Leading Things You Didn’t Start with Tyler Reagin

Intro Helping community bankers grow themselves, their team and their profits, this is “The Community Bank Podcast.”

Erik Bagwell: Welcome to the community bank podcast, I’m Eric Bagwell, Director of sales and marketing for the correspondent division of South State Bank and joining me is Caleb Stevens. Caleb works at our marketing area and also as a business development officer for the division. Caleb, how are you?

Caleb Stevens: Doing great. I don’t know when this show is going to come out at the time we’re recording it but i think by the time we release it will be close to sixty shows or at least creeping up on it so that’s pretty exciting.

Erik Bagwell: Yeah, thanks to you we have been very consistent in getting shows out there and we’re getting comments back from you guys that are listening, we appreciate all the listeners that i think tune in to every show and have subscribed
to the podcast, so lets talk today real quick about this show. This is a really good show, we’ve got Tyler Regain on, Caleb you knew Tyler from the past and he’s going to talk which I think is a great topic talking about what does the leader do, when he gets into an organization that he didn’t start and how do you kind of adjust to that, how do you lead employees, what do you do with culture, talk a little bit about that.

Caleb Stevens: Yeah, Tyler stepped into a leadership role as President of Catalyst. They’re one of the largest leadership conferences in the country and that organization is he’ll talk about in interviews started by John Maxwell so you know, big time leadership legend and so started by John and it went through a series of leaders and Tyler stepped in I think back in 2012, 2013, something like that, don’t quote me on the date but he stepped in to an organization that was run really well,had a lot of loyal followers and it sort of like,well man how do I make this my own but also honor the past and continue to have loyalty with my team and there’s a lot of bankers out there who I’m sure are leading banks that they didn’t start, you know we had the Denovo wave a number of years ago but how many Denovos are you having these days, not that many and so if you become the C.E.O of a bank for the first time, chances are you are not the founder or the first C.E.O that bank ever had. So a lot of great wisdom and I think really helpful nuggets here for people who are leaving organizations that they weren’t the founder.

Erik Bagwell: Yeah, this is a good interview you guys need to listen to. Got to throw something out though first, we actually had an internet problem that started right at the start of the show, so it was actually were sitting in my office and the internet is not great here so you may hear a couple of like blurbs, but it actually gets better after maybe a couple of minutes and so just bear with us, its not you, it was us but it turned out fine so we’re going to go with it so lets go to that interview with Tyler right now.

Caleb Stevens: Well Tyler thanks for joining the show today, its great to be talking with you, how are you doing?

Tyler Regain: I’m good. Thanks for having me Caleb and Eric.

Caleb Stevens: You just wrote a book called “Leading Things You Didn’t Start” and I think that’s a really important book for our listeners because for most bankers, they’re apart of an organization that they did not start. A lot of banks especially community banks were started back in the 50’s, back in the 60’s and so they’re taking the helm of something that’s got a lot of history and a big legacy to it. Sometimes they’re one of the first people who started the bank but many times they’re taken the helm and so let me base this discussion off your most recent book but tell us real quick a little bit about your own personal story here and how did you come to take the helm of an organization that you didn’t start.

Tyler Regain:: Yeah and again thanks for having me. I love talking about leadership and it’s interesting because in my own stories you’ll hear, there was a moment where I had to step in to lead a national faith based non profit and John Maxwell has started it. I mean try to follow that guy right? on a leadership journey. I remember driving in that day going, now how the heck am I going to do this like I don’t, where am I going to pull from, what resource is out there and you know there’s a few books on transition, maybe the first 90 days, things like that. But I just didn’t know many resources on the leadership components that are required when you step in to lead something you didn’t start and then the other big piece was, I started thinking about my friend group and I think 90% of my friends never started anything like [inaudible 4:18-4:20] we all stepped into an existing team even job descriptors maybe [inaudible 4:25-4:26] and they were loved or they were hated or whatever the place may be, we’ve all stepped into these moments where it’s like oh wow I’ve got to pay attention to the realities of what I’m stepping into, this is not I can just go and create the culture I want to create.

