What it Takes to Build a Championship Team with Pat and Robert McLaughlin

speaker-0
Well, hey everybody and welcome back to the Community Bank Podcast. This is the podcast by bankers for bankers. I’m Caleb Stevens, Director of Marketing for South States Capital Markets Division. Great to be back with you for another episode. And today is a fun one because our two guests are actually brothers. I think this is the first time we’ve ever had a set of brothers or any family members on the show. And so I have the chance to sit down with Robert and Pat McLaughlin. They are brothers with very different paths, but a shared passion.

for serving and developing leaders. Robert is a long time executive at Chick-fil-A where he leads their Support Now group, which is basically their team that’s dedicated to supporting their operators all over the country. And his older brother, Pat, is a true Renaissance man. He’s a part chiropractor, part entrepreneur, part writer and speaker. He’s done ventures with donut shops and with great clips. And what makes this conversation, I think, unique

is not just their own experiences, but their dynamic as brothers and how they’re true collaborators with each other, even though they have very different ventures and things that they do with their work. And so in this conversation, we really cover a wide variety of topics. We talk about the importance of being present as a leader. We talk about the six traits of championship teams. And we talk about one of Robert’s signature ideas, which is called bang the drum.

It’s a simple but powerful way to recognize team members who are living out the core values of their company. We also dive into some of their work with leadership expert John Gordon and how his principles show up in their everyday leadership. This one is a great conversation full of practical insight, real stories, and a great perspective on leadership from two guys who have really lived it out. So enjoy this conversation with Robert and Pat McLaughlin.

speaker-0
Pat and Robert, welcome to the Community Bank Podcast. It’s great to see you guys. Where are you each coming in from today?

speaker-2
coming from Moorhead City, North Carolina. It’s on the coast of North Carolina. It’s kind of a hurricane alley there, Caleb. If anybody watches the Weather Channel and knows who Jim Cantore is, they know who Moorhead City is. are on it often, unfortunately, June, July, August, and September, where the hurricanes come out here. Yeah, it’s just a small coastal town, probably 90 minutes north of Wilmington. And I’ve been here for about 30 years.

speaker-0
Fantastic. And Robert, you and I go way back. In fact, the last time that, the first time I should say I talked to you, you were grilling me with questions because I was interviewing with you for an internship with Chick-fil-A, and here I get to return the favor and ask you a few questions. So, where are you coming from today?

speaker-1
Yeah, that’s great. Caleb, yeah, so I’m with Chick-fil-A and Peachtree City, Georgia, which is a really unique community that I’ve had a chance to call home the last 18 years or so, just south, about 30 minutes south of the airport. It’s a golf cart community. So the whole town and city, probably we’re familiar with it and are familiar with it, is connected by golf carts. So people go to Target in their golf cart. They go to church in their golf cart. They go to Chick-fil-A in their golf cart. Kroger, the kids

drive to their high schools in their golf carts. So it’s an incredibly unique community and super grateful that I was able to raise my now young adults in Peachtree City.

speaker-0
I have many friends from that area growing up in Atlanta and going off to college. I’ve met a lot of folks from the golf cart capital of the world, for sure. Great to see you again. And Robert, you’ve given us a little bit of your background at Chick-fil-A. Pat, tell us about you and what you’re up to. We were talking before this show, and you’ve had quite the career in a lot of different chapters, so tell us about what you do.

speaker-2
Yeah, it’s been circuitous to say the least here. I’ve been on a chiropractor by trade for 35 years. I’ve been practicing here in Moorhead City for 30 of those. I’ve opened up seven practices in my career. I’ve sold five of them. So I currently have two chiropractic practices, one in Moorhead City and one in New Bern. Between 2009 and 2023, I was involved with Great Clips Hair Salon. So I got that in with a partner here in Moorhead City and through another partnership, amassed 50 salons I was operating.

in 2018. And that learned a ton about franchising and entrepreneurship at that point. Exited the field three and half years later, three and a half years ago I should say. But I was also involved in other franchise units as well. I was involved with Duck Donuts. We had Duck Donuts in Knoxville, Tennessee of all places for a couple years. And then I was also in a med spa in Raleigh, North Carolina. So I’ve dabbled in different business ventures through the years.

and just currently just operating these two chiropractic practices. I’ve written two books, third one’s coming out this summer, and trying to do, and been doing a little bit of corporate speaking and trying to do a little bit more that as well to try to help cultures improve in some different types of dynamics.

