Philosophy Matters When Building Your Team
How our philosophy is key to bringing storytelling to all.
St. Louis, MO – October 22, 2021 - I was shocked and felt a little sick to my stomach when I saw the headline.
The Cardinals fire Mike Shildt citing philosophical differences.
Ironically, I was knee-deep in recruiting reporters when I saw the news alert on my cell phone. The news from my old team prompted me to reflect on my own philosophy as we build our StorySMART team throughout this diverse nation.
The truth is that I was saddened to see Mike lose his job. Unlike some in Cardinals Nation who may have a strong opinion about the matter, I honestly don’t. It is not that I don’t care. It is the opposite really. I feel for all involved.
It is never easy to lose your job. And it isn’t easy to have to fire someone. Each time I’ve had to fire an employee, it has made me physically sick. It sucks. But sometimes, you’ve got to do it. It is the right thing for your team and, believe it or not, for them.
Someone once told me, be slow to hire and quick to fire. That seems to make sense when they said, but if you are the one doing it, it isn’t so easy. We are all human right?
And for the record I don’t have any insights about the St. Louis Cardinals that I care to share here and now. You will have to wait for my tell-all memoir tentatively titled “ It Rained on Opening Day. ”
From my perspective, Mike Shildt is a competent baseball guy that would be an asset to any major league club. And from my experience, he is a nice and down to earth guy.
From my point of view as a Cardinals fan, Bill DeWitt is a good owner. Under his leadership, the Cardinals have prospered.
And from my point of view as a former Cardinals insider, John Mozeliak is strong leader who knows what he is doing. Mo uses a wisdom of the crowd management approach with his baseball ops team, while also making it abundantly clear that he is in charge. It works with the team Mo has built around him.
All that said, in a team like the Cardinals, individuals have key roles to play. Individual team members have to fit their role and the culture that starts at the top. That is also true with the StorySMART team.
Philosophy matters. It matters a lot in building and running your team. And with philosophy, I’m not talking “if I think, therefore I am.” I’m talking about values, roles, process, mindset and culture.
That is something I keep in mind as we scale StorySMART into a national company that will bring professional storytelling to all. We are on a mission to do something special and transformative. For me that starts with a foundation of core values. Honesty. Kindness. Transparency. Fairness. Creating value for everyone involved in your work. Ensuring a win-win approach with everyone involved.
As I recruit television journalists and independent filmmakers to join our team, I share my values and vision for StorySMART in our recruiting conversation. I see the conversation as just a conversation, not so much an interview. We always talk philosophy in that conversation because it is the key to who we are and what we are building. We will be on this journey together. We won’t be successful unless we share the same philosophy.
If we do, well then watch out world!
At StorySMART, we believe everyone matters and is entitled to have their story told professionally because we each deserve to be remembered .
We want our clients to own their story. Literally. Copyright and all. As well as take ownership of sharing it directly with their target audience.
That ownership thing is a deal breaker for me. I won’t work with filmmakers, journalists or photographers who insist on holding onto copyright for themselves. While that is the case with most production companies and photographers, that isn’t how we roll. Sure we retain a license to showcase our work, but our client owns their own story.
And we also want to help our clients tell their story professionally. A trained professional is assigned to tell our client’s story in a memorable way. That is why the client pays us. To be remembered by telling an amazing authentic story.
We are building our business on the philosophy that our economics must be a win – win -win. We need to offer a high value product to our clients for a fair price. It is a good value. Hopefully a great value.
Our service needs to be a win for our clients first and foremost.
It also needs to be a win for our professional storyteller. They must love what they are doing for the client as it will show in their work. You are more likely to do good work if you love your work.
Each of our reporters is trained professional with a gift for telling stories. They have developed their craft to the point where they handle the entire workflow as a one person band. For that, they are well-compensated for something they love to do. That is how it should be.
Call me a socialist, but there is something wrong with the universe if the person doing the work isn’t rewarded for it. And since our reporters are doing what some production companies will use three or four people to accomplish, it is good economics. It is capitalism done right.
Finally, to stay in business, it has to be a win for StorySMART. The work must fit our mission and our values. And we are also in business to make money. Or we won’t be around long. We won’t bring professional storytelling to anyone if we don’t make money.
In terms of sharing our values, we put them on paper. Or the digital equivalent…our website. We adopted an ethical credo to guide our work because we are committed to doing storytelling with integrity. We will walk away from clients who don’t share our values. Same for reporters. Clients are buying storytelling integrity and professional quality. What sets us apart from most is our unique approach to storytelling that is built upon brand journalism. It is part of our win-win-win philosophy.
One of the many gifts from former Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny imparted to me during the brief time we worked together is something that is part of my operating philosophy. And easy to implement when you own your own company.
Mike shared something in a team meeting during spring training 2017 that actually comes from the New Zealand All-Blacks rugby team. A “No Dickheads” policy. Ted Lasso might have a better way to say, but the gist is that you can’t be a positive player on the field and prick off of it. Witness the transformation of Jamie Tart under Ted’s leadership.
What that looks like in practice (or training for you footballers) is shedding people (clients or reporters) who don’t fit the “No D-heads” policy. Life is too short to have to tolerate a poisonous personality. I wish I realized this earlier in life. No job is worth tolerating an a-hole for a boss, client or co-worker.
I’ll also add that to do something transformative with your work, you need to approach everything with a growth mindset. Failure is simply a point of view about a set of circumstances. Learning is not. What some might define as failure my simply be trial and err. Learning. Growing. Perfecting the model. Informed experimentation.
My point to you is that attitude and mindset matter. All of my “successes” in life have been preceeded by periods others might define as failure or underachieving. Underachieving and failing are part of the process of achieving. I have learned more from missing the mark more than hitting it as I am more likely to ask myself what can I do better next time.
I joke with those closest to me that I see the world split into two kinds of people. +PosiCans and -NegaNots . Anyone who knows me well has probably heard me talk about that. I know my son Charlie has. -NegaNots are from the United Kingdoms of Can’t, Don’t and Won’t. +PosiCans are from the United States of Yes We Can . +PosiCans are about getting it done, making it happen and enjoying the journey.
That is a glimpse into our philosophy. Can you articulate your philosophy? It is worth asking yourself that question like I have over the last week since seeing the news. Don't get tripped up by philosophical differences.
Remember that philosophy matters when building your team. Align around it and enjoy your journey and success together as a team.
