Transcript
A (0:10)
Welcome to the Revenue Builders podcast with John McMahon and John Kaplan. In today's segment, football coach and author Brian White shares powerful insights on building winning cultures and what it really takes to lead a successful team. Brian's latest book, the Locker Room is Not for Sale, is a great read on leadership. In this segment, Brian breaks down why trust has to go both ways, from the individual entering a new organization and from the team itself. And why assimilating into an existing culture before trying to change it is the key to lasting impact. If you're a sales leader trying to establish yourself in a new company, maybe you're a manager building team cohesion or a CRO focused on building a culture where people compete selfishly but give selflessly. This episode is for you. Let's dive in.
B (1:12)
Johnny, I'd like to hear your. Your thoughts on as well. I learned this the hard way. It's not just. It's not just the trust for the individual. It's the trust for the locker room, or it's the trust for the. You know, for the company that you're entering. My example is I transferred from Boise State to Bowling Green. They made me report with the freshman. The coach that. Hi. The coach that recruited me was gone. Blah, blah, blah. Sad story. I'm in there whipping everybody's tail because I'm mad because my coach is no longer there and I can't transfer again. There's no. There was no portal back then. And I remember later on in life when somebody said something to me, they said, john, the people that learn, the people that assimilate best into cultures are the ones that learn how to be the same before they try to establish their difference. Be the same before you try to establish your difference. And I've learned that the hard way in my life. I've learned it. I learned it when I transferred to Bowling Green and I started fighting on the first day when the vets showed up. And. And, you know, that wasn't endearing me to anybody, wasn't winning me any favor in the locker room. I learned it when I went to PTC, and PTC had a. You know, I came from 10 years of Xerox, and PTC had a very specific way of doing things. And, you know, yes, they wanted input, but they wanted me to learn first the culture of ptc, and then not for me, because Johnny called me very specifically and said, I don't want you to be ptc, but I want you to help take PTC to the next level. So there's this. This trust thing was on both sides. It was for the individual entering the circle, and it was for the circle itself to be able to accept somebody into it. So I just think that's so powerful. What, what you guys, what you guys are talking about, it really resonates for me. Really resonates. Johnny, do you remember that phone call?
C (3:12)
No, but I think, you know, as Brian was saying earlier, you know, what I heard in him, what he's saying, I just put it in different words. You know, as a leader, you're either going to build a culture of a bunch of individual me, which is just subordinate. Whatever you tell me to do, coach, okay, I'll do it, you know, because I just want to play. If I don't play, you're going to penalize me. So it's very transactional leadership. You know, it's just. I'm an individual subordinate. I want to play. You tell me what to do, I'll do it. But there's no team. And a leader like Brian builds a team of. I don't know if I'm using the right word, but they are in some ways followers because they, it. They're a bunch of team and they're saying, okay, Coach, I got it. We're a team and we're gonna go make this happen. You know, it's selfless versus selfish. The individual selfish versus being selfless. Right. And it has to start with the leader.