What does it take to walk away from a successful corporate career with no job lined up because you know there’s a better way to lead? In this episode of The Servant Leader’s Library, Tim Strickler, CFO of the Conrad Company, shares his journey from traditional top-down leadership to a purpose-driven philosophy rooted in service, trust, and accountability.
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Episode Transcript
Nicholas Paulukow
So I’m your host, Nicholas Paulukow, CEO of ONE 2 ONE, a managed IT and security firm, and your guide through the wild world of leading with purpose instead of just a fancy title. Today, we have a guest who knows a thing or two about keeping business running smoothly and people running towards success instead of away from accountability. Tim Strickler is the CFO of the Conrad Company, a powerhouse of eight brands serving the manufacturing and construction industries.
With 160 employees and $70 million in annual sales, they’ve been making things happen since before email was even a thing. Penn Air, their biggest division, has been around since 1968. Tim’s been leading and learning for over 30 years across multiple industries, and along the way he’s discovered that servant leadership just isn’t a nice idea, it’s a better way to work and live.
He here today is to drop some wisdom on leadership, accountability, and maybe even what it’s like to have two kids at Penn State, which to be honest, this probably means he’s an expert in patience and budgeting. So grab your coffee, get comfortable, and let’s grab an intro in here to Tim. So Tim, welcome to the show.
Tim Strickler
Thank you. I’m doing great. Happy to be here.
Looking forward to our chat.
Nicholas Paulukow
Excellent. Excellent. We’re happy to have you here as well.
And we understand, wow, what an intro, right? Working in the business world, but we understand that even from your current journey, it’s not just about the business, it’s a lot about like serving and leading people. Why don’t you give us a little understanding of kind of your career and what kind of led you to servant leadership?
Tim Strickler
Absolutely. Well, this is a topic that I’m very passionate about, and it took me about 25 years to arrive at learning what servant leadership is and why that’s so vital. And I think my journey is a good illustration, I think, of starting with good values of hard work and reaching for the best version of ourselves, then with a strong pivot point about 25 years in, and that’s where servant leadership comes in.
So I went to Shippensburg University for accounting and didn’t have a lot of money in my family, so largely had to pay for college myself, had to work through college and really appreciate what that hard work is and the value of the college degree. I graduated in 1991 and was able to join one of the, called the Big Six accounting firms. So it’s the Big Four now.
They’re the largest global accounting firms. So I joined KPMG and was there for about four years, had an opportunity to sit for the CPA exam and pursue that. That’s pretty intense opportunity there to pursue that.
Got my CPA and finished about four years there and then had an opportunity to join a company called York International. So that was my segue then into full-on corporate experience. York International, when I joined, was about a two billion dollar company when I left, about four billion dollar company, truly global company.
And the attraction for me was I went through the interview process, still at KPMG, and they said within the first six months we’ll have you doing field work in Italy and Germany.
Nicholas Paulukow
Oh wow.
Tim Strickler
And I’m sitting there without a passport. I think I had been in a plane maybe twice.
Nicholas Paulukow
How about any kids? No kids?
Tim Strickler
No kids, single, no kids. So it was perfect, perfect opportunity to kind of take on a whole new frontier of the, you know, corporate world and international experience. So I joined York International in 2025 and spent about two years in their internal audit department.
And that gave me an opportunity not only to work in Italy and Germany, but in Denmark, the UK, Canada, and special projects throughout the US. So I was broadening my horizon. And then the folks that I met in Europe, in their Europe headquarters in the UK, about 40 miles from London, just so happened, I was about two years in, they said, well we’re thinking about a role here, a brand new role of a financial coordinator.
What would you think about the idea of just coming over and living here? So I had an opportunity to basically sell the majority of my stuff, pack up, move to just outside London, and I lived there for two and a half years.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow. How old were you then?
Tim Strickler
When I was there, I turned 30. So 20, 29 or so, 28, 29. So for a guy that didn’t have a passport until 1995, this was 1997, a really neat experience.
But I had a fantastic opportunity to function as a coordination point and a kind of a broader teamwork among all of Western Europe. So I was dealing regularly. My colleagues were folks from Italy, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Ireland.
And I spent about two and a half years in Europe living there and working with those folks across Western Europe and some more Eastern Europe as well. And it really taught me that fundamental honor and serving one another and teamwork can cross through all those cultures. And I had as good a teamwork there as I’ve ever had since.
And we can cross those boundaries. People know when they can count on you. I’ve got your back, you’ve got my back.
And that was a real eye-opener for me to be able to transcend all those cultures. And that was a real down payment on a broader view or leadership for me. And I brought that back home.
I moved back home. And not long after that, I had an opportunity to change it all up. And I progressively was in the theme of be willing to go outside of my comfort zone.
That seemed to be playing well when I was able to do that. And it takes courage to do that. And there’s some risk with that.
Nicholas Paulukow
But what, what career have you had?
Tim Strickler
The expat assignment had a kind of a shelf life, a time horizon. And, and there was a, I wanted career progression as well. So it was naturally time to come back.
And York International was going through some changes at that point. I did some work back home here. But the opportunity presented itself to join a company called Bantan, which unfortunately is not no longer, no longer with us, I guess.
Nicholas Paulukow
I remember I did you Bantan today.
Tim Strickler
There you go. Nice adage. But Bantan was started, if you didn’t know this in the late 1800s.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow, really?
Tim Strickler
Ultimately, it’s hard to fathom that a company that old could ever fail and went bankrupt in 2018. But I’ll give you a little bit of that journey here momentarily. So it was an opportunity to leave, I worked at a CPA firm, I did some international experience in manufacturing.
But here was an opportunity to work with a completely different sector in retail and retail is very different from manufacturing. The pace is different. It’s all about fashion and marketing.
And the margins are way different. Yeah, exactly. And markdowns and seasonality and all that stuff.
But the hiring manager felt that I could parlay my my skills, he felt I’d be a good addition to his team. So I had an opportunity to learn things that I hadn’t learned before SEC reporting was publicly traded company. And a lot of attributes of retail.
Three months after I started 911 happened. So that was a stress point on retail. I was at Bonton for 15 years in total, ultimately 15 years.
