Tim Morgan is the epitome of a “Bamboo Farmer.” Tim embraces the power of the team, continuous learning, and evolving, even during the most challenging times, like the current health crisis.
In this episode, you’ll hear how Tim Morgan, the CEO of AAA Oregon/Idaho, is watering his bamboo.
Don’t miss this intimate look inside of a servant leader’s thoughts on running a successful organization.
Episode Highlights:
00:55 - Tim Morgan’s Water the Bamboo story
04:14 - Why building a team is crucial for leaders rather than being a singular leader
06:33 - The ability to execute an idea
09:12 - Getting people comfortable with being uncomfortable
09:39 - What the pandemic taught AAA about quick execution, innovation, and moving to a remote workforce
11:05 - Tim’s advice for emerging leaders
14:53 - Failures that turned out to be successful
20:53 - Habits of continuous learning
26:44 - Why Tim makes a habit of journaling
28:27 - What it was like moving into the CEO role of Oregon/Idaho AAA
31:38 - Which Bamboo Farmer trait resonates the most with Tim
36:35 - Revising guiding principles during the pandemic
39:44 - What question Tim would ask himself on a podcast
41:50 - Tim’s advice to his 15-year-old self
44:15 - What’s going well at AAA
Guest at a Glance
Tim Morgan is the President and CEO of Oregon/Idaho AAA.
Notable Quotes
“I always tried to put myself in situations where I could try to be around a lot of bright people, and hopefully, a little smidgen of that might rub off on me.”
“If you do things that make you uncomfortable or challenge your existing skillset, that's how you grow.”
“I've also learned as time goes on, it's better as a CEO to express your opinion last, or else early on everybody's just kind of agreeing with what you're saying.”
“Your point about these five years of building a foundation of roots for the bamboo to grow. I saw it all sprout right before my eyes, within a very short period.”
“You're only able to propel yourself forward in an organization if you're exceeding expectations in the current role that you have.”
Greg: “The harder I work, it seems the luckier I get.”
“What I try to do as a leader now is that stay with a hundred percent positive reinforcement to the people that you lead, but also hold them accountable to the things that they've committed to.”
“I'm a big proponent of asking employees to help us understand where they want to go, what they want to achieve, and then we can help them with the skillset and education if necessary to be successful in those roles.”
On transitioning into a CEO role as an internal hire: “Nobody is going to accept you in your new role until you filled your prior role.”
“There's an opportunity to not waste a good pandemic by reinforcing your organizational culture and values and how you treat people and how you want to treat people in a period of downturn. So, I think there's also a tremendous opportunity to reinforce the things that you think are most important in your organization.”
“This is a competition against yourself and what you can achieve. And you can achieve things without them being at the expense of others.”
Transcript
[00:00:00] Greg Bell: [00:00:00] Hey, Bamboo Nation, we're in for a treat. Our next guest is Tim Morgan. He is the president and CEO of Oregon/Idaho AAA, an organization I've worked with, but really personally worked with Tim and just sort of watched him grow in his career. He's been the CEO for over six years there and worked at AAA for more than 18 years.
[00:00:35] It's really a treat to have him here. When I was looking at designing a podcast, his name went to the top of the list. And he's the first CEO I'm going to interview because I think he's just remarkable. Some of the things he has to share, just ideas that I've gotten from him. And I'm just looking forward to having. Welcome, Tim.
[00:00:53] Tim Morgan: [00:00:53] Thanks, Greg. Appreciate it. Nice to be here.
[00:00:55] Greg Bell: [00:00:55] One of the questions I want to right away start with is I want you to tell your [00:01:00] Water the Bamboo story. You know, I know some of it, but coming from immigrant parents and the things you've done in your career to me are just amazing, but just kind of let us in on your bamboo story. How did you get where you are?
[00:01:13] Tim Morgan: [00:01:13] Well, I think, you know, whenever somebody finds themselves in any level of success, there's been a village to help them along in it and great people to help guide you along the way. I think early on, I had, you know, some luck, obviously you get some luck and get some skill and then he gets some opportunities.
[00:01:32] It all kind of blends itself together, but I certainly was a hard worker and wanted to advance in life and learn from people. And I always tried to put myself in situations where I could try to be around a lot of bright people and hopefully a little smidgen of that might rub off on me. So early on a great opportunity to focus on education, going to LaSalle high school was certainly an [00:02:00] opportunity that allowed me to really get ready and prepared to.
[00:02:04] Go to a four-year university, which I was the first in my family. And then, you know, the care that I had at University of Portland and mentors and teachers that kind of made you think a little bit about seeing beyond what you might see for yourself. And sometimes we all need a little bit of encouragement that says, Hey, you can do this. You can maybe. Reach a little bit higher than you thought you might be capable of. And so early on, I found my way into accounting and going into public accounting and certainly what a fantastic kind of melting pot of talent and people of diverse backgrounds and the ability to see a lot of different companies and leadership styles and culture.
[00:02:47] And while I was doing that in my twenties, I tried to just kind of take mental notebook about the people that I experienced, the cultures that they created. And I kinda just kept a little journal of trying to slice off the best of the people that I was [00:03:00] around. And hopefully try to incorporate that into some of my traits, but I think the most important thing, Greg, and I've had some opportunity to talk to other people about this, is you just have to keep curious, you know. You just have to stay curious. You have to stay in a position that you want to put yourself. And things that make you uncomfortable. If you do things that make you uncomfortable or challenge your existing skill set, that's how, you know, you might be able to grow.
