Ep199 Julie Tilenius - Empowering Leadership: How to Build Trust and Drive Results

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:06
Julie Tilenius
you know, my leadership

00:00:01:06 - 00:00:05:18
Julie Tilenius
style has always been a servant leadership style.

00:00:05:18 - 00:00:06:08
Julie Tilenius
I

00:00:06:08 - 00:00:10:18
Julie Tilenius
get a lot of fulfillment out of seeing my leaders grow

00:00:13:07 - 00:00:23:03
Mike O'Neill
welcome to Get Unstuck and On Target, the weekly podcast that offers senior leaders insights and strategies to not only lead with competence and vision,

00:00:23:07 - 00:00:26:03
Mike O'Neill
but also to achieve groundbreaking results.

00:00:26:14 - 00:00:36:14
Mike O'Neill
I'm your host, Mick O'Neill. I coach top level executives on the power of ethical leadership to forge teams to be as united as they are effective

00:00:37:13 - 00:00:38:15
Mike O'Neill
in each episode.

00:00:38:20 - 00:00:48:22
Mike O'Neill
Join me for insightful conversations with leaders just like you, providing practical advice to help you get unstuck and propel you and your company forward.

00:00:49:20 - 00:00:50:21
Mike O'Neill
Let's get started.

00:00:55:15 - 00:01:22:12
Mike O'Neill
Welcome to another episode of Get Unstuck in On Target. I'm Mike O'Neill, an executive coach who's passionate about helping leaders inspire teams, drive results, and make lasting impacts. On today's episode, I sit down with Julie to Linnaeus, the president of True Source. Julie's career journey is fascinating a progression to finance, e-commerce and sales operations that has shaped her into an exceptional leader.

00:01:22:14 - 00:01:40:16
Mike O'Neill
We dive into a topic close to my heart as a coach. Empowerment. Julie shares how empowering her team to make quick, confident decisions has not only driven speed and quality in emergency situations, but also has built trust, loyalty and growth across her organization.

00:01:41:01 - 00:01:48:10
Mike O'Neill
Whether you're leading a team or aspiring to. This conversation is packed with practical insight to elevate your leadership style.

00:01:48:12 - 00:01:49:13
Mike O'Neill
Let's jump in.

00:01:49:13 - 00:02:23:18
Mike O'Neill
Joining me today is Julie Tilenius. Since July 23rd, Julie has served as the president of TrueSource an OnPoint Group company with 25 years at MSC Industrial Supply, where she excelled in leadership roles like financial planning, e-commerce and sales operations. Julie has built a reputation of driving innovation and achieving results. Today, she joins me to explore the power of empowerment and how leaders can create growth by inspiring transformation.

00:02:23:20 - 00:02:25:06
Mike O'Neill
Welcome, Julie.

00:02:25:08 - 00:02:29:07
Julie Tilenius
Thank you Mike. It is such a pleasure to be here with you today.

00:02:29:18 - 00:02:43:13
Mike O'Neill
Now, as part of full disclosure, I've had an opportunity to do some work with Julie's company. So that's how I first met Julie. But true source. Can you, as a starting point, tell us a little bit about your company?

00:02:43:15 - 00:03:19:18
Julie Tilenius
TrueSource is a facility maintenance service company, and we service, retail storefronts, and markets such as consumer staples, big box Consumer Essentials and discount retailers. Premium retailers. And, we are we have skilled we provide services and skilled trades such as break fix work for doors, docks, glass fence, gates, locks. We, our customers come to us in emergency situations.

00:03:19:18 - 00:03:39:23
Julie Tilenius
About 30% of our work orders come to us because our customers are in an emergency, and they need their assets fixed in order to secure their stores. So, speed and quality are really key to our overall service to our customers. And really, what is what separates us from our competition?

00:03:40:00 - 00:04:02:13
Mike O'Neill
So when the phone rings, I guess that's how you are made aware email or the like. And they say, help, we're in a in a bind. You describe it almost as an emergency situation. What is it about dealing with, quote, emergencies that makes true source better than perhaps your competition?

