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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
manufacturing, talent, stacy, manufacturers, leadership development, today, succession, succession planning, workforce, damon, business, leadership, business owners, good, intentional, developing, great, learning, development, hear
SPEAKERS
Stacey Curry, Damon Pistulka
Damon Pistulka 00:01
All right, everyone, welcome once again to the faces of business. I’m your host, Damon pistulka, and I am excited for our guest today because we got someone that is oh so good at this. We are going to be talking with Stacy curry today about talent, succession planning for legacy and facilitating business exits. Stacy, thanks for being here today.
Stacey Curry 00:25
Oh, my pleasure. So nice to share time and space with you and your audience. Thank you.
Damon Pistulka 00:32
It’s gonna be a great it’s gonna be great. I’m excited for this. Gosh, so much to start with, but let’s start back. So Stacy, tell us a bit about your journey. You know you you’re experienced leadership cult or coach, excuse me. And what really brought you into that first of all, before we start talking about succession planning. Oh, well,
Stacey Curry 01:00
okay, so I’ll give you a little snippet. So my journey started with a hiring manager who brought me in and talk about talent succession, right? So she was promoted into a senior leadership position, and so she still would have been, she was my manager, right? But she got promoted, and so she was hiring for her position, right and and leadership development. And I, I don’t, I talk about divine intervention by she extended a graceful invitation for me to join her and her team, and I got to learn from her, and it was in leadership development, and it was really, I would say, my first step into what learning and development knows as leadership development. Now, right? So I had been doing leadership development, kind of quasi before that, in nonprofit, and then when I applied for the job and she extended the invitation to come. It was just like, game on, yeah. So one of the things just just real quick, one of the things that I quickly noticed in my time with her, and her name was Kathy Langley, and I’ll give her a big shout out, because she was one of the most effective leaders I have ever had the privilege to partner with, to learn from phenomenal right? And it was what I was experiencing were, were managers, participants going through leadership development and having conversations with me after the sessions, after the training sessions, saying, Hey, I’ve got this issue. I don’t know what to do with it. And it wasn’t counseling, it wasn’t therapy. It was something very different. And at that time, coaching was just not in its infancy, but definitely in its adolescence. So it was fairly new in the whole learning and development field. It was, it was kind of an a fairly new term, but, but it had some had some breadth to it. It had some meat to it. And because of these requests for assistance, for guidance, that led me down the path of leadership development, coaching and and actually it’s, it’s really, you could call it whatever you want. Coaching is really about helping us to really dig deep into our potential and identify our own answers and to trust our own answers, and a coach just facilitates that exploratory discovery with you and and I’ve been a coach ever since. So I became a coach in 2013 and I’ve just kept on track. I’ve just kept up with my my learnings, my certifications, and it’s just such a it’s a special niche. It’s a special, special feel that I think so many of us are blessed to be a part of.
Damon Pistulka 04:10
Yeah, so what? What do you you say it’s a special, special thing. What do you feel is you like the most about it?
Stacey Curry 04:21
It’s, it’s the connections. And you and I talked about it right before we started right it’s, it’s the connections with people who are in a transition, whatever that transition is, and in leadership development, it usually is from individual contributor to now they’ve been tapped for management or supervision, or you are a manager, but you’ve been tapped for, you know, becoming a director or a C suite member of the team, and it’s the transitions between, ooh, this was my authority and my impact before that. Now it looks a little different, and I don’t know what that is, right and how to navigate. You know, I’ll say politics, and I’m not using that as a negative connotation by any means. But it is, it’s it’s a new landscape. It’s different kind of conversations, it’s a different kind of mindset. It’s strategic thinking. And it’s like, Oh, I was a doer before, but now they’re asking me to think at a strategic level and for the betterment of our company, and I’m not quite sure I know how to do that. And then, oh, by the way, I’ve got these two team members that are, you know, creating a lot of tension, and I don’t know what to do with it, right? And and they do, they do know what to do with it. They just don’t trust themselves, right to to really bring that out within them. And then if they try it and it’s wonky, we go back. It’s like, the dip, right? Like something, and we get into that dip, and it doesn’t work. We’re like retreat. Let’s go back to our conditioned habits and behaviors, and those served us well up to this point, but it’s not going to help us get to what is being asked of us, right?
