a as a manager. And so I freely admit, as as stuff comes in, like you know, Matt's better at this than me, Jason's better than me at this. So most of our activities, there's someone better than me that can do it. Um, my my job is to do blocking, tackling, and and take a few bullets here and there so that they can do their jobs.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Uh, I that needs to just be sent out on the billboards, and um, that's a it's absolutely a LinkedIn post that comes out of that, Michael. And I think you know, the element or there's the saying, you know, a good manager knows that you're gonna get promoted, a great leader wants you to, expects it. They're they're they're prepared for it and they're helping you prepare for it. I do want to talk about because you you just said your job is to, you know, kind of keep keep the team together, maybe take a bullet here and there. When we talk about this expansion of the team, and hey, I want you to work on what you're passionate about, I want you to have autonomy and growth. Certainly, gaps show up. And a lot of times when gaps show up, there that gap is in an area where there is less excitement, less interest, and maybe even less capability. And there's different ways that a leader can handle that. Hey, do I make someone else do it? Do I step in and do it? Do I step in and do it? And that's a strength for the team rather than undermining someone else. I'm just curious, what's your balance as you look at the field and say, okay, maybe this is an area where I come in and I plug that gap and I fill that role?

SPEAKER_02 17:02

I um I it's a mixture. I I think, you know, I don't know if it's ever the same. Um, I I enjoy it. If I can come in and fill a gap and, you know, um, usually it's short term because long-term things are more difficult, then that's great. Um, or you know, can we bring together a team? Can we have a little bit of a network that can do that? Or, you know, um oftentimes, you know, as we identify gaps, is can we get someone that that say, hey, what's a creative solution? How can we make this more interesting? What can we do within that? So I think it it's a mixture of all of the above, but but again, it falls back onto my shoulders to say, hey, we've got gaps, these are the gaps we need to fill. Let's come together as a team. How are we going to solve it? And then it's not always my decision, often isn't. It's it's the team's decision. Like they recognize the gap, they have a lot of ownership of this organization. So, again, if if I was eaten by a polar bear tomorrow, nothing would change. The office would run the same, it would just be a little less blocking and tackling. There'd be other pieces they'd have to fill. But but overall, they have agency and ownership over their areas, their departments, their pieces. And so a lot of times those gaps are filled by the team and and they don't even let me know. Like, oh yeah, we had that gap, so we we did this, yeah, which is great for me because I can keep working on some of the strategic and the relationships and some of the other pieces. But, you know, if we need to haul chairs to the event hall, that's something I can do.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Let's let's haul chairs for the event hall. Yeah, it's it's that that philosophy of I wouldn't ask somebody on my team to do something that I'm not willing to do myself, right? And and if that's the culture, then you are going to have people raising their hands and stepping up and covering someone else's back. And especially when you talk about a tight-knit team, 10, 11, 12 people, uh, whether that's within that's all that's on a team or if that's within a larger organization, you start to see that culture be able to weave in to individual projects, to long-term solutions. Uh, and that's something that is repeatable and not just a one and done nice to have on a on a random Friday.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

I I'm this this how I grew up. That's that's the leadership that I saw growing up. Is it's you know, you do it and and then other people can model it. Um I there's nothing I would ask anyone to do that I wouldn't be willing to do, and quite frankly, wouldn't want to try to jump in and do if I if I could uh for them. So uh I think that's really important. I I I'm I'm not a fan of leading from a throne. Um this is uh roll up the sleeves and get things done type type business.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Yeah, well, and that's uh frankly how they all should be, right? I think we would have a lot better retention, we'd have a lot better culture if that was the case. And I'm curious, you know, we talk about all of this, and it's not a one and done activity, as I mentioned, right? This is something that is reinforced continuously. It's ongoing conversations at those micro moments that make a culture, and it's at the same time, micro moments are conversations that can fracture a culture. Um, I I'm gonna ask a two-part question here. I think this first one might be my bad question to the podcast. Uh, I'm allowed one, and I think it's this. What led you? You said it, you said I'm gonna take a step back. You said this was the leadership that you saw and you wanted to build and model. What was the team's reception like? Has that been a learning curve for the people you lead as well to see what type of leadership you have and the type of team and the expectations and how we're gonna hold them accountable and all of that? Or is that like, hey, absolutely, we're in, we love this. Was there uh a grace period where it took a little time to adjust to this kind of new model?

