UDSKRIFT 🔗
WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.810 --> 00:00:03.911
Hey there folks, welcome to today's episode of the Strategy and Leadership Podcast.
2
00:00:03.931 --> 00:00:05.231
My name is Anthony Taylor.
3
00:00:05.611 --> 00:00:07.872
I'm so excited to share with you my guest today.
4
00:00:07.892 --> 00:00:21.715
You know, one of the things you're thinking about, longevity in an organization, starting, growing, moving into the CEO, which is our guest distinction, growing the company's revenue 40 times, which to the size and scale that it is, you'll be like, oh, it's not like 40 bucks, it's quite a bit.
5
00:00:22.655 --> 00:00:28.777
Having the impact that he has had in multiple organizations outside of his day job, and now,
6
00:00:29.477 --> 00:00:33.059
you know, stewarding the organization to have impact around the world.
7
00:00:33.419 --> 00:00:38.963
I'm just so grateful to be joined by Lawrence Armstrong, who is the chairman and former CEO of Where Malcolm.
8
00:00:39.383 --> 00:00:40.284
Lawrence, how are you today?
9
00:00:40.824 --> 00:00:41.484
I'm doing great.
10
00:00:41.564 --> 00:00:42.365
Thank you, Anthony.
11
00:00:42.445 --> 00:00:43.646
Appreciate you having me on.
12
00:00:44.366 --> 00:00:45.547
Like I said, it's a privilege.
13
00:00:45.567 --> 00:00:46.407
I'm so excited.
14
00:00:46.788 --> 00:00:51.791
For folks who don't know about Where Malcolm, about you and your work, can you give us a little bio?
15
00:00:52.991 --> 00:00:53.372
Sure.
16
00:00:53.992 --> 00:00:55.313
Well, Where Malcolm is a
17
00:00:55.782 --> 00:01:00.465
international design architecture, interior design and engineering firm.
18
00:01:00.726 --> 00:01:02.567
And we're based in Irvine, California.
19
00:01:03.488 --> 00:01:10.813
And we have 30 offices all across North America and have done a lot of international work as well.
20
00:01:10.873 --> 00:01:23.442
But our clients are the Fortune 500, local and regional corporations, and the commercial development industry as a whole, commercial real estate industry.
21
00:01:24.168 --> 00:01:24.428
Excellent.
22
00:01:24.589 --> 00:01:30.395
And then you started with the firm 1988, 1984, something like that.
23
00:01:30.455 --> 00:01:30.776
1984.
24
00:01:30.796 --> 00:01:38.425
I was hired by our founders, Bill Ware and Bill Malcolm as a, uh, a designer and architect.
25
00:01:38.825 --> 00:01:39.346
And, um,
26
00:01:40.058 --> 00:01:44.640
Yeah, so I've been with the firm over 42 years at this point.
27
00:01:45.360 --> 00:01:57.125
Okay, so obviously there's a big story there going from employee into principal and now where you're at now, looking at the stages of growth and there's a lot to talk about there.
28
00:01:57.305 --> 00:02:00.266
You literally wrote a book about a layered leadership in terms of your experience.
29
00:02:00.706 --> 00:02:09.230
But can you take us back to some of those early stages as the company grew in its evolution and your experience stepping into
30
00:02:10.091 --> 00:02:10.812
that leadership role?
31
00:02:11.793 --> 00:02:12.173
Sure.
32
00:02:13.174 --> 00:02:21.504
So, when I joined the firm, we were one office and about 30 people in Irvine, California.
33
00:02:22.385 --> 00:02:27.552
And I guess it was the year after I joined that
34
00:02:29.386 --> 00:02:36.769
You know, our, our founders had been asked by our clients to open a couple other offices, which, you know, we had never done before.
35
00:02:37.409 --> 00:02:41.271
And so we opened a San Diego office and an office up in LA.
36
00:02:41.771 --> 00:02:46.653
So both nearby, but you know, both over an hour away from our main office.
37
00:02:47.274 --> 00:02:50.595
And so I was given the opportunity, I was very young.