00:04:02:15 - 00:04:39:05
Julie Tilenius
So true source, has spent a lot of time focused on building strong affiliate partnerships and relationships. So when our customers call us, we need to dispatch a technician. We don't have in-house technicians. We outsource that to an affiliate network. So the partnerships that we have built over the years is really what separates us from our competition. We know the what the who, the right affiliate is to go out there to get the break fix done right.

00:04:39:05 - 00:04:55:23
Julie Tilenius
The first time in order to remedy our customer's situation. So it's you know, we know who to dispatch. In addition, it's it's our speed, our response time, our speed, our overall lead time to get the job fixed.

00:04:56:00 - 00:05:12:14
Mike O'Neill
If the nature of the work is always kind of emergency, if you would, how do you as president and the leadership team you have in place, how do you kind of the ready the organizations so that they're always kind of at the ready.

00:05:12:16 - 00:05:39:00
Julie Tilenius
So we are at the ready 24 seven. So we are a 24 over seven operation, and we have a team of, skilled customer service reps, again, who are very familiar with our customer, our customer relationship should go back 25 years. So their knowledge base, I'll call it the tribal knowledge that they have, allows them to react and to know what the next step in the process is.

00:05:39:00 - 00:06:07:17
Julie Tilenius
Again, who to call to get the job done. But in addition, I think what separates true source is that we empower our team to make really good business decisions. So when our customer service reps have to move fast on their feet in order to remedy our customer situation, they're empowered to do so. If they have to send a technician into a market that may be a little farther than where that technician's boundaries are, it's okay.

00:06:07:17 - 00:06:17:00
Julie Tilenius
They have the authority to do it rather than to hold up the entire process. Because speed is real. Speed and quality is really what is critical.

00:06:17:02 - 00:06:26:18
Mike O'Neill
Do you attribute the ability to be fast and high quality to the empowerment that y'all do?

00:06:26:20 - 00:07:02:18
Julie Tilenius
I think the speed absolutely is due to the empowerment, quality as well. But we do a lot of other things to ensure quality. For example, being we outsource the break fix work to our affiliate network, we hold that affiliate network to a very high level of accountability around KPIs. So understanding our customer service level expectations, it's important that we're measuring the performance of our affiliates to ensure that they're living up to our customer service level expectations.

00:07:02:20 - 00:07:13:10
Julie Tilenius
So I think quality is is the entire organization right on. Understood fans, the importance of delivering quality service.

00:07:13:12 - 00:07:38:12
Mike O'Neill
You know, when we're chatting, trying to decide what might be the topic that you keyed in on. I heard you use the word empowerment several times, and that's why I suggest let's use that as the main theme of this conversation. What is it about empowerment? You have extensive leadership experience. How has empowerment factored into how you have become a senior leader?

00:07:38:14 - 00:08:09:20
Julie Tilenius
So I would say, you know, my leadership style has always been a servant leadership style. And with that comes, you know, a lot of collaboration and communication with the team and really being very empathetic right to their needs. I get a lot of fulfillment out of seeing my leaders grow and live up to their highest potential.

00:08:09:22 - 00:08:44:23
Julie Tilenius
So by empowering my team and my leaders, you know, the company, strong and, strives because the motivation level, escalates and they all feel as if they really are making a difference. So I would say that me bringing empowerment into my leadership style, has enabled me to build trust and loyalty with my leaders over the years.

00:08:45:00 - 00:08:58:13
Julie Tilenius
And honestly, it really does drive results. You have a motivated team who trusts you, you keep open lines of communication and you're all aligned. It does drive positive results.

00:08:58:15 - 00:09:20:22
Mike O'Neill
And we go back to a little bit on your career progression. I understand you started off in an auditor role. And I, in the introduction describe, you know, financial planning, e-commerce, sales operations. That's a really interesting progression. Okay. Walk us through kind of how did that all unfold?

00:09:20:24 - 00:09:50:11
Julie Tilenius
So I'll take you back to the very beginning, actually. My father, was an accountant, so that's where I, became interested in finance or accounting. And right out of college, I was able to get a job with KPMG, which was one of the big six accounting firms back then, as an auditor. So I was there for a few years and I, there was a life event that happened.

00:09:50:11 - 00:10:16:06
Julie Tilenius
I lost my mom, at a young age, and I felt like I wanted to be calm or be, you know, be a part of a company and more stable, right? Because at KPMG, I was bouncing around from client client. So I happened to find an opportunity at MSI industrial. It was a small company back then, $175 million, and I just joined them as a financial analyst.

