Make It A Great Day: Leading in today's world with Steve Klingman, President of Hayden Homes

In this episode, I talk with Steve Klingman, President of Hayden Homes. Steve shares some incredible insights around resilience and keeping your mission and culture always in focus. Steve and his team have been able to not only change customers' lives during the time but they have also been able to do the same for the teams at large. I really enjoyed learning more about Hayden homes, how Steve leads and the incredible impact they have in the communities they live and work. 

Transcript

spk_0:   0:08
Well, everybody is Ryan Lee. Welcome to make it a great day. Thank you so much for tuning in love, the opportunity to talk with you every day about how it could be more positive, how we can make a bigger dent in people's lives. And right now we're really focused in on learning about how some great leaders are doing just that for their organization. And so we've got our continuation on learning with and growing with leaders during this interesting time. Great friend of mine, Steve Klingman, who is the president of Hayden Holmes, joins me this week, hitting homes, a huge homebuilder here and around the great Northwest, and very, very interesting to hear about how they're coping with this time and how they continue to do great work, great community support and still haven't people buy homes without them even going inside. So I hope you enjoy it, and I hope everyone makes it a great day. Thank you. Well, welcome to make it a great day. The power positivity Ryan Lee coming into alive and directs on a beautiful Tuesday, talking to a great friend, another incredible leader, and I was personally very excited. Talk with Mr Steve Klingman, president of Hayden Homes. I thought, what a unique industry to be talking through at a time like this That is so physical, um, but also can practice great restraint. And so with that, Steve, thank you so much for taking the time to chat.

spk_1:   1:30
Yeah, Ryan, good to hear your voice body.

spk_0:   1:32
Absolutely. So what kind of dive? Right in, like I mentioned very physical and very much work with a lot of customers. Top of mind. What are some of the bigger challenges and opportunities that have presented themselves? Since we've had Children place in some of the physical distancing on that has been asked of you and your teams?

spk_1:   1:53
Yeah. You know, the, um, this recession, which would have you know, I think we're all pretty aware that we're in a recession. At this point. It's very different than the last one, especially for our industry, and mostly because of shelter in place and the fact that it's getting everybody at the same time. So one of the biggest challenges about this is the working remotely and more from a staying connected it. So it's during the last recession, were able to at least be together. While we're going through really challenging times today, we're not And, um and so working on those things because we as humans were social animals and our culture hate gnomes is really strong. And it's a result of a group of people who share a common set of values and beliefs, and it grows strong by spending time together. And so, going into this once we started moving people to work out a remote locations and other homes, we really doubled down on our technology and our focus on the frequency of our meetings and how we're meeting. And so um yeah, that's been that's been one of the main focus is for us outside of just the craziness of what's going on in the business. Um, so

spk_0:   3:03
and speaking of Hayden homes and I've been blessed to know and heard that name a lot, But for those of you that haven't peak of just a little bit of a quick description on who hated homes is and then would love to hear how you became a member of hidden homes,

spk_1:   3:18
yes, So Hayden homes, we are. We're ah regional home building Company, based in Redmond, Oregon, and we build throughout the Northwest. So Oregon, Washington and Idaho we've got about 60 communities going throughout the three states. And, um, this year we will build just under 1800 homes across the three state area GM. That's that's what we do. Why we are here is were founded by some amazing people. Bob in Virginia Watson and believed that are our responsibility, is to be a good steward of creating high quality, affordable homes in the Northwest. And, uh and so we did that. And, um, starting from very humble beginnings in 1989. We just celebrated 30 years in 2000 and 19. But we exist to give as you go, because we think together we can all build a strong community and lead fulfilled lives. And so that's what our team members aspire to every day. We believe in building a strong community. We believe in helping hard working families and small towns create stability and, um, our gives you go spirit. It's our team members helping to provide the essentials for these hard working men and women to provide the for them for their families to flourish. And so that's what that's why hating homes, eyes out where we are doing what we do. We operate primarily in what we consider, Ah, small towns. Um, smaller. You know, we don't operate in Portland or Seattle were in towns like Springfield's College Place in Moses Lake and Nampa, Um, and those of the customers that we serve because we feel like there's a real need for high quality, affordable housing. It's awesome. I came to work for him gnomes back in June of 2000. So most of your your listeners will. Your listeners can't see my face, but I used to have a full head of hair. If you see me now, it's not any left, but I'm gonna be celebrating 20 years this June with Hayden Homes, and I started here right out of college, as an assistant project manager on a job site in Redmond, Oregon, and um, had the fortunate opportunity to working just about every single department over the last 20 years for hidden Homes and became president in 2015. So just just celebrated five years in my current role, which it's a blessing to get to work with the team that I have, and I tell people that when I was leaving college, I was looking for a career, not a job, and what I found it. Hidden homes is a way of life. Um, my friends, my family would not be, um, they wouldn't really. The my friends and my family are members of my company and members, um, from my hometown, and it's been really fun to see all of those blend over the last 20 years and the interactions my brothers and my parents have with my coworkers and my coworkers. With my family, it's pretty. It's pretty awesome.

