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Welcome to The Culture Code podcast. On this podcast, you’ll learn how to grow, shape, and sustain a high-performance culture with the CEO of LEADx, Kevin Kruse. From designing and delivering highly effective leadership development programs, to measuring and improving the employee experience, you will understand what it takes to cultivate a thriving company culture. Through interviews with Chief People Officers, deep dives into key topics, and recordings of our invite-only community sessions, we bring you cutting-edge, data-backed insights from the most desirable companies to work for in the world.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: Hello, everyone! I'm Kevin Kruse. Welcome back to Culture Code. Our guest today is the Chief People Officer at Cupertino Electric, Estrella Parker. Welcome! Where are you joining from today?
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): I am joining you from our headquarters in San Jose, California, and thank you for inviting me to your podcast.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: It's my pleasure. I won't go deep into this because people have been listening to episodes. I keep talking about it. I just came back from a month in San Jose. I was staying in an apartment in a weird place called Santana Row. Do you know it?
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): I know it, actually. In my previous organization, my office was in Santa Rosa.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: Oh, wow! That was, well, I won't say that at the end of the block is a very large tech company and a couple of other ones right there. Kind of reminded me of a retail Disneyland, which is delightful to be there for a month. But you wouldn't want to live your whole life in Disneyland. So it's a little weird.
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): Now, it was actually when I was moving, previously I lived on the East Bay side of the Bay Area. And when I took that job that was based by Santana, I was considering getting an apartment over there to make things easy, and I was warned by people not to do it because it is like living in Disneyland 24 hours a day.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx:For those who might not be familiar with [your company], how big is your organization and in plain language, what do you do?
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): Yeah, it's interesting. Most people, when I say I work for Cupertino Electric, they think we're an electric utility company. But we are actually one of the largest electrical engineering and construction firms in the US. We employ roughly 3,000 people, plus or minus depending on the book of projects that we're working on, and our revenues are slightly above 2 billion in the last year. So, that's the scope of our company. And our work is primarily in the US.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: Yeah, and obviously a company of that size. I'm not calling you to rewire my air conditioner at home or anything. So what's maybe an example of a project that you might be working on?
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): I am sure we have people who can rewire your air conditioner, right? In fact, we have really become known for dealing with large, complex projects. And sometimes the kinds of projects we are in. We are actually sought out because not many organizations can handle those types of projects. So obviously, we build data centers, which is one of our biggest areas of projects that we work on. And there's a large demand, and there's a lot of scaling going on in various industries for places to store and manage data. Right? So data centers are an example of the kinds of projects that we have, and data centers come in all forms and sizes as well. We also do energy projects, so that can mean solar farms, battery storage, and, you know, when factories or commercial complexes. We are also, of course, in commercial, so big, large commercial complexes, as well as public infrastructure, like airports, water sewage systems, and you name it. Those are the kinds of projects we get involved in.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: How would you describe your company culture in just a few words?
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): Yeah, you know what binds us together culture-wise is probably first and foremost a love of the work that we do. There's reverence among us for being able to build the infrastructure that this country needs. And so these projects that I just talked about are really important to the growth and development of our nation and our society. So we feel really good that we're able to contribute to that. And the quality of the workmanship that we do. And oftentimes we talk about, we run to problems, and when we say problems, we say that generically. So we are builders, we are problem solvers, and we know this work that we do requires collaboration, collaboration among us, collaboration with other contractors involved in any project, collaboration with owners. So we're kind of a collaborative bunch. But we're also very into accomplishing big, great things, and we love to celebrate that. We work hard, we want to make sure we keep our people happy and safe and enjoy working with each other, and then we celebrate these accomplishments. So these are kind of very simple tenets to me. Like I describe it to people, it's just like everyday joy in your work. You know, we try to promote that, right? Like you feel good about the work you're doing, you're working hard, but you feel good about it, and you have a team of people to share that with.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: Estrella, I've written a bunch of books. I have an ear for language, and I was jotting down so many cool things like you talked about what binds us together.
What are some of the ways you foster or sustain this culture? Any unique rituals or traditions related to your culture?
