Dallas: Hey, everybody.
We're talking to chip white today.
What an amazing guy.
He is an H.
R.
Development partner at Michelin.
He's also a leadership coach and has some incredible stories about
how to develop leaders on your team and in your organization.
He's a great new friend of mine.
You don't want to miss This conversation.
Welcome.
I am Dallas Burnett in Thrive Studios sitting in my 1905 Coke Brothers
barber chair, but more importantly, we just have a great guest today.
This man has been responsible to develop and assess 1, 800 liters in one company.
That's yes, 1, 800 liters in Michelin in a previous role.
Welcome to the show, Chip.
Chip White: Thank you, Dallas.
Great to be with you today.
Dallas: Oh, yeah, I've just been, I've been so excited reading through
your bio and all the information, all the things you've been a part of.
And there's just so much synergy that you have with what we're
doing and what you're doing.
I was like, Oh, this is going to be a great show.
So thank you for being on the show.
Now let's set this up.
So first of all, tell the, tell everyone listening, cause I think.
Pretty much everybody in the world knows Michelin, but just
so that we clear the air, tell us about Michelin, where they are.
You guys are tire experts, but you're all over the world.
So tell us a little bit about Michelin and what your role is there.
Chip White: Yeah, so I'm in human resource development partner at Michelin.
I have about 350 people that I'm responsible for all facets
of HR from hiring, onboarding.
Team development, individual development, businesses, any type of performance
management and off boarding as well.
So all facets of HR within that area and sphere of influence.
And Michelin, you say it's a great company.
It's a worldwide company is well known.
It's focuses on tires, but it's moving very quickly to beyond
tires and, around tires as well.
And so it gets into services and other aspects as well, but part of the business.
Dallas: Oh, wow.
I didn't know that.
That's awesome.
That's very interesting.
So you started though, you're in HR now, you're running all this
in HR for Michelin, which is amazing , but you didn't start in HR.
You started in engineering and we were talking about that a
little bit before the show.
How does one go from engineering to HR?
That seems it seems like an interesting transition.
Chip White: so I am an engine nerd is what I am.
So I'm a electrical engineer by degree and started out with, you
can't spell geek without double E.
And so I am definitely that, that geek double E, started out with
Exxon in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as electrical instrumentation
engineer at the refinery there.
And then my girlfriend who later became my wife for the last 25 years, she's
from the upstate of South Carolina.
She came, I thought to be with me when she graduated, she came to get me
and bring me back to South Carolina.
And so that's what she did.
And so I came on board with Michelin and interviewed with Michelin the day before I
got married, because I was in the upstate.
Of South Carolina, and I remember telling people during the interview, if I seem
nervous, it's not because of the interview is because I'm getting married tomorrow.
And so, so started out in electrical engineering at Michelin at a
manufacturing facility there.
And wanted to get close to the business after about three and
a half years, but didn't know if I wanted to go into hierarchical
management in production immediately.
And so one of my career advisors said, chip, why don't you go
into industrial engineering?
They said, it's an intermediate step from the technical side.
You get closer to the business.
If you like it, you can move on into production management, things like that.
If you don't, you haven't lost anything.
You can return back to the more of the technical side.
And so that's what I did.
I did that for about three and a half years and it gave me a better
understanding of the metrics and the business and Michelin teaches you how
to be an industrial engineer because I couldn't spell IE, let alone do it.
And so Michelin took me through school and trained me.
And their view is that if you have a desire and there is a business need from
their standpoint, and they see the fit and you see the fit, they'll equip you with
everything that you need to be successful.
And so I'm a living, breathing example of that, like thousands of
others of us within this company.
from there, I wanted to get into.
Closer to, it's more of a central role.
I wanted to know what am I going to be when I grow up?
Well, I figured the best way to do that, which is being a recruiting
where I'm recruiting for all these positions all over North America.
And so went into a corporate, recruiting role and did that for a
brief stint, and then there was a need.
To grow the I.
E.
discipline, the department.
And so I had an opportunity to go back into facility as a
industrial engineering manager.
So that was the 1st time that I led a team as well as being on the plant staffed
where we're making decisions for 800 to 1000 employees between the facilities
that I was working in from there.
I went into a central.
Management role to where there was about 7 different facilities that
reported up through about 5 of us.
And but what I learned there was how to effectively communicate at
various levels of the organization you're talking to probably 7 different
levels or so within the organization.
And so you learned what they needed and how effectively to tailor your
message to who you were talking to.
