Podcast Episode #3 - Connor Walker

Connor Walker

CEO President

SHOW NOTES

In this conversation, Roger Johnson and Connor Walker explore the complexities of leadership, focusing on the importance of self-awareness, feedback, and stewardship. Connor shares his journey as a young CEO, discussing the challenges and surprises he faced while leading a growing company. They delve into the significance of listening, the role of feedback in personal and professional development, and the need to identify self-sabotaging behaviors. The discussion emphasizes the value of mentorship and creating a leadership culture that empowers individuals to recognize their strengths and contribute effectively to the organization.

TRANSCRIPT

Roger Johnson (00:01)

All right, well, welcome to the No Carbon Copies podcast. This is a podcast where we explore real conversations with about leadership transformation with leaders who are in the trenches of leadership. ⁓ we believe there's two things that leaders that keep leaders in their current level and that get in the way of them having a more leadership impact. And those two things are knowing what they do that makes them so uniquely effective and not knowing

how they sabotage their own effectiveness. And so the consequences of that is that leaders tend to top out not because they are not capable, but because they're not taking advantage of their unique levels of competence and they're shooting themselves in the foot in some unknown way. And so that's what we like to talk about. We like to talk about how we can help leaders discover and own their leadership foundation through use of feedback and intentional development. So that's what we're here to talk about today.

a privilege to have Connor Walker joining us today. And I've had the privilege of working with Connor over the last few months and known Connor for the last year. And he's the present CEO of Ellsworth Systems. And Connor, so grateful that you ⁓ took the afternoon to talk with us. So welcome.

Connor Walker (01:21)

Thanks, yeah, glad to be here. Thanks for having me on.

Roger Johnson (01:25)

Yeah. Well, I appreciate you being willing to take the time. as a, as a relatively young CEO, I'd love to start off the conversation just by talking about what is it like for you to be in a, as a relatively young person to be the CEO, present CEO of a growing company. What's that like for you? What's been fun about that? What's been surprising about that? What's been challenges related to that?

Connor Walker (01:53)

Yeah, so it'll be coming up on ⁓ two years here this coming Q1 March. ⁓ And it's been an honor to be in the role that I am ⁓ when I got presented the opportunity. ⁓ The blessing, my father was in the seat before and he passed it down to me and took on the chairman role. And so there's a little bit of succession planning and. ⁓

that nepotism could get thrown around at times, but I'd been in the business for seven years prior. And so I had the experience, our team was small. When I started, we had 12 employees. Now we're a hair under 75 at 74 employees total. ⁓ So we've seen significant growth. ⁓ I was one of the early ones into the company. So it's been fun to see the growth perspective of that. ⁓ I will say being a

in my 30s and leading a company, there's some intimidation involved at times. Am I prepared? Am I ready for this role? Didn't fully know what I would be getting into. But yeah, it's been awesome. I've learned a ton, good and bad, made mistakes, which have made me learn faster.

consulted with other mentors in my life that are older than myself that have been in similar roles. And that's been crucial for me this whole time. But it's been a joy and I've learned a lot through the past two years. I've seen where ripple effects of stuff that I've done, I did in college and high school actually apply to what I'm doing today. So it's all connected at end of the day. It's not just in these past two years.

Roger Johnson (03:36)

Yeah, well, I got so many kind of trails of questions that I want to go on ⁓ to talk about how you prepared yourself. What are some intentional things you did? I want to talk about ⁓ your word of the year, which is stewardship and kind of what that means and how you do that. And I also want to talk about ⁓ what your experience has been with feedback, both before working together and then

Connor Walker (03:43)

Absolutely.

Roger Johnson (04:03)

kind of maybe some of the things that you thought have been valuable most recently. But let's start with talking about one of the things I know from working with your team a bit is that you very intentionally prepared to step into the role by what I would call sitting in the seats within across the organization. Love to hear your experience. Like, why was that critical? What caused you to do that?

And how was that helpful to you in now leading at the level you're leading in?

Connor Walker (04:36)

Yeah, and I talked on the growth earlier and so we had 12 employees when I started. So it's easy to sit in a lot of seats when you have growth as opposed to jumping right in at 75, 100 plus employees and you're in the role you're in. So with growth, I learned a lot, but I did hold multiple seats, more on the strategy side, got brought in just from a...

kind of a passive side of how can I support the business. The business started taking off, so then I jumped into the business. I was more on business development, vendor relationships, helped out with accounting and finance. And so solid different elements of the company as it grew. And that was crucial. ⁓ I didn't fully sit in every single seat in that moment, but I touched pretty much in depth every single department that we have today.

