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Leading Through Legacy & Innovation with Jonathan Chase
33 Plays3 days ago
Some leaders build careers. Others build legacies. And when you work inside one of the most trusted brands in agriculture, every decision carries the weight of both.
Jonathan Chase, Vice President of the Turf & Utility Business Unit at John Deere, joins The Cultivating Leaders Podcast to explore what it really takes to lead with curiosity, integrity and deep respect for the people you serve. Serving in many business units, Jon shares how an unconventional, curiosity-driven career path shaped his leadership philosophy and why building trust with customers and teams matters more than climbing the next rung on the ladder.
Jon dives into:
- Building a career: navigating a career like a pyramid over a ladder and why broad experiences matter more than fast promotions
- Balancing legacy & innovation: honoring John Deere’s 188-year history while embracing technology, data and AI
- Delegating decision-making: empowering teams from the bottom up, and resisting the urge to stay in the weeds
Jon reminds us, leadership isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about asking better questions, listening closely, and creating environments where people can do their best work.
Connect with Jon
- Connect on LinkedIn
- Connect with John Deere on LinkedIn
- Follow John Deere on Instagram
- Visit their website
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- Follow us on LinkedIn
- Follow us on Instagram
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on TikTok
- Visit our Website
About The Cultivating Leaders Podcast
Real stories. Practical advice. Tangible growth. Join The Cultivating Leaders Podcast, brought to you by Agriculture Future of America, as we explore what it takes to lead in food, agriculture, and beyond. Whether you’re just starting out or leading at the highest level, this podcast is your go-to resource for leadership that matters. Listen now and start cultivating your leadership journey.
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Transcript
Integrating Passion with Work
00:00:02
Speaker
cause people say, oh, whatever, find your passion and and you'll be successful. It's not just about a passion, it's about putting your passion to work in what you're involved in and maybe not just bouncing all over, but like, how do I take what where my curiosity and passions are in in what I'm engaged in today and bring that out? Because when you do, others will notice and you'll be successful.
Podcast Introduction and Host
00:00:33
Speaker
Welcome to the Cultivating Leaders podcast, where we get inside the minds of leaders to harvest great ideas and lessons that help you grow as a difference maker in food and agriculture. I'm your host and curiosity captain, Nicole Ersig.
00:00:46
Speaker
Some leaders build careers, others build legacies.
Introducing Jonathan Chase
00:00:49
Speaker
And when you work inside one of the most trusted brands in agriculture, every decision has the power to shape both. Today's guest knows that responsibility firsthand.
Role and Impact of Turf and Utility Business Unit
00:00:58
Speaker
Jonathan Chase is the vice president of the Turf and Utility Business Unit at John Deere, where he leads one of the most visible and emotionally resonant sectors of the company. From groundbreaking product advancements to everyday leadership that keeps John Deere at the forefront of trust and performance, John's journey is a testament to building a career through curiosity, grit, and deep respect for the brand and he serves.
00:01:19
Speaker
John, welcome to the pod.
Personal Insights: Family and Career Path
00:01:20
Speaker
Wow, great to be here, Nicole. It's awesome to to have some time with you today. Yeah, I'm so excited to chat with you. Okay, so what did I miss from your bio? Oh, wow. So probably the biggest thing I'd say is that I'm also the father of three teenage daughters, so I know a lot about dealing with conflict, drama, and boyfriends. That's your day-to-day right now as That's the day-to-day, that's right.
00:01:44
Speaker
Awesome. Okay, so John, I kind of want to start with getting a bit of your personal career journey. Can you walk us through how you got to where you are today? ah Sure. So, and you know, it all started as I grew up on a small dairy farm upstate New York, and I loved tinkering with farm equipment and all of that side of it, and so i I decided to go be an engineer, which was awesome, outstanding, I loved it, but as I got into kind of designing product and understanding what engineers do, I really started to think, man, I i really like the idea of engineering and solving business problems, so that ultimately took me down a couple different paths, worked for a few different companies, and back in 2001, I joined John Deere, not in the engineering group, but more in kind of business development and finance after after getting my MBA and having an opportunity to kind of see different parts of
Jonathan's Roles and Passion at John Deere
00:02:45
Speaker
it. So I've been at John Deere now for 24 years, and I have a really interesting kind of career within that within that company where, again, I kind of started on the
00:02:58
Speaker
engineering side and then went into finance and then went into marketing and then operations. And so I've kind of been across the board in multiple different aspects of it. So, but i have a huge passion for for our brand, for our customers and for agriculture in general.
00:03:15
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's got to feel cool to get to wear the John Deere logo and go out there and represent it in, especially in so many different capacities. Absolutely. It's the it's the most, how do I say, it's one of those things that I look back on and I'm just so proud of to be able to to wear the John Deere logo and to be able to talk with customers that are just the salt of the earth and that really, they put food on the table every day, right? So it's it's awesome to be able to do that. and it's also a lot of responsibility that comes with it too.