speaker-0
Not to be confused with Dunkin’ Donuts, I don’t think I’ve heard of Duck Donuts before.

speaker-2
Duck Donuts started in Duck, North Carolina.

speaker-0
Okay, very cool.

speaker-2
gourmet little donut shop there and they’ve got probably I think 60 data units today.

speaker-0
got you, as as a desk worker, which, you know, they say sciatica is the desk work in man’s injury. I’ve had my fair share of chiropractic visits, so appreciate the work you do keeping people’s joints aligned. I know that’s good work. Robert, I mentioned earlier you’re with Chick-fil-A and tell us about your career and what you do there.

speaker-1
Yeah. Thanks Caleb. Yeah. So coming up on 28 years this October, which is amazing, right? It’s amazing how, how time flies 19 of those in marketing. So I truly am a marketer at heart. Um, had an opportunity. started my career as a field marketing advisor. Um, that’s when, uh, David Salyers, who I know who has been on this show before I owe most everything in my career to David Salyers. So I think, uh, the world of him, but he, uh, hired me, um, in that role and that role back when I started, we were only in 22 States.

We were a half a billion dollar company Chick-fil-A at the time. We only were in one half of our main building when you home office, when you come over there now, just so to see how we’ve exploded over the last 28 years. But my job back then, 28 years ago was to help franchisees.

through the cows and other mechanisms to try to get folks to eat more chicken. And it’s amazing to see where we’ve come to be, you know, such a massive organization that we are now. So I led sponsorships for a period of time. So if you think about Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, actually,

Little known fact, people don’t recall that we were the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. We went to the Chick-fil-A bowl and then became the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl again. So that, that, that, that slight move was during my time, leading sponsorships. And then I’ve had the most fun ever, in my career and I’ve had an incredible career, which has been so much fun. And I’m so blessed to be a part of, you know, one, in my opinion, one of the best brands around.

but I lead our support desk and our support desk is made up of 301 full-time employees and we serve and support our restaurants with any operational needs they have. the easiest example of this is, Caleb, I know you’re a frequent user, you go through the drive-through, you put your order in with a team member, team members’ iPads aren’t working, they’ll call us, we’ll fix them. So we provide IT support, marketing support, payroll support, supply chain support, training,

speaker-1
support on the restaurant side, but we also provide customer support. So if a customer has a less than adequate restaurant encounter or experience, they’ll call us and hopefully we’ll be able to recover that customer back as well. So seven years in this role. Absolutely love it. I tell people I’m a big football coach of a big football team.

speaker-0
Well, you and I spent a fair amount of time together back in the summer of 2015 when I was an intern there and we were talking before we started recording. That was a life-changing summer for me. Just the things I learned, the people I got to interact with, the doors I got open from that summer, I still look back on and I’m grateful to this day. So thank you for the work you’ve done to serve both your team members at Chick-fil-A and your customers. And it’s funny, I actually found out about your transition to running the support group because I had a roommate several years before I got married, actually, who his name is Bennett and he was on your team. I would hear him. Yeah, Bennett Dagenhorst. We were, would be, was the throws of COVID. So we were all working from home and Bennett’s there with his headset in his room. And I can hear him just answering tickets all day. the consistency with which he was providing service and having a great attitude throughout what I know was a difficult time was great. And he actually would talk about you.

He would say, our leader, Robert McLaughlin, he would say things like, he’s real strong, he’s sharp. He says things like, we will do this, we will accomplish this. And I said, I know that guy. I used to see him a lot when I was interning. So it’s really cool to kind of hear your transition to what you’re doing now.

speaker-1
That’s a, I did not know your connection with Bennett and let me give a plug for Bennett. Bennett is an alum of support now, but he’s still with Chick-fil-A and I, I ever since I took this job seven years ago, I said, I want to have the biggest alumni network at Chick-fil-A, which means folks start their career with us or boomerang to us. And then they boomerang out and continue to grow their careers. And Bennett’s one of our proud alums. I tell you, talk about, we’re going to talk about championship traits and he knows all about them.

