In this episode of Transform Your Workplace, host Brandon Laws and guest Tony Frazier discuss the transformative power of vision. Frazier shares insights into casting a compelling vision to your people and offers key strategies for fostering trust and empowering leadership. Be encouraged by this inspiring story of innovation during unprecedented and uncertain times.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Tony Frazier is the Center Director of the Salem Kroc Center in Salem, OR. He is known for implementing strategic vision and inspiring teams.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, Sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
CASTING A VISION
Tony Frazier, Kroc Center Director and advocate for youth empowerment, shared insights into the power of vision. Frazier, reflecting on the Kroc Center’s journey amidst the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, talked about the importance of proactive planning to secure funding for their youth programming initiatives.
Frazier said, “If the vision is big enough, the resources will find it.” Instead of treading water during times of uncertainty, he anticipated a surge in funding for youth-related initiatives following the disruption caused by the pandemic. That’s why he rallied his team to position the Kroc Center to capitalize on these emerging opportunities.
“We can start aligning ourselves right now to get in front of it,” Frazier urged his team. His foresight and strategic planning paid off as funding began to materialize, with initial grants totaling $150,000 followed by a significant increase to $350,000. Reflecting on the unexpected windfall, Frazier underscored the need for a compelling vision to rally support and drive tangible outcomes: “You have to cast a vision, and people need to get behind it.”
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Fostering Trust and Collaboration
“We don’t want catastrophic failure, but we have to be able to fail so that we can learn to move forward. And most of my team now understands that I’d rather be making the best decisions that we can in the moment so that we can continue moving forward versus waiting until we have all the answers and then moving — that just frustrates people, actually. So, yeah, I certainly wanted to build that platform of safety because that’s when you start getting your best performance, your best innovation, and people aren’t afraid to put their ideas on the table. We can talk about those ideas. Everyone feels heard. We can pick a direction that everyone can get behind.”
Maintaining the Mission
“I tend to align the vision of the organization with the fact that I’m mission-driven. So as we come up with a vision and a mission and things like that in an organization, it’s very much aligned with who I am. And those are facilitated conversations, and it just happens to end up that way, but I think part of that is how I roll once people see that I’m focused. And once I cast the vision of where we’re going, people start to align with it, even if they’re not fully sure how it’s going to work. So part of that is the leader’s ability to create that confidence that the team can accomplish a thing, right? And really, for me, the basis of it is my own personal mission and vision, and my vision is to inspire others to challenge the status quo.”
Manage Systems, Lead People
“Nobody wants to be managed, but everybody wants to be led, right? […] I’m trying to build more leaders. Yes, we have to manage things at a level, but one of the ways I try to get my people to lead is by telling them to delegate everything they don’t have to do themselves. So with a young leader, it can be difficult because the young leader feels like they’re handing off the dirty work when really what they’re doing is giving someone else an opportunity to learn and grow. For leaders with a little bit more experience, they forget they can delegate.”
Making the Right Call
“When it comes time to make tough decisions, the way I say it is sometimes I have to take my emotional hat off and put on my logical hat and move through a process, right? So, especially with a personnel transition, those types of decisions are never easy and they shouldn’t be. If they’re easy for you, you better check your heart, right? […] As a leader, your entire team is looking to you to make that hard decision, especially if someone’s bringing down the team or doing things that are ‘rowing the boat in the opposite direction.’ And so it’s the leader’s job to fix that. Now we can give our chances, our opportunities, our work programs — all the stuff that we do to try to correct the behavior — but at some point, if it’s not happening, the hard decision has to be made. And for me, that’s where I just gotta put my logical hat on and ask myself what is best for the cause. What’s best for the team? […] And that’s usually what gets me through those toughest times.”
Some Final Advice
“People are hard. We just have to understand that. But people are people. They’re human just like us, and so we need to see them as such, right? And then as we try to navigate the murky waters, there are a couple of things I usually talk about in this space. One is if you have the power within you to affect positive change within an organization, by all means, utilize that power and try to do your best to affect that change. […] And the other thing is to know who you are. I can’t stress this enough. If you talk to anyone on my management team, they’ll give you an earful of Tony’s mantra on this piece. And it’s know who you are, because if you know who you are, that helps you navigate forward, right?”
LEARN MORE
Connect with Tony Frazier or the staff at the Salem Kroc Center here.