Category Archives: Pat’s Leadership Blog

John Maxwell, one of our country’s experts on leadership, may have written one of the most insightful comments on leaders when he wrote, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

The best leaders I ever worked with cared.

I believe when those whom you are leading know you care, they will go the extra mile for you. In every workplace problems arise and some of them require immediate attention with a short timeline to be addressed. When working until midnight is necessitated, those who work with leaders who care roll up their sleeves and gladly work till midnight.

On the other hand, when you are working for leaders who are self-centered and care only about themselves and their legacy, there is only one reason you would stay until midnight. If you did not you would lose your job. You would definitely not do so gladly!

I have been fortunate to work for some outstanding leaders who truly cared, and unfortunately, for some who led in title only. Their title made them the leader and that was how they led. They were the boss and they had all the answers. You were subservient to them and they made sure you knew your place.

The only way I think you can work for the leader who doesn’t care is to convince yourself you don’t work for HIM. You work for the betterment of the school, the business, or the organization. You especially work for the people whom you are leading and you do all you can to serve them.

If you are working for the uncaring leader I believe you come to work with one of two emotions – you arrive angry or down. It is not until you accept the fact that you do not work for HIM, but for those whom you serve, that you can come to work with a positive attitude. The only other alternative is to leave.

The opposite is true when you work for the leader who cares. You respect and appreciate him or her so much that you don’t want to disappoint. You gladly go the extra mile.

One of the greatest leaders I have ever been around was Gordie Gillespie. He had an incredible capacity to care for those whom he led. In his coaching career, we believe he coached somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 athletes and somehow cared for and loved everyone of them. You had to be there to believe it. It was one of those things you could not put into words, but you knew it when you saw it.

Bishop Roger Kaffer had that very same caring attitude. As principal of Providence High School, he visited the homes of every new student to our school – every freshmen and every transfer – annually. I have never heard of any principal ever doing this. He didn’t have to tell anyone he cared; his example validated it.

Dr. Jack Orr, as president of the College of St. Francis, made it a policy to attend the wakes of the parents of our students even when he did not know the student. In his capacity as president, he could not possibly know all of our students but he was there for them at one of, if not the most difficult, time of their lives.

Leaders who care don’t talk about it; they do it.

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” A concept for leaders to reflect on.

Larry Eisenberg wrote, “For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the universe.”

Norman Vincent Peale wrote, “The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”

I think these two comments may deserve consideration by leaders.

Leaders are constantly striving for success in whatever arena they work in. Coaches want to win games, businessmen want to better the last quarter, clergy want to inspire their congregation, lawyers work to win their cases, and doctors want to save all their patients. Whatever venture we work and live in, we want our efforts to succeed.

Vince Lombardi used to stress to his Green Bay Packer teams this maxim, “Pursue perfection and you might catch excellence.” When you caught excellence you won games, you attained success.

This is what leaders do. They do hope for excellence and success and they should absolutely work to accomplish these goals. However, if success comes, we have to be careful that it doesn’t arrive with arrogance.

It seems to me that whenever my teams had success and I felt I had it all figured out, that I was the general manager of the universe, the roof tended to fall in. One year in my high school coaching experience, we started the season at 10-1, losing only to the previous year’s Iowa state champion by one point. We were the smallest school in our area and we had defeated all the bigger schools.

Due to our success and because I thought I was a pretty darn good coach, my arrogance led me to look at our next two opponents differently. They were not the quality teams we had just beaten and there was no question but that we had better talent than them. So, I told our players I was going to let up a bit in the week’s practices.

On a Friday night we played at home and a team with lesser talent came into our gym, totally out-hustled us, and gave us a sound beating. We were all so surprised we lost, we didn’t compose ourselves for Saturday’s game and went on the road and lost again to a team that did not have our talent.

This was a great lesson for a young coach. We had achieved success, we were the talk of the area, and I got to thinking we would win by just showing up. I failed to continue to push my players toward excellence, to do the things that got us off to a great start, and we paid for it. You cannot let success and your arrogance ever override work ethic.

Just as we have to be aware of the pitfalls of success, we also must be aware of the downside of too much praise. The two do go hand-in-hand. With success comes praise.

