Wake Up Eager Workforce 
Episode 95 Transcript

Suzie Price: [00:00:00]

Today we're talking about hiring manager mistakes and best practices. This is part two of my discussion with Huff Logue. I can't wait to share it with you. Michael. Hit it!

Intro/Outro: [00:00:11]

Welcome to the Wake Up Eager Workforce podcast, a show designed for leaders, trainers and consultants who are responsible for employee selection and professional development. Each episode is packed full with insider tips, best practices, expert interviews and inspiration. Please welcome the host who is helping leaders, trainers and consultants everywhere Suzie Price.

Suzie Price: [00:00:41]

Hi there. This is Suzie Price and you're listening to the Wake Up Eager Workforce podcast, where we cover everything related to helping you and the employees in your organizations build a high commitment, low drama, wake up eager workforce. Think about that. If you have high commitment, I'm engaged. I'm enthusiastic about the work. I want to be here. I want to do what I'm doing, which results in low drama. Not a lot of high turnover, not a lot of conflict. I mean, there's always going to be little turnover and there's always going to be some conflict. But it's in a low drama environment. That's what we're talking about, about a wake up eager workforce, people who are committed and engaged and enthused about the work and the workplace. We want to help you make good decisions about your employees so you can create that kind of environment. And that's what we cover in this podcast. And what we do every day is we provide tools, tips and expert interviews here in the podcast for the entire employee lifecycle. So we talk about hiring, onboarding, team building, leadership development, succession planning, and conflict resolution. As I mentioned, this episode is part two. You can go back and find part one. Go to pricelessprofessional.com/hiringmanagermistakes.

Suzie Price: [00:01:50]

That's where the show notes are, pricelessprofessional.com/hiringmanagermistakes. And you'll be able to find part one and part two. And I can't wait to share it with you. Let's listen to it now.

Suzie Price: [00:02:03]

All right. Let's talk a little bit more about you. And let's talk about your Workplace Motivators and DISC style. So Workplace Motivators for those who are listening who are not familiar with this is a measurement of what puts gas in your tank is what you're most interested in. It could be your filter, how you see the world, what's causes you to take action, and then the DISC style is how you like to behave or communicate. It gives us behavior. So they're measuring two different things, but they work together. And Huff is certified in these tools and uses them a lot. I thought it would be great now that you've met him and talked, heard him talk and share. Huff, talk a little bit more about your number one, two and six. One and two is what you're most interested in for the audience. And then number six is what you're least interested in. Talk a little bit about that.

Huff Logue: [00:02:55]

Sure. So my number one Motivator is Theoretical. I love to learn. I'm passionate about that. I'm always reading and writing and thinking and processing. And so that's a key one for me. My second is high Utilitarian. So I'm always looking for the most efficient way to get a return on my time, my money and my effort. So those are my top two. And I think we look at blends of because no one's a pure Theoretical or a pure Economic, for example, or Utilitarian. And when you combine my top two. So I love to learn, but I love to learn if I'm going to get a return. That's why I don't read fiction. I mean, I might read fiction. I have one author, I've read all ten of his 20 some books so far, but it's taken me ten years to do it. It's the practical knowledge. That's how that works for me. And my lowest is my Aesthetic, which we talked about before. In fact it's so low that if someone is only talking about flowers and harmony and beauty, I can take that for a while, but if that's all of it... I would not do well at Burning Man.

Suzie Price: [00:04:08]

Burning Man, what's that like the outdoor concert? 

Huff Logue: [00:04:11]

That's the big in the desert... 

Suzie Price: [00:04:15]

And you wouldn't do well there because...

Huff Logue: [00:04:17]

Well, because everybody there is so Aesthetic and artsy and creative. And I look at their clothing and I go, is that really a garment or is that... They've got tin cans attached to their car with flowers and flags? They're celebrating, but  it all means something. I go into a museum and look at art and I'm going, I don't get it.

Suzie Price: [00:04:39]

Yeah. You think, how am I going to? What's the practicality of this? Yeah, some of that's training, but some of that is is mostly the level of interest. And you know, the Theoretical and Utilitarian together is a futuristic thinker.

Huff Logue: [00:04:52]

Well interesting you say that because when I look at my competencies, futuristic thinking has always been in the top three.