SPEAKER_02 20:53

I so so I I'm really fortunate. I it I will fully admit I've been charmed my entire life, kind of every opportunity I've had, I've walked into really good opportunities, and so um a lot of it was already built into our culture. So there was we we had a re-org in in 2007 where um it brought different groups together, and and but I I had a a boss, a mentor at the time, and it was Jim Linder. Um he's done a lot of things in our community, so I I think a lot of people know him, but yeah, he really helped establish the things that I've tried to continue. And so I was incredibly fortunate to to just be able to monitor what he did, help him build that, but then continue to maybe carry that that torse as as he went off to do bigger and better things. So I didn't have to, I didn't have to recreate a culture. Um I had Jim, you know, I worked with Jim to help you know do what we did. But but really there was really great adoption because when we when we merged the organizations, it was uh um there was a lot of enthusiasm for that. They they everyone respected Jim. There was a lot of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm for what we're doing. And then we've continued to build along the way. You know, that you know, you continue to tweak. You is it's like a piece of art. You never are really done with it. Yeah. But but the major form was set. And so I didn't have to create it from scratch. And so I'm really fortunate that that I was able to just um inherit something that was actually pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Well, I think that it's a it's a great answer to my bad podcast question because it sets up the second one, which is which is how how do we sustain it? Right. You talk about we talked about some of the autonomy and growth, but what does that look like from you know, are we getting together more often and not talking about work? One-on-ones, like what is that thing? What are those conversations, meetings, standards that you have that help sustain this culture that was built and and been running for you know multiple decades now?

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Yeah. And so I I look at this a lot like entrepreneurship. Um, there's some people are really good at building something from scratch, and there are people that are better at just maintaining I'm probably that downstream. I'm better at maintaining than building from scratch, um, which is great, is is where I ended up. Um, I I wish I could say, you know, I I've got a formula for it. Um, a lot of it is I just want to have fun in what we do. And if I'm not having fun, then everyone else. So we we want, you know, there's there's a little bit of a temperature check, but I think, you know, we do subscribe to the um the theory, like it's not all work, right? We do some fun things, we try to to engage as there's a lot. I I've got a group of you know, roughly my age that like football. So there's a lot of husker talk along the way. Um you know, and and so there are different groups that really engage outside of of the normal things, and and that's that I think allows downtime, allows time to do other things other than than when we're on, when we're always doing what we need to do and and keeping that environment kind of fun and and engaging. Um, in addition, um, we've been really good about uh being able to leverage resources for training and professional development. So as someone says, I really got to, I want to scratch SH, I want to take this course, we've been able to do that. And so, you know, as you're able to keep people engaged and excited about what's next, it it helps them focus on everything else too. It's not just I've got 42 reports right today. Yeah, something like that. It's you know, you have some fun things along the way too that still keep us functioning, still keep us active, but but maybe not, you know, the uh the boring stuff.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Yeah, there has been a recurring theme within the the podcast lately about we need to make work more human, uh, a little bit more fun. It doesn't have to be doom and gloom and the Sunday scaries and Monday and Hup Day Wednesday, living for the weekend. And it's it it it's it's so refreshing to hear you say it and also not overcomplicate it, right? It hey, listen, we're just integrating a couple of things here and there. We're trying to have more human conversations, we'll talk football, we'll do this. It's not rocket science. People want human connection in a world that is more and more online. We want to be able to have those human elements to to the work. And uh I love I love that the it's kind of that keep it simple, stupid uh model on making work more human.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

So, one of the fun things we just did, and and again, not led by me by others, we we had to put some art up. We have new buildings, so we've got some nice things, but we had this big blank space above our printer. And so one of the one of the teammates came off and said, Hey, I got an idea. And so he he had blown up a photo of uh office space when they're in the field with the bass speeding up, yes, and it's it's the guy is like this, he's right over the top of you know, and you can't see anything below this. That is now framed over our printer, and it's just it everyone kind of smiles and laughs as we walk by. We're all office space, the ficcionados, I guess. Um, but it's it's just fun things that are it's super easy. It was like 25 bucks to blow it up, frame it, and and throw it up there, but it makes everyone happy.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Yeah, I well, and I think that combined with the development piece is the important piece of this puzzle, right? You know, there was the there was the buzz of culture, and culture meant we had a ping pong table and a beer cake, and hey, we actually we're not willing to invest in the development, though. We're not willing to invest in this, but we've got the the foosball table. I love hearing that we have that balance and saying, okay, hey, we want somebody, somebody has something they're really passionate in. Yeah, let's make it work, let's see how we can fit that in. You have the the capacity to do that, it gives people the right of way to seek those opportunities out as well, right? It's it's something that they could have ownership of as well. And I think if you can see, hey, I could own my own development and my organization's not gonna say no when I go and I make the case for it, it gives you a different feeling as an individual contributor and an emerging leader as well.

