Ep.199: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Ann Rhoades (@Ann_Rhoades). I’m thrilled to share my episode today with Ann Rhoades on building values-driven cultures that drive outperformance. Ann was the VP of People at Southwest Airlines with founder Herb Kelleher and was a founding executive as VP of People, and eventually a board member of JetBlue Airways. She has also worked with companies like Doubletree Hotels, P.F. Changs, Restoration Hardware, and countless others through her consulting and research firm, People Ink. Our discussion focused on building and maintaining values-driven companies from the perspective of the CEO and how they can drive the process forward. One of my favorite takeaways was the importance of tying your values to behaviors, providing real-life examples of how to act in accordance with your values. It’s one thing to announce your core values to your team, but tying them to their everyday roles is crucial. We also talked about how to hire based on values, employee retention, continuous improvement, and how strong values-driven cultures create category leading companies. Please enjoy this fantastic episode with Ann Rhoades. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.  Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about our audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. After 30 days we are giving $250 cash to 4 survey responders, just add your email at the end of the survey. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: People Ink Ann on Twitter OC Tanner 2024 Workforce Study Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:46) - Why values are so important (00:14:24) - Ann’s career path and key experiences that led to building a high-performance culture (00:24:50) - Typical symptoms of a lackluster culture (00:27:25) - Implementing values (00:30:22) - The most common obstacles CEOs have in implementing values (00:32:46) - Having a values-focused hiring process (00:47:27) - Connecting values to behaviors (00:50:01) - Tools and systems to measure how an org is living the values (00:52:50) - Retaining A-players (00:55:03) - Advice to CEOs looking to build stronger cultures