Recently Tom Walter of Tasty Catering sat down and shared some thoughts with the Center for Values Driven Leadership about his evolution away from from a Command and Control Management style over the course of his career. Tom (and Jamie Pritscher of That’s Caring and Tasty Catering) were kind enough to share some of their thoughts with us about this same evolution from the perspective of building a Small Giant. Check out the video clip and then enjoy the interview below. –(H/T to the Center for Values Driven Leadership for the original video.)
Small Giants Community: What was the biggest challenge to changing your leadership style away from “Command and Control?
Tom Walter: Changing from 30 + years of a personal “management’ style to learn team based, culture led leadership was the biggest personal challenge. To continue to lead, I had to go through what Joseph Schumpter called “creative destruction”. The result was a personal in-depth study of what younger people were being taught in universities with regard to leadership. I trusted our younger people that had advocated change. I believed in their morals, ethics and abilities. But I needed to study generation integration, organizational behavior and emotional intelligence to be able to properly understand how I could continue to be an effective leader.
Small Giants Community: Who are some of the leaders you emulate when it comes to leadership style? What traits do you admire the most in each?
Tom Walter: Reading the biographies of great military leaders during my teen years was a major influence. General Joe Stillwell led his men on a brutal march during WWII. His aides suggested that he ride in a jeep to preserve his health. He said “I am not going to ask my men to walk one more step than I“, or something to that effect. He saved thousands of men because he led by example. That is an example of the messages that were retained from the biographies.
While not necessarily leaders, Machiavelli, Peter Drucker, Immanuel Kant, Descartes, Thomas Aquinas and Rousseau provided insight into the importance of leaders who were responsible for their followers and in some cases, responsible for the ethical and moral behavior of their followers. Their approach to the responsibility of leadership as opposed to the privileges of leadership was quite impactful to my leadership “style”.
Small Giants Community: What advice would you give for a leader who is struggling to overcome similar issues to what you overcame?
Tom Walter: As the market place has shifted during the past 40 years, so has the role of a leader. Managers are not respected to the same high degree as leaders. Young workers want responsibility, not orders. If a leader continues to extend and defend what worked for them the past X amount of years and does not understand their evolving workforce, they will soon become as significant as an 8 track player. Leaders should focus on employee engagement and the employees will focus on the rest.
Small Giants Community: Do you have any additional resources that would be of benefit for leaders taking on this challenge. (Good to Great, addt’l books, sites?)
I recommend all of the books written by authors connected with Small Giants. They seem to have a commonality of how important ethics and character are in business. I enjoy the books by Jim Collins and Patrick Lencioni. Most business books are just variations on a theme of the great philosophers, so my suggestion would be to read the condensed versions of renowned philosophical works.
-- The Small Giants Community
BONUS: We asked one of Tom’s employees about his change as leader. Here’s a voice from inside the organization that witnessed the change first-hand.
Small Giants Community: What was the biggest impact for you as an employee in Tom’s leadership style change?
Jamie Pritscher of That’s Caring, NuphorIQ and Tasty Catering: It was not easy for Tim Walter and I to point out to Tom that he needed to change, but we knew it had to be done for the betterment of the team and ourselves. No one wants to go to work to be micromanaged. Therefore, when Tom and the Walter brothers changed away from the “Command and Control” leadership style, there were several positive impacts on the team and myself. For starters, this change empowered the team to make decisions and get things done. It took a little while for everyone to adopt this new leadership style, but once it was established and clearly understood by everyone that “each person get’s their say, but not necessarily their way,” people began to speak up to express their ideas and current frustrations. The atmosphere moved from one of apprehension and tip-toeing around Tom to a culture where ideas were expressed, productivity spiked and the environment was a much happier place to be.
In addition to the empowerment it brought to all of us, this change showed me that even in his “Command and Control” style, Tom was an excellent leader that I strived to be like. For Tim and I, it took a lot of courage to tell Tom he had to change, but it took more courage on Tom’s part to listen and accept the challenge to change. Accepting and actively seeking a change was the first step in the team seeing the culture take shape. This showed Tom’s level 5 leadership traits to lead by example. This is something that has stuck with me forever – knowing that a 60-year-old man who was very set in his ways choose to change for the betterment of the company and its people. That’s a powerful example that would make anybody want to be a better person!