And that encompassed the Great Recession in 2008 2009. A real stress point.
Nicholas Paulukow
What do you think? Was there a big culture difference from from going from kind of your global organization to kind of a real retail based organization? Like, was the culture similar or are widely diverse?
Tim Strickler
Yeah, I, I would say more similar than really diverse. I mean, maybe that’s surprising. The nature of the business was very unforgiving and retail because everything is quick, everything’s quick, and turning merchandise.
And I was heavily involved with SEC reporting things that you have very fast deadlines. But I don’t know that the corporate as you know, I get to the point of my kind of pivot here to serve in leadership. I don’t know that the feel of the kind of corporate environment and and the kinds of leadership I saw, they were actually surprisingly similar, I would say.
And so I had lots of opportunities over the 15 years, I was blessed with people that believed in me, I had to earn it. And I used my what was under my ability to influence to be willing to try new things and say, Well, I have this area of responsibility. Can we change this out?
I don’t know anything about this area, but willing to, again, go out of my comfort zone and learn a new area. And that that worked well. And I, and I gradually started thinking ahead, well, where would a what kind of exposure would a really good CFO need to have in a business.
And and those opportunities were largely afforded to me, minus just a couple of areas by folks that believed in me and gave me a chance. And I came in as accounting manager. And by the time I left, I was a senior VP, which is a pretty big deal at that organization.
Thank you. And, and a really great learning experience in terms of a lot of different roles. Retail was a very difficult business, it got progressively difficult.
So if you think about the time horizon, let’s say 2013 1415 16. All the online by the Amazon online buying e commerce business was really picking up. And I think traditional brick and mortar retailers were behind the curve and not just bond time, but lots because it was a great investment in the infrastructure that we had.
And then to go and build an e commerce infrastructure on top of that, it wasn’t like a business coming in, and just building the e commerce. So we had to build and invest in big distribution centers as well. So a really stressed environment and difficult for retail.
And I and I got my last few years of Bonton experience, I got to kind of see someone now what I would would would call the best and the worst in leadership. So really good people, we had some excellent leaders, and then some not so excellent leaders. And basically, by 2016, I’m 25 years into the career.
So the KPMG, you know, serving as clients, corporate businesses and multinational having worked in Europe as well, done a lot of travel and a lot of experiences, and then kind of 15 years in a pretty stereotypical corporate environment. And basically, I had enough, I had enough of it. And basically gave a resignation gave a two month period of time to take care of transferring skills and take care of the team members that I work with.
No job lined up, and a very understanding wife, but at that point, wife and kids. So I had a lot at stake was taking care of that experience. So risky move.
But I had enough conviction at that point to feel like it’s going to be all right. I just have a nudge, it’s going to be all right. And so I, I left, pursued and looking at other job opportunities, and started reflecting upon what kind of leader that I want to be, and had an opportunity to I like to write that’s surprising for a finance person.
Admittedly, I like to write and I laid out, I came up with the idea to write a story called reflection at halftime. And obviously, it’s a play on a football game at halftime when you have a chance to, to get it together. Right.
I don’t want to finish this game, leaving anything on the table. I don’t want to second guess myself. I want to make sure I’m leaning in, and I’m doing it right.
And have a second to just pause and think and make sure I know how to play the best game I can. And I wrote that article, on some encouragement, I submitted the Central Penn Business Journal, and they published it. And that was a, that was a neat feeling.
And it was also a process for me to really start to formulate what kind of leader I wanted to be for the second half.
Nicholas Paulukow
Did you feel that the leader you were becoming in that corporate world was just not something that you wanted to be? Or was this more of just a discovery in general?
Tim Strickler
I would say probably, well, I’d say both. I, probably first and foremost, I, I watched leaders. And again, I had an opportunity to see some really good examples of leaders as well.
But, but I had some examples to see leaders that I wondered, they’re putting their heart and soul into their working hours, which are a lot. And in the corporate world, it’s not 40 hours. That’s right.
So that’s a big portion of their lives. And I worried and I felt that I, I kind of felt that I saw in some folks, when they retired, what, what legacy, right? How did they feel when they no longer had the positional authority and the title and they retired and reflect on what they did?
What kind of legacy did they leave? Did they leave a legacy of individuals that said, I’m so glad I had an opportunity to work with them. They changed my life.
The impact, they elevated me. They helped me to believe in myself at a level that I never, never dreamed of. When we worked on that together, we accomplished something no one thought we could do.
And I realized I, if I have vision and, and belief and I, and I work with folks, I can be much more. I, I, I saw some folks that it just didn’t seem like the path that was leading to a, a reflection afterwards, that was a real legacy to me.
Nicholas Paulukow
So some of that’s personal, I guess, but it seemed like maybe they were kind of just driving towards a linear item or a linear success point. Whereas you were kind of taking it more from an impact kind of area.
Tim Strickler
Yeah, that was well said. I think what I started to reflect upon is you can’t separate your, your life from your work.
Nicholas Paulukow
They, they, and I think you’d even say maybe even like values, right? I think you’re talking about values, right? In my corporate America experience of working for a fortune 100 companies, there, there’s a fine line between values and, and your values, right?
So that’s interesting that you say that because you’re, you feel like maybe you’re serving the wrong master at that.
Tim Strickler
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah.
Tim Strickler
Again, well, well, well said. I think to be an authentic leader, it’s, it’s my view that there, there can’t be some disparity of what you are in your work hours as a leader and what you are in your personal life. I don’t think they can coexist.
That’s not authentic to me. And I was viewing my work contribution and I worked a lot of hours for 25 years and realizing this has to add up to what my life is, what am I here for? You know, they’re not separate.
We don’t go figure out why you’re going to have a good life of purpose. And then you spend all these hours working for some other, some other reason. And maybe the values you don’t align with maybe I had to just step back and think about what kind of environment might better align to what I think I’m called to do.
And I think for most people, figuring out what you’re called to do is, is a journey of unraveling it and figuring it out, but it didn’t feel like it felt too shallow to me and it didn’t align well. And I was particularly disturbed by some of the, some of the displays by some of, some of the leaders, some of the narcissistic or if I’m allowed to say this word, assaholic behaviors that I thought they, they weren’t at all what I thought leaders should be. It wasn’t substantive.
