Top5 Ways to Put the Human Back into Human Resources

Tara Thurber and Mark Mears discuss the importance of humanizing HR and leading with love in the workplace. Mark shares his journey from law school to marketing communications, emphasizing the higher power of fours and the "love" model for leadership: Listen, Observe, Value, and Empower. He highlights the need for purposeful growth, engagement, and fostering a sense of belonging. Mark's book, "The Purposeful Growth Revolution," advocates for a transformational leadership style that prioritizes human connection and community. He also introduces the concept of curiosity as a fifth essential element for effective leadership.

Transcript

Tara Thurber: 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to Top5 brought to you by DefinedTalent. We are a results driven partnership service, working with clients to connect them with quality talent, as well as work, working to make an impact within the HR and recruiting industry. We talk straight about today's professional world with real world professionals, experts in recruitment, job seekers and business owners alike, have a question for us. Send it in, and you might spur our next conversation. I'm Tara Thurber, Founder and Director of Partnerships here at define talent. And joining me today is Mark Mears. Mark serves as a founder and chief growth officer for leaf growth ventures LLC, a consulting firm inspiring individuals, teams and organizations to find purpose in fulfilling their true growth potential while making a positive, lasting difference in the world. Hey, Mark, how are you today?

Mark Mears: 0:57

I'm great. Tara, how are you doing?

Tara Thurber: 0:59

I'm doing very well. I'm so excited that you're here with us today, and I'm really excited to just dive in. For starters, why don't you introduce yourself a little bit and give our audience a little bit about your background?

Mark Mears: 1:14

Thanks, Tara. I really appreciate you having me on today, and it's been so fun getting to know you and leading up to this recording. So I'm really looking forward to this discussion today. I'm Mark Mears, and I live in Kansas City now, but I have lived in Chicago twice, Dallas, twice Atlanta, Los Angeles, Austin, Texas and now Kansas City. I was born and raised in Kansas, so it's kind of a bit of a coming home for me. I went to University of Kansas undergrad and Northwestern for grad school, and it is really where my career took shape. I wanted to be a lawyer, and so when I was going to undergrad, you can't major in pre law. And so I asked around and said, Well, what curriculum would provide me with the best kind of foundation for being successful in law school and as a liar? And people said, well, you're going to do a lot of reading, a ton of reading, you're going to do a lot of writing, you're going to do a lot of research, right? Do you know critical thinking, and you know a lot of presentations. And I said, Great. So what curriculum would prepare me for that? And they said, Well, have you thought about the school of journalism and mass communications? KU has one of the top schools in the country. You're going to do all those things. And so I got in, and I really enjoyed more on the marketing communications side than on the kind of news and editorial and reporting side, right? That was of interest to me, but not as much. And so I had a professor, Dr Tim Bankston, who, unfortunately, just passed away this past spring, but he was so influential in my life, and he took me aside and said, Hey, are you sure you want to be a lawyer? I think you've got a lot of talent in marketing communications. And I said, Oh, no, no, I'm going to be a lawyer. So but thank you. I appreciate it. I was getting good grades. I was, you know, enjoying what I was doing. And so then I started asking around. I had some fraternity brothers that were in law school. I had contacts with people who were recently out, and I had people that I reached out to who had their name on the letterhead. Wow. Nobody was having any fun. Nobody was encouraging me. And I'm like, Well, I go back and set up another meeting with Dr Bankston. And I said, Well, tell me more about this grad school. And he said, you know, Northwestern has one of the top programs in the country. I think you should apply there. And so I did. I applied there University of Texas and Illinois, both at outstanding programs as well, but Northwestern was a cut above. And I went there and I was able to learn at the feet of the master, another professor, Dr Don Schultz, who came up with the concept of integrated marketing communication, or what is formerly now known as IMC, with curriculum. IMC curriculum in universities and colleges all over the country, and that then became the foundation for my career path that was in marketing, communications and executive management. So I worked at Pizza Hut when it was owned by PepsiCo, with another wonderful mentor we'll talk about. I was on the agency side at bozell and Leo Burnett, working on McDonald's business at DDB, heading up the Frito Lay business back on the marketing side at JC Penney Universal Studios Hollywood, it was head of marketing and sales, and then Chief Marketing Officer for the Cheesecake Factory, among others. So it has been 36 seven year. Kind of rye. COVID that now has culminated in me writing this book, which we'll talk about and called the purposeful growth revolution for ways to grow from leader to legacy builder. And so this now is kind of my second act, as I look to pay it backward and help others along their growth journey. And why I call it pay it backward. People say, Well, you're in communications markets pay it forward like no, because I'm in communications, I look at it differently. I look at it as paying it backward. Because when I go to Starbucks, not only am I a huge growth junkie, I love growth in all of its forms, and I love learning about it, and I love teaching on it, but I'm also a coffee junkie. So when I go to Starbucks and through the drive through, I'll pay for the car behind me. I physically can't pay for the car in front of me because it's already gone, so I'm paying it backward to the car behind me. And when I get to the window, I'll just tell the barista. You know, I want to pay for the car behind me, but can you do me a favor? Just tell them, God bless you. Your debt has been paid, and I'll drive away. I don't know them. They don't know me, but I gotta believe Tara, in that moment, they feel like they matter to somebody else. Yeah, and there is the law of reciprocity that states when someone does something nice to you, you feel a deep seated urge to do something nice for somebody else. So imagine now that chain reaction that can occur, and I'm told does occur, as cars pay for the cars behind them and behind them and behind them. So as I'm driving away, I'm saying a silent prayer for that person again. I don't know them, I don't know what they're going through that day, but I'm just trying to ask that they get what they need in that moment. And for me, that is, is a great metaphor for why I chose to write this book and capture not only my experiences, but observations of those I admire, research that supports my thesis, as well as subject matter experts that can go deeper than me. So it's kind of a curated reading experience designed to almost be as if I were mentoring a young Mark Mears earlier in my career, what would I tell him based on what I know now? What if I knew that then? So by paying it backward, I'm hopeful that I'm giving individuals and teams and organizations opportunities to learn about the power of purpose in not only their work and life, but as it relates to the community that they serve. Because I believe we have four stakeholders in any business. There are your team members. I don't like employees, because I believe words matter. There are your guests from the hospitality business, I prefer that versus customers, but you may have customers and clients if you're in B to B, right, right? Your business partners, which is anybody in your business ecosystem. It doesn't mean only shareholders or investors. It means it could be your supplier partners, manufacturers, distributors, agency partners, but anybody that helps your business achieve its objectives, and I treat them as partners, and that's why I emphasize the word partners, because that's an important word. They're not vendors. They have a stake in the outcome, just like you and then your communities. And so now serving as a senior leader network member for conscious capitalism, Incorporated, which is a global organization whose mission aligns very closely with mine, and that is elevating humanity through business. And so that's really what drives me today, and what I'm working on now is the second book, which we'll talk about. But this the purposeful growth revolution, as I'm leading this revolution to help change the paradigm of command and control management to a more humanistic, relational leadership style. Young people today, as you well know Tara, they don't want to be managed and required. They want to be led and inspired Absolutely

