Kip Havel of Dexian On Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Uncertain & Turbulent Times
Involve the people
Following the acquisition, the leadership teams formed focus groups and committees to give people from both businesses an opportunity to contribute and for their voices and needs to be heard. Employees from both sides of the business were invested in the merger’s success and eager to contribute. Furthermore, our focus groups gave people from both companies opportunities to connect, get to know each other, and find commonalities.
As part of our series about the “Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Turbulent Times”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Kip Havel.
Kip Havel is the Chief Marketing Officer of Dexian. His mantra emphasizes focus, curiosity, and the relentless pursuit of results. Since joining Dexian in January 2020, Kip has dedicated himself to forging strategies that bridge the gap between the brand and its diverse audiences. His vision is to enhance Dexian’s market footprint and promote the company’s Black Sky Thinking — “…elevating our solutions, service, and industry beyond the blue and into the black sky to help our stakeholders reach new heights and achieve more than they ever thought possible.”
Kip places high importance on synergistic collaboration. He forges deep partnerships between marketing, business unit leaders, and external partners. This collaborative ethos ensures that Dexian continually offers the best brand and marketing strategies, all tailored to support business growth.
A University of Miami alumnus, Kip’s career trajectory includes senior marketing roles at Aflac, Randstad US, Cross Country Healthcare and SFN Group. Notably, Kip was instrumental in spearheading the conception and roll out of the Dexian brand. His marketing acumen has garnered significant accolades such as the American Marketing Association’s “4 Under 40” Emerging Leaders, PR Week’s “Rising Star,” and Ragan and PR Daily’s “Ace Communicator.”
Kip views Dexian as an opportunity to help people find fulfilling careers, aid businesses in achieving their objectives, and empower individuals to surpass their perceived limits. In essence, Kip is driven to make a lasting positive impact on individual careers and the broader societal landscape.
Away from marketing, Kip is an avid water sports enthusiast and traveler. Hi diverse interests also include photography, camping, and hiking. He believes a harmonious blend of work and personal passions is instrumental for holistic well-being. This balanced philosophy rejuvenates him and injects fresh perspectives into his work life.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Like many young people, I wanted a career that meant something and would make a difference in people’s lives. My initial goal was to get into politics and help write and pass sensible legislation to improve people’s lives. However, after work on national and state campaigns in Florida, I found that the reality didn’t match my dream.
I was lucky to realize this early and through the help of some of my professors at the University of Miami, I made the pivot into communications and marketing, where there was space to do something good. During my first few years out of college, I worked at some of the world’s largest PR agencies and got tremendous experience in variety of industries. I eventually went in-house at a Fortune 500 global recruiting and solutions firm, where I moved up the ranks to run their marketing and communications function. I really enjoyed the recruiting industry because we could help get their dream jobs and help companies achieve their goals with outstanding talent. I also held marketing leadership roles in the insurance industry at Aflac, a purpose-driven company that aimed to help people protect themselves and their families. The culmination of this experience was returning to the staffing industry, working at the largest staffing and recruiting company in the world, playing a lead role in a global rebrand, and then spearheading the development and launch of Dexian following the merger of Signature Consultants and DISYS.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I’ve certainly made mistakes. Even with hindsight, the learning experiences aren’t what I’d call funny. However, the most impactful lesson I learned was the importance of nailing the details and ensuring people feel the experience you are providing. There were times early in my career when I didn’t realize this, and it had negative impacts. It’s something that I still carry with me now. That attention to detail is invaluable when executing a strategy or an idea. No matter how good that strategy is, a few missed details can absolutely kill your momentum and the experience you are trying to create. While it can be exciting to leverage things like Black Sky Thinking to come up with big ideas, turning those big ideas into an action plan relies on drilling down and getting the details.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
People often think of mentorship as something for young people trying to shape their futures. I’ve been fortunate to work with several CEOs and other executives who influenced my professional development over the years, but the most important mentorship came later in my career.