Nicholas Paulukow
They were serving themselves.
Tim Strickler
Exactly.
Nicholas Paulukow
Instead of the greater good.
Tim Strickler
Absolutely. The only service that they were doing, at least at times, was serving self. And and that just didn’t feel of value to me.
And no one’s perfect. We all can fall into those traps, but I didn’t want to live in that trap.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right.
Tim Strickler
And I didn’t want to put up with it and I didn’t want to reach for it. That’s not what I wanted. So it was a, it was an opportunity for me to think more deeply about what kind of leader I wanted to be.
And, and as I started to think about that, an opportunity to hear John Maxwell speak and Patrick Lynch and some other others as well. Um, and they use this term, servant leadership. And the more I thought about it, all these things I was thinking and starting to write in these articles, I, by that time I started writing another, another article.
That’s what it’s called. That’s, that’s the missing ingredient.
Nicholas Paulukow
Well, and it’s kind of adding purpose to that meaning, right? I think when you talk about, uh, Patrick, Patrick comes also from kind of like a faithful base of purpose and mission, right? So it’s really intriguing to hear you say that I, uh, uh, I’m a Catholic boy and right.
It’s Lent at this time, but, uh, and so one of the things I really reflecting on kind of from a leadership perspective was, am I being a servant to my work or am I serving? And man, the fine line between that is quite difficult, right? Like, um, you know, doing is great, but are you actually serving is another aspect.
And I think I hear that from coming from you a little bit.
Tim Strickler
You do. Um, the, that really puts a finer point on it. I watched people that I felt were servants to their, through their job and they weren’t really allowing themselves to serve people.
They weren’t even allowing themselves to think more broadly and opportunities. They, they, they were allowing themselves to be trapped by a corporate role and a fear that they had to make a living and afraid to rattle that. And, and what they did is shackle themselves to not be able to cultivate their purpose, not be able to figure out what they’re really should be doing, not to figure out how they could serve others, but become more of a slave to the corporate machinery.
There’s nothing wrong with working in corporations, but I feel it works a whole lot better when we don’t feel that we’re just cogs in machinery, but that we are doing something meaningful along the way. And there are many ways to do that in corporate environments, provided that we’re thinking on that wavelength and we’re able to find the right role. And, and, and I don’t know that that’s the standard kind of DNA upbringing that leads to promotions in corporate America, or at least the majority of them.
And that’s where I said, it’s time to figure out a different way of doing it.
Nicholas Paulukow
Do you think that any of it’s, when, when you were saying that I was thinking about my father’s generation, right? And so when they worked at corporate America, they had such a pride and like a purpose to the product or service that they were driving at. And it seems as if that pride and purpose has kind of gone away to more of a machine of driving maybe to the bottom line or whatever it may be.
Do you find that in any sort of similarity, especially in your research and the writing that you’ve done? Do you find that it has any season or is it just generally instilled in the corporate America of performance over serving?
Tim Strickler
A couple of themes, I would say resonate with, with me. I think the world in general has become much more transactional now. And I think corporations have, they’re, and I’m not that old, but even in my career experience, I felt that there was more of a sense of honor and duty and dedication.
And, and, and what I explained to younger folks now to try to get that back is that’s a two-way street. That, that, that is a commitment to one another. You know, the company is committing to you and you’re committing to the company and, and more specifically as a, as leaders, it’s a two-way street.
And that’s an honor system where we serve one another and we provide opportunities as they’re earned. And we feel a loyalty and we feel a sense of pride to what we’re doing. And I think the world has become much more transactional and I don’t think for the better.
I think roles are now much more transient. The ability to attract, retain talent is very, very difficult, harder than at any point in my career. And I don’t think that, I don’t think that’s serving anyone.
Nicholas Paulukow
Do you think that anything has to do with that from a separation of kind of like, I’ll use it in a generality term, but like family, like a unit, like what you’re explaining seems to be more of, we care about the whole person, not just the individual action of kind of, you know, growing up as a child, our work and pleasure were together within a community, a unit. What we did personally with people we worked with, we connected with, and now it seems like we’re very independent, segregated in many ways.
Tim Strickler
Yeah, I think that’s true. I mean, we’re spending a lot of time on our phones or devices and that’s not conducive to what you just described. And that robs time and energy away.
What I’ve tried to do to get closer to what you’re describing is after my pivot point, and this was in 2016, and kind of really thinking about what kind of leader I wanted to be, which is a servant leader, CFO, and I would add a transformational ones kind of as a footnote. I had some experiences, but then quickly sought out company environments that were owned by good people who had a sense of dedication to their employees and care. And it just so happened, both were family businesses and the Conrad company included.
To get back to some of that, there are businesses, and I work for one, who retains a lot of those elements that you’re describing where there is authentic care for employees, and it is a family, where our gatherings at Christmas parties or Halloween parties, you can tell whether employees are in the room like each other, enjoy being together. You can tell. And in my company, they do.
And that’s rare. In the last company, the family company.
Nicholas Paulukow
It takes a lot of work there too.
Tim Strickler
It takes a tremendous amount of work and patience of the owners and cultivating the right kind of leaders to retain that really great environment. So I do think there are isolated cases in our society where corporations preserve that, but it is very difficult. And you have to be very very conscious about who you’re recruiting and be sure that folks want that environment.
They’re going to value that environment because it can be fragile. It can. Absolutely.
Nicholas Paulukow
Do you think that, well, I don’t say think, when you made this transition, what did you have to sacrifice? Or if anything, maybe you gained.
Tim Strickler
Well, during the transition, I had to sacrifice a number of things. I had to sacrifice earnings. That’s real.
Our boys were nine and 11 at that point. And we’re saving in our TAP 529 plans for Penn State. And then the tuition’s going up.
Dear God, you’re going to need that. We’re definitely using that now. And it was a bit scary.
And my wife was working part-time, so I had benefits. The COBRA payments were like $1,800 a month then for healthcare. And then the we were worried about healthcare.
And a solution came from her company, a very graceful one and a generous one that made it all right. But we were worried about healthcare benefits. I didn’t have income over that period of time.