Tara Thurber: 9:22

I just got goosebumps from that absolutely mark.

Mark Mears: 9:27

So that's what I'm up to now. And, you know, looking forward to unpacking whatever you want to unpack as we move forward in our conversation,

Tara Thurber: 9:37

perfect. I love everything about this. And I have to say, you know our first conversation, you talked about paying it backward. And I have from that conversation, I have shared that conversation with probably 20 people so far, and when I say, when I talk about the act of paying it backward versus paying it forward. So it's like, everybody's eyes lit up, and they light up and they're like, Oh, that makes so much more sense. And what an impact that can really make so very excited. And your book, what, which? What we're going to get into the purposeful growth revolution, four ways to grow from leader to legacy builder. I started it myself, and I'm really excited to kind of peel the layers of the onion back. You know, mark the book talks about the higher power of fours. Talk to me a little bit. What does what does this mean? Yeah,

Mark Mears: 10:35

well, the actual epiphany for writing this book happened February 21 2013 and at this time, I was the president of a half a billion dollar casual dining chain based in Orange County, California, and we were owned by a publicly traded entity that had a food products division and another restaurant division. I was recruited there from the Cheesecake Factory where I was senior vice president and chief marketing officer to become president and chief concept officer to turn the brand around from double digit negative in sales and research, and put a new and contemporary brand positioning out there that would attract the kind of clientele that we really wanted to attract, and then create a concept that could earn the right to capital as we would grow. We had 145 restaurants in 24 states, and, like I said, a half a billion dollar enterprises, not a small endeavor, right? So I built a team and established a vision, and we made it happen. Within two years, we had turned the brand around from double digit negative in sales, we put an exciting, contemporary, refreshing, new brand positioning out there that included a new menu and new design, new decor, as well as a new concept that included an area within, kind of the seating area, the foyer that provided kind of like coffee and baked goods and other things, because We were a breakfast, brunch and lunch heavy concept, but then also put in a full bar and a wonderful dinner menu. So we were able now to use every square foot of the facility without enlarging it. We were able to generate traffic and sales every hour of the day, yeah, and so now we tested this concept and blew away our pro forma return on invested capital. And instead of giving us the capital we deserve that they promised when they recruited me and I recruited my team with the same promise, the board has decided to move in a different direction. We're going to put the brand up for sale. Essentially, you guys have turned this around quicker than we thought, and why don't we strike while the iron is hot and so but don't worry, you're going to lead the sale process. But you can't tell anybody for a while, right? Perfect. So here I am still leading this turnaround, and if anyone knows about Southern California, you know Orange County is southwest of the city, right? We lived up in Valencia, which is north and east of the city, about two hour to 15 two hour and 30 minute drive, right? On a good day, I couldn't drive back and forth each way, and so I would after dinner and putting the kids to bed on Sunday night, I would drive to a hotel that was right across the street from John Wayne Airport and shout out Hilton and work long day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, because our offices right across the street then after rush hour had somewhat abated, which it never really does in LA but, but before road construction starts, which is just as bad, because they do real construction at night to get ready for the next morning, etc, etc, I would then be home Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That's when I wasn't in Ohio, where the parent company was based, in board meetings and quarterly earnings calls and all the the stuff, right, right? Or traveling to one of the 145 restaurants in 24 states, it was going to be this noble turn around for the ages that all of us were thinking was going to be career making. Right? We had done everything we were asked to do, we succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations, only to be told we're going to sell the brand. So we go through the process, and at some point, I'm able to tell my executive team only because they had to be there for the presentations, right? And we got a lot of tire kickers and private equity firms who. Were, you know, we didn't want to sell to if we didn't have to, because we know often what their goals are, and they're not congruent with building brands. They're more about kind of squeezing the profitability and then selling it 457, years down the road, making a profit for their investors. Well, that's not why I got into what I was doing, and so we found who we thought was the perfect parent, a strategic play that had restaurant concepts and had manufacturing facilities where we could get some of our products from. And we thought, This is great. And they said all the right things. And we had this wonderful courtship. Well, the deal closed on a Friday. We're drinking champagne, celebrating over the weekend. Monday morning, at eight o'clock, I'm scheduled to have a meeting with the new CEO, and we're going to plot our new future together right at 805. I'm out the door. We've decided to move in a different direction. I'm like, what over the weekend? So anyway, I pack up what I can in five minutes, and I drive home, and I call my wife at the time say, well, so that just happened. Well, after a fitful night of sleep, I get up early the next morning and I take the dog out back. And again, this is late February, and not where you live or where I live, but in Southern California, that's about the time the first signs of spring start to emerge. So I take the dog out back and Tara, as God is my witness, as the sun was coming up over this wall in our backyard, we had a fig tree that was barren from the five or