An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Celebrate by calling out purpose-driven behaviors. When people help create the purpose, see it lived out daily, and are recognized for embodying it, your organization becomes a “best place to work.” That’s when top talent doesn’t just join you, they seek you out because they want to be part of something meaningful.
Purpose has become the new currency of success in today’s workplace, and leaders who prioritize mission-driven cultures are standing out in the war for talent. To explore this important topic, we are interviewing Dave Garrison.
Dave Garrison is CEO and Co-founder of Garrison Growth, a keynote speaker, and Vice Chair of the Leadership Development Network for Young Presidents’ Organization. He is author of “The Buy-In Advantage: Why Employees Stop Caring and How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Give Their All.”
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
I’ve had the incredible opportunity to lead several fast-growing companies as CEO for over two decades. In that role as CEO, I realized that my true passion was seeing people and teams accomplish things they didn’t think were possible. For the past decade, I’ve spent my time coaching, advising, and delivering workshops to thousands of leaders around the world. In the eight million miles I’ve logged in that time, I’ve seen first-hand the problems faced by small- and mid-sized organizations, as well as by multi-billion-dollar companies. They all spend a lot of time and energy figuring out how to motivate their people and align everybody’s priorities to make “great” happen. Seeing so many leaders face these same challenges led me to write “The Buy-In Advantage.” It has all the tools I wish I had when I was a young CEO trying to figure it out by myself.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began working in leadership, culture building, or purpose-driven organizations?
One particularly impactful experience took place at Alta Equipment Group, a mid-sized company that sells, rents, and repairs industrial and construction equipment from locations around the country. One morning in 2022, the CEO found a typewritten letter in his mailbox. The company’s service coordinator/dispatcher was announcing her resignation. In doing so, she explained her decision in detail: she felt disheartened by poor morale, discouraged by the noncommunicative and non-supportive work environment, and overloaded by additional duties not discussed upon her hire, for which she could have been paid more elsewhere. Despite loving her career, she felt she could not practice it at the company. The conditions she described were contributing to a 30% turnover rate.
Fortunately, the CEO didn’t shrug it off. My firm worked with him and his leadership team to embrace changes that helped increase buy-in among the team. Within a single year, turnover for that location dropped from 30% to 10%.
Experiences like this one told me that the idea of buy-in was going to be one of the most important concepts of my career — and became the inspiration for my book.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
The three traits that have served me best are being curious, people-centric, and devoted to results.
In the case of Alta, a big part of finding out how to reverse the high turnover rate was being curious and asking questions about what was really happening. I knew if we talked to the firms’ people, we would gain important insights into their experience. And I saw it was important to peg our work to a metric we would track, in this case turnover, so we could see if our approach was working. These aren’t the metrics people typically capture, but they’re essential when it comes to what is usually an organization’s greatest investment — their people.
Let’s now jump into the focus of our interview. What does a “purpose-driven culture” mean to you personally, and why do you think it’s critical for attracting top talent?
A purpose-driven culture isn’t just about having nice words on a poster in the breakroom. It’s one in which all the leaders and members of the team truly know why their work matters and feel connected to it, whether someone is filling out a time sheet or delivering a speech at a Town Hall. In a purpose-driven culture, any team member can tell you in four to six words why the work of the organization matters.
Despite the popularity of purpose over the years, building a purpose-driven culture is not as easy as it may sound, and many talented CEOs discover there is a lot to learn to get it right. One key ingredient: to ensure people know they are “done with, not done to” when important decisions need to be made. In “The Buy-In Advantage” I focus on offering immediately actionable strategies on how to seek employees’ input and truly integrate it, so team members truly have ownership of the company’s purpose. When that happens, that buy-in shows up in every interaction with each other, customers, and the community. It creates a virtuous circle where purpose drives engagement, engagement drives results, and results reinforce the purpose.
How did you identify and define the mission or purpose for your organization? Was it inspired by a particular event, challenge, or insight?
I have been an active member of Young Presidents’ Organization, a global leadership community of chief executives, for more than three decades, and have been a board member and regional executive officer. I am currently Vice Chair of the group’s global Leadership Development Network, where more than 7,500 leaders have opted into lifelong learning about leadership in business, community, and life.
Despite their successes, I have found that many leaders feel they are charging up the mountaintop toward their latest goal, only to look back and find no one is following them. The people in their organizations aren’t keeping up with their energy as leaders.
When I probe, I usually find this is because they have not asked the employees what they thought about the latest strategies and initiatives. Or, if they did ask for input, they had not incorporated it into their thinking or actions. Leaders need specific processes to follow to ensure they are going to achieve buy-in.
When employees aren’t engaged, leaders are losing out on their rich perspective that can help generate even better results. The organization also loses out on the bottom line financially and in terms of employee burnout. The costs of turnover are rarely obvious on the profit statement. Burnout occurs when people take time from their central work to interview and train and work two jobs while waiting for the newbie to come up to speed.