[00:03:24] Greg Bell: [00:03:24] Right. That's great. You stole a couple of questions already. One is, well, I liked that idea because I like to think about that. I like to break the myth of the singular leader. Singular genius, you know, cause the, the bamboo grows 90 feet and 60 days everyone sees that. But what they don't really realize is it's deep, deep roots, you know, the things and people you're connected to.
[00:03:46] That's a, that's a really important piece there. And that was actually one of the things that struck me about working with you and the way you work with as a leader with your team and such collaborative way, and thinking about that from [00:04:00] that perspective. Now, If you would talk just a little bit more about that. Like, think about the aspiring CEO, the aspiring leader, talk about the collaboration piece and really building a bench and building your team the way you have.
[00:04:14] Tim Morgan: [00:04:14] Sure. Happy to do that. It takes commitment. First of all, I mean, I think you first have to decide and have an internal commitment that says you believe in the collaborative process.
[00:04:25] You believe that that process will take good ideas and make them great ideas. Without that commitment upfront without that dedication to it, it's really easy, especially as you get on in your career, in the roles that you're in, it's really easy to become less and less collaborative and more and more of a singular thought or decision maker.
[00:04:46] So if you commit to that upfront, then I think you've got this idea that you're taking a lot of effort early on in a change decision. And then you're going to see a much more rapid [00:05:00] result when you're ready to deploy it, because it's been fully vetted. Here, we think of two stages. We try to have a safe zone of ideas or possible change management that we just call thinking about.
[00:05:11] Can we just safely kind of think about these things as an order organization, as a leadership team, as a frontline provider of service to our members. Can we think, and vet these things in a safe environment, without worrying about the potential ramifications of those. I've also learned as time goes on, it's better as a CEO to express your opinion last, or else early on everybody's just kind of agreeing with what you're saying. And that kind of goes hand in hand too, when you change roles into becoming a leader of an organization and having that great honor and opportunity, you've suddenly become much more interesting and a lot more funny overnight, almost overnight, Greg.
[00:05:49] Greg Bell: [00:05:49] I've always thought you were funny. I've always thought you were, or you're the CEO. That's a really interesting way to think about that. One of the chapters in Water the Bamboo is about [00:06:00] commitment, but commitment is interesting. Because, you know, this is a totally set up for you because I know that this is so important to you, but with this idea of commitment, I mean, it's actually easy to be committed when times are easy, whatever challenge you're trying to do, it's easy then.
[00:06:16] But when challenges come up, how can you still stay committed? One of the things I want you to talk a little bit about your desire around execution. I know that's like a big pet peeve of yours because there's a lot of talk in a collaborative environment, but man, we need to execute and get things moving too.
[00:06:33] Can you just share a little bit of your perspective on that sort of concept of execution?
[00:06:38] Tim Morgan: [00:06:38] Yeah, I think that's the real trick, right? Is there is typically only a handful of people in any organization that really has the talent to try to bring an idea to life. And first of all, an execution, you've got to be able to think that we can safely fail at things, right. You can go through, you can have the best [00:07:00] intentions. You can try to deliver that change item within your organization, but it may not go well. Right. And so we kind of say it, but that's nobody's fault. We're all in this together. We're all trying to make it succeed together.
[00:07:12] So try to bring this commonality that we're, Hey, we're in this together. No, job's more important than the other job, but we all have a role to play in seeing a positive outcome. Somebody described execution as the secret is, you know, you write down the things that you need to do and then do them, right. I mean that, that's kind of the secret and I'm quoting somebody else that I've forgotten who the reference is.
[00:07:40] But I think what was really interesting to me, Greg, if I can just kind of take that one step further, you know, the bamboo concept and thinking of our long history with you and your opportunity to engage I think 60 of our 80 leaders through the program, and one of the aspirations I had when I was given this tremendous [00:08:00] opportunity to lead this unique and gifted organization was I really wanted to create an adaptable and a coachable organization. That was my great vision that I wanted. That sounds pretty simple, but I wanted people to be comfortable with change because if you came down the path and you came up with a great idea and then you wanted to execute it, but people didn't know how to do that within your organization or were uncomfortable with change, it wasn't going to happen. And innovation is difficult. Innovation. We split into kind of two different areas. One is innovation within your core competencies: I'm getting better and better at what I'm doing. I'm getting faster and faster at road service with better outcomes for our members. That would I say, as our core competencies. What's really hard is innovation outside of your core competencies and trying to take the brand or the services that you provide in a different direction. So I knew all of this work around execution, [00:09:00] change, evolution, bringing ourselves into the forefront of a new emerging demographic of potential consumers. It wasn't going to matter if we weren't ready for change and we didn't start dealing with that.
[00:09:12] And the notion, again, that a borrowed from somebody else's trying to make people comfortable with being uncomfortable. So we've talked about this and we're doing this, we're going through the process. We're talking about speed of execution in our organization. And as we kind of measure that over the last six years, yeah, everybody will continually say we're getting better at it. We can still get better on it. It all came into focus in a very short period of time in late February and March of 2020, in that the pandemic put to test a lot of the things that we were trying to achieve over the last six years. And we had to very quickly find a way to innovate and disperse our workforce into remote environments, right? Working at home or other places, where we had never really [00:10:00] done that for a good portion of our team before. And so in a very short order, we overcame technical innovation hurdles that have been plaguing us for a solution for months, we were able to solve in weeks.
