Welcome to EECO Ask’s Why – A podcast that dives into industrial manufacturing topics and spotlights the heroes that keep America running. On this podcast, we do not cover the latest features and benefits on products that come to market. Instead, we focus on advice and insight from the top minds of industry because people and ideas will be how America remains number one in manufacturing in the world.
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The fastest way to weaken performance is to treat culture like a poster and people like parts. We dig into one of Electrical Equipment Company’s defining cultural beliefs, “Value Everyone,” and why it is the difference between a team that merely ships products and a team that earns long-term trust in industrial manufacturing and electrical equipment distribution.
We talk about the unseen work that makes or breaks the customer experience: the warehouse getting details right, operations coordinating handoffs, accounting preventing friction with clean invoices, and IT keeping systems stable so everyone can do their job. A great technical solution does not matter much if the wrong item ships or communication drops the ball, so valuing every role is not “nice to have.” It is a practical operating system for reliability, quality, and customer loyalty.
We also get real about what valuing people looks like when life gets hard. Supporting teammates through loss, overload, and unexpected challenges builds the kind of trust you cannot manufacture with programs alone. And we clear up a common confusion: valuing everyone does not mean avoiding tough conversations. Healthy cultures pair accountability with appreciation, and leaders set the tone through the small signals people always notice.
If you want a stronger manufacturing culture, better teamwork across departments, and more consistent customer outcomes, queue this up and share it with your leadership team. Subscribe, leave a rating and review, and send this to someone who keeps things running behind the scenes.
Welcome to EcoS One. This podcast is admitted to industrial manufacturing topics and satellite key roads to keep America running. I'm your host, Chris Granger, and on this podcast. We did not discover the latest features and benefits of products that come to market. Instead, we focused on advice and insight from the top mindset industry because people and ideas will be how America remains number one in manufacturing in the world. Welcome to Eco Asks Why. I'm your host, Chris Granger. I'm looking forward to spending some time with you today. We've really been enjoying working through the 100-year celebration at Electrical Equipment Company. And each and every month, we've been sharing with you one of our cultural beliefs. And it's so just really excited to share another one with you as we continue. And it's been a fun time celebrating 100 years at Electrical Equipment Company along the way. So hopefully you've been enjoying these podcasts as they've been coming out. And throughout this series on the cultural beliefs, we've looked at how we achieve results. We talked about that at length. We talked about delighting customers and how we put a real big focus on not just serving, but delighting our customers. Then we spent some time talking about straight talks and what straight talk looks like and why we practice that. And then we talked about the idea of it's mine. We want to own the things that are in front of us. And each of those beliefs shapes how we work, but none of them happen without people. And
we appreciate every member of our team and we recognize their contributions is such an important part of the culture that has been built in eco and that we want to continue building in the future. So valuing everyone is more than just being polite. Okay. So it's not just occasionally recognizing good work. I mean, while although those that's happened and it's helpful, that's not what we're talking about here. It means we're understanding that every person has a role in the company's success. And those roles are all connected in different one ways, in one way or another, right? From the warehouse or the operations to sales or engineering, accounting, IT, marketing, they're all connected. Okay. The customer experience is built through the combined efforts of so many people. And it's easy within an organization to focus attention on the roles that are most visible. It happens. But at eco, some of the most important work happens behind the scenes. And I've seen this over and over again throughout the years of being at the company. Because a great technical solution doesn't mean much if the wrong product is shipped, right? A strong customer relationship can quickly be damaged by an invoicing problem or a missed delivery or just flat-out poor communication. So every handoff matters. And every person involved in that process contributes to the final result.
Recognition does matter. It's important. And one of the simplest ways to value people that we found is to notice their contributions. And this doesn't have to be something formal or very elaborate, but in many cases, it's a simple thank you. Just a words of acknowledgement of appreciation. And that creates a lasting impact. And across eco, recognition has been part of the rhythm of so many of our teams. Because meetings often include trying to acknowledge someone who stepped in or help a teammate or solve a customer problem. Or, hey, we even do we even do a thing where you like if you see a cultural belief that's been demonstrated, we like to call that out. Because those moments reinforce the behaviors we want to see in each other and remind each other that the efforts are not going unseen. And there's a really important leadership lesson here because too often people hear quickly when something goes wrong, right? Like you're going to hear when something goes wrong, and it just happens. But very rarely do we hear when things go right. And a healthy culture should provide both accountability for sure, but at the same time, encouragement. Because employees should know when they need, should know for sure where we need to improve. We also should know where we're making a difference. And so this is what we do a really good job with, and we put a lot of focus and emphasis on this. And customer feedback is a great opportunity to reinforce this belief. So think about it. When a customer goes out of their way to recognize someone for doing a great job, that in of itself, that compliment should make its way back to the employee for sure. And we need to pass along that feedback and how it and let them see how they connect their daily work directly to the value that's created in the customer that they saw enough for enough reason to call and share that. And it happens regularly at an electrical equipment company. And every role has a plays a contributing factor in eco.
