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Hi everyone! Thanks for joining us on another episode of The Leader Show With Lou Carter. Joining us today is Dan Smith, the CEO of Watco. Before becoming a business leader, Dan was a pitcher for the Montreal Expos.
With that said, let’s take a look at the insights that Dan shares about Watco and what makes it a Most Loved Workplace®.
Dan kicks off the conversation by highlighting some of the work that his company does. To summarize briefly, Watco is a transportation solutions provider with a 40 year history spanning rail, marine, air, logistics, etc.
Watco focuses on providing tools and support for its 5,000 team members to perform their jobs while giving them the flexibility to adjust their approach when necessary. The company prioritizes the non-negotiables of safety, responsibility, and respect for colleagues, and encourages employees to listen before speaking and do the job their customers need them to do safely and efficiently.
As CEO, Dan believes that trust and empowering employees have been key to the company’s success over the past 40 years and hopes to continue this approach for the next 40.
Next, the former baseball player turned business leader discusses how his insecurities have been a driving force for success in both baseball and business. He believes that the fundamentals of building a successful team in baseball are similar to those in business, such as creating the right culture and maintaining high-performance levels.
Uniquely amongst business leaders, Dan encourages embracing insecurity. His own insecurities help him to wake up every day with a hunger to create value for his team. On that note, Lou mentions that Dan’s message resonates with many people. He then goes on to praise Dan’s focus on building a strong culture and fostering trust in his “stewardship” role, while planning for succession.
In addition, Dan believes that creating the right culture and team dynamic is essential to success, and he uses the term “locker rooms” to reference this concept. It’s a way to bring the same team cohesion, trust, and respect he experienced in the baseball locker room to the business world.
While recruiting, Dan prefers looking for candidates aligned with the company’s values and with a passion for serving others. He also mentions prioritizing diversity and inclusion in their hiring process.
Additionally, he believes that hiring the right people for geography is more important than technical skills. He suggests that technical skills can be taught, but other skills, such as emotional intelligence and leadership, are harder to teach.
Dan mentions that Watco prefers to hire locals across its offices, ensuring they are ingrained enough within the hiring process to put the right candidates in front of them. They are also creative in seeking potential new Watco team members, and they are open to new things.
On top of that, Watco always has an active dialogue with anyone interested in joining their team, even if they are not actively hiring for that specific skill set. Dan believes in intangibles, and he works hard every day to make sure they never lose any of these folks. To keep these people at Watco, Dan tries to connect with them and make it work.
He also encourages building a workforce or leadership team based on connections and a general alignment of personal and professional philosophy. Watco’s culture is built around valuing people and customers’ safety and sincerity.
Moving on, Dan highlights the importance of mentorship in an organization.
According to him, investing in someone personally to make them feel more confident can lead to a deeper connection and increased confidence. This can be achieved by building a rapport with coaches and managers who take the time to invest in their team members, put confidence in them, and build their trust.
On a personal level, Dan feels that Rick Webb, the founder of Watco, has been one of his biggest mentors. When he transitioned from the sports world to the business world, Rick helped Dan tremendously to gain the confidence he needed and fight through his imposter syndrome.
By following Rick’s example, people will feel ownership over the decisions they make in the workplace and will work harder to protect them. Good leaders build confidence in their team members, embrace their weaknesses, and connect well with their team. Lastly, Dan suggests that the title of CEO is overrated and that what matters most is having a great team and a great group of people.
Next, Dan and Lou discuss various important lessons about leadership in the conversation. One of the key takeaways is that genuineness and sincerity are crucial values for leaders to hold onto. They also emphasize the importance of learning from mistakes, not being afraid to make them, forgiving oneself, and moving on.
Additionally, Dan mentions that he learned from the best players in Major League Baseball by mimicking their behaviors, and Lou suggests that it is important to apply this technique of learning from successful people to other fields as well.
Dan and Lou discuss a lot more on this insightful episode of The Leader Show. Share your thoughts with us at info@bestpracticeinstitute.org.
Thank you for listening.
