Biblical Leadership @ Work
A monthly interview with experienced workplace leaders who are serious about their faith in Christ and about being effective leaders. During each episode we learn about the leaders background and experiences and how they employ biblical principles at work, to lead change, develop others, and grow business all while striving to honor Jesus in all that they do. New episodes drop on the first of each month and are about an hour in length.
Biblical Leadership @ Work
Rob Lipski - Retail Executive and Leadership Author
In this episode of Biblical Leadership at Work, Jason Woodard interviews Rob Lipski about his journey from studying marketing to leading in top retail companies. Rob introduces his unique servant command leadership model that blends servant leadership and command control, inspired by his faith. He shares insights from his book, discusses overcoming challenges, and highlights the importance of self-education and adaptability in modern leadership.
Servant Command Free Audio Book Summary
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Welcome to the Biblical Leadership at Work podcast. I'm your host, Jason Woodard. In this month's episode, we'll sit down with Rob Lipsky to explore his journey from studying marketing and management in college to becoming a leader in top retail companies like Target. Kohls and Lowe's. Rob sheds light on his unique leadership philosophy, which he calls servant command, a framework blending servant leadership and command control, inspired by his faith and extensive career experiences. Rob authored a book to share this leadership model with others, and in our discussion he gives some insight into how the model works. And despite life's challenges including a near fatal car accident, Rob's faith remains foundational as he continues to mentor, inspire, and develop other leaders. Well, Rob Lipsky brother, thank you for coming on the show today. I look forward to talking to you and getting to know about, what you're up to and how the Lord has gotten you where you are today. So welcome.
Rob:Thank you. Thank you. It's an honor to be here and a privilege. I appreciate the, opportunity to share my philosophy and hopefully we can, uh, some folks.
Jason:Rob, tell us, kind of go back to. Think early career, maybe college. Tell us a little bit about how God got you from there to where you are to have kind of a summary of your resume, if you will.
Rob:Sure. quick back and forth. Raise Wells Lutheran. Right. So Christian doctrine, but fast forward to college. marketing, undergrad management information systems, and a Spanish minor. I had a plan to be a lawyer, was gonna go to grad school, but then some family constraints and relationships changed the framework and, target, believe it or not, approached me on campus, sold me a bill of goods and they delivered a every single thing that they offered and more. target is an impressive company regardless of the news of them. Currently or some of their DEI policies, but they foundationally did leadership well. I spent three years with'em and right or wrong, I pivoted to Kohl's. Kohl's, I worked in the Milwaukee area. So, my mentor left for Kohl's and I transitioned. And basically I was the second youngest store manager in Kohl's history at the time, at the age of 26. I probably wasn't ready for that. Had to grow into it. Very different from being support to being the guy. at a certain point I decided that soft lines wasn't it for me. Lois came a knocking and, I love home improvement. my dad was a union pipe fitter. I come from a very blue collar family. My mother was a hairdresser when they called it a hairdresser, right? Cosmetologist. I grew up in Wisconsin, small town, but. Those foundations really propelled me through that next space. home improvement just resonated with me. I was able to learn and understand leadership in the context of home improvement, apply all my practical knowledge, and Lowe's gave me opportunity right, to basically. expand my leadership shadow. They moved me from single store management to basically service support, add them into district manager and market director role and senior field leadership, and allowed me to get deep into organizational development, d and i, operational standard operating procedures. and just the overall support of a people-centric work center. all connected to essentially supporting the customer journey and driving sales and profit, right? But you serve your team. You serve your company, and I did that loyally for 15 years. There were macroeconomic pressures that ultimately led to a pivot on my part that I took a package on exit, and then, basically took a year off. To really find myself, figure out what I wanted the next 20 years of my career to be. I was blessed with Lowe's. Lowe's provided for us financially. We invested well. they allowed me to go back to graduate school, right, and achieve a master's of Science in Organizational change leadership. Very people-centric, both very ei very hr, but deep in analytics, deep in organizational development, and deep in the concept of power dynamics. That framework that again, they graciously paid for two thirds of, allowed me to really firm up this foundation that was kind of created within me from. Early grade school, faith-based doctrine and concepts, and then into high school, and then into college and philosophical studies and world religion studies, and then seeing leadership across target and coals and lows, good, bad, and ugly, the greatness of men and women and the fallacies of men and women, right? The forced indoctrination of a one script. Versus the serve model of kind of meeting people where they need to be and the good, bad, and ugly of that. So that kind of came to fruition in my final year of