Damon Pistulka 06:18
Yeah, yeah. You You said it, well, they’re connecting with people in transition, and in that transition, you just mentioned again what worked before, or what the techniques, the things you used before, are probably not going to work in your in your new role, or not as effectively,
Stacey Curry 06:42
right AND, and OR, or there’s discovery of a different type of challenge that you’re just not ready for. Right or, or you might as a contributor, individual contributor, you know, we might have been, and you’ve heard this before, and I’m sure many of your listeners have heard this before you get promoted, because you are a high performer, right? And it’s great because you’re a doer. You know how to get it done now with leadership? Oh, wait a minute, we have people. We can get work done through people. I don’t know how to do that, because I’ve always been the one to get it done. And what happens sometimes is new leaders, unwittingly, unwittingly, what they’ll do is, you know, they may stifle development because they’re so used to doing it themselves. Yeah, they’ll just get it done, or they think that a member of their team is coming to them with a challenge, and they’re like, Okay, I’m the hero. I can do it. I can fix it, instead of helping them to critically think through the problem and then tooling them up to do corrective action on that problem on their own, and not them take the lead, right? And it gets into some really, really interesting dialogs and behaviors, and we get to unpack that, and it’s so beautiful. And you know this to be true as well, when you can see the moment where they’re like, oh my gosh, I totally get the connection. I totally see that I’m enabling my team to constantly come to me with problems, because I’ve solved every problem, you know, and now I’m kind of I’m feeling frustrated because I have to solve all these problems. We don’t realize that by our very own way of being, we are contributing to those things that cause us frustration. And so when you see that connection, they’re like, Oh my gosh. Now I can begin anew. Now I can try different techniques, or I can cultivate new habits that will not only serve me, but will absolutely serve my team for the betterment, and that’s what we’re here to talk about today, is that whole talent succession and building people up for the betterment of the greater good. And I can’t say that enough. So if I repeat myself in that saying several times, it’s because I truly do believe that it’s we’re helping people holistically and developing them to Yes, for the betterment of the company, but also for for the betterment of them. So they have economic mobility that they can they can go, they can stretch, they can do things that they absolutely are capable of doing it, but sometimes I think you just have to ask and develop them, right? And then you’re like, Oh my gosh. Now I develop other people. This is a beautiful thing, right?
Damon Pistulka 09:54
Yes, yeah, it really is. Because then when, when you see it, start. Happen. You described it so well, I wanted to just let you go there, because so many high performers get promoted into leadership, and they don’t really make that transition. And you said it so well, they continue to solving everyone’s problems when they really need to be helping them, helping people figure out how to solve those problems on their own, rather than solving the problems for them and then cultivating, as you said, the new habits that allow them to be better at staying out ahead of their team and really helping their team grow.
Stacey Curry 10:35
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I think that the whole transitioning right in terms of leadership progression and whatever you define leadership to be, whatever your career journey is, right, because it doesn’t always have to be, you know, a leadership position you may take on a whole new stretch assignment in a whole different department, but it levels you up because you are developing new skill sets, and you are you are developing your mindset, which I think is very, very important, right? And that’s a big thing that we talk a lot about in terms of leadership, development and coaching, and even in talent succession, is it’s 99% mindset. It is, you know it. You know it, yes, now, yeah.