Suzie Price: [00:04:59]

Isn't that interesting and futuristic thinking the population mean on that is like 2.7. So people aren't very high in that by nature, and the fact that that's one of your top competencies, I totally see it. You saw that day we were sitting in that conference room in the back of the room because we were both late. I had a bubble over my head saying, oh, I've got TriMetrix. How do I explain this? And you're sitting next to me, probably a bubble over your head saying, well, how can I differentiate myself? And the minute we meet you're like, okay, I know exactly how I can use this, but I had just gotten certified in TriMetrix. So anyway, so that was the futuristic thinking talent that you bring. 

Huff Logue: [00:05:37]

I've never heard that before. So you being my mentor and introducer to TriMetrix. Always love to learn from you. Oh, there's the Theoretical again.

Suzie Price: [00:05:45]

There we go. Love to learn. Love to learn. So I have a friend who says it calls it your filter. And you just kind of describe that really well. Like, how would you look at Burning Man and how would somebody else look at Burning Man? So what drives us. Talk a little bit about your DISC style.

Huff Logue: [00:06:02]

So my DISC style is I. So the numbers just for those that know DISC, it's about a 60, 84, 5 and 60. So my D is about 60. My I is in the 80 range. My S is like 5, because you can tell how fast I talk. And then my C is about 60. And I have what's called a mini conflict which is typically a higher D and the high I. And so it's changed slightly over the years. I used to be more of a higher D/I, but it's shifted now more of an I/D, so I put more sugar on it or I'm not as aggressive. Or maybe my testosterone is going low. I don't know.

Suzie Price: [00:06:50]

Well, you know, it's evidence of your funny he sent over a bio and he had the serious bio, but before that he had his funny bio. So that would be a high I style which is just friendly, talkative, sharing, you know, kind of shares their foibles, just extroverted. And then the D is a is also extroverted, but is very direct and specific and likes to solve problems, so it's switched a little bit for you.

Huff Logue: [00:07:14]

Yeah, it's switched because I've been taking the TriMetrix now for, well, since I met you 20 years ago.

Suzie Price: [00:07:21]

So you see some changes. It usually like the numbers change just a little bit or the order, but not that doesn't have a complete change in DISC or Motivators unless we've had a personal experience or something, a significant emotional event.

Huff Logue: [00:07:34]

Just so the audience knows, and for those that are watching, Lisa and I have six kids together. We have 11 grandchildren now, and this is not my normal hair color. If you're watching this, I dye my hair this color and wear these glasses to play the part as grandfather. So things have changed over time.

Suzie Price: [00:07:51]

Things have changed and we the order changes a little bit. That's so fun. And then you said talked about your S as being a 5. The score is 0 to 100. Talk about what that means. You said it means that you talk really fast. But what is the S measuring.

Huff Logue: [00:08:06]

I like the way that you've described it in the past and continue to use that. When people look at their disk and they're trying to think of that dominant, and that's influence and trying to figure out what the how to describe it and S being steadiness or steadfastness or things like that, I like it. It's really how when you're looking at DISC, the simplest way to explain it is that it's how do you deal with problems, people, pace and procedure. And so the S is really pace and it's an inverse relationship. The lower your S, the faster pace, the higher your S the slower even keel. And what I like also about each one of the factors is that there's an emotion associated with the high and the low for each factor. For example with the S the low S is really you see people's emotions, right? They're probably like me talk with their hands and...

Suzie Price: [00:09:04]

Or impatient because like you want to you want your pace. If that's your pace, it's like you want to be doing things, so you talk about them. It's so important to hear it from you. But it's also now as we're talking about jobs and you're like, does a job need a fast pace or do they need a steady pace? What is the difference?

Huff Logue: [00:09:17]

And this is interesting too, because people with a high S, if you have someone that's working for you, that's a high S, the emotion associated with the high S is actually no emotion because they don't really show it. You don't really see it. It doesn't mean it's not there, it's there. So my wife is a high S and so don't see big swings or emotion. But what happens with the high S if you don't take care of them is the pressure will build and one day it'll pop and you will see the emotion. But the natural is not to show the emotion. So if you have individuals that are more of those S/Cs, pay close attention to what they're saying and thinking and the small clues, because you may miss it with those individuals, but the D's and the I's, it's right in your face. I think there's another way to describe the kind of the extroverts and introverts which corresponds with the high...

Suzie Price: [00:10:05]

Talk to think, think to talk, you know, so talk to think. If I'm a D and I think to talk before if I'm a S/C. 

Huff Logue: [00:10:12]

If you don't know what a D/I is thinking you're not listening. And if you don't know what an S/C is thinking you're not asking.

Suzie Price: [00:10:25]

Oh very good. You're so clever I love that. That's amazing. And then you say, your C, that's the procedure. If you remember the four P's that Huff just mentioned, your C is at a 60. How does that show up at work and in life for you?