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): Yeah, you know, that's a very interesting question. And I'm amazed at your ability to listen and pick out these words. I have a feeling you like poetry. So I'm actually going to back off your question a little bit, just to explain a little bit of context about as a Chief People Officer where I'm finding myself in. This is a great company that has been here for almost 70 years, and it has a solid culture. But in the last 5 years, it has grown so fast. So we're finding ourselves needing to figure out how to make sure we keep that culture intact because it's really the charm and the challenge that we're dealing with. To make sure that we can do that. So the kinds of things that we were doing won't apply now and in the future, and to be honest, we are seeing some signals that there may be exposure areas. Which is why, that's the job I have to think about. How do we do that? How do we preserve that? So there's a lot. To me, it means building systems in our people processes that enable us to decode what we mean by what it means to be here, like we just did work on employment branding. And as part of that process, we actually had to say, Hey, we're not for everyone. We, you know, there is a particular kind of person that will thrive here, that will love it here, and therefore will continue to support this culture. And some of the words I dropped in there when I talked to you earlier are a shortcut for who those people are. They're collaborative doers. So to me, that's an example of creating a mechanism for us to systematize how we talk about who belongs here and who will help us continue to build this organization and this culture.
We also are, like, in leadership. We're also beginning to try to decode who are these great leaders at CEI that are kind of legendary. People talk about what a great leader this person is, and there's a certain consistency about that, not necessarily in personality, but in how you experience that leader. And so we've also just developed a kind of a framework for how we think about the leadership mindset at Cupertino. And that will be kind of how we introduce ourselves, even though we're training about leadership. Everyone kind of trains on leadership, the same topics. But we're adding the specific flavor of how does that show up at CEI? And how do we expect you to demonstrate good interpersonal skills at CEI? You have to have this mindset that we just kind of decoded. So I'm a little bit in this pivot stage, so to speak, of. There was the old way where we did a lot of show apprenticeship. But that's not fast enough for the rate of growth that we're experiencing. So we have to create more systems in how we do things to enable that.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: Again, sticking with the language, it's actually LEADx, that's our whole position is too much of this work is one-off events, and we need to move to systems, continuous systems for culture and leadership and engagement.
70% of engagement is correlated to the manager, and front-line managers touch more employees than any other leadership group. What are some of the ways you develop your front-line managers?
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): Yeah, we're just starting on this. We just literally launched this. So we're sort of building the airplane as we go. And that's okay because we wanna learn from our leaders. And we wanna learn what's working or not. And we also have engaged our best leaders to help us think through this. So in the center of it, it's kind of matching that employment brand and the center. A summarized version of the mindset that we're promoting is what we call one team. And so that very much matches with this collaborative doer, right? Like, if you're a collaborative doer, you want to be in a team. You know, acts like a strong team, and the 3, and I won't go deep into that. You gotta have to go to our leadership development program. But the 3 tenets of that one team are our leaders are connected, meaning they are human leaders. They connect to you as a person. They connect to customers; they can, like, they're connected, and they connect people. And then they are accountable because, again, we pride ourselves in a project, we deliver. We do what we say. We're gonna do it on time, on budget, etc., and we are accountable to each other because that's important in a well-functioning team. And then the third aspect of that mindset is an adaptable mindset. It means resiliency; it means. And that's how this company grew, right? Like the construction industry constantly faces challenges. And so you really have to adapt to what your customers are wanting, and you have to adapt to where the industry is going, and you have to adapt to the societal shifts that are happening.
So those are mindsets that we want our leaders to uphold. And so we're trying to teach them another thing, that kind of going back to some of the things that you talked about. How do we retain that culture? You know, what I experienced here, and it's a great time to ask me this thing because I've only been in the company 2 and a half years, and I love the culture, but I'm still somewhat observant of it, too. I still have a little bit of that. The storytelling here is phenomenal. People tell stories all the time. And it's really kinda how we talk about what it means to be a Cupertino electric. What we think a successful great project is, what we think. You know a super project manager is like, how they dealt with this customer, how we dealt with this challenge with a Gc room like these stories just happen here all the time. And it's actually I'm learning about the business, right? I listen to all these stories, and so. But that's kinda how we help people understand. What is it here like? The first time I came here, they talked about, "Oh, you better be ready with your Halloween costume. Halloween is big here, and it was. But Halloween is. But it's kind of like our way to build community and come together and have fun. And I think it became that way because, you know, you could do a lot of things if you're in construction during that holiday season.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: I see a lot of robot costumes every October.
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): Not just that, it's pretty fun here. It's pretty fun. It's Halloween.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: Related to culture, are there any special initiatives or results you’re most proud of?
