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The Build a Vibrant Culture Podcast explores the real-world strategies behind building strong work culture, improving organizational culture, and leading with clarity in todayās fast-changing business environment.
Hosted by leadership expert Nicole Greer, this podcast features conversations with business leaders, executives, and entrepreneurs who are shaping modern business culture through effective communication, leadership development, and intentional management practices.
Each episode delivers practical insights into leadership and business, including topics like team communication, project management, career growth, and creating workplaces where people perform at their best.
Youāll gain actionable tools, frameworks, and leadership skills you can apply immediately through coaching concepts, real-world examples, and professional development strategies, whether youāre a manager, executive, business owner, or emerging leader.
If you're looking for guidance on building a thriving organizational culture, improving communication, or advancing your leadership career, this podcast is designed for you.
Learn more about training, coaching, and courses at https://vibrantculture.com
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[00:00:00] Nicole Greer: Welcome everybody to the Build A Vibrant Culture podcast. I'm Nicole Greer and they call me The Vibrant Coach. And today I have an amazing guest on the show. Let me tell you about Luca Romano. Luca Romano is a seasoned business coach and executive leader with over two decades of experience in manufacturing, operations and leadership. Originally from Italy, Luca earned a master's in engineering management from the University of Bologna, and later an MBA in executive leadership. His career spans roles from plant manager to vice president of operations for global organizations, where he's learned firsthand the challenges of high pressure environments.
[00:00:38] Nicole Greer: After experiencing professional burnout and overcoming life-changing spinal cord injury, Luca discovered the transformative power of mindfulness, resilience, and authentic leadership. And I've been witness to all of those things. So today he combines his engineering mindset --don't miss that-- his business expertise, and his yoga practice to help HR professionals, rising talent and senior executives lead with confidence, clarity, and balance. His mission is simple: to guide others from stress and scarcity towards peace, purpose, and sustainable success. Welcome to the show, Luca. I'm so glad you're here.
[00:01:17] Luca Romano: Hi Nicole. Thanks for the great introduction. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:21] Nicole Greer: Yeah. you're welcome. You're welcome. Well, you know, here's the deal. You know, Luca and I have hung out together and we have talked about leadership. We, we get in a room for maybe even like a whole day, and then we still hang around, talk for another 45 minutes about leadership. We just love it. We can't get enough of it. And I will tell you that I have seen Luca personally build people around him, and I've heard stories of what a great leader he is. So I'm so glad to have him on the show. So let's start with the big picture, Luca. When you think about building a vibrant culture, what does that phrase mean to you and to your organization?
[00:01:57] Luca Romano: So the first thing that comes to mind when you say vibrant culture, I think about a place where people is as happy to come to work, where is excited to come to work, or at the very least, they don't dread about coming to work. So many places people hate to go to work, they feel that they have to provide for their families or whatever whatever needs they have to be at work, but it doesn't really fulfill them. When I think about a vibrant culture, I think two, two dimensions, if you would, that that define a vibrant culture so that. The vibrant part to me when I'm an engineer, like you introduced me. So vibration to me equals energy. So a place that is vibrant is a place where there's positive energy where energy spent to do good work, not spent to worry about your team member that is not performing, not worrying about can I get fired today because I don't really know the rules of this game. That's negative energy that I spent a lot of time running around in my head and realize that it drains a lot of the good energy that can lead to good results and positive work environment.
[00:03:09] Nicole Greer: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:03:10] Luca Romano: The other aspect that that is in the vibrant culture is the culture part. Which culture, if you think about, is an expression of us as human beings, as person, as what our values are, what our tra traditions, our language. And so to me cul culture really puts people at the center. So when I think about a vibrant culture is a place where the person is at the center of anything we do and. The energy that we generate is generated toward progress of the team or the individual and as a person and to ultimately achieve results. So, that's what I think about when I say vibrant, what vibrant culture is a place where the core values are shared among the people that, that come to work every day. Where communication is made to build, not to tear down. Where there's intentional opportunities for people to develop personally, professionally, to really achieve their goals and the dream when challenging work is assigned so that I can prove to myself, to my team member that I can do something maybe that I didn't think it was possible either alone or before my leader or the, the people around me found the courage to give me that. And the trust that I will deliver. So these are all things that to me, create a vibrant culture in an organization.
[00:04:36] Nicole Greer: Yeah, and I agree with you wholeheartedly. It's like about the energy, right? So the leader walks in and puts off a vibe and other people pick it up. And so we're either lifting people or we're kind of pushing them down. And I will tell you, Luca's, the kind of leader that is lifting and getting everybody lit from within.
[00:04:52] Nicole Greer: We have worked together at HYDAC in Denver, North Carolina. And I just had the privilege of working with you and a lot of your folks that work for you. And we've worked with the vibrant culture frameworks and so one of them is S.H.I.N.E.ā¢. And so just let me tell you all that are listening. That stands for self-assessment, habit work, integrity work, next-right-step work, and energy work. And so we've done that. We've. We've put the TiltĀ® in place over there as well as The Four Elements of Success. And then we've worked with TractionĀ® in the operating system, so what's the biggest impact any of that work has had on you and how, how are you gonna maybe take that forward? Because I know that you are gonna go out and be coaching and working with people.