Once I started to share the strategies and mindsets that would help leaders, most found their teams had a renewed sense of purpose, and problems like low engagement diminished. I wrote “The Buy-In Advantage” so more leaders could benefit from what they learned, instead of figuring this out by trial and error, which can be very costly and take years.
What are the key steps leaders can take to embed purpose into the day-to-day operations and decision-making of their companies?
It is essential to embed purpose into the day-to-day operations and decision-making in any organization. For example, your purpose should be part of your hiring process. Ask people how they see themselves in the organization’s purpose. Also, incorporate purpose in your decision-making process. If you’re evaluating options, ask yourself, “Which one of these gets us closer to our purpose?” Purpose can also become a natural way to prioritize and remain focused. Lastly, recognize and celebrate purpose in action by connecting specific behaviors to your organization’s purpose and values.
What role does leadership play in championing and modeling a purpose-driven culture? Can you share an example of how you or another leader helped reinforce your organization’s purpose?
A leader has to live the organization’s purpose or that purpose will ring hollow to everyone else who works there. In the case of Alta Equipment Group’s CEO Ryan Greenawalt, he showed that he was committed to building a carefully crafted culture that values mutual respect by taking his employee’s resignation note seriously, asking employees what opportunities there were to improve their experience, and changing his culture to reduce concerns like hers in a measurable way.
How do you handle skepticism or resistance from team members or stakeholders who may not immediately understand the value of focusing on purpose?
It is important to set criteria for how you will evaluate a great strategy for demonstrating the company’s purpose. Asking team members to help set those criteria will generally reduce skepticism, because they have had buy-in to how you are measuring progress.
It’s also important to track your progress on executing strategies tied into your purpose and values. I am a big believer in collecting data that will allow an objective observer to see progress on all objectives and tactics, and then tracking them relentlessly for a significant period. For instance, an affordable housing builder whose purpose includes, “Making a significant impact on the affordable housing crisis,” could track the number of apartments built and rented and then share that data with key stakeholders.
When you involve skeptics in defining what success looks like and then deliver on those measures, they often become your biggest champions. They go from thinking, “This is just feel-good nonsense,” to, “Look at what we’re accomplishing here.”
Data doesn’t lie, and the results speak louder than any purpose statement ever will.
Based on your experience, can you share “5 Steps to Build a Purpose-Driven Culture That Attracts Top Talent”?
A friend once told me about a CEO who had built a company with $40 million in annual revenue. He ran through executives like a track team and complained that those he hired never measured up. Behind closed doors, the executive complained his direct reports were “just not getting it.”
He wanted to build a purpose-driven culture, but he was undermining it without even knowing it. At executive meetings, he would put a chart on a screen with about 50 different metrics. None of those attending ever knew which metric would draw his focus that day and many were fearful of being targeted for failing to achieve one of the goals.
In private, employees complained about the company having too many priorities that shifted too often and having too few resources to tackle these goals properly. The stressful, miserable culture led to high turnover below the executive team, as well. The behavior the CEO modeled, “Do as I say, not what I do,” trickled down.
Although it’s easy to listen to this story and quickly criticize the CEO for all the things he did “wrong,” his mentors probably didn’t share with him the leadership habits that are essential to maintain a culture of buy-in: If you want to make sure everyone in your organization knows your purpose, here are five leadership habits to embrace.
- Co-create the organization’s purpose. When I worked with Alta Equipment Group to create their purpose, we used what we call the Collective Genius Process. Rather than the CEO telling everyone what their purpose should be, we asked the whole leadership team, “How do we make a difference that matters?” By using our process to get everyone’s best ideas on the table, they came up with “Delivering Trust That Makes a Difference.” Because they all co-created it together, they owned it. When people are given the opportunity to help build something, they’re “bought” in from day one.
- Model that purpose through your own actions. That CEO I mentioned with the turnover issue was modeling “Do as I say, not as I do,” which is toxic. If your purpose talks about respect and collaboration, but you’re micromanaging with 50 metrics, people see right through it.
- Hire for alignment with purpose, not just skills. During interviews, share your purpose and ask, “How do you see yourself in this? What does this bring up for you?” If someone has great skills and experience, but no connection to your purpose, they’re more likely to leave you the moment someone offers them more money.
- Cascade and connect daily work to the purpose. Instead of telling a team to work faster, help them understand how efficient service might help your customer get home and back to their families sooner. The key question to ask people is, “How does what you do here connect to our overall purpose?” Don’t assume they know. Have that conversation so they can see it clearly and then tie it to their daily actions.
- Celebrate by calling out purpose-driven behaviors. When people help create the purpose, see it lived out daily, and are recognized for embodying it, your organization becomes a “best place to work.” That’s when top talent doesn’t just join you, they seek you out because they want to be part of something meaningful.