After learning my lesson to accept that neither I nor my teams were invincible, I came to this conclusion on praise and would share it with my athletes. I would tell them they had to understand that when the newspapers wrote great things about them that two days later readers had the newspaper on their kitchen floor and dogs-in-training could very well be urinating on their name…and my name! Take it all with a grain of salt!

The final thought on being general manager of the universe and praise is that in the last analysis it is never about “me,” it’s always about “us.”

Gordie Gillespie was the best coach I have ever met. I worked with him for twenty-five years and never once heard him talk about his coaching acumen. 

Stuart Wilde in his book, Weight Loss for the Mind, had an insightful thought on adversity when he wrote, “When faced with adversity buy the solution versus the emotion.”

As I look back I don’t believe I did the above. Initially, I bought the emotion. Mark Twain once wrote that when bad things happen, “Count to ten then swear.” I think I reversed this advice. I swore, then counted to ten and probably swore again! The Irish are prone to act this way.

I wish I had read Wilde’s book while I was still working and concentrated on solutions when adversity came my way. A business man for whom I have great respect told me when someone in his organization angered him, he immediately wrote a letter to him.  More often than not his letter had a very angry tone to it. He then tore the letter up and re-wrote it the next day when he had time to rid himself of the emotion and began considering the solution.

There were times when I combined the emotion with the solution and I still believe that combination was a good one. Our university was on Christmas break so the dorms were open. Because I coached basketball and we had games scheduled during the three week break, our players stayed on campus for a good portion of the break.

One morning our maintenance men came to me and said there were beer cans in the hallway where our players were staying. Obviously, my first reaction was anger. The university was allowing us to stay in the dorms so the athletes did not have to drive into practices and we showed our appreciation by littering the dorm with beer cans. I reached my solution as soon as I walked into the dorm and saw all the trash in the hallway.

I immediately knocked on every door, got all of them out of bed, and made them clean the hallway. When they finished their cleaning, I threw all of them out of the dorm for the remainder of the break. I believe this was one incident where the solution could be integrated with the emotion.

This action by our players was definitely not the norm. We prided ourselves on the behavior of our kids on road trips. We wanted their rooms in good order before we left hotels and we would tell them the people who clean the rooms are our people. We generally don’t interact with the hotel owners; we interact primarily with the hotel workers. This was normal behavior of our players. I could not count the times when the hotel people said they hoped we would be returning to their hotel because of the respect our guys showed to all hotel personnel.

We needed to expand our weight room for our current student-athletes in our 14 programs and to show future recruits a much better facility. I was hoping the administration would pay for the expansion. When I presented the need, they agreed but said we had to raise $10,000 if we wanted the work done. So, my first emotion was disappointment. Then our coaches and I developed a golf outing even though we had little to no knowledge of how to initiate it.

Our solution was to bring in people who knew the intricacies of a golf outing and then get to work. Our first year we profited $20,000 and grew that to $50,000 three years later. The golf outing continues to this day and enables the athletic department to better serve the student-athletes.

We initiated football to enhance our enrollment, especially on the male side, because we had been an all-women college. We were members of the NAIA at the national level. Our coach, Gordie Gillespie, initiated the football program with a winning season and we continued to win. Our problem then became scheduling because teams did not want to play us. We were going to lose the sport and lose 80 students if we couldn’t get into a conference.

No NAIA conference was willing to accept us because they knew we had built a successful program in a short period of time. We were called by an NCAA Division II conference who was willing to accept us. This meant our entire program had to abide by both the NAIA and NCAA rules for eligibility. While our other sports could stay with their NAIA schedules, basketball had to play one half of its schedule against DI or DII schools.

As the Athletic Director, I knew we had to do this to retain our 80 male student-athletes. As the basketball coach, my first emotion was fear. We had just come off three 20-plus winning seasons and I feared we could not compete against DII teams. We did end up competing with those schools and the higher level of competition made us stronger in our NAIA conference. The emotion was fear; the solution was just go compete.

When I worked at Providence High School, the diocese made the decision to close our school due to financial concerns. The emotion of the students, faculty, and parents was twofold – anger and deep sadness. The solution was for all constituencies at our school to band together and prove to the diocese that we could make it financially and that we were a very solid school from an academic and extracurricular vantage point. We won the fight because we quickly dropped the emotions and ran with the solution. Providence has an enrollment of 1,100 students today.