[00:10:15] And so to your point about these five years of, you know, building a foundation of roots for the bamboo to grow. I saw it all sprout right before my eyes, within a very quick period of time. As people went to work on problem solving and acted in a manner where you had intense days of problem solving and creative thinking, we would not have been successful at that had we not done the preparation for the past six years and had, you know, the opportunity for a good portion of our leadership team to go through your program.
[00:10:49] Greg Bell: [00:10:49] Yeah, that's, that's really, I appreciate that, because it's sort of just to witness that, you know, you're watering and sometimes people are getting going with watering or whatever, and they're going, what now? What am I doing this [00:11:00] for? And then it's nice to sort of see, Oh, that's why we were watering and working that way.
[00:11:05] One of the questions that comes up for me that I wanted to make sure I asked is this idea of thinking about other leaders, people that might be listening to this right now, and they're junior in their organization. They're trying to figure out how do I rise and how do I grow? What advice would you give them? Just sort of imagine they're sort of they're in their car, listening to this conversation. What advice would you give somebody that had your sort of aspirations when you thought yeah, I want to run an organization and just a really broad question around leadership.
[00:11:34] What would you advise somebody that's really junior to you?
[00:11:37] Tim Morgan: [00:11:37] So great question. A few things is that you're only able to propel yourself forward in an organization if you're exceeding expectations in the current role that you have. Right? So, first of all, you got to make that role, your own, maybe shape it differently than it had been previous to your participation in that. So that's the baseline, right? You've got to do that. That gives you the currency. If you [00:12:00] will, to seek out new opportunities and new advancements. And during that process as a young leader, I think it's that time where you really try to build some foundational decisions about what type of leader are you going to be?
[00:12:14] What is going to be your focus? I committed to servant leadership. I felt that if I committed to making those that I serve better in reaching their goals, that was the community and culture that I wanted to see come into fruition into our organization. So, but I experimented, I mean, I was really lucky in public accounting, working at Deloitte, you have different teams that you're working with every five to six weeks with different clients.
[00:12:39] And you can be a little bit of a mad scientist and saying, okay, how do I adapt my leadership skills to fit this group of people. And I'm going to try a couple of things and maybe that didn't work very well. And then six weeks later, you're able to kind of digest what went well, what didn't went well, and then start adapting, right?
[00:12:56] And started adapting through that. The other [00:13:00] things that I would suggest to young leaders, you know, you have to stay inquisitive, right? You have to stay inquisitive, continue to read. Ask people. Great questions. much like you're asking me, ask others, how did they advance? What were some things that they found that was of interest to them, but you need to kind of figure out the type of leader you are, what type of organization that you really feel helped.
[00:13:23] Aligned to your personal mission, vision, and values that you're aligned to the products or services that they deliver. And I think early on in, in a, certainly my career, I didn't worry about that as much. I was in skill acquisition mode. I was trying to experiment, test different things, but as I got a little bit older, I'm like, okay, I want to now deploy these things into an organization that I'm fully aligned in.
[00:13:46] There's other opportunities for young leaders, you know, get involved in charitable organization boards, put yourself in roles in those boards that you aren't typically aligned with your skillset, so that it's [00:14:00] opportunities to grow and learn from others. Sometimes, this old cliche too, but I just tell people, you know, you can't steer a parked car.
[00:14:10] Right? So you've got to get in motion. You've got to stay in motion, stay in motion, and then you can move from one direction to another as opportunities present themselves. I think for all of us that have the opportunity to move forward in organizations, you have to be prepared, you have to do well with what you're currently doing.
[00:14:31] You've got to make the right relationships with other people and you got to get a little bit lucky. You got a timing has to work for you in the right way.
[00:14:40] Greg Bell: [00:14:40] Yeah, that last one's really good. The harder I work, it seems the luckier I get, right? I mean, it's interesting, connected to the motion piece, I love that thing. Get out and get out, have some action.
[00:14:53] One of the chapters in Water the Bamboo that I personally like, just as I think about it is Messy in the [00:15:00] Garden, because there's this thought, you know, when people see you they're going, wow, there's the CEO, he did this, he did this, he did this. That's how it works, but there are all kinds of turns and challenges as a leader. And when you think about sort of messy in the garden and sort of, I'd like you to sort of tell us about some challenges that you've had mistakes you've made, or that you've seen people make. That actually wind up to be successful. It's kind of ironic how that works because we think it's gotta be all smooth. You know? I mean, I think about like when I wrote Water the bamboo, I don't know how many times I edited the darn thing or, the latest book, how many times it just, you know, let somebody read it and go, wow, this is not very good. And it's, it's very interesting, but I think there's this, what I want to have you talk about is sort of how do people overcome their perfectionism? You know, I'm not even going to move. To moving and direction of leadership, moving the direction of the things they want to do in their career.
[00:15:54] Tim Morgan: [00:15:54] Certainly there's periods of time. And I think back in my twenties and early thirties, where you [00:16:00] think that go, wow, I didn't, I didn't handle that very well. And I could have handled that well, and fifties, Tim thinks back about thirties, Tim and twenties, Tim and I certainly would have done things differently.