six weeks of winter that we do get, and there on the end of one branch was this tiny, little green sprig of a leaf just starting to bud. In that moment, I got this epiphany that a leaf is a symbol of growth and rebirth. I took the dog in, and I went to my office, start banging out of treatment, and then in my mind's eye got to thinking, Wait a minute, I had been taught to lead with the rule of threes. And if you focus on three things, it's a thing. There are people that say, you know, TED Talk, three things, react, play, everything you know has to be three. I'm like, okay, my Three Things were leadership, engagement and accountability. I'd say in all of my meetings, emails, we had voicemails that we could blast out at the time, I used it as recognition and reward, and I'd say Tara is doing a wonderful job of leading her team and look at the results. Or Tara is engaging her team on a deeper level and look what they're accomplishing. Or Tara is holding her team accountable for results and look how they're doing so leadership, engagement and accountability. It wasn't till that morning after that I realized something was missing with that model. We were burning the candle at both ends. We were all sacrificing in our way. And we were chasing numbers to chase numbers because we wanted to be part of this noble turnaround for the ages. And it was at that point that I thought this is not very fulfilling. We just, all of us got the rug pulled out from under us. They ended up moving the office from Orange County to their US headquarters in Dallas six months later. So everything they said they wouldn't do, they did. And so I said, that's not very fulfilling. So I wrote down the word, words leadership, engagement, accountability, and I work wrote down fulfillment, and it's an acronym which says leaf. And then I saw this model in my mind's eye that was a four circle Venn diagram. And then I put L, E, A, F, and I said, Well, what's at the epicenter? Well, it's growth, but what kind of growth? Purposeful growth? That fig tree in my backyard only knows how to be a fig tree. Its purpose is to grow fig leaves, where, as we all learn, probably in middle school science, all growth of a tree or a plant happens through the leaf of that through the magic of photosynthesis, and then I'm thinking, okay, so its purpose is to grow leaves, but what's the result fig fruit? And the fig fruit is not only sustenance for animals and people. I love me a good fig, right? And I grew up with fig news. That's a separate point. You love them, you hate them. I get it and but what's cool is, inside those figs are seeds that can be scattered for future growth. So then I got to thinking, no longer do I believe in the rule of threes, but I believe in the higher power of fours. I'd started doing some research, hey? Well, kind of obvious. There are four seasons, not three. There are four directions, not three. There are four chambers to the human heart, not three. There are four elements to an atom, the source of all life, not three. There are four gospels in the New Testament of the Bible, not three. And I could go on and on with this four place. You get the idea. In the book, I literally have a page and a half of examples, and my editor made me cut out another page and a half. And so I no longer believe in the rule of threes, but the higher power of fours, and specifically this four circle Venn diagram as a model, and you'll see it throughout the book. It's not the answer for everything I understand. Hey, it's the answer for a lot of things. And it's something that as I started writing the book, I started writing it with this idea of, there are four kind of key segments, okay, growing up in Kansas, we have a little bit of knowledge about agriculture here, and you don't just rush out and put seeds in the ground. You have to cultivate the ground. So the first section of the book is about cultivating your your your ground for purposeful growth. In other words, getting you ready for this concept, right? The second part is all about planting your seed for purposeful self. So it's all about you. And the third section, the media section, is growing you forward for purposeful work, and that's where the leaf model comes in, and then finally, is scattering your seeds for purposeful life. So we're looking at nature that's all around us. Sometimes we can't see the forest or the trees right, right. All around us is a unique metaphor for growth that can be applied to each of us, personally and professionally. So I'm a big believer in the higher power of fours.

Tara Thurber: 21:31

I don't even know what where to go from here. I love the higher power of fours and where that plays and it's it's very interesting that you're talking about this and telling this story to me now, whereas just yesterday, I was having a conversation with somebody, and I love gardening. I just for me. I love gardening and being able to grow my own fruits and vegetables to not only nourish myself, but my children, and just working on the garden and the activity of it too. And I just spoke to somebody yesterday about, you know, I'm out hustling and working, you know, I'm not just home working on the garden, but I am, if you think about it, yeah, that's exactly what I'm doing. And so for you to talk about the higher power of fours right now, just as there's there's complete alignment, and just very exciting through my eyes as well, and how I would want to share your higher power of fours with others and and get that into, you know, essentially, why our topic today is different ways to put the human back into human resources, right? Yeah, and there's, it's, it's like nowadays, so many people have extracted the human and it's just transactional, yeah, but that, that human touch, the the humanization of it is it's missing in a lot of teams. It's missing in a lot of ways from businesses. And I'm going to use that to kind of segue into my next question, with, with, with this purposeful growth revolution implemented into leaders on an on an individual basis. How can HR play a part in this growth internally, to create a space, not only for their leaders, but for everyone as a whole? And you know, what kind of does that space look like as well? Yeah,

Mark Mears: 23:44

I'm glad you asked that, because for me, that's the answer in this new world of work. Yeah, the space is different,