Had I read Wilde’s book prior to my retirement, I believe I would have dropped the emotion sooner and bought the solution much more quickly…..Something for leaders to consider.

What a year for the Chicago Cubs!

What a great World Series! Down 3-1, the Cubs won one at home then went on the road to win the final two games.

Manager Joe Maddon had a mantra during the year that leaders might want to consider, “Don’t let the pressure exceed the pleasure.”

The batters in baseball, especially when they’re in a slump, can really squeeze that bat and tense up. The pitchers can try so hard to throw strikes that they start to aim the ball instead of throwing it. The pressure leads to frustration and the players cannot relax and get into a flow where they just let it happen. Maddon’s emphasis on pleasure along with his example of staying loose may very well have allowed the players to relax and just let it happen.

I don’t know if anyone has the correct answer to getting into the flow, but I do believe if the pressure leads to your being stressed all the time, you will never get into the flow.

I pitched in college and in semi-pro baseball. I definitely remember trying so hard to throw my fastball that it must have looked like a basketball when it got to the hitters. I can also remember nights when I was in a flow and relaxed and had good velocity.

Leaders have to be tough and demanding if they want to get results. They have to critique those who report to them. How can leaders critique the work of their team and still have them keep a positive attitude? Four thoughts that may keep the team enjoying the pleasure of their work as opposed to giving into the pressure of the work:

In their outstanding book, The One Minute Manager, authors Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson stress that when critiquing, the leader wants to develop the habit of critiquing the action, not the person. Constantly criticizing the person leads to stress and pressure. Criticism of the action is appreciated by the worker and can lead to his taking pleasure in the improvement of the quality of his work.

In his book, Instant Replay, about one of the championships of the Green Bay Packer teams, author Jerry Kramer states that Coach Vince Lombardi was relentless in his striving for excellence in practice. One of his favorite sayings was, “Chase perfection and you might catch excellence.” Although Lombardi definitely could be harsh in his criticism, Kramer states that it was not uncommon for the coach to to critique the performance of a player during practice and, after practice, put his arm around the player and tell him one day he was going to be a great player in the NFL. He critiqued but then he added praise.

Morgan Wooten, one of the best high school basketball coaches in the country, believed in the “Sandwich Theory.” This theory advocates praise, critique, praise. You are getting your point across to your team member but you are affirming the player’s value through the praise.

Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal, in their book, Leading with Soul, emphasize the importance of celebrations. When a goal is reached, most especially a challenging goal, get your team together and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Your people have worked hard to accomplish this goal and their work should be acknowledged and celebrated.

Please consider the four above thoughts in your leadership roles as they may help your organization to not let the pressure exceed the pleasure. It surely worked for Joe Maddon!

Herm Edwards, a former NFL player and coach and current ESPN football analyst, was recently talking on the Mike and Mike show about players who were interested versus players who were committed. He emphasized how important it is for coaches to have committed players on their teams.

We have heard the bacon and eggs story that examines these two words stating that the chicken was interested but the pig was committed. From what I have seen, the same can be said for leaders. I have worked with some leaders who were interested and others who were committed.

Those who were interested seemed to be more interested in themselves and their title. They were not committed to making the organization the best it could be. However, they did want everyone to know that they were the leader.

The interested leader tends not to respect the dignity of those whom he leads. In fact, he does not hesitate to let them know that they are beneath him. He may even take it to the level where he makes fun of his subordinates in front of others. He does not know the difference between humor and hurt and actually thinks it is humorous to demean his subordinates.

The interested leader tends to be aloof. He doesn’t put his heart into his work. That would be beneath him as he is above everyone else and showing his heart would make him vulnerable.

The interested leader often bullies his subordinates intellectually. He does this to show them that they are second class when it comes to intellect. Every chance he gets, he attempts to show his superior intellect.

The interested leader surrounds himself with “yes” people. Those who work most closely with him must be loyal to HIM. He listens very little to them because he already has all the answers. There is no reason to examine their insights because the only thoughts that matter are his.

In the final analysis the interested leader is insecure and hides that insecurity by putting others down.

On the other hand, the committed leader knows first and foremost that she / he does not have all the answers. They always puts the organization above themselves. It’s not about her / him; it’s only about making the organization the best it can be.