SPEAKER_02 27:20

We definitely want them to feel like they have agency over the organization. I mean, they have to have that. I own this, this is my piece of land, I control it. And within the confines of what we're doing, that's what's best for us. Because it's not that we we're we're not making widges, we're not, you know, it doesn't need to be all looking the same. Everything that comes in is a little different. They have the ability to move that around. And I think the less restrictive we are while still getting to that same outcome, the happier they are, the more productive, the more, the more ownership they feel of the process. Yeah, and the more ownership you have of the process, the better you're gonna do. If you're if you're doing a 25-step process, say this guy is crazy, it should be take two. I agree. Yeah, do it in two, do it in two.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Yeah, it also allows for creativity within that process, right? And we talk about it all the time at velocity, and and certainly on this podcast, in terms of there's not one right way to do this task. Some of them, there certainly are. There are tasks where it is, hey, this is the only way to do it. But other tasks, you could paint the truck, you know, forward to backward, backward to front, up to down, one line at a time. And if you know the end goal is to paint the truck, let that person be creative and play within those guardrails and do it the way that they not only enjoy doing it, but find more uh passion out of as well.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

I I think that being result-oriented rather than process oriented is really, really important. And so I I there are processes we have at the end of the day, we want the result, not the process. We don't live for the process, yeah. And so, yes, a hundred percent, you know. The and and quite frankly, with people that are smarter than me, they're gonna find better processes along the way to get to that spot. And as we do, we'll document it so others can see. But but often it's it's not a Bible, it's it's a it's a guideline, yes, and make it better if you can.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Yeah, play with it, you play within the sandbox of the outcome, play within the sandbox of the results, but find different ways to make the castle. Uh, I love that. Um, we've used some very interesting analogies from the fish tank. I think you mentioned getting eaten by a polar bear earlier. Um, you know, I I love it. This is this is why I wanted to have you on exactly what I was going for. Um, I've got one other uh question that I that I'm curious on. It sounds like you have created this, you know, or or you you helped create it, now you're sustaining it. And we've talked about culture, but also it just feels like there's clear expectations. It feels like there's clear accountability when someone says, hey, I'm gonna own this, then they actually own it. There's not people kind of overlooking the shoulders. You know, I don't know if this is just a vague question. What is that? I want to say, what is that like, Michael? Tell us all. Like, tell us all, you know, how how do you within that, how do you see the team work within that? And one team member and another team member being able to hold each other accountable and it not have to come to you because there's clarity of expectations, there's clarity of what right looks like, and clarity of accountability as well.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

Yeah, that it's a really good question because I think you know, often in bigger organizations, you don't have that. You have a lot more, um, a lot more processes, a support process driven. It's just harder and big. I think one of the nice things about being a small organization that's a little adjacent. We're we're 501c3, we we're university adjacent. We're we get a lot of benefit from the university, but we're we are adjacent. And that gives us a lot of freedom to to be able to be like that. To me, I think that's one of the big differences is we aren't we aren't in that big behemoth of an organization that just says the battleship is tough to move. Yeah, we're in a really nimble organization there. If we want to change something, we can change it in a meeting by the coffee pot if we want to.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