And that just allowed me to get a quick pulse on the industry, a quick pulse on the company to see how people operate. I was able to learn from people that have been there for years. ⁓ And some have since retired. So I got some of that knowledge from them and how I felt like we needed to structure the company going forward of just industry highlights where I felt like we needed to go.

from a personnel perspective, from departments that I felt like we needed, sitting in different seats. If I didn't do that, I would have been blind to half the company. And so it was crucial. ⁓ Wasn't fully intentional. wasn't like, put me in each seat. It just happened that way and it worked out really well.

Roger Johnson (06:09)

Yeah. Well, thinking about that experience of kind of being involved in different parts of the organization, different, be called different departments across the organization. Talk to me about the importance of listening to the folks in those seats. How does that help you now as you think about leading your organization strategically going forward and

and structuring the organization in appropriate way. I love to hear about your thoughts about how listening was important to you for that.

Connor Walker (06:47)

Yeah, listening is difficult. would say most people don't listen well, even including myself. I don't listen first most of the time. I've heard the advice of when you're talking to people, listen one beat longer. And that's something that I'm trying to apply and working on still not there yet. ⁓ But feedback is great. Listening is great. ⁓ The more questions we can ask the people, the better. And especially the higher up we get in leadership.

in any role you're in, whether you don't have anyone reporting to you and you're just starting out entry level all the way up to the CEO position, the more you can learn to listen, the more you're going to grow. And it's hard to listen. We all have our own thoughts, ideas and goals that we're trying to work towards. ⁓ And it's easy to speak first. It's easy to share our opinion or share our thought. ⁓ But I've realized the times that I have listened.

that intently and not just said I was listening and soaked in and then made a decision. ⁓ It was way more helpful than the decision I would have come up with just in my office by myself. So hearing different department heads, hearing people that were older than me at the time when I first came in the company, learning the industry through their lens, through their eyes, learning their role through their eyes and their lens ⁓ allowed me to.

make faster decisions in the seat I'm in now. ⁓ And so I think listening is imperative. If it's not the most important, it's number two, as you grow in a company.

Roger Johnson (08:21)

Yeah, good, good. Well, let's talk a little bit about your word stewardship. ⁓ Talk to me about what does that mean for you as an executive leading a company? ⁓ What's your relationship with that word and how does it impact the way that you lead on a daily basis?

Connor Walker (08:42)

Yeah, my father-in-law started doing this with us probably three years ago when I was, ⁓ actually it's probably more than that when I was actually dating my now wife and ⁓ New Year's every year he gets the family together. He said, you know, what's your word of the year? And he started where he was like detailed with his and I would just flippantly say a word and over time I'm like, no, that's actually a good method. Like I don't want to label the year with a word, but

I also thought if you have a word, you're proactive with that word and you're intentional with it and that helps you apply and grow as an individual and a person. this year, the word that was on my mind and heart as I entered the year was stewardship. And it's been one of the most impactful words of my life, especially assuming the role of CEO and president. ⁓ I think if anyone approaches their position and their role with a stewardship mindset.

⁓ It sets you up for success day one. And stewardship to me means, if I tell you, Roger, to take care of my house for the weekend, I'm going on vacation, you're probably going to take care of my house better than your own from a day-to-day perspective. Because you want me to come back and be like, thank you so much. ⁓ And so if it's on loan to you, ⁓ you're going to handle it so much better. And I think with any role that we have, it's not a given.

first and foremost, and it's a gift to us. And so if we view it with stewardship, we're not going to take it for granted. We're not be prideful about the role because it was given to us. We have to work towards that. There's work involved for that. But as I've looked at it in my role in my seat, if I come in daily with this, this isn't my role to hold and control, but I need to be a good steward of this role, I approach it the company.

And the people that report to me ⁓ as a, helps me listen. It helps me be attentive. ⁓ It helps me look at the greater company outside of myself. ⁓ Because day in and day out, at some point I won't be in this role anymore. And how am I passing that down? And am I passing that down well? So it's not mine to hold. It's not mine to keep long-term. It's mine to forever, however long I'm honored to be in the seat.

It's mine is stirred well and that's how I view every area of

Roger Johnson (11:13)

Nice, that's great. ⁓ Love that idea and love the idea of like the humility it takes to ⁓ acknowledge that you're stewarding for a period of time and you want to off well. So ⁓ that's great. Love that word. So pivot for a second. Let's talk about ⁓ recently we started working together. And so in working together, you've... ⁓

Connor Walker (11:25)

you

Roger Johnson (11:42)

utilized feedback strategically to learn about yourself and how you can lead at a higher level. What was your relationship with feedback, you know, up to this point in your life? If you had a lot of experience with feedback, what was it? Was it comfortable, uncomfortable, helpful, not helpful? What was your experience?