Curiosity and Career Growth
00:03:50
Speaker
Oh yeah, absolutely. Tell me, that's a lot of different areas of the business that you have moved through. Can you look back, what made you make some of those shifts or changes? And is there anything that's been the same across all of those roles?
00:04:05
Speaker
Interesting. So, i mean, certainly what what's kind of fueled my career, I'd say, ah for lack of a better term, is a curiosity. Like, I just wanted to be able to understand you know, sitting in a room with a marketing person, a ah supply management person, an engineer, like I wanted to be able to understand the different perspectives that people had. And so there was kind of a curiosity to me of like, okay, I maybe don't know everything about operations, but I'd like to be able to understand that aspect of it and how it feeds in.
00:04:45
Speaker
And so i i think that's what's kind of fueled it is this base engineering capability to solve or to be curious about how to solve a problem and these are some some different rules and things you can do or equations or ways to look at a problem but whether it's a business problem, an engineering problem, marketing problem, like that same foundational capability I think is what I try and bring to the table. so It's allowed me to be able to spend time in different locations around the world and I think to have some success in doing that is that engineering foundation that then led into all these other areas.
00:05:27
Speaker
Yeah, that's a really cool
Team Perspectives and Problem Solving
00:05:28
Speaker
way to look at it. I enjoy the curiosity piece of it too. And then you can, as you're in a room with those people, know what it feels like to be in their shoes. Yeah, I mean, probably one of my most favorite positions was as a factory manager in our John Deere seating factory. It's the oldest factory in John Deere. And I remember kind of sitting around that room exactly in that situation where you're like, okay, this is this is what is happening on the factory floor. This is what's happening out in the marketplace.
00:05:59
Speaker
This is what our supply chain is is faced with. and And how do you bring all of those different perspectives together in in one conversation and try and have the team understand what other folks are going through, what their perspectives are, and then create kind of like, okay, here's our here's our team way to attack a problem instead of everybody just putting their individual blinders on. So I think that's one of the the coolest thing about Deere is that you really get the opportunity maybe to see multiple different aspects the business.
Learning on the Job
00:06:32
Speaker
As you stepped into those different roles, did you ever ah jump into one that you didn't feel fully ready for? ah Most of them. so um i i So again, the factory manager one, when I when i became factory manager, ah had just come back from Europe. I had spent four years in Europe.
00:06:53
Speaker
running our strategic marketing for ag and turf over there and and it's like okay now you're gonna go run a factory and What I learned through that process is, you know, it's it's the old idea, like surround yourself with the really good people, build a a network of folks. Don't be too shy to ask questions. I remember my first couple of meetings where there's 40 different acronyms being used and I'm like, okay, can we just stop for a minute? Like, I'm not sure what that really means. But, um,
00:07:27
Speaker
But surrounding yourself with that. And then to me, what I would do in that setting is I would go out and I would walk the factory floor and I would talk a lot with people on the factory floor and get their feedback and understand like what's really working, what's not working, what's the big problems
Customer Engagement and Grounding
00:07:44
Speaker
of today. Every Tuesday morning, I would go out on third shift and walk. And then I would go on on first shift and walk and get get that feedback. And then it would be really interesting because I'd go into these meetings with the factory leadership and you know you kind of get the filtered, filtered, filtered version of it. And then I'd add and then i'd ask really pointed questions. Well, I understand this is going on and and this issue or this challenge and people kind of look like, how do you know about that?
00:08:11
Speaker
like, well, I've got my little spies. But i i think I think like grounding yourself as close to, let's say the customer or as close to kind of what it is you're doing and having having that feedback really helps you to get insight. Now,
00:08:26
Speaker
You got to be careful that you don't overreact to every little issue, but but it brings color to to what you're trying to do. So that's that's how I managed through that. And I think it was it was quite successful in doing so.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yeah. What advice would you have for someone who maybe is curious about a different role that it's not their background? um what would you What would you tell them to encourage them to go and try something, even if they're not like ready for it or they don't have the right credentials?
Career Transition Advice
00:08:53
Speaker
Yeah. So I always think of your career development like there's there's three different aspects. There's three legs to the stool, maybe for for analogy to it. like there's There's the function that you're in.
00:09:06
Speaker
There's the kind of product or product lines. And there's the people. And if if you think about changing one of those three,
00:09:17
Speaker
then it's a fairly easy transition. So if you kind of go, hey, I'm going to stay in, let's say, accounting, but I'm going to go into a different product line and do accounting, but I still interact with some of the same people. So that's the easiest transition.
