Ryan Wood and Steve Yeager- How to Build Great Company Culture

Justin Stoddart  0:00  
Welcome to Think Bigger Real Estate show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, very excited today to have with me two very close friends, guys, they look to as mentors, leaders, and bosses. These guys are fantastic.

Steve Yeager  0:13  
I like the laugh.

Justin Stoddart  0:14  
They are the leaders of Old Republic Title here in Oregon. And they have built an amazing company culture. And if you're a real estate agent and desire to scale your business, at some point, you're gonna add somebody, and you're gonna add somebody else, potentially add somebody else, and it's going to be requisite for you. If you want to keep good talent and attract good talent, then you're going to need to build the company culture, place where people want to work a place where people don't just get everything they want, but they get what they need. So we just had a great branch meeting, and I thought it'd be appropriate to have a lively conversation with you guys that make me laugh and inspire me about how to have a great company culture. So, Ryan, you mentioned something in the meeting, that gives people perspective, that it's not that their perspective isn't always right, would you share what that is?

Ryan Wood  0:58  
Well, it's actually a line that you've used, so we'll steal it from him. But I basically, it's, when you're, and I can say this because I step up on my soapbox a lot, I get passionate about things. And I start, you know, putting my point of view out there and telling everybody, you know, what I feel is right. And, you know, Steve, made a really great point in the meeting, basically talking about the fact that all of us need to when we're in that position, also sit there and say, according to me, so basically do a little little bit of self reflection, which can go a long ways. And, you know, say, okay, am I right? Or am I doing the right thing? It's not all just about making you right, it's about making sure you're doing the right thing.

Justin Stoddart  1:41  
Great stuff, Steve, any thoughts on that?

Steve Yeager  1:44  
you know, Ryan, I have teased quite a bit, we have a mission statement on the wall, but taking the mission statement down and just putting the word communication, you know, seems like anything in life, whether we're going out or meeting with clients were handling internal issues when you're trying to grow anything, communications, the deal, right? People want to have to transparency and they want to have people that there's a level of respect that goes along with communicating with people. But I think it's, you know, if you take that a step further in it, it really is, you know, I might have this really strong opinion on something, but it's according to me, it's according to, you know, what my background is, what my thoughts are, what my reality is, what my perception is, it doesn't necessarily mean the people I'm talking with disagree with what I'm saying. But they've had an entire life where they have, they have been trained to think a different way doesn't mean the wrong way, just a different way. And being able to step back and actually think about that, when you're having a conversation with someone, it goes a long way with respecting them. And it goes back to another thing we're talking about today with ego. Right? I think, you know, sometimes as guys, we struggle a little bit because we like to lead with ego, you know that the puffed out chest. And I think it's super important, you know when we're having those conversations when we are trying to either coach train, teach, or just have a conversation with somebody that we are really listening, and we're really hearing it from their point of view.

Justin Stoddart  2:58  
Great stuff. Iscrewed up a little bit, guys. And maybe the audio won't be as good.

Steve Yeager  3:01  
A little concerned that I'm not standing on books next to Ryan, I'm concerned about that.

Justin Stoddart  3:05  
 And one thing that I actually had a thought this morning, that oftentimes building great company culture isn't always about just encouraging people. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's about telling them, Hey, I believe in you, you can do more. You've got untapped potential. You're amazing. I support you. Sometimes just having a fierce conversation with people, right? Sometimes it's telling them like, hey, what you did there was not the right thing to do for the group for the company for the whole? How have you guys come? Because you get to have both conversations, right? You get to see I believe in you, you're amazing doing a great job. And at times, it's like, Hey, don't do that, again, how have you kind of come to grips with being able to have those fierce conversations, without people taking it personally or without it being super heavy on you.

Ryan Wood  3:47  
It's not easy. There's, there's no easy way about it, you're dealing with people, you're not interested in smashing people's opinions or, or making them feel bad about themselves. At the same time, you do have to think of the whole and you have to think and the whole doesn't just include your self that includes everybody else's in that environment. And I, you know, oftentimes will think of ego as everybody goes overboard. So you sit there and go, Oh, well, you know, everything about me is really what matters. And I think that it's hard not to it's I think there's a certain part of it. That's human nature. But I think that on the flip side of that it's really important to, again, do what's right, not necessarily be right. And so it's having that conversation to say this isn't about what you think of me or what I think of you. This isn't about, you know, what, you know, someone else might be involved with you, but it's more about what you're doing. Is it right, or is it wrong? And making that choice? 

Justin Stoddart  4:43  
Steve, any additional thoughts on that of how you have those tough conversations when they're not always fun? Right?

Steve Yeager  4:47  
Yeah, you know, I think as a leader, a lot of times we ask questions that we already know the answer to or we think we know the answer to, we're looking to see how somebody responds. And I think it's going into each one of those conversations where it's a good conversation, a bad conversation, and we can be the good side to ham offering you a promotion, and here's, you know, your new your new salary to, hey, if we can't, you know, fix what this what's going on here. We might have to say goodbye to each other. You need to go in there with an outcome in mind or a goal in mind for the conversation. You know, a leader has thought more about it. They're not leaders aren't reactive, right? leaders are proactive, and leaders are, have already thought, hey, if I have this conversation that goes this direction, this may happen. If I have this conversation, it goes this direction. This may happen before and it helps you guide because you really are trying to help shape an outcome, whether it's a fierce conversation or not, you know,

Justin Stoddart  5:36  
you obviously lead real estate offices for the better part of 10 years. So you saw real estate agents hire people, right? And they probably times struggled because they didn't, weren't willing to have to communicate well, with somebody, they just said, Hey, I'm gonna hire you. Your job is to be my assistant. Yeah. Follow me around and pick up this, like, pick up the details. Fix me, right. Yeah. What advice would you give to a real estate agent that's hiring somebody when it comes to communicating a lot of principles you've already talked about? But is there something else that you saw work really well with people that hired and kept and retained great talent to th...