And so that was a great skill to learn what I had seen Dallas
in my career, though, that.
Every step of the way that by this point in time, I had five or six
roles that had been in my love.
My passion was people development, whether it was a electrical engineer, it was
working with the electricians, whether it was an industrial engineer, it was
with the operators on the shop floor and helping their role to be better.
And that was my love was seeing the light bulb come on.
And so with that said, I had an opportunity to go into a management
trainer role, and I spent two stances.
It was a management trainer training pretty much the mistakes that I
had made and what I had learned from all of my hard knocks I just
screwed up so that they don't make the same mistakes that I have made.
And then also moved into a leadership development where I was doing more
leadership training, and that's where I got exposed to coaching.
And this thing called coaching.
I'll talk a little bit more about that.
And then from there, about five years ago, went into this development partner
role, which is just a great role to be able to help and play a role to
develop people from a career perspective and from the job that they're in.
Dallas: Oh my goodness.
That is amazing.
What a journey, what a cool journey you've been on and what an amazing
journey that you've been able to do inside of one organization.
I mean, you've gotten so many different kind of facets and seats
in the ballpark, but you were able to stay in the same company.
I think that is I think that's very inspiring.
So it's kind of rare now because so many people change jobs so frequently.
It's really cool to hear your story and how you've been able to do that,
manage that growth and development personally inside the same organization.
Chip White: You know, there's.
I handle a lot of exit interviews and retirements in my role, but I'm
amazed at the number of people who retire from Michelin with 35, 40 plus
years, and that's kind of the norm.
So even though I've been here 25, I feel like a baby compared to
others within the organization.
Dallas: That's awesome.
That's awesome.
So you get exposed to coaching.
And you kind of have this path that you've gone from really
electrical engineering to industrial engineering and managing to trainer.
And then in that training role and through, after that, you kind of get
exposed to this idea of coaching.
I'm interested, cause we had talked a little bit about this.
Was that an easy kind of transition or how did that happen going
from a kind of like more of an HR generalist to an actual coach?
How did that happen?
Chip White: Well, Dallas, I would admit, I didn't want any part of it.
I wanted no part of whatsoever coaching.
You know, they, I was asked to be a part of.
In order to roll out something within the organization within this leadership
and team building role that I was in, we were going to roll out purpose
to the organization, and I need to get certified on this one training
topic, and it was done through an organization that does IPEC, which
does energy levels, and but they have their own coaching certification.
That's ICF approved.
And so they said, Chip, you'll be 40 percent there.
The managers at Michelin came to me and said, you'll be 40 percent there.
Therefore, if you want to, we'll go ahead and pay for you to get
your coaching certification.
And I just had a little bit of exposure to it.
And so Dallas, I can't believe I said this now in retrospect, but I pretty
much told them they're soft skills and they're charming, soft skills.
And this coaching stuff is charming and soft.
It's a whole nother level of softness and I don't want any part of it whatsoever.
So I told them, thank you, but no, thank you.
Dallas: Oh, you rejected
Chip White: yeah, it's just pretty much said no.
And then all of a sudden I got a little bit more exposure to it.
And I realized, huh, this stuff is really good.
This stuff is transformational to me as an individual.
This is exactly what I need as a leader.
And not only could I benefit from it, but I think others
could benefit from it as well.
And so I sheepishly went back to them and Said, Hey, look at
that offer still on the table.
I would love to be able to move forward, become a certified coach.
And so that was, six years ago now.
And I started my own business and human investment solutions where
I do leadership coaching, career coaching, and HR consulting type of
work and, have seen that I use that one skill of coaching in all facets
of my life more so than anything else.
Dallas: It's so true.
I love your story and I think that it is so common the perspective
that you had going into that.
I just think, and I'm sure you've seen it because you deal with so many
people on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, especially the technical.
Technical folks, I'm talking to the technical folks because when you come
out of it and both of us, we were kind of talking before show you came
out at E I was in polymer chemistry.
So it's not necessarily screaming, empathy and people skills, right?
When you come out with those degrees, right?
So I think there's a lot of technical people, whether it's an it or
whether it's in sciences or whatever, engineering, that just, they have a
view because they've been so trained.
In that technical role, that execution of being that expert.
That when it comes into the, to the coaching area, to the leadership area,
it's almost viewed, like you said, they're soft skills and they're sharp and soft.
I love that.
And I think that it's a tough, it's tough because then it's almost
like they have to experience it.
They either experience the value of it or they just completely fail.