Huff Logue: [00:10:40]

Yeah, that's a great question. What happens with big decisions for me is I kind of slip a little bit into analysis paralysis. So the emotion associated with the high C is fear and risk adverseness. And so when I'm faced with big decisions my D will go down. So rather than me fight I'm more a little bit of flight or pausing and my C goes up. So I start getting into analysis paralysis, probably picking up a book and reading it too much or something, or talking about...

Suzie Price: [00:11:08]

Something that feels good. It feels good if I read. So I'm going to read.

Huff Logue: [00:11:11]

So I've learned that with big decisions, I can take a long time. And people, like, just pull the trigger, Huff.

Suzie Price: [00:11:16]

It's so interesting to me. So you think about how you've mastered this and you know so much about yourself and how you speak about yourself. I think that's why we get so excited about the Assessment, because of our own mastery of understanding who we are. And you want everybody to have that because sometimes people will judge that they do that and you don't judge it, you notice it, and then you say, okay, I'm doing that thing I do. Sometimes people are really hard on themselves. I mean, the sense of self and the overall population is lower than it should be in regard to the wonderful humans that we have walking around in this world, but I think it's because we judge ourselves and we don't have a way to explain or understand what we're doing and why we're doing it.

Huff Logue: [00:11:55]

In today's world, understanding DISC about yourself and others, and there are other factors obviously, playing in this, but it's really critical in today's world where we're so binary in our thinking and our values and our beliefs and I think you are probably the one that shared this with me before is when we're looking at DISC, the objective is a couple of things. Number one is being able to look in the mirror and more clearly identify who I am, what my communication preferences are, what I like, what I don't like, what upsets me, what is easy for me to do naturally? Number two, or part B is being able to look at others and clearly identify, ah, they prefer this or they don't like this? And in part C is being able to change the way that you communicate or behave with that individual so that you connect more and that you have better communication, which builds trust and respect. So you get the typical situation in a company where you have, let's say, sales executives that tend to be in that D/I category lower on the S/C, hurry up. Let's take take a chance. Don't worry about it. I know the product's not finished. Just ship it. And the individuals that have the product or that have been responsible for installing their product, they're going to tend to be more steady and compliant with their S and C being higher. They're going to be offended by that. And so if salespeople in this example could go to an implementation and say, hey, listen, we've got a client here that really needs to get this installed right away.

Huff Logue: [00:13:28]

I know it's not finished yet. What kind of solutions do you have that you think... what could we do? What's your opinion? Versus being demonstrative and demanding and directing to change your behavior to an S/C. And what happens is that person will engage for you. They'll go to the wall for you. They'll probably do the patch that hasn't been done for six months to get this product done for this one particular big customer... I did a workshop for a company. They've asked me to come back three times and did the entire leadership team. It was ten of them. And this is a company of about 110 employees, and half the management team is in the Atlanta area, half of the management team is in another city. So they brought them all in and we did all the Assessments and we went through a lot of exercises.

Huff Logue: [00:14:12]

In fact, you helped me with some of the great exercises that made it fun and entertaining. But here's what happened afterwards. There was one VP in another city that was a problem, in that one person had just quit and another was about to, and their turnover rate was very high under this executive. And so after going through this and everybody learning about each other's style and appreciating the difference and respecting it versus judging people for being different, that's key.

Suzie Price: [00:14:41]

Right? That's the key.

Huff Logue: [00:14:42]

And so the CEO of this company went and had dinner with this VP and they sat down with the Assessment. This is what we learned in the workshop this and I understand you more and what's going on here, and she said you're right. And she actually even started crying in the dinner. So it was a look in the mirror humble moment and she changed her behavior. They didn't lose the second employee and they were able to hire the other employee back.

Suzie Price: [00:15:09]

Oh wow. That's amazing. Everybody talks about diversity, this is a piece of that puzzle. It just understanding the differences, and there's all kinds of differences generational, where we grew up and how we grew up. And it's also this whole piece of how we like to be how we like to communicate and differences and strengths and not judging the differences. That's amazing that that change happened. 

Huff Logue: [00:15:31]

It's a good success story. But that's why I say I believe DISC, could really change our world.

Suzie Price: [00:15:36]

Yes. Let's talk a little bit about waking. Bigger. We do that here or talk about that a lot at Priceless Professional Development. People are usually interested that people have people say, oh, I really liked hearing about what they use to create their wake up eager life, and you've certainly done that. If you think about where we were 20 years ago and how your life is today, and not that it wasn't good before, but you're just this great place and having fun and excelling in every area. What are some of the top things you do for mind, body, and spirit to have those days where you say, hey, I'm glad I'm alive. I'm waking up eager?