Damon Pistulka 11:24
So now we’re now you, you started moving into this subject. And I love this, because when we are in these situations where we really need to be working on our talent succession planning, what are some of the the common things that you see people missing as they as I mean, because we’re sitting here today. So first of all, let’s back up a little bit. Because you, you work with IMEC, Illinois. You are the the manufacturing ascension partnership, part of the manufacturing ascension partnership for the state of Illinois, you’re helping manufacturers do this. And I wanted to make that clear, because I think manufacturers overall have a significant challenge that they’ve been dealing with for a long time, and it’s only getting worse, because we’re not getting any younger, and this is talent succession planning, because, you know, there’s very few people I know, and I’ll ask you this that, and then you can go into it. But very few manufacturing companies I step foot in anymore, where you’ve got enough young people in there, and really, and we look at this talent succession planning for legacy and facilitating exits, or whatever we want to do, what are some of the things that you say right off the bat that that you see when you’re helping people in in manufacturers there in Illinois, that they just aren’t even touching?
Stacey Curry 12:54
Okay, very important question, and you know, I’m going to ask you the same question, because I’d like for you to share what you see as well in your home state, right? Yeah, and so, you know, and I will share this with the caveat, there is no shame in this, right? I mean, there’s no this is just simply where they are, and that’s, that’s why they call us, right? Because they know too that, hey, we need to develop some rigor in a certain area. Or we are. We absolutely know that we are in the midst of a culture shift, and we don’t know what that looks like. We don’t know what that means to us, but we know that we’re we’re challenged, we’re floundering in some areas, right? And so one of the things Damon, that I see, that I see consistently, is and, and I love this. There’s a lot of beauty to this. A lot of our manufacturers within, within our state, are family owned, right? Or they have that, that grassroots right upbringing and and the legacy is so rich. Yes, story is amazing. I mean, when you sit across from somebody, a business owner, especially manufacturing, sharing their story, you’re you’re just literally, you’re blown away. You’re in awe. And so many times I have to, you know, kind of pick up my job, because I’m just in awe the resiliency, right? That has brought them to where they are, and it’s a prosperous company, and it’s vital in the community, that is a beauty. And then the flip of the coin on the other side is you let me know if you’re seeing this too. The workforce that is blooming today, they want to know where you’re going. They want to know where you’re going. Great story. Story, but where are you going? Where are you going and, and, and how are you serving the community, and what are you giving back socially? And what are you doing to, you know? And I’m going to put it out there, what are you doing that is contributing to the betterment of our environment, you know, and all of this. I mean, they want to see some I think right now, maybe we have this conversation a year from now, and I might think differently. But what I’m observing, what I’m witnessing, what I’m hearing, is the workforce coming in. They want to be a part of the future. And so many times, when I walk into the lobby of of any of our manufacturing clients, you’ll absolutely see their archive, their their Legacy Archive, but what is missing is, and here’s where we’re going and we want you to be a part of that team. And, and here’s how you can make a difference, right? And that’s what they want. They want that connection to, you know, this piece that I make, I want to know how it serves our customer. Where does it go? How does it help them improve their life, right and and what new technology are we on the cutting edge of? And right there, I will tell you, we got a workforce that’s savvy, and we have some manufacturers that they know it’s important that they’re getting there. But I, I don’t know. I will say this, but I please again, I say no shame. I don’t know if it’s fast enough. Yeah, I do know. I don’t know if we are in front of the change to lead the change, or if we’re behind the change, and the change is leading us, because there’s a big distinction there, right? We need to get in front of that, and we need to really see and you know what? Here’s another thing I will say is, covid is done. We’re done. Yeah, we’re several years right? We’re several years beyond that, we can no longer use covid as as I hasten to say, excuse, but we can’t. We can’t just say, well, covid, we’ll covid. We’ll covid. Okay? It happened. It was incredibly disruptive across our planet, right? Yeah, we endured. Yes, we did it, right, and here we are. And now I think we need to be very future focused. And that happened. It happened, and I do not want to minimize the gravity of it at all because it had it. It really impacted millions of people in big, big ways. So I don’t want to, you know, I don’t want to minimize that, yeah, but I do think we need to start really thinking about, instead of that workforce, they’re no they they don’t want to work, or they’re not loyal. They’re not we know they do want to work, but they want to work for something that is going places, going Yeah, and that’s the story that I think so many of our, of our clients, of the business owners, that’s what I help them to start sharing. Like, if you really want to get talent in the door, you got to share your story, not what happened 100 years ago, right? They’re going to be like, Okay, that’s, that’s nice. What about what about today. Where are we going today?