00:09:30
Speaker
If you change two of those, it's a little bit harder where, hey, I i i want to try, i want i'm in I'm in accounting today and I want to get into marketing, but I'm going to do it with the same products I'm used to and maybe some different people, then that's a little bit harder to transition, but it's possible. If you change all three of those at once, those are the hardest transitions. So if you're thinking through, it doesn't mean you can't do that, but just that's what takes a little bit longer for you to maybe get up to speed. And and that's kind of what I went through in the example I used on and going from a marketing to a completely different product in a different region with a different function.
00:10:05
Speaker
And it took me a while for that to happen and for that runway. But But if you if you almost think about what do I want to do next and do I want to change one leg of that stool, two legs of that stool, or maybe all three of those and just realize kind of the timing of what that transition look like.
00:10:22
Speaker
That's advice that I've given people at least as they think about that. I like that. That's a good way to think about like you have one that you can at least lean on as you shift. Exactly. Yep. So you talked about staying grounded with the customer or with the people who are are really in the day-to-day.
00:10:39
Speaker
What does leading well look like now at this phase of your career?
Leadership Through Customer Understanding
00:10:44
Speaker
Yeah, so, I mean, ah think a lot of that same characteristic is in place. So where I am today, I mean, I i lead our...
00:10:55
Speaker
turf and utility business, which is everything from the lawnmowers that you may see in a mass channel and and all the way through our dealers, the premium machines, as well as commercial, the golf business, gator utility vehicles, small tractors. So I've got a ah broad range and it's and it's global.
00:11:14
Speaker
But at the end of the day, it all comes back to being kind of in tune with the customer. And how do you how do you gather that feedback and and marry that up with technology that's coming in to solve a problem. You know you sit and talk with customers and they're not gonna be like, well, I need all of this technology.
00:11:34
Speaker
They're saying, well, here's the challenge I have every day that I'm dealing with. And boy, if you could make this easier, this easier. so So our job and my job is to understand those challenges and then how do we marry new technology and new capabilities together with that? And I think it's a really awesome,
00:11:54
Speaker
opportunity to be able to do that with technology changing the way it is. But, you know, we get also from customers like, i I don't need all this technology. I don't even know how to use all this technology. So, so the magic is how do you do sort of what the Apple iPhone did is where there's a ton of capability packed into something, but make it super easy for people to engage, you know, engage in that technology and solve problems every day and do it in a way that's got, that brings high quality and capability to it. So,
00:12:24
Speaker
That's what we're focused on today. And then obviously you got to you got to hit a cost and a capability so that people can access it.
Building Customer Relationships
00:12:34
Speaker
What, as you look back, because as you gave that answer, I could see like there are parts of your job that you like get really excited about and seem really fun. um How, as you've moved across different areas of the business, like, do you have ah an area that's ah your favorite or where, how do you find like a maybe I didn't see myself doing this kind of job, but I really enjoy it or I really enjoy this piece of it.
00:12:59
Speaker
I tell you what i love. There's two pieces. ah I love the customer side that we've kind of talked about you Like, first of all, just being able to represent and and be a part of the the John Deere kind of history and all.
00:13:15
Speaker
You go out and talk to customers and they they just give you so much love and grace and and there's just so much that's built into that brand. that is that is cool to be a part of. And that's what gets me up every day is is the idea that we are doing real work for real people, making a living. It's not an easy living.
00:13:38
Speaker
And we need to we need to come to bat every day and perform for them. So that is across every job I've had. That has got me up every morning. and got me excited about it.
00:13:49
Speaker
I think the other side of that, and it's it's still about people, but it's the team within the four walls of John Deere as well that that have that same mantra.
00:14:01
Speaker
And even though we all do different jobs, how do we come together with that being the backdrop to it all? And I always say it's not about just selling to a customer. It's about making more fans. like That is our job is to create people that, and again, we're not perfect. We're going to have quality issues. We're going to have other things, but we want to create fans and promoters that say, you know what? I'm willing to work with deer to make this even better if if it's not there yet, because I believe so much in what they're doing. So that's what I see across every job I've had, everything that gets me up every day.
00:14:38
Speaker
that's That's exciting.
Global Impact of John Deere
00:14:40
Speaker
ah So I'm a golf nerd. is that That seems like a very cool part of your job today. Oh man, I love it. so I have to ask what that part's like. Yeah, so what's really cool is ah for for a lot of my products that I've talked about, i don't really interact or I don't have the dealer channel piece of it. I mean, that's kind we're together. But on golf, I do. And it's the global dealer piece.
00:15:07
Speaker
And that includes being able to host superintendents from golf courses. And we just had an event here a couple weeks ago where we had about 125 golf industry superintendents. they're The superintendent is, if you're not familiar with golf, that's those are the folks that actually take care of the golf course.
