What does it take to go from a hardware store employee to the CEO of a thriving company? In this episode of the Servant Leader’s Library, host Nicholas Paulukow, CEO of ONE 2 ONE, sits down with Lin Sensenig, CEO of Houck, to explore the power of leadership, resilience, and servant-hearted success.
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Episode Transcript
Nicholas Paulukow
A husband to amazing wife, father of three equally amazing daughters, and a grandfather to three incredible grandkids, Lin Sensenig is a lifelong learner with passion for leading teams and watching highly motivated individuals thrive. With extensive leadership experience in corporate and family-held businesses, Lin has been the ultimate hired gun, as he says, navigating complex challenges with precision and purpose. From serving on boards and leading organizations, Lin has won more hats or wear more hats than a well-stocked hardware store and with equal expertise.
As the CEO of Houck since 2016, he has guided the company with steady expertise while also contributing to his talents to boards such as Paul B Hardware, Clean Right Corp., Superior Walls of America, and also has done consulting for the North Group. He’s a championship of people. Lin ‘s leadership journey is nothing short of a master class in strategy and servant-hearted success.
Today, he’s trading the boardroom for the microphone with us today. I’m Nicholas Paulukow, CEO of ONE 2 ONE, a managed IT and IT security firm, and I’m the host of the Servant Leader’s Library. Joining me today is Lin.
What a remarkable career. Wow, you’re all over the place.
Lin Sensenig
Well, first of all, whoever writes your copy, man, could I possibly hire them? That was quite generous.
Nicholas Paulukow
We can make any kind of deal that you want.
Lin Sensenig
It was quite generous, quite generous.
Nicholas Paulukow
You’ve done a lot of great, great things. Tell us a little bit more about that. Tell us about your career, how you started, maybe how that intersects maybe with your education.
A lot of the people that listened today, I had a conversation with a young lady yesterday that said, I just feel obligated to do what I went to school for. I think a lot that listened wonder, wow, we’re in these seats, but are we really doing what we went to school for? I think it was really important to maybe hear your thoughts around that.
Lin Sensenig
First of all, before I talk about any successes, let me talk about a bunch of failures.
Nicholas Paulukow
Oh, all right. That’s good.
Lin Sensenig
So I would say, first of all, from an educational standpoint, I’m probably the least educated CEO out there. I dropped out of high school in 11th grade, took my GED as mandated by my father about a year after that. I don’t think at that point you could take your GED until your 12th grade class had graduated.
But I did that, went to work for a local garage. I loved working on cars. I’ve always loved mechanical stuff in general, and so did that for a few years.
And then went to work for a small company that was owned by a larger corporation in the early 90s. And that’s probably where my corporate journey kind of started. So I would say this, Nick, I was, first of all, crazily blessed.
So God certainly had a big part to play in that whole thing. But I had some of the best bosses a guy could ever hope for. So I had wonderful folks that I reported to that taught me a ton.
And that’s the, I mean, I can’t say enough. I would always say that every time they asked me to take on additional responsibilities, my response would be, if you’re crazy enough to ask me, I’m crazy enough to say yes. So I was really exceptionally blessed in that regard.
And when I was in the 90s, starting kind of my corporate journey, had some amazing guys who were probably my seniors by 20 years or so, and saw some promise in me. And said, one of my bosses, I love this line, because we were having a particular bad year at one of the companies I was running. And he said, Lin, why do you think we give you the smallest company in the whole corporation?
He said, because if you screw it up, it really doesn’t matter.
Nicholas Paulukow
So- Wow.
Lin Sensenig
Good place to learn, I guess, right?
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah.
Lin Sensenig
So it was a wonderful place to learn. I learned so much there. And it got started when ITW, Illinois Tool Works, was doing a lot of acquisitions.
And so it got involved in some of that. The company that I ran was actually acquired by ITW. And learned, and they still do, practice 80-20, or the Pareto Principle, religiously.
And so I learned a lot about that. We were all in manufacturing. So we all made, in my group, we all made food service equipment.
Nicholas Paulukow
Okay, okay.
Lin Sensenig
And made dishwashers, for the most part. And garbage disposers, that kind of stuff. But it was all manufacturing.
And I would say, spending 25 years in that world, I still believe that world’s, I would say, generally a little bit more manageable, and a little bit more predictable than construction. Which is where I ended up, now at Houck.
Nicholas Paulukow
That’s a heck of a journey, though. You talk about these leaders that saw something in you, and now you’re one of those leaders. But I mean, what qualities do you feel that they fostered in you, or developed in you?
As a leader now, what do you believe that they saw in you, to give you such a great responsibility to run and division of a company?
Lin Sensenig
Yeah, so I think they saw within me, they saw a desire to learn. And so, I was the perennial optimist. Remember the Ronald Reagan story about the boy with the pony?
My nickname at corporate was the Pony Boy.
Nicholas Paulukow
Really? Yeah. Oh, I thought that was relevant around some beer bottles.
Lin Sensenig
Well, that’s, yeah, that too. But so I was definitely an optimist, and I always had a chance to see opportunity, and see areas that could be improved, and that was certainly a passion. Wow.
Nicholas Paulukow
And from your growth, where you were at in the manufacturing, was it more in the operational side? Tell us a little bit about that story, because I’m sure people are really curious that you went from your educational side of things, and then you grew up into this company to run. I mean, there kind of is a window there.
What were the skills that you felt that you developed during that time?
Lin Sensenig
Yeah, that’s a great point. I would say I certainly started in the operational side. So, I have a deep background in manufacturing, learned the shop floor.
We did metal fabrication, forming, assembly, electrical work, all that kind of stuff. So, I had lots of technical experience. And I would say that I was probably, maybe from that standpoint, a subject matter expert on the technical side.
But then to translate that into, hey, how do you take a business like this and grow it, was a completely different skill set. So, to learn strategy and understand where we could go for growth was really where I learned to love the acquisitive side of the business. So, we always joke about that being kind of the crack needle of growth, is acquisitions versus organic.
And they’re both great, and they’re both necessary. It was just that in my experience, it was generally a little easier to start with something versus build it from the ground up. But I will say that, to say this, I have huge, huge amounts of respect for people who start from the ground up.
I don’t think I’d had the patience for it.
Nicholas Paulukow
No, it’s dread. It’s a heck of a process.
Lin Sensenig
It is, isn’t it?
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah, it is.
Lin Sensenig
I mean, that’s what you did.
