Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Setting Bold Goals and Achieving Them with Eric Hansotia
92 Plays6 days ago
What does it take to lead with speed, focus and trust when the stakes are high?
Eric Hansotia, Chairman, President and CEO of AGCO Corporation, joins The Cultivating Leaders Podcast to dive into setting transformational goals, building aligned teams and keeping farmers at the center of every decision. Eric shares how starting his career as an engineer shaped the way he thinks about problem-solving, leadership and innovation. From “right-to-left thinking” and keeping farmers and the center of the business, Eric offers practical frameworks for anyone trying to lead change and turn strategy into action.
Eric gets real about:
- Lead where you are: Stop obsessing over a perfectly mapped career path and focus on creating excellence, learning and impact in the role you have today.
- Move with purpose: Set transformational goals, create clarity around the destination and build team buy-in because success depends on both a strong plan and people who believe in it.
- Build trust that lasts: Ask better questions, focus on the decisions only you can make and create a culture grounded in benevolence, honesty and competence while protecting the moments that matter most in life.
If you are learning how to lead people, manage change or make bigger decisions with confidence, this conversation gives you a practical leadership toolbox you can start using right away.
Want to hear more from Eric? Check out his blog here!
Connect with Eric
- Connect on LinkedIn
- Follow AGCO on LinkedIn
- Follow AGCO on Instagram
- Follow the COMPANY on Facebook
- Visit their website
Connect with AFA
- Follow us on LinkedIn
- Follow us on Instagram
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on TikTok
- Visit our Website
About The Cultivating Leaders Series
The Cultivating Leaders Series is the go-to resource for anyone ready to take their leadership to the next level, delivering powerful insights from top voices in food, agriculture and beyond. The podcast offers immediate, actionable advice from the top leaders in food and ag, with guests who break down the skills that set them apart in the real world. Join the live webinars to bring leadership to life, with candid conversations, live Q&A and behind-the-scenes stories from C-suite executives. Together, these virtual experiences are designed to meet you where you are and help you lead with purpose, confidence and clarity.
Don’t forget to follow/subscribe so you never miss another episode!
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:02
Speaker
You can't stretch to the moon on every topic. So there's an element of focus first. Team, any business to be ultimately be able to go fast.
00:00:14
Speaker
Where are we heading in the big picture? People are running in all different directions fast and the company doesn't move fast. is you get more responsibility, maybe take over a team or you get a larger organization.
00:00:27
Speaker
Hopefully you learn and you start practicing more more that you're actually going to get better results, faster results, a more excited team if you can bring them along through questions and not being the problem solver yourself on it.
00:00:45
Speaker
And so try and organize yourselves where you're really focusing your personal time to Be there fully and fully present for crystal models.
00:01:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Cultivating Leaders podcast. I'm your host and curiosity captain, Nicole Ercig. If you are ready to lead better, think bigger, and grow faster, you're in the right place. We bring you real conversations with top leaders across food and agriculture, focused on the practical skills and mindsets you need to lead in today's environment.
00:01:25
Speaker
Today's guest is a leader known for setting bold visions and building teams that actually deliver on them. Eric Hansodia, Chairman, President, and CEO of Agco Corporation, leads a global organization focused on advancing the future of agriculture through innovation, technology, and a farmer-first mindset.
00:01:42
Speaker
Throughout his career, Eric has been recognized for setting ambitious goals, driving operational excellence, and leading teams through complex transformation. If you're leading people, setting direction, or trying to turn strategy into action, this conversation will challenge how you think about goals and execution. Welcome to the pod, Eric.
00:02:01
Speaker
Well, so great to be here with you, Nicole. I just love talking about agriculture and leadership and what we can all do to make it better. Oh my gosh. Well, you're in the right spot then. This is the podcast to be on.
00:02:11
Speaker
So glad you're here. Okay. So I always ask guests, what did I miss from your bio? Like if I was someone who was, you know, just tuning in maybe I've stalked you on LinkedIn. What am i what am i not, what do I not know yet about Eric?
00:02:24
Speaker
Well, I mean for this audience it's maybe relevant to say I grew up working on a dairy farm in central Wisconsin, was in 4-H and FFA and kind of jumped into every kind of little competition I could with showing cattle and and raising chickens and sheep and doing all kinds of projects and it was a great way to learn a lot about agriculture but it was a great way to learn a lot about leadership and so I think that's probably a common background to many of your listeners And then spent the rest of my time in the ag equipment business. And more and more it's it's morphing in from egg equipment to ag technology. And so that's what love. I love understanding farmers' problems and finding intersecting innovation to help them find that, whether it's on the product or with data or with changing how many business. So that's that's kind of what makes me tick.
00:03:13
Speaker
Appreciate the background. That's awesome. So growing up on the dairy farm, what did you want to be when you grew up? Did you think it was going to be CEO of Agco? No, not at all. Not even close to that. In fact, you know, for many years, I thought I was going to pursue being a farmer. And I was taking classes, you know, in high school and they were ended up being fairly heavy in math and sciences and so on. And my guidance counselor suggested, well, why don't you get a degree in engineering?
00:03:40
Speaker
And I was planning to go to college anyway, and I thought, yeah, I'll do that. And that really, i fell in love with engineering, that the problem solving nature of the tools and the innovation it brought.
00:03:52
Speaker
And so that really lit my fuse and, know, I pursued an engineering direction. i was engineering at beginning of my career and then grew into business leadership. but you still use a lot of those same tools. You use a lot about understanding how a farm operates and what's important to a farmer and you use a lot about the engineering principles of solving problems and how things work. So that's kind of how I got here.