And then they're like.
Well, that didn't work, I need something and they or they've got to
see something and be attracted to it and go like you did you kind of saw
it and was like, oh I'm seeing it now.
This could be valuable to me and it's almost like a personal transformation
that opens you up to be able to transform others and I love that and
I think that's the common thread with a lot of coaches like you've either
experienced something, whether it's a failure or whether it's another coach,
but there's been some kind of thing that you, that's this aha moment personally
that you go, Oh, I'm changed now.
I want to go change another, help other people
Chip White: Yeah.
And so when I saw the mirror placed up before me that realized, I
thought I was a decent leader, but I realized there's a whole nother
level than what I even realized.
It was seeing myself in the mirror that caused me, I need to change.
And I think I have found an answer to this.
the way that I describe it is that as an organization, we want empowerment.
We want autonomy.
We want engagement.
Those are things that we want, but many of us, because we're so conditioned
to receive a command and execute a command and make things work.
We don't realize that coaching is the gasoline that goes in that high
powered muscle vehicle of empowerment.
And so you need the fuel to be able to drive.
And for me, coaching is that fuel.
Dallas: Oh, that's so good.
It's amazing to hear someone because I think that would be counterintuitive
to most people to hear someone in such a large organization.
You're in a global organization.
You working with a massive, I mean, just in HR, you're managing like
300 people over 300 people in HR.
And it's like unbelievable and it's massive organization.
And yet you're saying.
No, we don't want you to just like to hear order, take order.
We want you to have autonomy in doing your work.
And I think a lot of people don't put those two things together, a
large organization and autonomy.
So it's really cool that not only do you, not only are you saying that's what you
want, you're actually trying to train people and inspire them to be that way.
I think it's really awesome.
Chip White: I think for me, that's the passion that I have.
I think that if you, in many cases, people have focused on, you've become successful
by focusing on your own merits by being a fixer, a doer, and a go to person.
And that's gotten people to a certain level within the organization.
And maybe your span of control has moved, but your span of control has grown based
upon the strength of your shoulders and how much weight you can carry.
and then it becomes some level of a work life balance crisis
in order for me to grow further.
I've got to be able to take on more, which means there's things that
I can't take on outside of work.
And so it's all about you and what you can handle.
And then if you get it right and you give good advice,
well, then you can never leave.
If you get it wrong, then who's to blame?
It's you, because you're the one who gave the advice.
And so it's a double edged sword.
And so if I can then begin to use coaching skills to develop people, then I can then
leave, and it continues as if I was there.
Dallas: Uh, man, I could not have said that better.
man, you just nailed it.
I think is so true because when you take it on and we have a tendency to
do that, especially if you're a, well, you could be an achiever, you can
call it a type a, you can be dominant, or you could just be a servant.
It doesn't matter.
If you're not good at influence, if you're not good at bringing people around you
and getting things done and being able to lead others, it's like you said, if
you have the right answer, all you're doing is setting yourself up for burnout.
I mean, it is like a recipe for burnout is on the way.
And, and then if you get it wrong, it's like you said, who else is there?
So there's nobody to blame but yourself, which is either going to cause you to,
be disgruntled and get jaded and, or.
and or, be seen as somebody that's not capable and that's kind of where
you end in your, rise in terms of organization or team leadership.
So I think your advice is spot on, when you are engaging with leaders in the
organization like that, and let's say you were developing someone and you
were seeing this problem, how would you approach developing that person
to kind of help them see, Hey, look, you've, you may have taken on too much
and you need to spread this out a little
bit.
Chip White: Well, and so I think it first starts with, no matter where you
are in your career, And you alluded to this earlier, it's focusing on
technical development in the job and also at the same time in parallel to
this leadership development, which includes delegation, which includes
empowerment, which includes knowing yourself, and I'll spend a little bit
more time on the knowing yourself part, but those two have to go in parallel.
It doesn't make sense to, if I'm trying to strengthen my entire body.
To only do upper body and not do leg day.
And in essence, if I focus on just the technical aspects of the job
and don't focus on the leadership, I'm doing just upper body and I'm
not focusing on the foundation of my legs, which holds my body anyway.
Dallas: That's good stuff.
I mean, I think that's really, I think it's a fantastic point.
and I love how you bring up self awareness.
What, when you think about self awareness or you're trying to describe
that to someone that you're coaching, where do you start with that?
Because it is our belief is that is foundational to leadership.
Self awareness is That's where it all starts.