[00:05:36] Luca Romano: I think you touched on all the three elements that you will help us work on. Like I said, I came to this organization from previous years and on my personal journey, I have to say that the S.H.I.N.E.ā¢ model, of course it wasn't formalized in the way you, you brought structure to it, but I really, it is two of my main, main pillars of what my philosophy in running a business or, you know, making a team better are your first and last letter. So, the first S.H.I.N.E.ā¢ stands for self-assessment. I truly believe that that's the start of any transformation, whether it is a team, whether it is a person. You have to know where you stand. You have to really...
[00:06:18] Nicole Greer: 100%
[00:06:19] Luca Romano: ...do the work on what are your triggers, what is that make you the best version of yourself and what gets in the way. Because, like you mentioned earlier, every time we walk in a room, we bring energy with us. If that energy is nervous, coming from fear, coming from feeling not adequate to the task, feeling-- the energy that we bring, it becomes contagious and it becomes a negative energy.
[00:06:45] Luca Romano: While if you've done a lot of work on yourself to understand when are you at your best, what is that can throw you off your balance, you put yourself in a much better position to really listen to the ones around you and really try to understand how you can help 'em and how you can change dynamics. For that, I think that's when you came in with TiltĀ®, which, to me, was really a very easy way to define what are the behaviors that we expect. What, what are the norms that, that regulate that organization? What is something that we accept and cultivate and work toward versus what doesn't serve us, right?
[00:07:26] Luca Romano: For each trait, there is the desirable one. And for each one of those desirable traits, there's also an overused trait or vice you define it sometimes, or an underuse. And so, I, I'll bring you an example. For example, being driven can lead very easily to aggressiveness if it's a trait is overused. While if it's underused it can lead to complacency. So being able to address an employee that might be so driven that it becomes bruising for the people around them. It's easy to use with a TiltĀ® model because you can clearly define what it means being driven, what it means, being aggressive, and what it means, being complacent. So that has been a really huge tool that you put in our toolbox. The other one that I really, very, very attracted to is the E of the S.H.I.N.E.ā¢, which is the energy component I, I mentioned earlier. I really think a lot about energy and how our mental energy, what it's spent on. And when I spend it worrying about somebody not doing their job or worrying about how am I gonna politic around this issue because I'm not, I don't have the courage to communicate, or, or if I have to communicate with a, with my, one of my peers, maybe they're too aggressive for me, for example, right? So that energy gets spent in ways that are wasteful. And so those are the two parts the S.H.I.N.E.ā¢ and TiltĀ® that I really. They come together beautifully for me in your model, and they speak to the heart, right? These are things that speak to the heart of, of a person.
[00:09:00] Luca Romano: The EOSĀ® is actually, I have to say that's really speaks to my engineering
[00:09:06] Nicole Greer: That's right.
[00:09:07] Luca Romano: Of my
[00:09:07] Nicole Greer: Gives you a system.
[00:09:08] Luca Romano: It's a system. Right. And, and I work with systems my whole career, but I never found one as powerful as, as EOSĀ®, simply because I found it very simple and very applicable to many, many industry. We, you know, we done work together. We follow EOS for the last probably 12 months at this point. We had great results in managing our teams and managing our organization, but I found myself recommending TractionĀ® as a book and, and talking about EOSĀ®. When I went on vacation in Jamaica, for example, I met the owner of a travel agency that a guy, there's a tour operator there, and I found myself promoting EOSĀ® with him because he was trying to grow his business and he was trying to figure out how can I have my employee know what I know? How can I share my vision right? That was his challenge. And to me it was became so easy to present to him the framework of EOSĀ®, because that's applicable to a manufacturing business, like we apply it day in, day out as well as somebody that does tours.
[00:10:08] Luca Romano: So I think those two, those three tools that you brought in, they're a beautiful package together. They complement each other and they build on each other.
[00:10:19] Nicole Greer: And so, don't miss what he said: "Nicole, you brought them in." But here's the thing, right? Is you need a leader on the other side who's gonna actually apply, apply, apply, apply these things, and just listen to what Luca's saying. He's like, I love TiltĀ®, because I got to see, okay, here's the beautiful trait. Here's what it looks like when it's overused. Here's what its like when it's underused. And for a leader to actually go through the training and apply it, that's where the rubber meets the road. So you are a Class A leader over there and have done great things. I'm just, I'm just real proud of all that.
[00:10:53] Nicole Greer: Now Lucas says, energy's really important to him and you talked in your bio about how this engineer in manufacturing who is a business coach and has been a yoga instructor. So let's talk about energy for just a second. I'm gonna take us off our, our, our list of questions for just a minute, because I think this is huge. Because let me tell you, everybody, there are six energies inside of us. There's intellectual energy, there's emotional energy, there's spiritual energy, physical energy social energy, and the energy of money. And employees need help with all six energies. So tell us a little bit real quickly about how you went down the yoga path and how that helps you in your leadership because both, both Luca and I are certified yoga instructors and we love it. Yes.