They show respect for everyone in the organization. No job is too small for her / him not to be interested in the person and their work. It is not uncommon for them to walk through the work place and to know the names of the people who have the least important positions in the organization.

The committed leader wants people to challenge her / his positions. The last thing they want is “yes” people. They listen actively to those they surround themselves with because they know that you never know where the best ideas will come from.

The committed leader gives all the credit away. They are comfortable with their leadership role and want their people to be recognized for all they do for the organization.

The committed leader is a worker! She / he is highly respected for their work ethic and their people follow this example. They do all they can for the organization because they don’t want to let the leader down.

The committed leader cares about people far beyond the narrow confines of a work place. She / he does all they can to help their people and their families, especially through the tough times.

I have worked for both of these leaders in my career. I found that you consistently give all you have for the committed leader because you have so much respect for this person. The only way to survive the interested leader is to realize you don’t work for him. You work for the people you are serving.

I recently gave a keynote presentation at the University of Notre Dame’s “Play Like A Champion Today” annual conference. This program is exactly what athletics needs today as its mission is to utilize athletics to foster character.

The Play Like A Champion Today program states the following on its website:

“In 2006 F. Clark Power, a Notre Dame professor of Psychology and Education, founded Play Like A Champion Today. He was concerned about what he felt was a crisis in youth sport, including win-at-all-costs mentality, misguided pressure on young athletes, cheating and bullying, and ‘sports rage,’ to name a few.”

Power and Kristin Sheehan, director of the program, worked with Notre Dame faculty, coaches, and administrators to develop a “character-focused curricula” that they shared at coach and parent workshops around the country. To date, they have educated 75,000 coaches and parents, who have worked with more than a million young people.

I believe this program emphasizes what sport should be all about – teaching character.

Mike Ditka once said about the 1985 Bears that they did have a lot of characters, but then followed that by saying they also had a lot of character. At the University of St. Francis, alum Bill Bellah enabled us to have a fundraising golf outing at the prestigious Rich Harvest Golf Course for our athletic program. Bill then invited and brought a number of the ‘85 Bears to the outing.

The very first impression that all of us at St. Francis had of these Bears was the quality of men they were. Obviously, they were outstanding athletes but it was their character that stood out. To a man, they were genuine, cordial, articulate, and humble. Despite all their accomplishments and accolades, they could not have been more accommodating.

After the outing, you realized how fortunate Mike Ditka was. He was privileged to coach a superb group of athletes who had character and when you get that combination, you can produce great teams.

        Joliet’s Tom Thayer

We have a man in Joliet who started on those Bears teams, Tom Thayer. Tom is a graduate of Joliet Catholic High School and Notre Dame and he is definitely a man of character who never has forgotten where he came from. He has helped numerous organizations in Joliet in their endeavors to help our community. I know he would be very proud of his alma mater for sponsoring a program that emphasizes the integration of sport and character.

What Notre Dame is doing for young athletes with this program will help them for the rest of their lives. I know in our basketball program at the University of St. Francis we made a conscious effort to recruit young men of character. Most seasons have rough spots where you lose games and I always believed that players of character stay with you during those down times, but players without character go south. Therefore, if an athlete has the ability to get an athletic scholarship, his character will definitely play a factor in the offer.

After college, the athlete will enter the work-force. There are a lot of companies that utilize the concept of hiring character, then teaching skills. Skills can be taught but character has to be acquired.

Congratulations to Clark, Kristin, and Notre Dame for teaching young athletes the importance of character and values in their lives’ journeys.

As I reflect back on the San Antonio’s Tim Duncan’s career, I see six lessons that he has taught leaders.

I don’t believe he ever put these lessons into words. Instead he lived St. Francis of Assisi’s profound saying, “Preach the gospel; if necessary, use words.” His teaching legacy was his example.

RESULTS: Leaders often are judged by the results they attain for their organization. Over his 19-year career, the Spurs won 155 more games than any other NBA team. They won an amazing 71.9% of their regular season games during this time period and they never missed the playoffs. They were the winners of 5 NBA titles and he was the Most Valuable Player of the season and the Finals numerous times.