38
00:02:51.088 --> 00:02:54.289
to go and run our LA office at the time.
39
00:02:54.590 --> 00:02:56.790
And so that was late 1985.
40
00:02:57.551 --> 00:03:04.134
And it was the beginning of sort of a big eye-opening journey into leadership.
41
00:03:04.234 --> 00:03:09.556
You know, I was an architect and all of a sudden I was a, a,
42
00:03:10.617 --> 00:03:14.338
a leader of an office, trying to build an office and trying to figure that out.
43
00:03:14.999 --> 00:03:22.701
And so that was an eye-opening experience and a great opportunity for me and taught me a lot, obviously.
44
00:03:23.622 --> 00:03:26.783
And so I ran and built that office for several years.
45
00:03:27.635 --> 00:03:44.048
and then the founders decided they wanted to retire from the business and offered to sell the company to myself and my business partner at the time who became my business partner Jim Williams who was running our San Diego office.
46
00:03:45.049 --> 00:03:49.092
So in 1992 we bought the company
47
00:03:50.192 --> 00:03:54.493
And, which, you know, didn't know how to do that either.
48
00:03:56.013 --> 00:03:59.234
But we did it and went through a whole series of agreements.
49
00:03:59.314 --> 00:04:03.175
And, you know, we were in a real estate recession at the time.
50
00:04:03.215 --> 00:04:06.556
So we were buying the business and navigating a recession at the same time.
51
00:04:07.076 --> 00:04:12.257
And we both moved back to the Irvine headquarters and took over the company in 1992.
52
00:04:13.737 --> 00:04:24.448
From 1992 on, I was the CEO for 28 years and then transitioned to chairman whenever that was, six or seven years ago.
53
00:04:25.969 --> 00:04:26.249
Yeah.
54
00:04:26.710 --> 00:04:30.854
And in the meantime, we built the company from where it was and to where it is now.
55
00:04:31.704 --> 00:04:37.107
And for those that don't know, you know, a little bit about the company, you know, where it is now, how many offices, how many employees?
56
00:04:37.607 --> 00:04:44.191
Yeah, so 30 offices and I think just under a thousand employees at this point.
57
00:04:44.451 --> 00:04:50.634
And we are in 1992, we billed a little over three million dollars.
58
00:04:51.855 --> 00:04:59.079
And when I turned over the reins, you know, as
Load full transcript
CEO, we built we were billing 139 million and as chairman.
59
00:05:01.222 --> 00:05:04.984
This year we'll have a record year and it will be above $240 million in revenue.
60
00:05:05.004 --> 00:05:06.385
That's incredible.
61
00:05:07.086 --> 00:05:10.067
Yeah, it's been a really great ride.
62
00:05:10.628 --> 00:05:12.509
Well, congratulations to those involved.
63
00:05:12.649 --> 00:05:15.591
Obviously, the numbers are one thing, the impact is the other.
64
00:05:15.611 --> 00:05:19.953
And you can see bits of where Malcolm, everywhere you go, if you know what to look for.
65
00:05:21.494 --> 00:05:24.576
What's interesting is you're an architect, right?
66
00:05:24.616 --> 00:05:27.798
You're an artist also, and I want to talk about that a little bit.
67
00:05:29.039 --> 00:05:30.300
And I'll give kind of two pathways.
68
00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:33.202
You know, one is how do you think about leadership?
69
00:05:33.262 --> 00:05:45.453
How, you know, recognizing that it wasn't necessarily the pathway and then two, if you want to weave it in there, are there parallels between art, if you're watching this, there's guitars in the background, there's literally paintings that, you know, wrote a book.
70
00:05:45.873 --> 00:05:48.936
Are there parallels between how you view art and how you view leadership?
71
00:05:48.956 --> 00:05:51.378
And I'll let you take that question however you want to take it.
72
00:05:51.418 --> 00:05:53.520
Yeah, so, well, you know,
73
00:05:55.310 --> 00:06:00.731
I've said it many times, you know, you go to school for one thing and you learn how to do it.