I want to go in, I don’t have any financial start. We’re starting at zero you know good and bad. We don’t have any baggage that we’re having to deal with, very few of us have that opportunity. Most of us step into something that has history, something that has either a good or bad P and L that we’re following along with, something that has leaders that have been either loved or not loved. What’s crazy too is we’ll step into positions where there’s an expectation on me simply because the person before me, right? I’ve got a stereotype or a label [inaudible 5:13] or an expectation placed on me that I don’t even know about unless I ask the right questions and so that’s really where it came from, stepping in to lead this National Christian Movement that I was responsible for that John Maxwell has started like 15 years earlier and how do I stand on the shoulders of some of these leadership giants that I get to manage and steward and I just wanted to go, well there’s a lot. Once l had done that, here’s some things I learned about it you know so I really came out of that place of trying to steward something that had been really meaningful to a lot of people, in a way that was honoring to those people and to the people before me.

Erik Bagwell: Tyler, there’s a lot of C.E.O of banks listening in and maybe even somebody who runs a team inside of a bank.

Tyler Regain: Yeah.

Erik Bagwell: What are some of the most common pitfalls that you see leaders
that are running a bank or a group that they didn’t start. What are some of those common pitfalls you see when they take over a group like that for the first time.

Tyler Regain: Yeah, and again I don’t know if I know banks specific but I know like in the financial and even in just the data driven space right? So lets just maybe we stay there. It’s quickly to go data before people quite often. It’s almost easier right because its black and white. I can literally go, oh this is black and white, okay here’s where were at, here’s what needs to be fixed and we got to figure out [inaudible 6:33-6:34] I would encourage leaders doing that to actually put that aside for a minute because I really think profit is going to follow handling the people’s stuff really well. What has to happen though is if you can’t get the people on board with your leadership, if you lose influence from the moment you walk in, It’s going to be hard to get the profit in the right place because you don’t have the people on board yet. You haven’t moved them forward yet and so there’s a really important piece to the evaluation process in my opinion, pre the job and post starting day 1, that says to the people I understand where you’ve been, I actually have empathy for what you’ve walked through good and bad. I’m connected, I’ve done my research. Emotional intelligence which came on the scene in the mid 90’s by Daniel Goldman. It was one of the first time that research showed, that the best leaders in the world lead people best, not just projects, not just tasks, not just executing on the plan. They literally know how to lead people best and for years, people were like well that’s soft skills, who needs that, and so what that shows me is we’re leading people, that’s what we do, that is number 1, the job of the C.E.O and the leader.

Yes, C.E.O represents Chief Executive Officer. Good luck leading an [inaudible 7:55] executing a great plan without people and so if people don’t feel like you’re for them, then its really going to be really tricky to turn that ship good and bad, you know and so I think the biggest pitfall that I’ve seen leaders do and some of them actually are people, they just instantly go to the fire or the issue, now lets be really clear, they are definitely situations where you walk in and the fire is burning, you got to land that plane, put the fire out and then rebuild the plane, but most of us that’s not what we step into. Most of us there maybe a little fire here, We’re just stepping into a new season and therefore if my team, the new team, the team I inherited don’t think I understand what they’ve been through and one of the keys when I was talking about emotional intelligence is that it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not going to make a hard decision or move things the direction people aren’t excited about. The difference with emotional intelligent leaders is they actually acknowledge that this is going to be difficult. If somebody joined and I got a new leader and they come in guns blazing and they’re like we’re making this decision, we got to move this because we got to fix that. Without even just a simple acknowledgement of where we’ve been as an organization, what we’ve been fighting for, I lose respect for that leader because I’m going who’s this guy? who’s this girl? Do you know what your talking about? But if a leader just comes in and simply says hey team, here’s where I know you’ve walked. Give me a one minute synopsis of what you know about us and I know you’ve done your homework and I know you believe in us and I know that you’re coming and you’re still making that hard decision, but you’ve done it with us in mind. Does that make sense? And so I just think we so often come in just ready to fix things and it’s like in a marriage, right? My wife doesn’t want me to fix her all the time. I mean, there’s lots I could do to offer though…. I’m just kidding. But if in my relationship I’m constantly just fixing the problem versus working on the relationship, it’s going to be a really dry, tough marriage to keep sledding so it’s the same thing I think when you come in to lead an organization you didn’t start, it’s easy to go to the numbers. It’s easy to go to the data, but if you don’t go to the people first, that data, I just really believe the data and the research and the profit will follow the people.