Huff Logue: [00:16:10]

Well, the obvious answer is get a cup of coffee, I sit down in this view I have, I live on the lakes, so I sit down and look at the lake and I turn on your podcast.

Suzie Price: [00:16:21]

Oh, wow. That's just too good of an answer.

Huff Logue: [00:16:25]

Well, actually, no. I like to listen to your podcast when I'm walking in the afternoons. But seriously, my go to is again, I'm sitting with my coffee, I've got a nice view and I like to either listen to audiobooks, close my eyes, remove the distractions. Again, I'm learning and I'm getting my brain going and moving and thinking, and I like to write. So I've always been a journaler. I've got a couple of systems I use to like, what's the problem? And a bunch of questions I ask myself. And then the answer is in the question, if you just ask the right questions, you'll get the answer. So the real answer is what is the question, the quality of your question. So I'll ask myself a lot of questions I've already and I'll answer those.

Suzie Price: [00:17:11]

Are there specific tools you use in journaling? Do you use your iPad or you write? And then where are those questions that you found?

Huff Logue: [00:17:18]

I've made up the questions and they're in a spreadsheet because I like spreadsheets because I'm, you know, one of those. Right. So I've got here's the problem. Here's the five questions I want to ask myself about the problem. And here's what I'm going to put the answers and responses to those. So I've done that. I also have a very large word document and I'll just type in it. Sometimes I'll close my eyes and just do that. I also like sometimes my brain's going a lot faster than my fingers, so I'll actually turn on my recorder or dictation and record right into the document and go back and edit it later. Especially when I get a lot of train of thoughts going fast. I want to catch them all real quickly and not be distracted by oh, hit the wrong key.

Suzie Price: [00:17:58]

Let it flow, let it flow. So that's the high Theoretical with the high D/I, like I have thoughts and I need to get them out. 

Huff Logue: [00:18:09]

My objective though is I want to I'm looking for a certain state of mind before I begin my planning of my day, which I do, and I do weekly planning and I do monthly planning. So the state of mind I'm looking for is I'm looking to be calm, clear and focused. When I feel like my my thoughts are calm, I'm clear. Because sometimes you wake up in the morning, you're racing, I've got to do this, I've got to do that. I've got five other things like this do then. And what you don't do is do not open email.

Suzie Price: [00:18:40]

Yes.

Huff Logue: [00:18:41]

Do not check your Facebook account. Don't do that because we only have so much space or capacity for awareness in our mind. And if you clutter it up, you're not going to be...

Suzie Price: [00:18:53]

Before you have time to think your own thoughts... What everybody else wants you to do not open social media first thing. It's helpful. And sometimes it does feel better to do it. It just depends on what's going on. So body mind that was kind of my mental clarity how you get mental clarity. And it seemed like the main thing was... 

Huff Logue: [00:19:12]

I've been known to pray. So I will pray and, you know, I'll put this in here for its own value is I had an interesting childhood, and I'm not going to go into the details, but it was intense, and I lost my father two days before I was 13, and I was kind of lost. I had really no parents. I lived with my grandparents, but I told them what to do. They didn't tell me what to do. So I was a rebellious teenager, but moved back out to California with my mom, whom I hadn't seen for a long time, and she was a very spiritual woman and I went out there and there was something I couldn't put my finger on, which I later realized was the peace of God. Now you can have whatever peace in your life you want to call it meditation, whatever. And I do meditate too, by the way. But the point is, I didn't realize the Bible talks a lot about the power of God. So limbs growing, deaf hearing, blind seeing. I'm going, well, those are miracles, but haven't really seen any of those. I've heard about them. I've read about them. But the biggest miracle in the most powerful thing about having a relationship with God in my life, is the peace of God. It is the most powerful thing because we live in a world with turmoil going around. And that's what's happening in the Middle East. And there's a lot of history, spiritual history there that causes all this. But in the midst of all the turmoil that's going on in our lives, if we can just have that point where we're at calm and peace with, it's not what happens to you, but what you do with what happens to you. So being able to have that peace is the most powerful position in place that you can be in.

Suzie Price: [00:20:44]

That's wonderful. And you found that and you reach for it every day. It sounds like. 

Huff Logue: [00:20:50]

A daily dose you need. 