Individually, he is only the 3rd player in NBA history to score 25,000 points and grab 15,000 rebounds. He was at his best when his best was needed most. During the playoffs, he was 1st in the number of double doubles; 2nd in most playoff wins; and 3rd in most rebounds. Many consider him to be the best power forward in NBA history, as well as one of the top 5 players ever to play. Minimally, he is in everyone’s top 10.

Duncan achieved results for his individual body of work, but more importantly, he brought his small-market team to an elite status in the NBA.

Great leaders get results.

THINKER: Bruce Bowen, a Duncan teammate and current ESPN analyst, calls Duncan a “Thinker.” The position that usually knows the responsibilities of every player on the floor is the point guard. However, Bowen says that it was Duncan, a big man, who constantly was teaching his teammates their roles.

I believe great leaders are thinkers. They know the nuances of their organization and have the ability to teach their colleagues their roles.

CONSTANT IMPROVEMENT: Duncan did something that no 1st picks in the NBA draft ever do. He played in the NBA Summer League prior to his rookie season.

This is usually below the status of the first pick in the draft, but Duncan wanted to be as prepared as possible for his first NBA season. Despite a great college career, he knew he had to improve his game to be a factor in the NBA.

His desire to improve stayed with him throughout his career. After winning the NBA title and being named the MVP of the Finals, he contacted a coach who was considered to be the best teacher of big men in the country, the late Pete Newell.

The best big men to play in the NBA over the past thirty years had one thing in common – they all attended Newell’s Big Man Camp. Duncan, the Finals MVP, contacted Newell to help him with footwork in the post and passing out of the post.

Duncan was known as “The Big Fundamental.” Despite being the best player in the Finals, he wanted to improve his footwork and his passing, two rather elementary fundamentals in the mind of those who do not know the game.

When some leaders in their profession achieve the heights that Duncan achieved in his profession, they would never consider looking to improve their fundamentals. That would be beneath them. But Duncan sought improvement when he was at the top of his game.

HUMILITY: It was never about him; it was about the organization. When he entered the League, the Spurs were David Robinson’s team and Duncan embraced that fact. Then when it became his team, he shared the leadership with Tony Parker and Manu Ginoble. In fact, it was his team, but he believed in shared leadership. In his later years, he accepted the leadership of a player who was in 6th grade when Duncan entered the NBA – Kawhi Leonard. It was now Leonard’s team and Duncan won an NBA title as part of Leonard’s team.

Duncan won three NBA titles in three different decades because he never let the team be “his” team. He was the leader but it was all about the team, not him. Too often leaders think it is, in fact, about them. They believe the organization would not achieve without their leadership. They are indispensable!

Duncan led with humility for 19 seasons. And his retirement confirmed his humility. It had no fanfare, no hoopla; it was simply a press release from the Spurs saying Tim Duncan retired.

PREPARATION: David Robinson said Duncan was prepared for every practice. Unlike the famous Allen Iverson quote disparaging the importance of practice, when he sarcastically said, “Practice, it’s only practice,” Duncan was ready everyday for practice. Robinson said he was “reliable everyday and intense and focused.”

Michael Jordan was the same way. He worked harder in practice than all of his teammates. When a new player came to the Bulls, Jordan would actually get all over him in his first Bulls practice to let him know that when you are a part of the Bulls, you work hard every practice.

Duncan believed in the 5P’s – “Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.” Great leaders lead with the 5P’s.

THE QUIET MAN WHO SAID SO MUCH: We had a great doctor in Joliet who lived his life like Duncan. In the eulogy for Dr. Gene Curran, the priest called him “The quiet man who said so much.” That was Tim Duncan. And that is Greg Popovich. He, too, never has sought the spotlight and maybe that is the reason why David Robinson says the two of them had “synergy. They always stayed on the same page.”

We actually know very little about Duncan because he shunned the spotlight. He never let it be about him. It was always about the Spurs.

This quiet, humble super star taught us a great deal about leadership without words!

“Tradition Never Graduates.” I recently saw this platitude for the first time and thought about two traditions that I watched develop. Underscoring both of these traditions was leadership characterized by men of principle and incredible work ethics.

Tom Dedin began the athletic program at Providence Catholic High School. Tom was as hard a worker as anyone I have ever worked with. One of the principles he believed in was that academics and athletics go hand-in-hand.  He did not have to preach it because he lived it.