Erik Bagwell: No, that’s a great point. what’s a fine line, but how do you honor the past, without worshiping it or getting stuck in it, because obviously you want to leave your mark. There’s things you probably do want to change that are going to have to change. How do you do that? How does a leader do that?

Tyler Regain: Yeah and I’m going to always hear on the side of honoring longer probably than I needed to. and I tell this story, the guy that I took over for and I think it was four to five years later at one of our big events was the first time I physically remember mentally, remember not thinking, well, what would he have done? Or they’re wondering what he, like It was that long. Now it didn’t mean I was publicly honoring that long, but it’s just tells you how long it takes to kind of walk through that process. I don’t know the answer for how long to do that. I just know that if you don’t do it, you’re going to lose influence and I also know that if you celebrate or honor the wrong things, then you lose influence again. Right? Because its leadership, Maxwell always says leadership is influence, so what we’re trying to do is gain influence from the moments we go in. So, but my team’s looking to see what I’m celebrating. They’re looking to see the things that I’m going.

That was amazing, way to go guys, because that should give them an indication of, you know, what in the world I believe in, what are my value systems because of what I’m celebrating. So I always call it this dance of discernment. You got to kind of take a step forward and sometimes you got to take two steps back and sometimes three steps forward. Because you’re not pushing fast enough, there’s a discernment in that honoring. And how long do I honor? But all I know is that if you don’t honor the past with some sort of understanding, and again, I would err on the side of longer than you need to. I remember saying this, when I took over that space, I said, hey, when I’m talking about where we’re going, it is not an indictment on where we’ve been. I’m literally just telling you. And you know, it sounds like you don’t need to say that, but you do need to say that because you need to just, verbally acknowledge, I’m not making fun. I’m not even saying the past is wrong. I’m just saying for this new season, here’s where I believe we’re supposed to go.

Caleb Stevens: And you talk in the book about if you’re constantly using self-deprecating humor about yourself, I’m not so-and-so, I know whoever did it better. And so I can’t fill their shoes, but y’all are just going to, have to bear with me if you’re constantly doing that, you’re sort of shortchanging your staff in a sense and not empowering them because he’s constantly come across as maybe unconfident. Talk about that a little bit. Is that ever a temptation, you think for leaders who step into a space, they haven’t led before?

Tyler Regain: I don’t think it’s ever temptation. I think it’s always the temptation. I think any leader that says they’re not insecure, they’re saying that because they’re insecure, we each have that, that little piece of us, Don Miller has this huge business called StoryBrand where they talk about marketing through story and one of the things is he talks about great stories, have a main character hero. And the question that the main characters always asking in movies, what he’s trying to get to, or she’s trying to get to is do I have what it takes, right? Do I have what it takes? Well, we’re all wrestling with that question. And when you step into something that you didn’t start, if unless you are some superhuman person, you’re going to be asking that question because you just don’t know what you’re stepping into fully.

Right? You don’t completely know everything. And so there’s always going to be a little bit in that. You’re going a little bit of that in you saying, I think I have what it takes, but here’s the tricky part. If you don’t step in confidently, you lose influence again. And confidence doesn’t mean arrogance. I think that’s the tricky part of that. There’s no illustration for me, that that comes to mind. I was invited, my wife and I were invited years ago to go see this movie premiere through some, some people we knew and they put us up at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills, which is where I stayed normally when I go to LA [cross-talking 14:11]. I have reward points and all the things. It was awesome. We had a great time. He was, it was even hilarious. My wife, I went for some media stuff one day and, she was like, I’ll just get a cab and go around.

And they were like, well, we have a house and a car. And so we can take you. And so she texted me later and she’s like, every, everybody keeps looking at me and I’m like, why? She’s like, well, every time I get out of his car, people looking at me, I was like, what kind of car is it? She goes, well it’s this black car and it’s got this bee with wings on it. I was like, oh, so you’re driving around LA in a Bentley and somebody letting you out. And you’re wondering why people are looking at you. here’s what I tell that literally I got the next day I was at a speaking engagement and they put me up at the Hampton Inn. And I remember thinking to myself, this is not the same and everything in me wanted to go. I deserve the four seasons.