Tara Thurber: 23:52

totally different. So

Mark Mears: 23:54

I'm going to throw some more kind of knowledge bombs on you, and I'm going to try to go quickly, because I know we're we're working on time, and I you probably could understand, I could talk all day, and sometimes I do every now and then someone listens, but that doesn't stop me. The cool thing about words is they're like a prism, okay? And so if you twist that prism, the light will shine differently on it and will reveal something new, something beautiful. And I believe words matter, as I mentioned. So I thought about that, and I'm like, you know, we need doers to, you know, learn how to become managers and managers to grow into leaders who can ultimately be legacy builders. So that's the model for this new book I'm working on, which is about putting the human back and human resources, as you mentioned, but it builds off the purposeful growth revolution. So if that book, as you probably can tell, already goes 100 miles wide and maybe 10 feet down. Deep, because I'm trying to curate this experience that can help people at various secret through various seasons of their life and career, right? Yeah, yep. And this new concept is going to be about putting love into the workplace, and I don't mean the kind of love. It's going to get you a quick call from HR, right, like escorted out of the building. But as I mentioned, you know, we've got to transform, and that's an important word, this tired old command and control management style that no longer serves us right, and specifically among younger people, millennials and Gen Z, according to Deloitte study that was published I think this summer, said nearly 90% of them want purpose at work. They want to feel like they're making a difference, and they don't want to just punch in and punch out and, you know, get paid every other week and maybe go figure something out on the weekend, but they want it at work. And so if you're in HR, or you're in a position of influence or power within a company, you have to take heed, because thinking about my P and L experience, every concept I ever worked for labor was the number one line item, and if it wasn't, it was tied with cost of goods. Okay, so if you think about the financial implications of turnover when something doesn't work, right, but you also have to put in engagement and productivity on the front end when it works, right, right? So my thesis is based a lot on Gallup state of the global workplace study that's published every year, and they drill into engagement or lack of engagement. And so what they have found are some of the biggest disengaging factors are really very humanistic, feeling cared about at work or lack thereof, not feeling a connection to purpose at work, not having clarity about what I'm supposed to be doing on the front end, and not having frequent feedback as to how I'm doing throughout the process, being able to do what I do best, being able to learn and grow, are just some of the ones that literally among different demographics, male, female. It's the same thing, yeah, you know, in my day sounds like my dad, but in my day, the command and control management style was everywhere. I mean, there wasn't an alternative, at least that I was aware of, and it was very hierarchical, and you didn't go above your boss. And I hate the word boss. I've never allowed anyone to call me that I said, You call me a leader because that's a title I have to earn every single day by how I show up and how I treat people. A boss is a title that's based on, you know, whatever rank you are within a company. Yeah, I say rank because that command and control style came from GIS, who came back from World War Two and got into the business world, and that was just the way they were trained, right? Yeah, and you need that in the army, because otherwise people die right? In the world of work, it works to a point, but it's stifle stifles diversity. It stifles innovation and creativity, because it creates this hierarchical position where, hey, my generation just tolerated it because we had no alternative. And now today, there are alternatives. So if you're in HR, if you're a leader in a company and you have influence, you've got to pay heed to these warning signals, because younger people, if it doesn't work for them, they're going to bounce, right? They've grown up in a subscription culture, right? Spotify Netflix, you name it. And when it doesn't work for them anymore, they just bounce, and they don't even think about it, right? So if you want to increase engagement, that leads to higher quality of work, greater discretionary effort, instead of quiet quitting, you're going to get better results. And then they're going to stay longer, and then they're going to probably, like you tell others about the firm, right? It's a net promoter kind of thing, right? Yeah. So that's all great on the front end, on the back end, if it doesn't happen, then they're going to leave, and guess what you have to do replace them? You know, the cost of reping Someone, and not just the physical cost of the recruiting and the hiring and the training, but what about the people have to put up this, you know, kind of take up the slack to cover for them during that time, exactly, and they're not getting paid anymore. Do you think they're happy? About that, and maybe they're now thinking about it. So Gallup says literally 50% of team members, they say employees. But what do they know are actively looking to leave at any given moment of your workforce? So you have a lot you can do. So let's unpack this love idea. The first the goal is for doers. And I was young in my career, I was a doer, right, right? And then I did it so well, I got promoted to manager. Well, a lot of us who went to business school went to schools of management. We know how to manage projects and deadlines and resources and metrics to performance and people to get tasks done. But if you're a doer, it's functional. I just need a job, right? Right? If you're a manager, it's transactional. We have these goals to hit, and we're going to hit them by following this a plus b plus c management approach, right? Well, if I work for you, in this case, like I said, no one ever works for me. They work with me. I've stated that throughout my career, but there are people that love that hierarchical thing. Well, then if I work for you, my kind of thought process is, I must obey you. Now, if you're a leader, you're building trust. You're building a relationship where they say, I know you've got my back, and I believe in you, and I know you believe in me. Well, that's relational, yes. Now, if you become a legacy builder, and I'll say a living legacy builder, because if you think a legacy, that word scares some people, they think it's what, maybe you bequeath something of value to people you love after you're dead and buried. And I'm talking about a living legacy, which is how you show up every day. All I know Tara is we all have 24 hours in a day. Not any of us have one minute more or one minute less. And so the model for how to move people from Doer to manager to leader to living legacy builder. So now let's look at the if, if, if I'm working with a leader, I'll say, I will follow you if they're really, really good. It moves into being a legacy builder, where I'll say, not only will I follow you, I'll lead like you when it's my turn to lead. And so now think of the ripple effect. It's not just one pebble in the pond. You know, when that Pebble is under the water, you don't see it again, right? But we see the ripple effect on top, yeah. Now, let's say you have four or five or six direct reports. Now you have four or five or six different ripple effects that can happen, and that ultimately will help us kind of transform because when you're a living legacy builder, it's transformational. So we go from functional as a doer, transactional as a manager, relational as a leader, and transformational as a living legacy builder, and we do that through a new model called love. Stands for listen, observe, value and empower listening to people on a deeper, more empathetic level, and not only listening to what they say, but maybe what they don't say. We'd have to be naive to think that people don't have something maybe going on outside of work that may impact the quality or timeliness of the work that they're doing, and so by asking good questions and building trust and rapport, because someone might say, Well, I'm not sure I could tell Mark that, you know, I'm having relationship issues, or I've got a sick kid who needs surgery and I'm not sure how we're going to pay for it, or I'm caring for a sick parent, and it's taken me a lot of you know, time away from work to run over there and do X, Y, Z or whatever, right? But if we have that conversation now, I have a deeper sense of understanding of what's going on in your life, and I can truly show up as a leader, a confidant. Is there anything I can do to help you? And maybe there's not, but at least you have offered. You have empathized, you have understood. And now you might say, Well, what do you need from me? Well, Mark, I need to leave a little early on Tuesdays and Wednesdays because I'm the one Caring for Mom, and I've got to be over there at certain time to provide for X, Y and Z. Okay, right? And then we say, Okay, once I've listened to someone, and it goes back to Muslims, hierarchy of needs. We all need to feel seen and heard. We all need to feel valued. And we'll get to the E in a minute. But it's not just that Maslow told us about this. It's all of us as human beings, if we're being honest, in front of the mirror, we'd say I need to feel seen and heard, so now I'm heard by listening. Now I'm observing, I'm seeing. So don't wait for the dreaded annual performance appraisal that no one likes no one does. Well, can we just go to lunch now? Yeah. But, but observe by coaching. Encourage. Working and even critiquing in real time, and don't even do it quarterly, but in real time, when you see something that someone's doing, maybe in a meeting or a behavior or quality of work or whatever it might be, don't wait. We want we want regular feedback. How are we doing? Because if you don't get it, we fill in the blanks, and sometimes it's positive, and sometimes we're surprised. When we get to the end of the year and someone says, Well, Mark, here are a couple of areas that are of concern that you need to work on. It's like, what? Why didn't you tell me, yeah, so observing is important by coaching and mentoring in real time. I live in Kansas City, home of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs Andy Reid is the coach. He doesn't wait to the end of the season to tell people how they did right he is coaching in real time on the practice field every day, every day, in the film rooms before the game, during the game, halftime and after the game. So that's how high functioning teams need to work. People want feedback, not just because Gallup says it, but because we're humans, and we need to know where we stand, because if we don't, often, when there's a void, we'll fill it in with our own