00:04:14
Speaker
But didn't have any aspiration of being CEO. It was just kind of like, i want to do a really good job at what I'm doing and and try and create a little bit of excellence here. And then that led to one thing after another and threw myself into new ah new opportunities, to kind of restarted to get did one thing for a little while and would try something very different within the same company and and built a broad base and and one thing led to another. And ultimately had the opportunity to have this wonderful job, which is to me, my favorite job in the world. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
00:04:46
Speaker
That's great to hear. Cause I think sometimes obviously people can look at roles like this and think that's so high pressure or um gosh, you've you've always had you've had to have your eye on that for a really long time. So give us a little bit of background, Eric, of, okay, so you went into this with trying to help farmers, using solving problems, using your engineering degree. What did that journey look like from, okay, now I want to grow both as a person, up kind of the corporate ladder, but like I can tell you're you're still in it for for the farmer at the end of the day.
00:05:17
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things I tell maybe people earlier in their career is, you know, there's a, I think, a false advice that sometimes schools give younger employees or students, and that is to kind of map out their career path. And I tell them, absolutely don't do that. Do the opposite.
00:05:34
Speaker
Instead of trying to look forward, I want this job and then that job and then that job, and that's what I want to do. Look at the job you're in and say, how can I generate excellence in this? If I'm in finance, how do I close the books three days faster? If I'm in quality, how do I cut my quality issues in half?
00:05:49
Speaker
If I'm in engineering, how do i design something that's not been designed before? Create excellence in whatever you're doing. And everybody can in one one way or another. And then throw yourself into something new.
00:06:00
Speaker
Move from one kind of activity to another. Build a set of experiences and a ah so set of skills. And then create excellence in that second one. And if you do that time after time, then pretty much you get a reputation of that. And and people say, well, we want this person to take on more and more responsibility and opportunities open up. it's It's a much better way to grow yourself and to build a team around you than to try and map your career. in fact, there's a there's a quote that is on a plaque that I still have my office. I got from my roommate, my best friend, when I was going to college.
00:06:34
Speaker
And it says, excellence is a result of caring more than others think is wise risky more than others think is safe dreaming more than others think is practical and expecting more than others think is possible.
00:06:45
Speaker
And I've tried to live that way and i'm tried to lead that way. I think it's a you know, it's been something that's resonated for me and hopefully it'll spark something for others as well. Yeah, I love that. You actually stole my next question because I was going to ask, how do you define excellence? But I love that you've got a plaque that you can see every day right there in your office.
00:07:04
Speaker
Yes. Have you always been an ambitious person? I'm curious about that. I would say yes. I mean, when I look back to my days in 4-H or my days in FFA or sports or other things, yeah i um I always looked to do a couple of things. And I didn't think about it at that time. but when I look back on it, there's an element of leadership of when there's a group standing around or trying to figure out what to do. I tried to rally the crew and gather up the ideas and and and establish a path forward.
00:07:36
Speaker
And so I think there was an element leadership that was a little bit naturally there, but it was groomed over time through those organizations. I think they do a great job of putting you in situations, public speaking, all kinds of different skill building activities to build your confidence and build your skillsets. So um yeah, I think I've always had ambition, but I'm happy. I think that as I look back, try to channel that ambition into what was right in front of me and not kind of look out too far down the road.
00:08:07
Speaker
So would you say, i is setting ambitious goals, is that what ah helps you with your, like, as you think about your personal career trajectory and also the teams that you lead, is setting ambitious goals a key to success? Or um how do you know when to stretch yourself enough there where like maybe I'm getting too far ahead and pie in the sky versus like pushing myself hard enough that that feels maybe just right enough out of reach?
00:08:33
Speaker
Well, I think there's a couple things in your question. you You can't stretch to the moon on every topic. So there's an element amount of focus first and saying what really matters, what's going to really make a big difference to farmers, what's going to help our company get stronger, what's going to help our team feel more energized about what they're doing. So depending on the topic, you say, well, what's the big thing right now?
00:08:57
Speaker
And on that big thing, Let's think big. And so I really like setting on the most important topic, a transformational goal as opposed to an evolving goal. So a transformational goal, most of the team, including myself, often doesn't know exactly how to get there.
00:09:13
Speaker
So it's a big stretch. And what I like to use is something called right to left thinking instead of left to right. So a traditional evolving goal will be left to right. Now, the reason I say that is people read left to right. They read one word then the next word and the next word. So it's kind of a natural evolution of where I've come from.
00:09:31
Speaker
So that's left to right. But right to left means I need to jump out into the future. Maybe it's a year away, maybe it's three years away and say, what does the world look like that we're setting our aspiration to achieve out there?
00:09:43
Speaker
I say, is that exciting? Yes, that's an exciting place. Great. Now, if we get all everybody rallied around that spot, theyre like now let's work our way back from that spot to today and figure out how to put the actions in place to get get to get there.
00:09:56
Speaker
So that's right to left. Jump out into the future having no idea how to get there first, but getting excited about that outcome and then building the plan to achieve it. Recognizing that you may not have every, so you know, there's a river to cross. You may not have every stone defined to get across the river.
00:10:13
Speaker
But if you get enough of them, you can say, well, let's get going and we'll figure the rest of them out on the way. So it's a having some stretch remaining and not have everything predefined is is reality and in today's world because it's largely about speed. know I'm a big believer that speed beats slow, not big beats small or small beats big. I think it's all about speed.
00:10:37
Speaker
And so setting big aspirational goals quickly getting the team around it, and then quickly making progress toward that goal is is that and some of the keys to success. ah I have so many questions in there. I want to come back to the speed one, especially as we think about scale. But I'm curious from a setting that transformative goal,
00:10:57
Speaker
How many transformative goals can i have either if like, let's say I'm a leader of a division or a business unit, or from your perspective, as you think about like how many transformative goals can, can Agco truly have at one time?