[00:16:10] But part of this whole journey, and Greg, you say this as well, is that experiences create experience, right. I'm experienced now because of the experiences that I've had and some of them have been good and some of them have not been as good. And some of them have been like, okay, that's something I can't replicate in the future.
[00:16:29] The one thing that I will say is that if you're putting yourself in positions, in situations where you feel uncomfortable in them, you're trying to stretch yourself into those, there's going to be times when that can go very well, right. And so you gotta be willing to come out of that and then think, all right, what do I need to do in order to improve that? And is that something that I'm willing to commit and do?
[00:16:54] I also think, you know, kind of your point about it's messy in the garden and you're zigzagging and you're [00:17:00] going in different directions, I think back to a couple of key things that I said yes to over my career. And saying yes, to those things led to this thing that led to that thing that led to the next thing that led to the thing that helped me succeed. And so, and that's why I'm trying to say, you know, just stay in motion, say yes to things. Don't be. Afraid that you may not do as well as you hope in a certain role or situation or company might be as successful as you hope. And you're willing not to make the same mistake twice. Right? That's that's when it comes chronic, it's okay to have those periods where you go, wow, that didn't quite work as, as well as I'd hoped.
[00:17:43] A lot of those things later in the last 10 years has been in coaching youth sports. And what I tried to do and experimenting with leading young 20 and 30 year olds in public accounting, I tried to adapt to coaching, you know, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13 year olds and baseball and [00:18:00] basketball and wow, what a great learning experience that was of how to connect and lead kids in a manner that I may be not have experienced when I was going through as a player in sports, and this notion of a hundred percent positive reinforcement. And so that's what I try to do as a leader now is that stay with a hundred percent positive reinforcement to the people that you lead, but also hold them accountable to the things that they've committed to.
[00:18:26] Greg Bell: [00:18:26] Right. That's an interesting balance, right? One of the things I'm noticing about bamboo farmers and the people who are successful, this notion of giving back, I mean, you're talking about coaching youth sports, I know you serve on different boards. Can you just speak to that a little bit? Just the importance of giving back to your community and the ways that you've done that. I think it just be a good way for people to sort of not only understand you, but think about giving back themselves.
[00:18:53] Tim Morgan: [00:18:53] I think you did as much as enrichment and these efforts to try to give back to community as you receive, [00:19:00] right. Is what you're trying to give in your time, talent, skills to these organizations.
[00:19:06] I've just found I've come out of them. Much more enriched than I'd ever hoped and the quality of the relationships that I've been able to build and the people that have become friends with, you know, out of these things, again, you're, you're continuing to evolve. I mean, who I was my first couple of years is coaching new sports, and by the way, I was a very reluctant participant to do that. I felt there was probably other people that were better prepared better at it. But then I saw some of the things in youth sports that I didn't care for. I didn't like favoritism. I didn't like some of the things that were going on with how kids were being treated. And so I wanted to do things differently. I wanted to have the ultimate goal be that every kid I coached came back the next year and played the sport, but I didn't do it mindlessly either. I had spent probably 80 hours in basketball coaching [00:20:00] clinics, and probably the similar amount in baseball coaching clinics to try to get into a frame of mind where I had the tools necessary to try to connect with kids, make getting better fun, and having a positive engagement with each other.
[00:20:18] So whatever success I may have had in coaching youth sports, again, I tried to supplement that by deep diving and learning from others that were more experienced.
[00:20:31] Greg Bell: [00:20:31] That's super helpful to sort of think about that because that's, what I know about you personally, is that, you know, you're voracious reader, learner, a lot of people that I've talked to are sort of in that continuous learning mode, that's kind of what I hear here from you in terms of not only in the give back phase, but even in terms of working with your organization and advocating for continuous learning. And where did you get that desire? Like, where does that curiosity in you come from? I'd just [00:21:00] be curious to know that.
[00:21:01] Tim Morgan: [00:21:01] I honestly don't know. I mean, I would think like back to, you know, where did that originate? And I can't really pinpoint it. I, I'm not sure. It just seemed like early on, I wanted to kind of learn about the world and how it works and how to be successful and make sure that I had the opportunity to try to achieve the most I possibly could that had some fulfillment in it, right. And I was, you know, it was also perfectly fine, I guess, perfectly fine with some air quotes, that if I wasn't to get to this role in, in an organization, I think every role that you have, you can provide a positive difference to the people that you serve and the customers that you have, and you just started and do that in other manners, then being at the top of the organization.
[00:21:51] So, I don't know, I I've reflected on that at times. And I've kind of seen tie it back to one particular experience. And [00:22:00] I think in essence, it was just a lot of encouragement along the way from. People, whether it's, you know, that you sport coach or that parent, you know, my father or mother talking to me about it or that interaction that you might have with a high school teacher or professor or middle school teacher.
[00:22:17] I mean, I can't really, I don't know. I don't know. I think sometimes you just kind of said, okay, let's go figure that out. Let's let's spend some time on that. And, and I think one thing you kind of know, Greg, if I decided to do something, I go all in.
[00:22:34] Greg Bell: [00:22:34] I think that that idea of commitment though, is so important though. Like why not go all in? I mean, you know, it's sorta like a lot of times I see that like where people are kind of half-step and wonder, well, why isn't the bamboo growing? Well, you watered one day, you got to dive in a little bit. And it's interesting about that. You talk about sports and sports background, as you know, I have a sports background. And it's fascinating to me, the idea of learning, how to show up and [00:23:00] practice and work and do all those things. And a lot of times you're not going to win, you know, but if you can make the watering fun, if you could make the watering and the effort growth, that's super important.