Damon Pistulka 19:01
Mm, hmm, because they want to know what they’re a part of, yeah, what they’re going to be doing, what, how they’re going to make the world different, even their little slice of world.
Stacey Curry 19:11
What are you seeing? Are you seeing something similar or something completely different? You know,
Damon Pistulka 19:17
no, no, it’s, it’s the same. I think it’s the same just about everywhere. You know, manufacturing is just one of the cases where it happens. But, you know, I look in, I look in things like CPA firms. I look in legal, law firms. I look, you know, even it doesn’t matter, look at any home services, kind of businesses. I mean, it’s really hard to find younger people in business that you know have been intentionally recruited, intentionally developed and intentionally put into situations where they are and they know that they are going to be. There is a bright future for them in these organizations. And, you know, I think you see it firsthand in manufacturing, because it’s, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s easy and manufacture, I should say it’s easier in manufacturing, in some respects, because if I’m a manufacturer, and I have say, 100 clients, and each client gives me $100,000 a year in sales. That’s ten million it’s a nice business. That’s a big business in most, most realms. And that makes it much different than if I’m running an HVAC business, then my average customer is going to spend about maybe $10,000 with me a year, or $5,000 with me a year. And I want to have a $5 million business, I have to have a lot more customers. I have to have a lot more things going on. I have to be I mean, just all that, what that drives in an organization is so much different, yeah, and the kind of kind of people that you need, everywhere from in the field to in the in the office to in your sales and marketing. It’s it’s all different. And I really think that the people that have taken the time and you said this to, first of all, themselves, know where the business is going, and answer the questions that weren’t really that relevant to my age group was, how are we making the world a better place? What are we you know, what you said it before. It’s, it’s, how are we serving our community? I mean, I cannot remember ever last decade going, Hey, we’re gonna go, you know, clean up the park, or we’re gonna go do some some community service, unless you were doing it on your own time, because you were part of another group that was doing it right. It’s not like that as a big that was a big part of business, and many people are still living in that time. And you, because you look at the leaders in manufacturing, a lot of them are older, and, let’s just be honest, or older men. And it’s, it is a place where we’ve got to, as you said, Get intentional about knowing what younger people want, and then building that first within ourselves so that we can accurately communicate, or effectively communicate that to them, so that when they walk through the door they don’t see what you talked about a moment ago is, yeah, It was nice 20 years ago, but what’s tomorrow that to see, as you said, they when they walk in the door, when they look at their website, when they look at their social media, and, God willing, at least, hopefully you got some social media you know you You have to project that future vision
Stacey Curry 22:59
Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, you actually said it. You said it’s, it’s being very intentional with developing, with knowing, knowing where you’re going. And I think that that is, that is absolutely one of the things that the workforce coming in is saying, How am I going to be developed? But okay, so if I start here, what’s what’s my path? What are my opportunities? They may not say what, what’s my career opportunities, but they may say, what, what are my opportunities? And you know, there is that. How can I make more money. And we do hear that from business owners. They want, you know, more money, more money. Well, okay, let’s put it in perspective right now. I mean, as a nation, you know, we’re a lot of people are feeling the polls of financial insecurities right now, right? And so I get it. I get that. And quite frankly, I mean, I’m part of the Gen Xer, and money’s always been on my mind. It’s always been, you know, we need an exchange for the services, right? But, yeah, I get that. And so, but I do think that that’s one piece of it, because when business owners are intentional with like Kathy Langley was she was intentional with developing me, right? She She spent time with me, she introduced me to people. We had a mentorship program. I mean, it was just a very holistic approach to development. And, you know, I just came across this, and I’m so I’m bringing it up, but I can’t speak in depth about it. But you said, you know, intentionally develop early on, and I’m reading a little bit about the Swiss apparently, have an apprenticeship. Program that is really, do you know about that? Yeah, I am fascinated by that, because what they’re doing is they’re starting them young, younger, you know, younger, not waiting until high school, but really getting them in and and curious. They’re developing that curiosity, and they’re developing great relationships with communities, colleges, all kinds of business owners, and getting them really rallying them around this idea of apprenticeship early. And I think if we can get in there earlier, and pique that curiosity. It’s like our STEM programs, I’m sure, but I think that they are being very intentional with it, and I think that it is quite vast. I don’t think it’s just in this little area. I think it’s even woven into their educational system there. And I am just like, oh my gosh, wow, let’s do that. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 26:05