00:11:13
Speaker
So Agco can have a few, a small number of them. Any given group probably can only have one, maximum two. But generally one. Focus is so critical. So to go fast and to really get everybody focused and aligned and marching together, you know having one primary goal for that group is is is best. But now everybody doesn't do the same thing in ah in a big company.
00:11:36
Speaker
And so you could have the product development group trying to set a stretch goal and ah in a you know breakthrough improvement on that side. And then those customer acquisition group may be doing something different and and stretching themselves in that direction.
00:11:49
Speaker
So you can manage a few of them. At the beginning of the year, you know if I get tactical about it, I create a little table and I say, you know we all One goal is always about people. So we all share that. i'm talking about for my senior leadership team where we start.
00:12:05
Speaker
One goal is about people. And then one goal is about business results. So those two are standard every time. And then you have two or three columns for transformation. Now, it could be that you're finishing up the last one and you're starting the next one or you're supporting someone else. So you don't always fill all three boxes in.
00:12:23
Speaker
But there's three spots there. and And then what I like to do is look for linkage where the engineering group maybe is needing to support the purchasing group and redesigning for new supply base or something like that.
00:12:34
Speaker
So I get that matrix and the whole team builds that together just before the beginning of the year. And then we use that to cascade through the organization and say, everybody's goals should feed up to to these. So what that tells you is it's got to be, it forces focus. It forces a real concentration on the the things that really matter the most right now.
00:12:53
Speaker
So you ah have a framework for focused goals. And what you said up though about speed is that speed is what wins and it doesn't matter necessarily scale. So as someone who leads a very large corporate organization, tell me how you maintain speed because I think bigger organizations often have a reputation for their big ships they turn slowly you can't move as fast sometimes even internally right like it's hard to get things done here because there's so many layers of red tape or things like that well there's a few elements i would i would suggest that you need to have in place on any team any business uh to be ultimately be able to go fast and it creates some homework up front so first of all you all have to agree
00:13:39
Speaker
Where are we heading in the big picture? What is our aspiration? So some people call it a purpose. Then in a shorter term, that's the purpose of the company for multi-years than the goals for that year.
00:13:49
Speaker
you got to define the destination and work on getting everybody rallied around that. It's like we understand what it looks like. we understand how it's different than today. we understand how we're going to measure it. We understand some of the elements on how to get there.
00:14:02
Speaker
So spending time getting everybody clear on that is super important. Because if they know where to head and then they know somewhat of guardrails about where they can run, then the decisions can happen as close to the frontline as possible, as close to the farmer, as close to our our production workers, as close to our suppliers.
00:14:23
Speaker
That's where all the detail is and things are happening real time and you want it to be able to push as as many of the decisions to those frontline folks so that you can be fast. And in order to do that, you just got to have everybody clear. If you have no plan and no direction, then people are running in all different directions fast. And the company doesn't move fast because it's like everybody rolling in a different direction in a boat.
00:14:48
Speaker
That doesn't work very well. i The boat only moves fast no matter how fast you're paddling if we're all paddling in the same direction. Getting everybody focused on a direction i think is really clear, a key.
00:14:59
Speaker
um Getting them clear on decision rates, things like that. Getting them clear on their guardrails. You know, I have a ah saying that i like to use in the company that says success equals P times a And I want to unpack that. in so The success of any transformation or change effort is the product of how strong is the plan? That's P. Let's give ourselves a score of one to 10.
00:15:24
Speaker
multiplied by how strong is the A, the acceptance of the organization, the acceptance of the group. And more often than not, when I see change efforts fail, it's not because we had a bad plan. People came up with a great idea.
00:15:36
Speaker
Maybe they didn't enroll lot of people around them, but they didn't enroll the people who were going to be impacted, the acceptance of those going through the change. And so that A is the part that usually is the the the soft underbelly of the failed outcome. And so that's where you know I talked about getting clear on where we're going. It's also getting people enrolled and accepting of the change process of where we're going and why that's so much better than where coming from.
00:16:05
Speaker
So success equals P time A is something I use all the time. I hardly, you know, hardly a few weeks go by without me using that in it in a meeting somewhere to get people focused on where to apply their energy.
00:16:17
Speaker
Love that. ah It sounds like you've got a really solid framework of just different pieces, whether it's goals or here's like so here's your own kind of recipe to success. I'm curious, Eric, um especially in a change like a change example or or something big you've done in your career where it's like, hey, here's where I learned this lesson um or here's why you've been able to apply some of these things to to make a large change like that happen and and in an organization. Yeah.
00:16:48
Speaker
Yeah, all the way along, i was know you you look at the individual contributor roles I had originally, which many folks have on this, call perhaps. And then you get involved with project teams and so on. So I tried, i was fortunate enough to learn some of these change management toolbox items um about how to think about a stakeholder analysis, who needs to get from where they are today to the future place, project charters, you know, discipline, project management, those kinds of toolboxes, facilitation skills.
00:17:21
Speaker
those core skills I learned early in my career. I'm very lucky to be able to go through some training on those. And was there's a kind of a process improvement focus at that time.
00:17:34
Speaker
And so based on that, I was able to build those muscles, I still use those tools today and I still try and help others use those tools. And so it's it's a tool set that that serves you no matter where you end up and where you what kind of role you have, the skill sets of leading change are are fundamental.
00:17:51
Speaker
And so for anybody that is is is interested in this type of topic, would encourage them to skill up on those types of things wherever they are in their career. Yeah. Well, and I think change is inevitable, inevitable no matter what job you're in or no matter what level you're leading at and learning how to manage through change, whether it's for yourself or for leading other people through change can can be helpful no matter what role you're in.