I guarantee you could still recite them, but one of the six that we look for, we hire for, we require, we reward and recognize to is positive energy. Bennett, your former roommate, as you know, exemplifies positive energy. So thanks for sharing that story.

speaker-0
He’s childhood friend. grew up in the same neighborhood and reconnected years later and were roommates for a time. So yeah, he’s great.

speaker-1
The world. God connects to those dots all the time. That’s neat.

speaker-0
That’s right. So Pat, you’ve kind of given us a flyover of your career. You’ve written a number of books. You speak frequently. So talk about kind of the work that you’re doing with companies and any thoughts out there for the leaders as far as what you’re observing when it comes to company culture today? It feels like it’s never been more challenging to lead. There’s so many forces, especially affecting community banks, whether it’s hiring and retaining top talent, creating a talent magnet of cult for your company that

folks want to work for, just kind of what are you seeing out there for leaders and on the culture front?

speaker-2
Sure, so I think it’s a constant and never-ending battle of culture and keeping it alive. think companies do a good job putting their culture out there, but just keeping it front and center, I think, is the challenge. The two books I’ve written is one called The Bare Facts of Life. kind of the book that’s subtitles, How My Dog Showed Me How to Live. It just basically talks about fundamental principles of living. Being present, being positive, being loving, being loyal, chasing experiences.

and living every day consistently. And I think just societally, have challenges in all those things. mean, just those fundamentals in business, think about that. I mean, are you present time conscious with your employees? Are you present time conscious with your customers each and every day? We live in such a distracted society, Think about all the different screen diseases we’ve got today. We’ve got phones, we’ve got computers, we’ve got televisions. There’s 800 channels on TV right now. And we live in this distracted society

I think it’s causing a focus problem, not only individually, but also in the corporate world as well. My second book was kind of after that, and it’s called The Power Being Present. And I just think that that’s such a tough thing. there’s a little bit of mental health in that book. talks about…

this cascade of going through the different things we do when we grieve or we go through adversity or obstacles. know, the denial, the anger, the bargaining, the depression, the acceptance of the meaning. And we go through those six steps.

you sometimes being very distracted will prevent us going through that and what I found is and hypothesized is I think that the the levels of mental health the depression and even suicide rates are at an all-time high right now and why is that and what I’m saying is I think the distractions that we’ve got all this all these again the 700 channels the social media you know video games online gambling all these things are getting in the way of our true focus and preventing us

speaker-2
be and serve that higher purpose that we’re meant to be on this planet. So, you know, my call is just for the individual, right, and getting them back on track, trying to get their life back in alignment, so to speak. You know, get their passion, their mission, their vision on track, so to speak, to get them to be the best versions of themselves. And I think when the employee or the customer or that employee-customer connection is in alignment, so can the company be as well.

speaker-0
Yeah, that’s good. And it reminds me, we had Tim Elmore on the show back in the fall. And he kind of talked about that, where it used to be kind of the old school mentality was, you show up to work, you get a paycheck, and that ought to be good enough for you. And why should I, as a leader, take interest in what’s going on at home or what’s going on in family life? And it kind of sounds like what you’re saying is the expectation for leadership is a lot higher today. And to your point, there’s so many distractions and screen addiction, for sure. I’ve got

two little kids, three little kids now at home and you know, they often learn how to swipe before they can even talk and it just makes you think, gosh, that’s gonna require a level of leadership from a parenting standpoint, from a work standpoint as we become a more distracted generation.

speaker-1
Hey, talk.

speaker-2
think I could say this to you. Very good point, right? Personal bleeds to professional. So I think really hammering in on the individual and doing a deeper dive, right? You know, even fundamentally, right? Helping them with their diet or their rest or their exercise or their mental health or, you know, maintaining health or maintaining their money or whatnot. I mean, think that’s a forefront right now. know, interesting, Chick-fil-A had a commercial out years ago where I would kind of have everybody kind of in the or Robert, remember this, where they all had different things going. Everybody’s got their story, everybody’s got their challenge, everybody’s got that problem that they’re dealing with. You just don’t know it, right? And so I think the more focused you can be in helping that individual, finding out what their true alignment is in life, and helping them with those types of things really helps the company altogether, and helps the culture.

speaker-1
Yeah. And Caleb, can I, if you don’t mind, if I’ll jump in here too. So my brother’s two books really do help with this concept of distraction and getting, getting us all back focused on the present. think the same happens in corporate America, right? know today we’re going to talk a little bit about leading and growing cultures in it, at, the area that I work in, we call it, growing championship cultures, championship cultures lead the championship teams and championship teams have to have championship cultures. But what prevents us from that is our distraction in the workplace. And I believe culture is made up of your who, your how, your why, and your what. Unfortunately, what I think corporate America focuses too much on is the what. Less about the why, less about the who, and less about the how.