Nicholas Paulukow
I’ve done it a couple of times. And there’s a period of time that you get, I don’t say a little bored, but you get a little impatient of like, I heard that from a meeting I was in the other day, hey, be a little more patient. And I’m like, that’s not my personality.
I’ll hire someone else to be patient. I mean, you talk about, you’re a very humble man. And you’ve done such wonderful things.
And you mentioned how blessed you are. Does the skills and abilities that are driving you come from instinctively growing up in your family? Did your father teach you those things?
Many people say at the end of the day, it kind of came from their upbringing. Would you connect any of that to your experience?
Lin Sensenig
No, that’s a great, first of all, I did, I was privileged to have a wonderful upbringing. So grew up in a big family, seven kids. And I would say that hard work was really valued.
Faith was really valued. So all those things were great foundations for me. And I think my dad was always kind of a closet entrepreneur.
Wanted to get there. His father started Spring Glen Farm Kitchen. So kind of grew up as a teenager watching that business, that family business grow.
Nicholas Paulukow
It became a big organization. It did.
Lin Sensenig
And then eventually sold to Hanover. And my father worked a house.
Nicholas Paulukow
What a small world that is, right? But now knowing you and knowing the culture there, it was very much about respect and a lot of strong core values there. As a kid, they let me, which I think now today, I would call in the 800 number to ask for my dad.
Because I just wanted to talk to my dad, right? And I’m thinking, man, what kid calls into the company and doesn’t get yelled at for why are you calling your dad every day at lunchtime? And I was in grade school or different things.
And the receptionist would answer the phone and she was so kind. She’s like, I’ll find your father for you. There was never a day that she was irritated at me.
And I think now, wow, what a culture that it was based around family. And my dad talked to me for a minute or two and then went on. But there was never an issue even hanging out there.
I would go on Saturday with my dad to work.
Lin Sensenig
Would you really? That’s cool.
Nicholas Paulukow
You get to meet the people. And we went on trips with his boss. And I remember one, we went through the Poconos and went whitewater rafting.
It’s just a culture of it just seems so natural, which is really neat. And what a credit to your family for that.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah, no question. That would have been my grandfather, my uncles, and my dad worked there intermittently also. It was very much a family business up until the mid-’90s when they sold.
So probably would have been around the time your dad was ending up there.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right. Just coming in there.
Lin Sensenig
Or just coming in there.
Nicholas Paulukow
Just coming in.
Lin Sensenig
Just coming in.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah. Okay. And that’s where he ended his career. Not ended. That’s where he retired from.
Lin Sensenig
Is that right?
Nicholas Paulukow
Okay. And so he loved it there. It was just a neat organization.
Lin Sensenig
Well, I mentioned that I had some great role models with obviously my mom and my dad. My grandfather also was a real role model. I always had such tremendous amounts of respect for how he interacted with people, how he cared for people deeply, but also really sharp, I wouldn’t say shrewd, sharp businessman and well-respected in the community.
And it’s funny because now so much time has passed, but when I was in my younger years, I could say I’m Titus Sensenig’s grandson and everybody would know Titus Sensenig. Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
I mean, what a community that is. And now from going from a large family, I had a gentleman tell me the other day, I said, wow, you have 12 kids. He goes, do you know why I have 12 kids?
He goes, so I don’t have to do all the work. He goes, so as you have more kids, they take care of each other. And I was like, wow, that’s a good point.
He goes, all of you that have two or three kids, he goes, that’s a problem.
Lin Sensenig
You got to take care of all that.
Nicholas Paulukow
He goes, but when you have like 12 kids, I was like, well, that’s a different perspective. But I guess he applied that to business. He said, so the same principles that I use at home about delegation and teaching and educating is the same that we imply kind of in business.
And how does that segue kind of from your, you run a quite a large organization today, right? And from what I understand is you came in there kind of in a consulting role. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about that?
Lin Sensenig
Yeah. So I was actually working for North group at the time I had spent about 25 years in corporate life and was traveling constantly and started chatting with the North group about what it would look like for them to find me something locally. And then they ended up asking me if I would come and work there.
And, and I immediately was placed up at how, because North group would do a fair amount of transitional leadership. Okay. So I was a three days a week and work had been there a few months.
I will say this and the North group’s incredibly charitable, but if they were totally brutally honest, they’d probably say it wasn’t a great consultant.
Nicholas Paulukow
Why is that?
Lin Sensenig
Why is that? I think my, it was, it was me. It was definitely me.
I think that I always saw myself being every business I got into. I was like, man, I feel like I could do some, some good here. Like I should probably be a little bit more involved and didn’t really care so much.
I probably thoroughly enjoyed transitional leadership. Okay. I just didn’t enjoy necessarily the, the consultant side where you were more of a kind of a persuader and not to say that I’m a mandator.
I’m not, but I just, I just like being in the business and watching. I always had an affinity for the big numbers and watching the needle, watching the needle move.
Nicholas Paulukow
And I love to see like the measurement of the success by exactly the number.
Lin Sensenig
Right. Right. And, and coupling that with you know, I’m privileged to work for the Houck family who is very people focused.
So we always try to keep that you know, at the, at the front and center, but at the same token, if you’re not running a profitable business, you’re not going to be around.
Nicholas Paulukow
You’re not going to stay around. Exactly. We say we end up being nonprofits.
There you go.
Lin Sensenig
It’s exactly right.
Nicholas Paulukow
There’s a lot of profitable nonprofits, I guess. Well, it’s, you know, let’s talk about like servant leadership in your mind. Like you seem to be someone that, that when you answer those questions, you seem very much about serving others.
You know, talk about your definition of servant leadership.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah. So whenever, whenever I think about servant leadership, I think about Jesus. I mean, that’s probably the ultimate example for me.
But I would also say that if you think about, you know, Christ’s leadership, there was also a transformational aspect of that. So certainly he, he, he absolutely was a servant leader, but in the end, he was really a much a transformational leader. I like that.
So if, if you’re, I think transformative leadership is really what the ultimate goal is, because you want to leave something better than when you came.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah. And so that’s a good answer. Is that a good answer?
Excellent answer. I’m really pondering that because, you know, as you, you’re well aware of, we’ve been in some meetings together and I, and I surprised people maybe by saying like, my whole job here is to get my kids to heaven. Right.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
And so like, I guess mixing kind of that in essence, we’re all trying to help each other, I guess, I would assume that answer, but what a role model to follow. I cannot, I cannot get near his ability of patience and kindness.