[00:11:37] Luca Romano: We do. I, I do, I do. And, and yoga for me, you know, this is a journey that I, I currently am on and I've been on for the last 10 years. What gave me what is this is being able to be in my center, being able to really understand my value, to really dig a little bit deeper into myself. We'll have maybe opportunities to dive a little bit deeper during this podcast. But, for example, one of my traits is I, I tend to be a people pleaser, right? So I tend to do things that please you even sometimes the detriment of my own...
[00:12:13] Nicole Greer: Oh, that's huge.
[00:12:14] Luca Romano: ...thoughts or my own beliefs. And so, without spoiling maybe the future, but applying that type of thinking I, I got fired from, from my previous job. Which was a great, it was a great thing. But it, it ended up being because instead of doing what I felt was the right thing to do, I was doing the things that my boss wanted me to do, and I didn't find the courage to really say, to object or give my opinion because I was afraid of disappointing. Right? I was, wanting to please, and I felt that maybe he knew better than I did. Right? And--
[00:12:49] Nicole Greer: Oh don't miss that everybody.
[00:12:50] Luca Romano: And then through yoga, I realized that those were all stories that I was telling myself to stay in my comfort zone. It was more comfortable for me to maybe say yes and resent than say no and have the courage of my conviction. And ultimately I gave up results because I wasn't doing from my heart, I was doing things because I was told to do them and they weren't coming out as good as if they were from my own heart. And many times they weren't simply just the right call because I had a much more close presence to the problem than maybe my boss had, and yet I went his way instead of my way be for fear of disappointing. I learned that that's energy that is not spent the right way. I learned that when I invest that energy in being confident in my position, not arrogant. You know, I always listen, I always bounce off ideas, but ultimately I really learned that it's much better to fail on my own than failing with somebody else's idea. So that to me is when it, what, what yoga brought me was this, being able to find my center, being able to find my clarity regardless of what I think others expect of me.
[00:14:10] Luca Romano: And I have to say, because I learned that through my previous job, the separation from a previous employer when I came to HYDAC in this new role, I had to learn that lesson and I started and I approached this new team and this new job in a completely different way, which paid off big time.
[00:14:28] Nicole Greer: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And positioning you for even greater things. That's so good. Yeah. So I didn't want to miss that. And you know, if you've never done yoga before, you. It's some kinda weird woowoo thing. You get on a map and twist yourself up like a pretzel or something. The truth of the matter is, is yoga it means to unite. That's what the actual word means. And which just is like bringing it all together and notice how Luca's talking about, he's more whole. 'Cause he's not being a people pleaser anymore. Right. He's, he's got that courage and he's doing things in a very cool way.
[00:14:58] Nicole Greer: All right. So everybody get on the yoga mat this week? I double dog dare you. All right. Okay. And double dog, downward dog, dare you. How about that? All right.
[00:15:05] Nicole Greer: All right. Our next question for you is you know, transformation is huge. Leaders need to be working on themselves constantly. They need to be working on their team members constantly. They need to be working on the strategy, the organization, the department they're in charge of. What's one visible change you've noticed in your team or organization since we kinda started working together? How have you transformed? How can leaders transform?
[00:15:28] Luca Romano: So I think, I joined a team that was driven by very aggressive personalities, I have to say. Which from a certain,
[00:15:36] Nicole Greer: I would agree.
[00:15:40] Luca Romano: So for, for certain aspects of running a business, aggressive personalities are needed, right? If you want your hunters, the ones that go look for business for you, maybe to be
[00:15:50] Nicole Greer: Oh, you gotta have business right?
[00:15:52] Luca Romano: You have to have business, right? So you have to have people that, that finds the reward in, in bringing in the prey home. But that aggressiveness was pervasive in our organization. So what that had created was that communication-- people were shying away from communicating with each other because there was a good chance that either you were blamed for something or there was something that you were criticizing for. So what that created, created even more the silos that are generally present in an industry between different departments, between, I don't know, engineering versus manufacturing versus sales versus quality. And so the, the end result is that people was not communicating. So to me, again, with the, with the S.H.I.N.E.ā¢, the TiltĀ®, the C3 and the structure, the EOSĀ® brought, that difficulty, those behaviors were immediately pointed out because now we had the language to discuss, right? We had the structure through a C3 to. State what the issue was, what, how it made us feel, and the consequence of that. Using the vocabulary that TiltĀ® gave us. So we were able to assess what behaviors we were wanting, which ones were foreign to us. We were able to define our core values so that we all align behind those behaviors, those traits that we want to share and we want to exhibit. And so through that structure that you brought and the language and the vocabulary that you gave us. Like I said, the TiltĀ® to the S.H.I.N.E.ā¢, we were able to really turn, turn the ship around and address those behaviors that weren't conducive to growth. And again, they were taking that mental energy. We were spending days just to figure out how to tell a colleague that what he was doing wasn't conducive to our business. Right? Instead of just communicating and move along. So that's that's been a big visible change that I noticed. The way we communicate became much more respectful, much more conducive to the business that we were doing. And I think that's probably what is exemplified in the five phases of a team? The forming, the norming the storming. Particularly injecting myself in the leadership team two years ago was a big change for the organization. So that created a new forming stage where those behavior that maybe before were not commonplace, weren't working for me, for example, personally. So that created some storming, some confrontation with, with my teammates to, to really offer a different way of communicating just to, to lead by example. To show that you don't have to be aggressive to achieve results, right? So that then we created these new norms that now we following and just, you know, at the end of the day, we are in business to make money, to perform. Just to give you a few numbers, I took over this factory with a 51% on-time delivery. We are closing this year, less than two years after, at 91%.