And when we’re distracted, then culture and the focus, because culture, I mean, we’ve, you talk about this with your teams all the time. I know my brother and I talk about this. Culture can be considered that fluffy thing. It can be assumed. But you got to be super intentional about building it each and every day. And if you don’t, and if you are distracted by the what,

We are typically in business to provide a what, whether it’s a product or service. But if that is the primary focus and you forget about the who, the how, and the why, and those four things together, to me create a company’s culture, good or bad or indifferent. but I think that’s where my brother’s books actually helped too. They are personal focused, but I liked when I let, when I read anything, I like to think of, even if it’s a personal self-help book is okay. How does this apply to teams that I am leading or I am a part of or have ever been a part of? And there is a lot of application to his two books and his third one coming with your question around culture and we can continue to build that and grow that.

speaker-0
That’s great. And Pat, if you don’t mind, hit on just a couple themes from your book of being present. I mean, we talk a lot about active listening and the importance of that’s one of the most powerful things you can show somebody is active listening and how rare that really is today amongst a lot of folks and in the corporate world. any tips for the leaders out there who feel the pull of the distractions and the emails that are trying to be more intentional with their team about being present?

speaker-2
Yes, certainly. a lot of what I’ve gotten over there too is just trying to how to reset yourself, right? And before I go and answer that question, my brother and I have done some training with John Gordon. I’ll give him credit on this one. He calls focusing on the root and not the fruit. And that’s kind of what my brother just talked about a little bit there just to kind of riff back to him on that. My brother does a great job with his support now. I’ve had pleasure being there for a couple of events and they do focus on the root.

And that they focus on the people and really invest in those people You know as what he just talked about the what’s will just take care of themselves And I found that true to be in my great clips world as well. We had about a 425 and hairstylists We were overseeing at one point and the same thing the better job we did on focusing on those individuals and Incentivizing them and acknowledging and encouraging them You know the business took care of itself, but as far as the answer your question as far as recalibrating a little bit I find that people will have will be in these these fogs at times when they’re going through adversities and obstacles. I give a little bit of a recipe and it’s in the book and I’ll share it with you here. It’s five F’s right? You got to find your place. Sometimes you just got to go ahead and unplug. You got to get away from things and you got to get away from it. It may be a walk, might be a room, it might be the ocean, might be the you know for me it’s my dock. You you just I just want to get away and just kind of just get away and that’s critical. I mean we’re on phones like it’s crazy I mean have you ever got the data report on how much you’re on your phone?

speaker-0
I try not to look at that.

speaker-2
I mean either. You’ve got to find your place. The second thing you’ve got to do is follow those memories. You want to go back and find what you’re thinking about. Sometimes you’re even struggling with something. I think a lot of people try to get away from their memories. They try to run from them. I want to invert that. Run towards them. Just get those memories back percolating. When you do, you’ll face those feelings. I find these feelings could be from

love, to forgiveness, to hope, to gratitude, and you get into this emotional base once you face those feelings, and then you focus on being present. And you’re not only present with God, but present with yourself, present with work, and present with others. And when you do that, you’ll free yourself to acceptance and meaning. And those are some of big things that we struggle with. I think that these big events, whether it’s a relationship problem, or maybe it’s a business problem, or it could be a death in the family, or another loss,

We get into these ruts a little bit that we have difficulty driving through. I think finding that little recipe I just shared with you can help people get to the other side and get back to being present. Because we live in this reverse, regret, rewind, and it’s difficult. Or we’re living this uncertainty, unpredictability, this unknown of the future. And we’re living in the future, living in the past. And sometimes you write those books that you need the most. And Robert knows this, and my family knows this.

struggled with this situation quite a bit. And in essence, find that these books and some of these concepts have really helped me, and I know it’s helped others as well.

speaker-0
It reminds me of a quote, I forgot who said it, but going back to the idea of place, it’s like a change of place plus a change of pace equals a change to perspective or something to that effect. it can be very easy to get stuck in a rut and go through the motions and even sometimes just a break in our routine can create clarity of mind and clarity of thought. that’s great.

speaker-2
And last thing about recalibrating, a thing we use in chiropractic is present time consciousness. It’s just a term, but it’s a discipline. Being present is a discipline. I tell people in my book that presence is a lot like golf. You can never master it. You really can’t, but it’s something that’s a discipline that you have to work on. But when you’re with somebody, you need to be with somebody.

