IAM1168- President Translates Organizational Needs into Successful Strategies

Donald L. Bedney, III, president of PSP Metrics, firmly believes that well-directed human capital should be harnessed to achieve extraordinary performance. With a mission of driving change through people, he aims to help 1,000,000,000 companies worldwide develop and engage their employees to resist mediocrity and aim instead at institutional excellence. He brings this commitment to superior performance to each of his clients and more than fifteen years of experience translating organizational needs into successful business strategies.

• CEO Hack: I live and die by my Apple calendar
• CEO Nugget: (i) No person is an island (ii) Dream big- ask yourself if you can achieve something by yourself and if you can achieve it with the current talent in your team.
• CEO Defined: Being a servant and creating an environment where people can continue to excel

Website: http://donniebedney.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldbedneyiii/

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Transcription

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00:25 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:53 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. And I have a very special guest on the show today. Abdonny Bedney of PSP Metrics. Donny. It's great to have you on the show.

01:01 – Donald L. Bedney, III

Thank you so much for having me, Gresh. Really, excited about our conversation today.

01:06 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I'm super excited as well. We've had such a great kind of intro call and a connection before, so I know this is going to be extremely valuable. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Donnie so you can hear about some of the awesome things that he's doing. Donnie is the president of PSV Metrics and firmly believes that well-directed human capital should be harnessed to achieve extraordinary performance.

With the mission of driving change through people, he aims to help 1 million companies worldwide develop and engage their employees to resist mediocrity and aim instead at institutional excellence. He brings his commitment to superior performance to each of his clients and more than 15 years of experience translating organizational needs into successful business strategies. Donnie, super excited again to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:49 – Donald L. Bedney, III

Let's do it.

01:58 – Gresham Harkless

Let's make it happen then. So they kind of kick everything off. I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit. I know I touched on your story to hear a little bit more about your CEO story. We'll let you get started with all the awesome work you do.

02:00 – Donald L. Bedney, III

Yeah, so I mean, it's been an interesting journey, my friend. I mean, my experience is really an amalgamation of different roles and stuff that I've been in. I can't say that I was necessarily any aspect of my career that has been linear. It's been a lot of kind of jumps. And so, you know, working in consulting, I've been the head of HR for, you know, a startup that was wholly owned by 100 professional athletes.

That was actually my last year of grad school and about a year or so after that, Worked at a hospital where I served on the executive team and was a chief human resource officer as well. Consulting, you know, most recently was chief of staff for a large healthcare consultancy that sold for 4.25 billion, you know, back in 2019. And, you know, got the opportunity actually to acquire a business, a 75-year-old business actually was founded in 1946. And so went ahead and, you know, raise money and acquired that business at the end of last year.

03:04 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I absolutely love that. And I think that's one of the things that, you know, I really loved about the first time we connected to was talking about, you know, kind of that avenue that people don't even know as a possibility and how that might be coming about for so many, you know, people. But I love that you were able to kind of see that opportunity. And I think so many times we can look at our lives and the experiences in our lives and silos and not realize that we are kind of creating where we are at that present time and building up upon our life in order to get kind of get there.

03:31 – Donald L. Bedney, III

Oh, man, absolutely. You know, once again, I think that while my experience has been an amalgamation, everything that I've done up until this point literally prepared me for the role that I'm in today.

03:44 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, Absolutely. Absolutely. So I wanted to drill down and hear a little bit more about that role and what you're doing, you know, with all the clients you work with, could you take us through a little bit more about PSP metrics and how you're serving the clients you work with?

03:55 – Donald L. Bedney, III

Yeah, absolutely. So as I mentioned, you know, PSP was founded in 1946, to answer a very specific question that kind of faced the country at that point. So it was post World War II, thousands of GIs were coming home from the war and 4 psychologists got together and said, you know what, we believe that utilizing science and specifically psychology, we could help answer this question of fit through aptitude testing, and also psychometric testing. And so that was kind of the genesis, if you will, of our business. You know, we also have conducted research at that point.

And so our first 2 directors of research are really patriarchs within the workforce motivation, engagement space, talent assessment, etc. Dr. Frederick Herzberg and also Dr. Ray Hackman, You know, literally our first 2 directors of research. And so fast forward, you know, we've been doing this work for decades now. I purchased a business from 2 gentlemen, both had their PhDs in industrial organizational psychology. And you know, the way that we do that is we typically will conduct pre-hire testing for organizations. And that's from frontline blue and gray-collar roles all the way up through C-suite. That's a little bit about what we do.

