Summary: Micah Carlton, CHRO of Summit Electric Supply, shares his insights on building a culture of honest communication and trust within an organization. He emphasizes the importance of aligning all levels of the organization and highlights the need to focus on both technical skills and soft skills when hiring and developing teams. Micah also discusses his experiences with acquisitions and the strategies he employed to ensure a smooth transition and build trust among the acquired employees. He emphasizes the significance of being authentic, transparent, and open in all communications and the importance of following through on commitments to build trust.

Key Takeaways:

• Building a culture of honest communication and trust requires alignment at all levels within the organization.
• When hiring and developing teams, it is important to consider both technical skills and soft skills, such as motivation, drive, and aptitude.
• Acquisitions can be successful when there is alignment between the acquiring company's values and culture and those of the acquired company.
• Openness, transparency, and follow-through on commitments are essential for building trust among employees.
• Challenging conversations and disagreements can be productive when approached in a respectful and collaborative manner.

Chapters:

[0:02:10] Micah's HR career trajectory and exposure to different stages of the employee lifecycle

[0:03:09] Importance of evaluating potential and soft skills when building teams

[0:06:14] Context of working environments and challenges faced in building trust

[0:08:51] Openness, transparency, and acknowledging risks to build trust

[0:10:47] Importance of anticipating questions and aligning responses in acquisitions

[0:12:58] Showing acquired team how company operates and aligning visions

[0:16:54] Strategy of acquiring adjacent businesses for market expansion

[0:18:28] Aligning leadership with cohesive vision and purpose

[0:22:25] Need for leadership team to call each other out

[0:23:58] Framework for creating a culture of communication and trust

[0:26:44] Leading with the employee as a partner in the company

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That honesty can't be built without alignment at all levels within your organization. So that's going to be a really important lesson that we're going to learn today. And the person that's going to walk us through that journey is joining us. He's a 20 year HR veteran. He's the current CHRO of Summit electric supply.

He started as an HR generalist and had some significant career progression and is now a CHRO. He's basically spent almost a decade in various people leadership roles in HR. Micah Carlton. Welcome to the show.

Micah Carlton: Thanks, Dr.

Jim. Nice to see you.

That's going to inform this conversation.

Micah Carlton: Thanks for having me again. So like you said appreciate the introduction to 20 years of HR professional work. Started out, recruiting generalist work and through the years I was fortunate enough to be able to

Dr. Jim: navigate through a couple of different patterns from an HR perspective, including doing some time and compensation and benefits and a little bit of a walkthrough from an L and D perspective.

Micah Carlton: So it gave me a chance to round out. And see a wide variety of HR piece and like you mentioned for the last 10 plus years really in, in senior HR leadership rules for prior to coming to Summit Electric 10 years with a company called TT Electronics, which is headquartered in the UK and in a multinational company really focusing on people leadership through different geographics around the world.

Dr. Jim: There's something really interesting about your HR career trajectory. If I heard you correctly, you started out on the recruiting side of it, and then you spent some time in compensation benefits and L& D. Pretty safe to say that you have some pretty decent exposure across all areas of the employee life cycle.

With that broad exposure to all the different stages of the employee life cycle, how did that influence your overall people strategy when you're thinking about how you build your teams, how you develop your teams?

Micah Carlton: One of the pieces for me that's been interesting starting

But then also, most recently with everyone's [00:03:00] dealing with, from a COVID perspective, yeah. We're seeing a gap of talent when it comes to the upskilling sides of it. So a lot of availability of talent moving around but we have some gaps on talent. 20 years ago, when you're going out to look for a manager job or from an individual contributor role, and you're trying just to find out, the skills

match, I have these skills I need for this job.

What are the skills in the marketplace? And try to match it, right? The early days using monster dot com or, things like that. And you pretty easy from a recruiter standpoint to bounce. So now you really happen to do as much of work on. I think the soft skills, the personal skills, the things that are going to really make up their ability from a potential standpoint to grow into the role and help the company move forward.

We don't have the luxury, I think, anymore of just hiring for a very set of skills. We have to take the intangibles in and really look at the makeup of the person, the motivating factors of that, I think really has been a bigger change, especially over the last five or six years, we look from a talent perspective.

You should be looking at and evaluating people based off of what their potential is and their aptitude attitude. Sort of soft skills and potential as the hiring criteria. Am I understanding that

correctly?

Micah Carlton: You have to weigh both. And I think, where I work with my people leaders a lot and especially currently as we're looking to grow we have to find ways to be different.

And if we're just taking, somebody that's already got the same set of skills and assuming those are fully transferable to our culture, our work format, our style, I think there's a lot of opportunity for miss both from the company expectation side, but also from the employee expectation side.