Tara Thurber: 36:19

you know, your own thoughts, your own thinking, and a lot of times too, that'll send somebody into a downward spiral, because they start they put judgment on themselves for having those voids.

Mark Mears: 36:31

Yes, they're they're the background voices that like wet cement, begin to harden if we allow them and give them power, right? So l, o, listen, observe, and value. Really important. Value the whole person. I believe, as whole people, we have four realms of service, and that's another bomb I'm going to drop on you in a minute, if we have time. It's personal, ourselves, relational, those we love and those who love us. Yeah, it's professional, who we serve at work, and spiritual. And I don't care if you're religious or not, a spiritual doesn't need to just mean religion spirit. I think we all have a Spirit inside of us, and I think most people believe that there is a connection, and I believe that connection happens to be love, but we'll put that aside for now. If we value someone, we don't want to just recognize and reward them when they do something good, right? We also want to invest in them. You know, Tara, when you value something, you invest in it. And when you invest in something, what do you do? You expect a return, right? So it may be you come to me and say, Hey, Mark, I'm really interested in AI. There's a lot out there right now, and I think there are some AI techniques we can use to improve the productivity of our team or the job satisfaction for all of us. And then I value you by investing in you. And say, okay, Tara, I know you live in New Jersey, and there is a conference coming up in New York, and three day conference, but you're going to learn all this stuff about AI. I'm interested in it too, and I believe our team would benefit. So I'm going to invest in you. You're going to go learn all you can, and you're going to feel valued that you were selected to go do this because you stated it as an interest. I didn't assign this to you. I value you. I want to hear from you. What do you want out of your job function, and do you have a higher purpose that lights you up. I need to know that so I can help get you there. That's the role of the leader is you don't work for me. Actually, I work for you, and my job, and John Maxwell says it best is the job of a leader is to create new leaders, right? So I listen to you. I've observed you, I value you, and now I want to empower you, and this is where the magic comes in, because if I feel seen and heard and I feel valued, that's great. Could stop there, but by empowering you, I'm going to want to get the very best out of you, right? So I think back greatest metaphor example I should say, that I can think about is when I learned to ride a bike. And like we all did, you know, I probably started with a trike, and then I was a little bit before the big wheel. But I remember one birthday, I got this beautiful royal blue Schwinn Stingray bike with the banana seat and the yellow bars and the whole nine and but I had training wheels because I wasn't big enough to ride it. Well, I got pretty good at tooling around the neighborhood because I had, you know, training wheels to balance me so I wouldn't fall over. I remember one Saturday morning, my dad woke me up and he said, Son, it's time to take training wheels off. Are you ready? And I. Like, yeah, I've been waiting for this moment because I want to be like the big kids, right? And yet fearful, because it was something new that I never had before, right? And so we're in the garage, we're taking him off, and he's talking to me, and I'm kind of getting worked up to go do this. And he gets me on the bike, and he walks with me, and he's telling me what to do, make sure that you keep pedaling, because if you don't stop, or if you stop pedaling, you might fall over, and don't, if you are steering, don't over correct, because you might also fall over. Then, of course, I stopped pedaling, and I over corrected, and I fell over a few times, and I remember finally, when I got it, I was able to ride to the end of the street, stop on my own, turn around and ride back, and I got back to the edge of the driveway where he was standing. And I don't know which of us had the bigger grin on her face. I had been empowered to do something I was capable of doing, but needed the push, literally and figuratively, right? And in my mind's eye, as we're talking Tara, I can, I can remember that sense of freedom. I felt my neighborhood got bigger, my world got bigger. I lived on that bike that summer, subsequent summers, and so now, what if we were able to carry that same sense of empowerment in the workplace where we know people have potential our job, and it's not a charge job, only they have a hand in it, but it's the leader's job. So we need to train managers to become leaders and leaders to become legacy builders, and all we need is love, listen, observe value and empower. And so that's what I'm building on top of the lead model to create now, this love model that is going to transform the old, tired command and control management style into a more relational, humanistic leadership style for the benefit of all stakeholders, our team members, our clients, our customers, our guests, whatever you want to call them, our business partners, and our communities, because we're going to be able to harness the power of purpose in to the community, whether it's our local area or whether it's our country, or whether it's globally, it's that ripple effect that we don't know how far we can take, but that's why it's the purposeful growth revolution. The word revolution has three different meanings. It's an uprising of the people. Well, I can spit out research upon research about how people want a new world of work to work better for them. They want flexibility. They want autonomy. They want all those things that I said are disengaging factors from the Gallup study. They