05:13 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I definitely appreciate that. And I'm sure you would echo this as well too. And I say often we forget about that human aspect of business and how I don't wanna say human capital is your only capital. It's probably, I think a lot more important than a lot of times organizations are kind of paying attention to. So I love that you kind of help to make sure those fits are well because I think it's, you know, you can have capital, but making sure capital is in the right place as well, too, is probably just as important.

05:38 – Donald L. Bedney, III

It's as I talk about driving change through people, right? You know, my statement I've made quite a bit is, You know, some people have attempted to drive change through technology, right, you know, we're on Zoom, you know, and other things. And so we have a luxury there. And I believe, you know, throughout our life, like technology is going to continue to, you know, probably change a lot of things. You know, people have also done it historically through the process, right? As you look at Lean 6 Sigma, you know, those types of things and plenty of organizations attempt to do it through policy. You know, even the government attempts to do it through policy. The reality is the only constant in all 3 of those areas is people. And so if you're not able to drive that change through people, then you know, you won't be successful.

And to your point around capital, I think that human capital is actually the, we'll say the biggest secret weapon, you know, for organizations, you can have amazing technology, you can have a great process, you can have amazing policies, but you need talented people to ultimately kind of drive all of that. And so, you know, to be on the front end in this way where, You know, what kind of makes us unique is our ability to customize those assessments to the specific culture. And so as you think about identifying people who are top talent, you know, one of the things that I look at, you know, historically, if you look at hiring, right? Let's say you have 50 to 100 roles within an organization that are open. A lot of traditional HR thinking would be, let's fill all of the open roles that we have. If we don't, then there's a problem.

Well, there's something called the Pareto Principle, which I believe as you look at, you know, that whole 80-20 rule if 80% of let's say your performance metrics are being met by 20% of your talent, you know, your top talent, then I think it's time for a shift. I believe we will begin to see a shift within organizations where their goal is to really identify and duplicate more of that 20% from a top-performer perspective and assessments are one of the tools that you can add to be able to identify individuals who are psychometrically aligned to the top performers within your organization. So if you could just double the number of top performers that you have within your organization, you can see the performance metrics that will follow.

08:03 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely love that. And I love that you talked about the Pareto principle and just understanding how you can strategically have a bigger impact if you are being very strategic about who you're bringing in and those assessments and all those things that you're doing. And I love that you kind of talked about that secret sauce, the thing you feel kind of sets you all apart because I almost feel like, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it almost feels like you're able to translate and understand the organization, but also, of course, the actual assessments as well too, to make that perfect fit because you, I guess you're able to understand each of the languages.

08:37 – Donald L. Bedney, III

Yeah, I mean, you know, I think there are different philosophies and some organizations are looking to identify people that are talented, let's say across the industry, right? And so, if you're in healthcare, as an example, they say, hey, we just are looking for nurses, right? And let's be real, right? In some organizations, frankly, when you think about patient safety or you think about just the sheer amount of roles because they're high-volume hiring organizations, sometimes we get into the mirror test, right? And so you hold up a mirror in front of somebody who's applying and if they fog up the mirror, then we hire them.

And I've been there before, you know, as a practitioner, I've needed to, you know, fill roles. But if you get the opportunity really to, you know, slow down and think through, you know, a long-term, sustainable, and arguably the most effective strategy, then the reality is you want somebody who not only is going to be a top performer and a good fit within a role, but you also want to identify somebody who specifically can be successful within your organization and the environment of your organization, right? And that's where a lot of our clients find, I'll say that we kind of excel, is helping them identify talent that's not only a great fit for the role but also specifically a good cultural fit as well.

10:07 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I think a lot of times we forget about that aspect. A lot of times, like if you have a fish, for example, and if the fish is out of water, it's not gonna perform as well if it's in where it should be. So being aware of that environment, being aware of course, what the job is, and being able to kind of make both of those fits is a huge thing. So I love that you're able to do that for organizations. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

10:35 – Donald L. Bedney, III

Yeah, I mean, you know, so the piece that I kind of live and die by is, is probably not anything that, you know, is game-changing. I live and die by my health calendar, you know, And if it's not on there, then it's probably not gonna happen. We got a chance to kind of pre-brief, I guess, before the show. And for our listeners, I was telling Gresh, my assistant, to shout out to Ann, who's amazing, and actually protected 30 minutes of my calendar ahead of time. And so I thought our conversation was gonna be an hour. And I ended up with 30 minutes kind of ahead of that. So that's been a huge thing for me.