00:18:17
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. ah So one of the things you talked about was really driving decisions down. And I think that is so much easier said than done and can be really uncomfortable for some leaders because I worked with the leader who once said, the higher I got in the organization, the less decisions I actually get to make. um And he's like, no one thinks it, but I make less decisions today than I used to. ah How do you get comfortable with that as a leader, knowing that, especially maybe when you may know more than your team or you may be experienced, but like understanding when and how to define like this is no longer my decision as the leader. This is the team's decision.
00:18:59
Speaker
Or this is this is someone who reports to me his decision, not mine. Yeah, it's ah it's an evolution through one's career. I think it's a it's a combination of as you continue to maybe grow experiences and grow skills, you also have to start letting go. And early in your career, you're rewarded about what questions did I answer? Like, did I have the solution to the problem?
00:19:24
Speaker
And can I solve something? And and then as you grow in your career and you start managing teams or or getting a little bit larger responsibility, you you quickly realize in order to have that success equals P times A, in order to build acceptance, you need to bring a team along through questions as opposed to telling them well, here's the answer to this and this and this, now please go do it. So if you change your behavior and work more through questions than solving the problem yourself, you start seeing that teams actually do a great job of being more responsive than you could ever be because they're right there where the information is and and being faster.
00:20:02
Speaker
And so if you can trust that a little bit, you see the results, you can say, okay, I need to do more of that. But it does require letting go. That can be really scary, I think, sometimes for leaders. And I'm curious your perspective, if you struggled with this at all, and you can tell us that you didn't, but any fear of having to trust, especially high stakes decisions to other people, when you're the one accountable ah for what the outcome is, right? Like, again, and the higher I think you go in leadership, the more the more pressure there is on on some of this kind of stuff. But How do you overcome that fear of trusting someone, even if you do trust them and you appreciate that them as an employee or a team member, but someone who's dealing with really high stakes decisions and saying like, hey, I got to back out of this and I can't be involved. that's They're going to take it and handle it.
00:20:54
Speaker
Yeah, maybe there's two thoughts that come to mind around this topic. One is about building trust in the team around you and and your trust in them. And then the other one is about practicing the different behaviors yourself. So let's tackle both of those.
00:21:08
Speaker
Let's start with ah tackling the evolving your own behavior. you know When you're starting off in your career, you're typically rewarded by being a problem-solving, having the answer, knowing the solution yourself. And so you're like, ooh, nice job, Sally, nice job, Tom. And in and you sometimes get rewarded for that.
00:21:25
Speaker
But then as you is you get more responsibility, maybe you take over a team or you get in a larger organization, um hopefully you learn and and you start practicing more and more that you're actually going to get better results, faster results, a more excited team if you can bring them along through questions and not being the problem solver yourself on everything.
00:21:48
Speaker
If you just tell them, hey, here's the so problem solutions to this and this and this, now please go do it, um they become just doers of what you told them. And when the world around them changes, they keep going down the path that you told them when when really they needed to pivot. Whereas if instead you you walk bring them along through a series of questions, they learn the why. They they have gone through the discovery process of arriving on that path.
00:22:13
Speaker
And now they understand the ultimate why. So if the world changes and they and the and the conditions change, they can pivot and and take different actions. And if you practice that as you're coming up through the organization or your through through your career, you start realizing, wow, these are way better outcomes, way faster outcomes, and the team enjoys it a lot more.
00:22:34
Speaker
So I would encourage you to practice it on the lower impact topics. Practice it frequently. And sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it wrong. Sometimes the team gets it right and wrong. So you can practice those behaviors and try and fine tune it so that when that big one comes along that you're referring to, you've already built up the muscle to maybe do it a little bit more skillfully.
00:22:54
Speaker
The second one is about trust. And it's a little bit parallel path that and trust is built through kind of three layers, I think. The first one's benevolence. like They need to know that you care about them.
00:23:06
Speaker
Secondly, it's about honesty. They need to know that you're going to do what you said you're going to do. And then finally, you get to the competence of, can I do this well? Can I deliver results?
00:23:17
Speaker
But you have to build those first two building blocks before you get to the competency. And so if you can build a climate of trust among your team, along with these kind of adaption of adoption of these different principles of more questions than giving them the answer.
00:23:35
Speaker
i think then you find that you're it's a multiplier, that the you're getting a lot more decisions made, you're moving at a lot faster pace, and the team is developing and growing around you.
00:23:47
Speaker
I mean, one last thing to thought about. The other element is, I've kind of talked a lot about results and maybe a little bit about trust too. But inherent in all of that is what kind of aye culture are you creating around you? If if you are a results person, whether you got this through answers or questions, but you didn't really care about the people around you, you get that reputation. So then the next time there's a project that comes along, if you're just the results gal guy or the results gal, nobody really wants to join that team.
00:24:18
Speaker
Whereas if you're the person who's developing the team around you, helping them understand the why, giving them them the autonomy to make decisions, allowing them to go fast, fail sometimes and help help mentor them through that. You're like, wow, i I'm a much better leader when I joined his or her team than when i started, then then at the end than when I started.
00:24:36
Speaker
And I've grown myself. I enjoyed the journey. The next time that a project comes up with that leader, i want to be on that team. And suddenly you have all the best and the brightest trying to join you. So there's the element of the tools creating it, but then just the ability to draw great talent is maybe a side benefit that is another multiplier. And if you can string these together, that's what makes you you know more powerful leader than you could ever be on your own.
00:25:01
Speaker
Absolutely. So how do you decide, Eric, what decisions um what decision do you you keep as CEO? What ones still land and are your responsibility versus what you drive driving the decisions down either to the level of the customer or or deeper within your team itself?