graduate school. I was studying dialogic and diagnostic change management. I was introduced to, the work of JJ Bush, and I'll touch on him a little bit more. That's when servant command was created. But I think it was fundamentally there from, about age 13 or 14. And then a sports upbringing, travel, baseball, those leadership lessons, obviously all the. Faith-based learnings early on, but then also just the perspective, of seeing, college and diversity in that landscape and then seeing leadership across those dynamics. It led me to the creative point. So I created serve and command to be both a leadership philosophy and a working matrix that you can apply under pressure. Philosophically, I mean, it, the context speaks preference. Sometimes the wisest move is to serve, to listen, co-create, build alignment. Other times it's command to decide to set direction and move. But right or wrong, command and control has been vilified post World War ii, and don't get me wrong, glass, ceiling, gender dynamics, all those things. But if you really understand command and control. From a military aspect, it's command and coordinate and regardless about how you feel about the military institution, what they call C two now is, is leadership 1 0 1 philosophy. So, you know, going further in that, the matrix that I designed, which is basically four four quadrants. It essentially helps you read the moment. You've gotta weigh urgency. You've gotta weigh importance. You've gotta weigh complexity from that read. You pick the most effective path, a dialogic route, meaning, Hey, is it complex? Is it not a known issue? Do we need to pull in other folks with their intelligence, their perspective, to craft something new and use a different product? Or is it just, it's go time. We're not executing a basic concept, right? Diagnostic, that's time critical. Straightforward. So my aim, my intention is, hey, how do you create better decisions across healthier teams, across disciplines, whether it's retail, finance, hr, operations, faith, even your home. It's not. Intended to be indoctrination and it's not trying to bend your world to it. It's specific that it's a flexible framework that really bends to the world, needs to your needs, and clarifies when you serve and when you command. I mean, again, I talked about this, but it came out of decades of operational leadership, good, bad, ugly, emotional intelligence. How well-intended institutions, corporate, academic, faith base can drift in leadership fallacies, not because they choose to, but'cause life is messy because there's sin, because there are pressures. And we all try to do the best, but we're failed humans sometimes. along the way I pulled from philosophy, I pulled from practical management, real world results. People keep getting stuck because we sometimes, as humans, in my opinion, we're unwilling to change, but they default. And because a single style is our comfort zone, it's how we grew up. It's what our parents were, it's what our mentors tell us to be or what our bosses force us to be, even when we know context demands something else. So again, my framework didn't crystallize. I didn't put. Titles to it until that would've been, fall of 2020. In my last year of graduate school, again, late life graduate students, a dialogic diagnostic approach inspired by the work at VE Bush and others. I first learned the idea of a generative image, though that's two tensions that really brought, well, let me rephrase that, that bring together positionally, oppositional views. To create something new, something useful, something differently, powerful if they were still segregated. So think about sustainable development. Once upon a time in the United States and worldwide, it was either about protecting the environment. Or capital growth. Now, you cannot find a self-respecting business or real estate management development or a construction firm that doesn't have an inordinate or deep view of why they lean into sustainable development. And obviously it's literally what the world needs. So once an unlikely pairing that didn't exist now, now it's reality. So in the same way I applied that methodology, taking the empowerment of servant leadership. And the decisiveness of command and control. Combining that into servant command to give leaders a nimble non doctrinal map for choosing the right posture, it really doesn't force you into a mold. It bend your context and, and really again, across urgency, importance, and complexity, then you can better act with wisdom. And again, I think that is some biblical level knowledge and relatedness. If we can all be a little bit more Solomon, the world would be a better place.
Jason:Yeah. And yeah, I mean, your model is interesting. It reminded me a little bit of, a situational leadership. Model training that I took, maybe 10 years ago. this was situational leadership in that, you know, in different situations you need to approach the people differently and the situation differently. And that your, your model reminded me a little of that, of, you know, for example, if, like you said, you're in a situation that, is very urgent, but yet very simple. you know, it's some command and control. We give direction and we move and we make quick decisions, versus, if you're working with a team to, set vision for the future and you want to make a really high quality decision and you need a lot of input and you can take the time to do it. it's a different approach, so yeah, it reminded me of that. so you've written a book on, right, Rob? You have a book which I'll link to,
Rob:I.
Jason:in the show notes.
Rob:I serving command? Yes, sir. And again, it's creation area based on that generative image. So, you know, you may loosely be referencing SL two by Ken Blanchard.