yeah. And it’s in it. That’s the kind of thing that we have to be doing today. And I see that across the United States. So one of the things I love to see in in the manufacturing circles now is the the STEM programs, getting younger people involved. I mean, Matt goosey there in Wisconsin. I always like to use him as an example. He said his father’s started the machine shop that he runs today. It’s a long I don’t know they’ve been in business 50 years, or something, darn thing like that, but they went to the extent of, they actually built a a separate company or something with the high schools there so that kids that are interested in machining can run machines, do work, do that as an apprenticeship program for that well, that intentional work for him. And I probably off on this some but his average age of employees was right either side of 30 years old. Yeah, yeah. And think about how big a deal that is. Because, yes, you know, you, you, you when you are doing this effectively. And if we could do this effectively across the United States, this would be a huge thing. Because I’ve, I’ve always thought about this and this, not always thought about this, but this brought to my attention by Jeffrey Graham, a guy used to work with a lot. He said, you know, Gen Xers and baby boomers, they thought that what they were doing was not good enough for their kids, because their parents wanted them to do better and do that. So Gen Xers and baby boomers encourage their kids to go off to school and do something else, but what they didn’t realize is they really had a pretty good thing going in what they were doing in many cases. So we’ve got these businesses out here and and look at how many people have had every every kind of walk a life. Person in manufacturing can have a wonderful career, you know, education, tons of education, computers, you know, HR, you can be finance. You I mean, there’s so much leadership training. It’s, it’s educational stuff. There’s just so many different places you can fit in manufacturing? Well, we have a whole generation that grew up telling their kids, no, go to college and do something else. Don’t do
Stacey Curry 28:28
it. Don’t do it. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 28:33
and I don’t care if you I don’t care if you are the person that’s the welder on the line if you’re the leader, if you’re whatever, in those businesses, they were all saying the same thing, yeah. And that was wrong, because look at how many kids yeah. Grew up, went through school. My son, 25 years old, bunch of his friends tried to go to go to college didn’t work out for them. Didn’t know about manufacturing, didn’t know about some of these other trades that they could have got into because their parents were doing this, and now they’re sitting there trying to figure out what the heck they’re going to do with their life. Yeah, yeah. And, and you look at manufacturing and, and you can look at any of the trades, really, I mean, my goodness, manufacturers is one of places these, these people can have wonderful careers. And you talk about talent succession is we have, the better we can attract the talent and intentionally show them the way, like you said, the easier we’re going to solve these problems. It’s 100%
Stacey Curry 29:42
you know, I and I think I might have shared this with you before, when we first met about a month ago, but you know, when I now that I’ve I’ve had some phenomenal client partnerships, I will see something that they have made. Uh, just, just being out in public, right? You know, it’s something that they made that is an awning over a restaurant. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, I know who made that and and I will even get into a conversation with my friends who probably don’t even want me to even talk about this. But all Do you know that so and so hand stitched this awning. This is what they do, right? That this piece here, this is where they got it, and this is what and, and I know the woman that did that right, like, it’s, that’s the story that I think the workforce needs to hear, right? Like, everything out there that you see that is tangible, that you use, that’s a manufacturer, that’s that’s a laborer, that that is somebody that that’s craftsmanship, that that’s somebody that put their hands on that and thought through that and put a lot of effort into that, right? And so that, I think, is the missing element of the story. And I do think that we absolutely there are people out there that are doing a great job with it, but that’s really where I try to coach business owners to say, great legacy. Love your story. Don’t ever lose it. That’s not what we’re saying. We’re not saying, Don’t ever bring that out. That got you here, but now you’ve got to really paint the portrait of where you’re going. That’s what’s going to bring them to the table, right? Yes.