But it was scary, but it was also empowering. For whatever reason, and I’ve gradually learned how to do it, and I can’t always do it, but to suspend fear. Suspend fear, replace it with faith.
And that faith, I would say, for all your listeners, that faith can be from wherever you feel it comes from. There’s no restriction to anyone. I would say it as simply as this.
Give as much power to faith that it might work out well as we do to fear that it won’t. And for whatever reason, and support from my wife and support from others too. I had a good friend that said, hey, I think you ought to start an LLC.
And I started Strickler Consulting LLC. Now I had no marketing skill. I didn’t even know what I was going to do, but I knew what kind of skills I had.
And I knew I could parlay 25 years of experience with all these different businesses and really help people. And I started Strickler Consulting LLC, and here’s how my first client came about. Here’s where faith comes in and things work out.
So my friend who had encouraged me to start the Strickler Consulting LLC, I think he introduced me to a client, and I talked to him, it didn’t work out. They weren’t interested in it. And I attended a Red Cross function.
Someone invited me to a Red Cross function. It was some celebration. I sat down at the table.
I knew no one at the table. The whole room was filled and sat down wherever there was space. And the presentation happened at the end.
The gentleman across the table was just saying, hey, I’m introducing myself. I introduced myself and said, what do I do? He said, maybe you should stop by and we should talk.
And that was my first client. A family business, really good family, father and son. And that was my first support, less than a $10 million business.
And they valued the value. What resonated with them was a value proposition. Here’s someone who will care about them as individuals in a family, as well as the need to give competent advice.
And they have broader experience, and they can provide that on an hourly basis that they could afford. And that was a down payment. And then I was able to parlay that down payment into some other networking, a guy named John Dame.
John’s a great guy.
Nicholas Paulukow
Vistage.
Tim Strickler
Vistage. And I talked to John, and he’s a fantastic networker. And he connected me, and that led me to another opportunity.
So I started to replace what I had to give up most notably supporting my family with at least some revenue then. But I gained so much more because then I turned my 25 years of what someone could say was large corporate experience. And maybe I was just like every other corporate leader.
And I didn’t have an ability to work with a $5 million company or a $50 million company. I was working a multi-billion dollar company. And now my resume had this.
And that was a gateway to work with what I had early on kind of just framed out middle market or lower middle market companies. So for your listeners, I would say lower middle market, let’s say $100 million in annual sales and less. And that spanned everything from $20 million to $100 million.
And in my first gig, less than $10 million. And kind of with that niche, I realized there were a lot of companies out there that wanted finance people who are also leaders. In fact, leaders first and finance people second.
And then if they had an ability to think strategically as well as tactically, and flip on a dime back and forth, that was a unique skill set.
Nicholas Paulukow
A lot of value.
Tim Strickler
A lot of value. And I’d done a lot of community service leadership and was used to dealing with smaller organizations that way and really kind of getting into one point I’ll make later about authentic power versus positional power.
Nicholas Paulukow
It kind of sounds like what you’re speaking to is that before you did an action, utilizing your knowledge, but now you’re taking that action to like, you could feel the value that you’re providing.
Tim Strickler
Yeah, that’s exactly right.
Nicholas Paulukow
I think I’m sitting here and smiling because I’m like, wow, did say around the same time, and almost to the T the story, right? I was in corporate America, feeling the same thing, right? It was you were flying everywhere every day.
You know, there really wasn’t an ask, you just had to do it if you wanted a job and I quit my job. My wife was at the beach with her family and I had enough of serving something wrong, right? And felt that somebody at other groups or industries could serve, be served, right?
And so I left this really great paying job to zero dollars, you know, and so you really figure out, is this a mission or what are you going to do? And I’m smiling because kind of the same path, right? It wasn’t about chasing money, it was about chasing a purpose.
And when you do that, it seems as if many more things open up when you serve others, from my experience than serving yourself. So those that serve themselves might get gratification, but they don’t get real value from that potentially.
Tim Strickler
Summarized perfectly 100% agree. And it parallels very much my experiences as well. And you’re exactly right that I ended up choosing that middle market or lower middle market because I had much more of an impact.
And here’s the other really important point. The impact that I was having that was most vital and I learned meant the most to me and is the foundation for a legacy is the impact on the people. It wasn’t the executive decisions and financial strategizing and the bank relationships and, and the budgeting and the all those decisions, which are vitally important.
We have to get those right. But the magic happens in terms of the impact on the people. That’s where the legacy is.
Nicholas Paulukow
And that that, and many times you don’t even know how large that impact is. I from my experience, I’ve, I’ve heard people years later that just said, Hey, uh, just being supportive changed my life. And I’m like, I didn’t do this magical thing.
And, and, uh, you know, a simple smile sometimes, right. I was walking into a grocery store. It sounds really silly, but I was smiling and the man looked at me and he said, that made my entire day.
Like I was, I’m just smiling. Right. And, uh, the impact that that can have in me is also serving, right?
Like you’re, as you become less about yourself and more about reflecting on others, it really fills what probably what many people want. It’s just, they might be going at it maybe a little differently.
Tim Strickler
I absolutely agree. And it’s even more exponential than that, because what I’m finding, I heard the quote somewhere, I’m not sure where it was from, but you’re not really a leader until you have produced three more leaders or something like that. You might have heard that as well.
So, um, there are leaders that I’m very proud of that I had some role in working with and, um, that it’s exponential in terms of what we’re helping to teach others who then are doing the same and then that’s rippling through. But another interesting point, and I wrote an article about this, um, about mentoring through example. So another way that we are having an impact that we may, may not know is by, by what kind of example we are providing.
And, and I, I think, unfortunately, we, I see less and less examples of good leadership in, in, in companies or in organizations, not just for profit, but in organizations overall, I think we’re, we’re losing the example of what good leadership looks like. And, um, and I would say the best leadership is servant leadership, but we have an opportunity to influence lives just through being an example and how many people consciously or subconsciously, this was the essence of my article, people pick up. You, you watch, I’ve been at enough companies now to know and watch other people coming and going in my coming and going, people start to emulate what the leaders do.