And it’s interesting, I’ll get caught once in a while, even my chiropractic patients may catch me, I may just not be as focused as I need to be at that point. And they may get, you know, they’re just like, wow, you know, I just got caught there. But you know, there’s a story about Billy Joel, I put in my book that he quit singing, she’s only a woman in concert for a period of time. And the reason he did, and think about this, he’s in crowds of 20, 50, 70, 80,000 people and he’s playing this on a piano.

and he’s thinking about what Italian restaurant he’s gonna go to that night and what he’s gonna order during the song. I mean, think about that for a second. I think that’s all it has to say. my point is, do you have a she’s only a woman moment right now going on in your life? Are you just going through the motions in certain things? Or are you waking up just present, time conscious, that’s really ready to tackle that situation? Are you feeling alive? And I think you gotta discard those songs that are going on that you just can’t be present with.

speaker-0
Yeah. Well, I’ll just say, and not to harp too much on Caleb’s personal back and sciatica issues, but I remember changing chiropractors a number of years ago because I told my wife, said, he’s just going through the motions. He doesn’t care. He’s not listening to me. He’s not trying to have context for my problems. He’s not giving me a plan of things to do in between adjustments. He’s just going through the motions, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. All right, swipe your credit card. You’re out of here. It’s like, you know, I’m just a cash register to him. I’m not, I’m not.

someone he’s really trying to help. that’s really encouraging and very applicable advice to any of the leaders listening. So Robert, you lead the Support Now team at Chick-fil-A. You talked about that earlier. And you’ve become known for this idea that you call bang the drum. And I’ve been wanting to know for a while, and I’ve heard you mention it before on some other podcasts, but talk about bang the drum. What is that?

speaker-1
Yeah, so it is a set of principles that I believe are paramount to any team growing what I like to refer to as a championship culture. So one of my isms, and we all have them, is the following. Championship teams have championship cultures. Championship cultures are connected cultures. Connected cultures don’t just happen, they happen by habit. And there’s three things.

that everyone needs, knows, wants, and craves. And I like to refer to it as the 3RN concept. So my brother and I had a sister, we lost her last year, so this little iteration is to honor her. My wife’s a nurse, so my sister was a retired nurse, or a registered nurse, my wife is…

Was a registered nurse and my sister-in-law is a registered nurse. So I call it the three RN. So there we go. So you’re going to, this is going to be sticky and you’re going to remember this, but we, you and I, and the next person and everybody on this podcast, if we can get better at, um, doing daily habits around the three RN, I think you will grow.

speaker-0
My wife’s a registered nurse too.

speaker-1
a connected culture that over time will become more of a championship culture. And that is all around the R in Drum, because you asked about the drums. So there’s four concepts. I won’t go into all of them today. There is a book in the works with Gordon Publishing I’m excited about, but I’ll unpack all of that at that time when that book is released. But the R in Drum is all around recognition. And the 3RN is around

How do you and I recognize people by their names? Don’t know if you knew this, but the number one word we love to hear, whether we want to admit it or not, the most is our names. Now there’s sometimes I don’t want my wife to say my name a certain way. And Patrick would probably agree with his lovely wife as well, but more times than not, we love to hear our names. So the first RN is we got to recognize others by name.

So we have a expectation. It is a workday goal in our system that every, have 44 people leaders that support now they are to recognize all of the 301 teammates in our organization by name. They have to do it by the end of June, second quarter every year. We actually have a game that we do through PowerPoint called know your crew challenge. So you have to.

so I’ll ask everybody on this. This is a rhetorical question for everybody listening to this. Do you know everybody in your department or your company, depending how big or small’s name? If you don’t, I would challenge you to do that. We underestimate the significance and importance of recognizing others by recognizing their name. The second RN is recognizing the people you work with something unique about.

Everybody’s got something in common. You just got to spend one to three minutes to find it out. That’s what troubles me with today’s world and the it’s going on is everybody. Everybody. don’t care who you are, where you live, what country, everybody has something in common. You and I and my brother have to just spend one to three minutes to find it out. And then when you have, you and I have something in common, man, I mean, we, could be talking. have.

speaker-1
A favorite basketball team, a favorite author, a favorite musician. Heck, I’m a pro wrestling fan.

speaker-0
You’re a Notre Dame fan.

speaker-1
I’m a Notre Dame fan. I’m a triathlete. mean, I work, mean, you know, we got some, we got things in common. I love to eat. I mean, there is something we all have in common. So, you know, I say that because you mean an expert, so we got a broad perspective of things we like and interests and hobbies and passions. But if we spend one to three minutes finding it out, that’s where the real magic happens. So that’s the second RN and the third RN and arguably Caleb.

