Heart Centered Leadership Podcast: Episode 4 with Ken Misiewicz

Ken (Cold Open):
Everything is with and through people. And so being a heart center leader really means being people-centric, having that direction, being clear about those values. And I think that even as you referred to the insanity, the instability, all the things happening in the world, but at the end of the day, people want to be with people they know, like, and trust.

Michelle:
Welcome to Reframe and Rewire, greatness through daily routine. This podcast is designed to alter your mindsets and transform your day to day from the second you open your eyes to you close them at night, adapting what I would call a success routine. This series is liable to change your life, and it’s never the big things that you do, but the littlest things you do every day that make the biggest difference. And now, to the podcast.

Michelle:
Thank you for joining. Welcome back to the podcast. So glad you could join us again on Heart Center Leadership. We have yet another amazing leader for you today that we’re going to be talking to about Heart Center Leadership. I’ve known Ken Misiewicz for a number of years and I’ve seen him in action in terms of his ability to really lead from the heart and he has shared with me some incredible things about especially his onboarding program. Maybe we’ll get into that today but I want to introduce him.

He is the president and CEO of Pleune Services here in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area in the United States. It’s an employee-owned company and he’s been in mechanical contracting since 1990, but he’s been with Pleune Service Company since ’95, so that’s like 28 years. Ken has really got a heart for people. I’m sure you’re going to gain a lot of wonderful insights from Ken. I’m so thrilled to have him on. So without further ado, Ken, welcome to the podcast.

Ken:
Thank you very much, Michelle. Pleasure to be here today.

Michelle:
First, tell us a little bit about you, your business, and how you developed a heart, a passion for heart centered leadership.

Ken:
When I came to Pleune, I was as you noted, I was in the field, I was a technician, and a very technical person. And when I came to the company, I thought solving technical problems was what I was there to do. And over a period of years, I realized that even though we’re working on technical issues, you’re actually solving people problems. And I wish I could say it was an epiphany or that I had a clear understanding of that early on. I didn’t, it was more like evolution. It was more like as I needed to develop better problem solving skills, humans entered more and more into the equation. And instead of being, you fixed the problem for the person, you realized serve the person, meet their needs as they need them. That is not intuitive for technical people. And so coming in from the craft perspective, it was more of a journey. And I would like to say that it was positive and constructive. Frankly, I think a lot of the learning and development for me was because of negative feedback. “You need to be better at this.” Honesty is great, Ken, but it hurts. Nobody wants blunt force trauma. And so for me, it was over years of working with customers, working with coworkers. And I think I have the blessing of working in an employee owned company. And I think that allowed for some cultural alignment around that. And when you’re in a customer centric employee owned company, it’s pretty easy for people to get feedback and say, “you need to get better at this,” or “you fell short in that,” and I did my best to take that constructively and learn and grow from it. I’ve been doing, been in mechanical trades for 30 some years and it still feels like very much at the beginning of mastering the craft as I would like to exhibit it.

Michelle:
That’s a fantastic journey description and I think we’re all in that same boat in terms of learning as we go. I mean we never really arrive, right? And if we think we did arrive, we probably should be put in a straight jacket. That’s kind of how I feel. So I love that. So what is your definition for heart-centered leadership, if you had to define it?

Ken:
So for me, it’s really, it’s purpose, people, and values. I think there’s no leadership if you don’t have a purpose. You don’t know where you’re going. You don’t have a why. So I think that purpose piece is critical, because it attracts people to that, realizing it’s the people, not the stuff. It’s not the technical problem. It’s not the issue of the day, it’s not something mechanical or material, it’s people serving people. And so having the direction, putting the focus on people, but I think also having that framework of values is critical because otherwise there’s a lot of forms, there are many different forms of leadership and there are many different types of followers. What I have found is you couldn’t be a heart-centered leader if you’re not centered on those people, but if you don’t have that framework of values, I think it’s very easy to get off track.

Michelle:
I would definitely agree with that and i’m all about aligning with the vision with the core values sent and I and I love that you have a sense of purpose in there too because that really doesn’t still that value in the people when they really feel like they’re contributing to something bigger than themselves and you include them in those contributions and of course recognize them so very well put. So share two or three ways that people or well leaders that are listening to they can develop trust in their team And also why you think trust is so big in terms of creating that heart-centered leadership.