Can you share a specific example of how embracing a purpose-driven culture helped your company attract exceptional talent or achieve a significant business goal?
Several years ago, YPO asked me to deliver a seminar for leaders on how to achieve predictably extraordinary results. It kept filling up, and attendees began asking me to put what I discussed in writing.
What I learned in working with the leaders is that there was a buy-in crisis that was keeping companies from achieving consistently great results. I saw a common problem: Employees were “checked out” because no one was asking for their input or acting on their ideas. Often, they completely disagreed with what their companies were doing. This looked like low engagement, but it was a different problem: The employees didn’t care what was happening at their companies because no one asked them what the company should be doing.
That made me realize how critical it was for leaders to unlock that potential from employees in order to achieve buy-in on their teams. The future of their companies depends on it.
Everything we do at Garrison Growth is driven by the desire to unlock potential in people, and now my book has brought together those lessons from leaders that I wish I’d had as a young CEO.
What advice would you give to leaders of smaller companies or startups who want to build a purpose-driven culture but don’t know where to start?
You don’t have to do this alone. Organizational culture, by its nature, is made up of a team of people. Ask team members where they would start. They can provide a perspective you may not have considered as a leader. This is one example of the powerful concept: “All of us are smarter than any one of us.” In turning to your team to help build that purpose-driven culture, you’ll have a wonderful opportunity to create buy-in from day one. That’s worth its weight in gold, no matter the size of your organization.
What are some common mistakes leaders make when trying to create a purpose-driven culture, and how can they avoid them?
The biggest mistake is trying to create a purpose-driven culture on their own. Seeking buy-in at every step along the way can help leaders to ensure that if they are charging up the mountaintop, other team members are willingly following — because they have real input into the company’s purpose and genuinely believe it.
The second biggest mistake I see is when leaders confuse purpose with profit. I’ve seen so many “purpose statements” that are really just financial goals and measures. “To be the market leader in our space” isn’t a purpose. That’s a business objective. Purpose is emotionally compelling and answers the question, “Why is the world different because we exist?”
How do you ensure that your organization’s purpose evolves and remains relevant as your company grows and the world changes?
When leaders and their teams get busy, they tend to put their heads down and focus on execution. It’s important to set aside regular time to ask your team for ideas on solving the problems in front of you and capitalizing on opportunities that help you stay true to your purpose. The busier you are, the more you need that input, which could save you millions of dollars, or help you greatly increase revenue and profits — while living your purpose.
What trends or shifts are you seeing in the workplace regarding purpose, and how do you think these will shape the future of business?
We live in an age when everyone has information at their fingertips thanks to AI. Many workers want to work for companies who embody their purpose and demonstrate that they offer an opportunity to make an impact rather than just collecting a paycheck. Employers who want to attract and retain the best employees need to make sure that they are demonstrating their purpose every day and are tracking their progress in supporting it with clear metrics. That has always been essential to maintaining authenticity but will be even more so, now that it’s so easy for anyone to “fact check” what a company is saying.
In your opinion, how does having a purpose-driven culture impact not just employees, but customers, clients, and the broader community?
Companies and organizations don’t exist in a vacuum. When you have built a purpose-driven culture that has buy-in among your team, customers and the community feel that energy in every interaction. That has a ripple effect that goes beyond your office.
The companies that get this right don’t just have customers, they have fans. They don’t just have employees, they have ambassadors leaving an impact on the community around them.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people by building purpose-driven workplaces, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I’d like to help every organization in America, and beyond, to build a buy-in culture. A buy-in culture looks a little different in every company, but all companies benefit from building buy-in among their teams. One easy way to start? Leaders can ask employees one simple question each week: “What are you celebrating right now, personally and professionally?” It connects us as human beings, and not just human doings. When people feel valued and heard, they naturally want to contribute more and share ideas they wouldn’t have shared before. They want to go the extra mile. They start treating customers and colleagues the way they want to be treated.
The amazing thing is, there are no-cost solutions to creating buy-in. You just need leaders who are willing to slow down for two minutes and connect with the people they work with. If we could get leaders everywhere to create environments where people can bring their full selves to work, we’d solve the engagement crisis. We’d have workplaces where people are excited to contribute, innovation flourishes, and revenues increase.
How can our readers further follow you online?
I’d love to connect and continue the conversation on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-garrison-growth/. I look forward to hearing from your readers and to keep evolving my ideas on buy-in by tapping their collective wisdom. You can also get more info on “The Buy-In Advantage” and grab a sample chapter at www.buyinbook.com or find other resources at www.garrisongrowth.com.
This was great. Thank you so much for the time you spent sharing with us.
Dave Garrison Of Garrison Growth On How to Build a Purpose-Driven Culture That Attracts Top Talent was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.