But how did, how do you go about, helping someone?
Cause that's tough.
you don't know what you don't know.
So how do you go about helping someone develop their self
awareness and how important that is to you in your role right now?
Chip White: So I think it starts with understanding
that there's your personality.
That is your hardwired DNA, whether it's Myers Briggs or something else,
that does not change over time.
That's who you are.
And studies even show that they can tell with a high correlation, like a
95 plus percent correlation between extrovert and introvert from the womb.
So therefore it does not change.
It's who you are.
Now, your behaviors do change over time, and your behaviors, whether it be DISC or
some other type of measurement that they do, that is shaped by your personality,
but it's also shaped by your experiences, and the culture that you're in, and other
type of factors in your environment.
Those things shape who you are.
And then from those behaviors, it drives your decisions, which drives
your, or it drives your thoughts, which drives your feelings, which drives your
decisions, which drives your actions.
And that's the way that we process things from a cognitive behavior standpoint.
And then from those actions, there are strengths from a, Strength
based leadership perspective and there's development areas.
So if you can begin to see that process mapped out Your behaviors and who you
are you've got to own your behaviors.
You can't say well, this is who I am Suck it up buttercup.
You've got to own your behaviors number one But understanding those type of
assessments can give your insight into where your strengths are But then
where your development areas and my experience with my coaching is that
most people's development areas are when their strengths are taken to an extreme.
That's your greatest development areas are your strengths taken to an unhealthy area.
So as an example, if I'm someone who is bold, being bold
is a noble characteristics.
Being able to speak your mind and speak up and voice your opinion under healthy
situations that is very constructive.
When it can quickly move to unhealthy, it's when it becomes abrupt and abrasive
and not considerate of other people.
So your greatest strength taken to an extreme often becomes
your greatest development area.
So it's a matter of finding out where is that threshold?
Where are those rough edges at and then how can I apply sandpaper to those
rough edges to keep them in check?
Dallas: I think that's I mean, man, I think that's solid advice and I
think people miss a, I think people miss it sometimes because when
they're looking to develop, whether it's personally, or someone there,
they immediately go to a weakness.
if I'm just weak in something, I'm going to go to that.
But I think it's so fascinating that you would say no, actually, where I see
it, the most development is actually an unhealthy version or too much of
your strength or unhealthy application.
You're saying, I think that's a very,
I think it's very insightful.
Chip White: to me, it's the appropriate lens I've seen to work through.
If I'm coming from a place of weakness, I can fake it till I
make it, but it's not sustainable.
It's not sustainable over time because it's not a part of who I naturally am.
If I come from a place of strength and just pull back on my strength so
that it's not a place of weakness, then it's much more effective, I
found, and it's much more sustainable.
Dallas: It's if you're an introvert, you can only pretend to be an extrovert
for so long before you just collapse
Chip White: Yeah, exactly
Dallas: overstimulated.
but if you're too bold, for example, if your boldness is a characteristic,
but you're too bold, then you can be aware of that and pull it back
and it doesn't really cost you.
It's just a little, it's a lot less self discipline, I think, to do that.
Then try to
manufacture something that's not
Chip White: Yeah, so let's kind of unpackage that just a little bit.
So to take your example, if I have someone who is an introvert, oftentimes
introverts are, have strong values and strong passions as part of their behavior,
and therefore they will speak up and they'll find their leadership voice when
they find topics around that they're passionate about or have high values.
So rather than saying, Chip, you need to speak up more.
From a place of weakness, I go, what is, what are the things
that you're passionate about?
What are your strengths?
What do you value?
And then you use that to find your leadership voice.
Then that will compel you to speak up in those meetings and settings.
Dallas: I love that.
Oh, that's good stuff.
That's good stuff.
that's so fascinating.
And I think that's really valuable for listeners.
So if you are listening to the show, I think that take Chip's advice.
if you're thinking about coaching.
Then, and thinking about development, start with your strengths and maybe
how you can make sure that those are oriented in a healthy way and do that.
oh, that's really good.
That's really good stuff.
So I'd love to talk to, about.
you have a passion for, we talked a little bit about, well, actually,
first, before we get to that, I'd love to know, what's your favorite, you,
you mentioned Myers Briggs, but do you have a favorite assessment or two that
you prefer just, and just that other people can take, or do you have, it's
it doesn't matter, just get something.
Chip White: So I can geek out on a lot of these.
And so I like a lot of them, but for me, I need, if I'm a leader in
a business or a shop or of a team, I don't need a certain type of hammer.