Lin Sensenig
Well, and when I would, when I would kind of contrast the two and not that they’re necessarily contrasting, but if you think about servant leadership taken to its, to its, to its, you know, not to its intended, intended goal, but to maybe too far would be that, you know, you come into an organization and you want necessarily to appease everyone. And that’s not what servant leadership is about. And that’s certainly not what transformational leadership is about.
So part of that, the job of a leader is to cast vision and then to winsomely bring people along on that path. So to convince people. So when I came in, it was a matter of convincing the team at Houck that, Hey, we could actually do this.
And then once we, they could see a little bit of success and they got a little bit of a taste for it, then they were off to the races. So I like that. Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
And do you, do you consider kind of leadership and management different? And if so, you know, how are they defined differently?
Lin Sensenig
Yeah, completely different. I guess I would look at management more through an operational lens and, and I am absolutely not operationally focused at Houck. And I would tell you this too, one of the things, one of Gary, Gary Houck’s concerns about when I came into the business, I had no construction experience, lots of manufacturing experience, no construction experience.
And I truly didn’t know if I was going to be successful or not, but I thought I knew how to lead teams. And I thought it would probably translate. But because of that, I was not the subject matter expert.
So nobody would come to me and say, Hey Lin, how do you do this on a roof? I had no idea how to do that on the roof. And then the last guy you probably want to ask, but it allowed me to focus on the business and not be in the business.
Nicholas Paulukow
I like that.
Lin Sensenig
And that’s what my trying to get my team, my executive team up to the point where they’re not focusing on, they’re not focusing in the business. They’re on the business and it’s a different style and it’s a different routine. And it’s a different kind of thought pattern really.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah. We hear a lot that we have people that find that maybe they’ve been in an organization for quite a few years and that they feel, well, because I’ve had tenure, I should be a leader or a manager. Have you ever seen that in an organization?
And how has that ever played out as a leader for yourself? We talk about people and we care for people, but how do you navigate that?
Lin Sensenig
That’s tough. I’ve definitely screwed that one up plenty of times. I have promoted people when they were absolutely not prepared for the role.
And I feel terribly about that because honestly it was not setting them up for success, even though it seemed at the time like the nice thing to do. Hey, you’re getting this promotion. Well, no, we’re putting them in a spot where they’re not going to be successful.
And because I kind of wanted it to happen and thought that they probably deserved it. So I’ve definitely had some mistakes along the road there.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah.
Lin Sensenig
And it still is something that I would say sometimes I don’t use my better judgment in some of those situations.
Nicholas Paulukow
And I think I wonder, I mean, we all say that everybody leads, right? So you don’t have to be a leader of authority per se, but you can still lead people. Would you agree to that statement?
You know, I mean, cause it seems like in the world that you oversee every, I mean, you know, if you’re working on a roof, you own that aspect and you’re leading potentially as a team leader or something like that.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah. There’s no question about that. And I always like to say that what I’m on the lookout for is I want to see people who lead without having the position.
That’s the person you want. So when you want the person who you can see is leading, but doesn’t have the positional authority to mandate it, but people come alongside him because he or she has that gift.
Nicholas Paulukow
And expand on that a little bit for those that maybe are thinking, man, I don’t necessarily know what it means to lead. I’m early in my career. Like, you know, what is the actions to take to get to kind of that result that you’re talking about?
You know, because many would be like, well, I don’t want to like overshadow my boss or I don’t want to like necessarily ask for something because maybe I’m not ready. Maybe it’s a confidence issue. Like, do you have any advice for them on that?
Lin Sensenig
So I guess I think the thing that I would say is if you can understand your boss’s vision and drive and direction and help them accomplish the goal, then they’re going to be your biggest fan. And you’re not necessarily going to be competing for anybody’s attention or anything because in your boss is going to be thrilled because you’re helping them get there.
Nicholas Paulukow
Get there. Yeah.
Lin Sensenig
Helping them get there. Oh, I love that. Yeah.
So I think that’s probably a big piece of it. I think also that ability to step into a situation where you can understand what an ITW, what was the end goal? Increased shareholder value.
But how do I boil that down to something that’s practical in my day to day that says, well, I see an issue over there in a corner. If we fix that, we’d be at, you know, we’d be a percent more.
Nicholas Paulukow
What’s this increased shareholder value? And that’s a big one to explain, right?
Lin Sensenig
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
I don’t know what it is.
Lin Sensenig
Yes. Publicly held companies. That’s all we existed for, right?
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah.
Lin Sensenig
If we didn’t drive shareholder value.
Nicholas Paulukow
What I’m hearing from you is kind of, you have to have a simplified, concise message that everybody rallies around.
Lin Sensenig
Yes.
Nicholas Paulukow
And how, what is that and how, I mean, you’re a large organization, right? That have many different divisions that, and you continue to acquire, I understand other businesses. How do you instill that vision?
I mean, that’s a lot of change all the time, right? It is. Exciting change.
Lin Sensenig
It’s exciting, but it’s still work. And I always, I always like to say, and I kind of joke at myself, it’s easy for those who don’t have to do it. Right?
You have a good team. Yeah. I have an awesome, awesome team.
They’re amazing. And I have great owners who are very supportive of our growth, but that’s a great question. I would say that there was probably at one point in my trajectory there at Houck, it was, Hey, we’re going to grow this company and then eventually sell it.
But that’s not been the case now that Kara’s come on board as a third generation owner. So it’s going to stay family held, which is awesome. And I think best for the employees there.
So now the question is, okay, what are we doing this for? Are we here to make more money? Of course.
But ultimately what are we doing this for? One of those things is we want to create opportunities for a young workforce that wants to grow with us. So we know that if we don’t create opportunities for our young up-and-comers, they’re not going to be around for long.
So it’s back to that people. It does get back to people. It does.
And we acquire a lot of great people too. So very fortunate that way.
Nicholas Paulukow
And when you do these acquisitions and you talk a lot about the people aspect, is that part of the due diligence? Will you maybe not purchase a company because they don’t fit with the core values?
Lin Sensenig
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it’s much easier to fix financial problems than it is to fix core value issues. So we typically try to target owners who are ready to transition, but are deeply concerned about their team and their folks who have helped them get to where they’re at.
Because those owners are going to be more concerned about making sure that their folks have a good place to land than they are about necessarily other financial aspects of the sale process. So then what that means is that we inherit well-cared-for people. And well-cared-for people are typically good culture fits.