Connor Walker (12:01)

I think when I think of feedback, I think of playing sports growing up. And it's your coach telling you, you either did a good job, most of time it's them correcting ⁓ for what you did incorrect. ⁓ I played basketball in high school and I had kind of had a negative view of feedback because I would have told you I love constructive criticism, I love feedback, but realistically no one probably actually likes that. ⁓ But over the years I started recognizing

professional athletes, the people at the top of their game that are at the highest level have a coach and what is the coach doing? Whether it's a nutritionist, whether it's a head coach, whether it's a position coach, whether it's someone else on the team, like a mentor, they all have coaches. And so I looked up and I'm like, if I'm in my role, yeah, I'm not a professional athlete. I'm not a quarterback for the Titans.

what feedback am I getting? And that's what they're receiving. They're receiving feedback for how you can get better and improve. And so I think it's imperative and I've learned that more than ever. ⁓ I really stopped getting feedback consistently, especially as you work your way up the ladder, you get less and less feedback. ⁓ And that's, can't be expected because if you're a top leader, if you're at a VP level up, there's not many more people above you to give you that feedback unless it's outside feedback. And so.

You need people in your life, whether it's a great friend, whether it's a mentor, whether it's a coach, to give you that feedback in your life. And so I won't say I had an overly negative view. I just think it was almost non-existent. So as soon as I got into this role, I quickly looked for mentors around me ⁓ to give me feedback. And I was receptive to that feedback. the more, it's one thing to get feedback, but you also have to be receptive to it. So that's to be.

coming in and then you have to apply. So the quicker you can apply that, the quicker you can learn. So again, I think it's imperative to growth. I think it's imperative to leaders to receive feedback and people speaking in their own.

Roger Johnson (14:11)

Yeah, that's so true. It's ⁓ good. I love that idea that every time you turn on ⁓ a game, you're watching an NFL game or a college game, ⁓ you see the team come out, the offense come off the field, they go right over to the iPads and they're looking and they're always looking like, what can we learn from what just happened on the field and how do we reapply that back? And they're hungry because they're like, hey, we want to get that.

Connor Walker (14:29)

Yes.

Roger Johnson (14:39)

So often we see that in sports and but but like you're right, high level leaders that the higher you get an organization, true for me and my experiences as a leader in corporate America, very, very little constructive and helpful feedback, ⁓ the less you get. And so I'd like to say like the more proactive you can be about going and looking for feedback, gain that feedback, it gives you an advantage and allows you to.

to perform at a higher level. ⁓ That's awesome. So now, what's been your experience over the past several weeks after kind of asking for getting, receiving your, what I call the real leadership ID, kind of going through the process? What has that experience been like in terms of both understanding

say this, I think it's really important that leaders understand what they do that makes them so uniquely effective. So feedback is critical for seeing yourself accurately what you do really well. ⁓ And also then also understanding ⁓ what are your opportunities? Where do you shoot yourself in the foot? So less about weaknesses and more about those two things. What has been your experience with that ⁓ since you've

Connor Walker (15:50)

Mm-hmm.

Roger Johnson (16:06)

been looking and digesting your real leadership ID.

Connor Walker (16:12)

Yeah, I think when we first met and you opened up and you said, hey, I want this to be ⁓ your gift to other people is what you said. And it's like, that you feel like pride and confidence. And you kind of stick your chest out at that point. But you flipped and you also said these people speaking into your life and people around you are a gift to you. And so that creates the humility. ⁓

In our company, one of our core values is humbly confident. ⁓ cause confident and cockiness are pretty close and similar. ⁓ but humbly, humbly confident is reiterates more that the confidence piece, the biggest difference is you're humble with it. and can be humble. ⁓ and so yeah, going through that process, it was great to find out my weaknesses and hear people speaking into my life, but even more so.

the more that we can hone into our strengths and the gifts that God has given us and empowered us with ⁓ to glorify him, the better. And that allows us to be better leaders. ⁓ The more we hone into that, it allows us to be clear with our goals and our vision and our roles because we go in confidently. I can step into, I think right after that, right after I...

heard feedback into my life. I had a meeting the next day and I walk into it and immediately I can sense, hey, I'm more confident. I'm aware of what maybe tendencies I had that were negative, but I'm more confident because one of my encouragements was I lead meetings well and facilitate them well. And then another one was, you know, I'm a good, I like to drive, I hit a fourth gear. And so immediately I come in the next day and I'm like, I felt

a sense of not cockiness, but hey, I'm empowered to do what my role is. there's days like, there's days we're all normal people. There's days as a CEO and president, I don't feel confident about the job that I'm doing. And so having that feedback in my life and having the profile has been huge to go back to that ⁓ at a week, even like a weekly basis to know.