00:15:27
Speaker
And I don't know I say it, but Pinehurst number two I got to ride around with the superintendent. I did a startup meeting Friday morning with his whole crew that takes care of the course and go out and and actually take care of some of the greens in the morning. It was like pinch me. I'm in heaven right now.
00:15:48
Speaker
um And to see how they're using technology. We have ah we have a great product that's ah that's a GPS-driven sprayer. So it's actually what what will spray you know fairways and greens and make them look beautiful. But it actually is autonomously driven. it steers itself. It tells you exactly you know what was put down. And so I got to go out and experience that with them. It's so cool to be able to see that technology go in.
00:16:14
Speaker
Maybe one other thing that they said to me at that that really hit me was Pinehurst, they have 10 different courses. They have 400,000 customers a year that play around a round of golf at Pinehurst.
00:16:28
Speaker
And they said for each one of those customers, their expectation is a U.S. Open experience. You know, the golf US Open was was played there two years ago. Bryson DeChambeau won and all that. And they said, but every person, like this is their dream to play at Pinehurst. Oh yeah, it's on my bucket list. Absolutely, absolutely. And and so when they play, like that's what they're expecting. And so he's like, we don't just have to have everything, that experience come across when there's a US Open here every five years.
00:17:01
Speaker
Every single day across 10 courses, we need that experience. And it hit me and ah and and I actually brought it back to my team and said, you know, that's how John Deere is too. Like, it's not just the large tractor that we need to nail that like every single interaction and experience with all of the equipment that.
00:17:23
Speaker
that we sell, like people pay a premium for John Deere and that's their expectation. And we need to deliver on that experience as well in a similar way to, to how pioneers put it. So it was kind of an interesting parallel, but I love the golf business.
00:17:37
Speaker
um It's, I mean, think about it. The largest crop grown in the world is grass.
Agricultural Technology in Turf Management
00:17:43
Speaker
The largest crop grown and harvested is grass. So we talk a lot about soybeans and, and corn and all the other specialty crops everything, but grass is the largest crop. And,
00:17:53
Speaker
And, you know, we're we're really good at harvesting crops. So grass should be one that we're really good at as well. And and I think we are. I love that perspective because I think you're right. So often, especially John Deere, you think big tractors, you think large commodities, and that's absolutely a part of your business and your heritage and and who John Deere is. But for me, I would have never considered, at least early on in my career, the importance of agriculture when it comes to things like a golf course and how agriculture can affect your daily life in other ways that aren't just
00:18:24
Speaker
You know, the food that you eat and and that and like the typical things that we think when we think ag. Yeah. And that's what's super exciting about where we're going is the tech stack that is really leading in the agriculture industry and the ability to go from...
00:18:40
Speaker
You know, understanding what's happening in a field down to a section of a field. And now we're getting down to the individual plant health like that one corn stalk.
00:18:51
Speaker
What's happening with that? How do we maximize it? And that's what technology and and GPS and technology. And what we're able to do is see and spray and all this technology within an ag has come to that point of being able to think about the individual plant.
00:19:06
Speaker
Well, that same tech stack, I believe, has huge opportunities across the other parts of our business. So whether you go into the construction part of the business where you've got grade control and it's all about moving dirt once in construction. You don't want to move it several times, right? So if you can take GPS and be able to just move that piece of dirt once, like you can save all kinds of efficiency and then you bring it into the turf business that I'm talking about, the same thing. How do you bring that capability to a golf course where they're doing 80% of the same things as what we're doing in agriculture
00:19:41
Speaker
And how do we leverage that across, whether it be autonomy or you know whatever it is that that that
Balancing Tradition and Modernization
00:19:48
Speaker
we're looking at doing? How do we drive sustainability? How do we spray less herbicide? How do we make sure we're maximizing the yield?
00:19:56
Speaker
All of those different things are very similar. So that's what's really cool about the tech stack across our business. Yeah, that's so fun to think about. So knowing the legacy of John Deere and the heritage and the culture of agriculture that's so rooted in tradition, and even as we're talking about the cool things that are coming from a precision precision management standpoint as we think about technology, how do you balance that like heritage and the importance of the know-how and what I'm going say, like institutional knowledge of someone who's managing that land, whether it be a farmer or a golf superintendent or whoever that may be, with the technology that can help make some of these decisions or do some of these things for us?
00:20:36
Speaker
Yeah. It's a really interesting question. It's sort of like, how do you how do you stay grounded in the 188 years of history that we have, yet also be a technology leader and bringing it together? And it's not easy because, you know,
00:20:55
Speaker
Technology for technology's sake is not a good outcome. it's It can be super complicated. it can be, I can't work on my equipment. I can't figure this out. There can be bugs. So there's there's a real...