I think that's where really when we talk about from a people strategy piece, that's the part of, maybe I can find somebody that's got the soft skill intangibles, the culture side of it, the approach, the motivation, the potential for aptitude to grow, but they might be lacking in certain skill sets.

Can we give them those skillsets with the different tools we have available? Maybe some of the technology I coming around a bit more. How do we use those skills? Because I can replicate that to a degree. I can't replicate motivation, drive, aptitude, desire those things. I can't replicate. So I can find those things in the intangible side.

Can I build and develop, the technical skill, maybe in some areas,

Dr. Jim: Let's dive into the conversation, and I want to get to that great game changing realization that you had. The main one that we're going to talk about is rooted in this idea of building a culture of honest communication, building a culture of trust.

Micah Carlton: I'll try to be mindful of talking and oscillating between two different, two different companies.

Obviously the last 10 years for me was at TT Electronics. So the last year literally 12 plus months has been with Summit Electric. And so the journey is a bit different here with Summit as we're still working on some of those pieces. So I'll talk about a little between both. I think they're relative.

To this topic. So if I look at, prior life at TT Electronics, one of the things we did talk about quite a bit was on our growth journey where we were trying to go, what we wanted to do, one of the things we needed to from a leadership team was really buy into what our strategy was how do we feel like we needed to get there from an execution perspective?

More importantly, why we wanted to do that, right? It's been start building. And I don't like talking so much about a change management process because I feel like change management is something you have to build into your regular strategy plans or any of anything you're taking on. It shouldn't be.

I'm going to pick up the change management process and work through that to be about how we're building our plans to bring people along for the journey. We really needed to work on building that trust relationship in a lot of cases, some of the leaders have been with the business for a good number of years and had a good base of trust within their kind of framework of Oregon leadership.

What we wanted to do was really convince a wider audience, both within our division, but also within the wider company of why investment dollars need to be with us or how they needed to be spent and then work on how do we. Communicate that to wider populations of how we wanted to execute that strategy.

They're going to follow through. That doesn't always have to be from a business perspective, right? It could be, I want to grow 10 percent and find ways to put a plan together to grow 10%. But I think it's also, we talked about developing people. If we're going to talk about develop people, we have to show track record of actually developing people in order to win that trust.

It's been about, committing to whatever the challenges at hand, communicating the why how we're going to do it, but then also being very open and transparent with that conversation. I know we'll talk a little bit more about that, but I think to me, one of the ways to be to gain that trust, to build that team dynamic is when we say we're going to do it, we follow through with it, but we also know not everything has a positive outcome, right?

I think those are the biggest things. As long as we know, and we're open with them, we can help people work through the challenges. And we can also find opportunities for them to be successful. So to me, it's been a lot of it was around the open transparency of if you just tell everyone it's rainbows and sunshine, we're realistic.

And we know that's not the case. So we have to talk about. Yeah. What some of the rainy day might look like and how we're going to surface through that. And I think using that as our framework allowed us to be successful over those number of years from growth.

Micah Carlton: When we try to work through some of the challenges of what's the next great thing, what's the next big thing, what's the next. Change element going to happen, whether it's HR or business, I think we often look past what the easy answer is because the easy answer, there's a lot of positives to it, but if I look at a couple of examples from an M& A perspective, going through and doing the due diligence as a team, right? So this is a wide team from the acquiring side, working through over many months, we're asking ourselves the very tough questions. Of, does this fit into our future plans of footprint? Does this fit in our future plans of headcount? Does the technology fit? How does it fit?

Why does it fit? So asking all those questions and challenging ourselves was a big piece. I think it also allowed us to play those advocate and answer some of the things of where do we expect questions to come from on a potential acquiring employee site. So we spent a lot of time talking through as our internal team.

And so 1 of the things is making sure that we all understand. And agree to what our outcomes are on what our plans are. And so for us, when we went through an acquiring process, we also had conversations with the acquiring leadership and ownership to say, here's our thoughts.

Here's our plans. And we spent time having those conversations about people, products, places, all those things to test it out. We weren't trying to gain necessary buy in. We weren't trying to get a sway on where the other was trying to be, how's this going to read, where are the other questions going to come from?

So we're volunteering the questions and the answers, to start off the conversations. Because some people don't want to ask those questions, they're on their minds. And so let's just start the conversation. Let's prime the well to get him going. And so I think that was a big piece for us that after that, it's a, that sounds nice, it's nice to be part of a bigger company, but we're going to wait and see because we don't know you, we don't believe in you.

And so we really don't know if this is something that we can trust or buy into. Yet we're scared for our jobs, for our family.