And maybe subconsciously they start using certain phrases. They start picking up. Why not make those good examples?
And who knows what impact that is? You know, someone picks up, particularly if we have really good leaders who set a really good example, those examples transcend their work life. They transcend that, that their, their personal lives.
Um, and a lot of the fundamental ingredients, you know, certainly humility and integrity.
Nicholas Paulukow
And, um, when you, you add to that, you talk about, uh, Patrick Lencioni, right. And he writes and he says, people have to be humble, hungry, and smart.
Tim Strickler
Absolutely. I love that. The ideal team player.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah. Right. And, and, and, and smart is not intelligence.
Smart is ability to read others and ability to correspond. And I think that that’s beautiful. Right.
I, I, I wonder if, um, like in the organization that you’re at today, um, in our, in our world, we would call some of those things like our set of core values, right. Um, but our core values are not just kind of words on the wall. They’re actions at which we baseline, um, non-negotiables, um, meaning on how to behave and how to treat others.
Um, and from Patrick’s standpoint, right. Like, you know, you hire for the values, right. And you train on the talent.
Is that, do you find that similar in your organization, the way that you’re explaining that or, uh, similar with a different slant.
Tim Strickler
So I can tell you, I have hired through the lens of hungry, humble, smart for, uh, probably the last seven years or so. Um, and my colleagues at the Conrad company know that I’ve repeated that a gazillion times because I think it’s so fantastic. Right.
Um, the Conrad company, you can tell right away, first of all, uh, or very quickly in an organization, whether what’s on the wall is the real deal. Did someone just post that on the wall or what is, what is on the wall, uh, a reflection of the real deal in the organization. And I think the Conrad company, and this is a real testament to the owners and, and, and longtime key players, um, are those fundamental, uh, great values that we’re talking about that align very well to servant leadership.
They have a unique twist. So I hope I can say this word on, on, uh, on the podcast, but they’re, they encapsulate their core values in the word kick-ass, but they do a little, a little cheeky spelling though. It says K I C K at and $2 signs.
Nicholas Paulukow
I love it.
Tim Strickler
Um, but what their core value is, we kick ass for one another, our customers, our suppliers, and our community. So all those servant touch points are there. And then a further definition of kick-ass gets into those qualities that we’re talking about.
Um, we are a family, but we also need to get the job done and have accountability and, and, and, and bringing in, um, the, uh, integrity, a part of the ingredient and the idea of we’re on the journey together. And we are going to believe in ourselves to come up with creative solutions for our customers that transcends what our competitors are doing. And we are not afraid to take on new challenges.
And we’re going to acquire other companies to increase our value proposition. And we are going to set a vision and we are going to get there together because, um, we have the ingredients together. If we, we set the vision and, and we rallied together and we each kick ass for, for one another, and we do it for our customers or suppliers, and we take care of the community, um, we’re able to accomplish so much more.
Um, so it’s kind of encapsulates into that.
Nicholas Paulukow
Well, you say in that, that role model, um, article that like you, you talk about humility too. Right. And so like, you talk about competence, but then humility.
So like, explain that a little bit. What do you mean by that? Like from a, a leadership standpoint, right?
Like there’s a level of competence, but, uh, it’s humility, you know, a positive thing. Is it, can it be an area if you’re very, you know, humble that do you lose authority? Tell us a little bit about that.
Tim Strickler
Yeah. Um, really great question. So John Maxwell, I believe is the one that said this, uh, humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.
Um, and, and in no way, shape or form do I believe humility dilutes our conviction or our strength. It’s just the opposite. Um, uh, strength without humility is weakness.
It, it, the reality is, and I think this might from Maxwell as well, we’re all flawed. Okay. There’s no way of getting around that.
Um, and we are much stronger, much more effective when we are able to, we’re able to check our pride at the door. Um, it, it, it allows us to rid ourselves of unnecessary sensitivity. Mm hmm.
The best collaborative, uh, teamwork that, that, that I have, and I do have that at the Conrad company I’ve had, uh, in multiple companies, especially these middle market companies that serve in leader leadership. Um, since my pivot point in 2016, um, is in, in, in opportunity, uh, to have crucial conversations with my colleagues where the, uh, the disagreement, um, is nothing more than getting to a greater truth. And it’s impossible to have really the maximum crucial conversations, thoughtful disagreement when we have pride getting in the way.
But when we’re able to let go of that pride and say, I don’t need to be right. I’m less concerned with who is right. I’m more concerned with what is right.
Ronald Reagan, I believe said, um, there’s no limit to what we can do if we don’t care who gets the credit. Well, pride is the credit. And, and if we able to shed that, be able to offer with conviction, what we believe in, we’re not diluting that, but we’re also in a maximum way open to learning ourselves.
And you’ll hear me say a little later, um, another realization for me is we’re all on the journey together. The journey is the life journey. We’re spending a lot of time together in our work lives on the journey.
We have personal journey as well. I think they’re interrelated because I think you have to be the same person. Um, what is empowering for me to think of it, uh, to think about is coming from this angle.
If, if we all take the mindset that our goal is to become the greatest version of ourselves, we can, then right away, we’re, we’re going to be open to where we can learn and grow.
Nicholas Paulukow
It’s kind of what you’re saying is to be humble is to know that you have the ability to change yourself, but not someone else.
Tim Strickler
Yes. Uh, yes. Being humble is fully embracing the idea that I can change myself and I may not be able to change someone else.
Um, uh, uh, we can’t force someone to change, but I can be open by myself and vulnerable and, and, and I can offer with conviction and make a persuasive argument. And to the degree that that resonates with someone else, that’s good. We’re not going to force people to agree with that.
Um, but we have to leave it at that.
Nicholas Paulukow
That’s the most productive way when you’re, when you’re hiring, um, how do you identify a or even when you’re speaking to someone, right? How do you, how do you identify that they might, um, have that humbleness you’re looking for?
Tim Strickler
Well, a couple of things. One, I hear them say a lot of, we, instead of I is a clue. Um, I, I hear them talking about their desire to learn and add value to others.