Suzie Price: [00:20:52]

A daily dose you need. Yeah. I find that for myself. It's not like, one of my favorite mentors always says this, it's not like a college degree hanging on the wall. Ta da! I'm connected, I feel peaceful. It's an ongoing measure, and journaling is a big part of it for me. Any other thoughts about other things that you do? Mind. Body. Spirit that help you be effective?

Huff Logue: [00:21:13]

I would say golf, but sometimes that helps me and sometimes it messes my attitude up.

Suzie Price: [00:21:18]

So you're a golfer nowadays too. That's something you reach for. That's so cool. Awesome.

Huff Logue: [00:21:24]

I'm a kind of an intense individual. And I loved your podcast on "What Would You Tell Your Younger Self?" Because I had an immediate answer to that, and so for me, I have to make time to go play golf because I could sit here and push buttons all day long.

Suzie Price: [00:21:41]

Yeah, well, that's a blind spot for people who have Aesthetic as their number six. I'm there too. So it's like then if you know that, then you do conscious things like what you're doing. I mean it's impacted you in a way, you know, the fact that you would stop and say, okay, I'm going to going to go do something fun and easy or sometimes golf isn't easy, but be outdoors and all of that. So what advice would you give your 25 year old self?

Huff Logue: [00:22:03]

Chill out.

Suzie Price: [00:22:06]

Chill out.

Huff Logue: [00:22:08]

Chill out. That was the first response that came and I loved listening to your podcast on that topic, I struggled to find a lot of specifics as to what I would go back and tell myself. When you get older and the Bible talks about this too, you know, gray hair is a symbol of wisdom and I probably could have made wiser choices. I tell my kids, and the way I put it is, you are today the decisions you made yesterday and you will be tomorrow, the decisions you make today and decision making, interestingly enough, is one of the 25 competency as we assess. And it is a key skill. It is a key skill. And what's nice about the the Axiology part of the TriMetrix, the ACI, whatever you may label it as, it really gets at how you value, think and judge, and that determines the quality of your decisions. That's why people that have really high scores and the right biases for the right role on that particular is really a key factor. That's just that's exactly when I shared the story about when you first gave me this assessment and you told me, however, you're conflicted about who you are.

Suzie Price: [00:23:15]

Out of balance.

Huff Logue: [00:23:16]

Yeah. I was out of balance.

Suzie Price: [00:23:17]

I think it says balanced decision making is making consistently sound and reliable decisions. And it is having the high strength in all the areas being measured and how we think. That's that beauty of Axiology. Cool. That's awesome. So great insights to your 25 year old self. And you're able to to share those with your kids. It's very cool how about Billboard for the world to see? Where would you put it and what would it say?

Huff Logue: [00:23:43]

I love this question, and years ago, actually about right at the time that I met you, I went through this process. I had a coach and we were following the E-Myth Michael Gerber's process. And they have coaches. It's a 36 month program and you meet once a week. So it's all about first identifying what your personal mission is before you even talk about business, because business all comes out of your personal mission and your values, and that's why we do what we do. Why do I work so hard? Because of my family and and being able to provide and take care of them and doing things that I'm passionate about and staying focused on that versus not. And so we went through this process, and the first part I was a little frustrated because I'm ready to get on with it. And he said, well, I want you to write about we looked at the values like 200 different values. So I look at the values and I go, yeah, that's good, that's good. Nope nope nope. Yes yes yes no. And then I went back and he says, well, they'll cut that in half. I'm like, okay. So you know, did it again like that. So he got my top values. He said, I want you to write about it.

Huff Logue: [00:24:45]

I'm like, okay, so I'm articulate. So I write about it and I'm kind of getting into this. So I start writing and being a journaler, so I end up with about ten pages. He goes, this is great. And I said, good. So now what? He goes, I want you to cut it in half. Okay. So now I got to go back again. And this was a three week process. So I go back and I cut it in half. And he says that's really good. He says, now I want you to cut it in half. I'm like, what? So he said, what we're going to do is we're going to get this down to a bumper sticker that you can put on your car. So when you ask me, what about a billboard and where would it be? It would be a bumper sticker and it'd be on the back of my car. What I ended on was it's kind of a clunky sentence, but it has the key words. If I were to sum up those ten pages and that three week process, and looking in the mirror and trying to discover all these things, it is "Live in love and peace and make a difference".

Suzie Price: [00:25:38]

That gets me a little emotional Huff. I feel little emotional hearing that, because that's what you're doing. And everything that you shared today exemplifies that.

Huff Logue: [00:25:49]

Well thank you. Now, I will say that because I'm very particular about my cars, and I know you are too, and...