[00:18:58] Nicole Greer: Oh my gosh. Congrats Luca, that's epic!
[00:19:00] Luca Romano: So that was so much fuel for my team and for my organization to show that when we change the way we, we do business, we change the results and everybody wants to win. And so everybody jump on board to continue to do that and more because they see that now they went from being a team that was the worst division in the company to this year, we won the best division.
[00:19:25] Nicole Greer: Number one!
[00:19:25] Luca Romano: Yeah. So, so that, that makes my job much, much easier because at this point I don't have to push an agenda. I just have to show them that if we work in the way that I know works, if we treat people with respect, if we if we communicate formally and clearly we can, we can succeed as a team. And like I said, it's, it's a great energy that is going around now because now everybody's wants to continue to do that.
[00:19:53] Nicole Greer: Yeah, and what I want to just kind of add onto that is the folks at Luca's place at HYDAC in Denver, North Carolina it takes leaders who are willing to invest in putting their people in a room 10 times for four hours each time. Because the communication cannot improve if you don't put people in a different kind of space doing a different activity besides making, you know, the donuts. Right? And so, you know, Luca --don't miss this. He's running the entire manufacturing floor and he's figuring out how to run that entire manufacturing floor and letting key people go up to the training room and hang out for four hours at a time, you know? So his quality guys are off the floor and they're doing this work. And so what would you say to leaders about allowing people time? Because that's one of the biggest things I get is we don't really have time for you to train them, so can you do all this in one hour? And I'm like, no, that's not how it works. You've got to like, spend time together. So what would you say about that? Because you really pulled a rabbit out of the hat every time you sent 20 of your people up into the room with me.
[00:21:05] Luca Romano: I just do it. I just learn, in all these years. I see the difference in doing it and not doing it. So yes, I might save four hours today from doing training because I want to ship an order. Today I ship that order; tomorrow, I have the same issue that I had today. Instead, if I invest those four hours and do the training, yes, I might miss the order today, but I guarantee you that from tomorrow, every order will be on time because we figure out what the problem was. It takes a leap of faith. It really does. We all, as an intuition, understand that if you don't train your people, they will not perform. Right? But we don't find the courage to do that. We live in scarcity. We lead from fear and that doesn't produce the results that leading from a place of loving your teammate! If I spend four hours investing in you to get better. It's, yes, I improve my team, but I improve you as an individual. That improvement you will take forever with you. So I think that those are investments that are absolutely necessary. I hear a lot of time leaders also, well I won't train my welder into this certification because then they can be certified and can go and work somewhere else!
[00:22:21] Nicole Greer: Which is crazy talk, everybody.
[00:22:23] Luca Romano: It is! Because my job is, and, and it's, you know, one of the things that, that after we've been doing all this work together, me and you, I, I have to say, I have not lost one employee in my team that wasn't coached out.
[00:22:43] Luca Romano: And, and to me is massive because. If I focus on that, I don't have to worry about I'm, as I train you, I don't have to worry about you going and taking that training somewhere else because you will not leave, because I will give you the best place you can work at. And that's, I think what should be in the forefront of a leaders like, like myself, is are we creating the environment where our team is able to thrive and doesn't want to leave because we give them meaningful work. We train and we care for them. We listen to them. You know, a lot of people focuses on money. Money, yes has to be there, but I never found it a way to motivate people, to keep people engaged. Right? I keep people engaged seeing them, listening to them, giving them the opportunity to do what their dream is. Somebody might not be wanting to do the job they are today. Do I take the time to listen what they want to do tomorrow? Maybe find a way for them to achieve that dream and their result. So that's what I worry about. I don't worry about the four hours spent in training. Those are, those are a way that I keep you with me at. Performing at your best and and we all benefit.
[00:23:57] Nicole Greer: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, in, in that, in that training room, 'cause we went through I think two cycles of everybody to make sure everybody got through. And you know, I always kid about this, but there's always like three types of people in training. 'Cause the other thing that pops up is people say, well, I'm not sure my people want to go to training. You don't ask 'em if they want to go. You, you tell 'em that you're giving them a gift, you know? And we know, 'cause both Luca and I do training and coaching is that you're gonna have one person that comes, they're like, "Oh my God, there's training today. Yay!" And we call those people lifelong learners. And Luca and Nicole Greer are lifelong learners for sure. And then there's the second kind of person who's on vacation. They're like, "Is there gonna be lunch? If we finish early, can we go home?" You know, like they're just excited they don't have to do their regular job. And plus people need a break from their regular job. I mean, they need a day to step apart, to come back to it fresh. And then there's the third set of people, and I won't mention any names, but a couple of guys that work on your team, you sent them up to me and they've got their arms crossed and they're like, you know, "What the heck are we doing here?" And that kinda thing. But you know, sometimes people just have an image in their mind of what it's gonna be like. And then they actually end up laughing and having a good time and talking to their neighbor and getting to know their coworkers, and they're like, oh, this isn't what I thought it was gonna be at all. So, you know, sometimes you have to be a leader like Luca and put people in a position that they're uncomfortable in. Yeah.