Jason:It was
Rob:The previous regime at Lowe's that was transitioned away from under scrutiny of executive leadership. We tried to force servant leadership. We tried to force apply SL two, but in the context of a checkbox and the concept of an audit and the concept of forcing. Decision in, in the concept of diagnostic leadership and just doesn't work, right? So ultimately we brought in consultants, we trained retrained, but it never landed. And you know, ultimately Wall Street gave him a vote of no confidence and the transition was inevitable. But that was also a foundational moment. So SL two is amazing, amazing, and again, just foundational elements, but it's a little complicated when you deep dive, right? So again, I am not necessarily creating something new loosely based off the Eisenhower Matrix around as well. Urgency versus importance. SL two, good to great. So many philosophical. Things that were created, but again, I'm harnessing the power of everything that's out there and preparing leaders in a nimble state. So yes, the book, the book took, took a minute. I, coming outta grad school in 2020, my, the doctor that was sponsoring me. My final seminar paper, he encouraged me to take the academic route. He encouraged me to transition it into a research paper and potentially go published and take that line. Being transparent school during COVID, during a very wide job at Lowe's, I, I needed a pause for, from the academia, so I didn't wanna pursue a doctorate. I didn't wanna do that. So, I stood up the trademark, I stood up all the concepts because he, he said, look, if you're gonna take this in the academic world, you have something here that resonates as well as a lot of the other leadership concepts. I would encourage you to think about turning it into a book at least. So, took the initial steps and I parked it for two years
Jason:Okay.
Rob:I did some work late at night, took some notes on the iPhone and, and then built out a framework. And then when I transitioned away from Lowe's, I was immediately inspired. And I, you know, in the course of probably two months, I, I wrote version one. And then six, six months later, I threw away version one and wrote version two.
Jason:over.
Rob:Right. And then we had a faith-based incident and it's not that it was a crisis, but I was bringing my mother home from visiting, me. She flew in from Sarasota where she's at to Grand Rapids, and I picked her up from the airport and it was 10 o'clock at night, July of last year. She was a passenger. I was driving. We were southbound 55 miles an hour. got hit by cross traffic. We got spun, flipped three times. extricated, upside down. We shouldn't have walked away. Shouldn't have walked away. we're fine though, obviously we had to deal with things. But healing from that and the concussion and the injuries again. Outta that, again, faith-based, the reasons why you survive inspiration hit me differently and I rewrote the book a third time, essentially probably 60 or 80% of it, right? And it just really. Aligned, right. I built the core values. I firmed up the matrix, the story intent. And again, even though it's faith-based and foundational, it was grown out of the operations space and the leadership fallacies across all spectrums. then I worked fervently and brought it to fruition and, and then, you know, you're probably aware it's differently hard these days to get truly published by one of the reputable publishers. So it's easier to self-publish, to create a. Social media campaign to do some consultive work. and that's the approach I'm taking. So some selective podcasts. My platform will launch somewhere tentatively October, could be January based on that. But again, the book is the foundation. The leadership models, the application support, the tools. Some will be free because I believe in serving. Some will be monetized because I believe it serves for some corporate instances, and the intent though is to help people over the next 15 years and where that goes and where that grows. I don't know where that's gonna go. It may turn into be the full-time. It may take off, it may not. It may be a consultancy in retirement, but it's something that I had to get out of my head that I know can take people, to where they need to be. And if it blows up, awesome, I serve the greater purpose. If it doesn't, I serve selective folks who may have a need, and I'm good with that regardless because I contributed. More than I took. And that's really important about me using my platform and the skills that were bestowed on me. So yeah, book one is out and available, of course, on Amazon and will be on the website, and then there's the connected audio story about it. The audio book is intended to be a easily digestible 28 minute. Listen, it doesn't get into the hard matrix application. It's really the philosophy. It really is an introduction to really. Allow you to understand the intent. So that's also available. And if people reach out and I've sent it to a bunch of people already with good feedback, I'm gonna offer that as a free non-published option. Now it's out there on Amazon, we'll be on Spotify, some other connected service. Eventually it'll be a paid service. But if a need, I'm just gonna share it, period. So I intend to probably share that across my LinkedIn thousand plus. Network in, the next couple months. Right. once we retool the website and when I say we team of one with some trusted advisors on the side,
Jason:So that's a 28 minute condensed version. It's not a audio book per se. it's a summarized, condensed version of the book.
Rob:yeah, of course it's labeled as an audio book, but it is, it's meant to be differently digestible in a summarization.
Jason:Okay.
Rob:Yeah, absolutely
Jason:I think one of the things I appreciate, and this is why I liked about the Blanchard, any model that someone can take a concept that's very academic, it visualize it though, it help that helps me. I'm a visual learner.
Rob:As am
Jason:I appreciated that quadrant that you have developed, I'd encourage people to check out, to help them think through their own leadership style and approach in different situations. Hey, Rob, let's talk a little bit about your faith journey, man.
Rob:Yes, sir.
Jason:What's that look like? How'd how'd that go about?