Nicholas Paulukow
Ah, that’s a good statement. It sounds like you’re really, really great at developing other leaders though. Like instinctively, right?
Because you have this great team that didn’t magically just show up, right? Like developing a person is one thing, but how do you develop another leader?
Lin Sensenig
No, that’s a great question. And I would say this too. I was blessed at Houck that although we had come off some rather difficult financial times, when I got there, we had great folks in place.
So it wasn’t a situation where we had to go in and kind of clean house and anything like that. We had great people who just needed some vision and maybe some motivation and the ability to succeed and see that they could succeed again. So kind of infusing that sense of optimism again was a big part of it.
And I think that’s still the case. We’re open book. So everybody sees our numbers.
So they can see when we’re winning and when we’re losing.
Nicholas Paulukow
And if you kind of go back to that, we talked a lot about the people, right? How do you as the leader manage keeping and developing and coaching a great team, but then also managing to the financials, right? I mean, how do you balance that?
Lin Sensenig
It’s a great question. I would say that if it’s a tie, the people aspect typically wins if it’s a tie, but we have to have both. So I think one of the things that we think about a lot is, hey, times are good right now.
What happens when times are not good? How are we going to lead through difficult times? How are we going to lead, say, through a recession?
I had to lead through the great recession and it was probably one of the most challenging times in my life from a work standpoint. There was not a lot of optimism and you could not cut people fast enough. To be able to balance the numbers.
To be able to balance the P&L. And corporate was, well, that’s fine. So your revenue’s down.
Cut heads until you get your income number. Wow.
Nicholas Paulukow
That creates a lot of morale.
Lin Sensenig
It does.
Nicholas Paulukow
That’s how it was in corporate America. I was in Fortune 100 companies for a period of time and everything was about investor shareholder value. So we would take like 300 employee offices, terminate them and hire them as contractors so that it would come off as employees.
But we spent more money.
Lin Sensenig
You spent more money, right?
Nicholas Paulukow
We spent more money to do that. I could never figure that out, but I’m not a mathematician, but that never made sense, right? Nobody changed deaths.
They just changed how they got paid.
Lin Sensenig
They became 1099s or whatever.
Nicholas Paulukow
And so that always intrigued me, but that’s a whole different world, I guess, of how to balance.
Lin Sensenig
That was very typical in our world too, corporately.
Nicholas Paulukow
Really? Okay.
Lin Sensenig
Very typical. I think it’s a strategy. At least they can go to the street and say, we’ve trimmed heads by whatever.
I’ll tell you, I learned so many lessons in corporate, but I’m so blessed to be in a family held situation now and blessed to be partners with the Howick family. It’s been quite a way, I would say, to end my career.
Nicholas Paulukow
Like if you talk about your career path, many people think that they have this vision that they’re going to play out. It’s going to be perfect, right? I went to school for this.
I got this job and now I’m doing it. It sounds like you’ve had a very windy kind of path, which has come into great success. But what are maybe the top three things that contributed to keeping you focused?
Lin Sensenig
I think attitude. Attitude is big. Optimism was big and a drive to succeed.
I think part of the fact that I didn’t have education made me work that much harder. So when I was in positions at corporate, I was in many times had MBAs that reported up to me. So I had to learn fast.
I had to learn on my feet and I had to not look like the country hick. That was a struggle sometimes.
Nicholas Paulukow
How would you say, from the aspects of being an influential leader, how do you teach those skills to the other leaders that you have now? We talk about a lot of reading and it seems very inherent to you. It seems like we say in our world, you get it and you want it and you have the capacity to do it.
But how do you identify that in other people? You mentioned earlier when we started, they saw something in you and they developed you. How have you built that skill or how could you share that with the audience?
I was talking to a young lady yesterday and she’s like, but I feel these things, but I don’t understand. You tell me that I have these skills and abilities and you see something in me, but I don’t see it in myself. I’m sure you’ve been in that situation, but how do you lead through that?
Lin Sensenig
That’s a great question. We are fortunate, and this is not a pitch for North Group, but we do use them a lot for coaching. To have coaches that work with my leadership team that I can, I don’t want to say commiserate with, but certainly run things by them and they sometimes catch things within the organization that I wouldn’t have caught.
That’s been really, really helpful. Part of it, too, is I think something I need to work at personally is that very thing you talked about when you see something in someone being very intentional about sharing it with someone. Sometimes I’m not intentional enough about making sure people know, I see this in you.
You have potential. I think I’ve had the luxury of having that spoken in my life a lot. I think I feel the need to do that too.
I need to do it more.
Nicholas Paulukow
I think it’s a balance of we all think it, but we’re still driving forward.
Lin Sensenig
I told you I loved you 30 years ago.
Nicholas Paulukow
I changed my mind to let you know. I heard that. One of my wife’s family just said, well, it was just assumed.
I mean, we didn’t have to tell each other we loved each other. I’m like, yeah, but it’s nice to hear it. What strategies do you use to ensure alignment?
You’re in a unique situation where you have shareholders, but it’s a family business. You have a board, you have your employees, and then the constituents are other owners. How do you balance that?
You’re right in the middle of all of that. I’m sure that’s quite difficult. How do you balance or where are the primary priorities there?
Lin Sensenig
I’ve always been fortunate in almost every position I’ve been in to have really, really strong financial people next to me. If I don’t, I would be a failure. So my CFO is wonderful.
That’s been a huge boon to us over the past five years. And also, I mentioned my team has been, I would say half the team’s acquired and half the team has been there for a long time. So we have that kind of nice mix of that.
But EOS is probably the thing that really helps us kind of keep the glue together or keep things glued together. I think that’s probably one of the best tools that I know you use it too. And it’s been a big help for me when you had these multiple divisions that are kind of spread out all over the place.
Nicholas Paulukow
It creates that clarity. It creates clarity. It really does.
Where you’re talking about that vision.
Lin Sensenig
It’s simplistic. And I think one of the things that I kind of struggle with is, hey, at what point do you kind of outgrow EOS? Because EOS does talk about that.
At what point do you outgrow that? And then what do you do after that?
Nicholas Paulukow
I think I had the CEO of EOS on this podcast. Did you really? And he’s a friend of ours.
He was our first implementer.
Lin Sensenig
No kidding.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah. He was an implementer and then became the CEO. And we talk about that a lot.
And he’s like, listen, it can scale to 200, 300 employees. And then from there, each division then starts to run it as their own entity. So in essence, your division creates their own one, three, and five-year plan.