[00:25:20] Luca Romano: And also when you do that, you also see. This is what I was saying, mentioning before, right? Sorry, mentioning earlier. If you give somebody something that is challenging for them, you do two things. I think one thing, you observe them and see are they stepping up to the challenge? Are they able to do this thing that I think they're able to do? So do they believe in themself enough to do it? But also you understand if they don't, if at the end of the training their posture is still this one, and maybe they're on their phone. I also know as a leader that that's not the person that I will invest--
[00:25:52] Nicole Greer: That's exactly right.
[00:25:54] Luca Romano: that I, that, that can lead my next generation of leaders because he's not, or she's not, not interested in it. Not everybody has to
[00:26:03] Nicole Greer: That's exactly right.
[00:26:04] Luca Romano: Be a leader, right? So let's just give an opportunity to everybody observe the ones that take advantage of that opportunity and develop those, and for the other ones. If you, if they can still contribute to the team, even not leading, great. You know, there's no need to, to, to, to coach 'em out.
[00:26:26] Luca Romano: But if then there's also behaviors that not only you don't want to listen to training, but also now you don't honor our core values, you don't behave the way we expect you to behave, then, then maybe those are more data points that can give us an hint that maybe that person will be happier in a different position or a different organization.
[00:26:47] Nicole Greer: That's right. That's right.
[00:26:48] Nicole Greer: So you've probably heard Luca say a couple times, "coach 'em out," so I want to just explain that real quick. So. You know, my leadership philosophy is if you work here, you're gonna contribute to these results we've outlined in our vision, and we're on a mission to do a certain thing, right? And so we have a mission statement, which is how we be on the way to where we're going, the, the vision. And then we have core values, which you know Luca and Michael and all of us got in the room for a day, right? And we threw spaghetti on the wall. What are our core values? And you guys worked on it, brought it back to the group, you know? But if people don't wanna be part of that, you, you don't wanna allow it to go on. So you coach them in, hopefully change their mind, bring 'em to your side, or they figure out, you know, this isn't for me and you let 'em go. So coaching in and coaching out is a big part of building a vibrant culture.
[00:27:43] Luca Romano: Yes, yes, yes.
[00:27:45] Nicole Greer: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:27:46] Luca Romano: And I think, you know, or maybe I can share a story?
[00:27:49] Nicole Greer: Yes, please. Please. Yeah. An example of walking the talk, yeah.
[00:27:52] Luca Romano: Yeah. An example of how we walk the talk, right, on this topic. So you know, there's no need to, to, to do, to make names, but there was one of my direct reports that also, Nicole, you personally coached that it was new to the managing two, managing a team of, of other engineers. Right. Some were his age, some of them much considerably older,
[00:28:12] Nicole Greer: Yeah. Which is a tough thing for young people. Right. To coach older folks
[00:28:15] Luca Romano: It is.
[00:28:16] Nicole Greer: Right.
[00:28:16] Luca Romano: It is. It is. I still remember my
[00:28:19] Nicole Greer: Doing it yourself. That's right.
[00:28:20] Luca Romano: Older, older, older colleague that I had to do a constructive criticism with. It was, it was really heavy on my heart. So I definitely shared the, the feeling that this report in HYDAC had when I start bringing up my observation of one of his reports not performing the way that I was expecting, right? So that create a lot of stress in this new manager because on one hand he had his boss, me, just trying to show him that his report wasn't, wasn't living up to our expectations, right? But in order for me to do that, I had to make it. It, this is a journey he had to do because I already done mine in, in my years, right? This is a learning opportunity for him. So what I did, I used your, well, first of all, we, we, we define our core values, right? So one of the core values, for example, was owning your work. So you have to own your work. You can't just do half of it and then expect into somebody else by magic picks up the other half, right?
[00:29:22] Luca Romano: So once we define this core value, then I was able to give my report a framework of this is a behavior that we encourage and expect. This is a behavior we don't want to foster, we don't want to cultivate, we actually want to correct. Right? So that was the first framework that it was able to start connecting the behavior of these reports to traits that we wanted or not wanted to have. So that that would already create some clarity for him to find what the misalignments were. When we introduced the C3 format, we gave him a structure way to address that. So it wasn't anymore emotional. It wasn't anymore a young person addressing an older person, a person with 10 years experience expressing somebody with 30 years of experience. He was, this is what I see you doing. This is the behavior. You didn't meet our standard, and this is the consequence. So that made. It became mechanical almost, which might sound not really applicable to a person, to a
[00:30:24] Nicole Greer: But it is a system to keep you safe, right? While you're giving feedback. It's like, I did it exactly like this, and I know I did it exactly like this, so it keeps you safe.