Hey, what I'm doing, I need to hone in more to that and people see that in me.

Roger Johnson (18:37)

Yeah, that's good. think one of the things I find is that people in higher levels of leadership kind of think they have to be good at everything. So they spread themselves thin and they don't really understand or hone in what they do that's so uniquely effective because they don't see themselves accurately. so I love to hear the kind of sense of like, I'm more confident because I can walk into a room and know the value I add in the room.

Connor Walker (18:46)

Yep.

Roger Johnson (19:06)

and then can perform. think that's good. And you have, named a couple of the, the, the areas of competence or you kind of the themes that you had there. I remember one of them is point guard. You have some, some other ones. How helpful is it to know those, those themes and how like, how does that trigger you in terms of your operations within your organization? As you think about executing the various things you got to do, how helpful is it to have those, those themes?

named for you.

Connor Walker (19:38)

Yeah, it's great to have themes and just a name. mean, you can have there's words in my mind and sentences that people said ⁓ that were impactful, but having a word is just creates focus. And so you mentioned that the point guard example, ⁓ you have to, that's a hit home for you and playing basketball in high school and following basketball, love and sports ⁓ point guard hit home for me. And so.

They gave me confidence to come in and be like, hey, it's facilitation. It's looking out for what's ahead. A point guard calls the play, reads the defense. Doesn't have to be in the spotlight. Doesn't have to take the shot. Doesn't have to get the dunk. ⁓ And so as I come into my role, ⁓ I can facilitate. I can let someone get the recognition on my team. And I don't have to take the credit for it. ⁓

And so you're looking out for your team. That gave me confidence there. ⁓ There was a time, I think I had 12 total themes. And it's just, yeah, I want to frame it put on my wall because I need to look at it daily. I probably see it at a week to week level, but if I could look at that daily, ⁓ it's impactful in my life.

Roger Johnson (20:52)

Yeah, it's good. That's great. You know, we don't talk about weaknesses. I try not to talk about weaknesses primarily because I think that a lot of people have already been through a lot of feedback sessions where they've been kind of pointed at their weaknesses and kind of emphasize that. I think it's much more interesting to think about where leaders sabotage their own effectiveness and kind of undercut themselves, erode their

their the foundation on which they're standing because they they don't know it. They're they're blind. ⁓ What was your experience with hearing that hearing that type of feedback? ⁓ What were what was that like to you? Do you think that was what was surprising to you about that? What was helpful? Yeah, I would love to hear your experience related to thinking about self-sabotage versus weaknesses.

Connor Walker (21:49)

Yeah, it's yeah, like you said with weaknesses, it's they're hard to hit and and it feels like it's a sword or a knife sticking in your side. And I think a lot of times people want to get their weaknesses and they're like, I'm to work on my weaknesses. And then if my strengths are already here and my weaknesses, I can get up a level. Then I'm going to be performing at a high level. And I know more.

But like you said, I think it's more impactful to know your gifts and your strengths and to hone into those and what gets in the way of the self-sabotage that gets in the way of you accomplishing your strengths. And I had a long list. I unpacked it and had a long list from the feedback that I gained of what gets in my way of accomplishing and hitting the gifts that God's given me. And ⁓ I think one that stands out is

know, seeking business or letting, you know, my time management or my emails backlog me. ⁓ that, that one I've, I've worked on and see dramatic improvement of set inside of time. just let emails. I always want to be quick to respond. So I had them up and I always, but when I'm working on something, if an email popped up, it would distract my attention. And so I've tried to incorporate times in the day that I only review email.

And that's helped me stay focused. What's at hand. It's allowed me to be a more present leader. It's allowed me to be more present in meetings. ⁓ it's allowed me to focus, when I have time. So that's an example of a self sabotage that I had in my own life. and there was, there was plenty of others, it was a big chunk of, of, ⁓ my gifts, but it's allowed me to recognize what I'm good at, what my gifts are, ⁓ to spend more time there and, ⁓ less time on what's bogging me down or pulling me back.

Roger Johnson (23:41)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. As you think about, I'm surprised with this question, but as you think about the way that you think about structuring your organization, your role, the roles of the folks in your organization, how does knowing your kind of unique set of competencies, the way that you're gifted, the way that you lead, know, drive, point guard, all those kind of things, how does that help you think about

managing and stewarding the organization and the people that lead the functions in those organizations. Love to hear you, riff like just off the top of your head.

