Caring, Shared Purpose, and Building Culture That Lasts featuring Chris Polek

About this episode

Chris Polek discusses the importance of caring with shared purpose in building a lasting company culture.

In this episode of Culture From the Heart Podcast, hosts Larry Levine and Darrell Amy are joined by Chris Polek, CEO of Polek & Polek, a distributor of copier and printer supplies to office equipment dealers across the U.S., about “culture from the heart.” Chris defines it as “caring with shared purpose,” describing caring as supporting team members personally and professionally by creating growth opportunities and challenges. He explains the shared purpose as supporting the dealer network to help them be more profitable and align work with a leader’s personal business philosophy, sharing his own: work hard, bring value, and be nice to people. Chris discusses practical leadership habits such as walking around to connect with everyone in the organization and the “three coin technique” to ensure daily positive recognition. He reflects on taking over the founder-led business about 26–27 years ago, shifting from centralized decision-making to empowering employees with autonomy, pushing them to bring solutions, and accepting mistakes as part of growth. He shares that a heart surgery absence tested the company’s culture, and operations continued smoothly because people knew how to…

People in this episode

Hosts: Larry Levine, Darrell Amy

Guest: Chris Polek

Topics covered

• company culture
• leadership
• employee empowerment
• shared purpose
• personal growth

Keywords

• company culture
• leadership habits
• employee autonomy
• shared purpose
• Vistage

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Polek & Polek, Vistage

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