00:25:20
Speaker
Maybe a two thoughts there. One would be there's this phrase, do what only you can do. And so there's a number of things I can do or you can do and there's, you know, and I could end up doing it and many of my kind of enjoy doing so you end up going on that.
00:25:37
Speaker
But if you start if you run through those things with the same a different filter and you say what are the ones only i can do now maybe it's because I have access to different information. i' have access to different perspective because I've had discussions with the board or supplier, whatever it happens to be.
00:25:53
Speaker
like I need to make that one because nobody else has been in the intersection of information or whatever. Those are the ones I have to call or they have such an impact to the long-term direction of the company. And you know that's really my purview as opposed to any of the individual business leaders.
00:26:12
Speaker
So I try and zero in on spending my time on those things only I can do. Now, that's the primary filter. Then there's also other things where I'll dive in to a given business area and and try and help help with a reset, which a little bit falls in that same category do the things only you can do. But there may be a business that's going along fine, but then I'll try and step in and say,
00:26:38
Speaker
have we thought about where's our next breakthrough? and And my job is to help lift their eyes instead of kind of looking down at the ground and what's right in front of us.
00:26:48
Speaker
Every now and then figure out when it's the right time to lift their eyes up and say, where's the next breakthrough? How do we create a whole different outcome for our farmers? It could be on product, it could be on distribution strategy, it could be how we help them with data and all those things.
00:27:03
Speaker
So um i'd say those are the two primary things. And then the third one ah is talent. I spend a lot of my time trying to mentor the existing talent and groom the future talent to make sure we've got a pipeline several layers deep with the rest of the leadership team that we're grooming and helping, giving them different experiences, training, mentoring, teaching, coaching, like people did for me, to to help them continue to grow.
00:27:29
Speaker
That's awesome. ah And it's such a cool perspective to hear. So as you think about driving decisions down, that also doesn't work without creating accountability and ownership. So how do you do that with your leaders, right? Because if they're owning the decision, obviously as the head honcho, right? Like you're ultimately responsible, but like they take the responsibility themselves because they made the call. So how do you create a positive culture around accountability and truly owning at either areas of the business or or ownership in your job and the decisions that you get to make?
00:28:03
Speaker
I'd say probably two things. One is broader and one's more specific. The broader one is setting the culture. So as as a leadership team, we established the culture when we reset the strategy when our our team came in. And we focused on three things. We to be the most farmer-focused company in the industry.
00:28:20
Speaker
and think of everything through the lens of what makes the farmer more profitable, more successful, easier to their job. Number two is team up. And so instead of optimizing manufacturing or optimizing Brazil from the Brazil team or the manufacturing team, we want to optimize the company first.
00:28:39
Speaker
And so working across functions, across geographies to make sure we're optimizing the whole. And then the third one is probably the hardest one, and that's speak up. And essentially we want to be able to raise a challenging topic respectfully and debate respectfully so you can raise risk ideas, build on someone else's idea, you know challenge the status quo, all of those types of things. so the But the mixture of those three is really powerful. everything with you know We're all on the same side the table. We're not on you and me. We're all on the same side the table trying to serve the farmer.
00:29:15
Speaker
We're trying to do that in one team so that they don't care about departments, they don't care about functions or business. They just care about what we gave them and how it all works together. And then how do we make sure we keep challenging ourselves? That's the way to be innovative and fast.
00:29:28
Speaker
So setting the culture, constantly reinforcing that, recognizing people when they do it well, mentoring people when they don't have it quite right is the first category.
00:29:39
Speaker
um And then the second one is probably about, again, getting people clear on the objective. So we talked about the outcome earlier, whether that's in the purpose or in our annual goals. But I'll maybe bring one more thing.
00:29:53
Speaker
There's a difference between, know, if you picture the image of there's the game on the field, whether that's football or baseball or soccer or whatever, and then there's the scoreboard. Those are two very different things. In order for the team to do well in the field, they have to understand the scoreboard.
00:30:12
Speaker
So early work on the scoreboard about if we agree on what we're going to get, where we want to go to, then how do we keep score? What are we going to measure? what what are the compet What are the incentives around those measures? Because sometimes there's some negative behavior that comes with that. but Really thinking about the scoreboard up front and having a scoreboard discussion.
00:30:32
Speaker
now The scoreboard doesn't change what happens on the field. It just enables the team to understand how score is being kept and what they need to do to win. So it's not it's not going to change the game in the field, but it enables the team to go.
00:30:46
Speaker
So there's a difference between a scoreboard discussion and team playing discussion, how you help the team succeed. But working on the scoreboard up front provides clarity and provides focus.
00:30:57
Speaker
I like that. How do you define the scoreboard? Like I'm curious and and and I feel like it can look different at different levels, but maybe for like, what would, what's a scoreboard going to look like for yourself, but also maybe different layers of leaders in your organization.
00:31:13
Speaker
Again, it's about focus. So it's a few number of measures that everybody can remember. And I'd like to be able to walk down the halls and say, Hey, Nicole, what are three big things that are in your area? And you can get bam, bam, bam.
00:31:25
Speaker
And you say, where are we relative to our goals? you're like, well, we're here and we need to go there. Great. Everybody needs to be able internalize that and remember it. Ideally, it's ah it's an integration of various items. So there should be something for the farmer, something for the employee and something for the investor at the top of the company.
00:31:43
Speaker
But then as you go through, it's it's it's also that way. And then as you get down into the organization, you'd like to have some leading indicators and some lagging indicators. So sometimes lagging means it already happened and what was the result?
00:31:57
Speaker
So that may be the financials or our warranty results or something like that. It already happened. What you'd like to do is have some leading indicators to say, If we do these things, we're going to get a better result. So if I work on changing this activity, that will lead to better financials or better quality results or something like that. So few measures and and then a mixture of leading and lagging.