Connor Walker (24:22)

Yeah, think, yeah, as I look at my own themes and my own life and what they are, gives me confidence to lead. ⁓ And I realized how impactful that was my own life. And so as I structure the organization, I think there's two parts to that. think at one point I can see my weaknesses and be like, I'm not good at this and I don't have a passion for this. So is this...

in my seat, just a role I can go delegate. And there's some stuff I realized I need to delegate and let other people that are better than me go and do that. And so from a structure perspective, I'm like, where is this land? ⁓ And so I was managing some vendor relationships. was managing some partnerships ⁓ that I didn't need to be a CEO and president that I had done in the past. I need to keep doing that. I to be focused on the company and big partnerships. So I'm working to pass those off. think also on the flip side,

Roger Johnson (25:00)

Yeah.

Connor Walker (25:20)

From a structure perspective, it allows me to also, it was so impactful for me of how am I viewing each leader that reports to me, each person in the organization, what are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? ⁓ Maybe are there ways that self-sabotage them? And the quicker, the sooner through questions I can get them to realize their own, the better the organization is. And to do the same that I'm doing at their level and then through their department and then from their leaders to those leaders leaders.

all the way down. so what I'm working towards next is creating an organization that empowers our leaders and empowers every person in the whole company. I would love for every person in the company to experience what I got to experience of getting feedback, knowing your strengths and your gifts, knowing what gets in the way of that, and then knowing weaknesses and can you delegate that to help? Or do we need to look at a new role? Or is this the wrong?

spot for you in the company. And so the quicker I can do that in the company, the better. I think that would build a culture. But so it's two parts. It's how to how my structure in the company to help me. And then also, I would love for each individual in our company to recognize that.

Roger Johnson (26:33)

Yeah, that's great. think one of things that I love to advocate for is the idea of like a really intentional leadership culture ⁓ and thinking about helping people and leaders especially own their own development and own their own growth and help them be proactive versus having it be from the inside out. And that's certainly what you're doing.

Connor Walker (26:43)

Any other

Roger Johnson (27:01)

⁓ working to build an organization that has a leadership culture that ⁓ really empowers folks by having that information and knowing that. So, ⁓ commend you for that. ⁓ That's incredible. So, ⁓ Connor. I appreciate ⁓ your time. It's been great to hear your perspective. Any last parting thoughts you have about...

Connor Walker (27:13)

Thank you.

Roger Johnson (27:29)

⁓ about stewardship, about feedback, ⁓ about your experiences as a leader in terms of ⁓ advice or thoughts you have for people who are listening to this in terms of ⁓ what they could take away from it.

Connor Walker (27:46)

Yeah, I mean, we hit, think feedback and stewardship are two key words that we did hit on. And just the more I've gotten in my position and tried to understand it and unpack it is it's a gift to be doing what we're doing. God's gifted each of us. And as a believer, I fully believe this, but God's gifted each of us ⁓ to be in a position, to be in a role.

that we're passionate about. so daily, what are we doing to go and seek that? ⁓ We have a calling, we have a purpose. ⁓ Doesn't mean every day you wake up and you're ready to run through a wall and ⁓ super gung-ho, but I try to wake up with, know, let us rejoice in where we've been placed and what we're doing. And it doesn't mean, because we've arrived and I'm arrived and I'm the CEO and president, there's like stressors there, but daily like,

I can look back at my life and differing positions I held from an intern to a business development individual till now. ⁓ It all connects. And that's been huge for me. Where I interned, places in college, I learned leadership lessons there to help apply now. And so I would just encourage, ⁓ the last thing I guess I would say, I would encourage people to find mentors, no matter how old you are.

⁓ how young you are. I had some in college, I kind of stopped when I graduated and worked for a while. And now I'm trying to seek as many as I can. And you can't have 50 mentors, but have a few people where your ear is always open to their words. And I have a list of about five and doesn't mean it has to be super consistent and steady like week in a week out. It can be quarterly, could be annually.

but have people that you can get feedback from, have people that you can have mentorship from, and that's been super impactful to me. So, appreciate your friendship, Roger, and your wisdom that you've shared with me as well, and just super appreciative of the time today.

Roger Johnson (29:57)

Hey, Connor, thanks, appreciate, commend you for the way you approach leadership for your humility and I would say humble confidence. You absolutely embody that and really appreciate you. So wish you and your company the best as you guys go and finish the year and go into 2026. So thank you for, thanks for joining today. Appreciate it. Yep, bye.

Connor Walker (30:19)

Thanks Roger, thanks for having me.