I, I, I gauge it by what, what, what, what I tried to do is paint a picture of the opportunities that we have. And by definition, this goes to your point about having an ability to influence the overall organization. So by design, we are, we’re on our journey at the Conrad company and we are transforming finance to a higher level.
We are working collaborative with other, other departments, no silos. Um, and, and I really pleased with the environment there and we’re doing some powerful things. I, I described that journey.
I described, uh, the idea of welcoming someone into the journey of learning and, and growing and giving them a chance to be part of doing some big things and contributing to the journey. Kind of selling that vision. Selling the vision, but the vision is the journey and what we’re producing together.
And then I explained how that’s a better teaching growth exercise than anything else around where we’re going to be reinventing together. And I either get an exciting look from them, the nonverbal look, like what an opportunity to be part of this. And they get, they get it.
If I’m part of it, I get to learn and grow, but we’re going to be in this together and we’re going to achieve things together.
Nicholas Paulukow
And they’re humble enough to know that they, uh, can be part of something bigger than just something that they want.
Tim Strickler
Yeah. Again, nice way to say it. I, it, you can tell right away.
And I often use that phrase exactly to say that that’s what we believe and we’re committed to one another on that. And we believe there’s great learning in that. And either I get a look of that sparkle in the eye or not.
And that, that is a clue as to whether they’re a fit and, and, and, and a bit of a clue in terms of the level of both humility and hungry, the hungry, almost smart, um, the hunger level and the humility, um, really show in describing that engaging the reaction is really difficult. I think it’s nonverbals in terms of the reaction and the, and the level of interest that, uh, folks kind of get it or they don’t get it. And I, I, let me contrast this.
This is what is not indicative of humility. And unfortunately, I’m seeing this more and more. And I think, especially so over the last five years or so, there is a lot of discussion among potential candidates of what’s in it for me.
What do I get? I’m going to need this. And, and that needs to be part of the equation in terms of what are the, what are the recipe of, uh, compensation and opportunities, but when it’s one sided and then there’s not equal time or more time to, how can I really add value to the organization?
Then you have to wonder about the humility level and the hunger level.
Nicholas Paulukow
I know that as we kind of work through, you had mentioned earlier that you have, I think you, uh, one of the other articles you wrote was specifically on servant leadership. And I think you had some key bullet points that you had a potential to share with us today. Yeah, I do.
Tim Strickler
So what I did, um, is put together my definition of servant leadership and what I did, it’s, it’s 14 points. They’re all bite-sized chunks. Um, I’ll just run through these.
This is essentially bringing together the servant leadership article. And if anyone’s interested, uh, the articles that if you go to Central Penn Business Journal, um, and you can search my name, you can see those. There are articles on grit, very important in life, accountability, very, very important principle.
Nicholas Paulukow
I like that one.
Tim Strickler
Um, the, uh, servant leadership, as you mentioned, integrity, humility, authenticity, um, are, are among the highlights, um, if you’re interested. But I pulled out what really at this point in time to me defines what servant leadership is. And everyone should have their own definition of it.
But that pivot point that I did at 25 years in, and that’s been about nine years ago since, and now working with these middle market companies, particularly two family and second family business. Um, first is, um, and I’m going to use the word we, because servant leadership is about we, it’s not about I. So we believe that life is too short to not be fulfilling or finding and living a unique purpose.
So that, that’s really the core of it is getting to closer to our purpose. That’s where the power point is. And if we can gradually get there, and sometimes that’s not a linear journey, and it was not a unique purpose is tied in very, very heavily to my definition of servant leadership.
Um, we all want to look back on our lives and see meaning and value and contribution. Um, and I believe I’ve come to the conclusion that the most, uh, meaningful of all is as, as we talked earlier, the impact we make on, on people and no corporate downsizing or retirement or title change will ever take that away. No one can take that away.
When you make that investment in people and leave that legacy, that will be there forever. And as you pointed out, it can be exponential, delivering value, and it’s very powerful, and no one can take that away. That’s why you need that grit in other areas that you wrote about.
Absolutely, yeah. Servant leadership requires lots of grit. If you say there’s the easy road and the hard road, servant leadership is the hard road.
There’s no question about it. And sometimes it’s not hard, but it’s definitely on balance. It is not the easy road.
It requires grit repeatedly because being open to- Kind of what my parents always said, doing the right thing is harder. Yeah, in many cases it is. Number two, we believe that when we turn the focus from self to the service of adding value to others, we unlock gifts and purpose beyond our current awareness.
And I can testify to this. When we really come through the lens of serving value to others, we uncover other gifts that we have to provide. And that’s kind of fun, going through that.
Just that I’m going to focus on how I’m adding and serving others, just that change in lens can unlock all kinds of other opportunities and realizing, hey, I can do this. One realization for me was a personality profile I had done, a profile that I had done, and this was after that pivot point. And the personality profile basically said, you’re a leader who chose the finance route.
You’re not a finance person. It was kind of a reminder. Our paths aren’t set in stone by our degree or whatever title we have.
And if we’re willing to focus on adding value, that might lead other pathways and opportunities. And then we really start to find out some of these other gifts that we have that are really fun to serve with.
Nicholas Paulukow
And that kind of goes to that word of serve, right? Like after you decide who you are serving really changes the dynamic. Am I serving the almighty buck?
Or am I serving for the greater good of my family? It really changes a perspective.
Tim Strickler
It does. It seems like a small shift in kind of lens, but it is dramatically different. And just saying, I’m not gonna serve a corporate machinery and I’m not picking on corporations, whatever it is.
And my primary purpose is not self. I need to make a living. My primary purpose is serving others, adding value to others.
It really changes. And I found it works out.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right, it’s like giving of yourself instead of taking.
Tim Strickler
That’s right.
Nicholas Paulukow
Potentially, right? I think taking sounds kind of negative, but I mean, from what I’m hearing from you, it’s a switch of mindset of receiving something. Let’s not say taking, receiving, and now you’re giving.
Which is harder, but has a lot more reward.
Tim Strickler
It is, but it’s reciprocal. You know, the adage, you get what you give. I mean, that very much ties into this.
I do think, and I’ve talked to a lot of young people, I’ve done lots of hiring, and I have found if you use the lens, and I keep it simple for young people. If you use the lens of coming in, and I counsel my sons too, who are 20 and 18 now. If you come through the lens of how can I add value to the organization or whatever you’re doing, just start with that.