spk_0:   6:09
That's really cool as we think about building homes and what you guys do would love to hear a little bit. Just logistics. Curious. You know, what's the day in the life now on a job site, all the way to presenting a home for someone to potentially buy it?

spk_1:   6:24
Yeah, so, um, construction was deemed essential in all three states, right? When the shelter in place order came about in Oregon, Washington and Idaho about a week or two into the shutdown, Washington, uh, deemed construction non essential, and so there was a four week period there, ending just last Friday. The but What was that? Whatever works for you 24. Um, the ah, the state opened back up for construction as an essential activity Eso in Oregon and in Idaho. Um, it's been ah, it's not been business as usual. It's been our jobs or continuing have been continuing to move forward this whole time at a little bit of slower pace intentionally on our part to make sure that we had all the safety and health precautions in place for our team. Members are trade partners and our community members. And so there's been a lot of, ah, social distancing rules put in place on our job sites. A lot of, um, sanitary hand sanitizers, facemask goggles. Um, you name it, we we've got we're providing it for trades and our supply partners and, uh and then the social distancing. Just making sure there's not more than one trade in a house at it at the same time. But residential construction really lends it itself well to social distancing the size and scope of our job sites, even the size of a home under construction. The ability to stay at least six feet apart is accomplished relatively easily, and we're doing everything to ensure that that happens. Um, when it comes to a sale standpoint, um, we've moved to an appointment only model. So our model homes, we've got, uh, 35 model homes across the three states there now by appointment only. And so that we can manage the sanitation and making sure there's not more than one person in the model home meeting with our sales representative. We can keep social distancing in order there. But we've also moved a number of our sales team members to work remotely as well. And we can sell homes virtually actually just launched today a by now feature on our website and for for those who you know, a number of other e commerce businesses, you'll think that why shouldn't you be able to buy a home online? But for our industry, we feel like we're we're ahead of our times a little bit, and it's been an initiative we've been working on for over a year. But it's been fun to ramp that up. Given the current cove in 19 conditions, where now a lot of our appointments are rich virtual so you can go through all of the sales selection process, view your home, do some three D viewing or even do virtual tours of our homes from the comfort of your living room. Interact with our team members through our chat feature online or through phone call. Zoom calls, Skype based time, you name it and we can walk you through the contract buying process. So we've had us a number of sales that have been virtual beginning a middle of march, and I think so far, by the end of this much month and the first half of March, there will be be about 160 of our homes have sold from a virtual standpoint, which is remarkable because there was there were some of this was some of this was going on prior to the pandemic because we have a lot of buyers that come from out of state. And so they're not coming to our model homes. They're interacting with us online. Ah, but so we were able to enhance some of those features. Um, given the current circumstances, I'm pretty excited about where that's going.

spk_0:   9:58
Yeah, I think it kind of fits in the industry. You know, whether it's the rocket mortar to the world or different things that you're watching. You're trying to find more things happen. What you think about that, um, 100 sixties? That's that's incredible to see that ramp, Um, are there things like that? Are there things than trade side to where you've seen technology? Maybe play a different role than you had previously? Because you happen, forced to have a bit more of distancing in those relationships?

spk_1:   10:24
You know, the, um when it comes to home building, the work still happens by craftsman on site. There's a few things that get pre manufactured offside, but but a vast majority of the construction of our homes happens on the job site. And so, if you were Teoh, look at some of the statistics nationally of jobs available. It's only about 25% of the jobs in America are actually accomplished working remotely, Um, so that leaves about 75% of those who collect a paycheck have to go to a place in order to do the work that they do. And that's no different for us. You know, our trades and our supply partners have to come to our job sites in our homes have to be constructed there. And so there's not a lot of technological change is happening from that perspective. Um, just due to the nature of power homes about,

spk_0:   11:17
but having a way to connect that consumer is so you kind of got to your point that that best of both worlds and then obviously around that safety one thing I'd love to touch back on that you mentioned right at the start. And, um, I've again been in communities and seeing Hayden come in and understand how big of culture is a factor of who you guys are on that what you do for the community. Um, you know, that culture is being around one another, and I just be curious to hear what are some fun things that you are doing, you know, still virtually and stuff to keep that rolling. And then, you know, maybe some things you guys have continued to do for the communities that you do build in because I know they're so essential and so important to your DNA.