74
00:06:00.751 --> 00:06:05.212
And if you're good at it, I guess, or accomplished, you get promoted.
75
00:06:05.312 --> 00:06:09.093
And all of a sudden you're basically managing and leading people.
76
00:06:09.733 --> 00:06:14.374
And, you know, that happens almost no matter what business you're in, I guess.
77
00:06:14.934 --> 00:06:16.354
So that's what it was for me.
78
00:06:16.875 --> 00:06:23.456
And so I had a steep learning curve early on figuring out how to properly lead and, and,
79
00:06:24.361 --> 00:06:27.827
and inspire people and strategize the growth of the company.
80
00:06:28.688 --> 00:06:36.401
Um, so yeah, I, I think that I guess because, uh, we're architects and, um,
81
00:06:38.051 --> 00:06:42.013
You know, architecture is what I like to call a whole brain business.
82
00:06:42.053 --> 00:06:44.374
You use both sides of your brain all the time, every day.
83
00:06:45.234 --> 00:06:55.978
And it sets you up well, I think, to be creative and build both on your strengths, but also on your weaknesses a little bit.
84
00:06:56.439 --> 00:07:01.160
Or, you know, be able to learn in areas where maybe you didn't have training.
85
00:07:01.821 --> 00:07:06.183
In my case, you know, managing and leadership and business, right?
86
00:07:07.811 --> 00:07:20.374
So I see it as a really interwoven thing and the very layered thing, which is kind of why
that kind of evolved into my philosophy for leadership, which is called layered leadership and whole brain thinking.
87
00:07:21.694 --> 00:07:33.937
And so, you know, throughout the book, I give examples of very creative strategies we use to either diversify the company, to, you know, make it stronger.
88
00:07:35.423 --> 00:07:48.552
in downturns and recessions, and to diversify us geographically and by product type, and then to inspire a whole group of people to become leaders, you know, we've,
89
00:07:49.773 --> 00:08:00.420
I sort of call our company a leadership academy because we develop leaders, because we need a lot of leaders to run all these offices and these business units that are all over North America.
90
00:08:01.521 --> 00:08:08.386
And so there's a lot of artistic and creative thought that goes into that process.
91
00:08:08.686 --> 00:08:10.828
It's not purely an analytical kind of a,
92
00:08:11.766 --> 00:08:12.827
exercise for us.
93
00:08:13.268 --> 00:08:24.418
And so I've used all sorts of metaphors and different influences as examples to build our strategies and leadership within our company.
94
00:08:25.359 --> 00:08:33.006
And so, and I can talk about some of the specifics if you want, but I think, you know, sort of that's the basis of the idea.
95
00:08:33.927 --> 00:08:35.348
And then as far as the art goes,
96
00:08:36.546 --> 00:08:37.667
You know, I'm also an artist.
97
00:08:37.687 --> 00:08:55.055
I've always been an artist, but I developed, I started to develop sort of, it is a second career, so to speak, as I was planning my exit from Where Malcolm, just so, you know, I'd have something to do, I guess.
98
00:08:55.636 --> 00:09:02.239
But what I discovered was, you know, being an artist, you have no limits.
99
00:09:02.299 --> 00:09:03.740
You can do whatever you want, right?
100
00:09:03.800 --> 00:09:05.761
And that's the cool thing about being an artist,
101
00:09:06.521 --> 00:09:17.744
And the creativity, I think, inspires strategy, you know, at least in my case, I think, and vice versa.
102
00:09:18.244 --> 00:09:25.285
So I've used a lot of the concepts of layers and I've explored in my art this idea conceptually of layers.
103
00:09:26.566 --> 00:09:32.407
And I've then applied it and shown people how that applies to building a business and building leadership.
104
00:09:33.287 --> 00:09:44.134
And so it seems a little bit abstract, and it is, but I've tried to bring some specific examples to bear to prove that out.
105
00:09:44.154 --> 00:09:44.674
I mean, I love it.
106
00:09:44.694 --> 00:09:49.597
Well, I think what's interesting about things that are abstract is they could occur as abstract.