Rob:born into the church, you don't get to choose sometimes and you just know what you know. But I had a wonderful upbringing, Wells Lutheran, out of Watertown, Wisconsin. I went to a church called Trinity and eventually St. Luke's blended grade school, couple hundred kids. super supportive, maybe not technologically advanced versus a public school. But, that was my foundation I had a gift of memorization. So, the hymns and the bible passages and all those things, it was kind of where that first leadership concept, took root, And then, the academics and sports and all that. And then, you know, somewhere around eighth grade I had pastors and teachers lobbying myself and my parents saying, you know, we think Rob is being called. He's differently, emotionally intelligent. Obviously he's a leader of peers, the sports leadership. we think he's gonna be called to not teach, but to be a pastor. there was a concerted effort to have me continue on to go to the private, Lutheran Academy High School, and on from there. But again, I was 14 and a human and I had fallacies and doubt, so it was a lot to try to get my mind around at 14 that I was being called. And you know, I was talented in baseball travel, around the country. I had public school friends, once I thought I had minor league talents, not major league talent. And maybe I would've, maybe I wouldn't have. ultimately, I chose that avenue. In public school doesn't mean I abandoned the Lord or abandoned my faith. It was just a decision I made for potentially the wrong reasons back then. I don't know if I ever would've become a pastor because I do have a passion for business. I really do. but you know, that was probably a misstep. And that's, that's hindsight and that's our ability to look back at our life and reflect and, and evangelize or support or mentor others. And I share that story with people often. So sports didn't ultimately work out. I didn't even wind up playing college ball. I got hurt, right or wrong. So then it became about business. And while, you know, my parents transitioned churches, and again, at that time in the nineties, right, Wells Lutheran, it was very patriarchal. So as I transitioned out, my dad was less needed and the church counselor, school board, my mom was less needed. That wasn't disrespectful. That was just focusing on who was present and available to support the church in the schools in the best way possible. I respected that and it's just life took over and then I blinked and I was in college, right? And while college unfortunately took me away from routine, Sunday or Saturday worship, it doesn't mean I lost my faith. It was always foundational. The good times, the hard times as you're growing into, being a man, being a partner, being supportive. I never lost the foundation of the lessons of Old Testament and New Testament. The foundational lessons from my teachers and my pastors and the upbringing of my parents raised me through so. However you phrase that into leadership, into college, across perspective and DEI into this crazy world that we all navigate for a short time. Those foundations have never left me. And to connect that back is still, Jesus is the original servant leader. So when I was building out these concepts, that was directly applicable. And then when you think about the context of Old Testament versus New Testament and the different philosophical nature that aligns directly into the application of quadrants in the moment, right, to lead where the people need to be. So that's my perspective on that.
Jason:What's, Rob, what are your spiritual disciplines now as a adult man? Further along from that 14-year-old self? How do you keep growing in the Lord and, keep sanctifying yourself?
Rob:I trust in the Lord specifically in period. And while we infrequently go to a non-denominational church. think what the most important lesson is for everyone across religions, whatever you subscribe to, is you need to have a perspective of tolerance. And while it is important to evangelize and share the word, you don't know why certain people need religion. You don't know if it's crisis based or it's faith-based, or it's what you were born into, but you have to respect that. Because this world is temporary and it's not necessarily about just this world. So you have to respect. If I'm engaged, I'll talk about my beliefs, but I will never minimize someone's belief. Lutheran versus Catholic versus Baptist. Now, don't get me wrong, I've studied world religions, The Christian version is where I'm a little deeper connected. Right. And, you know, some of my friends and employees obviously not work related because you wouldn't cross over that line. Outside of work, we've had robust conversations and you have to respect each other. So where I settle is I'm connected, I'm inspired, I know I'm supported, and I will continue to try to be a good man for my family. For the people I lead, for the companies I work for, and just overall society and, and give back, share my platform where I can help others. And if that allows people to connect that into a faith journey, awesome. But I'm not trying to indoctrinate based on this book. It's about sharing the connectivity and the experience of life and showing the growth, and if my model helps'em make better decisions across their family unit or in their workspace, or just philosophically, I feel that I've used the gifts that have been given to me in a positive state.
Jason:Yeah, and I think to go back to what you said about, You know, respecting others, and where they are and their beliefs. I think, you know, it goes to speaking the truth and love. And I've had, I can remember specifically a coworker I had years ago who, who became, I mean, we became pretty good friends in the work setting. We spent a lot of time together and often had lunch together. He was from India and he was a, Hindu,
Rob:Sure.