Through a mutual friend, I was fortunate to connect with Mark Nussbaum, former Chief Operations Officer at Signature Consultants and current Strategic Advisor at Dexian, at a pivotal point after I’d achieved great success in my career. The most important thing I learned from Mark is that it’s imperative to stay true to your values and ideals as your career progresses and your business grows. This can be quite difficult in large corporations and in highly visible positions. But the ultimate lesson is that you can be successful and run a business in a way that truly helps people — and sometimes that means making decisions that may be seen as counter to common business practices that are more focused on the bottom line instead of doing the right thing for customers and employees. And to achieve this yourself, it often means getting out of your comfort zone, reaffirming your values and trying something different to find out what really matters in life and work. Once I started working with Mark, I watched him make decisions that required doubling down on his values and not settling for the status quo. Approaches like that are unfortunately in short supply and it was quite encouraging to me.
I had grown in my career, but Mark helped me continue to grow as a leader and a human being. He inspired me to rethink what I was doing, who I was doing it for, and why I was doing it. As you excel in your career, perspectives and the concept of what is important change — and it’s essential to change with it. I hope to help others discover it as I continue on my journey.
Extensive research suggests that “purpose-driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your organization started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?
Following the merger of DISYS and Signature Consultants, the leadership team had a very intentional and strategic integration plan for the businesses to build a new business and resulting brand based on purpose and values. We ultimately built a new company and brand on the respective legacies of the companies that joined forces — something entirely new that represented who we were and aspired to be in an industry badly in need of disruption. It was a once in a career opportunity that I am incredibly proud to be a part of.
Perhaps more importantly, the leadership team wasn’t solely responsible for developing our values and brand. We carried out real-time testing, including Voice of the Customer, Voice of the Candidate, and employee research to collect feedback from all our stakeholders to ensure that we understood what opportunities existed and that everyone had a chance to contribute to the development of our new company and shared values:
- Integrity
- Transparency
- Ingenuity
- Authenticity
- Empathy
Our values are brought to life by our purpose:
- We are in the business for good
- We serve as the guiding light for our constituents
- We solve challenges with Black Sky Thinking
Our values and purpose represent what we believe is missing in our industry and the disruption we are trying to create. The staffing and recruiting industry is often seen as a sea of sameness, and our values are the foundation for building a business that does things differently, putting people before profit and dismantling preconceived notions about “the way things have always been done.” Our values represent a better way to help people get to work.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion. Can you share with our readers a story from your own experience about how you lead your team during uncertain or difficult times?
The integration period after a merger & acquisition (M&A) is one of the most perilous times for a business. They face a high risk of employee and client attrition, which, more often than not, contributes to failure. With this in mind, we were very intentional in our integration approach following the merger of DISYS and Signature Consultants. We had to develop a vision, communicate that vision, and continue to communicate that vision throughout the process to keep our employees and stakeholders engaged and onside.
One of the first decisions was to retain senior leadership from both businesses. Keeping the leadership teams intact created ease across the organization, easing fears of immediate and significant change. As both companies had performed well before the merger, we let them carry on as usual. At the same time, we started integrating back-office functions, identified our overall vision, and developed a strategy for making it a reality. As a result, both companies continued to do well and grew throughout the integration period.
It’s crucial to recognize that leaders can’t have a complete view of the business at all times. That’s why we implemented our Voice of the Customer feedback program, which I personally led. We gathered feedback from our internal and external stakeholders, learning what they liked, what they didn’t, and what they wanted more of. This approach, coupled with our commitment to transparency, ensured that everyone was informed and involved in the integration process, from the C-suite to our entire organization.
Our vision was, and is, to create a powerful company that serves everyone’s goals and gives opportunities for all to succeed. By leading with a business/constituent-first approach, we were able to create what our people wanted instead of what they just had to accept or what we thought was right. That approach has led to our continued success and will continue to drive our decision-making as we move forward.
Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the motivation to continue through your challenges? What sustains your drive?
I’ve always had a refuse-to-lose attitude from a young age, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t points of uncertainty before and during the merger and integration process. I am sure the teams felt most vulnerable immediately after the deal closed when many factors and details were still unknown.
We focused on building the team and company we wanted to be — and wished others would be. I took my lessons from my mentors and decided not to settle but to double down on exemplifying our values while staying true to our vision. I hope to inspire more leaders to take this approach.
I’m always emboldened when team members tell me that we’ve created the environment they wish they’d found earlier in their careers and are grateful to have now found. Knowing that people are fulfilled and in a supportive environment reminds me that I’m on the right track, even when it’s the more difficult path.