107
00:09:50.017 --> 00:09:54.202
Unless you know what you're looking at, and then it's actually very intentional.
108
00:09:54.242 --> 00:09:56.525
So, you know, a couple things that I want to highlight what I heard.
109
00:09:56.545 --> 00:10:01.610
You know, as you thought about stepping into your role, inspiration, strategy, and leading.
110
00:10:01.670 --> 00:10:04.233
And those are distinct, right?
111
00:10:04.734 --> 00:10:07.197
It's how do you support the growth of the organization.
112
00:10:07.757 --> 00:10:18.501
if you think of creating the sustainability and making something like art that is timeless, is creating those levels of differentiation, the resilience, and the sustainability.
113
00:10:19.121 --> 00:10:26.103
When I think about a value proposition, there's multiple layers to it to make it incomparable to something else.
114
00:10:26.163 --> 00:10:30.105
It stands in a league in its own, which is really what you've built where Malcolm to be.
115
00:10:31.365 --> 00:10:36.967
And then just in terms of creativity and how you've done well using your whole brain is,
116
00:10:37.627 --> 00:11:05.657
you have to be whole brain to be a successful entrepreneur and you can't be afraid to fail and those that are successful have the creativity because there is no right it's just how are you done it and so you've been able to put that in place and i find it really neat that you know those kind of three structures together while seemingly abstract you know come together to make something really cool that has built the foundations of your success at least that's how i hear it and see it thoughts on that yeah no absolutely i think that
117
00:11:06.137 --> 00:11:23.420
You know, a couple of things that I learned along the way that ended up being, you know, sort of foundational to the, you know, to the growth and the strategy is, well, first of all, number one, we are great at what we do, which is what inspired our clients to ask us to go.
118
00:11:24.615 --> 00:11:27.417
other places which we're experts in commercial real estate.
119
00:11:27.457 --> 00:11:28.859
We understand our client's business.
120
00:11:29.439 --> 00:11:41.249
We understand how to design buildings that sustain over the course of time and are you can evolve with the marketplace.
121
00:11:42.800 --> 00:11:45.703
remain relevant years after we designed the building.
122
00:11:46.804 --> 00:11:48.766
And so clients value that, right?
123
00:11:49.907 --> 00:11:51.288
And so that was sort of one.
124
00:11:51.489 --> 00:12:02.039
And so in that resulted in us being asked to go to other markets where maybe that expertise in the design industry didn't exist.
125
00:12:02.700 --> 00:12:04.562
And so that's been a great thing.
126
00:12:04.642 --> 00:12:05.523
The second one was,
127
00:12:06.083 --> 00:12:13.506
You know, we were given this amazing opportunity to take over, lead by this company and lead it.
128
00:12:14.787 --> 00:12:23.451
And we didn't want to just, you know, take the company and keep it where it was, which was in a good spot.
129
00:12:23.491 --> 00:12:27.472
We were a really strong, good Southern California architectural firm.
130
00:12:27.632 --> 00:12:31.734
It's basically what we were specializing in commercial real estate.
131
00:12:32.234 -->
00:12:33.435
But it, the inspiration
132
00:12:33.923 --> 00:12:57.880
it was so inspiring to be given this opportunity that we wanted to create as many opportunities for our people to grow in their careers as we possibly could so when you marry this idea that you know we've defined what we're great at better than anybody and our clients are asking us to go places to open new offices and serve them in other markets and then we
133
00:12:59.739 --> 00:13:19.673
take our existing talent pool and continue to build it to inspire people and give them opportunity to go out and run these offices and build departments within these offices and grow a whole bunch of leaders that end up building our business.
134
00:13:20.414 --> 00:13:25.658
So that whole thing works together as sort of a foundational strategy for the firm.
135
00:13:27.257 --> 00:13:39.124
And like I said, over time, I've relied on some metaphors and some different, you know, business books and certain leaders throughout history.
136
00:13:40.985 --> 00:13:43.187
My biggest influence is Leonardo da Vinci.
137
00:13:43.987 --> 00:13:45.548
the ultimate whole brain thinker.