[00:23:12] I've seen that in your organization, I've seen you work from that perspective. But one of the questions I have is, and you've said this a couple of times, it's like be good where you are like work on the job that you're in, so you can move forward. So part of the reason I wrote Water the Bamboo was I was so frustrated with this idea that people wanted overnight success.
[00:23:33] You know, they want to have their careers take off. I want to walk in, I want to be the vice president or, you know, I write the book and I want it to be a bestseller tomorrow. I mean, just this instant gratification thing that's happening in our society. Can you speak to that a little bit?
[00:23:48] Tim Morgan: [00:23:48] Yeah. That's an interesting phenomenon and I think there's certainly some generational pieces is my observation and we have to practice patipatience, and the ability to gain [00:24:00] over time, the experiences that create your experience, that allows you to be successful in the roles that you are able to achieve. And so, I think back just if I'm thinking of about the pandemic and I think about the way that we handle that process versus going through 911, going through the recession of 2008-2009, those experiences certainly help prepare our leadership team better to work through the challenges of the pandemic and understand, certainly I was in an organization of over 10,000 employees at Deloitte, where everybody wants to know what the what's the path and there's a definite path as time and ability and achievement.
[00:24:44] And it gets a little harder when you get into other organizations. And so, what I tried to create and encourage is that you build a broad set of skills, and then those skills can be utilized in various amount [00:25:00] of areas of the organization. When the opportunities create themselves with one area of the organization is growing faster than the other, or you have retirements in one area in other, like build yourself with some ability to have multiple opportunities in different areas of that organization. And, you know, sometimes it's really hard. I mean, we had some talent, we had a talented person that viewed themselves as the next director and vice president of a certain area and I just said to have a long talk with them and just say, I think, you know, based on what you're willing to do and what you're wanting to commit to on additional education. Without that, I don't see you progressing into those roles. So I'm also a big proponent of help us understand where you want to go, where you want to achieve, and then we can help you with the skillset and education if necessary to be successful in those roles. Right?
[00:25:55] Part of your responsibility is what I call being significant is [00:26:00] when you help others succeed in their role. And part of that is putting them into the role. When they're ready to be put into that. So I don't know if that really kind of answers that directly, but I think you have to kind of talk with folks, be direct, talking about experience and skill acquisition, and talk to them about the time commitment that's necessary in order to put them in a position where they can succeed at the next level.
[00:26:25] Greg Bell: [00:26:25] Yeah. That's super, super helpful conversation, just to be able to sort of think that through. And one of the things I noted here is that you are, you've mentioned a couple of times where you, think about stuff and you journal and you've written some things and you hear something and you sort of incorporate into your own sort of arsenal; do you continue to journal as you, as you grow?
[00:26:47] Tim Morgan: [00:26:47] I do. I try to, yeah. I still today I have the great honor of serving on several boards and there's usually in a different, you know, each meeting say that a little differently [00:27:00] when I'm participating in those activities, I'll find great nuggets of wisdom, or thought, and hopefully, you know, when you're exposed to people in other industries, can you take an idea, a notion and convert it and adapt to that and your organization? Right? There's very few original ideas floating around in the world. There's a lot of ideas that are reused and redeployed in different industries. So, you know, those networks have been invaluable over the past five, six months in particular, as we're all going through these challenges of how to lead an organization through rapid uncertainty and changing environment and regulatory issues. And how does still kind of stay operating and stay successful and keep your people safe. So still to this day, I'll write down, you know, I call them aha or wow moments where I'm around somebody and an idea or a thought comes into the room and is totally unexpected, or it [00:28:00] really resonates with you. I've got to write those down.
[00:28:03] And then I try to think about how we might be able to adapt those into our organization and maybe something out of the healthcare industry, if they're doing is something that we can understand and how to. Deliver exceptional service in our area.
[00:28:16] Greg Bell: [00:28:16] I love that idea. Taking a few from you over the years. And one, one thing I want you to talk about this is interesting is there's, there's a statement you've made a few times when I've done training with your group. When you move to the CEO. You're in one role, but you're moving into the CEO. If you just talk a little bit about what your thought process was in terms of your moving into that role.
[00:28:39] Tim Morgan: [00:28:39] Great question. And I was fortunate that I had about four months notice from being selected to be the CEO and moving into that role. As my predecessor had given four months notice and was rotating out. And so the first thing I did was I sought out other existing CEOs in Portland that I knew had also been internal hires.
[00:29:00] [00:28:59] And so I scheduled a series of lunches with those people that had say successful leadership that I'd like to emulate. I'd like to be able to create a culture that they've created within their organizations. And I sat down with them and I said, what advice do you have for me? And some had variant advice, but the one that was resonant and common with all three was hire your replacement as soon as possible. And that was two-fold. One was that. And most importantly is that nobody's going to accept you in your new role until you filled your prior role. So nobody's going to accept you as CEO until you filled your CFO position. And that's an uncomfortable time of trying to hire your replacement because you become very excited. I became very comfortable and familiar with a lot of the things that I did in my CFO role. I enjoyed them. I thought I was pretty good at it. And so going out and finding somebody that could replace me in that [00:30:00] role. And again, you want to find somebody better than I was at it.