00:32:23
Speaker
I like that. It sounds like you've maybe read four C's of execution. Yes, exactly. a book plug for anyone who's listening. I did not love reading it, but it is, it talks about everything that Eric is talking about right now. um Also a recommendation from one of our other podcast guests that we have had in the past. shared with somebody yesterday. So it's great, timeless principles. so Yes. Yes. I had an executive early in my career hand it to me and he's like, this is like, you got to read this book. It's great. And it was. um I learned a lot and it was very much worth the read. That time in my career, I was very ah creative. And so it was a very boring business read. But and I can look back and be like, oh, man, those are the things that he was talking about. Here's how it applies now.
00:33:11
Speaker
Very good. I agree. I agree. that They're timeless. Yes, absolutely. I've got one on the shelf somewhere here. have a version of it. um So Eric, you've talked about a lot of the different things that are keys to being successful at AGCO and the ways that you create frameworks for leaders and and kind of your culture. So I'm curious from your perspective, what is the kind of of leader that you are looking for? You talked about part of your role being talent development. So who's the kind of person that you would look to develop or that you are like, this is the kind of person that that I want to grow in my organization?
00:33:44
Speaker
Yeah, some of the attributes when when we're asking about that person, that I'd like them to be known as a problem solver. a team builder someone who's got resilience. So they faced adversity and they came through it. So sometimes people haven't, I love to see actually a setback and then a recovery.
00:34:02
Speaker
So, and and then how did they treat people around them? So those are some of the the elements. There's a culture I look for. Another model I like to talk to people about is is a bullseye.
00:34:15
Speaker
So there's an outer ring, a center ring, and a middle ring. And the outer ring I call the circle of concern. the inner ring is the circle of control and the one in between is the circle of influence.
00:34:27
Speaker
And there's certain people that just get stuck in that circle of of concern. And essentially what that means is like when you go to a party or you know block party or something like that, and you just, you mingle with different various people.
00:34:40
Speaker
One of the first things that usually get discussed, well, it's politics and sports and the weather and things like that. and it's usually the negative side. Oh, my politician did this negative thing. It's probably gonna rain. Oh, my sports team lost.
00:34:51
Speaker
And you can just wallow in that. And there's no that you really can't do much about those things. Whereas I love people who will take that topic and drive it into the circle of control.
00:35:01
Speaker
And so you say, well, I can't control if it's gonna bring, but what can i do? I brought an umbrella or I planned for an indoor venue or something like that. And at minimum, you can at least influence. So this this whole notion of I control my destiny, I control the environment around me and I have an attitude like that, um that's energizing, that brings people along.
00:35:25
Speaker
The other one actually drags people down. If if you just have complainers and people in the circle of concern all the time, it's kind of, it saps the energy out of the team. So that's maybe another dimension that doesn't show up so much on on profiles as often, but that's, you get a reputation one way or the other. and And I like to foster people moving in towards circular control. It's much more motivating.
00:35:49
Speaker
Yeah. How do you coach people who, like, let's say are really passionate about the work that they do, right? So I think you said one of your pillars of culture, right, is being the most farmer focused organization.
00:36:01
Speaker
Maybe I'm someone who's really passionate about farmers and I work in your organization and we've talked about a culture of accountability and I'm ah frustrated and I think we could do better. And I'm in that area of concern. um But I maybe don't realize it because I have all of these like ancillary things, right? Like the intention behind it is good. But if I'm whining or complaining or being frustrated about what we could do better or why things aren't going the way that I want them to, how do you coach folks like that who are obviously it's coming from a good piece of passion, but they're stuck in that outer ring of concern versus like taking taking the good parts of that and driving it to the center?
00:36:41
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not sure there's an exactly the right way, but I can share with you a story that I think about. So there's a group in our organization that is just fantastic. I really, i mean, there's lots of groups that are fantastic, but I'll just talk about this one experience I had.
00:36:56
Speaker
um So i I was meeting with a group of engineers, and then later in the day I was moving with group of salespeople, and I heard that they were dissatisfied.
00:37:08
Speaker
And so I went in the room sat with them and and said, hey, let's talk about where things are at, how are you feeling, da da da. And it started down this circle of concern, rob wrote and and so I'm like, okay. And I just listened for a while and absorbed and and let them go. And they like energy and this is wrong and this is holding us back and da da da.
00:37:30
Speaker
Okay, yeah. And I just wrote them all down, showed that I was listening and I was hearing it. now so there was And then after a while, people needed to just get that off their chest. So i didn't feed it, but I she showed them through active listening that i I wasn't dismissing it.
00:37:46
Speaker
And so then we kind of got to a natural pause and say, OK, these are all legit. This is exactly how you feel. And and I understand that. we we We don't want to stay in this list very long. So are there any of these that we can do something that we can change? Can we change the outcome on any of this list?
00:38:04
Speaker
um Let's just pick one. And so we picked one. And then one person said, well, if we could do it. And I actually, I think I started it. I think, it well, what if we did this, you know, this change? What if you participated?
00:38:17
Speaker
Okay. And then it started working around the room. and And it started spiraling back up. So the beginning of the meeting started spiraling down, paused. I kind of nudged it in the right direction. And then it started spiraling up.
00:38:29
Speaker
okay let's take one more and it starts spiraling up. And then I paused and said, now let's observe what happened here. We were in and i drew the circle of concern, circle of control. I said, diagnosing what just occurred, we were all in that circle of concern.
00:38:44
Speaker
You figured out a way to get out of that sort out of that and get the circle of control. Do you think we could do that with everything on the list? And now they're motivated like, yes. And I've i've ah circled back with that team a few times, and they're self-motivating now. And they have they've been able to diagnose when they they're falling into that spot, because it's human nature.