Jason:and I mean, like practicing Hindu, not just, not just a, you know, someone who said he was a Hindu, like they went to the temple and they was very involved and, we talked a lot, well, I talked a lot about faith with him and, listened and, you know, wanted to understand that culture. I had never, known anybody who was, who was, who was a Hindu and, you know, but I can remember one time, you know, he told me, he said, I would feel comfortable worshiping. In a synagogue or a temple or a church. And I just looked at him and I said, but I said, and I, I understand where you're coming from, but how do you take what Christ said when he said, I am the way, the truth in the life. No man comes to the father, but by me. And you know, we had enough of a good relationship where he didn't take offense to it, you know, and we, had some discussion on that. Yeah. So I was just, I always felt like, again, that relationship was there. The, mutual respect and appreciation and love was there. But, yeah, prayed for him for a long
Rob:if you,
Jason:together and, you know,
Rob:I love that you handled that well and I think. And these are kind of some aligned with the epiphanies that I had in college and, you know, philosophy but the concept of doing no harm, I'm not talking about the Hippocratic Oath and if we're honest with each other and we look at human history, humans have been ugly over the years. Right. Whether it is for positive intent. Or it is monetizing. You can look across Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and contextually across the Crusades and the eliminations, and even to the 95 these and all these things, how the Catholic Church has become this differently powerful entity with the holdings that no one can challenge. You need to set that aside. We understand that the world was patriarchal and texts were written from that standpoint, and right or wrong, not everybody's stories were told when you think about the world religions, they're not different. Now logically, certain religions copied each other, whether it was by express intent, whether it was creative or they're trying to capitalize, or they're true believers. That doesn't bother me. I get to believe what I believe, and to your point, how you articulated it to your work friend. We need tolerance. We need them to be able to worship where they want to, regardless if we grew up with the light in the word methodology. If they can at least tolerate our understanding, and even if they're not perfectly aligned or work towards what we believe delivers divinity or salvation, they aren't doing harm. They're hopefully doing good. And I don't necessarily mean in a doctrine version, I don't necessarily mean on, securing their place in heaven. But they're not causing harm to their, their brother, their sister, right? Now, I don't wanna diverge into some of the, how shall I say, extremist views of certain world religions because again, we all understand the pitfalls of that, and I don't think anyone of a logical context would say that those things are okay. But if we're talking about serving. If we're talking about tolerance, if we're talking about sharing love, I think it's very important how you handle that situation. the world has enough divisiveness, the world has enough. Your right, and I'm wrong. If we move a little bit more towards the middle, are tolerant, that opens up the dialogue where maybe you can influence that coworker a little bit differently and maybe he moves a little bit. To being open to what you, I believe, right or wrong. And if he doesn't, he still potentially loves his family, takes care of his team, and lives a positive decision after.
Jason:You can't, I mean, it's one thing I've had to, I've gotten real comfortable with later in my life, is that I am not the Holy Spirit, and I am not the one who's gonna convert and change someone. So mine is to
Rob:are given choice.
Jason:and kindness. Yep. Yep. And they will, they will make that choice. and I think that, you know, that's when God does a miracle in someone's heart to regenerate them, but for me, it's to be faithful and love them. Right. Love God and love others and, yeah. So, yep. hey, tell us a little bit, Rob, we, you spoke about being put into a leadership role when you were really young and unprepared. I'd be curious. To know what if, looking back, what were some things that you think you really struggled the most with in that time period? And, you know, how did you, how did you learn through that? How did you improve on that?
Rob:I think when you are younger and maybe lack context. It is about the ability to render results and to lend support. It is you can work harder, you can work longer, you can speak faster, especially if you're able to message, if you're able to stand up under pressure, if you're able to physically participate differently and you're motivated, whatever the context is. You lean into that, right? That becomes your style. And as a junior manager or an assistant manager supporting a site director, a market director, a vice president, they lean on you for results. they don't necessarily take advantage of you. Some may, but they do that, and, what happened to me is I got really good at fighting fires, really good at delivering results. But when you transition from supporting the chair to being in the chair, now you're talking about leading through others. Now you're talking about high performing teams, and it's a different skillset. So you go from, I went from the golden boy in a support scenario to my very first review. Being one point over does not meet expectations.
Jason:Yeah.
Rob:And I remember sitting in my room and saying I didn't do anything different than I've always done. My boss smirked at me and said. There's your learning, there's your learning. You have to evolve, you have to be able to understand that, leadership evolves and you have to progress through the lenses. Because when you're talking about change, when you're talking about, and this is servant perspective, you're charged with others, right? When you take ownership of a store, of a division, of a sector, you essentially are the one that enables the person to. Pay their bills to feed their family, to allow them to support their kids going to college or, or make car payments. What, whatever that scenario is. And if you don't properly execute your job, if you don't properly execute the best practices, the framework provide the why, what, how, and. roads and they can't maximize their capacity.'cause right or wrong, sometimes hourly frontline workers, different people at different points in their lives, they have different career goals than you do or those that are climbing the, the proverbial corporate ladder. And it is your job as a servant leader to lead as they need to be led to meet them where they need to be met. Because I believe, and I will always believe this. People wanna show up and do their job and do a good job They were either wronged or have life trauma that they are not salvageable and they probably should move on. But the other 93 to 95% are malleable, committed, aligned, or in love, and that's the folks you need to focus on, and that's your job. so that's where the struggle was, understanding perspective and not just being singular minded to support the team. This is gonna sound cliche, but it, it's literally being about something better than yourself
Jason:Yeah. Well, I think as I think back, you know, when I went from being an individual contributor to a manager. And we were promoted because we got stuff done right. And then all of a sudden, we had to figure out now how to get stuff done through other people. And that, I think, is a common challenge for people when they first get, promoted to figure that out
Rob:Yes, sir.