[00:30:03] And by the way, everybody's watching exactly what you're doing around this. What type of person are you going to hire? What sort of skillset, what sort of background? And it also started the process for me of becoming comfortable with shedding a lot of the things that I had felt were high value activities for the organization and handing them to somebody else and having the belief in them that they could take those same things and do them better than I could.
[00:30:31] And that has allowed me to then change my direction in my role into becoming the leader of the organization. And there was plenty of things that I needed to work on. And so freeing that up then gave me a period of being extremely uncomfortable to shed my former self, to hopefully grow into my new role.
[00:30:54] Greg Bell: [00:30:54] That's super valuable because one of the things that we know is when giant timber bamboo grows, it actually sheds. [00:31:00] So one of the questions we have to ask ourselves is what are we holding onto that might be holding us back? And it's great that you reach out to your bamboo circle. If you will kind of get some answers and ideas.
[00:31:11] That's a really good tip because I remember when I first started my speaking career, I talked to 10 different speakers and five of them was of no value at all, but the other five is just golden. It was like, Oh, I'm so glad I did that. There's some, some of those ideas I still implement today. So that's a really is super wise.
[00:31:29] Tim Morgan: [00:31:29] So you can say it's just kind of that idea harvesting, right? I'm trying to harvest these ideas and then see which ones grow within our organization.
[00:31:37] Greg Bell: [00:31:37] Right. That's super important.
[00:31:38] One of the things about the bamboo farmer, they have this, you know, the ones that I know to have the sort of this certain mindset they're patient they're persistent, they have self-discipline, they have courage, they step outside of their comfort zone and that belief in themselves, belief in their organizations. But if I just sorta let gave you those five patients, persistence [00:32:00] self-discipline and courage and belief, which one would you say, that's the one that I think people really need to embrace or I embrace and then tell us why, why one or the other? I know you want them all. I get that, but is there one that sort of sticks with you?
[00:32:14] Tim Morgan: [00:32:14] Great question. And I gave that some reflection a couple of days ago. I was kinda thinking of some of the things that have gone really well in the last six years in this role. And one of which was that we restructured our leadership team literally after about 40 years of having the exact same structure.
[00:32:32] And we went through this thinking about stages. I talked about earlier for several months, and we were a couple of days away from making a decision, an announcement about the final opening and restructuring, where by the way, everyone in the organization that was affected, still had a role. The roles were just going to change. And I was driving into work and I was thinking about the road ahead and how much disruption that was gonna cause within the [00:33:00] organization, and even though we were committing to having all the areas of change communicated within 60 days, just all the anxiety that that's going to cause for our employee base. And, and I had a moment where I decided, why don't we just try to get better at what we're currently doing?
[00:33:16] Maybe we don't need this much disruption. Maybe we can temper our scope of this change. And then I just want to say encouraged came to mind is that I've got to have the courage to believe that we did all the right things and coming up with the change in leadership structure, we did all the right things and collaborating.
[00:33:34] We've built all the right relationships. We can make that happen. And so while at any point in time you need all of these, I think ultimately when you're trying to lead an organization into an environment, what I try to call ever-changing, then you're going to have to have some courage to work through in a kind and caring manner the change and the impact of that change within the organization.
[00:33:58] Greg Bell: [00:33:58] Right? I like that [00:34:00] idea of combining compassion with that change too. Like there's that part of it but that's really interesting that you would choose courage because I always laugh and think about that. The only time people are really, really encouraged it seems is when they learned to walk and talk and the rest of their lives are told to shut up and sit down.
[00:34:18] Tim Morgan: [00:34:18] Yeah. I was walking into the room of all our leaders, 80 leaders to make the announcement. And, you know, there was a couple of months where I paused and said, do I really want to do this? So we really want to go down this path. Think you got to have some courage and then all those other things come in place, right? You got to have some belief that you're doing the right thing because made the right decision. And we hear this in sports a lot: trust the process. You trust the process and what got you to where you are today. So courage, yeah. Again, you know, I made mention of how the Water the Bamboo leadership program has kind of interwoven into the fabric of our culture.
[00:34:54] In fact, you know, our revamp of our values three years ago was done. Through the [00:35:00] exercise of the personal values. And we use that to try to create an updated set of today's values within our organization. And that's served us extremely well and trying to tie together 500 employees in 24 locations and keep us all on the same page.
[00:35:19] And if I need to say something in real time, I know we're getting short on time here a little bit, but, courage is also right now today, in that you feel that you're doing the right thing for your organization. And I've heard the term several times about don't waste a good pandemic. And I've heard that in used in contexts of drastic changes in your employment levels within your organization or drastic reorganizations. I think, Greg, on a positive note, there's an opportunity to not waste a good pandemic.
[00:35:50] And reinforcing your organizational culture and values and how you treat people and how you want to treat people in a period of downturn. [00:36:00] So I think there's also tremendous opportunity to reinforce the things that you think are most important, in your organization.
[00:36:09] Greg Bell: [00:36:09] That's a super helpful, thought process. Cause one of the, I know that we, we had a conversation right. When the pandemic was happening. And one of the things that struck me is you talked about this idea of guiding principles now, like really rethinking our guiding, how are we going to handle this? What are our guiding principles, getting together with your leadership team and actually creating new guiding principles, given the situation we're in.
[00:36:35] Would you speak to that a little bit more? And, how and why, and how did you come up with that, even that concept?