[00:30:34] Luca Romano: I love you, put in the safety because that create a safe space for my direct report to address something that was extremely uncomfortable for him. And all it took was that for this person to also understand that the company that he joined maybe 15 years ago wasn't the company that we are today and his place wasn't there anymore. So he quit. He just left. And as a consequence, my manager, my, my direct report learn how to address the difficult employee. And the best part of all is that removing this employee that wasn't performing allowed him to hire somebody that now was really aligned with our values because he used those values to interview the new person.
[00:31:17] Nicole Greer: Don't miss that!!
[00:31:18] Luca Romano: We used those values to make sure that the new person was a good fit for what we needed, and sure enough, he hired a person that now is performing beautifully
[00:31:27] Nicole Greer: Right. And it's a joy to work with this person. Yes. Yes. Instead of a pain in the rear end. Yes.
[00:31:32] Luca Romano: Yes. Instead of sucking this person mental energy every morning coming to work to see how am I gonna deal with this employee that is not doing what I'm expecting? Think how much energy you waste in your brain to do that. Rather than being able to use your drive to work to figure out how can I be of best service for my team today? How, what can I do to move this project forward today? What can I do to explain the vision rather than how am I gonna deal with this person that I don't want to talk to? Right?
[00:32:05] Nicole Greer: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:32:06] Luca Romano: We can only think one thought at a time, although we think millions of thoughts, not millions, but thousands of thoughts every day.
[00:32:13] Nicole Greer: we do, we do.
[00:32:13] Luca Romano: Day. If you are stuck in repeat or negative energy, your thoughts will always gonna be focused on that area. Instead of building, they'll be focused on something that doesn't create anything. It just stresses you out and It
[00:32:29] Nicole Greer: It creates a swirl. And darkness instead of vibrancy, right? Yeah. And, you know, and so that's a great example. Like just to put that everything together like that, that was a coach 'em in or coach 'em out. Like, you are doing this. Here's exactly when you did it the last time and it has consequences and so you need to stop doing this. And the person's like, forget it, I'm out of here.
[00:32:53] Luca Romano: Yeah.
[00:32:54] Nicole Greer: Good! Later. You know, catch you later. And
[00:32:57] Luca Romano: Yeah. I'm sure everybody's happier.
[00:32:59] Nicole Greer: Oh my gosh. Everybody's like doing a dance because this bad person inside of your company who's creating a little dark spot instead of a vibrant spot is gone. Yeah. Oh, that's so good.
[00:33:10] Luca Romano: That's another thing, for example, that's something else that I learned. You know, it took me many, many years to understand that sometimes when you part ways with somebody, actually, it's a gift
[00:33:21] Nicole Greer: Oh, a hundred percent.
[00:33:22] Luca Romano: Not only for yourself, but for the other person. Because a lot of times they also realize what they didn't like. They were dreading coming to work also. So you maybe give an opportunity to find something that is more fulfilling for them as well.
[00:33:35] Nicole Greer: That that's right. And you know, it needs to be like a 50, well, actually it's a hundred percent. A hundred percent. So let me talk about that real quick. You know, I almost said it was 50 50 and I corrected myself. Okay, so y'all I, I learned this from Pam Boney, who is the lady that invented TiltĀ®. She said, you know, in the work relationship the manager and the employee, they both have to bring a hundred percent of themselves. It's not like if you do your 50%, you know, 50 50. No. The leader, I'm gonna give you feedback, I'm gonna give you encouragement, I'm gonna send you to training. I'm gonna get my own act together. You gotta get your own act together. You gotta go to the training, you know, so it's a hundred, a hundred. And so this person was not bringing a hundred, that is for sure. And our guy was bringing a hundred or at least was trying to bring a hundred. So that's really important.
[00:34:22] Nicole Greer: All right, so you you guys did a lot of changing, using EOSĀ®, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, which I help people get installed in their businesses. TractionĀ®. But you had a few little pockets of resistance, you know, where people are like, I'm not sure. You know, I don't know. So every leader faces resistance to change. What challenges did you encounter when you guys began to shift things?
[00:34:45] Luca Romano: So that could be many story. I'll just tell you one that it was to me was, it was for the, for, it's interesting, I guess because it was more for the whole group of workers on the floor rather than one individual resisting change. Right. So when I joined this company, they were not in the habit of shifting labor based on where the workload was.
[00:35:07] Luca Romano: So if you have a job that your job is to drill this hole in this plate every day, all you do --well, all they used to do-- is I come in to drill that hole in that plate. If today there's no plate to drill, I'll just wait. If tomorrow there's three times as many plates as I can drill in a day, I'll, it'll take me three times as long to do it. Right, there was not cross training. Moving people around was not something that was in the DNA of the company. And to me it was strikingly a problem, right? I come from
[00:35:39] Nicole Greer: You're like, wait, what's going on here?