And now you kind of break it out by individual, which I thought was pretty intriguing.
Lin Sensenig
That is intriguing. Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
And they start to then be able to develop those key components on their own. Right. And then it goes all the way up to the main entity.
Lin Sensenig
So we’re rapidly getting to that point.
Nicholas Paulukow
That would be an amazing case study to check out from an EOS perspective.
Lin Sensenig
It would. It would. I agree.
Nicholas Paulukow
And we’re all talking about EOS, which is Entrepreneurial Operating System, which kind of brings clarity, kind of a one, three-year and five-year kind of picture. And I think you talked a lot about that vision, which probably comes from that you said, simplicity. It makes it easy for everyone to understand.
Lin Sensenig
It’s not difficult. It’s a very clear, simple, concise message. And metric driven.
And metric driven. Right.
Nicholas Paulukow
Like, are you on track or off track?
Lin Sensenig
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
It’s hard. I found if we kind of segue into ownership, right? Like you have a sense of pride in ownership.
And I found many times it’s really difficult to get people to understand what is ownership. Right. And I think I’d love to get your feedback on that.
I think I’ve kind of boiled it down to a conversation of, do you rent or do you own your house?
Lin Sensenig
Right.
Nicholas Paulukow
And, you know, how do I simplify that message of ownership? And that one person said, I rent. I go, so when there’s a problem, what does that mean?
And they go, well, I call someone and they fix it. And I said, well, if you own it, what happens? They go, I call someone and I own the fix.
And I go, all right. So let’s let’s work through that. You know, as you have different owners in your business, how do you get them to understand what ownership looks like?
You know, I mean, to everyone that looks different. Right. Some are like, well, you know, I don’t have the ability to make change or but I own this individual item.
It sounds like many of the people in your organization have a high sense of pride of ownership.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah, I think so. I think so. The other thing, too, that I was very fortunate to inherit at Hauk was there was a lot of a loyalty that was that was focused on the Hauk family for Gary and Kara.
So that was a blessing because, you know, we had folks who stuck around because of that legacy. And that’s really good. We talk a lot about how do we make sure that stays intact and how do we continue to to grow that people seem to align with with the Hauk family.
Well, and that’s that’s really that’s really good. So having that presence in the business and yet still being able to run the business on our own. Hauk family’s been very good about giving me lots of leeway to to kind of grow this business.
And I would say it really wasn’t necessarily their strategy or thoughts to grow this business like we did. But they’re, of course, obviously happy with the results. But but they gave me a lot of a lot of flexibility.
Nicholas Paulukow
And with that growth, like what would you say the top three challenges are?
Lin Sensenig
The top three challenges, as I see us going forward, are probably going to be how we stay cohesive from a leadership team standpoint. We still and this is probably getting too far into the weeds, but we still bonus everyone on corporate results. Oh, I see.
On the leadership team. So so it’s you know, there’s that piece and you have it’s a little socialistic, I like to say, which I don’t like. But I think that that piece does keep us all focused on the group results.
One thing I’ve always said there was that it would bother me to have a situation where, you know, one division does outstandingly well. Now, if one division does outstandingly well year after year after year after year after year and other divisions don’t, that’s something you have to address. But that’s typically not what happens in our business.
In our business, it’s one year, this guy’s up and this guy, this person’s down. And there’s enough of that back and forth that everybody understands what it’s like to sit in the leader’s seat, you know, and what it’s like to sit in the loser bracket.
Nicholas Paulukow
So talk about core values of your organization. Yeah, because it sounds like that that instinctively sounds like me that there’s a level of core values there that allow that to happen. Because I mean, we’re independently probably very, you know, people are driven and they want to succeed.
And but, you know, to be have kind of lose that ego mentality and look for the greater good. What are the core values look like it out?
Lin Sensenig
Yeah. So so they started out years ago as honor, humility and humor.
Nicholas Paulukow
OK.
Lin Sensenig
And if you know Gary Houck, you understand the humor aspect. OK. And certainly humor still plays a big part in our world.
It’s a very it’s a it’s a pretty much a happy place when Gary shows up. It’s, you know, it’s like you want to get the grandkids because it’s going to be a fun time. But we’ve since since Kara came on board, we changed it to honor, humility and health.
And the health aspect really was something that I think Carol Kara brought to the table was, hey, we want to really focus and make sure that our folks not they stay physically healthy, they stay mentally healthy. The honor and humility piece are just how that really typifies the Houck family. So honor is, hey, when it comes to a situation with a customer that we don’t think they’re right, but they think they’re right, we’re probably going to allow them to be right when it comes to a situation with an employee that we may think, hey, this is probably needs to be addressed.
We may push it a little further down the road than most companies might. So that’s that whole honor piece. We act with honor.
You know, we want to we want to handle our wise stewards, our financial resources. And the humility piece is just understanding that, look, at the end of the day, you know, God honors hard work, but he never guarantees results. So there’s a certain amount of this aspect that’s out of our control.
We’re going to work hard, but we have to always understand that there it’s just because you had a phenomenal year does not necessarily mean you’re an awesome businessman. You know, there can be a lot of things that play into that. So maybe take credit for a very little bit of it.
Nicholas Paulukow
Do you think that you can teach those core values or do you think they’re instinctive in people?
Lin Sensenig
I think that in some ways they might be instinctive, but I mean, I’d love to think that we could teach them. And we’ve certainly had examples of folks we’ve had in the business who haven’t lived by those values. And we’ve tried to address that as quickly as we can, because it can be really toxic if they don’t.
Nicholas Paulukow
Do you feel that they find their way out of the organization because of how strong those values are?
Lin Sensenig
I would like to think so, but it doesn’t always happen immediately. You know, sometimes it takes a while. And I think if you would, if you would, you know, question all the folks at Houck, they would probably say, well, there’s still some areas that need to be improved there.
I think that’s probably a fair…
Nicholas Paulukow
For any organization. For any organization. Yeah.
Right.
Lin Sensenig
But yeah, but I would like to, I would like to think that our values would, would, you know, get beyond that. But yeah, so it’s not, it’s not perfect as you know, it’s not perfect.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right. Let’s talk about your serving. You use the word serving in it.
And what I’m impressed with you is, is how you know the community so well and, and how talk about kind of what you believe giving back is about. Right. I think we said in our intro, like there’s been a significant amount of organizations that you’ve served that even in a volunteer or board base, you know, what drives you on that?