Yeah. But that’s where I started understanding entitlement and arrogance versus just gratitude and an a confidence. Does that make sense? I’ve always tried to put a position in a place of just gratitude, no matter what I’m staying at, no matter where I’m at. So when I am stepping into these kinds of positions and I’m dealing with, do I have what it takes and I’m trying to step in confidently. If I don’t have a humility attached to that confidence, an understanding, a lack of entitlement, whatever those elements are. It’s going to come across as arrogance, but if I can step in and go, I do know how to lead, and I know how to lead you guys. And I believe that, but I need your help. And we’re going to have to do this.

There’s something in the way you communicate something in your body, language, something in the way that, you lead, it’s going to show whether you actually believe you have what it takes, whether you actually believe that you need them to help you accomplish the goal. I mean, it’s just body language. It’s tone. It’s some of those elements that are so critical to actually get people on board and believe. I don’t know that he or she has all the answers, but I believe in them. And that’s the kind of place we’re trying to get to with those leads.

Caleb Stevens: I think that’s a great distinction between humility, but also if you’re too self deprecating, you do lose influence and your team is this confident. I think that’s a great distinction there. Let’s kind of drill down and talk about culture for a second. And i mean…

Tyler Regain: Sure

Caleb Stevens: You led catalyst, which was one of the largest leadership organizations, leadership conferences in the whole country. Catalyst obviously had a great culture, was well led, years before you got there, you mentioned John Maxwell starting in, and…

Tyler Regain: Yeah

Caleb Stevens: It’s had other influences. Brad Laumann, Gabe lions, a lot of great people obviously they were going to be elements of Catalyst as culture that you wanted to preserve that you thought were important. Were there other elements that you said, maybe we need to tweak this, or maybe I can, I’m uniquely gifted to influence our culture in this sort of way. How did you sort of navigate areas where the culture needed to change while still preserving the healthy culture that you did have?

Tyler Regain: Yeah, I remember. I had been producing Catalyst as a contractor for a few years. And so I knew the family. I knew the team, I was a part of the team. When Brad and I transitioned, I waited three or four months kind of prayed through and thought, in my space, what are the expectations I would have to be a part of this team, and I didn’t do that day one. I just felt like, even though I knew them and I’d been on staff for a year, it wasn’t the time. We needed a little bit of space. One of the things I encourage leaders all the time, use the calendar , as your friend, not try to fight against it. When we came back that first week of January, about three months after I had made that transition, we had a staff meeting and I just made them sit in a circle and look at each other.

And I just laid out these six expectations. And, they were things like you’re going to work your tail off, but you’re also going to take the time off. You need to be healthy. There was just kind of rhythms and things like that. And I remember getting through the six of them and then I just had the team. I said, I want you to look around at each other eyeball to eyeball. And what you’re saying, if you choose to stay and sit in the circle, is that you’re agreeing to this standard that we’re agreeing to, to be a part of this team. And I’m not going to be the only one as the boss to hold you accountable. This team is going to hold you accountable. So if you’re willing to sit in this circle and meet these expectations day in and day out, then you can stay in the circle.

But if you’re not, we’re going to have to have that conversation. And two, there are going to be times you drop below the standard that your team is going to hold you accountable, because you guys imagine like if your peer comes to you and go, hey, Eric, we didn’t agree to talk to customers like that. We’re not going to do that. I heard you talk to this person and I just thought, well, that’s not what we’ve agreed upon. Well, that’s a different level of accountability than when we expect the boss to do and reviews and all these other things.

But if you’re part of a true team that says, we have a standard of excellence, a standard of behavior, the standard operating procedure, and you’re not living up to it. And your team holds you to that. I just felt like, gosh, that’s getting some buy-in, but I also knew this, there were going to be a group of people that go, I don’t, I don’t think that’s right for me.

I’m not sure that’s the culture or the expectations that I believe in my boss for years, Andy Stanley used to say that healthy leaders won’t stay in a healthy organization, an unhealthy organization. And that made sense to me, right? Like if you’re a healthy leader and you’re in a bad organization, you’re like, I’m out. There’s no, I’m not doing. But then he would say that, an unhealthy leader won’t stay in a healthy organization. And I thought, I don’t get that. Like, why would you not until I realized that if day in and day out, you don’t want to change, but you’re being held to a standard or you’re being held accountable. You’re being challenged to act a certain way. You’re being challenged to behave in a healthy way. And you don’t want to, then it would make sense that you don’t want to come in everyday and be told that’s not, we’re not going to do that anymore.