spk_1:   11:55
Yeah, so, um, volunteering. So we have ah, private nonprofit that we founded back in 1998. It's called first story. And, um, we're still set to build six first storey homes this year and those air homes for families who would most likely not be able to afford a home. Otherwise, we work with the local housing authorities in all three states. Um, and we just delivered are 83rd 1st story home, Um, and we've got a number more, a number of them still yet to deliver this year. Um, and then last week we had two homes, that of the of 83 that we've delivered, two of which have come back up for a new home owners to move into. We call those fresh starts, and we moved to new families into those homes this last week. So no matter what the what? The challenge is going on there that we feel like there's a lot of good to be done in the community. And through first story, we're really working hard at continuing that, that pride of home ownership in delivering the American dream toe, all those families that need just a little extra help up in life. And then outside of that, the one of the cool things about our team is that, um there are a number of our team members that are working differently or have more capacity than they did before this, um, working remote and shelter and place started. And so as an example, we have a customer service team that schedules appointments and goes into customers, homes and fixes anything that comes up over there. Warranty, period. Well, just because of social distancing and safety standards were not going into our customers homes at this time. And so instead, what we're doing is we're reaching out to those customers under warranty and just using our extra time to find out other things that they might need, that we can help them with, whether it's a grocery delivery or you really name. And there's been a lot of really fun stories that we've heard. Um, one of our customer service team members did a YouTube video for one of our customers that had locked themselves out of their thermostat, and so they were able to walk them through it through face time. And then, um after that they recorded a little video on how to do it going forward and set them that YouTube link so that anytime this happens again in the future, they would, they would be able to just click on that and watch Louise show them how to turn their thermostat back on. So that was, I thought that was pretty cool. And so our team members were reaching out that the tough thing is, is a lot of the giving that we do in the community comes people. The people, and we're not is able to be person a person right now. And so we're doing a lot of, ah, giving of things that we have to help out those in need. So there's shoes and jackets and a variety of things. Um, a lot of canned goods and foods. Our team members have been kind of compiling at our local support center. And then, um, different groups of Kama come to help them out, whether it's veterans groups or homeless shelters here and around our region. So it's it's been to fund to see our team continue to engage in this, gives you go spirit while we're having all these different work life challenges going on,

spk_0:   14:56
even still awesome, and I know to your point it's usually in that physicality. But just those stories of reaching out just to be a voice for some people. Is that customer service? They might be talking anybody a time during the day. So even if you're not doing anything other than just saying, we're here and we're available and we want to connect, I just think that's so awesome that you guys are allowing for team members to do that and to really impact and create that strong relationship. When you think about yourself, Steve, during this, um, you understand things that you've learned about yourself, um, in a zoo, said Precession of it kind of talked, but like you said, it's a different kind of recession. We just kind of love to know if there's anything that jumps out about what you've been learning about yourself is the leader during this time?

spk_1:   15:34
Yeah, I think the ah, one of the things I've spent some time on, so I have an executive coach, which is a great fortune. I've been working with him since middle of last year, and and that's that's just been a really convenient tool. The have, while all of this stuff is going on, is this relationship is named Jack and and, um so when all of this started going down. I think all of us is. Leaders felt the weight of the world on our shoulders is like, OK, here we go. What do we need to do and how do we How do we act in this environment of what are the right decisions to be made? And with that weight, that's pressure and that pressure. It's how How do you manage stress? And so, with Jack's help, I really not just said OK, well, here's what I need to do It's really diving into what is stress and stress is the the how we make sense of the pressure and having some really understanding what positive, effective tools, coping mechanisms I have to manage stress. And what are the ineffective? Um, negative, um, stress management tools. And really then incorporate those into my into my life, like, be intentional. So I wrote them down. Um, And then what are the things that give me energy? You know how on my managing my energy, you know, things like sleep and exercise family time, connecting with people. People give me energy. And you know, we're not around people anymore. So, um, those of the stress management and personal energy or things that I've really spent a lot of time digging into. And I've gotten so much out of it in the first couple weeks of this, um, Corona virus stuff. So I I hosted a session with Jack and all of our leaders in the organization to take them through those same steps because just as much as we think in our roles were carrying it all, that's absolutely not true. Everybody in the organization is steering a significant amount of pressure on their shoulders because of how much they care about what they do and how much they care about the organization and so helping them through that, um, was really fun, and it done to me. That was something that I got to learn a little bit about why I do the things that I do and how some of those stress management tools started in my childhood. But it was it was really cool to be able to go through that. The other thing that I've learned about myself is to really rely on my training, Um, all the leaders that listen to your podcasts, you know, we've all ridden, read dozens and dozens of leadership books over the years. Um, an organization has a very defined purpose. I've have a defined purpose for myself. It's it's relying on those tools that are already there for you and using them, because it's really easy to take everything you know, flush out the window. Just stress out about What do I do now? Well, I think you know what to do. I know what I need to do. And that gives me the ability for things to slow down. Um, And then if you start to see things more clearly and so that's worked really well for me through these past 56 weeks,