I’m an author and I believe that books have the power to change lives. Do you have a book in your life that impacted you and inspired you to be an effective leader? Can you share a story?
It’s challenging to choose just one book that has impacted my professional life, but if I had to choose, I’d share Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. Ultimately, Sapiens helped me understand how empathy and interconnectivity power everything we do. By taking an empathetic approach to leadership, I try to understand what motivates people and work with them to build support for our shared objective, or imagined reality, as Harari refers to it. The challenge lies in uncovering the individual shared realities of different people and teams and connecting their objectives and the shared aim of the whole business. For example, our marketing team has a different experience than our recruiters. Nonetheless, both are essential to the broader business reality.
Sapiens also reinforced my belief in the importance of customers’ realities. When integrating DISYS and Signature Consultants after the merger, I knew securing our customers’ buy-in and collecting their insights to inform our brand and value development was critical.
If I could add a second influential book, Admiral Bill Halsey by Thomas Alexander Hughes comes to mind. Halsey was a Navy Admiral during World War II. His leadership style stepped outside the norms of the time and led the U.S. Navy to significant success in the Pacific theater. His approach and work illustrate how we are all flawed humans, and no one achieves greatness by following established norms and not breaking the rules. This is the philosophy of our Black Sky Thinking approach — we can’t continue to do things the way they’ve always been done and expect growth or success. We need to plant a stake in the ground, stand up for our values, and make the change we want to see.
What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during challenging times?
A leader must serve as a guiding light during challenging times. They set the vision and tone, demonstrating how the work will get done. Even when leaders don’t know the precise path, they collaborate with their teams to overcome challenges and achieve goals.
Success, whether in life or business, is rarely reached on a straight path or without the support and contributions of other people. A good leader also fosters collaboration and cooperation to navigate obstacles and thrive.
Tough times allow you to see people for who they are. You see who rises to the challenge and looks for creative solutions; you see the folks who get discouraged and need encouragement. Leaders must stick to their values and lead people with empathy, supporting each individual to succeed. Influential leaders demonstrate their values daily, leading by example and getting involved to meet deadlines and achieve goals. They show their teams they’re not alone, and their work is seen and valued.
When the future seems so uncertain, what is the best way to boost morale? What can a leader do to inspire, motivate and engage their team?
The future is always uncertain. The first step in keeping morale high is to recognize that fact and build it into our approach. I believe in getting people involved and giving them a voice. It gives them skin in the game and demonstrates that they matter to the company’s future. Transparency is also essential to boosting morale and engagement. Throughout our integration process, we held regular meetings and shared the good, the bad, and the ugly. The combination of transparency and engagement allowed leadership to see the gaps and get insights into the solutions our employees believed could solve them. We created a wolf pack mentality in which everyone’s contributions were critical.
What is the best way to communicate difficult news to one’s team and customers?
One of the CEOs I worked for always said, “bad news doesn’t get better with age.” I’ve taken this to heart and believe it’s always best to communicate difficult news quickly and transparently. Even if you don’t have all the answers, everyone feels better knowing a challenging situation is being handled. I’d also add that difficult news should be shared with empathy and heart, especially when there are still unknown factors or the news will impact people personally.
How can a leader make plans when the future is so unpredictable?
Unpredictability isn’t new, and uncertainty will always be a factor when developing strategies and making plans. Leaders need to have their vision and stick to it but be willing to pivot and take different paths to get where they want to be. Understanding that the future is uncertain should allow you to create space to be creative and switch tracks nimbly when necessary. I also recommend listening to the people on the ground so you know how and when to pivot. Executives are never the only person who can see when and where change is needed. Include your people and take their feedback and insights.
Is there a “number one principle” that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times?
For me, transparency is the number one principle to follow through turbulent times. People pay attention to what’s happening around them and will know when there is a problem or a change on the horizon, even if it isn’t necessarily public knowledge. When leaders try to hide or withhold information, people become suspicious and fearful, which can lead to gossip and a negatively charged work environment. It’s better to communicate clearly and often to avoid breeding distrust. It’s always better to say you don’t know than to prevaricate or obfuscate the realities we face.
Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen other businesses make during difficult times? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?