138
00:13:46.069 --> 00:13:50.652
And so these are the kind of things that we think about as we build the company.
139
00:13:51.253 --> 00:13:52.074
Cool, I love that.
140
00:13:52.314 --> 00:14:00.840
I was trying to see, like from the commercial landscape place that you're creating spaces while they're commercial, they're people to live and
141
00:14:01.721 --> 00:14:08.506
be part of and so like the intentionality of a good commercial space is critical and so you need to be able to be good at that.
142
00:14:08.947 --> 00:14:14.331
But what it sounds like really like one of the foundations of where Malcolm is you're good at developing people.
143
00:14:14.811 --> 00:14:16.592
And watch you said didn't say good, you said great.
144
00:14:16.632 --> 00:14:18.354
And so great at developing people.
145
00:14:18.714 --> 00:14:21.555
Where did you have the idea for the leadership Academy?
146
00:14:21.575 --> 00:14:27.397
At what point did you say, actually, you know what, we're in the building business, but we're really in the people business.
147
00:14:27.437 --> 00:14:29.138
At what point did that turn for you?
148
00:14:29.198 --> 00:14:35.040
And how did that shape the leadership decisions you made with hiring and developing leaders?
149
00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:36.340
Yeah.
150
00:14:36.420 --> 00:14:43.463
So it's definitely foundational and, and really I talk about a very, you know,
151
00:14:44.122 --> 00:14:46.865
We all read business books and, you know, et cetera.
152
00:14:46.925 --> 00:14:58.139
And we, early on, decided we were gonna become students of business and not just look at inside our industry at what other design firms were doing, but, you know, other great businesses.
153
00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:01.022
And so we read a lot of business books.
154
00:15:01.203 --> 00:15:01.683
And the one,
155
00:15:05.515 --> 00:15:33.716
where that came from i guess uh is is the example of jack welch built at ge he um he wrote a great book and he was called straight from the gut and um it's you know what he did is he built a leadership academy at ge where he trained his leaders um in you know in business and you know so many of the leaders got promoted and ran businesses under his leadership
156
00:15:34.296 --> 00:15:38.519
but then also went on to be CEOs of other giant corporations in America.
157
00:15:39.340 --> 00:15:43.863
And so we took a lot of inspiration from that concept.
158
00:15:44.363 --> 00:15:54.531
And so the way it manifested is, you know, we just, I started having leadership meetings in our company over 30 years ago.
159
00:15:55.451 --> 00:15:58.033
And we've had them three times a year ever since.
160
00:15:58.113 --> 00:16:01.216
And they used to be six people and now they're over 100 people.
161
00:16:02.216 --> 00:16:02.717
And, um,
162
00:16:03.664 --> 00:16:13.816
where we talk about these ideas and make sure that we're all on the same page and, you know, talking about strategies and implementing the same ideas across the entire platform.
163
00:16:14.997 --> 00:16:21.645
So our clients can experience consistency in service and high quality in design services.
164
00:16:22.347 --> 00:16:23.928
And so that's kind of how we did it.
165
00:16:24.028 --> 00:16:29.911
And then since then we've added on and added on and added on to the, you know, to the people development side of our company.
166
00:16:30.412 --> 00:16:36.415
We have a very strong, um, formal mentoring, uh, in coaching program.
167
00:16:36.895 --> 00:16:43.219
We have, um, business meetings with every business, uh, uh, unit in the company.
168
00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:51.604
Um, you know, every month or every other month to review how they're doing and with operations and the business side and, you know,
169
00:16:51.864 --> 00:16:53.065
and all of that sort of thing.
170
00:16:53.225 --> 00:16:55.527
And then we're very integrated as a company.
171
00:16:55.547 --> 00:16:58.750
We're not, we have 30 offices, but they're not standalone.
172
00:16:58.770 --> 00:17:04.595
They're very well integrated to central services that we provide for the entire company.
173
00:17:05.396 --> 00:17:06.837
And they help each other out.
174
00:17:06.897 --> 00:17:08.519
We back each other up at all times.