00:21:10
Speaker
there's a real dynamic here of how do you balance the two. what i what What I believe is super important is first and foremost, the job that we're trying to do with piece of equipment or whatever it is, like we need to make sure the quality of the equipment and the job is second to none.
00:21:33
Speaker
So the hardware that and the iron and all that, that, We need to deliver a quality product hands down and it needs to it needs to work every single day.
00:21:44
Speaker
And then the quality of the job that that it performs needs to, it needs if we're if we're building a lawnmower, it better be the best product. the best product out there to make long grass short. like that's That's how we look at it. So the fundamental capabilities of the product need to need to come through. Then as you layer technology on top of that, it's okay, how do we take that job that this this piece of equipment is doing and make it more efficient, make it smarter, make it automatically change maybe settings to optimize settings on it to do an even better quality? How do we give feedback to the operator or the business manager or whoever that is to say, look, so for example,
00:22:31
Speaker
a professional landscape contractor that maybe has four different crews that out and take care of people's lawns. Like, let's give you feedback on all the equipment that comes back in.
00:22:42
Speaker
This crew always gets done like an hour sooner. Why is that? Is it because... they're just a better group of people or is it because the way in which we've laid out their path is more efficient? Like how do you use data to bring all of that back to bring insights to people?
00:23:03
Speaker
But if it's just dumping data and a bunch of technology, like there's, it's impossible to do. So we, we try and think through what is the problem? What what are we trying to drive with this customer segment?
00:23:14
Speaker
And how does machine learning, how does big data, how does all of that allow maybe better decisions to be made?
Top-Down and Bottom-Up Strategies
00:23:22
Speaker
And how do we elevate those decisions so people can get the insights from it? So we spend a lot of time trying to do that.
00:23:29
Speaker
It's not easy. um It can be super complicated. But our job is to, you know I always use the duck on the water, like, It may be complicated inside our four walls, but we need to make sure that it's not complicated to the customer. And they're just seeing the duck on top of the water and not all the things maybe going on under the water.
00:23:47
Speaker
We don't always do that perfectly. i know, you know, we've got we've got customers that have gotten frustrated, I can't figure out how to fix this and how does this, you know, bug. So it's how do you work with customers through the journey as well?
00:24:01
Speaker
Because I mean, it used to be, hey, we'd have a six year product development cycle and we would not launch that product until every single thing is perfect. Well, in today's world, you can't do that. You've got to continually bring out new software and and new capabilities.
00:24:17
Speaker
You kind of have to iterate with the customer in that development cycle. Exactly. And that's what we try and do is is bring the customer into that development cycle um and and do more like beta testing and so on before we maybe launch full. but but So it's changed the way we develop products. It's changed the way we think about it. But at the end of the day, it's all about solving that whatever that gap is that a customer has and maybe even the gap they don't even know they have, but but we're able to bring some solutions for it.
00:24:47
Speaker
How do you ah navigate, so for anyone who's listening who maybe works inside of an organization like John Deere or another big agriculture company that's looking to deliver some of this, ah and maybe this isn't the culture at John Deere, but sometimes even navigating trying to solve a problem within a large organization that is complex in itself can be the first step of the problem.
00:25:10
Speaker
how do you How do you navigate that piece of it and know when to push or when to challenge or when to hey, we maybe need to shift to be able to do exactly what you're talking about.
00:25:22
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, certainly that's that's a huge challenge. i i I think there's sort of two parts to that. How do you make sure there's a top-down and a bottom-up? How do you make sure from the top-down we're setting a really good strategy of what's important? you know I talked about this tech stack earlier and how we try and think about it where – Let's make sure that as we develop technology, we're not we're not vertically developing it for only this application. Let's make sure we're thinking across applications, across customer segments when we when we build a technology.
00:26:04
Speaker
so that you're not having to like rewire everything you're able to take and leverage 80%. So the top-down strategy of how we structure solutions and how we think about our objectives as an organization is super, super important.
00:26:21
Speaker
But then how do we try and drive from a bottom-up as much as, once you have that in place, a bottom-up decision-making where people that are closest to whatever the challenge is, whatever it is, have the freedom to be able to make the best decision. And it's not, you know, thou shalt do this from the top down because that's when you get into this mindset of like, okay, doesn't matter what I do. They've already told me the answer. I don't agree with it. It wasn't mine. That's where you get disengagement. That's where you get people going like whatever. So I think the magic is how do you how do you bring from the top down the the rule or the guidance and the framework to be successful, but then empower people from the bottom up to be able to engage in that framework and make the decisions that really need to get made. So we're not perfect at it by any stretch, but I think we try really hard to think about the balance between
00:27:21
Speaker
kind of that top down and bottom up. And i think I think all organizations need to wrestle with that a little bit of how do you how do you make sure that people feel like there's freedom to be able to go out and innovate and and come up with new ideas, but they're able to tap into an overarching umbrella of technology or process or whatever to then go deliver those to to
Transitioning to Leadership Roles
00:27:44
Speaker
the market. So anyway, that's at least the way I think about Yeah, I love the bottom up decision making process idea in what advice would you have to a leader who maybe struggles with delegating decision authority?