They’re all significant, but could be the most important because two of my worst years in business were I had a role that I did not feel like my value, importance, and significance of my role was recognized. So I think the third RN is we always got to look for opportunities to recognize others for their value and the importance and significance of their role.

their contribution to the team because anybody that’s a member of a team, especially in corporate America, they were hired for a reason. They were hired to satisfy a job description. They were hired to add value. They are adding value. So how are we recognizing them? And it could be an empty place for all of us if we don’t feel like our work matters. But I think it’s our responsibility as leaders, as well as peers,

for our teammates to make sure our teammates know that their work is valuable, it’s important, and we recognize it. So we have a big old drum at Support Now. a $2,200 concert-based drum. I didn’t even know what the heck one of those was called, but it’s a concert-based drum. We paid for it. My brothers banged the drum, and we have it in our locker room. We call our office space our locker room. Everything sports with me. And the drum sits in the back, and…

We started this four years ago. I engaged everybody with the drum. We launched the bang the drum concept and nothing makes me more proud when I hear and I’m in the opposite side of our locker room and I hear a teammate recognizing someone else by banging the drum. So we recognize our teammates. We recognize guests. Caleb, if you came to visit us, we would recognize you. I actually

speaker-1
you know, we’ve recognized Jon Gordon. We’ve, we, we recognize any, everybody’s important. So we look for any and all opportunities to bang the drum for others. And, it’s really been an incredible culture builder. in fact, one of the organizations that, Addo that you referenced, we came and spent some time with them and they love the concept and they bought a gong, a big gong and they, they bang the gong.

Now, I was a guest there at one point and loved the gong, but my band, when you bang the gong, the gong reverberates for about 10 minutes. So we got, yeah, we, yeah, we bang the drum. It’s quick. It’s to the point and it’s loud. It’s obnoxious, but it’s makes it makes its point a little bit more deliberate with a little bit more punch. but yeah, it’s, it’s been electrifying people actually at Chick-fil-A want to borrow our drum for team meetings and,

We loan it out as long as they return it, but it’s an interesting approach to recognizing others. And it’s paid off dividends. We’ve paid that $2,200 back a million folds.

speaker-0
You lead a department that in most companies in corporate America, that’s a thankless area of the company. mean, the IT folks, support folks, customer service, my goodness, that’s one of the most thankless departments that can be out there and least recognized. So that speaks to the culture that you’re trying to create. you kind of answered my next question, Robert, which is talk about some of the key ingredients that you’re trying to instill at your in your department at Chick-fil-A. I know you’ve talked about before the six championship trades. I don’t know if you want to unpack those for us.

speaker-1
Yeah, but let me go, let me go backward real quick. Cause I think this is important. people will in leadership, people will know if you’re all in as a leader.

And you are absolutely right. The support desk is not glamorous. My brother, you and me, have, we have been customers where we’ve had to call, different call centers, right? For different experiences we’ve had, right? I’m not going to name different companies, but we’ve all done it and we have not had a championship level experience and not too many people would raise their hand to lead a support desk, but here’s what’s interesting.

I got this role seven years ago. If you go, went back to my two year development plan nine years ago, I asked for this responsibility. I wanted to lead this team. And whenever we have new staff join our team, I meet with all of them. I show them my 2018 and 2019 development plan and I want them to know, and I think this is important for your audience. I want them to know they have a leader that asked for them, that wanted them. And I think in our space.

That was paramount as you mentioned, because it’s not the most glamorous, but I don’t care what space it is. That is paramount. If they know they have a leader that asked for them, wanted them. So I just wanted to make that known is that’s why I love my role. I asked for it. I wanted it. And I’m so glad somebody read my two year development plan, but to take you to your question with regard to that. Yeah, we have.