00:10:16:06 - 00:10:52:22
Julie Tilenius
I had that background working for KPMG. And little did I know that this was the first step of an amazing journey for me because the company a few years later when I'm going public. And with that came tremendous job opportunity and career progression. So I wore many hats at MSI. I got to see the business from end to end and, you know, various roles, acquisition roles, finance roles, e-commerce roles, sale you know, sales operations role.

00:10:52:24 - 00:11:13:01
Julie Tilenius
So it really, it really well rounded my overall aptitude, I guess, as, as you know, a leader in addition to just, well, rounding my business acumen. So, it was a great experience. Really was.

00:11:13:03 - 00:11:31:18
Mike O'Neill
Well, you've parlayed that experience into your current, degree of responsibility of that it has, kind of formed you. You describe that the organization kind of grew. I did not introduce how big MSC has grown into, but it's a multibillion dollar enterprise now, is it not?

00:11:31:18 - 00:11:36:21
Julie Tilenius
Yes, yes, now it's multibillion.

00:11:36:23 - 00:11:55:08
Mike O'Neill
That being said, you can draw from lots of experience as you kind of look back on the things that you learned along the way. What are the things that immediately just kind of pop in your head as when I had the opportunity to be a key leader. This is how I want to lead.

00:11:55:10 - 00:12:25:04
Julie Tilenius
Yeah. You know, what I would say is, being in mostly a male dominated industry for a long, long time, I, I needed to build my confidence up. I mean, I was sitting around the table. I was probably the only woman, in many, many meetings and, building confidence and and speaking up when I, when I thought I had value to add was so important in order for me to be respected as a leader.

00:12:25:19 - 00:12:47:18
Julie Tilenius
So, gaining that respect over the years. Right. I would sit back and listen and I would sit back and learn. And when I knew I had value to add, I would speak up. And I wasn't very comfortable speaking up a lot of times, but I did because I knew I had value to add. So I think, just really building your confidence over time.

00:12:49:04 - 00:13:14:07
Julie Tilenius
And, and looking at the team or looking at the team around you and who's supporting you, you don't you don't have to know all the answers. Who you surround yourself with. Right, is really important and really critical to your overall leadership. You need to be able to trust in your leaders, empower your leaders. They're the subject matter experts, in a lot of areas.

00:13:14:13 - 00:13:20:21
Julie Tilenius
So rely on them, right. And and work together in order to achieve your goals.

00:13:20:23 - 00:13:33:17
Mike O'Neill
So Julie, you described surround yourself with people that have skills. Perhaps you do not, but what qualities do you look for in the leaders you surround yourself with?

00:13:33:19 - 00:14:12:09
Julie Tilenius
So I look for, leaders who are strong communicators. Number one, because keeping the open lines of communication is very important to stay aligned, I look for leaders who have a similar, style. I think that I, that I did over the years with that servant leadership style, more collaborative type of style, somebody who is in tune, to emotional intelligence and will know how to motivate their teams.

00:14:13:03 - 00:14:27:00
Julie Tilenius
You know what? What works for for one person might not work for the next person. And knowing how to adjust their approach, when they're when they are working with, with their teams.

00:14:27:02 - 00:14:56:04
Mike O'Neill
You know, you're describing the type of people you want to surround yourself with, both temperament and skills. I like to go back to the nature of some of the work that you all do. Emergencies. Sometimes, at least when I see emergencies arise, people change because it's an emergency. There's there's the sense of we've got to get done fast, and therefore the way we would like to do it may not get done.

00:14:56:06 - 00:15:06:18
Mike O'Neill
What it has been. Your observation is how do you instill quick response, high quality response, but stay true to who you all are?

00:15:06:20 - 00:15:44:09
Julie Tilenius
Yeah, that's a great question, Mike. We don't ever want to sacrifice quality for speed. So it really is striking that right balance. And I think when we get things wrong, we need to learn from our mistakes. We have had a continuous improvement philosophy that we have now embedded in our culture. So it is always about how can we improve, how can we remove the bottlenecks in our process, getting to the root cause of, some of these bottlenecks.