00:27:58
Speaker
I mean, there's one thing to delegate tasks and to offload things, but to you aren't going to make the decision anymore and I'm going to trust other people to make those decisions.
00:28:09
Speaker
Yeah. So that's, that's what I struggle with every day because I just love getting into the details of it. But, you know, and it's, it's one of those things, like as you move through your career,
00:28:20
Speaker
And you go from an individual contributor to a manager to a manager of managers, like you need to be pretty deliberate in how you approach those transitions.
00:28:31
Speaker
And I've known several, okay, so really like awesome engineer that then became a manager of engineers and they really struggled.
00:28:42
Speaker
And so and And it was because, man, they they could solve a problem really well down here, but boy, helping others solve it. So I think the first thing is, like
00:28:53
Speaker
Management sounds great and man, I want to be the top guy on the poll and then tell everybody. But it's not meant for everybody. like What is it that gets you up in the morning gets you excited? And some people, like being really good at at solving those problems is what gets them up. And you can go a long way in that. So so it's not for everybody is the first.
00:29:14
Speaker
But the second is... when you make those transitions to going from an individual contributor, to manager, or manager of managers, like be really deliberate. I remember when I became like a manager for the first time, I, we have this annual planning process. What are your goals for the year and everything? And I literally wrote out goals for my team and gave them to them. And like, here's what you need to do and you need to do it And people look at me like,
00:29:44
Speaker
Okay, these are your goals, not mine. And it was interesting because I'm like, well, i'm trying to help you and make sure we're all aligned. And they're like, okay, John, but like that isn't what I think is important. and ah And it was one of those learnings to me.
00:29:56
Speaker
I mean, I sound like a horrible boss, but it was one of those learnings to me of like, look, people need to have their own goals and they need to drive it. And I need to help encourage them, give them the guidance, but it's theirs to own.
00:30:12
Speaker
It's not mine to own. And course, now I've got, you know, probably six layers underneath me and Look, there's a ton of things I'm not involved in, but my job is to make sure I'm setting, again, the high-arching strategy, lay out what's super important, and inspire people to go after it.
00:30:32
Speaker
And we just did our goal rollout for 2026, and that's exactly what i what I'm trying to do. is and we came up you know I have the turf business. We came up with, like we're the greatest show on turf. like That is what we aspire to be.
00:30:46
Speaker
we think we've got the best brand, we've got the best dealers, we've got the best products and, and darn it all, we got the best people to do it. And we aspire to be the greatest show on turf. And then I kind of this is, these are the big building blocks to make that happen.
00:31:01
Speaker
But you as a team, you need to go out and figure out how you tap into that and how you drive it. But my job is to bring the energy and the inspiration for people to feel and the budgets and all those things for people to feel like I can go achieve this.
00:31:14
Speaker
So Yeah, you can hear it in your voice too that you would get excited about it. or I totally do. And that's contagious. Yeah, I love it. ah so John, we've talked about like a lot of the good sides of your career and the fun pieces and the things you enjoy.
Long Tenure at John Deere
00:31:30
Speaker
I think for younger leaders today who are in the maybe like emerging leader phase of their career, there's a lot of temptation to either move around or to shift or to move fast.
00:31:43
Speaker
what i have two questions. what What is it that's kept you at John Deere for 20 years, 20 plus years? And did you ever have you ever been tempted to leave or to quit or to find something different? That's interesting.
00:31:57
Speaker
Okay, so first, what's kept me at John Deere... is the fact that, I mean, I flew, I'm umm not sitting in my home office, like I flew here last night, but i whenever I get on a plane, I always have to make a decision of, am I wearing the brand today or am I not wearing the brand? And I remember i several years ago, I got on a plane and I sat I sat down in a seat and there's a woman sitting between us. She's talking to woman. She looks to the guy on one side and she says, what what do you do? And he said, I'm in investment banking and talked about this and talked about that. And she politely asked a few questions.
00:32:33
Speaker
And then she looked at me and said, what are doing? I said, I work for John Deere and this is what we do. And her face lights up and then proceeds to talk about her grandfather and this and, and a lawnmower and it and like literally for 30 minutes, she's just totally engaged conversation and curious about. And I got off that plane and I'm like, you know, I bet if that guy like makes a lot more money than I do. And he certainly didn't look like he loved his job, but I'm sure he was super successful whatever.
00:33:04
Speaker
Um, But man, I love what I do because it resonates with people and it's a brand that people can connect to. And, you know, we sell a heck of a lot of hats that people wear proudly. And that made me just really like, look, this isn't about just...