175
00:17:08.579 --> 00:17:11.081
And so that becomes the entire culture of the company.
176
00:17:12.242 --> 00:17:18.047
And so we built this idea over a long period of time with programs like that.
177
00:17:19.406 --> 00:17:24.170
I mean, for those of you that follow SME strategy, you know, we're big on alignment.
178
00:17:24.190 --> 00:17:26.772
We're big on asking questions, the Socratic method.
179
00:17:26.832 --> 00:17:38.481
And, you know, the root of that, in which I think you've incorporated, Lawrence, is, you know, Soccer Keys in Greece would get these forums
together, or Agora's where people would, like, talk through things and sharing of that information.
180
00:17:38.941 --> 00:17:45.666
And what I hear, Lawrence, through that is that it's like a decentralized model without using, you know, tech terms.
181
00:17:46.086 --> 00:17:55.994
It's just, hey, we have 100 people that we can get into a room to share ideas, share best practices, you know, not just about design, but obviously about design so you can be on the cutting edge.
182
00:17:56.334 --> 00:17:58.655
but about business, about leadership, about people.
183
00:17:58.715 --> 00:18:00.396
I'm sure there's a human centered part of it.
184
00:18:01.416 --> 00:18:10.099
And at the heart of your organization, it really sounds like the human experience is critical to it, which is sounding like where you're at right now as an artist.
185
00:18:10.279 --> 00:18:12.460
You know, it's just you're incorporating that into your life.
186
00:18:12.520 --> 00:18:14.261
It's not about business, it's about
187
00:18:14.521 --> 00:18:33.862
really helping human beings be successful and then the kind of inspired by ge jack welsh is how do we get people to be successful everywhere they go not just in our organization is that fair yeah 100 100 you know because you know we're big believers in and i'm a big i you know i've got it in the book like
188
00:18:34.442 --> 00:18:42.729
We counsel our people on staying healthy and staying balanced in their lives financially as well.
189
00:18:43.990 --> 00:18:53.437
So we talk about those things as well because we want the person to be successful in all aspects of their life, not just at work.
190
00:18:53.477 --> 00:18:59.462
Work's important, but if you're failing in other aspects of your life, you're probably not going to be successful in business either.
191
00:19:00.063 --> 00:19:02.144
So we care about our people very much.
192
00:19:03.856 --> 00:19:26.975
and we've tried to extol that through all of this uh all of our sort of strategies and policies because you can't get there without the right people and um and so it's it's you know it's really important you know people come to me and you know uh or our leaders and say you know how do i get promoted i want to you know i want to grow in my career and the answer is always
193
00:19:27.801 --> 00:19:31.770
The company needs you to be promoted and the company needs you to be growing your career.
194
00:19:31.830 --> 00:19:33.454
So here's what we want you to do.
195
00:19:33.514 --> 00:19:36.020
Here's what you can work on because we need you to get there.
196
00:19:38.385 --> 00:19:41.246
Well, it's about creating that space.
197
00:19:41.366 --> 00:19:44.206
So you as the listener, use this podcast.
198
00:19:44.226 --> 00:19:45.647
Have a conversation with your managers.
199
00:19:45.767 --> 00:19:48.207
Get them to, I won't just say subscribe to the podcast.
200
00:19:48.227 --> 00:19:48.847
Of course, please do.
201
00:19:49.167 --> 00:19:58.429
But the reason
we design these conversations is to have it as a focal point of conversations you can have in your leadership with your teams.
202
00:19:58.489 --> 00:19:59.990
And say, hey, what did you learn from this?
203
00:20:00.030 --> 00:20:01.030
What did you take away from this?
204
00:20:02.050 --> 00:20:07.352
You know, you don't have to do the heavy lifting, but as a leader you have to act first and create the convening.
205
00:20:08.312 --> 00:20:14.254
Okay, Lawrence, as we finish up our conversation now, what is inspiring you now?
206
00:20:14.335 --> 00:20:18.716
I know you do a lot of nonprofit work, a lot of mission-based work, you're on a lot of boards.
