IAM1733 – Coach and Author Helps Individuals Show the Value of Their Work in All Types of Organisations

Dr. Jack J. Phillips Teaser 00:00

He was looking at end in mind is the habit that you want. But we take it beyond that. We need habits to produce something as a consequence of that habit, and that's gonna be an impact. And so we've morphed it to another level there and say, it's not the habit that you need, but it's results of the habit. So keep that in mind.

The habit is the way to get you there. So we say the end in mind is really a business contribution, a business impact coming from that new habit.

Intro 00:28

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups and CEOs. Without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:55

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I appreciate you listening to this episode. If you were listening this year, you know that we hit 1600 episodes at the beginning of this year. We're doing something a little bit different where we're repurposing our favorite episodes around certain categories or topics or as I like to call them, the business pillars that we think are going to be extremely impactful for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners and what I like to call the CB nation architects who are looking to level up their organizations.

This month we are focused on our greatest asset: talent management and hiring. Think from great resignation to the great renovation. And if you disagree with me, maybe these episodes might be, especially for you. Life and especially business has changed. It has forced those that are within organizations to look differently at talent, and how it's being managed. When we talk about change, think about it, we have to realize that business as usual is no longer here, and that's evident in attracting and retaining clients, but also in setting up people within organizations to succeed. Think onboarding think DEI- diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. How it is working from home and even going back into the office.

Things are different in this month. We are going to explore these topics by featuring CEO hacks and CEO nuggets, but also interviews that focus on these changes and how organizations can make sure they care for and attract the most valuable asset, their people. Sit back and enjoy this special episode of the I AM CEO podcast.

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dr. Jack J. Phillips of ROI Institute. Dr. Jack, it's great to have you on the show.

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 02:27

My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 02:29

Yes, absolutely. I love all the awesome things that you're doing and of course, before we jumped into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Dr. Jack so you can hear about some of those awesome things.

Dr. Jack J. Phillips is the author of, Show the Value of What You Do and an award-winning thought leader in the field of talent development. As a teacher, consultant and coach, he helps individuals show the value of their work in all types of organizations. Dr. Phillips has taught his proprietary methods to over 50,000 professionals and managers in over 70 countries. He's a global keynote speaker and has written over a hundred books all focused on the importance of showing the value of the work.

He's been recognized for his thought leadership by the Association for Talent Development, Thinker's 50 Top Coaches, the International Society for Performance Improvement in the Society for Human Resource Management and Meeting Professionals International. Dr. Phillips has served as an engineer, trainer, learning manager, HR executive, general manager, president and college professor. He serves as the chair of ROI Institute, a globally recognized consulting firm.

Dr. Jack, excited again to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak the I AM CEO community?

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 03:34

I am ready. Thank you so much.

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Gresham Harkless 03:36

Absolutely. Thank you. And so to kick everything off, what I wanted to do was rewind the clock, heara little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 03:44

Yes. In the seat early in my career, I had this request. I was actually running a program for Lockheed Martin and the chief engineer says, can you show me the value of that program, what it actually delivers for us? Could you actually show me the ROI of having your program? And that sparked something in me. I worked hard. I was working on a master's degree at that time and statistics and I worked hard and was able to do that, show the value in terms that he could understand all the way to ROI.

I used that to continue funding for the program. Also I've got a good business partnership that I needed, and I got more respect, got more support, got more commitment there going forward. So we took this process and kept refining it, making it better, bringing it to the public with a book 40 years ago actually, and then kept working it in the global market.

We now have again, 70 countries that we work in and our books are in 38 languages. So we built our business around this book. Run this process and this book, and it's called ROI Institute and I serve as chairman and I share the leadership role with my partner and wife, Patty. Together we drive a team of people who help others show the value of what they do.

Gresham Harkless 05:01

Nice. I absolutely love that. I think it's such a powerful point in everything that you all are doing and of course, trying to be an organization or even a person of value, but I think sometimes we forget that we also have to show that value. So I love that you had that story that kind of planted the seed for everything you've been doing up to now.