11:13 – Gresham Harkless

So I wanted to ask you now for what I call CEO nugget. So this could be more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

11:24 – Donald L. Bedney, III

I'll say it this way. No person is an island. And as a leader, I think a lot of us at times, depending on our organization and all that, you know, attempt to do things by ourselves. And the reality is, you know, I have another phrase, you know, only dream big. And obviously, as executives and CEOs, you know, one of our jobs is to be a vision caster. But I think one of the biggest ways to know whether or not your dream, if you will, your vision for your organization is big enough is to ask yourself the question, can I achieve this with No.1 by myself? And maybe one, if that's one A then one B would be, can I achieve this with the current talent that I have on my team? If your answer is yes, then I would challenge you to dream a little bit bigger and that your vision is not large enough for your organization currently.

12:26 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And so now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Donnie, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:37 – Donald L. Bedney, III

Yeah, being a CEO to me means being a servant, right? You know, I am a. I'm a servant to, you know, my employees, you know, and I also serve our client partners. At the end of the day, the better I can serve kind of my internal clients, just as much as I can serve my external clients. That's really my primary role.

13:00 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, I absolutely love that. And I think that that servant nature kind of rings true. And what we talked about as far as like, you know, having a vision and making sure that you are putting that vision in alignment with where you want to be. But I think that when you are trying to be, for lack of a better term, a bridge between the person that that the organization might be looking for in the organization and creating that connection through the work that you do and allows those things to come to fruition and you get to make that truly big impact.

13:25 – Donald L. Bedney, III

Yeah, yeah. I do believe that there's a thin line. Some people say you know, consensus is basically failure. You know, and so I do think that you know, the unique things about, you know, leaders and CEOs, you know, is, is that we do have to make, You know, tough decisions that frankly impact, you know, a lot of other people's lives, right. You know, and that takes a certain level of intestinal fortitude, you know, but at the same time, you know, it's chicken and egg for some people.

I just know that my primary, my 2 primary roles are to figure out a way to continue to be a resource and serve my internal clients, as I mentioned, which are people who work for me. And once again, serving and ideally anticipating the needs of my external client partners as well. Because it's somewhere in that chicken and egg, you know, you just kind of create an environment where people can continue to excel.

14:26 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of times it's because you're so dialed in, you're paying attention to those factors, the human element of your organization, even the people within the organization as well too, you start to be again, to be there, when they're looking for something or they're asking for something because you're sold out into what it is they're doing. And of course, you know, the evolution and the changes and opportunities that are within the industry as well too.

14:47 – Donald L. Bedney, III

Absolutely, absolutely.

14:49 –  Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Donnie truly appreciate that definition and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

15:03 – Donald L. Bedney, III

Yeah, absolutely. So I'll keep that relatively concise. You can find me on LinkedIn. They're regular, and that's probably the best place to find me. I am occasionally on Twitter and also Instagram, but you can find me in all 3 of those places going forward. Always happy to engage and shoot me a DM or otherwise if I can be of assistance or if my company can be of assistance, frankly. Very happy to do that. And then as far as just the general passing of the mic, I'm just gonna take the time just to say thanks, Gresh, for inviting me, giving me this platform to hopefully share a few tips and other things that, you know, folks can take and apply frankly, as they continue to run their organization, or even if they aspire to be a CEO one day.

15:55 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. We truly appreciate you for taking the mic and then running with it as well. So we'll definitely have the links and information in the show notes for everybody to get a hold of you. I appreciate you so much for the work that you do because I think so many times we forget about that human capital element and not just the impact that we see from an organizational standpoint but when we start to look at the human we realize that their families, their fathers, their mothers, their kids And we start to see that the impact that you work, the work that you do has an impact obviously in organizations, but even beyond that for the world as a whole. So I appreciate you so much for reminding us of that, my friend, and of course, doing the work. And I hope you have a great rest of the day.

16:28 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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