And that I think that is that gives people a lot of hope that their input has impact and that we we can do things in that. And I think that keeps them thinking, it keeps them engaged, it keeps them developing versus that really big organization that maybe you don't feel that. I I think you can still do it in big organizations. There's just a lot of big organizations that yeah, there's friction on that. Yeah. Um, and and Neo, maybe this is an example of you know, we are part of a bigger organization, but but we've been we've been given agency here to to do that. So I think the more you're able to to give pockets agency within big organizations, the more productive they can be, and actually the more um, the more engaged the employees will be as as they develop and and feel like they own those those processes. Because ultimately, you know, when you own it, you're on the hook if it fails, you're on the hook if it succeeds. Um, and and I think within that too, um, we're all we're largely scientists here, so we're really used to failure. Like we all came out of graduate school where if if we succeeded 10% of the time, we were like rock stars, like most of our stuff failed. And so we come here, we treat a lot of our activities the same. Like we we want to do the best, but if we're pushing the envelope, we expect some failure, and that's okay. If it doesn't work, we we learn, we we document why did it not? We'll look at it and say, okay, what if we did this? We'll move on to that next hypothesis, you know, repeat the scientific method until we find things that work. And then when they work, we double down and continue to let them roll. But um, don't be afraid of failure. You know, it's gonna happen if you're doing things that are creative, fun, um, interesting, productive. Not everything's gonna be successful. In fact, most aren't. And that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

I gotta let that sit for a second because that's coming out on LinkedIn and also getting shipped to everybody I know, Michael. Uh, so such a good, such a good answer there, and a great segue to our our rapid fire leadership round. I can't believe it. I looked down, it's been 33 minutes of recording time. Uh, we talk about time flying when we're having fun, and that's where we are at. And that means I'm gonna ask you four rapid fire questions, about 30 seconds each for each of these questions. Uh, just off the top of your mind, we're gonna start with question number one. What is one leadership habit that you rely on every day?

SPEAKER_02 33:46

Show up, show up, do do the little stuff. I I mean we kind of hit on it earlier, but you know, I think if you're present, if you're active, if you're showing the team that you'll do, you know, you'll carry the chairs, you'll you'll cook the food, um, they'll they'll follow you a lot of places. So show up and do the tough stuff.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Yeah, I well, the episode that came out this past Monday, March 31st, was with Kellen Mond, uh, who played at AM and then was uh a Minnesota Viking for a year or two. And he talked about the way you do the little things is the way you do all things. And if you show up every day, everybody notices that. And as you start to slip, it becomes noticeable as well. Uh, I love that answer for question number one. Question number two What is the most underrated skill that a leader needs to succeed today?

SPEAKER_02 34:39

The ability to listen. I I think it's really hard. Um, we're used to to having solutions, and and not everything has a solution. Um, often they don't. The problems that come to leaders uh are usually the problems that don't have easy solutions. Yeah, and so the more you listen, the more you're able to think and even ask questions back. Um, sometimes you can figure out pathways through it, but but they're not easy, usually. They're they're and they're usually going to be problematic. Um so I think a a lot of people I see just try to to, you know, quick answers, let's move to the next problem. Let's listen, listen, listen.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

Listen to understand and not just answer in the moment, but also that combination of uh as I'm answering your uh answer. Um listen one of my favorite aspects of growing up through journalism was the ability to ask questions. And one of the things that I've learned is the best leaders are really comfortable asking questions, and they're comfortable asking hard questions, and I think that goes to being able to listen and know what types of questions to ask to also help your team uncover the solution to that one. That was 30 seconds. I took it over, so you don't get knocked, no red card. Uh that was an Alec problem, not surprising. On the flip side, we're gonna go question number three. What's something that great leaders need to stop doing?

SPEAKER_02 36:11

Uh I I don't know if it's all leaders, just everyone, just the chasing the fads. Um, I this is a I see this a lot, you know. AI, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do that. We we've got you know ping pong tables, and and I there's just a lot of fads. And yeah, and I I think at the end of the day, um, just be true, be authentic, uh, do what you do best. And and you know, if something is is cool and it fits your culture, great. Um, but but don't try to to shoehorn a fad into it just because everyone else is doing it. I think it's easy to say, oh, look, it's working there, let's do it here. But your culture needs to be your culture, and you need to figure out what works best for it and and be careful with it, treat it well.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

Oh, I that's the first time that has been answered uh for question number three in 25 episodes. And I I love it. Uh, so many of the reasons that velocity gets brought in a lot of times is we had a strategy, we had a culture, we had a vision, and then we chased the shiny object. And the shiny object took us down a dark alley, and now we're trying to find our way back. So I I really appreciate that answer. The last one here the rapid fire. What what's the best leadership advice that that you've ever received, Michael?