[00:35:41] Luca Romano: Yes, yes. And so and so the first thing I did was I said, we need to shift people around If today this department is busier than that department, move these people from department B to department A so that we can get the job done, and then tomorrow maybe we do vice versa. That created a lot of resistance because... well, the "because" I didn't know. The reason why I didn't know. And so the first thing I did was, I called for a plant-wide meeting. So I start to tell the manager and supervisor, okay, I want this group to shift from here to there. And the feedback was always negative. No, they don't want to do it. They don't feel comfortable. And so I said, okay, we need to address this. So I call a plantwide meeting with myself. First person there says, okay, let's address this. What, what the, what problem is? Like I started at the beginning, that to me, there's always a heart problem and a mind problem when I try to address the heart and I try to address the mind when I realize that the, that, that, the problems, you know, they're generally in those two areas or part on one part on the other, maybe some more skew, one side or the other, but they're generally in both, both aspects. So for the heart, I try to understand what was the problem. The, for example, the some problems they were bringing up is says, okay, I know the risks in my area. When you send me to a different area, I feel uncomfortable because I don't know what safety risks I may have. I say, ah, okay, I need to do training on safety.
[00:37:07] Luca Romano: Right, because it's a good point. These people is uncomfortable shifting because I didn't think about the fact that they might not feel comfortable working over there. So address that. Create a training program to say, okay, if I send you to department B, I'll train you first of all on the safety risks that you have in Department B. Then I don't want to go work for the leaders of department B because I like my leader in department A. Okay. Why are two leaders seen so differently? Why is one behavior, you know, why? Why do they so against this other leader that I'm sending them to? So that make me point the, the, the, the light to, do I have a common training for my leads? Do do they all treat their employee the same way? Do they all share the same value? So then I started, I introduced the lead training that, you know, I put together this training program for my group to make sure that everybody was on the same page. Everybody was treating the employee in the same way. And then, so then I, I address that aspect, right? And then I call him back and says, okay. You will be doing training, safety training before you go. I address the with the, with the manager. So we cross train the leads as well so that you can get best practices from each other. And then I address the mind part to explain them where I was coming from, right?
[00:38:22] Luca Romano: So to explain them, if I have department A is overwork and department B is downstream for that. If A doesn't produce enough, then B waits. Let's go to a, so they can all do double work in A and then go double work in B. So I give them a little bit, the more the, the engineer explanation if you want. And so I also explained that from my standpoint, when you can do more multiple jobs, you have more job security, you know, the market was to slow down and and so I tried to address the, the fears that they had rationally and emotionally to, to this shift. And I created a system that I could track so that, again, I go back more to the mind side. I created a tracking system to show for each employee how many hours of cross training they were doing in each of the other departments so that then you can also celebrate, hey, Mary is now able to do 10 jobs. She used to only be able to do three, so that then you give recognition to the person, you, you, you help to build their confidence and, and and at the end we end up with better results because I can flow the process better when I can move people, but they also feel more satisfied. And because they now, they understand more jobs, they understand the safety risks in different areas.
[00:39:36] Nicole Greer: They've got to be not as bored.
[00:39:38] Luca Romano: Yes, like in fact, I was going there, you mentioned it earlier, you know, if your days changes from time to time, you don't have to drill that plate every day
[00:39:45] Nicole Greer: Oh my gosh.
[00:39:46] Luca Romano: Right. It makes it a little bit more, the day goes by a little bit faster. So now basically a year into that, that's the norm. There's no more, I don't even have to talk about that. That happens automatically.
[00:39:58] Nicole Greer: That's right. You gotta institutionalize. That's so good. All right, so let's shine the spotlight on uh, leadership growth. How has your own leadership style evolved along the way here, you know, 'cause they gave me the top leadership team and then we worked our way to the team leads, right? So everybody got the same message, everybody got the same training, everybody was on the same page, which doesn't usually happen. Usually they bring me like in the middle. And I coach down, and then the people up here do not do what we're doing down here. So it's a big disconnect. So how did you uh, evolve through the process personally?
[00:40:38] Luca Romano: First of all, I've done what you just described in my previous jobs and realized it didn't work, right? So the, the, the senior VP saying, Hey, you guys have to do all this training, but I don't, I don't attend.
[00:40:50] Nicole Greer: Right. It's crazy.
[00:40:51] Luca Romano: I don't even know, I don't even know what you guys talked about.
[00:40:54] Nicole Greer: Yeah, you want know what we're talking about? Oh my
[00:40:56] Luca Romano: it doesn't work. It doesn't work. I mean, that's but that's so common, Nicole, because I think that that's, then you miss the first S of S.H.I.N.E.ā¢, right? The self-assessment, the self-reflection. I started this, this podcast saying, that, to me, i s foundational. You have to know what you do good, what you do bad. You have to start the. Yeah. On yourself to to, to grow and to be the best leader you can. If you don't, you will never, your organization will see through. You know, they will see through that you send them to training but you don't show up. They will see through that they get trained on something that you don't know what it is. So then everything falls apart, right? Already, as leaders, we are always in the spotlight. People, always looks what we do, what we say, how we behave and we act. And if we give excuses or reasons for people not to follow what we want them to do, they won't do it. And so I think what the big difference maybe with us --and you found in me fertile ground for this type of leadership because I also truly, truly believe in it. And so I was fortunate enough to have a position in the company that allow me to have influence, and so to be able to really show up your work and, and leverage your work, because you're right, when I joined the company, everybody, at least on paper, had the same values. All I had to do was to put 'em back in front of them and says, Hey, we agree that you don't yell, right? How come you yell? So that was, that's to me what made the, the power of the change that we, me and you brought to, to this organization is we think alike a lot. And so I, I really found you've done the groundwork for me. All I had to do was just pick it up and continue because I believe in the same values you believe in.