When we began the M&A process with Signature and DISYS, we knew that research shows that around 91% of mergers and acquisitions fail to meet the outlined goals and were (and are) determined to be in the 9% that succeed. Part of our careful and intentional approach was to study deals that went south, figure out what went wrong, and do the opposite.
Some of the most common mistakes we found in M&A include:
Arbitrary, short deadlines for completion
Many companies decide on a deadline for integration before the ink is dry on the paperwork. As a result, they may have to rush aspects of integration or skip steps that we see as crucial to future success, which I’ll get into in the next question.
Not involving the people
When merging, many companies leave decision-making to the leadership team. They don’t gather information or feedback from the people on the ground or share information. As a result, employees develop uncertainties because of unknown factors and don’t develop a sense of ownership or engagement in the process. Both situations foster alienation and lead to decreased performance and a risk of attrition.
Focusing on assimilation
Often, one company performs much better than the other in M&A, and as a result, the approach is to assimilate the less productive company into the high-performing business. This process creates an “us and them” situation, triggering fear and resentment in the company being assimilated and potentially causing the assimilating company to miss out on the strong aspects of the acquired company. We didn’t face that as Signature and DISYS came together, and we were able to use the best elements of both companies to create what Dexian is today. It should be a lesson for all leaders to keep their eyes open and determine the best way forward for growth and success.
Not monitoring progress or gathering feedback
I’ve said it before, and I’ll repeat it: No leader can know everything happening in their company. Hubris can be VERY damaging and problematic. Many leaders fail because they don’t gather feedback and insights from their people or customers about what’s working well and what needs to change. Without this grassroots intel, leaders make decisions based on what they think instead of what they know, which leads to biased decisions that will not benefit the company or its stakeholders.
Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should do to lead effectively during uncertain and turbulent times? Please share a story or an example for each.
1. Involve the people
Following the acquisition, the leadership teams formed focus groups and committees to give people from both businesses an opportunity to contribute and for their voices and needs to be heard. Employees from both sides of the business were invested in the merger’s success and eager to contribute. Furthermore, our focus groups gave people from both companies opportunities to connect, get to know each other, and find commonalities.
2. Use research and data to inform decisions
Leadership ran research initiatives to evaluate their progress and to collect information about how to move forward with the integration. We knew that we didn’t know everything and that our employees, candidates, and customers could give us insights to help direct our integration and develop our new brand. By collecting data from our stakeholders, we built a company that serves everyone and fills voids in the industry.
3. Monitor your progress, be humble, and admit when you need to pivot
Even when making data-driven decisions, business plans might not work out as you expect. Owning missteps and taking action to correct them demonstrates a willingness to listen, learn, and do what’s right for the people and the organization. Merging two large, successful staffing firms with very different business models creates many challenges. Our commitment to listening to our people and being transparent about our process and progress, including when we needed to change direction, was essential to our success.
4. Communicate
Communication is critical during turbulent times. Stakeholders, internal and external, need to know what’s going on. If they don’t, the unknown can lead to fear and uncertainty that can hurt business. During our merger, we were intentionally transparent and communicated clearly and frequently, keeping our people informed about the integration, changes, and opportunities.
5. Celebrate & create shared experiences
Yes, it’s a cliche, but change is hard, and everyone’s efforts should be recognized and celebrated. We created opportunities for people from both companies to come together, get to know each other as people, and create shared experiences. We shared and celebrated our milestones together. The culmination of our merger was the exclusive presentation of our new brand, Dexian, at our President’s Club weekend for top performers. Going through a merger or navigating tough business times is challenging for everyone, and taking a moment to recognize and celebrate everyone’s efforts goes a long way. We also launched the new brand at a time when the legacy cultures were looking to create and embrace something new, which made the introduction of the new brand even more impactful and positive.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite life lesson quote is: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This African proverb has served me well throughout my career, but I have come to understand it even more as I progressed. Leaders are only as successful as the teams around them and their willingness to listen to and learn from their people. With the best will in the world, no single leader can have a full view of every detail of their business. Building a coalition of people who share your vision and are committed to shared values will enable your business to spot challenges that inevitably rise and adapt quickly and grow.
How can our readers further follow your work?
You’re welcome to follow me on LinkedIn, and I recommend visiting the Dexian Resource Center where we publish blogs, reports, and other thought leadership.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Kip Havel of Dexian On Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Uncertain &… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.