I just need a hammer to do the job.
In many cases, I'm too busy.
And so just give me a hammer.
And so for me, I like this because it's dominant, influencing,
steady, and conscientious.
It's four things and I can quickly manage and understand four things
as opposed to Myers Briggs, which is 16 different combinations or
Dallas: that's a lot.
Yeah, that's a lot.
Yeah, I like to do this.
He is good.
This is good.
I think I would prefer that over Myers Briggs as well.
I mean, Myers Briggs is great and you can kind of get in a little bit
more nuanced, but on the flip side, if it's hard to hold all 16 of those,
if you're trying to work with people and go, well, they're, you know,
name, whatever four letters you want.
It's really hard to cognitively hold all those when you're trying to manage
a team, but you can say, Oh, one of the DISC and it's, we're off to the races.
So I think you're right.
I think that's a good idea.
Yeah.
Chip White: but I think from my end to that point, find one.
There's a lot of free ones out there, but find one that works for you
because that will give you insight into the self awareness piece that we
were talking about earlier, so that you know the good, the bad, the ugly
of you, and we all need to kind of understand that aspect of ourselves.
Dallas: I love it.
I love it.
Shameless plug for think move thrive.
Ladies and gentlemen, he just said, find one.
There's plenty of free ones out there.
Amazingly.
We have the Enneagram that was, on think move thrive website for free.
You can take that, download the, download it, the full report for free.
So if you ever want to take one and you don't have access to a disc,
but you should take all of them.
Why not?
I've taken them all.
I know you have to, so take one, but if you're looking for one, you
can go find one on, on think move thrive under our assessments page.
I would love to talk to about, cause you, you also have had a recent achievement.
You posted it on your LinkedIn profile.
and this is another one of those, I don't know, like you're an enigma, man, it's
a, it's really good, but, tell us about this recent achievement and, about why
you decided to do that.
Chip White: So I, the, I go back a few years, and so I've
always wanted to get my MBA.
I've always wanted to get an advanced degree.
And so I went to my wife, Lori, probably about towards.
Eight or nine years ago, and I said, this is something I'd like to do and she
said, sure, I can support you on that.
So I took that from my hand as a green light go.
Next thing I know, I was applied and I was enrolled in classes to
get my MBA and she came back to me and she said, chip, she said.
I love you.
I know you're a type a personality.
And she said, I'm going to ask, hold off.
She said right now, Gresham, our son was a junior in high school.
Our daughter was about to start her freshman year of high school.
She said, wait, she said, you will get in immersed in this.
And next thing they will be out of the house.
And you will have missed those last four years while they're
under the same roof as us.
She said, wait until Rachel goes off to college, and when she goes off
to school, you can go off to school.
And so that's what I did.
So when my daughter started in bioengineering, I started, with my MBA
at the University of South Carolina with concentration in data analytics.
And so we both graduated at about the same time earlier, this year.
And so we celebrated the two of us, my daughter and her with her undergrad
and me with my MBA and we went 10 days camping out West, as a result, just to
kind of celebrate us accomplishing that.
Dallas: Oh, good for you guys.
What a great story.
I love that.
That's really good.
I mean, so it was good advice.
And you're glad you waited, but you also, you also got it knocked out
and you guys got to celebrate
Chip White: Yeah, so it was good.
I think for me, though, the thing that I learned from that, and I was 20,
25 years older than everybody in the class, and that's okay, but, there was
experiences that I could bring that maybe that they couldn't, but there's
things that they could do that I could learn from them from just the way they
process things and on the digital side of how quickly they're used to just that.
So the different generations And being able to experience that was good.
I think for me, one of the main thing from this is being a lifelong learner.
And that as long as you're upright, we need to be learning.
And don't, the minute we rest on our laurels is when things can pass us by.
And the most difficult conversations that I have with people in Michelin
are those who have done that.
I've got this job, I don't want to go anywhere else, and
I'm just content being here.
Well, that's fine, but the job grows and morphs and evolves, and
if you don't grow and evolve and morph with it, then it can leave you
behind, and that becomes a difficult conversation to have with these people.
Dallas: I think that is such great advice.
And I think that when you look at great leaders, they are not
afraid to be uncomfortable.
And when you're learning something and you're confused and you're
putting yourself out there.
And you're growing is tough.
You go into the weight room and try to grow.
You're going to be sore.
And it's just, it is what it is.
if you do the leg workout, as you say, you're going to be sore.