My brother and I and you, mean, again, big sports fans. Um, and we’ve all been a part of teams. Our family units, by the way, is arguably the number one team we’ve ever been a part of, um, and still are a part of, but you and me and the next person have been a part of a lot of teams, whether it’s athletic teams growing up, uh, a theatrical group that was, uh, organized in high school to put on a play, a band and orchestra.

speaker-1
Of course, business is littered with teams we’ve been a part of. And I love to study championship level teams. love to study championship level sports teams. There are common denominators for you, and the next person. Now those common denominators might look a little different, but I’ve studied championship level teams. And I believe that if you and I, the next person, recruit for, hire for, select for,

Coach and develop toward reward and recognize toward these six championship traits. I’m sorry, but I have a hard time believing you will not be a high performing team. If you hire people, train people, reward and recognize performance manage against these six traits. So there’s six of them. Jon Gordon is a tie that my brother and I have made, and you’ve made that connection today. Four of our six championship traits are based on Jon’s teachings so real quick, rapid fire, championship teams are made up of people that have six things. They’re go-to people and players. And then there’s a whole, there’s talks behind each of these.

speaker-0
Yeah, we could have a whole podcast on each of the six, I’m sure.

speaker-1
But they’re go-to players. They, um, they relentlessly pursue teamwork. They, they lead themselves and others with positive energy. They demonstrate true grit. They have flexible mindsets. And at the end of the day, they have a grateful heart. So here’s the key. You can have three of those traits. You’re not going to be a championship team. You could have four, you can have five. You can have all five, but have a, not have a grateful heart. You will not perform as a championship team. So you got to have all six championship traits. um, we have been nonstop.

Unapologetic. We will not compromise on those six championship traits. My brother just came to our annual kickoff a couple of weeks ago. We actually had a chance to have John Gordon speak to our 301 staff members. It’s the one time a year we’re able to get everybody together and he saw it as well. We bang the drum for folks and we recognize an MVP for each of those six championship traits. Peer to peer nominations and we recognize folks that are performing and living out those six championship traits every year. So what gets recognized gets rewarded as this audience has probably heard before. So yeah, as you can tell, I’m very passionate about those six and we don’t compromise on them.

speaker-0
And Pat, so Robert mentioned Jon Gordon, and we’ve talked about him a little bit throughout the show. Tell us a little more about the work you guys are doing with him. In fact, the first book I ever read, or one of the first leadership books I ever read was The Energy Bus, back when I was in high school and still return to some of those ideas in that book today. But talk about John Gordon and some of the stuff you guys are doing with his material.

speaker-2
Yes, my brother and I were in his certification program and we also in his mentorship group. So my brother and I are typically on a monthly call with Jon. I’ve been doing this about a year and half.

And then we’ve been certified in his five programs. He’s got a programs in positive mindset, positive teamwork, positive leadership, and also he’s got two new ones out as well. So they’re all kind of coordinated with some of his books. And so there’s about 250, 300 trainers nationwide. And so he and I are two of those. And so I’ve done personally some work regionally. And as far as those go, they could be delivered in one hour, you know, so they can be delivered in

to three and a half hour workshops. think two, two and a half hours is kind of the sweet spot for my delivery. So, been doing some of his work. We’ve also been some of his programs. My brother and I were going to be there in May. He does a thing called the training camp. It’s pretty, I had the opportunity to go last year where he brings a bunch of of coaches in and they give a one day big program. It was absolutely incredible. I’ve been blessed to be at a lot of personal development programs in my life and that might be the best one I’ve ever been to. Looking forward to it the one this year.

As well so and so anyway, it’s been it’s been really good. He’s been great to Robert and I we were on his podcast on it’s actually the April 25th of 25 actually so it’s 425 25 if anybody listens to the John Gordon Boat podcast if they went back to that that that one April 25th of last year they can listen to my brother and I on his Podcast as well. So yeah, it’s been it’s been great. It’s been great from a motivational standpoint. He’s been good to us and

speaker-2
as well as to share some of his stuff out there. I don’t need to recreate the wheel. He’s done a really good job on some of these programs. to your audience, mean, if anybody out there is needing this type of work, feel free to contact us on that. But again, it’s positive mindset, positive leadership, positive training, but it’s really good for those small groups to medium-sized groups. mean, doing these things, I’ve done it for 20 people, I’ve done it for

I did one for 800 people, it’s really good stuff, good material.

speaker-0
And if folks want to find you guys to book you to speak or book one of your workshops, how can they connect with you guys?