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): You know, I'm sorry to disappoint you. There's really nothing kind of like the silver bullet, and I've been promoting this to our leadership and leadership team and my own people team. What you really have to do is create an ecosystem. So it's not the only thing. It's not the leadership program. It's not just the EVP. It's not just how we recruit, but a lot of that has to happen all the time to be a consistent experience for people to promote our values, to promote our culture, to make sure we're rowing in the same direction in terms of what we're trying to achieve in the business, which to us, strategically, it's about responsible growth. And so you have to have enough in your ecosystem. When you're dealing with people, people are social by nature. It's not the one thing that happens to them. It's the thing that happens to them all the time, every day, right? And how that interaction is is part of what gets reinforced in their behavior. And how they collectively behave. So you really have to have enough programs in your ecosystem to keep. you know, singing the same tune and promoting the same types of behavior.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: Another keyword from this interview is going to be system. What book would you recommend that your colleagues read? (or podcast, video, etc.)
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): You know, my head of talent management and I were just talking about this. What is the podcast that we're gonna promote to our current leadership cohort? There is this podcast that I listen to called "Wisdom from the Top." You should probably listen to it. And it's by Guy Raz. I think with moving there, I forgot the producer. But what I love about it is he interviews just like you're doing. He interviews different leaders from different sectors, and some of them are academics, actually. And I love storytelling. That's my other thing, right? I learned so much from their stories. What I love about it is that it's like fieldwork. I myself, I'm a field practitioner. Right? So it's really real. And you learn a lot about leadership and the authentic storylines that various leaders have in their sectors, their experiences. There's a lot you can learn in each segment because they talk about their stories and their struggles and their successes and those hard lessons that they've learned. And at the end of the day, it goes back to, you know, leadership is about people, and it's a service, and it's you. It's the one I just listened to actually, yesterday said, it's an internal work coming out. Like you have to do internal work in order to do great external work. So anyway, each one has a nugget. I know you meant to be fast. Sorry.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: No, Estrella, that's great. It's great. It's a great podcast. And again, you just keep hitting on things like the storytelling thing. But what I keep telling people, especially when it comes down to leadership development, is you just talked about the inner work that then gets expressed externally, and I beg our clients. I beg everybody, it's like, do that real internal work, you know, whether it's the validated personality assessments and/or strengths and/or journaling and working with a coach. Whatever the different tactics are, great leaders have incredible self-awareness, and they realize like, I'm me, and you're you. So, you know, we all have our own natural styles and strengths, and it's not that my way is the right way. And then all the other caring and love and collaboration can come from there. It's really hard to get the other stuff right if you really don't have a good sense of self and your own leadership journey and everything else.
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): Right, and that's the key, it's a journey. If you're a leader, first of all, you have to remember, it's a service. It's a responsibility to others. But it does start with you, and you have to understand that you shape others, but they shape you too. And so who you are today may be different from who you are a year from now if you allow yourself.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: Let's hope so, right? I don't want to be the same me a year from now. Here's another one. So think back to the first day you became a chief people officer. You know, what's something you know today that you really wish the younger version of yourself knew back then, or if you could send a Slack message to the younger version of yourself or Teams message, whatever you're on, what maybe would be the advice you would give.
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): I have it here on my board.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: It's blurred out, so you'll have to read it to us.
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): Well, it says, "Think with your heart and love with your brain."
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: So unpack that.
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): So! You know the chief people officer job is tough. You're dealing with people, and people need love. But you are the strategist for people. So you have to think with your heart. You have to be rational about how you approach the softer side of organizations, but it has to be solidly grounded in thinking, right? Not reactive and not, and then love, love, love with your brain. So don't be so dogmatic about methods and things like that. But approach the work that you do with feeling and empathy and an understanding of the service and the contribution you're providing your community.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: It's great. That's a great mantra. We're talking. It's late October in 2023 right now. So you're already thinking about and probably have your 2024 planned out. What's maybe a priority for you and your team when it comes to the people stuff.
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): Yeah, you're right on. We just came from our strategic planning session earlier this week. And I was very delighted to hear that my colleagues, the heads of our operations and business, were very much understanding and realizing that we need to double down on the development of our workforce and that we need to be very proactive about developing the right talent to help us achieve it. There's a lot of opportunity right now in our business. And the limiting factor for our growth is actually our people capacity. So we're going to be busy getting those people, making sure they're on board, trained, ready to perform like great CEI folks.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: What excites you the most about your company right now?
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): I. We're actually growing fast across the country. So for me, the scaling and getting ourselves known in other parts of the country, because we're kind of known, at least in our industry, very known here in California. And we started going out. Now we have a bigger presence in the Midwest. So I'd love for us to really create awareness in all the right places of Cupertino being a great company to work for, and a great company to work with.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: Yeah, that sounds great. You've been generous with your time, generous with your advice, Chief People Officer of Cupertino Electric, Estrella Parker. Thanks for the time today.
Estrella Parker (she/her/hers): Thank you. I enjoyed it very much.