[00:42:46] Nicole Greer: Yeah.
[00:42:47] Luca Romano: That's been the power of what we have done together. I came to that through years maybe, maybe just like you or through years of mistakes, of errors, of seeing it done differently. I was, I mentioned earlier, being fired, the work because I was burned out and I wasn't at the courage of my conviction. So then I had to part ways because I wasn't doing any good to my team anymore because I, I wasn't doing good for myself, so I had to find my center again.
[00:43:15] Luca Romano: I had to find my confidence. I had to really understand and realize that I am capable, I am valuable. I have a lot of good things to offer, and I just. Had to find the courage of the conviction and then being able just to start a new role without the baggage of the previous ones, without the people pleasing, without not feeling up to the task. Just coming with the confidence that I will try to do my best every day and hopefully it's enough. And, and it was, I mean, it is and, and, and it is so much more than that because not only I'm able to bring a company that was bruised and under really a lot of pressure because they weren't performing from 51% on time delivered to 91. But also I have now, I found the confidence of trying to venture in this new business, the manufacturing coach, trying to help others along this journey that I did myself to, to help a lot of leaders that I find that I see, that I work with that are. Very much stress, very much in reaction. And they make their own lives and the lives of the ones around them, not as good as they can be. And I am sure the results also suffer.
[00:44:28] Nicole Greer: You're gonna do so much good work because, if you don't remember what we said at the beginning with his bio, he's got the the heart and the mind, the Yoga United, right. And then he's got the the great degree in engineering, a master's in leadership and I'm just saying y'all, he's gonna do great stuff in manufacturing coaching. Well, we are at the bottom of the hour. So, you know, I know my leader, my people are listening. They're like, wait, we want to hear one more nugget from Luca. What's one piece of advice you'd give someone who wants to start creating their own vibrant culture in the workplace? What, what advice would you give?
[00:45:03] Luca Romano: I mean the, the, the easiest one is hire Nicole, that's.
[00:45:07] Nicole Greer: Well, that's sweet. Or invite us both to come in, right?
[00:45:11] Luca Romano: Or invite us both. Yes, we can definitely help. I go back to the heart and mind, you know, really find your center. Take responsibility for the energy you bring to work every day for the, the, the energy you, you emanate. So that is the right one. That is the positive one. That is the one that builds, not the one that tears down and create a place where your employee feel heard and seen that they feel that they can pursue their dream. They can go home and tell something to their spouses that made their day that they were proud of. Cultivate the heart, yours and the ones of, and the one of the ones around you. And the other one is the mind. Provide structure.
[00:45:55] Nicole Greer: Yes.
[00:45:56] Luca Romano: Create those core values and honestly, I heard about core values my whole career and I never, always thought, ah, yeah, it's a, you know,
[00:46:04] Nicole Greer: Whatever.
[00:46:05] Luca Romano: It's, yeah, right. Whatever. It's like mission, the vision. Yeah. You can come up with some good words, but what do you do with them? I've been using them to, to
[00:46:13] Nicole Greer: that's right. They're a tool
[00:46:14] Luca Romano: the business.
[00:46:14] Nicole Greer: Yes.
[00:46:15] Luca Romano: To run the business. I really, those are the, those are the litmus test for, is this what we're up for? Is this what we're about? And, and that was so, so powerful. So when you create when you create a structure that is the core values, the, the level 10, the TractionĀ®, what, when everybody knows what the expectations are, everybody can spend, again, their energy into delivering work instead of worrying about the boundary conditions of their work. And and it also makes it much easier to spot when something is out of sync, when, when, when there's a behavior that is not the one we want. It's so easy to spot because we define what we want. So those are the two things I keep, I continue to, to advocate this heart and mind partnership if you want. That's what I will bring to, to our leaders today. Something to reflect on.
[00:47:10] Nicole Greer: Yeah. So, don't miss what he said at the beginning of that last little bit. You know, he's like, I'm working on my own heart and mind, and then I can help the others, right? So it's it's a such a beautiful image. All right, Luca, if somebody wanted to get ahold of you, they wanted to have a coaching session with you, they wanted to learn about leadership, how would they do that?
[00:47:27] Luca Romano: So I have you can see here I have on my, on my side, I have a website that is called the The Manufacturing Coach, as is manufacturing-coach.com. You can find my contacts, you can find the service I provide, which is leadership coaching. I do employee training just to again, help leaders like me, like myself, maybe navigate those, those difficult periods in their career and how to help 'em to find clarity for themselves and then reverberate that to the ones around them.
[00:47:57] Nicole Greer: That's so good. All right everybody, it's been another amazing episode of the Build A Vibrant Culture podcast, and we've had the amazing Luca Romano. I hope you had your pen out and you were taking notes, but if you didn't, just dial up Luca and look him up on his website. Thank you so much, Luca, for being on the show.
[00:48:15] Luca Romano: Thank you for having me Nicole. Pleasure as usual.