speaker-2
My mind’s pretty simple. I’ve got a website called DrPatMcLachlan.com and they can book me through that. And my website or just even personally on DrPatMcLachlan.gmail.com they can reach out to me directly or they can call me. 252-725-2725. Call me directly and I’m happy to help them.

speaker-0
Fantastic.

speaker-1
Yeah. Yeah, mine’s simple. It’s rmclaughlin5150 at gmail.com. And a lot of people ask about 5150. Again, some of your audience might be Big Van Halen fans like my brother and I. See, we all have something in common. That’s the 5150. So rmclaughlin5150 at gmail.com or my phone number is 678-637-7459. And again, those are some opportunities to connect with both of us.

speaker-0
That’s great. Well, as we land the plane here, I guess I got one more question. So Robert, this was not on the script, by the way, but I’m going to throw it at you anyways and see where this goes. When I was an intern at Chick-fil-A, you were talking about at one point the importance of delivering feedback to your team and being honest with your team, but doing it in a way that’s building somebody up and not just tearing down their confidence. And you shared a story with me and I don’t…

I don’t remember the specifics, but you said, early in my time at Chick-fil-A, you said, really blew it on something or I made a mistake. And you said, David Salyers, I guess you all were on the Chick-fil-A plane or something, and David Salyers and I were on the Chick-fil-A plane. And you said, the whole plane ride home, he was coaching me on how to improve and how to get better. And he wasn’t angry, but he wanted to make sure that I got the message and was going to grow from whatever it was.

One, I don’t know if I got all those facts right. And then two, as you’re leading people, there’s going to be times where you have to give feedback and correction. And how do you do that well as a leader?

speaker-1
No, that’s great. You got, this is amazing, man. You got a great memory. The fact that you remember, uh, you did get most of those details, correct? It was not the corporate jet. were flying commercial. was after a very long sponsorship event. always credit David at that point. He just was really tired, but, it’s a side I saw him that day, um, that he just really leaned in and I did a, I did a poor job of involving him and informing him. So I’ll just, I’ll leave this with the audience before I answer your question, but two huge things from that conversation I always take as I ask myself these two questions whenever I leave a meeting is who do I need to inform as a result of this interaction and or who do I need to involve?

So back when we have offices, which we don’t any longer, I had that right above my laptop. Who do I need to inform? Who do I need to involve? But you did a great, great job. I love studying coaches and I love Dabo Sweeney from Clemson. And he has a concept, you and my brother, my brother’s definitely heard this, but Caleb, you may have heard it some of your listeners. It’s called, not tough love, love tough.

And I’m going to paraphrase because I don’t want to take that from Davao at all. But I think when giving folks important feedback, Love Tough is around leading with love first and really putting the time in that relationship. That’s why that connection piece is so important as you and I start establishing relationships with our colleagues, our coworkers, because what we want to happen over time is there’s so much connection led with love, that that individual knows that you are for them, that you are in their corner. You want to propel them in their organization, in their career, that you have a vested interest. So if we lead with love,

speaker-1
Then when we have to have a tough conversation and a crucial conversation and a hard conversation, that person on the other side of that, knows you have their best interests in mind. And I always knew that with David. That’s why even on that plane trip, and that was a hard conversation, that was a crucial conversation in the moment. I knew David because of the love he had for me that was established over time. didn’t just happen overnight.

I knew he had the best interest. So I like to think of giving feedback, as love tough as dabbo Sweeney has taught me. and that’s how I, I tried to lead. then of course, I think we got to be open, right? Feedback is a gift, in the present and we’ve got to be open to it as well. And, I think as leaders, you got to lead with that. I like to lead with others to say, Hey, how can I be better?

before I even get into, Caleb, here’s something I’ve observed or here’s what you might need to work on is ask them first. And I think it shows vulnerability, shows transparency, and it shows humility. Leaders should lead first in a lot of areas. We should be also last in a lot of areas, but that’s just something I try to do. Hope that answers your question.

speaker-0
Yeah, no doubt that’s fantastic. Well, Pat and Robert, thank you guys both for coming on and I hope our listeners will go out and contact you and find out more about what you can offer to all the leaders out there. We love serving community banks and one of the things we like to say is, how do you take the Chick-fil-A DNA and infuse it into your bank to create remarkable experiences and to mark the lives of others in a significant way and to improve their stories both for your team members and for your customers. So thank you guys for both setting a great example of that and appreciate you having, appreciate you coming on the show.

speaker-1
My pleasure.