Ken:
I really believe, you know, if you think of trust as consistency over time, I think that as humans we all want to be consistent, but we’re also growing. So by definition, you want to be consistent so that you don’t break trust with people, while also growing and expanding, which will change your worldview and change how you approach problem-solving and relationships. So I think there’s a very delicate balance when it comes to the desire and need to be consistent and while also continuing to evolve and grow. And so I think that there’s a lot of opportunity in that space but if you ever come across as inconsistent with your values, if you ever come across as inconsistent in your behavior towards other people, it destroys trust in a heartbeat, right? A lifetime to build a reputation, seconds to destroy it. And I think that if trust is like the grease in relationships, it’s what makes things work, right? And it smooths things out. It’s very important to make it a priority and not in a disingenuous way, not in a manipulative way, but in a genuine trust building, spirit-based or values-based of approach so that people know that even when you screw up and you own it, they know that it’s genuine. Like “I was trying to do the wrong thing, I messed up, I own this,” and it can actually establish even further trust when that is done on a genuine platform.

And so I think that part right there, you know, trust, meaning that consistency over time, is I think pretty universal because it works across cultures. But I also think that as humans, we’re never static. So how do you continue growing and developing while maintaining that kind of continuity? And I think there’s some art to that, not just science. And when you look at trust as being a part of the heart-centered leader, it would be very hard for people to follow you without trust in you. So they might use you, or they might feel like you’re using them. That is quid pro quo, right? That is very transactional.

Michelle:
Yeah.

Ken:
I don’t know anybody who’s truly engaged with an organization who feels like they’re a pawn, who feels like they’re just a piece on the board, who feels like they’re just being used like a tool. Those are people that punch a clock and take money. They’re never going to invest and give their heart to that organization. So I think that they need to have that trust in their leaders, not just a leader. Because if you, what’s the saying, right? You don’t quit a company, you quit your manager.

Michelle:
Yes. Yeah.

Ken:
So my role, even if you trusted me, if you didn’t trust one of my people, you’re going to leave anyway. And so I think it really needs to be more an institutional or an organizational requirement, meaning that if anybody cannot live up to your values consistently, then they can’t be part of the team.

Michelle:
Yeah, oh my goodness. You said a mouthful there. That was amazing. I really love when you articulate that piece of trust. In fact, you know you talked about integrity in terms of making sure that we live out a life of trust that we are trustworthy in our actions on a consistent level and that we can make mistakes right and be authentic about confessing those mistakes people can forgive mistakes especially if you know are transparent and vulnerable they can’t always like get over it if you’re if you’re constantly violating their trust or you’re not a person of integrity and just the way that you laid that out was so excellent. In fact, I want to ask if you are willing to, and if you’re not, it’s okay. But I love your onboarding program. I think it’s incredibly unique. I’ve not seen anything like it in all of my years, you know, over thirty years of leadership, over ten years in consulting leaders and speaking. So I want to just hear that from you, whatever you’re willing to share, maybe some nuggets that someone could take away. on how we can build that trust right at the very beginning of our relationship with our team members.

Ken:
I appreciate that, Michelle. Our onboarding process is kind of labor of love. 20 plus years ago, I realized that when we were having issues with employee performance or behavior, that it wasn’t them, it was us. Because we’re the ones who are seeking, we’re the ones who are finding, we’re the ones who are bringing them on board, right? And we own that. And… People are who they are, right? So if somebody is looking for a fit in an organization and you’re not clear about your identity, you can have the wrong person for you land in the organization.

So we started there and said, we need to get better at aligning fit between employees and roles, right? And having the right people on the bus and then worrying about where they are on the bus, you know, what seat. And over the years, we got better at our hiring practices. Our interviews, our technology, all of those things, trying to make sure that we’re getting the right people in the first place.

And then once you have them, how do you get engaged? Because it is very easy to say, we’re all of these good things, and someone shows up and says, I don’t think you are. Right? I don’t have that feel. Right? Words are one thing, actions are another, and you need to feel that very quickly. And so, on one hand, I think when someone joins your firm, I think it takes about two years for them to become fully bought in. If they are really bought into the two-year mark, the chances of them staying and prospering are very, very high. But that first year, it’s not 30 days. It’s not 60 days. It’s not 90 days. I think it is a long period where they need to get ingrained into the organization.