Jason:I see that now with people that I work with. they were, really good,
Rob:I'll add this, I was able to get into different spaces at Lowe's because I embraced that I, once I became a director and even as a site director or manager, bench strength the development, teaching people how to tactically get the work done, how to do it at a level that will position'em to then interview for those roles that they may want or don't even know that they would be great at. Then paired that with the leadership philosophy.'cause literally to your point, people are promoted based on results, then put into a role they're under prepared for, and then they're told you're not a good enough leader. But we never taught them how to get the work done through others.
Jason:Yeah.
Rob:So that's again, another pivot point that I saw a need for this supportive landscape. That's why before I created the landscape. I was always transparent. I was candid. I pulled back the curtain. I shared what other of my peers were hesitant to share situational based leadership, talking points, how to interview well, these are all things we should have been teaching and preaching and showing. And guess what? I promoted more people across the hourly span as into salary leaderships and then salaried into senior roles, than anyone in my$3 billion region over the course of those 15 years at a three to one ratio. And then the last four years, it was like a five to one ratio, all because I put those folks first, taught them the tactical, taught them the strategic and how to navigate the gray.
Jason:Yeah, that's good. That's what it's all about, developing the team.'cause yeah, when you get to that level, it's not you. You can't make it happen.
Rob:can't outwork it.
Jason:Hey, Rob. speaking of leadership, what are some, books that you've really been impacted by, or podcasts you listen to? how do you keep yourself sharp as a leader?
Rob:Yeah, I'm, I mean, I have my background on, so you can't see my book Bookshelf. But I referenced them earlier. I think that there are some foundational books that change me, and I'm gonna start with one that always surprises people. but we're talking, and again, I'm gonna age myself circa 2000. Target my boss at the time, he handed me the one minute manager.
Jason:Oh yeah.
Rob:it sounds so silly. It's a hundred page prioritize prioritization. A, B, C, and 1, 2, 3. Man. That accelerated me at a different level. Now, don't get me wrong, the who moved my cheese, that gave me perspective, but then as the years ticked on, don't get me wrong, I read the seven, highly Effective Behaviors by Stephen Covey. Foundational that was dry read at 23, 25 years old. But I learned things in that nature. And then when you think about, I'm looking at my books, I received a gift from one of my leaders. it was Jack Welch, straight from the gut.
Jason:I remember that
Rob:not servant minded, but in principle, just differently connected from a white collar world. And then, like I said before, the space of Cohen and Cotter, Jim Collins. Good to great. a lot of that diagnostic work that I've referenced, in that space. what else is here on my shelf? You know, I probably only have 30 books here that I think really resonated. I like part of a leader. I like Gungho. I like built to lead. I'll tell you though, the Liz Wiseman Consulting Group and her two iteration of the multipliers. Really good frameworks about how to differently impact, a different global concept as far as, hey, you literally have to multiply yourself. the Reinventors by Jennings. I liked that. kind of coming back into the more militaristic C two version, it's your ship written by a former admiral.
Jason:Yeah, that was a good one.
Rob:I'll give you a little bit old school though. The, the, the master key system. Old school. Old school, right. There's some, there's some, and again, it's projection and there's some divisive concept and it's, it's framed world, but that the, the focus and the repetition and concentrating and focusing, whether that's prayer, whether that's visualization, whether that's repetition. that resonated with me. You know, I, I'd say those are probably, probably some of the best, recently also, I have had the, pleasure of connecting with, coach Jim Johnson. He wrote a book called the, coach in a Miracle. You may have remembered this, like circa oh 6, 0 7. he was a coach in a high school and he won multiple state championships, but he had a manager on the team that was, challenged in different ways than others, and he basically, injected him in the game. This kid drained six three pointers in the last three minutes of the game. Ultimately won an SB in oh six or oh seven for the best moment, and he's brought his leadership platform for that. So I love that sports leadership play-based platform. but yeah, I think I'll pause there. There's probably another 10 here that I could get deeper into. but yeah, I think those are the best and the brightest of what it influenced me. And I guess, emotional intelligence, right? that one is foundational as well. emotional intelligence 2.0, that version, that version, they very much helped me earlier in my career as well.