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 05:20

Yes. See, we actually help people see the value by teaching them. Sometimes we do it for them, sometimes we do it together. Those are our three options with people as we work with them globally.

Gresham Harkless 05:35

Nice. So that's a little bit on like how you work with your clients and how you serve them. Is that also a lot of what's in the book as well too that we can learn from there?

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 05:43

Yes. If you think about any project the projects break down sometimes because they don't start with the end in mind very clearly. We don't have the kind of expectation to get results at the end, and we don't collect enough data along the way. We don't have a good, clear understanding of the success.

So we have a six-step process here. You start with the end in mind with a clear measure, the impact measure that you want at the end, and we make sure it's the right solution. We expect success very clearly. We want to make sure we have an impact and maybe even ROI at the end, positive.

We collect data along the way and we analyze the data and we leverage the results. Those are six steps that we offer people as an easy way to see the value of any type of project, program, system, procedure, policy, or initiative, it doesn't matter. It works extremely well for those things.

Gresham Harkless 06:35

Nice. I imagine just as you had that experience, and I imagine a lot of your clients as well too, one of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is beginning with the end in mind and being able to, first of all, understand that.

But I think that probably also helps to support certain initiatives, support certain organizations, certain programs. When you are able to understand, what these constituents, what the people that might be making decisions might also understand or want to see a value, you're able to essentially translate it to them in the way so that you can help support whatever it is you might be working on.

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 07:06

Yes. See, that's a good point. See on the Stephen Covey's book, the Seven Habits he was looking at end in mind as the habit that you want. But so we take it beyond that. We need habits to produce something as a consequence of that habit and that's gonna be an impact. And so we've morphed it to another level there and say, it's not the habit that you need, but it's results of the habit. So keep that in mind. The habit is the way to get you there.

So we say the end in mind is really a business contribution, a business impact coming from that new habit. We build around five levels of outcome, first is how people are reacting to our project. It's what they've learned to make it successful. That's learning, reaction and learning first two levels. Then the third level is application, that's the habit, the things that we're doing. Fourth is impact, and the fifth is the actual ROI. So that's five levels of success coming for any project, any program, any initiative. Five levels of success.

Gresham Harkless 08:06

Absolutely. I love that people can measure the success of whatever initiative, program, organization, venture, whatever it might be. I imagine that's a really good filter to put each of those things through.

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 08:17

Yes, and again, it works so well. It's easy. We keep the mathematics low. Fourth-grade mathematics is as high as we need to go, which is probably good news for many people. So it's an easy, simple way to show the value of what you do in terms that others understand and appreciate.

When you do it, you're just driving success because when you start with the end in mind of clear business value, then you actually are designing your project now to deliver that results. So it makes a big difference in the outcome.

Gresham Harkless 08:46

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I know you touched a little bit on how you serve through and work through clients and what we can find in the book. Would you consider that proprietary method to be part of the secret sauce? See the actual ability you have, it sounds to be able to understand each of the constituents potentially, but to be able to translate it so that people can execute and understand exactly like what they're doing with each of the projects.

Do you think that sets you apart and makes you unique?

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 09:08

It is. In terms of evaluating projects and programs this is now the most used evaluation system in the world so that makes it unique in that sense. And it works. It's reached that milestone because it's easy to use, it's very credible for CEOs and CFOs, and it's very credible in terms of the evaluators and the professors and the researchers who need to see very credible processes involved.

So it's unique, systematic, and it's approachable and doable.

Gresham Harkless 09:44

Awesome, awesome, awesome. 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?

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 09:56

I actually go back to Stephen Covey, it's Franklin Covey planning System that came out of their organization. It goes back to the days when it was Franklin Quest and they merged with Stephen Covey. We know those people quite well and they've endorsed our books and so I use their planning system.

It really makes a big difference. It's a planning process that just keeps your own focus on track. It's automated of course, but you got the oath, the paper-based version still around and still works. That's probably made a big difference in my ability to stay focused and stay on track and reach a lot of goals and write over a hundred books.

Gresham Harkless 10:34

Awesome. So what would you consider to be what I like to call a CEO Nugget? So that's a little bit more word of wisdom or piece of advice. It might be something you would mention in your book or if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your favorite client or your younger business self.