Suzie Price: [00:25:56]

We don't technically put a bumper sticker on our car. 

Huff Logue: [00:25:59]

That's it. It's not there.

Suzie Price: [00:26:00]

Yeah, but it's here. And it's in your head and in your heart. So there we go.

Huff Logue: [00:26:05]

But if I was at Burning Man, I'd have a lot of stickers on the back of my car.

Suzie Price: [00:26:09]

Way to tie that together. Well, love that. We'll put that on a billboard and or just pretend that it's on the back of your car. Every time we see you drive away and you're living. So that's just beautiful. Beautiful. So last bit of advice or wisdom that you'd like every hiring manager to remember the title of today's episode, though we've covered so many things is Hiring Mistakes and Best Practices. What would you want them to remember about hiring mistakes and best practices?

Huff Logue: [00:26:37]

Well, I'm going to focus a little bit more on the best practices and kind of shift that to more of a retention and engagement, because hiring is not as difficult currently and companies are not hiring as much as they were, but they still are. And the key is really retaining. So I saw a survey today that said 63% of employees plan on asking for a pay raise this year. Going into 2024 I mean. So this is how the employees are thinking, according to this survey, of the 63% that are planning on asking for a pay raise because employers think only about 43% are planning on giving pay raises. 

Suzie Price: [00:27:23]

We've got a gap there. 

Huff Logue: [00:27:24]

We've got a gap. But regardless of what percent are not going to give pay raises okay. We know that it sounds like 63% generally speaking across the board are going to ask or want for pay raises. Now of the 63% that are asking for pay raises, if they don't get it, 30% are planning on leaving. So if you have 1000 employees, 630 are going to ask for pay raises. And of those that don't get it, let's just say it's half okay. If they don't get it, then 30% of those are leaving. So that's 90%, 30% of 90, which is about 30 people. So you're about to lose 30 employees right there. So what's the advice that I would give? 

Huff Logue: [00:28:07]

This is a great way to end this because if senior executives and and hiring managers and organizations could understand this, it could change their retention numbers completely. Real simple process. The CEO needs to go to lunch with some employee once a week. If culture's important, I know that's a lot and they got a lot on their plate. We're just talking lunch. I don't care. Bring lunch in and put it in their office and let them sit there for 30 minutes. Whatever. The point is, it's that personal contact where someone at a level above me in the organization often is genuinely interested in knowing about me. We're not going to talk about your job or your work or whatever. Hey, maybe the CEO says I like to play golf, or when I was in your position a long time ago, let me tell you a story about me. And they can tell stories about them or whatever. But it's a time to do this. But it becomes part of the culture.

Huff Logue: [00:28:57]

The CEO can't meet with all employees, but they have a team, and that team can meet with people and their team can meet with people. So there becomes this there's something that happens about the trust and respect. And if you have trust and respect, then you don't have to worry about retention. And here's an example. I have a guy placed when I first got into recruiting. Incredible guy. I've stayed in touch with him all these years. He's referred people to me and I've placed people with him, but he refers his current employees to me and I'm like, what do you mean? He goes, well, this guy works for me, or this lady works for me. He's done both. And he said, they're really good. They're one of my top performers. I said, why would you want me to help them? And he said, well, things have changed here in terms of what they do and where they're going in their career. We don't really have that opportunity anymore, and so I'd like to see if you could help them. And they're completely fine and safe while they're here. And I've had this candid discussion with them. The trust and respect of that employee, when someone has their interest higher than the companies, I don't care if someone comes along and offers you more money, you're not going to leave. You're not going to leave. And so if hiring managers and executives could take more time to genuinely invest in the personal lives, then it can make a big difference. Some executives, people are not designed to do that. Fine. Hire someone to do it. Yes, organization. Find somebody who loves that.

Suzie Price: [00:30:19]

Yes, or learn to like it. Because if the executive doesn't do it, then whatever the executive is doing, everybody else is going to follow. And when the executive doesn't do it...

Huff Logue: [00:30:30]

I can't say how many times I've tried to recruit someone out of a company, and my job that I have for them is head and shoulders above them, but they're so loyal to the person they work with, they're not going to leave.

Suzie Price: [00:30:39]

I've seen that again and again and again. Yes. And it keeps going back. I mean, we've been talking about it for 25 years. Everybody sometimes acts like it's a new thing, but it's a show that you care, communicate, connect. Yes. That's awesome. Great advice.

Huff Logue: [00:30:53]

And to promote, if this would help your business right now. Hey, Alexa, put Suzie Price on my to do list.