We’re not going to talk to people like that. You’re not going to act like that. Now I get it. And so I knew that if I could have a very clear cultural expectation, it would do two things. It would buy in. It would get the leaders who are excited, bought in even more. And to this, team accountability. But it would also take some people to start questioning whether or not the season had run its course. I’ve always tried to believe in and tried to do, and I haven’t done it great all the time, is I’d rather coach someone out of an organization than blindside them. And so this was kind of the first step in some conversations that allowed me to coach a few people into their next season.

Erik Bagwell: That’s a great point. Tyler, let’s talk about a group or organization. That’s got to go in a totally new direction culture.

Tyler Regain: Sure.

Erik Bagwell: Vision everything. Yeah. How do you get people out of like a rut that they’re used to and get them to buy in? And at what point do people probably have to be replaced that may not buy into a vision? Talk about that for a second.

Tyler Reagin: You said it that last word vision, like if I can’t cast a compelling vision of why, what we’re talking about is better, then I might not be the right person for the job. Like if you’re going to shift culture that drastically, you’ve got to be able to cast vision. A friend of mine, Jeff Henderson always says leadership comes with a microphone. If you can’t articulate what it is that you see and why you think it’s better than what they’ve experienced, it’s really going to be hard to turn that ship. The other big piece is if you don’t have credibility, I do consulting for a living. That’s what I do full time. Here’s what I’ve learned about consultants. There’s about a hundred of them who could come into an organization and tell you what’s wrong with it, but there’s about five that can come in and tell you what’s wrong with it and you actually want to hear what they have to say, because they have emotional intelligence.

They have an ability to communicate, and you actually believe they’re communicating with your best interest in mind, not just pointing out the issues. And so I pray, I work really hard to be one of the five. That’s my goal. But what I know is it’s the same thing when it comes to vision and to be able to cast a compelling, energetic, moving forward momentum building type of direction. And it can’t just be numbers based.

That’s, what’s so crazy, right? You can sit in a bank and go guys, isn’t this awesome? And your tellers are going you’re casting a vision to, instead of 1 billion this year, we’re going to hit 2 billion next year. And they’re going that I changed my salary a bit. They’re going, that’s great for our shareholders.

That’s not compelling. What might be compelling is, hey, Steve, do you remember last week when that family came in the Johnson’s, do you remember the Johnson’s that you cashed their check that they put in their deposit? I don’t know why the words are escaping me, but for a mortgage, I’m putting my down payment. There we go. It came to me, I knew it was coming, that you cash their down payment for their mortgage, that we helped them with at Jennifer. Do you remember helping them with that mortgage next year? Our goal is that we do two times that many, because you’ve changed their life. The stories they’re going to be able to tell to their kids because they live through this incredible house that we, as a bank, a small organization, we were a part of creating a space for them to create memories, to bring their new baby home to that’s compelling.

That’s way more compelling than, Hey, we’re going to make more money for the shareholders. Just like in the creative space where I’ve lived for so long, I teach my students and some of the creatives, you got to have your radar up for the right thing. So as a leader, especially a new leader in an organization, you better have that radar up day in and day out and have your leadership team have their radar up for the stories that will help build that compelling vision. I need to hear that story. Well, I need to capture that on video. We got to do whatever it takes to cast that vision connected to this person, that moment, this thing, because I just can’t tell you we’re doubling income, we’re doubling revenue without it being compelling for you and how you’ve affected other people.

Caleb Stevens: Yeah, connecting the dots and kind of going off that, one of my favorite quotes and I’m sure you’ve heard this all the time from your time with John Maxwell is people buy into the leader before they even buy in to that compelling vision.

Talk about that for you personally. What’s that been like in terms of, Hey, I can cast this great vision, all I want, but if people don’t buy into me and I don’t have credibility influence among my team, whatever I’m casting may not be sufficient to kind of talk about that, to wrap us up.