Like what, what’s the real, you know, and I know you’re a humble guy. So but give us a little detail on that.
Lin Sensenig
So yeah, no, I, I, I do, I do appreciate that. And I would say this when I was in my corporate life, I didn’t really have an opportunity to do hardly any of that because I was traveling pretty much almost every week. So the minute I stopped doing that, my buddy at local or at Kekalaka school said, Hey, come on, you got to serve on the school board.
So had the chance to do that. And that, that was been a, it’s been a great experience, a great school district, and that’s been, that’s been a lot of fun. And then had a chance to serve on the outer board at LCBC.
That’s been, that was an amazing experience. I would say that on all these experiences, I find that I, I take way more than I give. But that, that was an experience I felt that helped me spiritually.
It certainly helped, it certainly had me around folks who I would consider, you know, greater than me in terms of their, their own spiritual growth. So that, that was really good. So a couple other Lancaster youth at the mission, it’s another organization we’re pretty passionate about in Bible to school, which is a release time.
Nicholas Paulukow
Oh, that’s a good program. Yeah.
Lin Sensenig
So, so, so anyway, I do, I’m fortunate to have the bandwidth to do that kind of stuff now, which I didn’t have the bandwidth before. So part of it is, I think is that, is that giving back piece that I think is so important. It’s, you know, it’s funny.
I was just telling a friend of mine this morning, I think sometimes it’s easier for me to write a check than it is to actually give time. Time is precious, right? And so sometimes I’m pretty dismissive of any time requests, but I’m not so much with financially requests.
So I, and I know God requires both, right?
Nicholas Paulukow
Right.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah. I think I was talking to somebody about that yesterday and I think we all came to the conclusion that it’s a season of our lives that, that certain times we have time to give and other times we have financially to give.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
And, and our organization, you know, for years we’ve been doing, you know, we have this program called VTO, which is called Volunteer Time Off. I love that. And we pay them eight hours a year to go out and volunteer and they can do anything that they want that fits them.
But each year we rounded up with the extra give that’s local here.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah. Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
And I’m always fascinated to see regardless of how young or how season the person is in their career, how they, everyone has a passion to give in some manner. And those that don’t have the financial gift volunteer that day.
Lin Sensenig
Right.
Nicholas Paulukow
And it just, it just blows my mind on how good people are.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
If given the opportunity, you know, and I think many times they don’t know how to get involved or they’re afraid or whatnot. I know in my beginning of my career of kind of giving back, it felt intimidating.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah. Right. Or and maybe it wasn’t organized enough to know how to get involved.
Right. Right. But what I guess that gets a lot into the serving and kind of how we talked about faith, right.
And belief and, you know, tell us a little bit about how, you know, you talk, we started about your family as well. Right. So, you know, tell us about your, your family and your kids and your life, you know, based around, how do you lead them?
Lin Sensenig
Thank you. Well, actually my wife tells me how to lead them.
Nicholas Paulukow
Smart man.
Lin Sensenig
No, I was privileged to, I would, I would, and anybody who knows Patty knows that I married up. I definitely married up. I was very fortunate.
I will be married. We have, we just celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow. Congratulations. Yeah.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah. So very blessed. And we’ve had a wonderful life together.
So it’s been, been quite an adventure. Three, three daughters, two of the, two of the older daughters married. And then Kate and Matt are oldest daughter and son-in-law have their three grandkids.
So they, they, all the, the two married kids live within about a half an hour of our home. So close enough. Patty gets plenty of grandmother time, which is awesome.
And and I get plenty of pop time. So.
Nicholas Paulukow
And you look like you’re like 45.
Lin Sensenig
Well, I pre, I’m not. Yeah, definitely not. I’m a little long in the teeth.
But and then our youngest daughter, Tiana, we, if I’m, middle daughter, Mackenzie works for Shriver Pediatric as an occupational therapist. My older daughter, Kate’s a physical therapist and her husband, Ben works in one of our, in one of our companies as a project manager. And Kate’s husband, Matt works as a physician’s assistant in interventional radiology.
They’re all medical.
Nicholas Paulukow
They’re all into how they can help other people.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wonder where they got that from?
Lin Sensenig
Probably mom.
Nicholas Paulukow
Probably mom.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah. And then my youngest daughter, Tiana, we adopted from China in 2005. She is now 20 years old and she’s a sophomore at Liberty University in their, in their RN program.
Wow. BSN. Yeah.
Wow.
Nicholas Paulukow
What a, what a, a wonderful family there.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah. We’re, we’re so blessed. And then I have, you know, six siblings.
Most of them kind of in the area here. So it’s a big family on the Centeneg side. There’s probably, I don’t know, I’ve kind of lost count, 40 or 45 grandkids.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow.
Lin Sensenig
And then on the, the Chilton Patty side, we just had Thanksgiving at our house. We probably had 30 or 35 folks there at the house. So lots of family.
We’re fortunate to pretty much all get along. I should say we all get along great. So it’s, it’s been, we’ve been very blessed to have and everybody kind of somewhat close.
Wow.
Nicholas Paulukow
What a journey that, that, that’s a lot that teaches you to have patience and teaches you to share, you know, right? Like it’s been really interesting. We talk about leading and leading people and, and you find a lot of the times, like, are you a single child?
Are you, you know, are you from a bigger group? And then somebody told me one time they go, Hey, when I came from a bigger family, we, we were forced to share.
Lin Sensenig
Oh, we had to play in the sandbox.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right. And then it changed how we interact in the business world today. So I never really connected that, but that makes a lot of sense on even your communication, right?
Like you’re, you’re coming from more of a holistic, bigger picture type of thing.
Lin Sensenig
Right.
Nicholas Paulukow
You know, as we kind of look at like serving in general, right? Like what piece of advice could you give you know, your younger self, like now that you’ve gone through this journey, you’ve been quite successful in it. You’ve said you’ve had the ups and downs, but with all the knowledge that you have today, what would you tell your younger self if you’re getting started again?
Lin Sensenig
Yeah, I think I would, and God’s blessed me to be able to think differently, but I think I would always encourage myself to think out of an attitude of abundance, not one of scarcity. Explain that a little bit more. Yeah.
So where I probably would have been in my younger self would have been more focused on making sure that I had, you know, enough money saved for retirement and really focused on those financial goals and looked at it more from a, a scarcity mindset, more than an abundance and saying at the end, if I would, if I would have known back then what I know now, I would have said I probably could have been more generous along the way.