00:15:44:11 - 00:15:55:11
Julie Tilenius
So, you know, I think just keeping that top of mind, is really what what gets us the results.

00:15:55:13 - 00:16:24:11
Mike O'Neill
I don't think you've ever asked this question before, but I think, you know, the name of our business is Bench Builders. It's a sports reference. And I find myself sometimes watching people watching sports, particularly former athletes. And I'm wondering what position are they looking at? Predominantly and more often not. They're watching the position that they played. If if nothing else, that's a degree of familiarity.

00:16:24:13 - 00:16:39:08
Mike O'Neill
You have played multiple positions, from finance to e-commerce to sales. What is your default area that just comes natural to you as president?

00:16:39:10 - 00:17:09:08
Julie Tilenius
I'll be honest, what I love the most and what comes most natural to me is just my collaboration with others. I enjoy it, I enjoy working as part of a team. You know, titles don't really mean anything to me, honestly, sitting there as president, it just doesn't. It. Let's get in a room together and let's work together in order to, you know, you know, hit our goals and objectives and have fun.

00:17:09:08 - 00:17:14:21
Julie Tilenius
Have fun while you're doing it. So I just love the interaction and the people aspect of what I do.

00:17:14:23 - 00:17:29:15
Mike O'Neill
Got you do it. Reflect on your career thus far. Can you share an example where either you or perhaps a client got stuck? And when that happened, what did it take to get unstuck?

00:17:29:17 - 00:17:56:07
Julie Tilenius
So I guess let me use a client example because it really will help resonate what true source does and the value we bring to the marketplace. So let's say we have a restaurant, owner who is looking to close their doors. Now it's 11:00 pm and they're, they're locking up for the night and they can't close the door.

00:17:56:07 - 00:18:27:21
Julie Tilenius
They can't lock the door. And now, this person is actually, you know, stuck, stuck at the restaurant, cannot leave because they need to secure the facility. So what do they do? They call to source. So our after hours team immediately reacts, dispatches a technician to send out their within, you know, an hour to hours. How quickly, however quickly we can get that technician out there.

00:18:27:23 - 00:18:54:17
Julie Tilenius
The technician fixes the door or the lock. And now the, the owner doesn't have to sleep, doesn't have to sleep at the restaurant anymore because the the facility is secure. So that's how we get our clients from a stuck position to an unstuck position. And, we value their business and, their reliance on us to get the job done.

00:18:54:21 - 00:19:06:19
Mike O'Neill
Julia, you know, this is not a scripted conversation. Not sure where it's going to go. But what might be some things that you would like to share with listeners that maybe we haven't touched on yet?

00:19:06:23 - 00:19:22:12
Julie Tilenius
I would say that, look, you know, you think in life that there's this direct path as to, where your career journey is, is going to go and sometimes it doesn't happen that way.

00:19:22:12 - 00:19:32:13
Julie Tilenius
So I would say be open to change. Don't be afraid of change. Be open to change. It's all a learning experience. And,

00:19:32:13 - 00:19:34:18
Julie Tilenius
if you're not learning or not growing.

00:19:34:20 - 00:19:39:15
Mike O'Neill
Julie, how do you personally choose the continual learning?

00:19:39:15 - 00:20:05:16
Julie Tilenius
online learning, there's so much on the internet now, trying to get up to speed on artificial intelligence and taking some webinars around artificial intelligence and how it's going to change my business going forward. And just speaking with others, networking, networking groups, seminars.

00:20:05:18 - 00:20:20:17
Mike O'Neill
You know, I know that you are also an active in some, associations, logistics. So the social associations meet that you're then recognized, for the contributions that you have made, to the industry. Congratulations on that.

00:20:20:19 - 00:20:30:15
Julie Tilenius
Thank you very much. Yeah. It was it was an honor, actually, to to participate and, in those interviews.

00:20:30:17 - 00:20:36:14
Mike O'Neill
What are you most excited about as terms of the future for your own organization?

00:20:36:16 - 00:21:11:24
Julie Tilenius
I'm excited about our growth opportunity. You know, this industry is very fragmented. And there we have, you know, very small, percentage of share. And I feel that we are really on the path to separate ourselves from our competition. And so that excites me. I mean, just the growth opportunity ahead of us. And and for my team. I'm excited for my team because it's going to open up a lot of new positions over the next few years for them to be able to grow their career.