207
00:20:19.156 --> 00:20:30.040
You know, what are you seeing, hey, what is inspiring you now to continue to do the work that you're doing, but what are you seeing with the organizations that you're supporting as what they need to do to step into their leadership moving forward?
208
00:20:30.771 --> 00:20:36.796
Yeah, so I'm involved on some boards.
209
00:20:37.957 --> 00:20:38.977
I'll give you one example.
210
00:20:39.037 --> 00:20:41.159
I've been involved in a lot of stuff, so I'll just pick one.
211
00:20:41.579 --> 00:20:51.587
Orange County United Way, I've been on the board now for several years, and I helped them create and I chaired their initiative, a project.
212
00:20:53.397 --> 00:20:56.900
that's called United to End Homelessness here in Orange County.
213
00:20:57.420 --> 00:20:58.962
And so we made tremendous progress.
214
00:20:59.022 --> 00:21:00.723
We started it from scratch.
215
00:21:00.763 --> 00:21:14.334
We've housed now over 1,300 people and, uh, and been a sort of a catalyst within the community to bring other organizations together to be more effective collectively at, you know, homelessness.
216
00:21:15.415 --> 00:21:18.017
So now I chair the board, um,
217
00:21:18.537 --> 00:21:19.718
at Orange County United Way.
218
00:21:20.639 --> 00:21:25.564
And it's a really inspiring organization that does great work in the community.
219
00:21:26.045 --> 00:21:27.066
Very effective work.
220
00:21:27.086 --> 00:21:31.090
They're very entrepreneurial about it actually, as opposed to most nonprofits.
221
00:21:31.531 --> 00:21:37.036
They measure everything they do and make sure they're being effective and efficient with the
222
00:21:39.239 --> 00:22:08.013
the the support the financial support they get either through grants or philanthropy so that they can report back out it's like thank you for what you how you've helped us and here's what we did with it which is very impressive and really leading from a national perspective in orange county here so i'm inspired and excited about the the work we're doing here in orange county in that way and yeah
223
00:22:08.660 --> 00:22:09.921
So that's one example, I guess.
224
00:22:10.141 --> 00:22:12.742
I've got a couple other ones, but that's a good one.
225
00:22:12.762 --> 00:22:13.843
No, I love it.
226
00:22:13.903 -->
00:22:18.465
I think it's really critical in these times for mission-based organization.
227
00:22:18.685 --> 00:22:19.606
Again, I say this all the time.
228
00:22:19.966 --> 00:22:21.987
I believe for-profits should act more like nonprofits.
229
00:22:22.027 --> 00:22:24.108
I think nonprofits should act more like for-profits.
230
00:22:24.168 --> 00:22:34.814
And being able to measure your impact, communicate it with stakeholders, is really just a galvanizing tool to align stakeholders and really get the focus and impact that you need.
231
00:22:34.974 --> 00:22:37.075
And as you've mentioned, they're doing great work there.
232
00:22:37.395 --> 00:22:38.315
Kudos to you there.
233
00:22:38.375 --> 00:22:39.876
Kudos to all of the organizations.
234
00:22:39.896 --> 00:22:40.916
Like you said, there are many.
235
00:22:41.556 --> 00:22:44.477
And also thanks for being here and writing the book.
236
00:22:44.877 --> 00:22:45.938
Where can people connect with you?
237
00:22:46.158 --> 00:22:47.638
Where can they learn more about Where Malcolm?
238
00:22:47.718 --> 00:22:48.818
And where can they get your book?
239
00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:50.199
Thank you.
240
00:22:50.259 --> 00:23:00.182
Well, so I have a website for me, and it has the book and the art and some of the leadership stuff on it, lawrencerarmstrong.com.
241
00:23:01.291 --> 00:23:02.972
And there's links to the book on there too.
242
00:23:03.032 --> 00:23:11.317
The book has a separate website, layeredleadershipbook.com, but it's on Amazon and everywhere else.
243
00:23:11.397 --> 00:23:13.418
You know, you can find the book very easily.