Nicholas Paulukow
Like, you know, I could have. Okay.
Lin Sensenig
So yeah, I think that whole, that’s been something in like past few years that God has really impressed upon me is, you know, this is his, his resources are limitless, right? But we tend to think in very finite terms.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right. We think kind of inwardly.
Lin Sensenig
Exactly.
Nicholas Paulukow
You know, I was reading a passage the other day that basically just said, put your trust in me. Yeah. Not necessarily in yourself.
And I was like, oh wow. Like, and, and if you believe in me, then, then all will be fine. And I was like, oh man, that is a humility in itself to be able to let go.
Lin Sensenig
Right.
Nicholas Paulukow
But, um, it seems as if you’ve learned though, how to adapt and change to that. I guess we all do.
Lin Sensenig
Right.
Nicholas Paulukow
You know, it is scarcity mindset because we have nothing probably when we start off. Yeah. And so from, from your mindset now, how do you apply that with your children?
Lin Sensenig
That’s a great question. I know something, you know, you and I share a Vistage group together and, and I’ve just truly value those relationships. And one exercise that we did not too long ago was the green box exercise.
I had such an impact on me personally.
Nicholas Paulukow
Okay.
Lin Sensenig
Basically, you know, what’s, where’s the box where if you fall over tomorrow, that your family can go to and find everything they need. And as I was thinking about that and thinking about how do we, how do we, um, you know, enjoy what God has blessed us with, with our kids in this time of life versus saying, you know, you got to wait until the end to, you know, giving with warm hands versus cold hands or cold hands versus warm hands. You know, those kinds of things are all things that Patty and I’ve been looking at a lot lately and saying, what’s the, you know, praying about, you know, what’s the best and why, and why is this the highest use of, of resources.
Right.
Nicholas Paulukow
And time and time that, that exercise was for those that were kind of don’t know what it is. It was kind of like, how do you prepare your family for your passing? Right.
Lin Sensenig
It was pretty terrifying.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right. And the most impact was is that we had to write letters to our children. Yeah.
And, uh, I don’t think there was a dry eye, but it was, it was, it was taking the time to slow down and just think about that had a lot of impact on many of us that really like, what, what are we doing this all for?
Lin Sensenig
Right.
Nicholas Paulukow
Like what, what are these worldly things or are they really that important? And I guess it’s some level we, um, it’s, it’s maybe a purpose, but I find many times it sounds like you really have found your purpose and like meaning, which, um, is really inquisitive to me because every day I kind of wake up and say, am I doing what you want me to do?
Lin Sensenig
Right.
Nicholas Paulukow
Am I serving you in the way that you put me here?
Lin Sensenig
Right.
Nicholas Paulukow
Like, you know, you, you’ve put each of us here for a reason and we’re here to do that. But like, seems really hard to figure that out all the time.
Lin Sensenig
Right.
Nicholas Paulukow
Like, and, and, and are we doing what is meant to be? And I, I heard myself yesterday give advice to somebody that I probably should take myself and said that in my mind, I’m here to serve others and to help others. So relevant how that is right.
Having this conversation today, if it helps someone else or that we can share what we know to help someone else is really impactful and everything gets benchmarked on that. And I really realized recently, like, man, you’ve really strayed away from like, have you concentrated more on the scarcity issue right in business than concentrating on those who you’re serving. Right.
And, um, my advice to the person was find what your why is first and then baseline the rest of your decisions off of that. And you really just reminded me of that. And it just is a, um, it seems like you’re very centered on that.
Lin Sensenig
Uh, well, you know, I, I, I’d like to think so. I’m not really sure that I am all the time. It was interesting that my, um, my coach at North group this morning.
Nicholas Paulukow
Um, yes.
Lin Sensenig
So this, so this is a nugget. Um, you don’t have to pay for this one, but, um, this is a nugget. It was, he, he questioned, he said, Lin, he said, I’ve been asking this question of a lot of folks lately.
What do you know to be a truth in your business or in, or in your life that you are acting as if it’s an untruth? Ooh, that was that’s deep.
Nicholas Paulukow
That is deep.
Lin Sensenig
I did. I could, I, it took me a while. I came, I came up with, with an answer.
I came up with some answers, but I really need to think more about it because I think that we all do that to some degree. I know I certainly do, but what am I, what do I know to be truth, but I’m acting like it’s an untruth that I’m choosing to, you know, maybe not do anything about it and not change anything about it.
Nicholas Paulukow
And his, and his was really mean personally for you organization.
Lin Sensenig
He was focused on the organization, but, but, um, he, he also said that for him, like one of the things that he struggled with was that he knows, for instance, that there is poverty all around him, all around him. And so what is, does that really change how he lives his life? Does it change how he, what he does every day?
Does it change, you know, that’s just a, for instance of, um, you know, we probably know for, you know, that we’ve got a problem within our business and we know that it’s a problem, but we’re not going to, when times are good, we kind of ignore that. I’m going to ignore that, but good times can be a pro can be a problem. Really facilitate.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right. Yeah. Yeah.
I know that from experience.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
Screwing that up a couple times.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
You think you put your energy somewhere else, but that is a really interesting, I’m sitting here contemplating that and I’d almost have to sit and, and stew on that.
Lin Sensenig
I, I, I, I still need to stew on it. Wow. Because I, and, and conversely what you were saying about, you know, good times, we have kind of a saying at Howcats that, and it’s not, I forget who said it originally, but in times of peace, prepare for war.
Like, you know, what are we doing now to make sure that we are prepared and kind of future proofing. For what’s going to happen. For what could, what could happen.
And hopefully it doesn’t.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right.
Lin Sensenig
But if it does, then.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right.
Lin Sensenig
At least have a plan together.
Nicholas Paulukow
Huh. And you, you, one thing that you, that we kind of subtly went over, which was a lesson that I learned the hard way is you said that, Hey, you have a mentor or a coach.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
You know, for those that are trying to get into or improve themselves, talk about what you deem, like, what is that coach to you? What is that mentor? Why do you have it?
Some would be like, listen, he runs a successful organization. Why does he need a coach? Right.
Or a mentor. Can you talk a little bit about that? And I think you said earlier too, you had a lot of good mentors.
I did.
Lin Sensenig
I did. I think blind spots is probably the biggest thing. And especially the fact like, again, going back to the consulting side of it from a North group, North group knows our business inside it.