00:39:04
Speaker
It's always going to happen at some point. But they they can catch themselves and help each other trigger to go back up. So I did that with an engineering group. did that with a sales group. it's ah You don't want to be defensive right off the gate. Say, hey, that's not real. either Your feelings isn't isn't appropriate. that it You're just a complainer. you that just it's Now it's an argument. now they have to justify why they feel that way.
00:39:28
Speaker
So I think there's a little, that's that's how I did it. i think there's probably a lot ways, but that's how I did it that time. And it seemed like it it helped that team see it through a different lens. Yeah, I appreciate that because it highlights too how ah I think there's an important part of the process of when you are having that concern and there's a human emotion aspect to it. of Sometimes it does have to get out. And so there's a reason for that circle of concern as long as you just don't stay there forever. Yes, exactly. That's right.
00:39:58
Speaker
Okay, so I'm curious. We talked about the two, like with the bullseye and the outer ring. When is it okay to be, when when does that circle of influence come in? Well, not everything is all the way in your control. So you may be able to say, well, at least I can influence the outcome.
00:40:13
Speaker
And so you can say, it maybe i can, if there's an issue that there's a problem with, know let's say engineering from one function to another, engineering gives manufacturing drawings that don't have clear tolerances or don't have good work construction or something like that.
00:40:31
Speaker
Let's just use that as a hypothetical. And you say, well, I can't go change those drawings myself. Engineering has to that. They say, well, but you could influence it. You could maybe go over there, explain the issues it's causing for you, maybe ask them for a guide, maybe a co-work on creating a little template.
00:40:45
Speaker
Now you've influenced them. They're still in control, but you've influenced them on giving a different perspective and and maybe a different approach to that that will help out your situation. So You may always really able control it but you can almost always influence it. Yeah, I like that. So you may it may not be in your control, but there's always something you can do. And so even if you don't control the decision or the outcome, okay, that's when you move to influence. I like that.
00:41:07
Speaker
Yeah, perfect. Yeah, well said. Awesome. Okay, Eric, we are going to move into a segment that we call rapid fire. And it's where you do your best to answer in short, quick answers. And I do my best not to ask follow up questions.
00:41:21
Speaker
Okay. Okay. So Eric, what is one word you would use to describe a great leader? Inspirational. What is something you had to learn or that you had to unlearn to become a more effective leader?
00:41:36
Speaker
toolbox of leading change. What is a belief about leadership you've changed your mind on? you know, I think early it was about a focus on having the right answer. And later on, it was a focus on using the right questions to be able to get the team to the right answer.
00:41:53
Speaker
So I had to unlearn my skills all the way through. i was about getting the right answer had to shift my style. What is one thing you wish you had known before becoming a CEO? Yeah, i think maybe the The breadth of things that come into this role is enormous, um unlike any other job I've had.
00:42:16
Speaker
And so it took me little while to really get good at prioritization and doing only the things i can do. So I've got this mental model of if you have a jar and you have rocks, pebbles, and sand,
00:42:31
Speaker
You better fill it with the rocks first, meaning the big issues and focus on those first and not get tied down with all the sand that comes at you And I think everybody's got a version of that.
00:42:42
Speaker
Got to focus on the big rocks. Absolutely. And there's only so many big rocks that can fit in the jar as well. Exactly. And if you put the sand in first, the big rocks don't fit at all. You know, I can picture that as ah as a physical representation of leadership.
00:42:55
Speaker
ah What is one leadership skill you are currently working on? i think that about AI. It took my whole team off site for three days and we immersed in ai learning about it, figuring out where our priorities are going to where our rocks are versus our sand, um and how do we set the plan and enroll the organization to do it. is's It's moving so fast. It's one of the most exciting things think any of us will go through, but you've got to apply yourself and really focus on Absolutely. All of us are in the, in this wave of learning about that right now. So, uh, love that example. Thank you for that. Uh, now we're going to move to uh, segment at AFA. We uh,
00:43:40
Speaker
hot takes is what we call them. So hot takes or bold opinions. And this can be either about agriculture or about about the agriculture industry or about leadership in general. And so Eric, I am curious, what is a hot take that you have about agriculture or leadership?
00:43:57
Speaker
Well, agriculture, I'd say that two of them that, you know, our echo is really trying to be serve farmers well, as is but they're different than most of the rest of the industry, most other industries in general.
00:44:09
Speaker
And that's retrofit technology would be one. And serving the farmer on their farm would be the other. We call it farmer core. So retrofit means that instead of having the farmer have to buy a brand new machine, a brand new planter, a brand new sprayer,
00:44:23
Speaker
to get the latest technology. Instead, we will sell them a kit that they can put on their existing machine. And it doesn't have to be one they bought from us. It could be from the competitive ah brands, but we'll upgrade that machine to have new capabilities, the latest and greatest, often better than you can get from the factory and give that machine that's still got physical life in it, brand new technology life.
00:44:43
Speaker
and And so that's a way where we can serve every farmer out there instead of just the farmers that happen to plot our technology. So that'd be one. And then the other one is, You know, farming is still a very traditional brick and mortar service business where you go to the dealership for researching a machine, buying your machine, getting your parts, getting your service, getting your financing, all of that.
00:45:05
Speaker
And we said, boy, farmers are getting so much more online. They're getting served in a convenient way for other things. Why don't we serve them in a convenient way for our stuff? And so we created this thing called Farmer Core, and it's essentially we do everything on the farm.
00:45:20
Speaker
So we created digital tools where a farmer can research their machines, configure it online, order parts online, order service online, do all that. But then we remotely monitor the machines and we when there's maintenance to be done or service to be done, we come out to the farm and do it on the farm. we don't have the machine We don't have the farmer come to the business, business comes to the farm.