244
00:23:14.479 --> 00:23:18.041
And then of course my company, Where Malcolm is wheremalcolm.com.
245
00:23:19.982 --> 00:23:26.766
And you'll find us there and all the work we're doing all over North America and all over the world.
246
00:23:26.806 --> 00:23:28.467
So we're excited about that.
247
00:23:29.042 --> 00:23:29.362
Excellent.
248
00:23:29.382 --> 00:23:31.423
I wish you and your team nothing but success.
249
00:23:31.803 --> 00:23:36.425
And folks, you know, if you look on their, like, buildings page, it seemingly goes on forever.
250
00:23:36.725 --> 00:23:41.587
So you've likely been in one of their buildings, whether Canada, Europe, Mexico, or really anywhere else.
251
00:23:42.167 --> 00:23:44.648
And I just invite you to just be aware of your surroundings.
252
00:23:44.709 --> 00:23:50.891
Hopefully it inspires you to just, hey, have a great life, be a great leader, and I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
253
00:23:50.971 --> 00:23:53.712
And once again, thank you, Lawrence, for joining us today.
254
00:23:53.732 --> 00:23:57.374
We just appreciate your time and your energy and your focus and everything that you do for the world.
255
00:23:57.394 --> 00:23:57.814
So thank you.
256
00:23:58.234 --> 00:23:58.534
Awesome.
257
00:23:58.594 --> 00:23:59.295
Thank you, Anthony.
258
00:23:59.375 --> 00:24:00.055
Appreciate that.
259
00:24:00.536 --> 00:24:00.776
Cheers.
260
00:24:01.176 --> 00:24:15.025
Folks, my guest today, Lawrence Armstrong, you know, really taking in as a leader, especially one that's been able to grow an amazing organization, is looking at what do you need to do to support people, like creating that leadership academy, creating spaces for them to be successful.
261
00:24:15.425 --> 00:24:16.446
I just love what he said.
262
00:24:16.466 --> 00:24:18.907
He says, like, we need you to be successful.
263
00:24:18.927 --> 00:24:22.570
Hey, coming to me, hey, I need you to be able to grow into the organization.
264
00:24:23.250 --> 00:24:25.572
Are you creating the pathway for your people to be successful?
265
00:24:25.592 --> 00:24:28.154
Are you putting the structures in place for them to win?
266
00:24:28.855 --> 00:24:33.818
And then, you know, whatever business you're in, it is, of course, the people business, not just the business business.
267
00:24:34.139 --> 00:24:37.561
And the last thing is, you know, bring your whole brain, your whole self to your work.
268
00:24:37.601 --> 00:24:38.502
You'll get more out of it.
269
00:24:38.542 --> 00:24:41.645
You'll get a better product, and hopefully you'll enjoy it more.
270
00:24:42.025 --> 00:24:44.607
And part of that is, you know, feeding your brain with good stuff.
271
00:24:44.627 --> 00:24:45.848
So I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
272
00:24:45.868 --> 00:24:46.669
Be sure to subscribe.
273
00:24:46.689 --> 00:24:52.093
We publish weekly and interview a great guest just like Lawrence and who get expertise from around the world.
274
00:24:53.173 --> 00:24:55.215
share with your team, have conversations about it.
275
00:24:55.735 --> 00:25:02.039
And as always, if you want to have a conversation about strategy and leadership with your organization, SME Strategy facilitates strategy offsites.
276
00:25:02.059 --> 00:25:03.220
That's our work.
277
00:25:03.300 --> 00:25:08.323
But in the meantime, we just help bring leadership perspectives like this to you through our podcast.
278
00:25:08.343 --> 00:25:09.604
So share with somebody you love.
279
00:25:10.065 --> 00:25:10.745
I appreciate you.
280
00:25:10.905 --> 00:25:11.405
I love you.
281
00:25:11.566 --> 00:25:12.246
Thanks for listening.
282
00:25:12.266 --> 00:25:12.986
Thanks for being here.
283
00:25:13.187 --> 00:25:15.248
As always, until next time, we'll see you soon.