spk_0:   18:36
I think one good word that comes to mind as you share that is trust. You trust the process. Trust the journey. Obviously make tweaks and changes depending on, But yeah, we've all read a lot of books. We've done a lot of things. I think it gave some great advice there. Um would love to just know of any other I know you talked a bit about routine and your training. How important is that routine been for you?

spk_1:   18:59
Well, I think all of our lives have been super disrupted through this our home life, our work life were on this zoom call. I'm on Zoom all the time. Um, the routine has been extremely important, cause finding a new routine is getting to a you know, this abnormal new normal, the routine and being disciplined and following It has been a game changer for me because that the first it was probably the first week where there was so much change going on. The States were doing the shelter in place for trying to make a list of a There was no routine. I was getting up really early, getting on different zoom calls and then not not really ending until it was time for me to go to bed and not having any balance in there. And once I started to put the routine in place and have that balance, I felt like I things calm down. They slowed down, and I also was better able to beam or intentional and directive on how I'm going about my day and what I need to accomplish versus feeling like I was in reaction. So the routine was really big. That's awesome. If I was to give some some other leaders. Another piece of advice is, um it's okay not to have the answers. It's okay to ask for help. Ah, vulnerability in the words of burn a brown is not weakness. Vulnerabilities are most accurate measure of courage. And so you don't have to have the answers. Nobody expects us to have all of the answers. And it's okay to ask for help and ask others what they think, Um and then rely on your fundamentals. You know, the fundamentals of your business. We know they're there. And we really if we stop and think about it and let things so that way we know what to do

spk_0:   20:41
as awesome and heard that grenade quote in there, which is an awesome one. And, you know, I am a huge quote supporter, and I know we started this. You mentioned that a few up your sleeve and I'd love to hear and the other ones that you leverage every day. That kind of helps give you that that focus.

spk_1:   20:57
Your, um you know, the one I thought I thought, you know, kind of talking about stressor. Some of this call worry. Um, this one comes from Corrie 10. Boom, um, she is a She's a former Dutch watchmaker. Um, and I come along these, like there's a guy named Dale. Love it, that's in our circle, and he sends out daily inspirations all the time. And I follow people like Burn a Brown and and Simon Cynic and Victor Franco. I mean, there's a number of them out there, but so these things kind of come my way from a variety of different sources, but I love to put them in front of my team as well. Every time we're on a team meeting, I have some sort of, AH, daily inspiration or Dale Carnegie is somebody who I, uh, spent a lot of time reading and he's got 30 human relations principles. So I have one in my calendar every day of the month. Um, and those are great ways to kind of just ground yourself before the day starts. But from Corrie 10 Boom is worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows. It empties today of its strength. So I think about that from time to time because it's good to have that perspective for me is no worries, not really gonna do anything but and then another one that I got. The author is unknown, but it was a really cool because it's it puts life in the in the perspective of a camera. So this one is Life is like a camera focused on what's important capture. The good times developed from the negatives. And if things don't turn out, take another shot.

spk_0:   22:32
That is Oh, man, that's that is a great one in a perfect one for these times. Well, Steve, it has been an absolute pleasure. Just enjoy the time. And I can't stress enough how incredible it is to hear of companies like yourself that in times like this relying the fundamentals but also rely on the fact that their culture and what they could do for the community is really what matters and so cool to hear that stuff. You guys are doing so really, really appreciate the time

spk_1:   22:58
it will run. I appreciate you reaching out. Um, you're an inspiration, buddy. You're the most positive guy that I know. And I appreciate what you're doing of These podcasts are great, and it's a great way to get you know, the energy out there into the world and help us all help each other. So thanks for and I appreciate, but

spk_0:   23:15
thank you