[00:36:40] Tim Morgan: [00:36:40] Well, sure, happy to do that. And fortunately, I have a son that at the time was, he just graduated from university of Oregon and Jan, but he was a data analyst, a business data analyst major, and he was seeing what was happening in China in December and early January. And he was [00:37:00] pretty persistent that it was going to happen here and even perhaps be worse than it was in Europe. And so get prepared. And so along the way, I felt like, as we had leaders of different experiences and backgrounds, could we find some guiding principles around COVID and set those principles in stone, and then we're bouncing our ideas off of those principles and modifying our thought process accordingly.
[00:37:28] So over the course of like an hour with the leadership team in late February, we sat down and said, okay, what are the key things that are most important to us to follow as guiding principles during the pandemic? And so I'll just tell you two of the five, but the first one was above all else, protect the safety and wellbeing of our employees and members. And then number two was make sure we continue to provide service. The other three followed. But every decision that we made about how we were stepping forward was bounced off those five [00:38:00] guiding principles. Now it's interesting looking at them today and we're still using them, but looking at them today, you know, six months later, you say, well, we could've wordsmith that a little bit better, or maybe one could have been a little bit higher priority or the other.
[00:38:14] But to your earlier point, we didn't become stagnant. Right? We quickly came up in a short period of time. Great consensus of all, what we thought was the most important thing. And you can see that in the five is not financial outcomes. So financial outcomes was not in the top five guiding principles.
[00:38:31] It was really around this notion of staying committed to the health and safety of our employees and members, and still try to provide service to them and we'd take whatever temporary financial impact as it is, because we were confident about our ability to survive that. But I could see, you know, in hindsight, in some organizations we could have messed around with the wording and you know, is five guiding principles, five, really the right one, or should it really be number six that week?
[00:38:57] You know what I mean? Like all of that could've gotten into a period of [00:39:00] just rapid, stagnation, quickly kind of came up with some stuff that was galvanizing for us. And it helped tremendously when we started communicating those to our leadership team and from our leadership team to our employee base and having that dialogue, everybody understood.
[00:39:16] When we were making decisions, these were the things that we were bouncing them against before we made that decision. And, and it served us incredibly well.
[00:39:24] Greg Bell: [00:39:24] Yeah. That's, that's really, I, I kind of go back to your comment earlier, but you can't steer a parked car. Right? You got to get going. After our conversation I actually thought about my own guiding principles on a personal level, like creating 90 day plans about that. So I'm like you, I have my journal and I take notes. Hey, I can use that on a personal level. I have to ask.
[00:39:44] This is sort of a confusing question, but you'll figure it out. If you were me and had you on a podcast, what question would you ask Tim Morgan? Like you have Tim Morgan on the podcast. What the heck would you ask him?
[00:39:56] Tim Morgan: [00:39:56] When the heck does that ever happen? [00:40:00] Did you ever find yourself on a podcast or two? How'd you heck, did you ever find yourself in, in that role? No, I think something like are you having fun? Are you having fun at what you do?
[00:40:09] And I think that's really important that you have to enjoy what you do. And you talked about the number of years I've been in the different roles. And I think those times just goes by very quickly, when you feel you're in the right spot, you're connected to the right form of organization. You're doing the right thing. For me, it's being in a service organization that tries to do the right thing for the members that we serve every day.
[00:40:31] I think that's important, especially as you get a little bit older and you start thinking about, you know, the later portions of your career, it's important to find yourself in a role in a situation that you really truly enjoy, because you have to have that sort of ability to communicate a positive impact to the people that you're trying to serve and lead.
[00:40:53] Greg Bell: [00:40:53] It's so fun to have you on the podcast, just witnessing how you operate in your team and that [00:41:00] it's clearly that servant leadership. What most people don't know is the story of how the servant leader, where that came from. It's a Herman Hessstory. It's an interesting, it was about a journey to the East and there was a, the servant was servant Leo.
[00:41:12] He, he served the journey. Like he get people's shoes and food, and at night the guy would sing songs to everyone, you know, and it was very interesting. He got lost. So the journey with all the people on it went totally in disarray. And there was a realization that the servant was actually the leader.
[00:41:33] You know, when you're a servant leader, the people around you thrive. That's really the key around servant leadership. And I've just witnessed that in you and the way you operate. So it was just like, it's just like, I was so like thrilled to have you agree to be on the podcast and sort of share some of your knowledge and wisdom.
[00:41:50] One of the things that I was so curious about though, and this is our selfish question, because I, you know, I have kids and all that, but what advice would you give your 15 year [00:42:00] old self, you know, think back your freshmen, sophomore. What advice, you know, based on what you're dealing with, what advice would you give yourself that you wish you had like really stuck with?
[00:42:11] Tim Morgan: [00:42:11] Well, Greg, first of all, it's very kind of you of what you mentioned about observing my leadership style, and I really appreciate that that's a tremendous compliment and hopefully I'm able to continue to do that, right. You have to make a reinforcement of that every day. And. I also hope that you can make some lemonade out of the lemons that I may have served up or podcasts.
[00:42:33] I think if I would've gone back to my 15 year old self, I would've told myself to be a little bit more confident. I mean, it was really a journey for me, Greg, and understanding maybe what my skillset was, what I was going to be good at, or a little bit better than others at, or however you may make it.