Dr. Jim: I'd like how you called out the. The last part of it where, hey, we don't know you, we're going to wait and see and see how it shakes out because that's pretty common as part of the group that gets acquired.

What were the things that you did? To show the folks that were acquired or show the team that was acquired, here's how we're centered. Here's how we operate. And then the other part of that question is, how did that show up in those exit conversations?

It's a lot easier to bring somebody in when those two things look similar or feel similar and look the same. So that was one of the pieces we did. We did quite extensively in our work of. Do their values match up with our values? Do their culture match up with our culture? Do they have the kind of same things inherent to them that's made them successful and made them attractive for us to want to acquire them fit to where we're going?

And how do you handle some of those conversations that are challenging? When people might not be part of the process. And I think, each one of those, and I can think of the of some of the scenarios. We knew going into it that some people might not be and in a lot of cases, we know who those might be right.

We knew who might not make it for whatever reasons, some because they said we don't want to be a part of it going forward. This is our time to step aside and let the next group come in. But we handle those with dignity, and so we built those in our instances, we built those into a process of cost.

So we factored in doing the right thing by those people so that we were looking at the evaluation of the business. Does those make sense for us and that we're treating those people? Fairly. And in some cases, maybe more unfair. An overall type of communication. We also wanted to make sure that we know that if those people had been loyal from an acquiring perspective to that leadership team or to a leader that they're going to look at that and see how is that person treated because if they can be treated that way, how am I going to be different?

And again, much like we talked about from an acquiring perspective, they were all having conversations to read to what we're going to say that everyone has a chance to say, Hey, I'm not good with that. I think it should be said this way or done this way so that we all leave that process. We're all communicating the same thing because again.

I think it comes back to the open communication process. What I can say is that through a lot of those acquisitions we didn't have the exits. We built the process of strategy so that people could stay but also so that they could grow with us. One of the things we wanted to do was, is find ways to bring people up.

So people see that there's a future and you can make. Development steps up in your career and obviously more money comes along with that. Maybe, do something different in a bigger company. We wanted to make sure that we provide those opportunities as well, because they become good, when we're not in the room, they're our advocates for us,.

And again, you're following through on that development, that career piece.

Dr. Jim: It sounds like almost the default mindset of the leadership team was, let's try to provide a development pathway as much as we can. And when we can't, Let's deal with things with a level of dignity where we're showing people who we are versus just saying and telling people who we are.

Where did that come from? When it comes to how are you going to deploy your people strategy? How did you land on that general philosophy versus what typically happens in an acquisition is, all right, we acquired you. We're going to strip everything down to the studs. We're going to take your tech and then the rest of you can beat it.

and I, that's all I need from you because I have people that can do that. I just need that technology, that customer entry. For where I was at, we were looking for a lot of adjacency business, things that were in line with the same technology, but maybe the time to market was going to be too long for us, or we hadn't proven out enough of a right to play in that space, and so we were able to go buy somebody that was a add on for us to actually move us for as a force multiplier versus doing something that was similar or the same.

So it allowed us, when we looked at it, At what were the right opportunities for us. That's where we spent a lot of time. So it really went back to leadership and the board at that time, really focusing in on what we were trying to do from an M& A strategy and then executing, having a great M& A team to work the execution on finding those opportunities and bringing those two for evaluation.

Now, that brings us to what we opened the conversation with, where if you want to build a culture of honest communication, a culture of trust, that requires alignment across all levels. So bring us behind the curtain and walk us through the process that you went through to get leadership aligned, to have a cohesive vision and purpose going forward.

Micah Carlton: And this, I think I can actually talk about prior and as well as my current at Summit Electric. Cause there's very similar issues that I think took place. Both of them, we had a leadership team, a senior leadership team that was very clear on who we wanted to be.

In a lot of instances, it's about laying down what is that, what does that vision look like? What is that picture of what we want to be whatever we're communicating? And then being very clear about how we want to walk through a successful journey of it. And so it's communicating, bringing people through the conversations.

But for this last year, really, at Summit Electric, when most of our executive team is brand new within the last 24 months, it's really about trying to win people over through being real and authentic. And doing life with them to start with to earn that trust on a very basic level of you don't know me from anybody else.

There's something for us to believe in and this leadership team in the direction we're going and you're going to start building some of those little steps of follow and then you have to keep executing. But it all comes down to, I think, being very human, right? Being very transparent who you are.

Don't put on a show because of a title because you want people to be Inspired or odd by something you're saying coming in, but it's being very authentic and who you are. I think that worked when my previous company, we go through acquisitions and enter ourselves into doing to a new opportunity and bring people on it.