Suzie Price: [00:31:02]

You're so funny. What's the best way to get in touch with you Huff? I recommend that everyone who is looking to hire an executive and/or is an executive looking for a new role. Those are your people that would reach out to you, correct? What's the best way to connect with you?

Huff Logue: [00:31:21]

I'm on LinkedIn, and most anybody that's in the professional world is on LinkedIn. And my name is very unique. It's Huff like huff and puff and blow your house down. So H-U-F-F and the last name is Logue, like Vogue magazine, except with an L. So very good on LinkedIn. Huff Logue. Or maybe you could ask Alexa to put me on your to do list.

Suzie Price: [00:31:42]

Yeah, yeah that too. You've been a joy to have on today and always have been and always will be. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and your energy and your insight. Just thanks for being you, Huff.

Huff Logue: [00:31:58]

Awesome! Thank you so much. And one thing you didn't ask me about was who was the most influential people in my life, and you are one of them.

Suzie Price: [00:32:06]

Oh well, why did I skip over that question? 

Huff Logue: [00:32:09]

I know, I was all ready.

Suzie Price: [00:32:11]

Well, we were tight on time, but thank you for that. Who are some other people real quick that have influenced you?

Huff Logue: [00:32:16]

I had a business partner 20 years my senior back in the late 90s, and he was just a wise old owl and I was this young whippersnapper and we cross-pollinated one another. And he's highly relational, very good with people, very high standards, sometimes a little too high, but uncompromising. And by the time we finished our three year partnership together, when I first met him, he had a secretary that had to bring him coffee. He had a flip phone, no computer on his desk last time I talked to him. He's taking a walk with his earbuds in and a smartphone, texting me contact information while talking to me, and I thought, wow! So I brought him into the 21st century, and he helped me move my relationship skills just to a whole other level.

Suzie Price: [00:33:03]

Kind of almost sounds like a family mentor. Fatherly mentor. That's awesome. And he's probably has some. I've noticed that people who keep up with technology oftentimes are have Theoretical somewhere in their profile, and this idea of learning and keeping up with things. So he probably has that too. Yeah, he sounds like a great partner. Thank you Huff. Appreciate you being.

Huff Logue: [00:33:26]

Much appreciated. Thanks again.

Suzie Price: [00:33:27]

So I hope you enjoyed that fun discussion with Huff. He is funny, smart, thoughtful, a great thinker, very committed to his craft, always trying to find ways to add more value, to know more about how to help people make great decisions. You can't get anybody more committed to his work than somebody who stayed in in this type of role and grown it in his business for more than 30 years. So great person Huff is. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed him and all the years that I've known him. And I'm so glad that he and I have been able to work together over the years, and it's so great to have him on the podcast to find the show notes for today. You're going to go to pricelessprofessional.com/hiringmanagermistakes. And at the end of most of these interviews with people, we do a little recap and I think about some of my favorite things that I want to remind you of, or point out, and one of the biggest mistakes that I see, and he shared that he sees it as well, is talking more than listening. And I loved how he talked about sometimes they would. The executives were really good at sharing vision and talking, so they might interview a candidate. And as soon as they get a little bit of information, makes them think that the candidate is a great candidate, they stop trying to decide if they're a great candidate and they just go into sell mode, so they're selling now the company and how great it is.

Suzie Price: [00:34:50]

And so they stop getting information or qualifying or quantifying the candidate and their match. So that is one of the biggest mistakes that hiring managers make. And you want to keep that in mind. I love how Huff talked about how TriMetrix, that's the three sciences that we focus on using throughout the employee life cycle. I like his dramatic but true statement, which is TriMetrix can change the entire shareholder value and stock value of a company. There's a direct correlation between happy, productive employees and how they interface with the customers in the marketplace. If you have a great job fit and you understand the whole person, you're going to have higher engagement. And so they're going to be more engaged, less turnover. People are going to be committed to customers, committed to the organization, and that's how it impacts shareholder value. It's a great reminder of that, and just keep in mind how important this component is about knowing who you have in each role and how important that is with keeping them wanting to be part of the company and keeping high engagement and high performance. I enjoyed Huff's suggestions about hybrid work arrangements, to look at the job and see what it requires, and then look at the individuals and see what they need and match those. That's in essence the job fit, argument or program that we do all the time. And Huff does it as well, which is thinking about what does the job need, and then how does the person that's in the role fit that? And it's more things than just the resume.