SPEAKER_02 37:25

I I think I've already said this, but I'm I'm gonna say it again. It's hire people are smarter than you. Um, you you've gotta in another side piece of that is is hire slow, fire fast. Um, and and it's you know, be intentional about who you bring into your fishbowl, really think it through, bring in really smart people. But if you have someone that's that's not fitting your fish pole, get get rid of it. Don't don't let it infect the whole the whole culture, and and you'll spend years trying to to unwind what happens there. So um people are really important. I think they're the most important part. We're in that type of business where um they've got to buy into the culture, they've got to believe it, they've got to be a good fit for it. And and sometimes they're good people, they're just not a good fit for for what you're doing or your culture, and it's not bad, but um, you've got to be willing to to move on and and find the right people so that um you're able to do everything you need to with um a limited number of people and a lot of uh a lot of um input coming in.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

Yeah, I I probably should have gotten rid of the shark a lot earlier in that tank now now that I'm I'm learning.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

I'm learning fun to watch, and then you can just keep repeating it. So, you know, there are other things you can do with that.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Yeah, but I do I want to double down because you you took it in the initial direction of hiring people that are smarter than you, which I think is in its own right, uh just such a great leadership trait and a hiring trait. But then you you you took it in the other direction, which is the people are what make the organization, they're what make the culture, they're what make the the results and the outcomes, they're what have you client-facing, court, whatever the direction of your organization, the people are really the brand. And if you have the right people in the right seats, it's a lot easier to be successful than than if you don't. So I I love that part of that answer. Yeah. The the last thing I have for you before we get out of here, Michael, who who do we interview next? Who is somebody that is doing meaningful work uh as a leader that others can learn from?

SPEAKER_02 39:26

So um I I really appreciate giving me a heads up on this question because I didn't think through this one a lot. Yeah. I have a lot of people I consider mentors, colleagues, and um the name that that kind of bubbled up as I was thinking this through is Dan Hoffman with Invest Nebraska. Um, so I've been on the Invest Nebraska board a long time and been fortunate to work with Dan, probably 15 years at this point now. Um, just one of the most thoughtful leaders I've met, built an incredible culture, built an incredible program. And, you know, he he didn't come out of the investment world, but he has become the go-to guy for investments, um, largely because he's hired incredible people around him, built incredible programs, developed fantastic relationships, just an amazing, amazing job of building something from literally nothing into one of the best investment programs in the Midwest.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

Oh, I love it. I that's a that's a great, great recommendation. And we'll make sure that Dan sees that video of you hyping him up and we'll get Dan on the podcast, which somehow, somehow is on pace for more than 85 episodes in 2026. What started as a uh exciting project for the Veloci advisory group team to showcase great leaders that we work with, but also great leaders who we are being introduced to, like Michael. Uh it's turned into something uh beyond uh the expectations. And in part, that is because unbelievable guests like Michael are willing to share their time and their expertise with us. And it's also due to the fact that we have great listeners and an audience that is giving us feedback and saying, hey, we want more stories like Michael's, we want different perspectives and we want to learn how we can implement this into our business, into our teams, or how do we become the next generation of leaders? So thank you to everybody who continues to listen to the show. When you listen to this one, you're gonna come out and you're gonna say, okay, fishbowl analogy, polar bear analogy, and you're gonna say, okay, I've got some things that I can take away and implement right away. Go connect with Michael on LinkedIn. His LinkedIn profile will be in the show notes. If you do, let him know that the Activating Greatness podcast is where you came from. And as you're doing that, leave five-star reviews. I make the rules and I am the host of the show, but I still have to prove that it works. And I think 80 episodes will do that. But you leaving a five-star review, downloading, commenting, listening, and sharing is what continues to show us that this is working and that we're gonna continue driving this forward. So, Michael, one last time, just want to say thank you. Uh, anything that you want to add, sign off with. I'll I'll toss the microphone one back one more time back to you.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

Um nothing specific, Allie. This was a fantastic. I've had so much fun talking with you, I guess three months ago. I thought it was three weeks ago, three months ago. Uh, this this discussion. It's fun to think uh think through some of these things that that we're working on or trying to continue to grow. Um, you're doing great work. Love the questions. They were a lot of fun. Uh, so I really enjoy it. Thank you for putting something like this together. It's it's really uh uh just a great resource.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

Yeah, absolutely. And as always, everybody listening, thank you for being a part of a community of leaders who refuse to settle for good enough. That's all for this episode, and we'll see you on the next one of Activating Greatness.