So what we do is we meet with them right away between safety and human resources. About 30 days in, they meet with me. And to your point, we have a pretty elaborate book and a process that we go through, and we try to go through the values, the mission, the operating principles, safety, and different initiatives that we have in the organization, firm rewards programs we have. And then after they make it 90 days, if they are still interested and engaged, they want to be a part of the company, and their hiring manager agrees, they’re a good fit, then we schedule them to meet with stakeholders throughout the organization, and they’re not scripted. So we stage it, we schedule it. but they can ask anything. And that allows them to kind of triangulate answers and get their own understanding of how are things really.

Because when you come to a company and you have a handbook, that’s nice. And you have a manager who said, here’s how things are. That’s nice. But then you get in the job and you’re like, holy wow, this is not what I thought it was. And so this is trying to help mesh those gears very, very early and try to help them get up to speed very quickly.

Michelle:
That is phenomenal. In fact it’s it I know that you shared with me before but it’s just every time I hear it I hear something that just wows me and I love that. That is so powerful in establishing those relationships and building loyalty like you said you know and helping them to really get a hold of the vision and have an opportunity to ask those questions. So I applaud you over and over Ken for that and I hope that could be maybe a takeaway for somebody out there that might be struggling with your onboarding. I can’t recommend this enough and Ken is the proof in the pudding as they say. So real quick, share a story or example of how Heart Center leadership has benefited your team.

Ken:
This is back to the journey, not an event. What I realized, being very low on the EQ scale, right? Emotional intelligence was not a strong suit. You can tell by listening. Fairly dry, fairly direct. You could be talking to an engineer on a call.

So when you think about things in a hyper rational sense, what I realized over time is that I see emotions more in black and white, but I have people around me who see life in full color and they see people in full color and they pick up on emotions and they have feelings that I either don’t have or never understood how to communicate, right? And that means picking up, receiving or sending. And so part of the strategy for me giving the people that had those senses more of a voice on the team. So not only including them on the team, but making sure they had the space to communicate needs that were different than just all of the technical people in the room and, and driving, having that, it’s just like any kind of diversity, right, that you would have in a group and how it adds value.

Emotional intelligence for us was basically a diversity program. And so by me creating space for people that had the skills and the natural wiring that I didn’t have to have a meaningful voice on the team over time, really, really shifted the dialogue to be more people-centric than problem-centric. And it really… I didn’t have the skills or the ability to drive it, but being in the role, I was able to recognize it and empower it. And at this point, I still recognize my deficiencies, but realize other people are so strong in their roles that the viewpoints are really well balanced and the team overall, I think it’s that sense of what’s the right thing to do in a given situation, but taking in all factors, right? Not just the superficial.

And that’s been an incredible payoff because that’s.. your customers are people, your people are people. And so missing that component means you’re solving issues on a superficial level, but you’re never getting to the root. And it’s really helped us get to solving root level problems so it’s more systemic in nature, meaning that we can get problems out of the way, lower level problems out of the way so we can work on more important and higher level issues.

Michelle:
That’s incredible. That is incredible. I bet your retention and engagement numbers are pretty significantly high.

Ken:
I can’t give numbers off the top of my head.

Michelle:
That’s fine. I didn’t prepare you for that, but I’m guessing that they’re excellent. So kudos again to you. Thanks for sharing all of that information. That was so powerful.

So just as we look at society today, and I’ve been asking all the leaders I’m talking to the same question, it’s kind of a crazy world if you didn’t notice. Especially the last four years has been challenging. You know I’m a big believer you can’t separate personal professional life as much as you want to as much as you want tell your team “hey no, leave your home problems at home” it just doesn’t work that way it’s gonna mangle and I mean the mental health issues have been you know at the forefront for so many leaders I speak to and it’s just it’s really become more challenging it’s added elements that weren’t there before but yeah in all in all I mean it that we live in a crazy world.

So what would you say is the number one reason that you feel heart centered leadership could help or is critical in today’s world?

Ken:
I think part of the polarization, some of the social issues that we’re facing, in humanity they always exist, right? There’s always, there’s tribalism, right? There’s all kinds of dynamics in a social, and we’re social animals, right? So there’s all kinds of dynamics that’s happening in that space. Yeah. But I think that the noise that’s happening in social media, I think the ability to separate the human being and other “them,” psychologically treat them as non-human is really something humans have never experienced.