I’m here to add value. You will find your self-interest are taken care of. You don’t need to worry about that.
Trust me, it will come back and you’ll be taken care of. And it’s so much more rewarding way of viewing things to just focus on serving. Well, the rewards come from the how can I help you attitude.
It does, and then it’s circular. When you add value to organizations and people, they want you around. Right, people are attracted to that.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah, yeah.
Tim Strickler
I do think it’s reciprocal kind of inherently, but we don’t need to worry about that. What we need to worry about is focusing on the serving part and adding value, and the rest will take care of itself. Number three, we’re attracted to goals transcending ourselves.
So this is a really important point. We believe there is great meaning and power in being part of something greater than ourselves. And this is where you check humility, or you bring humility, you check pride at the door.
This is where Reagan’s comes in. There’s no limit to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit. Joining and being part of something greater than yourselves is immensely powerful, and what I counsel young people on is the journey that we’re on right now is not only, because it’s greater than ourselves, it’s not only gonna be transformative in terms of what the outcome is.
We’re gonna build something, create something, improve a process, make the company better. We’re gonna transform ourselves along the way. You’re gonna become better leaders.
You’re gonna become aware of gifts that you have, because we’re gonna create opportunities for you, and you’re gonna learn and grow. When we’re focused, not on ourselves, but something greater than ourselves, which ties into serving, magic can happen there. Number four, we’re open to the nudge.
Okay, and I heard that phrase probably seven years ago, and it’s stuck with me ever since, and what do I mean by a nudge? I mean that occasional circumstance or gut feeling or sense, this is something we gotta look at, and you can take that from a broad faith-based, you’re being nudged, or whatever your beliefs are, universe is nudging me, your religion specifically, or whatever, there are gut feels sometimes that you’re being nudged just to take a look, and some of the things I’ve gotten involved with have been from a nudge. Go attend that speaker. Come along to that networking group.
Come along. The job I have right now was initially, the CEO reached out and said, I may need some kind of consulting help, and at face value, I had no immediate application of what I was doing. I was looking for a permanent job.
This wasn’t a permanent job, and something told me go and talk, and that talk turned into several talks, which turned into we need a CFO, and we need a strategic partner CFO. You never know what opportunities come across. You never know, and that’s something, kind of getting to know yourself, but I do think that’s meaningful in terms of the broader definition of servant leadership.
Number five is we understand it’s all about the journey, and we commit to the journey, and that journey, in terms of our day-to-day work life, is about the organization and about the people. And the journey is where we really serve. Tony Robbins said it’s not what you get, or what we get, but who we become, what we contribute, that gives meaning to our lives.
He’s speaking to the journey. What he’s saying is it’s not what we get in the end, or even the goal, it’s what we become along the way, and we’re contributing to one another. What we become on the journey.
It took me a long time to really understand that. Life is not linear. We have challenges come that we didn’t foresee.
Solving problems sometimes is difficult, but if we approach it as a journey we’re on together, and the journey is not only in solving the problem or making something better, but the journey is the impact that we have on people along the way.
Nicholas Paulukow
Well, and you even said that, too, in leadership, right? I think the phrase, to become a leader, you have to be able to be able to create other leaders, right? Right.
And so if you’re not willing to be humble enough to create something bigger than yourself, then it’d be quite difficult.
Tim Strickler
Yeah, agreed. Number six is cultivate a spirit of abundance, not scarcity. A faith, a spirit of faith, not fear.
And again, as I mentioned earlier, that may be faith in the universe, it may be faith in whatever your religious belief is. It may be simply, I’m open to possibility. I think just pressures of life, culture, we end up, I know I’ve fallen into it, that we tell ourselves a story about scarcity that is way inflated and not enough about abundance.
And we fill ourselves with fear, and we dilute so much any faith that things can go right, and we need to balance those things out, and it can make a very big difference. Number seven is we actively cultivate humility. So obviously you knew that was gonna come up.
We care about, we care more about what is right than who is right, and that’s vitally important. We cultivate intellectual honesty, a term I really like, and we welcome thoughtful disagreement. We need to get to the point where we can have thoughtful disagreement.
The best collaborative work is in an environment where we can have thoughtful disagreement, and I can attest to that personally. We value authentic competence and conviction, not smugness. Check the smugness at the door.
We want substance of competence and conviction, and we want thoughtful disagreement. Number eight is we live with integrity, and I like to think of it this way. Be a defender of truth.
Ultimately, that’s what that is. Be a defender of truth. Be a truth seeker, not a defender of self.
Spencer Johnson, his author, said, “‘Integrity is telling myself the truth, “‘and honesty is telling the truth to other people.'” The reality is we need both, and that’s what intellectual honesty is. Integrity, I think a lot of people believe, okay, I’m not gonna tell lies. What are you telling yourself?
And is that really defending the truth because you’re not telling lies? Are you defending what is right and what you should? That’s a whole different ballgame.
Nicholas Paulukow
Speaking up is important.
Tim Strickler
Speaking up is vitally important.
Nicholas Paulukow
The defense of something, right?
Tim Strickler
Exactly, and I have a point on that as I finish up. Number nine is we’re much more interested in authentic power than positional power, and authentic power versus positional power is earned through daily credibility, and for the sake of doing good, not positional authority, and I believe credibility and trust are earned, not demanded, and I think society has gotten that a little bit twisted lately. In demanding respect and trust, I believe credibility and trust and respect are earned.
It goes back to let me earn it, let me show you, let me add value, and we can say we demand it, but that’s not real credibility and trust and respect. Number 10 is know that serving as a good example is both powerful and our responsibility as leaders. People are watching.
People will emulate what the leader does. Good and bad. Good and bad, and so many times I’ve watched leaders and thought, marvel that, wow, let me try to emulate some of that when I’m making decisions, and the times I thought, P.S., note to self, don’t ever do that. Number 11 is we are willing to do hard, uncomfortable things. That is not the easy road. The hard road, the uncomfortable things, is where we grow and we serve at our highest levels.
