Blog | Dave Holvig

November 15, 2022November 15, 2022

How To Beat “Quiet Quitting” In Your Culture Part 1

The Challenge Factor

If you are leading anything, you are creating culture. CEOs, church leaders, and little-league coaches have cultures forming around them—and so do you! The question is whether that culture is pulling people in or pushing them away.

Are you struggling with:

turnover?
quiet quitting?
attracting top talent?

If so, staying where you are might be the riskiest decision you can make. The good news is two factors consistently show up in the world’s most inspiring cultures:

CHALLENGE AND VISION.

Both can be learned, added, and applied.

Challenge is a cheat code.

The problem with playing it safe these days is we are smack in the middle of what experts are calling a “Turnover Tsunami.” Pandemic burnout has people leaving in droves, looking for what’s next or a place to rest. No doubt, it’s a leadership dilemma!

But the answer to a wandering eye is not EASY. On the contrary, people want to be a part of something bigger—a climb of a lifetime—stretched beyond their comfort.

We need a mountain to climb and a compass to guide. Then we can go “beyond healthy” and take our culture to the next level.

The path to the "culture summit" is NOT easy, but it is available to all who are willing. This blog will show you how to use challenge to your advantage, defeat apathy, and give you four simple ways to start climbing.

“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”

But before we start climbing… You can’t effectively lead what is fundamentally broken. Getting healthy comes first. If you need help with that, click here and GET UNTOXIC.

Now, onward and upward!

September 11, 2022

Get Untoxic Part 2: How To Move Towards Healthy One Splinter At A Time

I was a splinter.

My splinter past haunts me. But oddly, it has served me well as a leader. It’s the reason I don’t mess around with sharp objects. I understand (firsthand) how dangerous splinters are to culture. If you don’t, make sure to read Part 1.

Again, splinters are the people in your ranks who are disruptive on purpose.

A splinter is toxic.

They are opposed to your direction or YOU. Simply put, these wooden spears are not on board and aren’t going anywhere voluntarily. And they are ruining the culture you are trying to build.

**Great cultures still get splinters.**

So, if you want to lead a dynamic culture, you can’t skip the splinter step. The question is not if; it’s HOW you will respond.

Unfortunately, we look the other way and hope it goes away. It doesn’t. Splinters that stay too long get infected and spread through negativity.

Many of you are experiencing that currently.

This blog will outline 3 ways to remove splinters and build immunity for the future as you lead your culture from toxic to "UNTOXIC."

July 29, 2022July 29, 2022

GET UNTOXIC! Soak Your Splinters Out And Change Your Culture Now

Your culture is at risk.

It’s amazing what happens when you get a splinter. It’s barely noticeable to the human eye, and yet it becomes the only thing that matters in your life the moment it enters your body.

Everything is on hold until you get that little wooden sword out.

Some people in your ranks are splinters. They are disruptive on purpose and intend to cause division in your culture. Their behavior is toxic. Unthinkable, I know.

Too many leaders wait it out and hope it works itself out. Don’t wait!

Looking the other way is how a culture turns toxic.

This two-part blog will either help you reverse the tide of toxicity or help you build immunity.

After all, you’ve come this far, don’t let a couple “bozos” ruin it for everybody.

June 30, 2022July 1, 2022

This Is Not My First Rodeo Leadership

Moving From Proving To Improving

Have you noticed—no matter what kind of work you’re having done on your house—the person giving you a bid always rips on the work that’s already been done?

Is there a drywall guy on the planet that thinks someone else’s work is good?

No one comes in and says, “Well, it looks like the drywall was done by a pro.”

Usually, it sounds more like…

“Well, whoever did this must have been completely insane, possibly drunk and a bonified ‘hack,’ BUT we can rip it all out, do the same thing and keep this cycle of insanity going if you’d like. You are lucky to be alive.”

“Also, this is not my first rodeo.”

Proving mode: A state of needing everyone to know that you know.

This is not just a drywall problem; this is an occupational hazard that permeates every profession at any level of the org chart. It’s one of the least talked about, most pervasive reasons people don’t thrive in their careers.

None of us are safe from it and becoming it. Our inner ‘know-it all’ is one weak moment away from making us walk the proving plank. So, the faster we recognize it, the sooner we can “knock it off!” Then improving can begin.

This blog will outline three overly practical steps to help eliminate the urge to tell people it's not your first rodeo. And more importantly, help you start moving from proving to improving.

May 20, 2022May 20, 2022

3 Ways To Unlock A Gen-Z Friendly Culture Today

PART 2

Welcome to the final installment of “3 Ways To Unlock A Gen-Z Friendly Culture Today.”

If you missed PART 1 you can read it here. It will give you context for where we’re headed next. Briefly, we covered the importance of culture at this unique moment in history, the reasons we struggle to recruit and retain Gen-Z, and why we need to make specific shifts.