And so the process we’re going through, nobody knows how this ends. We’re not just talking about democracy in America, we’re talking about society at large, how we treat each other. Wars happen when you can treat someone as non-human. And so I think for us being grounded that people are people and ethics are ethics. So wouldn’t mistreat anyone. Certainly wouldn’t take advantage of a technical platform, a social platform, right? To treat somebody differently than you’d want to do in person.

So I think for us, part of it is still making an effort to meet with people, not just as people, but in person as much as possible. and being very intentional about speaking positively of others, constructively of others. When you’re dealing with issues, you deal with that person, right? You don’t triangulate, you don’t go around, you don’t gossip. Well, when you have social media, it is so easy to spread bad news or undermine other people without ever paying or not directly perhaps paying the price where if you did it in person, you would.

And so I think for us, continuously focusing on meeting the customer as a customer, right? Treating people as people. I think one of the more challenging parts, we’ve seen this coming through COVID, once you feel isolated or separated from, it becomes, it almost exacerbates narcissism, right? It really, the way people drive, the way they treat people, like you’re in my way. And so we’re in this very difficult space where we want to emulate the right behavior regardless of what everybody else is doing. And very, very similar to operating Christian principles, right? You live the life that you’ve determined to be appropriate based on those guiding principles regardless of what the rest of the world is doing.

And so while I think the world is unstable, I don’t think that’s new. In fact, my viewpoint is the world is unstable. And for those short periods of time where it appears stable, those are the exceptions, not the rule. And so I think the focus on you keep doing what’s right regardless of what’s happening in the world is the key. So the question is, do you know what’s right? And have you done the hard work to identify what those operating principles or guiding values are going to be? If not, I think that’s a starting place. Once you’re doing that, I think it attracts and keeps the people that align with that because they want that.

And humans evolve so slowly that this idea that you can somehow be separated and judgment, hyper judgmental and still maintain strong relationships. I don’t think that’s how it works. I think the more personal, the better, the more trusting, the better, the more honest and genuine, the better. And so I think the real work still has to go into relationships. And if anything, it’s probably harder now, even though we have the best tools ever. I actually think the work is harder because it’s not the easy button, right? It’s like exercise, diet, or anything else. There’s no shortcut. It’s hard work. But I also think that’s where the benefit, that’s where the competitive and now ability comes from, or the competitive advantage is if you do that hard work of treating people like they matter because they do. that it will attract and retain the right, not just the employees, but the right customer base.

Michelle:
Very, very well said. Again, Ken, I, you know, and I agree on all points, you know, in our world is, it’s really, it seems like it’s pushing towards being divided rather than being united. And, you know, we see it at so many different levels. And you’re right, when we are able to be face to face, when we’re able to connect with others, when we’re able to take the time to and not just make assumptions about others and that’s what social media is. I mean a lot of that is assumptions. I want to wrap it up though we are running out of time. I could honestly talk to you for probably two hours straight because we are so much on the same page in so many of these things.

But I want to thank you Ken, you’ve been a joy. Is there anything else you’d like to leave our listeners with whether that’s a tip, or some kind of a runway they can take off with and begin a Heart Center journey?

Ken:
For me, I think the, thank you very much for having me on the show today, Michelle, and I really appreciate the conversation.

I think for me, regardless of, we talk about technology, we talk about society, I think that what I would like to leave the group with is everything is with and through people. And so being a Heart Centered Leader really means being people-centric. Having that direction, being clear about those values. And I think that even as you referred to the insanity, the instability, all the things happening in the world, but at the end of the day, people want to be with people they know, like, and trust. Right. And you want to be with people that they know they’re safe with and that care about them.

And I think you can take all of the, you know, the Harvard Business Review. You can take all of the intellectual reading and you boil it down to “people really want to know that you care about them.”

Michelle:
Yes, and they’re hungry for it.

Ken:
Absolutely.

Michelle:
Searching for it. And some of the things they get involved in are because of that hunger. So what a great, great point to end that on. Thank you, Ken. And again, I appreciate you. I appreciate what you do and the people that you touch. It’s been a joy having you on the program, but with that, we will go ahead and close out for the day.

I wanna thank our audience out there. This is Reframe and Rewire. Keep reaching higher. Come back again. We’ve got more leaders for you and more information. Thanks for joining us today.