want to be loved, right? And then the second definition is a dramatic change in the status quo. Do you think we've had a dramatic change in the status quo in the workplace since COVID hit? Right? So absolutely, we're working remotely or hybrid. We're on digital platforms like this that we're speaking on, and there is a deep sense of loneliness and depression among younger people, because they lack that interaction that we had when we were kind of growing up. So it has its good things and its bad things, but a leader now needs to be able to make sense of the chaos and make that dramatic change in the status quo actually be a benefit to all stakeholders. And then the third one is the third definition of revolution is an orbit, or an object in circling another and orbiting another, right? Well, that's where I believe. What is that object? I believe that's our purpose. And so as I said before, this is another knowledge bomb. There are four realms of service. And I say service because if you think about it, we're in service to ourselves, personally. We're in service to, you know, those we love and those who love us relationally. We're in service to those we work with. And we're in service spiritually in some way, shape or form. Yeah, that makes us whole people. So I know most of your listeners are familiar with Simon Sinek and the whole start with, why movement, right? But like that prism, I twist it a little bit differently, instead of starting with why, I think we should start with who, and specifically who we serve, and I believe that's the foundation that leads us to our why, which is our purpose and motivations for all the above, right? And then our How is, how are we uniquely gifted? I believe, in my book, I talk about how we're all geniuses, because if you go back and look at the. The Entomology of the word genius. It's not like it is today. It's, you know, Einstein, we think is an example, or Mozart, or a great, you know, person who invented something, right? It may be a genius, but we are all geniuses, because it really means it's your uniqueness. There's only one Tara Thurber, there's only one mark Mears, God forbid. And so, how are we uniquely gifted? What's our superpower? And then, how do we invest that superpower? Right? It's not enough just to have it. We've got to use it. And that leads us to our what, what do we do? How do we use what we're gifted to do to that in the workplace that allows us to play a role as a team member? I hate the word employee, yeah, because I mentioned because think about an employee. Maybe someone who just, you know, does work to earn a paycheck, right? A team member has the sense of duty and is part of this camaraderie and this esprit de corps where it should be, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. When the team is put together, right? There's only one team that can emerge victorious at the end of the Super Bowl, right? They may have the best players, but I don't think so. I think they have the best team, yeah, and then whether it's offense, defense, special teams, you know, starters, second, third, strength, whatever, everyone plays a role in the 52 man roster, right? So in a team orientation, inside a company, everyone who knows their role and is allowed to participate to the fullest capability, and that's where the power of diversity comes in. And I'll just speak quickly on that, because it's so important that as human beings, we have to feel like we belong. See, diversity just gets us in the door. That's good. Equity gives us an equal voice. Better yet, inclusion gets a seat at the table. Hallelujah. But if we don't feel like we belong, we're likely not going to feel psychologically safe enough to be vulnerable, to give of our very best, like I've worked hard to get to this seat. I don't want to say something dumb or stupid or have it boomerang back, and now maybe be at risk of getting pulled out of that seat, right? But the other people in the room don't know you feel that way, right? And so they're just thinking, you know, Tara is quiet. You know, I don't really know where she stands on any issue, because she doesn't really speak up. She nods a lot, but she's not really giving up her best. And so that's where the power of diversity, and I believe it is a superpower and not a box to be checked, and why there's backlash out there today is because people are doing it wrong. That's where the final knowledge bomb comes in. Yeah, how we move from a culture which is a word like that prism I look at and twist it and go, you know, a culture may just be a place someone feels merely a part of. It's not bad, but a community is a place someone feels they belong in. You see the difference, and notice how I emphasize the word feels. Because I don't care what industry we're in. I don't care what you know, role you play within your your company. We're all in the people business well, until the robots or the zombies or chat GPT takes us away, right? All human beings, and so we're really all in the people business. And we're in the people business, we have to be in the feelings business. Yeah, the great poet laureate, Maya Angelou, was famous for saying, I've learned that people were will forget what you said. They'll forget what you've done, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. So we've got to bring love back into the workplace. We've got to put humans back in human resources with the priority. Now here's a way of thinking of it. What if we put more resources to allow people to be more human than merely treating them as mere resources.

Tara Thurber: 49:23

I love that. I absolutely love that I think by by giving and by giving love for it or with it, is the way it's transformational. It is absolutely transformational for any type of workplace, for any type of, you know, community that's coming together. I love all of this. I love, love, love, no

Mark Mears: 49:49

pun intended, right?