DOUBLE BONUS: Want to meet Tom and Jamie? Plus other great leaders with a passion for building great companies? Join us at the Small Giants International Summit in San Francisco this June. (June 28 – July 1 at the Le Meridien) Get more of Tom’s story, how it’s affected the development of Jamie’s own company (That’s Caring) and lots of different perspectives on what it takes to create a company destined for something greater than profit. (You know…Things like fulfillment, purpose, community impact and the like. ) Register for the Summit here
Small Giants Community: What was the biggest challenge to changing your leadership style away from “Command and Control?
Tom Walter: Changing from 30 + years of a personal “management’ style to learn team based, culture led leadership was the biggest personal challenge. To continue to lead, I had to go through what Joseph Schumpter called “creative destruction”. The result was a personal in-depth study of what younger people were being taught in universities with regard to leadership. I trusted our younger people that had advocated change. I believed in their morals, ethics and abilities. But I needed to study generation integration, organizational behavior and emotional intelligence to be able to properly understand how I could continue to be an effective leader.
Small Giants Community: Who are some of the leaders you emulate when it comes to leadership style? What traits do you admire the most in each?
Tom Walter: Reading the biographies of great military leaders during my teen years was a major influence. General Joe Stillwell led his men on a brutal march during WWII. His aides suggested that he ride in a jeep to preserve his health. He said “I am not going to ask my men to walk one more step than I“, or something to that effect. He saved thousands of men because he led by example. That is an example of the messages that were retained from the biographies.
While not necessarily leaders, Machiavelli, Peter Drucker, Immanuel Kant, Descartes, Thomas Aquinas and Rousseau provided insight into the importance of leaders who were responsible for their followers and in some cases, responsible for the ethical and moral behavior of their followers. Their approach to the responsibility of leadership as opposed to the privileges of leadership was quite impactful to my leadership “style”.
Small Giants Community: What advice would you give for a leader who is struggling to overcome similar issues to what you overcame?
Tom Walter: As the market place has shifted during the past 40 years, so has the role of a leader. Managers are not respected to the same high degree as leaders. Young workers want responsibility, not orders. If a leader continues to extend and defend what worked for them the past X amount of years and does not understand their evolving workforce, they will soon become as significant as an 8 track player. Leaders should focus on employee engagement and the employees will focus on the rest.
Small Giants Community: Do you have any additional resources that would be of benefit for leaders taking on this challenge. (Good to Great, addt’l books, sites?)
I recommend all of the books written by authors connected with Small Giants. They seem to have a commonality of how important ethics and character are in business. I enjoy the books by Jim Collins and Patrick Lencioni. Most business books are just variations on a theme of the great philosophers, so my suggestion would be to read the condensed versions of renowned philosophical works.
-- The Small Giants Community
BONUS: We asked one of Tom’s employees about his change as leader. Here’s a voice from inside the organization that witnessed the change first-hand.
Small Giants Community: What was the biggest impact for you as an employee in Tom’s leadership style change?
Jamie Pritscher of That’s Caring, NuphorIQ and Tasty Catering: It was not easy for Tim Walter and I to point out to Tom that he needed to change, but we knew it had to be done for the betterment of the team and ourselves. No one wants to go to work to be micromanaged. Therefore, when Tom and the Walter brothers changed away from the “Command and Control” leadership style, there were several positive impacts on the team and myself. For starters, this change empowered the team to make decisions and get things done. It took a little while for everyone to adopt this new leadership style, but once it was established and clearly understood by everyone that “each person get’s their say, but not necessarily their way,” people began to speak up to express their ideas and current frustrations. The atmosphere moved from one of apprehension and tip-toeing around Tom to a culture where ideas were expressed, productivity spiked and the environment was a much happier place to be.
In addition to the empowerment it brought to all of us, this change showed me that even in his “Command and Control” style, Tom was an excellent leader that I strived to be like. For Tim and I, it took a lot of courage to tell Tom he had to change, but it took more courage on Tom’s part to listen and accept the challenge to change. Accepting and actively seeking a change was the first step in the team seeing the culture take shape. This showed Tom’s level 5 leadership traits to lead by example. This is something that has stuck with me forever – knowing that a 60-year-old man who was very set in his ways choose to change for the betterment of the company and its people. That’s a powerful example that would make anybody want to be a better person!
DOUBLE BONUS: Want to meet Tom and Jamie? Plus other great leaders with a passion for building great companies? Join us at the Small Giants International Summit in San Francisco this June. (June 28 – July 1 at the Le Meridien) Get more of Tom’s story, how it’s affected the development of Jamie’s own company (That’s Caring) and lots of different perspectives on what it takes to create a company destined for something greater than profit. (You know…Things like fulfillment, purpose, community impact and the like. ) Register for the Summit here