You're going to be uncomfortable.
And I think that is such a great thing because when you're positioning
that number one, if you're going to be a lifelong learner, that
means you're going to have.
Almost like a posture of a certain level of humility for your whole life, because
you're never getting to a place where you're saying, I've got it, I've got
this, and I know all I need to know, and I'm the expert, I've got all the
answers, you're almost saying, hey, look, I'm putting myself in situations where
I don't know, where I have to learn, where I have to not be, the person that
knows, has all the answers in the room.
I think that's a great position.
And the other thing is that it just makes life more exciting.
I love, I mean, So tell everybody what you got your degree in though.
I mean, it's the NBA, but it tells us
that,
Chip White: Yeah, so it's an MBA with a concentration in data analytics.
And because that's where the world's moving to.
And so therefore it's important to me to understand what your strengths, your
talents, your passions are, but then where the world is moving or where your
organization's moving and make sure that those two things align with one another.
Dallas: And so I love how you just mashed up everything.
It's a, it's just, it's not one dimensional.
And I think if you're leading a team or leading an organization, I think
it's okay to get outside your box.
If you've been in the technical fields and you've been kind of doing
your thing and just crushing it and loving it and growing, that's
great, but you're going to hit.
A point in your career where you're going to have to grow outside of
that technical area of expertise, if you want to continue to develop.
And then, chips got into HR and now he's into coaching.
And then what does he do?
He gets the masters in data analytics.
I mean, you go, wait a minute.
What, but I think that's, I think that's a natural progression because.
of the sphere you're working in and you're seeing the world move.
And I love how you're not afraid to go solve skills and coaching and
then you're not afraid to jump right back in, into data analytics and say,
this is what I want to know about.
man, I think that's, I think that's
spot on advice.
I think
Chip White: I think for me, though, the commonality, as I stated before, in all of
this is my passion for people development, and so it aligns with my passion, and so
the way that I do career coaching with individuals, and I try to emulate myself
is Look inward to determine the outward.
Look inward with who you are as a person.
We talk about self awareness.
And knowing who you are, knowing the things that you like,
knowing the things that you hate, because that's important as well.
Knowing what you don't want to do is as important as knowing
the things you want to do.
And then from there, look outward to see the career paths, plural, because
there's more than one right answer.
And for me, it's been things that align to people development.
And to me, data analytics is part of that because that's where the world's moving.
But if I can then help people to make decisions, then I'm helping
them develop as a result of that.
And so that was my mindset or mantra, if you will, of why I did that.
Dallas: I love that.
That's really good.
So in your role in Michelin, what is your, what's your goal when you're
thinking through kind of your next steps and what you're trying to accomplish,
like how do you see you applying this data analytics and coaching all
together in, in your current role?
Chip White: So I use a lot of coaching.
I do.
It helps.
And then I do a lot of working with managers to coach managers on how to
have difficult conversations or how to skillfully maneuver through things.
in a way that respects the individual, but also respects and upholds the being
as being an ambassador of the company.
And so being able to do both of those.
So I use the coaching skill as much as anything else.
The data analytics is.
Is interesting because I've learned statistics.
Now I've learned how to do regression analysis and those type of things.
And so using data to be able to predict future results or
where we can move forward.
It helps us to be able to be more efficient, effective in
our decision making process.
Dallas: That's awesome.
Now I know as a coach, you are big on routines and we are as well.
I think we drive, we love talking about routines and we love helping people
develop great routines, whether that's at the organizational level and the
system level, or whether that's at the personal level, what is, when you think
about a person or a team, like a high performing team or a high performing
person in really at the highest levels, what do you think separates them?
from others and how, and, what do you think that would be, and how,
I don't know, like, how do you, how would you describe that in your
experience?
Chip White: I think for me, it's your emotional quotient or your
emotional intelligence and having that, it goes back to knowing yourself
and it sounds like a broken record and I don't mean for it to be.
But if you know yourself, then you can better know others
because you know yourself.
And then that awareness then allows you to not meet, to not
be yourself in all situations, but to meet them where they are.
And so that you tailor your conversations to meet them based upon their
developmental need with where they are based upon what they're struggling
with, what the emotional stigmatism may be in their life or in that situation.
And if you can meet them where they are, and not chameleon but more adaptive.
And if you can do that, then it resonates and it manifests
itself as emotional intelligence.
And that's when that person goes.
Ah, you get me.
And when the minute they do that or say that you've established trust with them
and trust is the foundation of leadership.