Jason:I, you mentioned one author that I don't think anyone has ever mentioned on my podcast, and that's Kotter who I've read. several of his papers on change management, right? So he's an academic Harvard Business Review. A lot of papers there. I think he's a Harvard well, is, was, I don't know, been around a long time. But any, I would recommend anybody who's trying to lead through change, which probably is any leader, anytime you're trying to lead change efforts, read some. He, there is some short articles you can find online. He has books he's written and studied for decades. The science and the sociology behind change. So yeah, that's a definitely a good read
Rob:so, the Heart of Change, Cotter co-authored with Brian Cohen. That is fundamental diagnostic leadership. It is nuanced. If you read my book closely, you are going to see that I switch a few of his steps because I believe it more nimbly and holistically supports concept. And I literally say that, hey, there may be some academic objections to me. Adapting this very fundamental and academically proven concept. But yeah, that is the diagnostic change model above all. Others, for me, just wonderful work and they've written or collaborated several books together, but of change. Absolutely.
Jason:Rob, if you had somebody that came up to you, and maybe you've had this happen, someone young, first time in a leadership role, wanted to buy you a cup of coffee and said, I know you're gonna say, well, read my book, that's gonna help. But if they said, Hey, let's chat over a coffee, I'll buy. Rob, what advice would you give to a first time leader, for them to use?
Rob:so the verbiage may change because I would wanna hear about'em first. I would be like, tell me about yourself. What's your journey? I wanna know how you grew up. I wanna know if you're willing to share the good, bad, and ugly, because that helps me. And don't get me wrong, I'm not a psychologist, I'm not a sociologist. but interests, right? Read a lot of papers, a lot of academic research. and a lot of those concepts are foundational in my methodology. So I wanna know what created them and got them to the point where they're sitting in front of me asking these questions. I wanna know about what their hopes and dreams are, and then based on those things, I wanna understand tactically where they're at. if your goal is to be X, y, or Z, let me understand, where your academia is, where your certifications are, because. I'm going to give you my advice. It doesn't mean it's right or wrong, but I'm not only gonna give you some, logic about how you can be a better leader. But I'm gonna give you some tactile advice where quite honestly, I missteped or I wish I would've had somebody to get that. And it's all gonna be with the intent of do with it what you will. So once I understand where they want to go, what they wanna be, what are you solving for? I say identify your brand, and I don't mean the shoes you wear, the watch you wear, but What's your core value? Right? What are you about? Right? Talk to me about servant leadership. Talk to me about command and control. Talk to me about your leadership philosophy. Who do you love? Who's been a good mentor, who's been a great boss, who's been a horrible boss? what job are you in and what job are you trying to get? I'm gonna go back to the cliches. I'm gonna tell them to read Cotter, understand what diagnostic changes. Understand that there is this wider berth of, you can't solve everything through that, but most top-down companies are gonna push you in that space because it's about ROI and shareholder value increase. But when there's a complex issue and you don't know how to solve it, you have to partner, you have to stop, you have to pause, you have to ask different questions. It might not be role specific, but you can learn parallel. Tracked with that, then I'm gonna tell them to keep educated. And by that I mean you don't need to be a book reader. You don't need to get your bachelor's degree. If you can't get your bachelor's degree, you don't have the funds to, you don't have to go back to school. minimally certs on LinkedIn. Certs across hr, certs against operation. Just self-learning. There is so much out there, and whether your passion is social media or it's leadership or anything in between, AI and social media has now opened the world to us. You can self-educate, you can learn, and you can develop a skill set that you would've had to pay for before.
Jason:Yeah,
Rob:if you're not a reader, watch the YouTube videos. Download the one page briefs because right, we, we understand people who write books, including me. 80% of what you need is in 20% of the context. The rest of the pages are built out to get to a hundred pages, 300 pages, 500 pages. It, it's about knowledge, and then I'm always gonna reinforce it. Being nimble, you have to be nimble. You can't be rigid state to your principles. But if you're choosing to be a leader, you have to be adaptable. Do the right thing. When you can do the right thing, try to do the right thing whenever you can, you're gonna fail. Don't be too hard on yourself. Try to make it right later. Be a good partner, be a good spouse, be a good brother. Be a good human. And if you root yourself in that. Understand at a deep level what your job is asking from you, what your KPI profile is asking from you, what good looks like, forced conversation with your leaders or other people who are successful in your space, and all the context that I just gave you. If you work a little harder than you did before, if you keep an open mindset, you will be successful because you just went past 80% of the US based population because you chose to self-educate, you chose you. You chose to grind, you chose to learn where some people don't want to. You have to forge your path, and that is powerful. Once you understand. That, you know, we'll put the one percenters over here and we'll put the seven percenters over here. But when you realize that, I'm gonna say loosely. Statistically speaking, 80% of America will never achieve a household income North of$75,000. Will never be Directors will never be leaders. And let me be clear, it is okay that they don't Right. Taking care of family, finding your passion, doing what you want. If that's what you want, whether it's the ability to take care of your family, whether it's the, ability to better give back to your church, if it's the better ability to just take care of your family unit The world is open for you. If you are a good human and you work hard and lean into now more than ever understanding of ai, right? Ai, you need to understand where the world is going because the world is changing. It's not gonna eliminate jobs, but the people who understand how to use those tools and understand that the world is scaling, I'll quickly share this. I learned so much in my bachelor's degree in marketing I learned so much in my master's degree around organizational change leadership, organizational development, dialogic diagnostic, hr, DEI, advanced analytics. This title that I have been studying for the certified Artificial Intelligence Transformation Leadership certificate that I'll sit for the proctor exam later, probably this fall. I have learned a different skillset in volume comparison to all that other knowledge that has different prepared me to see around the corner to better support teams and to just be better prepared for the challenges of what this world will throw at us. What our businesses will put at us. So beyond that, stay true to your heart, stay true to your family. Make good decisions. So that's a really long answer. But if someone is gonna sit down and ask me for my time and have a coffee, I'm gonna tell'em everything I know, everything. I think give them a tactical path forward. Make myself available after the fact if they want followship, because that's the greatest gift I can make myself is available,
Jason:Mentoring.