00:21:12:01 - 00:21:29:08
Mike O'Neill
You know, you made an interesting point there, Julie, and that is with growth you add people, but in doing so you may add opportunities. And what I read into your comment is it may present new opportunities for the existing team to do things they might not be able to do otherwise.

00:21:29:10 - 00:21:56:02
Julie Tilenius
Yeah. And if you think back, that's kind of how I got to where I am today. Right? And, you know, my path was not at all what I had expected it to be. I thought it, you know, was just going to be linear rather than curves and terms. And so exactly. And I'll open up opportunities for the existing team and others.

00:21:56:04 - 00:22:19:09
Mike O'Neill
You know, you mentioned earlier in the conversation that, you know, your father was an accountant. You kind of went that route. You went to work for a large, accounting firm. And that linear progression probably would have stayed on that path. It sounds as if some of the things that happened were planned, some of them were not planned.

00:22:19:11 - 00:22:27:17
Mike O'Neill
But what would you attribute to how you were able to kind of stay on course and continue to progress and learn?

00:22:28:06 - 00:22:35:24
Julie Tilenius
I just think it's innate sometimes, you know, in, in myself and in you as a person.

00:22:35:24 - 00:22:38:19
Julie Tilenius
That you want to continue to grow.

00:22:38:22 - 00:22:58:23
Mike O'Neill
You know, as we begin kind of wrapping up this conversation, if you were to kind of share a funnel ball or an insight, what might be some actions or thought provoking things that you could share that would help our listeners, perhaps on their own leadership journey?

00:22:59:00 - 00:23:14:14
Julie Tilenius
You know, I think it gets back to what I said earlier. Don't be afraid of that change. I, you know, my my slogan is you need to always be comfortably uncomfortable. In order to continue to progress.

00:23:14:14 - 00:23:27:16
Julie Tilenius
continue to learn through others, through resources that are available to you and, and it's just a natural progression over time.

00:23:27:20 - 00:23:55:20
Mike O'Neill
Julie, before we close, I do have a question for the leaders who are listening. And that is why do people choose to follow your lead? Is it out of obligation or because they believe in your vision empowerment? That which we've been talking about. It starts with clarity, confidence and resilience. And as an executive coach, I help leaders build these strengths to inspire other teams and drive real results.

00:23:55:22 - 00:24:17:03
Mike O'Neill
At Bench Builders, our mission is to transform good leaders into great ones with practical strategies that deliver lasting results. So I invite you visit Bench Builders Aecom to learn how we can help elevate your leadership. Julie, thank you for sharing such valuable insights today.

00:24:17:05 - 00:24:21:11
Julie Tilenius
Thank you Mike, it was really a pleasure. I appreciate it.

00:24:21:13 - 00:24:28:09
Mike O'Neill
You know, if listeners want to connect, or learn more about your work, what's the best way for them to reach you?

00:24:28:11 - 00:24:30:12
Julie Tilenius
Probably through LinkedIn.

00:24:30:14 - 00:24:52:14
Mike O'Neill
Okay. So we'll put your LinkedIn profile in the show notes so they can reach out. Excellent. Again thank you. And I also want to give a big thank out to the subscribers for tuning in. And I hope today's conversation provided you with some fresh ideas and inspiration to help you get unstuck and on target.

00:24:54:04 - 00:24:58:04
Mike O'Neill
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Get Unstuck and on Target.

00:24:58:06 - 00:25:18:19
Mike O'Neill
I hope you gain insights to help you lead with competence and drive your organization forward. Remember it, Bench builders. We're committed to your success, your leadership excellence, and your strategic growth. If you've enjoyed our conversation today, please leave a review rate and subscribe to keep up with our latest episode.

00:25:19:03 - 00:25:23:03
Mike O'Neill
This show really grows when listeners like you share it with others.

00:25:23:02 - 00:25:26:15
Mike O'Neill
Who do you know? Who needs to hear what we talked about today?

00:25:26:24 - 00:25:34:04
Mike O'Neill
Until next time, I encourage you to stay. Focus on the target and continue to break new ground on your leadership path.