[00:42:49] I did have a strong foundation at that point that I, I knew that this was not a competition against other people in life, right? This was a competition against yourself and what you can [00:43:00] achieve and you can achieve things without them being at the expense of others, righ? That this is something that is self-directed.
[00:43:06] So I probably would go back and tell a 15 year old, Tim hit the weight room a little bit more and, you know, build that upper body strength and to be a little bit more confident about who I was and what I might be able to achieve, because it was really kind of a series of discovery and awakening and inspiration and motivation from people that kind of really helped encourage me along the way.
[00:43:30] At 15, I would have never have dreamed I'd be doing what I'm doing today. I did not have that sort of aspiration at 15. So I think those would be some of the things I have a conversation myself and maybe that 15 year old Tim, and also be happy that I still have hair, although it's, you know, really, really gray
[00:43:46] Greg Bell: [00:43:46] Hair, that's overrated. Come on.
[00:43:48] I really appreciate that. Sort of like having confidence is something you would tell your 15 year old self. And for me, I was sort of, I think about that question often, too. And one of the things I would say is, you know, [00:44:00] no matter where you go, something is going to get in your way, just make sure it's not you.
[00:44:05] I find myself like getting my own way all the time. It's like, what am I doing? So it's even the 15 year old Greg needed that advice, but I need it today as well. So I really appreciate that in terms of confidence.
[00:44:15] As you know, you know, I work with your organization on what's going well, you know, the book and in that, and have you guys sort of journaling about what's going well? So I would be remiss in not asking you. Tim, what's going well, why don't you tell the bamboo nation what's going well over there at AAA?
[00:44:31] Tim Morgan: [00:44:31] Well, I think there's a lot of great things. One is my team just did a fantastic job of helping us to where we are today. We continue to grow our membership base. We continue to grow our revenue base within an insurance business line.
[00:44:45] We're providing some of the best roadside service and satisfaction experiences in the country. So all of those things are going really well. Obviously we've got a little bit of a blip in our ability to sell cruises and tours and overseas flights right [00:45:00] now, but we're persevering through that. We know that people will be ready to travel.
[00:45:04] And so what we're trying to tell them is that we're ready when you're ready. When you're ready to travel, we're ready to help you. You know, where you can come for a trusted source of information. So all of those things are going tremendously well. Very fortunate that I, I get to lead this fantastic organization of leaders and people that are dedicated to serving the membership that we have, the great pleasure of being able to interact with.
[00:45:27] Greg Bell: [00:45:27] That's awesome. Gosh, I, you know, so appreciate you joining me on the podcast. Is there any parting words before we do the Water the Bamboo oath that you would give to the audience, that's listing some words of encouragement, if you would.
[00:45:39] Tim Morgan: [00:45:39] Well, first of all, Greg and Scott, thank you for your impact on our organization. As I mentioned before, the ability to have had 60 of our leaders have gone through the program, served us really well as we're going through this. And also we haven't talked much about what's going well, but that's been integrated into the fabric of our organization as well. We start every [00:46:00] executive team meeting with around the table on what's going well, it's personal or related to work, but it sets that positive outlook and trying to refocus the mind on the positive things that are occurring. Versus some of the negative things that may be going on in our environment. You've got a tremendous impact to me. You've got a tremendous impact to our organization. So thank you so much for what you do and what you continue to do. Early on in this pandemic, we decided our team needed a Greg Bell booster shot on what's going well.
[00:46:29] And you quickly pivoted and figured out a way to. Help us do that via zoom and talk about leading teams remotely. So I continue to admire what you're doing as a speaker, motivator, author, and helping that organization.
[00:46:45] Greg Bell: [00:46:45] Oh, that is very kind. Thank you. Thank you very much. I like to think about that notion of the servant leader as well. Like, how do I serve and help others? And it's just so great to know you and work with you and be able to call you my friend and learn [00:47:00] from you. And I just so appreciate you being so generous with your time. I know things are busy. There's just one more ask and I, and everyone listening is going to do this too.
[00:47:08] We've got to do the Water the Bamboo oath, okay? Cause I have my band on, right. Got to repeat after me. Okay?
[00:47:15] No matter what challenges come my way.
[00:47:17] Tim Morgan: [00:47:17] No matter what challenges come my way.
[00:47:19] Greg Bell: [00:47:19] I will.
[00:47:20] Tim Morgan: [00:47:20] I will.
[00:47:21] Greg Bell: [00:47:21] Continue.
[00:47:22] Tim Morgan: [00:47:22] Continue.
[00:47:22] Greg Bell: [00:47:22] To water the bamboo.
[00:47:24] Tim Morgan: [00:47:24] Water, the bamboo. Absolutely. I should've known you'd had your wrists band on.
[00:47:29] I would have. I would have pulled mine out as well.
[00:47:31] Greg Bell: [00:47:31] That's okay. No, really, just to really appreciate your time and your energy and what you do, and, I'm sure we'll be in touch soon. And, thank you so much for joining the podcast.
[00:47:40] Tim Morgan: [00:47:40] All right. Thanks Greg. Appreciate it.
[00:47:42] Greg Bell: [00:47:42] It's so terrific. Air from Tim Morgan. What an, remarkable leader, really enjoyed that conversation. And I hope you did too. And if you haven't already, make sure you subscribe to the water, the bamboo podcast, wherever you receive and get your podcasts. I really enjoy having these conversations with you so we can all learn [00:48:00] together. I'm Greg Bell until next time, keep watering.