If I do not trust you, I will not follow you plain and simple.
And so those who can do that well are well on their way to
building a high performing team.
I
Dallas: I love that.
I love that.
That's so good.
if you were going to, if you were going to give, because I've got you now I just
want to, I want you to be able to share all this wisdom with our listeners.
So if you were to give someone, if you were going to say, Hey, what are some
habits or routines that, that a person could do to finish well, finish strong?
What would you say?
What would you give advice to someone that came to you and said, Hey, what do I need
to do to finish well and finish strong?
What habit routine should I start?
What would you be your advice?
Chip White: think for me, one of the things that someone passed on to me,
one of my mentors passed on to me years ago, and this seems very simple,
but it's that doing that small thing, which can have a big impact, and it
was setting aside one hour a week.
To just think strategically and not fall under the operational day to day,
hour by hour firefighting that we can easily get into is leadership roles.
But what we would do is we look, you mentioned earlier about leadership
is a destination and not a journey.
Or it's a journey and not a destination.
I mean, you never really arrive.
And what you do on a Friday, what I would do on a Friday afternoon, and
I chose Friday afternoon because we tend to not have as many meetings
on a Friday afternoon, and there tends to not be as many distractions.
And so that was the time for me.
It could be something different for other people, but I would take an hour,
close my door and look down the mountain.
Okay, what happened this week?
What did I accomplish looking at my calendar and look at my notes?
What did I not accomplish that I need to accomplish that would
move forward to next week?
And then also, what did I learn that I don't get in the busyness
of just doing a pause and reflect and learn from my mistakes or learn
from the things that I did well, or that I saw other people do well.
And then that's looking down the mountain and then you look up the
mountain to chart your course.
What's the things that's needed for me within the organization or that's needed
for my team, or we need to develop for a prioritization strategically.
Over the next one, three, four, six weeks, six months where the case may be.
And you continually do that hour every single week.
And it's amazing how that can be transformative to you as a
leader and to the organization.
Dallas: Man, I love that.
I love that practice.
And I love that you took it.
I love how you broke it down because it's a routine, but it's a routine where
you're reflecting and you're planning.
It's you're saying, I'm looking down the mountain.
I'm looking up the mountain.
where have I been?
Where am I going?
Kind of thing.
And I think that's such a.
And I love how you do it every week.
I love that routine, how you set it every week because it just
sets up such intentionality.
You have, cause then you can have kind of purpose on when you keep walking up
the mountain and you can know and see where you've been and what's worked
and what's not, where you've come from.
So I just feel like that whole routine is fantastic.
I love that.
It's well done.
Good
advice.
Chip White: to your point though, but if I have found myself, because we all can
wonder, if I've started drifting off, then weekly and routinely by doing that,
I'm recharting my course and realize, ah, I'm starting to drift off a little
bit before I get miles and miles off and don't even realize I've done that.
Dallas: I talk about that some in terms of like you, you have
this, when you set a goal.
right?
Any kind of goal, you're gonna have this drift.
And so if you if you're not careful doing what you're doing, because
if you have, let's say, I mean, so many people, I'm gonna work out.
I'm gonna go buy me a bunch of everybody gets gym equipment Christmas.
They have.
I'm gonna work out five times a week by February.
They're working out like once or twice March.
They're stopped working out by June.
They've 10.
It's okay, and so that by the time you get to the end of that year, Your drift
is so much bigger than if you can just work at it and, every week, if you just
take that moment, like you're saying, and pause in that routine, then you're pulling
it back, saying, Oop, hey, I missed the day this week, I gotta get back on it
next week, I gotta get back on it, and reminding yourself, this is where I'm
done, this is where I'm going, this is what I want, I think that is so healthy,
and I think that is a power, I think that's a power, I think that's a powerful
routine,
Chip White: I will tell you, at least from my experiences though, the first
couple of weeks or even months that I did this, I felt like I wasn't working.
And I almost felt guilty because I didn't feel like I was doing anything.
I was just sitting there staring at my laptop.
And so what I had to convince myself was I'm setting strategy.
I'm setting vision.
I'm reflecting and learning on what I have done.
And that's exactly what the organization needs.
So while my mind was telling me, I was not adding value.
I had to convince myself, no, that's not right.
I'm actually adding value.
So I share that with.
You, if you start to try that and to adopt that practice and you
start to feel that it's completely normal for you to feel that way.
Dallas: I think that's great, too.