Top, from left: Tom Dedin and Fr. Roger Kaffer; Bottom: Gordie Gillespie and Dr. Jack Orr

He was an outstanding baseball coach at four schools: Providence Catholic High School, Lewis University, the University of Illinois, and Regis University in Denver. While coaching and teaching at Providence, I believed he was the best classroom teacher in the building. As the Athletic Director, Tom expected that his coaches follow his example. They had to work at their coaching, but they had better be the best classroom teachers that their abilities would allow.

I spent ten years at Providence with Tom and the tradition that he established of hard work and the integration of athletics and academics still exists at the school. In my years there I can never remember a coach in our program who did not work hard at his coaching and his subject matter.

When the Christian Brothers decided to leave Providence, the Bishop brought in Father, later Bishop, Roger Kaffer to be our principal. He had the same work ethic as Tom, appreciated the values Tom had installed in his athletic program, and really enhanced the spiritual dimension of the school.

It was not unusual for Father Kaffer to be at his desk after the midnight hour working on various projects, but he was always up and saying 7 a.m. mass to begin each school day. The work that he did in building a gymnasium at Providence was incredible. He got the local unions – iron workers, plumbers, electricians — to donate their time… and he worked right alongside them!

Spirituality, hard-working coaches, and coaches who excel in the classroom are traditions that have not graduated at Providence due to the foundations that Tom and Father established.

I came to work for Gordie Gillespie, the Athletic Director, and Dr. Jack Orr, the president, at the University, then the College, of St. Francis in 1976. Jack asked three things of Gordie: use athletics to increase enrollment by adding sports; run the athletic program with integrity; and create the opportunity for an activity for every student through a strong intramural program. He followed those statements by saying winning would be a bonus.

I watched Gordie accomplish each goal. There were only 45 student-athletes in 3 programs when Gord arrived. At its zenith, he built the program to 377 student-athletes in 14 programs. Integrity was never an issue and a comprehensive intramural program was established that first year. Because of the principles of hard working coaches, the integration of athletics and academics, and uncompromising integrity the bonus was accomplished. When our Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference had appeared in 90 NAIA national championships, St. Francis participated in 60 of the 90.

Gordie and Jack set a tradition that exists today at the University of St. Francis because the tradition was built on sound principles.

I believe when leaders strive to build traditions in their organizations, the key ingredient is to build on sound principles like hard work, the integration of hard work and care and concern for the people doing that work, and integrity. If this is done, then like Tom, Bishop, Gordie, and Jack, the tradition built will not graduate.

Gregg Popovich has built the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs into a billion dollar enterprise in a small market. He has built a culture in the organization that may have some good insights for business leaders.

He has seen great success in his 16 year reign:

• He is the longest tenured coach with the same team among the 122 NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB coaches.
• He is the only active coach with multiple NBA championships.
• He is 1 of 5 coaches in NBA history with 4 or more championships.
• His .675 winning percent is 3^rd in NBA history.

Observers believe he has had all this success because of the culture he has installed at San Antonio. That culture encompasses three ingredients: character, care, and unselfishness.

He works hard at bringing players of great character to his teams. This is a must if a player is to succeed in the Popovich system. Many NBA teams build their offensive systems on isolation plays whereas his system is based on the pass. A player’s individual statistics very well may diminish in the Popovich system because he has to sacrifice his success for the team success. Only men of character can buy into this culture.

He believes leaders must care for the people in their charge and puts it this way in his own words:

“Relationships with people are what it’s all about. You have to make players realize you care about them. And they have to care about each other and be interested in each other. Then they start to feel a responsibility toward each other. Then they DO for each other.”

Unselfishness is the hallmark of his teaching. Bill Russell may have expressed this well in describing the success of his Celtic teams. He said that when the Boston players walked into the building, they left their egos at the door. However, what they did have was Team Ego. Popovich’s teams have won 50 or more games in 15 of his 16 years there and were 37-14 in the shortened NBA lockout season. I think they have had the same Team Ego of Russell’s Celtics.  The basis of that success has been the players’ commitment to unselfishness.

Character, care, and unselfishness are not bad traits on which to build a culture in any organization.