Tyler Regain: Yeah. in the book I talked about that there’s this epic glands of evaluation patients implementation, which is where vision kind of plays into it. And then the C for epic is care. People ask me all the time, what’s the number one, like leadership principle? I don’t know if there’s a number one, but if I could boil it down to as simple as I know how it should care for people, that’s what you do if you want to following. But here’s the problem. A lot of young leaders, a lot of old leaders for that matter I guess, they’re not willing to take care and sacrifice and care for the two people that are in their circle of influence, but they want influence with the 2000.

And especially for my work with young leaders, next gen leaders, like I’m always reminding them. If you’re not willing to take care of the two now you’re never going to survive the 200 when you get them, if you get them. And only way, I think you get 200 is you care for the two and by caring doesn’t mean let them slide and you put them on. It means you care for them, which oftentimes means, Hey, you can’t act that way anymore. Hey, by the way, for you to grow in this organization, this is going, these are the three things you better focus on as a leader, or it’s not going to work. You’re hitting a ceiling right now. I see it. And as your friend and as your boss and whatever I care about you and I, if you want to sit here in that position and never go past that ceiling, great, let’s have that conversation, but I know you better than that and I know you want more than that.

I know your family believes in you more than that. So what is it that’s causing this? That’s a caring thought, although it’s a very hard conversation. And so I just think all three of those first E.P.I is based on the foundation of care. And so if you come in from day one, as a C.E.O of a bank that you didn’t start and you don’t show some sort of care for the people that you’ve been entrusted to lead, I think it’s going to be a tough hill to climb. But if you come in day one and they recognize, you know what, I actually believe her when she says that she cares more about me than what I do for this organization.

Caleb Stevens: Yeah. It’s funny. This really pains me to say this as a Georgia bulldog fan. And so, Tyler, I’m sure this is going to pain you as well, but I actually heard Urban Meyer say one time when he first [cross-talk 27:03]

Tyler Regain: Yeah well okay. You can stop there. We don’t need to.

Caleb Stevens: I know. Sorry. Yeah but, we’re a Florida based bank, so this might resonate with some people, but when Urban Meyer took over for Ohio state, I heard him say in a press conference one time, he says it drives me nuts when I get questions from reporters about, hey, do you think you guys will get better when you get your guys in there. In other words, I’m taking over a team and there’s all these players that I didn’t recruit and it’s going to take some time for me to get my guys in here. You know, in two, three years on the line, when my guys are here, we’ll be a better team. He says that drives me nuts because you chose them to come. You chose to come to that school. So they’re your players. It doesn’t matter. They’re your players just as much as your next recruit, who’s coming out of high school. It’s going to be next year. They’re yours. So don’t think these aren’t my guys. And I thought, honestly, that’s a great leadership principle, as much as I’m not a fan of Florida or Ohio state as a Georgia fan, I was like, that’s so true for a leader who comes in for the first time. Those are your people, whether or not you hired them or not, you’ve chosen them and they’re yours.

Tyler Regain: What actually college football has an advantage over us is that every year they’re going to lose some of those guys, because of the transient nature of athletics, that’s not our option, right? There’s not, you’re not hiring or you’re not inheriting a team of, a hundred contractors that their contract expires every year. You’ve got a team and you’ve got to figure out, how to move them forward. I have four chapters in the back with case studies of different leaders in different sectors. And one of those is Buzz Williams who’s the head coach at Texas A and M basketball and he was a hundred days into a mess that he had. And he had to look at basketball players and go, I know you didn’t sign up for me, but I signed up for you and here’s what I believe.

Caleb Stevens: Yeah That’s awesome. Well, if folks want to engage with you further, where can they buy your books, learn more about your work book, you to speak all those things.

Tyler Regain: Yeah. For books you can just go to Amazon or Barnes noble, any of those spaces that sell books,your online retailer, or I like in-person retailers. I still think they’re fun but keep up with me. You can just follow me on social at Tyler Reagan, RDA, G I N. or you go to Tylerregan.com. If you want to connect, about speaking or anything like that. So that’s the easiest way to do it.

Caleb Stevens: Awesome. We appreciate your time and thanks for sharing all your wisdom.

Tyler Regain: Thanks for having me.