And I think you did it.
I think again, it's great advice.
And I think it's really good that you shared that because if you have that kind
of dissonance going into that hour, then your mind is not going to be free enough
to really be creative and reflective.
You're going to have this kind of in the back of your head, and
it's going to just kind of clouds and give you a little dissonance.
So I think just Giving that freedom to yourself by saying,
nope, I'm changing the story here.
I'm not just sitting here.
I'm going to, I'm going to reframe that.
I'm actually doing strategy and being productive.
It's just a different kind of productivity.
I think that's awesome because it just frees you up.
It just frees you up your thinking and,
man, that's really good.
Chip White: And the other thing that I saw from this is I realized I had been so
much of a doer that I wasn't a visionary.
And so therefore I even lacked the discipline to be a visionary.
And so part of this pausing and reflecting was teaching me
discipline to be able to do that and to let my mind just be creative.
Dallas: I think that's so cool because you just gave a great example.
Of taking your strength of achievement and doing and just pulling that back for
one hour a week Just like what you shared earlier in the show I mean like that is
dead on point like a strength you said i'm gonna i'm gonna take an hour to be
reflective and visionary Because i'm a natural my natural strength is getting
it done and achieving so well done.
Well done Oh, that's good stuff.
Good advice.
I hope everybody's Taking copious notes out there in,
and, that's definitely worth it.
last thing we always talk to our guests and we ask our guests if they would
like to hear anyone on the last 10%.
Now, the thing is, it doesn't have to be somebody, it could be a favorite author.
It could be a favorite athlete.
It could be somebody that you'd like to hear, or it could be a friend of yours
that, as a coworker, I mean, we've had.
The full gamut.
We've had , I want my daughter on the show.
I want this author that, we have to contact, it doesn't matter.
So do you have anybody that comes to mind that you would
like to hear on the last 10%?
Chip White: so probably one of the most influential leaders that I've
come across is Pete Selleck and so Pete Selleck was the president of Michelin
North America and he took a demotion to become the president of Michelin
North America because he was over truck tires worldwide in out of France before
he moved into this role, but he came back to the US And retired he is a
former He is a former, West Point grad.
He, he worked directly for Colin Powell, while he was there.
And so just a phenomenal leader that's in the upstate of South Carolina and
just has a lot of skills and a lot of abilities and just very practical.
Dallas: All right.
All right.
So we're gonna have to, we're gonna have to go after Pete.
See if we can get him on the last 10%.
That would be awesome.
We'd love to have him on the show sometime.
that would be great.
Well, Chip, this has just been a pleasure.
I feel like you have totally just.
Killed it.
You've crushed it this episode and given our listeners so much to think
about so many, so much good advice.
I will ask you though, where can, because you've got some, tell us a little bit
you right before we go, you've got some leadership, coaching stuff coming up.
So tell us a little bit about that and how people can get in touch with you.
If they want to
get in touch with you after the
Chip White: Yeah, so my organization is Human Investment Solutions.
So human investment solutions with an ss.
So you can go to human investment solutions.com and see kind of my
website because I have a full-time job and I'm doing this on the side.
It's kind of a, I'm trying to balance between the two.
so give grace there as you look at my website and what have you.
But one of the things that I'm.
That I love doing is equipping leaders to lead through coaching.
And so I have a program that we've just started.
I've been doing it within Michelin, in some capacity for about five years.
Now let's say, as managers, a coach is what I do, but we do outside of
Michelin now, something very similar called leadership through coaching.
And so we'll have.
In Colombia, we will be available for two and a half day seminar to teach
you as a leader how to practically use coaching skills to create this
posture to drive this engagement and this autonomy that we've talked
about, and it'll be October the 3rd through the 5th, and so you can go.
So you can reach out to me on, human investment
solutions.com, go to that website.
You can go into my LinkedIn under Chip White and find the page there.
And, I would love to be able to have you there and to partner with you to
be able to share with you what I've learned, but then also be able to
learn from you as well as a leader.
Dallas: That's wonderful.
We'll put all of that in the show notes in case you're driving.
Don't worry, we'll have those links in the show notes and you can get
in touch with chip, especially if you could be a part of his, session
in Columbia and in another month.
or, and actually in a couple of weeks, that's actually, it's coming up quick.
It's coming up quick.
Well, chip, it has been a pleasure.
Thank you again for being on the last 10 percent and we just
appreciate your time today.
Chip White: Dallas, thank you so much.
It's been a pleasure to be with you.