Tara Thurber: 49:51

And you know, Mark, it's amazing, not amazing. It's very I take this as a very large. Urge for me, personally, synchronicity right now and talking about the first book with the purposeful growth revolution and now leading into love, it makes me really think about my past, and I've always led with love. But when you break it down, it's exactly how I've wanted to lead with and it's, you know, a lot of times I I've I love this, or it's love you babe, or, okay, I love you, or service level, totally. But really it's, there's so many, there's so much more rooted into that surface, that now that I'm I'm speaking with you and learning how you've put this all together. It, to me, it opens up a brand new world to explore. And I hope that our listeners can think about that, whether they're part of HR, whether, you know, from a CEO down to an intern, we all need to lead with love, and if we can bring love back into the workplace, I feel that communities within each community and teams within teams, yeah, we are all going to Give each other, and give ourselves a chance to grow, innovate and and take whatever we're doing, whatever our purpose is, to that next level, if we can lead with love.

Mark Mears: 51:33

Yeah, and I love what you said about the surface level. Again, it comes back to that kind of pebble in the ponds if you skip it across the top, all you're doing is skimming it. But it's not until it goes deep that the real ripple effects happen, right? And the word community is so important, because you think about teams, and I love teams, but I think they're, they're micro communities, right? Because if you feel like you belong, let's say I'm I'm a running back, and I know my role on a football team, right? And I'm given X amount of carries, I feel like I belong, right? And I have to now go perform, right? So there's this duality, which is, okay, you made it on the roster. You were given this opportunity. Now you got to take it. You got to seize it. So often I get asked, Mark, this sounds great, but, you know, I work in a company where I do have bosses, and I do have, you know, a bit of a toxic work environment, and so people listening need to wake up, because there's, you know, again, a movement away from that you don't want to be the dinosaur that just gets dug up years later as a fossil. That's not the legacy you want to leave. So like any thing in love, it takes a risk, right? I mean, those of those who've been in love, right? We have to risk putting ourselves out there, yes, and for fear, maybe it not being requited, right? But because we feel it so strong, we go ahead and do it. And sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. So if you're a leader wondering, well, what do I have to do different I like what I'm hearing? You gotta risk it. You've got to risk it, and it's worth it, right? And so all of a sudden, when you show up different as a leader, people will notice, and then you can even say, hey, you know what, I'm I'm going to have to apologize to some of you that I don't believe I've been the kind of leader that you deserve, or the kind of leader that I would even want, and I'd like to reset our relationship, because without that humility, it'll be difficult, right? And don't think that I started my career like this, right? I didn't. I had to learn it over time and again, like you, well, I had certain kind of love behaviors. There were times I said something or wrote something I'm not proud of, and I had to repair it right but, but when you have an opportunity to know someone's heart, when you build that kind of relationship, you'll see how people will give you grace, just like you would want grace, right? So servant leadership is the highest form of leadership, I believe. But it's servant coming with humility, mm hmm, and not thinking, you know it all, or having to be the smartest guy in the room. And for years, I thought I had to be I was paid and brought in to do turnarounds and do all this stuff, and so I thought I had to have all the answers. Well, a great example was not that many years ago, I was the chief marketing officer, and you probably know, SolidWorks being in New Jersey, based in Philly, and. We bought some other concepts to create, wow, works a bigger, broader portfolio, but when I was hired on, I started in November of one year, and I found out that we didn't have a marketing and menu calendar in place for the next year that was starting January, so we had a positioning that we liked a lot, was called be original, that our agency helped us work with. And so that's all we had. And, you know, salad Works has like 60 some odd, you know, fresh, flavorful ingredients that you could make a salad as original as you are. And that was the positioning that we started with, that we didn't have a marketing calendar or menu calendar, so I got as many people as who wanted to show up into a large conference room at our agency in downtown Philadelphia. And it was not just marketing people and our agency partners and our PR agency partners, but I invited our operations and training partners. I invited our finance partners, I invited our menu development team and our HR folks, and so everyone could hear this at the same time and collaborate, because we weren't going to get out of that conference room until we developed at least a skeletal plan for that next year, but a final plan for the first quarter, because that was, you know, all the marketing and PLP, and all the stuff that we would have to have in. And with the last two weeks being kind of the holidays, right, we had this much time to get it done, yeah. And so I'm asking people around the table, and it was great energy. Imagine if you were in HR and you were invited to a meeting like that. Everyone has ideas

Tara Thurber: 56:43

be amazing, yeah? Everybody's called diversity, right? And then they get to everybody gets to be a part of the solution. Yes,