00:45:38
Speaker
And so those are both breaking the mold, not only within agriculture, but you know Mercedes doesn't and doesn't design technology for bmw so We think we've really rewired our company to be able to serve all farmers in the most convenient way that that makes them more profitable. So those are two in agriculture that I think break the mold.
00:46:01
Speaker
I like that. You know, I was like, I'm not sure that's a hot take. And then I realized in the context of what you're talking about, yes, it's innovative. It's bold. it's It's different than the way that other people are working in agriculture. So I appreciate that. That's different than any of other hot take we've had. And it's really applied as a business strategy, which I think is cool. Great.
00:46:20
Speaker
Okay, Eric, um we are about to wrap up, but I just wanted to double check with you. Is there anything that we didn't get to cover or didn't get to talk about that you wanted us to or anything else you want to add?
00:46:31
Speaker
You know, maybe we talked a lot about business and leadership and goals and all those kinds of things. And I love that. And you're obviously ah a student of that and an expert in that. So this has been a great conversation. Maybe one last little nugget for people is separate from business results is about how do you keep your own balance, your personal balance. And so one of the things my family and I talk about are the difference between rubber moments and crystal moments. So you think about a rubber ball and a crystal ball.
00:47:00
Speaker
The rubber ball may one of my daughter's 20 tennis matches or one of my son's 20 soccer matches. If I miss one, we can bounce back, it's okay.
00:47:12
Speaker
A crystal moment is a very special thing that if you drop it, it shatters and it's lost. So that's graduation ceremony or the final match of the season or the one against that one school that we always have a battle against.
00:47:24
Speaker
And so try and organize yourselves where you're really focusing your personal time to be there fully and fully present for the crystal moments. And if you prioritize, just like those rocks on your business goals, you have your rocks on your personal things. manage your calendar, manage your priority, really look out into the future.
00:47:45
Speaker
I've already gotten several things scheduled into 2027. And it' I'm always trying to be out there in front to make sure I can protect the crystal moments whenever we can. Now, you don't hit that 100%, but you create a ah message to your family, to your friends that says, hey, I'm doing everything in my my power to plan for those and be there for those. And because that's that's where where life memories are really made is in those crystal moments. And so I think they're so important that you wanna protect them.
00:48:14
Speaker
And at the end of your time, at the end of the year, or end of your career, you can look back and say, you know what? We were together for those crystal moments and and i'm so thankful I was. you You're not gonna wish you were at one more meeting. You're gonna wish you had, you' you'd missed one less crystal moment. So prioritize them and and manage your time accordingly.
00:48:33
Speaker
ah I am so glad I asked like what else, Eric, because that is such a phenomenal example. And I think so many people, at least I've heard it a lot, right? The glass balls and plastic balls of like drop that you can drop the plastic ones, but don't drop the glass ones. But your example of crystal moments versus rubber moments is.
00:48:53
Speaker
i so much more, I'd hate to use the word crystal, but it's so much more like clear and crisp as a visual because thinking about those crystal moments from like a family aspect and like ones do you want to keep and like have on the bookshelf and how horrible it is when you think about a crystal shattering and that bounce back as well of the rubber ball. So love that. I'm now going to internalize it and and steal it. And it's probably one of the best ways I've heard someone describe like the work-life balance question without without getting too too nuanced or, um oh so i don't what have what do I want to say? Like, a we've all we've all heard like it's not possible or it's hard or that kind of thing, but such a great analogy for for how to how to balance that. Well, thank you. Or how to prioritize it, right? Yeah, absolutely. And in any given week may not be in balance any given, you know, there's there's times where, you know, you got to really go hard in this direction and that might be on a personal thing. You know, you've got a health issue and things
00:49:49
Speaker
other times it might be a work thing i got this deadline, this big thing's together. So not every day, not every week is balanced, but what you try and do is create balance in the total and end up prioritize around the crystal moments. I like it, collecting as many crystal moments as possible. Exactly, right on.
00:50:07
Speaker
well Great, Eric. Thank you so much. This has been such a wonderful conversation and I have enjoyed learning from you and your experiences and the different things that like the toolbox that you have built throughout your career. So I know that our audience has as well. So at AFA, we talk a lot about building bridges and connections with people. So where can people connect more with you or the work that Agco is doing?
00:50:30
Speaker
So of different ways. I've got a LinkedIn profile. you can also connect to the Agco social media website and on our webpages. So, you know, i'm I'm a pretty active LinkedIn user, but you can also reach us through the Agco website and love to connect with with folks. And if I can be helpful through what's out there, that'd be great. I try and share both business things about where I've been visiting teams and so on, and also some leadership thoughts along the way to help people from the mistakes I've made and the things I learned along my journey.
00:51:05
Speaker
Awesome. Well, I am sure you have now a couple, at least a few new followers on LinkedIn. So thank you so much, Eric, for joining us on the Cultivating Leaders podcast. Boy, it's been a real treat. You you know you represent such an impressive and important organization for the future of agriculture and leadership. So what you're doing here is very important. And to all your listeners, you know the pursuit that you are following, he couldn't be more noble. I mean, we're helping literally farmers feed the world and biofuel is going a bigger part of that. And so I wouldn't want to be in any other industry. this is This is the industry that matters the most. And so congratulations for your interest in it. And I wish you that you got a little nugget here or there that to help it go a little smoother for you.
00:51:50
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Cultivating Leaders podcast, where leaders grow. If this episode challenged your thinking, be sure to share it with someone else who is on a similar leadership journey. You can stay connected with the Cultivating Leaders podcast by following AgFutureAmerica on social media or drop a comment in the episode description. We'll see you again on the next episode.