Now it’s time to talk shift? 😬 Let’s start future proofing…

April 29, 2022May 3, 2024

3 Ways To Unlock A Gen-Z Friendly Culture Today

PART 1

Generation Z is leaving. That’s right. Gen-Z is now running late to the office if you’re lucky… or happen to be a “Gen-Z friendly culture.”

A scary number of them are planning their goodbye parties, which we all know only happens if you’ve been around for AT LEAST ten years (twenty in Gen-Z years). Sixty-five percent of Gen-Z plan to quit their job this year. Yikes!

So, if we’re going to convince them to stick around, we’ve got to hurry up and find a way to lead them… right?

Wrong.

Before we can lead them, we need to find a way to love them.

If you just rolled your eyes, this blog’s for you!
And if you quietly said “Amen,” this blog’s about you.

This two-part blog series will outline three shifts that will help you unlock a Gen-Z friendly culture today.

Also, these shifts are no longer suggestions; they are ‘make or break’ for Gen-Z.

Good news—every ‘Gen’ will appreciate them. After two years of constant covid change, there’s no better time to make some moves.

Hint: It has nothing to do with ping-pong tables and flexibility. That’s icing. First, we must build the cake.

March 25, 2022March 25, 2022

The Best Question Ever And How To Help Others Grow

Lead or be liked is bogus.

No doubt, one of the most challenging parts of leadership is facing into the conversations no one else will, but someone must. It’s also the most rewarding.

That’s where it’s at.

Growth happens in the last one percent, in the ‘thing behind the thing’ that most are unwilling to point out. And that’s why—leaders say what peers wish someone would say to their co-workers.

Unfortunately, that means not everyone will like you; but they will have to respect you—if you do it well.

I’m human.

I like to be liked, but I’ve learned to love watching others soar more.

So how do we help others grow?

We care enough to share what’s holding them back and walk with them through whatever’s next.

When we do that, they begin to grow. And when your people start growing, they have no interest in going anywhere.

Simple right?

But there’s a catch.

If you don’t genuinely care, you need to focus there first. And possibly buy a nice tent. After that, it might be time for some camping.

That will make sense later. I promise.

February 11, 2022February 11, 2022

How To Build A Fear LESS Feedback Culture Part 2

PART 2 “What You See Is What You Say.”

Feedback is the ongoing conversation of an organization and one of the most OBVIOUS indicators of cultural health. It’s the dialogue of development.

Tragically, we can go for years without paying any attention to how that convo is being handled.

It can become a routine part of the job; even if it’s toxic, it’s just what we do. Or worse, it’s who we think we are.

It’s not.

You might just need a new view, which is what this blog is all about.

If you missed PART 1, you can read it here.

To Review…

Fear less feedback is helpful, not hurtful; it’s timely and ‘for the love,’ fixable. It’s motivated by the desire to help others grow and develop. And most importantly, it’s rooted in relationship.

Give that kind of feedback consistently over time, and people will begin to fear less and hear more.

Simple right?

But what if your culture is past the point of tweaks and needs a full-on pile driver?

This post will help leaders change the type of feedback they are getting by changing the questions they are asking, which becomes the lens for everything.

January 21, 2022January 21, 2022

How To Build A Fear LESS Feedback Culture Part 1

PART 1 “Fear LESS, Hear More.”

If you had something in your teeth, would you want to know about it?

Maybe something (hard to hear) is holding you back from getting to the next level in your career—a specific reason you are not being promoted—would you want to know why?

For most of us, the answer would be—OF COURSE!!!

This is my year to go all in btw. Anyone else rockin’ Invisalign?

But what if the last ten times you had lettuce lodged in your adult braces, it was brought to you in a hurtful, unnecessarily public, or shame-inducing way?

I’m guessing the answer would be more like:

“It depends… Who’s giving me the feedback? Do I know them? Do they care about me? Are they telling me in private or making a scene? Are they judging me for having braces as an adult?

There is no in-between.

In my experience, organizations either give hurtful, overly direct feedback or dance around the issues for days. They give way too much feedback, nitpicking their people to death or none at all.

No feedback is ONLY better than bad feedback, but here’s the problem:

We all need feedback!

A thriving feedback culture is often what separates good from great organizations and is one of the most overt indicators of health.

So how do we create a culture that wants to hear it, doesn’t fear it, and does it in a way that honors the people involved?

It starts with getting 3 things in place.

December 10, 2021December 11, 2021

Love The Ones You’re With. (An easy way to guard against the great resignation.)

When someone decides to leave staff (without even thinking), we throw elaborate goodbye parties and give emotional speeches. Through tears, we tell people how important they are and what a profound impact they’ve had on us.

We focus on who they are, except quirks become perks, annoying habits are now hilarious, and little wins are memorialized as landmark achievements.

We don’t hold back; no, we go overboard. We have cake parties.

But what if we did that before the resignation?

Dare I suggest the possibility that there would be no resignation? (No great resignation?? Crazy talk?)