Mark Mears: 56:50

because guess what, we're all going to have to execute it when we want right here, so you might as well be it on the ground floor. Yeah, but see, that's where I believe in the power of diversity and I break it down in my book as a couple ways, there's outward diversity, which is what most people think of diversity as, how we look, gender, age, race, creed, color, religious affiliation or not, political affiliation, sexual orientation or preference. But that's important because that's who we are and where we're from, so that's our lived experiences. And that outward diversity is important, but only so much as it leads to inward diversity, which is how we think and how we communicate, right? So that then creates total diversity. Think of it as almost like a yin yang symbol, the two types of diversity, outward and inward, coming together to form total diversity. And that's how you think, how you show up, how you contribute, right? So I'm like, we need a theme to kind of package this whole year, we've got our brand positioning about being original. We've got some cool ideas that are bouncing around, but we need something to package it and promote it and publicize it. Somebody speaks up and says, Hey, Mark, why don't we claim this year as the year of originality. And I'm like, That's it. Oh my god, there it is. Awesome. So this whole idea of the original, and now we say in the first quarter, this means x, in the second quarter, it means y and so on and so forth. Well, guess who that person was, the executive chef. Wow. Doggone, Executive Chef who's supremely talented, that's amazing, felt safe enough to throw that out there, and I was humble enough to say it didn't have to be my idea. I don't want it to be my idea, and I love that it was your idea. And so I would tell that story in every meeting. And so that that sense of community, that sense of belonging, that people felt, was palpable, and it led to us not only putting that first quarter final thing and sketching out the other three quarters. We stayed there and we ideated until we almost nailed the whole year in one Dang day. And that shows you the power of diversity. It shows you the power of creating a community of belonging that leads to people feeling empowered to be their very best self for the benefit of all stakeholders. Who did that benefit the team members, of course, but now our guests in our restaurants got to benefit from it, right? And our business partners got to benefit from it. And by the way, we invited some of them too. I mean, if you're you know the restaurant business, you're probably pouring either Coke or Pepsi, and I've done both. Well, they have a tremendous amount of resources to bring to you, and they know. Because I basically beat this into their head. If we sell more sandwiches or pizzas or salads, we're going to sell more Pepsi or Coke. So it's in your best interest to help give us your resources. Or Tyson with chicken has their own, you know, Executive Chef and research lab. Why wouldn't we, if we were going to do chicken products, go to one of our supplier partners and bring them in the fold. And so I've done this at several different restaurant concepts, and that's how you say the business partners feel like partners, not just vendors, and then your communities. We did a huge program tied to No Kid Hungry, where we were giving back to those who couldn't afford to eat with us, right? And so it was part of this huge team building exercise that led to a full on marketing and menu calendar, that led to alignment of we know what we're supposed to do. We're clear on it. Now let's go do it, and we're going to feel great about the results. And we had a killer year

Tara Thurber: 1:00:58

That's amazing, that's amazing. And by bringing that all together, you are then able to, I mean, look at that growth in a killer year and and it's, it's all about success throughout, yeah, so it's beautiful

Mark Mears: 1:01:13

for stakeholders, and that's how a business leader needs to look at their businesses through the lens of those four stakeholders that are also in that four circle Venn diagram, because they're integrated, yeah, right, but all with purposeful growth at the epicenter, and that's the model, and I've seen it work, and that's why I'm leading the revolution, because I want others like you. Yeah, the platform that you've given me there with you, this with your listeners, and the people that you interact with with defined talent can now go, Hey, there's a better way it can be done. I've heard it and I've seen it, and let's go do it together.

Tara Thurber: 1:01:51

Beautiful. So Mark, just to wrap this up, we are way over time, but I hope all of our listeners have enjoyed every single second of this. Can you share with us your top five ways to put the human back into human resources?

Mark Mears: 1:02:08

Well, I've basically given you the love model. Yeah, so there's four right there. Listen, observe, yep, value and empower. But I'm going to throw in the bonus fifth, because you've asked me to right, even though I believe in the higher power of fours, I do what the host tells me to do. The fifth one is curiosity. Okay, there was a great movie in the 90s called Glengarry, Glen Ross and it had Alec Baldwin and Jack Lemmon and some other young, up and coming talent, and Alec Baldwin played the role of this boss of a real estate dial for dollars firm. And so he was at their offices one day, and he had this whiteboard, and he got up at the whiteboard, he's trying to inspire them to do better. And he wrote a, b, c, and he says it stands for always be closing. And so I always thought of that as changing the sea by looking at that prison a little bit differently and seeing the light shine on curiosity. Always be curious. Ask good questions. I remember earlier in my career, I had, I'm gonna say leader, but he was a boss, but he said, Mark, you know, you need to ask more questions. And I'm like, oh, yeah, okay, so being curious asking questions now gives you a chance to broaden your perspective, and it allows you to love people better by asking questions,

Tara Thurber: 1:03:41

more questions, right? I love

Mark Mears: 1:03:43

that. So that's my fifth one

Tara Thurber: 1:03:46

mark. This was fantastic. Thank you so so very much for joining us today, sharing with us both of your books. When does your second book come out? Well,

Mark Mears: 1:03:56

that's good question. I've started on it of research, and it's in my mind's eye formed, but now it has to be typed, and so I'm hoping spring. Wouldn't it be a great opportunity if I could have got it done by february 14 and Valentine's Day had this motion around, you know? But I don't think that's going to be possible. But sometime, hopefully this spring. Alright,

Tara Thurber: 1:04:21

well, excellent. I will make sure to be keep in touch with you, because I definitely want to get through this first book, and then I'm ready. I'm ready for the second book. Let's bring some love into it all. Yeah,

Mark Mears: 1:04:33

can I? Can I offer you and your listeners the opportunity to go to my website at mark A, Mears, M, E, A, R, s.com, and there you can take a free, purposeful growth self assessment. It takes about five or six minutes to fill out, but when you're done, I will then send you a customized PDF with your results and some helpful tips that I call seeds for growth for me, right? Excellent. So if you. You do that, that'd be great. And also, man, I'd love to connect with your listeners, and so hit me up on LinkedIn. Follow me. I'll follow you, and then we'll connect, and then we'll keep this conversation going, because I would love to learn from you, and that's really a wonderful opportunity for me to continue to grow and learn. I say in the book, when you stop learning, you start dying. So I'm never going to stop learning. And I always say, always stay, you know, green and growing, right? Your book, yeah, remember to pay it backward. And that's, that's just what I live by. Stay green and growing and pay it backward. But you can do that by hitting me up on LinkedIn, and I would love to continue this conversation with you, one on one.

Tara Thurber: 1:05:43

Perfect mark. When we do post this podcast, we'll make sure to get all of the links out there too for our audience as well. Perfect. We are defined talent coming to you at top five. Make it a great day. You.