00:33:20
Speaker
money or anything else. It's about getting up every day and having a passion for what you do and being proud of what you're able to do. i think I think to me, that's super important. And that's what's kept me at John Deere is I just just love what ah the challenges our customers, I love trying to solve those challenges.
00:33:38
Speaker
And i I love to be able to to wear this brand around and talk about it. So that would be my, my first advice for people is like, find something that they just get your motor running. And it's not that you need to be like, Hey, I'm so passionate
Passion Aligned with Work for Success
00:33:55
Speaker
about this. And like, I love golf. And I, at one point thought that, you know, my passion was gonna be a professional golfer. There's no way I could make a living being a professional golfer. So it's not, it's not just like,
00:34:08
Speaker
Because people say, oh, whatever, find your passion and and you'll be successful. It's not just about a passion. It's about putting your passion to work in what you're involved in. and And maybe not just bouncing all over, but like how do I take what where my curiosity and passions are in in what I'm engaged in today and bring that out? Because when you do, others will notice and you'll be successful.
00:34:35
Speaker
like it. Have you ever had moments that have made you want to throw in the towel?
Overcoming Challenges in COVID-19
00:34:42
Speaker
Oh, boy. Yes.
00:34:45
Speaker
I mean, I won't get into specifics of of a job, but, you know, I definitely have had, mean, let's just say going through COVID. was I had large factory. i actually had three factories at the time that I was responsible for, but I sat at one of them and it was the most difficult time i've probably ever had You had, you had people that were scared to come to work. You had people that this is a hoax. Like, why are we doing this? You had people that like everything under the sun and all spectrums of it.
00:35:19
Speaker
And I'm like, It was super challenging and everybody, yeah, just you name it, it was thrown at We couldn't get parts, you know, it was a challenge.
00:35:32
Speaker
And there were days where I'm like, why am I, why am I doing this? But it's really, really interesting after you get through that and you look back on it and you say, man, how our team came together.
00:35:47
Speaker
Like I remember every day we were doing different things of like, okay, this is how you're gonna be tested today. We're gonna swab here. We're gonna take your temperature. We're gonna do this. We're gonna put plastic up. So like every day we were shifting things, but the way the team came together and how much stronger we were afterwards,
00:36:06
Speaker
And even the whole factory and everything, like we came together and I look back and I'm like, that might have been the best thing we we ever went through because it it made us stronger as a team. And again, it's the old adage, like challenges.
00:36:21
Speaker
And and you know you don't make muscle by just sitting around. You make muscle by going to the gym and you're actually tearing a fiber in your muscle to make it stronger.
00:36:32
Speaker
And so sometimes those challenges are the best thing that you could possibly do in your career is is go to the gym and work out and you're pain you're in pain for a couple of days when you do it, especially me who doesn't go very often, but you're in pain for a couple days, but you're stronger in the process.
00:36:51
Speaker
challenge yourself, like put your hand up and say, i want to take on this project that maybe I know I don't have bandwidth to do, but I'm going to, I'm going to do it because I know it will challenge me in a new way.
Building a Broad Career Pyramid
00:37:04
Speaker
Like that's what makes you stronger. And I'll just say it. I think our generation and even like, it's almost like what's the easiest route is,
00:37:15
Speaker
is what everybody wants to look for. How do i how do i make the most money and not have to put a lot of energy in And I'm like, man, that just seems like a bad recipe. um How do you learn the most? you know i'll just I'll just go. one of the i have a lot of people that ask me for career advice within Deer or outside Deer.
00:37:35
Speaker
I think one of the one of the analogies for your career that is not helpful is this idea of a career ladder. How do I get to the next rung? How do I get to the next promotion? and How fast can I go up three more rungs?
00:37:49
Speaker
And I think that's a bad analogy. I prefer to use the analogy of a pyramid. Like, how do you build your career and think of it in a pyramid? Because how do you get the base as broad as you can?
00:38:03
Speaker
How do you get as many different experiences? How do you get as many different advocates within an organization, different people that look at look at you and say, Nicole, this is ah this may not be what she...
00:38:17
Speaker
has done historically, but man, you want her on your team because she's awesome. And maybe she hasn't done this exact thing, but she will bring an energy and a perspective that will make the organization better. So take a chance on her.
00:38:31
Speaker
Like that is what happens when you have that curiosity and you build a pyramid that's got a broad base and not just how do I get to the next rung on this ladder?
00:38:43
Speaker
And I've also seen a lot of people that have gone up three or four rungs and then they look at it and go, i really don't like my job. I really don't even like this function that I thought I was gonna like.