Damon Pistulka 31:31
And you hear some of these companies that do it well, because when they when they weave their history into their future. I mean, you really can feel it, and that’s where I think that some of these, these manufacturers, have done a great job because, I mean, because we’ve got manufacturers are centuries old the United States, and they have been doing such good stuff. And you see them, like said, some of them really understand it, and that, I believe, helps that talent succession planning, because they’re attracting these, these younger generations of of workers, and then, and then, I believe that the last step of that is that intentional development, like instead of these people, because we don’t learn. You know, talent’s one thing. Technical talent is one thing, leadership talent, I think, takes, takes a different path of development, and that’s where I see companies now spending more time, is the intentional leadership development, where it was done a lot more haphazardly in the past, because in the past, because of the changing workforce, and what people’s expectations Are, they expect that I’m going to have leadership development if you want me to be a leader? And a lot in the past, unfortunately, a lot of that was school of hard knocks. You just absolutely,
Stacey Curry 32:52
yeah, yeah,
Damon Pistulka 32:53
yeah, yeah. So it’s, it’s, it’s very interesting. So as you’re doing this, well, first of all, I want to say a couple things. I’ve got a couple of comments here. I’ve been looking at them. Hey, Bob, thank you for stopping by today. James Gunkel, oh, James, great to see you today. James is a Coding Specialist. He is the man when it comes to I’ve never talked to anyone that’s got the knowledge like that of him. I mean, you figure out, what do I need to coat the whole of my tanker, you know, even know, yeah, if he doesn’t know he knows somebody that does know that’s for sure, nice,
Stacey Curry 33:31
yeah, yeah. But the
Damon Pistulka 33:35
this, this whole part about this intentional, this talent succession planning, what are you seeing that’s working really well for people when they’re when they’re doing this, and you’re working with them, and you’re going, Wow, this is, this is coming around. I’ve started, and we’re moving into the future, and this is what we’re seeing. Yeah.
Stacey Curry 33:57
What does it take? What am I seeing? The the one thing that is consistent between those that pursue talent succession and those who want it, but it doesn’t get executed and completely is i Yes, the leadership team absolutely values and knows what it’s like to be a learning organization.
Damon Pistulka 34:35
Good one, good one. They,
Stacey Curry 34:37
they must. They, embrace the value and the important see of in order for us to be prosperous as a business, we must remain relevant by learning, by being open, by. Not getting in our fixed mindset where we’re great and we don’t need to learn anything else, because we’re that fabulous, you have to. Business owners have and you know this Damon talent succession is a sensitive topic, yeah, many, many of our business owners and our manufacturers and and I, and I get that, we get that we understand that and so, so we approach it with a level of sensitivity and an understanding. However, the ones that really are set apart, the ones that do it well are humble that they know that the workforce is changing. They know that leadership at the helm is no longer and they know that they are feeling the angst of a culture shift and and they value learning and and sharing that with their entire workforce, whether it’s technical expertise, whether it’s leadership, whether it’s oh gosh, customer service, lean one on one, whatever it is, or advanced automation. I mean, it covers the gamut, but those are the ones that that actually succeed because they value learning, continuous learning and experimentation. They got a value experimentation. Yeah, and the end, they’ll see it through, because they’ve got skin in the game. The ones that want us to come in with a pre determined solution, and here’s an apprenticeship program, the likelihood of them actually executing on that endeavor is pretty low, right? Because it the thing that you and I do, the space that we share in talent succession. It is so unique to the each company. It is so unique to them. And and talent succession takes on many, many tentacles. And so it’s, it’s good to partner with people like you and I, so we can guide them on best practices, or we can curate and CO create the things that are going to work for them, at least to get them started, right? Yeah, that’s what I see. What do you see?