So they know where all the bodies are buried. It’s hard to keep secrets, you know, from, from those guys. Cause they can, they’ll call you out on it when I know that’s not true.
So I think that’s where, and I think too, the other thing that coaches have helped in my life so much. I mean, our Vista chair is my coach too. Jim Schultz, he does a great job with it.
I do think that they have, they have really focused me on personal development and personal development is probably not something I would have focused enough on in the past. So I think that’s been, it’s been excellent. It’s many times just a really, really good time to not commiserate, but kind of toss ideas back and forth.
And as you plan, I am very much like, I’m thinking about what does the next five years look like? What does the next 10 years look like? And as I prepare for exiting at some point, like, what does that look like?
And how am I thinking about that? How will I be thinking? Could I potentially be thinking at that point that I’m not thinking now?
You know, I think Roger North always says, you know, begin with the end in mind. What’s the end look like? And try to plan towards that end.
I think about our trajectory at Houck and if you think about the last eight, nine years that I’ve been there, we would have never thought we would be in a position we’re in now eight years ago. But if you plan, in my head I thought we could be there, but you know, it was not, it was anybody else’s radar.
Nicholas Paulukow
And you think, so you think what kind of the coach has that third party view of kind of calling you out?
Lin Sensenig
Yeah, absolutely.
Nicholas Paulukow
In a courteous way.
Lin Sensenig
Absolutely.
Nicholas Paulukow
And I think that that hearing you say that in the earlier in my career, I was kind of like, always taught, like, you know, solve your own problems.
Lin Sensenig
Right.
Nicholas Paulukow
And I was like, wow, if I reflect back many, many, many years to have that mentor, then would have made a shortcut at a lot of things.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah. I’ve been there. Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right. And I have a, I have a mentor now that says, Hey, you’re going to grow out of me someday. And so always be looking out of that.
And every time we end the session, he says, uh, am I worth talking to next time? And I was like, well, why do you say that? And he goes, cause there’s going to become a time that, uh, I may not be the person to talk to.
Lin Sensenig
That’s a very smart mentor.
Nicholas Paulukow
And I was like, wow.
Lin Sensenig
Okay.
Nicholas Paulukow
That, but, but, but they don’t hold back there, you know, they’re like, I appreciate you saying that. However, you know, are you thinking about X, Y, and Z? And they bring a different thought pattern.
They’re not solving problems per se, but they put just like how you receive. So I encourage everyone that, you know, as you move in life to have that mentor, have somebody to talk to. I think there’s a culture of like, you know, don’t, don’t give it up.
You got to be stoic and strong. And I think the most successful people have someone that they can talk to. Absolutely.
You know, I totally agree.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah. No question about it. Wow.
Nicholas Paulukow
Uh, so as we, uh, kind of wrap up a little bit today as a leader, you know, you’re con it sounds like you’re constantly learning. I love to learn things from you as, as we have conversations. Right.
And so like, could you share like areas that you go for learning or resources? You know, a lot of the people that we talk to are like, well, I don’t have time to learn. And I’m like, well, you’re learning every day.
Right. So like, where do you find your education or learning or, or even books or reading?
Lin Sensenig
Yeah. Great, great question. I love Lencioni.
Um, I love his stuff. So I found a lot, a lot of resources there. I think too, the other thing I would just, from an encouragement standpoint, if someone who says they don’t have time for learning is not, is not, they don’t have their priorities in order.
So that’s a good statement. I think it’s really important that you have to make time because if you don’t work on that piece, you’re never going to get out of the day to day grind and you’ll be doing the same thing 20 years from now.
Nicholas Paulukow
So, you know, that’s a valid statement. So it says, uh, you’re kind of saying like, if you don’t work on yourself, you never be able to lead anybody else.
Lin Sensenig
You won’t.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right. Yeah. And that is really interesting because those that work on themselves seem to then grow in their careers or grow in their path.
And everybody has a path. They don’t necessarily need to be a leader, right. But in some mind there might be inspiring other people too.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
Huh. That’s, that’s intriguing. So to talk about your favorite book or concept with Lencioni.
Lin Sensenig
Um, I would say probably that’s the favorite concept with Lencioni is the, uh, is the book and you’ll refresh your memory here. But the one that talks about the, um, the fable that talked about the, um, the get it one, get it one or hungry, humble, and smart.
Nicholas Paulukow
Oh yeah. Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Yes.
I love that. Yeah.
Lin Sensenig
And we had years ago, we had our team all read through that. And, uh, we tried to use that as a kind of our hiring lens. Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
Cause he has a descriptive format for that.
Lin Sensenig
He does.
Nicholas Paulukow
He does. Yeah. Yeah.
I love that. And has that been successful for you as far as from a hiring perspective?
Lin Sensenig
I think so. Yeah. We’re never perfect, but yeah, I think so.
Absolutely. Yeah. We’ve, we have some wonderful people within how can, uh, I just feel an obligation to provide opportunities for them to continue to grow in their professional careers.
Oh, that’s amazing.
Nicholas Paulukow
Building the next generation.
Lin Sensenig
Yeah, exactly.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah.
Lin Sensenig
It’s, it’s past me now. So, huh.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah. So as we kind of close for today, what, what’s your closing comments, uh, feedback to anybody that’s listening?
Lin Sensenig
Oh man. Anybody that’s listening. I, first of all, I would say, thank you for this opportunity.
This was an awful lot of fun. It was good time. I always love our conversations.
They always, uh, seem to kind of organically flow. So I’m very fortunate with that. I would say, um, you know what, uh, stay, stay humble.
Um, stay driven and keep a positive attitude. If you can’t have a positive attitude, you probably need to go find a spot where you can have a positive attitude or change yourself, but you’re going to, it’s, you’re going to have to have that, that, uh, that get up out of bed morning, want to go to work kind of a thing. It’s, it’s important for that to drive you.
And if it’s not driving you, then you probably need to change something. Right. Like find something else.
Find something else.
Nicholas Paulukow
Oh, I love that. Yeah. Well, that’s well said.
So Lin, uh, from hardware stores to boardrooms, uh, Lin Sensenig has grown to be such a leader. Uh, it’s not about titles for him. As you can see, it’s about serving others and driving real impact.
Uh, his insights remind us that great leaders don’t just build businesses. They build people and communities. A big thank you to you, Lin and your incredible journey.
And, um, you know, thank you for tuning into, uh, the Servant Leader’s Library until next time. Remember, leadership is less about the corner office and more about the people you empower along the way until next time.
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