Rob:Right? And then when mentoring connects into sponsorship, that's something different. You can't sponsor sometimes if you're not in the same company, but you can advocate for, so that, that's what I would do. It's long, but others have done a version of that for me in the past. They have caught me doing right. They have told me how great I could be if I chose to do X, Y, or z. what I owe the next generation or those who just are asking for advice.
Jason:I really liked the part about self-education. my education came as a working adult. I didn't go right outta school. And I think that more and more, as you said, the availability of good quality material in many formats for very inexpensive is crazy cheap.
Rob:It is.
Jason:yeah, That's a really wise, suggestion for people that there's so much, it's unbelievable between YouTube and the internet in general. we launched a new ERP system. Fairly recently, and It's pretty broadly used, was the first time I've used it. I, I'm using chat, GBTI used it today to find out, well, how do I, how do I go find this information? And it's like, oh, go to this code and do this, and it, I was like, oh, thank you. It's just crazy.
Rob:need to understand at HTML or SQL or Python anymore. You can course correct. There's so much no code. I'm a big open AI fan, but also, and this is divisive because some people have international concerns, but gens spark AI is cutting edge. Abacus AI is not quite there yet, but it really excels in some spaces. and there's a litany, different automation concepts out there. getting stronger every day. But if you choose to learn and choose to commit, you're gonna be a better human. You're gonna be more efficient, you're gonna be more available to your family, you're gonna be more available, if you use it for life planning, let alone, right? Like all the other work stuff. But then if you use it to upskill. You're just choosing to do good versus well, how shall I say this? committing to the pressures of a, you know, potentially sinful and evocative and divisive world and just staring at your screens nonstop and getting into, you know, potentially dangerous territory that corrupts, corrupts people. You have to be able to use your powers for good and use the tools that are available to do good.
Jason:Yeah. Well, hey Rob, before we wrap up, I really appreciate your time. you're a fascinating guy, you think at a very deep and level. I recommend people check that out and check the book out, but what's the best way for people to reach out and connect with you if they'd like to do so?
Rob:Right now you can go to the website, You will hit a placeholder that says we're gonna relaunch most likely in October, and there will be a contact email there that you can directly hit me. And we have a, segmented business phone that is monitored as well as you can go to LinkedIn if you want. There is a servant command profile if you just literally search command. you'll see my face on the banner, with the gold servant command dial. Again, it says, Hey, scaled reinventing for, October going forward. Or if it's easiest, just search me out directly on LinkedIn and then DM me. It is. Rob Lipsky, you'll see my face and, send me a message. I'll accept your connection and we can link up as we need. my contact information is on my personal profile. That's direct email, direct phone number. I'm choosing to be available, right? That's my giving back.
Jason:Yeah, great. I'll link to that in the show notes as well, so people can just click on those links and find your book, find your website, find your LinkedIn profile. I appreciate it, brother. It's been good, getting to know you and hearing about your story and, seeing what God's doing in your life. I pray he will, continue to show you clearly. Where he has you going in the next months and years.
Rob:Indeed. Life is a journey and that support, we wouldn't get there without it. Right? So thank you. It's been an honor. hopefully a little bit of my perspective can, help your audience or the greater wide world to show up and be a little bit better and do a little bit more good and use their gifts appropriately to either better serve or better command meet people where they need to be. Amen.
Jason:All right. Thanks brother.
Rob:Take
Jason:And thank you for tuning in again this month. I hope and pray that this episode was an encouragement to you and that you will be back next month to hear from another leader striving to honor Christ in their work.