Damon Pistulka 37:41
No, I think you’ve covered it well. I think you’ve covered it well. Is the the biggest thing that I see is we tried it and it didn’t work. And people, I mean, yes, come on, how many times did you fall down right, trying to ride a bike? Yeah. I mean, we forget this. And I always this is something I talk about a lot. We always forget how hard it is to get really good at anything, right? If you’re, you know, doesn’t matter if you’re a machinist trying to machine something. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to ride a bike, do whatever, play chess, it takes a while that you’re going to get beat. You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to do that. And we have to remember that. I think, as you said in this you have to be humble in value experimentation and know you’re learning. Because this is not easy. Just, just put it right out there. It’s not easy. It is, it is generational gaps, trying to trying to cross generational gaps. It’s trying to cross gender gaps, is trying to cut cultural gaps. There’s all these things you have to do. And it’s not a one, as you said. And I think you said it so well, it’s not a one size fits all. And like you said, a lot of people in in business want you to come in and and hey, give me your system, and I’ll take it, and it’ll go from there, and we’ll go from there, we’ll be fine. And there’s not a system, there
Stacey Curry 39:03
is it. And by the way, Damon, as the CEO, I’m going to retire in at the end of the year, and we don’t have any successor. Ken, so can you help me with that? Right? Oh my gosh, no, no, no. This needed to be a conversation three years ago, right? I mean, it’s so it’s the timing of it. You’re so right. There’s so many different dynamics that go into it, and that’s why I think it’s so important if, if you, if you are thinking about talent succession, reach out and talk to somebody now, because if you wait, you’re going to be behind the change, and that change is going to demand you to do something that you may or may not be ready to do yet, right? So get in front of that and take the lead of it. Yeah, it is,
Damon Pistulka 39:51
it is. You said it well. And if there’s anything anyone learns from listening today or yesterday, yeah, probably. Late already. You got to think about this, right? You made a great, a great example there of a CEO that wants to retire. And if we’re sitting here today, it’s the middle of 2024 past, just barely past the middle of 2024 right? We’re in August. If I’m saying this about 2025 I’m too late. 100% about 2026, I might be pretty good if I’m if I’m lucky, because what we forget about is, Okay, where is this successor coming from? Or successors, right? Even worse, I got a whole team. We all look like the same. We’re all like, Hey, man, I’m five years we’re all out, right? You, you may have a big job ahead of you, and if those people, if you haven’t been intentionally bringing those people in, you may spend two years just trying to find the right people. And it’s, it’s, it is something that is rigorous, and it goes back again. You, you can’t stop because it didn’t work the first time. You gotta keep going and keep trying.
Stacey Curry 41:04
Absolutely, absolutely, you know, whenever I hear that, I ask them, sometimes it’s a go to question, how many of you grew up with a landline, you know? And a lot of people will raise their hand, how many of you don’t have a landline today, right? I mean, it is such important change and, and it’s just it’s so important to realize that that workforce and, and I have two younger kids, and I tell people, if you think the workforce is disruptive. Now, give it about five to seven years. Yeah, just wait till they come in, because that will be the very first generation that they call the screen generation. Right from the moment of birth, there’s a screen right, and so, yeah, I just think it and the way that my kids learn is very, very different. And I thought, okay, okay, this is, this is going to be big. This is going to be very big. And for our, a lot of our clients in manufacturing, you know, one of the things that I’ll ask them is, hey, just do best guess. How many people do you think on your workforce would be in line for retirement, let’s just say within the next five to seven years. And when they start thinking about it, they’re like, I’m working with one right now. A third, a third are going to depart, and that’s big. And it’s like, then, skill up, talent up, yeah. Now internally, yeah, yes. And
Damon Pistulka 42:47
then, and then, when you’re looking at some if, if an owner wants to make an exit, if you want to succeed, it to a next generation, you want to sell that business, this succession planning becomes even more critical, because it, you know, succeeding to a family member, you have to have you. I mean, you want to have the right team there. You want to be able to do that right. You want to sell it. You simply won’t sell it without a good team. And it just doesn’t happen. So, and people look at this, it’s happens to us. It’s happened to us over the years, for sure, people come in and they start looking at the team. They go, Okay, everybody, you’ve got, a bunch of people are going to retire over the next five years, like you said, and that means I get to deal with that as the buyer. It’s, it’s not a good thing, and it really has some negative consequences to it. So
Stacey Curry 43:35
this, yes, yes, indeed.