00:38:55
Speaker
I wanna go do something else, but now I've devoted 10, 15 years to this and it's gonna be really hard to go do that other thing. So especially people maybe in the front half of their career, like think about how you can build a ah broad base and think of your career as a pyramid and not a ladder is my advice.
00:39:13
Speaker
I really like that analogy. it's It's a cool one. Okay, John, so we are going to move into the rapid fire segment.
Quickfire Questions and Answers
00:39:20
Speaker
Okay. I always joke, it's where you try to give short answers and I try not to ask follow-up questions. Okay, we'll do our best. Okay, what is your favorite John Deere product on the market today? Oh boy.
00:39:31
Speaker
ah Well, I have a fourar small tractor that's 52 horsepower. I use it like every weekend. So that has to be my favorite. But the product that I don't own that's my favorite is our Sea & Spray sprayer because it's revolutionized the way in which we we can spray crops. And I think it's just the coolest thing.
00:39:54
Speaker
Love that. Who is a leader that you admire?
00:40:00
Speaker
Okay, so probably a bad thing on my part to talk about a politician, but I still love Ronald Reagan because he had this way of bringing humor and humility into the conversation that even people maybe that didn't,
00:40:20
Speaker
had the same beliefs or thoughts or perspectives on things. He was able to bridge the gap and bring people together to collaborate, to solve problems. And that's what I aspire to do. And I try and use him where I can too. So he's the one I always look at and say, man, if I could, if I could just do it the way he did it.
00:40:36
Speaker
So that's awesome. Um, what is one habit that keeps you grounded?
00:40:46
Speaker
Uh, getting feedback from my teenagers because as good as I maybe think I did today or we we did this or whatever, I'd come home and they always remind me how much I don't understand technology or understand what's happening in the world.
00:41:03
Speaker
So they keep you humble. It sounds like they keep me humble for sure. Yep. Um, what is a leadership book or resource that you recommend most often?
00:41:15
Speaker
ah The book that I love is is the book Good to Great because it really talks about ways that you, and I forgot the author right now, but but it talks about ways that you can go from how companies have gone from being like really good companies to being great companies. And I think it's also got some really good personal things from a leadership standpoint. How do you go from being you know a good leader to a great leader and what are some of the recipes for that? So i highly recommend that book and and following through on some of the things there.
00:41:48
Speaker
That is a good one. I have read that one. ah Describe John Deere culture in one word.
00:41:55
Speaker
Teamwork.
00:41:57
Speaker
What is a leadership value you won't compromise on? Integrity. And what excites you most about the future of the business unit that you lead in John Deere in the next decade?
00:42:13
Speaker
I would say the convergence of the hardware and the software and just it's still a little clunky, but i think we have a great opportunity as we start bringing machine learning and AI and
00:42:32
Speaker
connectivity to pieces of equipment, the ability for all of that to to bring insights that we just never thought were possible and to tie together systems we never thought were possible in the past.
00:42:44
Speaker
I think there's a huge opportunity. That's fun to think about. ah So John, at AFA we love ah hot takes is what we call them. So unconventional or bold opinions. So what is the hot take that you have about leadership or the future of agriculture?
00:43:01
Speaker
I'm trying to think of a good one here. I would say like the agriculture is the the oldest thing out there in the world and it is the most exciting one as we go forward. Like how cool to be a part of something that touches every single person in this world. So the the future is super bright for agriculture.
00:43:20
Speaker
I don't know if that's a hot take, but I like it. It fits your if it fits your personality and positivity. All right. Well, John, thank you so much. This has been so fun. And as Savannah and i were were getting up this morning, this anyone who's listening, we recorded it, you know, 8 a.m. m first thing. We were dragging a little bit, and now I am energized, and this has been such a great way to start the day. So, yeah.
00:43:46
Speaker
Thank you for joining us. And as you know, at AFA, we are all about building bridges.
Connecting with John Deere
00:43:50
Speaker
So where can listeners connect with you or learn more about the work that you are doing at John Deere? Absolutely. So well thank you as well, because I was a little dragging this morning, but you guys got me. You guys got me pumped, so thanks for that. I appreciate it. Certainly, we're we're on all your social channels of LinkedIn all of those. I try and do a fair amount out there. But, you know, the CES show is going to have some exciting products there to continue to show this tech journey, Commodity Classic, Farm Progress, all the different um shows, all the events. we We try and participate in a lot of the AFA events as well. Just highly encourage all the listeners participate in in those events as well because... They're super exciting from a networking standpoint.
00:44:34
Speaker
I love the connection between students and alumni and mid-career and companies. i just think the AFA does an amazing job to be able to do that. So yeah, look us up.
00:44:45
Speaker
love to Love to hear from folks. Awesome. Thank you so much, John. Appreciate you sharing all of your knowledge and time with us and appreciate and everyone for tuning in to the Cultivating Leaders podcast.
00:44:58
Speaker
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