Suzie Price: [00:36:22]

So think about that in regard to the hybrid work arrangements, and if you're struggling with what people want and what the company is saying needs to happen, maybe you can use some of that feedback. I thought it was really good. Don't miss the nine interview basics that we discussed there on the show notes. If you go to pricelessprofessional.com/hiringmanagermistakes, you'll be able to see the nine interview basics plus all the links of the things that we discussed.

Suzie Price: [00:36:48]

I like the story. I want to bring this up and remind you of the story Huff shared about when he was doing some team building with an organization that the information about this one team member that was really struggling on the team and was maybe not going to have her role any longer, allowed the leader to have a more rich and direct conversation with this employee, using the lens of the Assessment results to point out what the challenges were. If people don't know what's wrong, it's hard to correct it or what isn't working. And so this great discussion allowed the employee to make a shift in her behavior, and it's helped her be more productive and resulted in being able to stay on the team. So using this information to better understand people, have more rich and direct discussions and conversations. People can't make changes if they don't know, and sometimes we have a hard time if we are seeing performance, how to dialogue about the performance. And that's one of the things that the Assessment helps you do better. Understand how to language the things that are happening through an overuse of an employee strength, which you see through the Assessment.

Suzie Price: [00:37:56]

Two more things I want to share about this interview that are highlights for me. There are so many it was hard to pick, but I loved how Huff talks about how he uses journaling to plan and organize his thoughts. And here's one of his quotes. "I'm looking for a certain state of mind before I begin my planning of my day, which I do weekly weekly planning and monthly planning. The state of mind I'm looking for is to be calm, clear, and focused." So I love that. I can relate to that. And I make lists of appreciation and I journal a lot. If you're someone who has a lot of thoughts, and I think all of us do to a certain degree, journaling is a wonderful way to process them and get them out, and it helps you reach that clear, calm, focused state of mind that Huff is looking for when he starts journaling. And it makes sense. If you're going to start planning your day and planning work you're going to do and your focus. If you start from a clear, calm and focused place, you're going to have a better look at the plan and make better decisions there, and that is a journey, not something that happens once in a la we're done, something we have to continually reach for, and that is completely normal.

Suzie Price: [00:39:02]

But journaling is just kind of been my saving grace. And so I always like to highlight it when someone else also enjoys it and finds value from it. Something else that Huff talked about is finding peace, and something that I believe was in short supply early on in his life. And he's a very happy, fun, fulfilled, interesting person always, but I think that over time he's been able to find more peace. And I like what he said. And we're all struggling with that a bit, probably with all the things that are going on in the world and the things that are going on around us, and just life in general can be up and down. So he said this, "In the midst of all the turmoil that's going on in our lives, if we can just have that point where we're calm and at peace with what is happening to us, being able to have that peace is the most powerful position that you can be in." So reaching for the peace, in other words, you could call it as alignment. Another word is just confidence or being relaxed. Feeling authentic, feeling in touch with yourself, feeling in tune. Alignment is something that I noticed a lot. Clarity. So can't underscore that enough about how important that is for us. And so those are some of my favorite takeaways from this episode. Be sure to check out all the show notes again at pricelessprofessional.com/hiringmanagermistakes. And it's always hiring. Manager mistakes is one word and it's all lowercase.

Suzie Price: [00:40:32]

professionalprofessional.com/hiringmanagermistakes. Be sure to subscribe to. The Wake Up to Workforce podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts and a reminder we're giving away a Workplace Motivators Assessment. It's an Assessment that measures why you take action, what's most important to you for energy and motivation, what your top drivers are. It's a 24 page report and it includes 100 development resources and a debrief video. It's a value of $350. And how can you get this free report and leave us a review?

Suzie Price: [00:41:07]

We want others to find us. We've been doing this podcasting thing for a while, and we hope that we share good content, and we'd love to get feedback about it. And then that feedback will help others who are looking for similar things, or have things in common with you and with us, we'll be able to find us. So if you're not sure how to leave a review, if you go to pricelessprofessional.com/review, we go into how to do that. Let us know that you've left us a review and we will send you the link. And you can always reach me at suzie@pricelessprofessional.com S-U-Z-I-E suzie@pricelessprofessional.com. And you can check out all of our podcast episodes if you go to our directory at wakeupeagerworkforce.com. It's a pleasure to be working with and for you. It's a pleasure to learn from people like Huff and all the other wonderful colleagues and people in the world doing good things. And thanks for joining us and we'll see you on the next episode. Take care.

Intro/Outro: [00:42:19]

In this episode of the Wake Up Eager Workforce podcast was brought to you by Priceless Professional Development. Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's show, head over to pricelessprofessional.com to gain access to more professional development resources.