Damon Pistulka 43:38
Oh yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s huge, especially, I mean, we, we’ve even had the the point of, if you’ve got multiple owners, like in a partnership setting, in manufacturing and and you go, Okay, this is the brain of the R and D, and this is the brain of the the purchasing or supply chain. This is the CEO. And they all want to leave you pretty much, might as well just say, Okay, let’s hope we can get rid of it. Because it doesn’t matter if you got $20 million in revenue or not, because what happens is, if you’re big enough that an investment buyer is going to look at you, they’re going to say, Ah, it’s too risky. They’ll so they’ll either walk away or they’ll give you such a ridiculously low offer that’s adjusted for that risk that you will never sell it anyway. So you just put a chain on yourself to that business. Yes, you did, and it’s in if you’re on a smaller business, people look at it just like I said. They’re going to say, Listen, I can’t deal with a third of my workforce retiring over the next three to five years. We know it’s hard to find people, and I’m not willing to take that risk. So let move on and go down to the next the next business and try to find that it’s it is this succession planning for legacy first of all, is something I think that, I mean, you work so hard in your business, you need to take this on as hard as you did growing your business. And then you can facilitate the exits if you do it, right, yes,
Stacey Curry 45:06
yes, yeah, yeah.
Damon Pistulka 45:09
Stacy, is been awesome talking with you today. Oh,
Stacey Curry 45:13
I enjoy you very much. Damon, thank you so much. Let’s, let’s keep this relationship going. I would love to learn more from you and hear about your progress and the things that you’re seeing out there. But yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for having me on. I love talking about talent succession. Love it. Yes,
Damon Pistulka 45:30
yes. Thank you. Well, I want to say, first of all, if you got in late here and started out not from the game with Stacy, go back to the beginning. She had so many great comments and thoughts in the beginning of about leadership training, development, succession planning, I think you need to go back there and just really start from the beginning and grab all that value that she dropped with us today. And I also want to thank James and Bobath for being here today. Thanks for dropping the comments. Thanks for being there on all you people that are listening but not coming today. Thank you. I can see we’ve got people on x we got people on YouTube and other places. Thank you so much for being here today. Stacy. Hang out with us. A moment offline. We’ll finish up. We will be back again. Oh, first of all, though, Stacy, where can people if I’m a manufacturer in Illinois. How can I get a hold of you?
Stacey Curry 46:23
Oh, contact iMac. So the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence center, absolutely, we have an incredible, incredible team at iMac, yes you do. Yes, we do. And so we would be able to talk with you, get you resources, and just like you, Damon, I mean, I am a big advocate of people mentored me to to get me to where I am in talent succession. I am so open to sharing tools and to get you anything, to get you started, to get you thinking. So, yes, if you are interested in a tool, or you want to read about it, or you want to get an idea or a tip, we’ll get it to you, because I really believe in setting everybody up for success. This is a big endeavor, but we gotcha. We got your back. We are here to support you. Awesome,
Damon Pistulka 47:20
awesome. Well, Stacy, thanks so much. And like we said, if you want to get talk to Stacy and some of the other great people at iMac, I m, e c, Illinois, just check them out online. You can find them on LinkedIn. You can find them on the web. But find them. Reach out. They will help you find the the resources you need. Thanks everyone. We’re going to cut shut down for now. Stacy, hang out. We’ll finish up offline.
Stacey Curry 47:46
Thank you. Bye.