That’s the peak. That’s the highest level of growth and service is dealing with those hard, uncomfortable things and being willing to go after those. We actively cultivate courage in ourselves and others, which you need to do hard things.
We are realistic, but we keep fear in check. I’m a realist, but we keep fear in check. We are willing to stand against injustices, as you mentioned a moment ago, and we’re able to tackle what seems overwhelming all with trust that the path will reveal itself.
That’s where the faith part comes in. Absolutely. That the path will reveal itself.
If we come at it with the right kind of spirit and service and collaborative way and all these other attributes, it’s very likely the path will reveal itself.
Nicholas Paulukow
And that’s kind of that word that you’re using, right? If I’m using I all the time, I want, I want, or want this, then how do you ever find what that path is? Because if you don’t open the broader perspective, it’s kind of what I’m hearing from you, you’ll never maybe even see what that opportunity is.
Exactly.
Tim Strickler
One side point of this is, while we’re doing hard, uncomfortable things, we strive for a balance of grace and toughness. This is an important one from my perspective. We strive for a balance of grace and toughness or what I call graceful toughness.
And some struggle, and particularly family businesses I think are like this, with an imbalance of the grace component without the accountability or the toughness. And the reality in my experience is being able to do uncomfortable things, have critical conversations, face those challenging situations with a nice calibration of grace where it’s due, but also a willingness to make tough decisions and have the tough conversations, being willing to trade your short term comfort for doing long term what is the right thing. And I think there is a balance, it’s not one or the other.
Number 12 is we recharge ourselves regularly through heartfelt gratitude and a healthy sense of humor. We have to have joy on the journey. There needs to be joy, and that’s the recharging component.
And we can have that through gratitude and a healthy dose of humility, which goes a long, long way to making the journey fun. Number 13 is we strive to be steady and respond to situations with thoughtfulness, wisdom, and self-control. Just that, the idea to keep in mind, to check our responses and ensure they are with thoughtfulness, wisdom, and self-control in whatever situation we’re in.
And I think that is a key aspect of civil leadership. And the last, and certainly not least, it’s the final measure. The final measure of success is what we contribute to organizations and its people, and that transcends money or accolades or promotion that our primary measure of success has to do with what impact, what legacy impact, how do we impact people?
Yes, part of it is the organization’s success, but a bigger part of that is the people, and that matters more. And when that matters more, we have the courage to do what’s right and be sure that we’re functioning as servant leaders. That’s my 14-point definition.
Nicholas Paulukow
I love it. It’s amazing because I think, I appreciate you sharing those, and I was reflecting on some of those as you were going over them in reality of part of some executive groups that I’m part of, when I really realized that the most successful people relevant to what they define success is when they got out of driving their own personal success and driving for the greater good, they became more successful than they ever thought they possibly could be.
And it’s really fun to be around people like that that have developed and understood that, but you find the underlying area is that serving, and in some manner they’re serving someone else or putting others first before them. And it just makes a unique experience. I think our team here has been in discussion with a book that is called The Go-Giver.
And the aspect of the book relates to the serving, but what’s really amazing about it is, is it’s kind of, it goes over a fable of a young man that is trying to serve himself to hit goals. One reality he finds this mentor, and this mentor, although the young man treats him as if he is nothing, because he feels that he does nothing and he sits in his office and doesn’t serve anyone, to come to find out that he actually was the biggest server of them all, really relevant to how he was thinking. It goes through this journey.
And when I hear you talk about that, it’s a really amazing story to listen to because of the ultimate end of the day impact of how that impact had multitude of other impacts. So, and the end ends with basically saying, now that you’ve learned how to serve, I did not expect any dollars from the education I provided, but you now are required to serve someone else and teach them the next step, which is really neat, which is kind of like what you were saying today. And I think it’s kind of the bridging a lot of these things that you discuss as we kind of work to a little bit of a close here today.
It’s just, it’s amazing. It’s really amazing to get with others that understand and believe in the concepts of kind of this greater good. One of the core values that we have and one of the definition is, is about the greater good in mind, right?
And how do we define that? But we really realize that many times when we refine these core values, we also have to explain because we make a lot of assumptions sometimes that others understand what that is. And I think it’s really great to the points that you have.
And very impressive. We’ve really appreciated you sharing those things today. And we might have to do a follow-up here to see what we’ve learned.
As we kind of come to a close a little bit today, I mean, some of our listeners generally, you’ve given them 14 steps, which is great, right? Is there any resources that you find would be useful? Obviously your articles, which we will share, but any books or any areas that you found wisdom that might be helpful for those that are in this journey?
Tim Strickler
Yeah, there’s so much available. I find a lot of value in what’s available online. Just Tony Robbins’ postings, Patrick Lencioni, certainly John Maxwell, Travis Bradbury, first that come to mind.
I gain a lot from their postings, websites or LinkedIn postings. I think it’s a nice way to kind of get easy without a lot of investment of time to understand a little bit more about these concepts. There are lots and lots of books to read on it.
I think the best way is to find someone who is willing to serve as some sort of mentor, if you can. You have to find a mentor that has the competency you’re looking for. So if you’re interested in serving leadership, to find someone who really knows it, but you have to also find someone who is willing to teach it as well.
Nicholas Paulukow
Absolutely, that’s good advice.
Tim Strickler
I think is a good way to learn more.
Nicholas Paulukow
That’s great. Well, Tim, we really appreciate your time today. And it’s just like that, we kind of reached our end of another episode of Servant Leadership Library, where we remind that leadership isn’t just about being the loudest in the room, but about serving with purpose.
And maybe occasionally, making sure your Wi-Fi is secure, just a shameless plug, couldn’t resist. A huge thank you to Tim for sharing his insights, wisdom, and probably some deep CFO level patience, right? Because leading people is one thing, but having two kids at Penn State, that takes the next level of resilience, right?
If you loved today’s episode, hit the subscribe button, leave us a review, and maybe even share with a leader who could use just a little nudge towards servant leadership. And if you don’t find that this is impactful for you today, then maybe share with someone else that might find some great meaning in this. Until next time, lead with purpose, serve often, and remember, real leadership isn’t about power, it’s about making everyone around you better.
See you soon.
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