It's worked. I think so far in this last year here at summit where the whole leadership team is new. We're putting a new vision. A new mission of where we're trying to go and really work on bringing that into just being human. And then we have to stand by what we say. So we can't over promise, have to make sure that we're giving little things, but then delivering on them in order to keep building that trust over a period of

time.

So there's going to be inevitably situations where there's disagreement. So what were the things that you did to overcome that disagreement or build consensus in enough of a way to make meaningful progress going forward?

Micah Carlton: That's an interesting question,. So we think about ego.

Everyone's got one. It's about how you display that ego and it doesn't get in the way or not, right? And that's what you're, asking. I think thinking when I look at some of the situations. It takes the right, ultimate the right leader, whoever is the top decision maker of those entities, really making sure that when we leave this room that we're all one.

And if we were going to have a discriminator, we're going to have an argument if we're going to have any type of challenging conversation, we do it in a way that we can all hug when we leave the room, . Can we go out and have dinner afterwards? And if so, when it can be productive,?

At times, I think that's my job as an HR leader to work through. One of the things I think in a very healthy organization, it's everybody's job to do that, right? It's everybody's job to check and challenge. Thank you. And I don't think that's

unique in a lot of companies. I think that the uniqueness is the ability to actually move on from that challenge. And I think that's where I've been fortunate. When I look back and say, you know what, there's been some egos in there, obviously some very large egos, because we are in a lot of cases in those rooms were type a personalities,.

We were determined to be successful. We're competitive. We want to win. And sometimes that want to win means. Dr. Jim, that's between you and me, right? One of us is going to have to win. One of us is going to lose. I think We have to make sure that we keep saying that, the who's going to win, who's going to lose is we're all on the same team.

So that own personalities or own egos or own. Desires don't get in the way of what the, what is ultimately the right thing for us as a business perspective. All right.

Dr. Jim: . Micah, this is flown by. It's been a great conversation, and I think we're just scratching the surface at what we could actually talk about, but I want to wind this back and tie everything together to what we open the show with when you're looking at an uncertain environment, and you want to create a culture of communication or culture of trust.

What are the things that people leaders need to be aware of? What's the framework that you would recommend that they follow to do a lot of the things that you did over the course of your various experiences as a, as an HR leader?

What I know from my experience with the ones that I was a part of a lot of prep work went in, really doing our time to dig in, do the due diligence that's required, ask the questions, look for alignment, look for fit and then be very open when we come to day one and going forward of what those things are, what are our plans, what our intentions are so again, we talked about transparency and open and honest communication.

They're still performing the product and technology that was very attractive for us. It's growing, it's thriving in a customer environment. And I also know there were a large number of people or good handfuls of people that have been promoted up that are taking larger steps in their career because of the opportunities that were forfeited of being acquired by a bigger company.

And so I think that those things really say that No, if we stick to a game plan, if we work to be open and honest throughout that process, bring people along for that journey. Hey, you know what, you're part of this family now, so we can't be the only ones making the decisions. We have to do this as a group, .

And so where those things are available to you need to make sure that you're bringing them in just like you would your associates prior to that acquisition to make sure that those conversations are there. I think that when it came down to it, one of the things that worked out really well Is looking for opportunities that fit who we were as a company.

Dr. Jim: The big thing that I take away from what you just described is that there's a decidedly human element to how you approach things. You can set up in two camps when you're going through these motions.

You can take the position that people like Tim Gerner of the Gerner group takes where they're where, he's a private equity guy and a commercial real estate guy and he's taken the position that, hey employees need to understand their place. And they need to understand that they work for us.

Before we wind down, where can people find you, Micah?

Micah Carlton: Yeah. So I'm on LinkedIn. It's Micah Carlton. His first and last name. That's usually where I do most of my professional networking side of it. Outside of that, it's my own personal stuff. From a social network side, I usually leave that outside of it.

But you can also find me at my current company, Summit Electric. So it's someone electric supply dot com and you can find all the things that we're doing there and more information about me on our homepage. They're

Dr. Jim: Thanks for hanging out with us. Micah. I think when I think about this conversation that we've had, there are 3 big things that stand out to me.

And it's these questions. When you're trying to do something, when you're trying to make impact, when you're trying to do change management. These two questions should drive your behavior. Who do you want to be and how do you want to be remembered? How you answer those questions is going to determine what sort of organization you're building, what level of trust you have, what level of cohesion you have.

How engaged your people are. And that's really a few of the things that came out of this conversation. Mike, I appreciate you hanging out and sharing your insights and your experience with us. I think the listeners are going to get a great amount of value out of what we talked about. For those of you who have checked out the conversation.

Leave us a review. Then tune in next time, where we'll have another leader coming on the show to talk about the game changing realizations that they had, which helped them build a high performing team.