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 10:47

Yeah, it's getting people to think ROI. By thinking ROI that means any project we have, we think of success along those five levels. How people are gonna react to it, what are they gonna learn, what are they gonna do, what impact will it have and is it worth it? The ROI is actually worth it for us? What that does is create a culture of accountability that you need.

So we really need that in our organizations because so many projects and new procedures and new processes go astray because they just don't have the focus and the results and the accountability they need throughout it. So I'd say think ROI. In essence, you're creating that culture of accountability you need.

Gresham Harkless 11:27

That extremely powerful. And again, it's just taking those steps and having that intentionality with the things that you're doing. Have you found, and I know you've worked with so many different clients in so many different, areas across the globe, that maybe the default action that people have is just to come up with these initiatives, come up with these programs, rather than have that intentionality with the programs, the initiatives, ventures that they're doing.

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 11:49

Yes, too many of them are flawed and they don't mean for it to be. It's a great idea. It looks good, someone else is doing it. Hey, I got this idea, let's try this. So we don't think through, what is the impact that we need at the end? What is that problem or opportunity that we're trying to solve?

Then think through, is this the right project to do it? And then let's drive the success as a team to make sure we get there. So, yes, too many are just Haphazard off the cuff. Someone requested it, someone suggested it, and so we just take off and start doing it without thinking through all of those issues. We need to drive that success that we want.

Gresham Harkless 12:28

Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping our different quote and quote CEOs on this show. So, Dr. Jack, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 12:39

Well, it's a commitment to serve three groups and that's first our employees to make sure that we've got a good team and that we keep that team. We've been able to do that during the pandemic. We haven't had a voluntary turnover in some time now. So. We got to work for them.

Second is our customers. We love our customers and we have a great customer base, but we've worked that base, I think by providing a satisfaction guarantee. If you're not happy with our service, you pay nothing for it.

Then our shareholders, we're private as hell, but we do have shareholders. We're gonna make the shareholders happy. My wife is a principal shareholder. We got to make her happy. So. I think those are the classic three, but we also got to live our brand that we've established over a period of time and make it come to life with the work that we do and the way we manage and deliver our services.

Gresham Harkless 13:29

Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you talking about each of the aspects of that. I think from leading from a holistic standpoint, you start to understand that it's not just one kind of group that you're helping to support. So I love knowing the employees and knowing the clients and of course the shareholders and happy wife, happy life that I think the same goes, making sure that you're making that impact in such a way is huge.

But I feel like all those things, and correct me if I'm wrong, add up into your brand because if you aren't taking care of things from a customer standpoint, then that does affect your brand or customer or shareholders and so on and so forth. Understanding the collective impact in each of those things.

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 13:29

That's true. Yes.

Gresham Harkless 14:05

Well, Dr. Jack truly appreciate that definition and perspective, but of course I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now is 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 people could get ahold of you, get a copy of your book, find about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 14:23

Yes. Well, our newest book, I should say, we wrote this to bring an easy to follow and read an approachable book on this process. It's called, Show the Value of What You Do. It's available wherever books are sold, Amazon and all the bookstores.

So that explains in simple terms, it's a short book, only 150 pages, and it's got lots of stories in there. Stories of how this process has made the difference in the work and the lives and careers of 20 people there as they've used this methodology. So we'd invite you to get that book and get started with it.

You can reach out to us directly at roiinstitute.net and my email address directly is jack@roiinstitute.net. My wife Patti would love to get something from you and that's patti@roinstitute.net. We'd be happy to talk through this process with you. See how it might help someone or, and particularly talk about how it's helped so many others.

Gresham Harkless 15:27

Absolutely. Absolutely. And to make it even easier, we're gonna have the links and information in the show notes too, so that everybody can get a copy of the book and reach out to yourself and Patti and the awesome team that you have. I truly appreciate you taking time out and all the awesome things that you're doing and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Dr. Jack J. Phillips 15:43

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me here.

Outro 15:43

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This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr. Thank you for listening.