And value in everyone requires us to look beyond just titles or departments. Okay. It's easy to get caught in that mindset. But the person that's working in shipping may never directly speak to a customer. That's just the reality. But their attention to detail can determine whether the customer receives exactly what they need and when they need it. So and the accounting team may not be ever involved in selecting a product. That's just not part of what they are skilled in doing. But the accuracy of their work affects the customer's relationship. You see how everything is codependent. So IT may operate behind the scenes in many ways, but let me tell you one thing, bud. The systems that they support, they allow the whole organization to function. So if the IT has having an issue, everyone's having an issue. And the same is through it's true throughout all of Eco. Each department depends on the other departments. And the strongest results happen when people understand that those connections are so vitally important instead of trying to work in isolation. And so
this mindset changes the way we respond when things get hard. Because there are times when a customer has an emergency, right? And a shipment needs that extra attention or a teammate gets overloaded. And in those moments, strong teams don't spend too much time worrying about whether something falls perfectly within a job description. We're just looking for ways to help. And that willingness to step in matters because it communicates respect. It just does. It says that no task is beneath us when it comes to the success of our team or our customer. And respect is such a big deal because Eco has an incredible amount of experience within the organization. And there's lots of knowledge within the organization. And some employees that have been working at ECO have spent decades, and I do mean decades, working within the industrial customers and the technologies that we serve. And they've developed knowledge that just cannot be captured completely in a manual or training course or a guide. And at the same time, newer employees bring the really cool, fresh perspectives and new skill sets and different ways of looking at problems that we haven't considered before. So valuing everyone means that we respect both. And some
of the most important development at ECO happens when someone takes a few extra minutes to explain a product or do a walkthrough or do a demo or help show you what the quota is actually saying, or coaching someone through a difficult situation. And this has happened to me so many times in ECO where I've been coached through difficult situations. You have these mentor, mentee type relationships, and they're such a big deal. And that type of mentoring does more than just uh create uh transferring technical knowledge, it's it's more than that, it shows the other person that their growth really matters to you, and it protects the experience and knowledge that Eco's built over years by passing it on to the next generation. So that same type of respect we've been talking about as it should extend in the other direction as well. Newer employees should feel comfortable asking questions, challenging assumptions, and offering ideas and perspectives. And some of the best improvements inside the organization come directly from people who are close enough to work, not close enough to the work, rather, to see something that others maybe have overlooked. And that again, that all time all the cultural beliefs have a tie together, right? That ties back to what straight talk because people want to speak openly if they believe their voice is going to be heard and respected. So if we truly value everyone, the good idea should be able should be able to come from anywhere, right? And that's a that's a great part of what we're trying to do, what we build. And value the person is such a big deal, and we want to value the person, not just the work. And because our company at times has been described by employees as a company with a strong family atmosphere. And I can attest to this 100%. And that reputation has been built over time throughout the way we support one another, particularly when life gets
hard. Because employees have responsibilities outside of work, right? Just think about it. Their parents, their spouses, their children, their caregivers, their friends, their communities. And there's gonna be times when family needs attention, period. When someone experiences a loss or in an unexpected situation, changes everything. So valuing everyone means recognizing that reality. It's not saying that we're lowering our expectations or removing accountability, it means we want to treat people like people, and along with the same time, run a strong business. And that means loyalty to the people that eco uh it really shapes uh and it's it's shown rather how they're treated during these difficult moments. And employees remember the manager or the leader who gave them flexibility when they needed it most. They remember the coworker who checked in on them, you know, when they've gone through a challenging time in life, or maybe they had a loss in their family. They remember the ones that stepped in and carried a load. And as someone who's gone through, you know, after 25 years at an electrical equipment company, I've had those moments. And I can clearly look back and remember distinctly the people who stepped in and supported me during the most challenging situations of my life. I'll be forever grateful for that because those moments they build trust, and trust is not something that can be manufactured through policies or programs alone, it's just not. So just it's as someone who's lived it firsthand, and I can just attest to it, uh, it's such a big deal. And and
it and I want to clear up one thing. When we talk about valuing everyone, I I don't want that to be confused with avoiding difficult conversations. Um, because in fact, it requires quite the opposite, it requires honesty. Because if someone is struggling, they need to know, they need to hear that. And if a behavior is hurting the team around us, it has to be addressed. We can't just sweep it under the rug and just and just ignore it because the expectations are clear, and at the same time, the conversations need to happen, and the conversation should be handled in a way that respects the individual and gives the opportunity for improvement. And this is where we really come together and and and you know value everyone comes to the to the forefront of what we do because they remind us of how those conversations should be handled, okay? Because healthy cultures within a company don't choose between accountability and appreciation, they recognize that both are needed, and also recognize that leadership sets the examples.
So, leadership at eco, we have an important responsibility in creating an environment where the people feel valued. Because employees, I'll tell you one thing, they pay attention, and they pay attention to what the leaders recognize, they pay attention to who's listening, they pay attention to how people respond to mistakes, and and and whether they take time for the people around them, and small actions carry significant weight, so just small stuff like knowing people's names, asking for their opinions, passing along compliments, right? Taking time to help that person develop and recognizing good work in front of their peers. It's such a great opportunity, and leadership looks often looking beyond the most visible performers. Because some people naturally receive recognition because they're so their work is so closely connected to revenue, right? Or customers or major projects, but leaders are paying attention to people whose consistent work keeps everything moving without drawing a lot of attention. Those employees are so essential to the organization and they need to know it. So as we've kind of wrap up this this idea of valuing everyone, at the end of the day, the legacy of eco is built by people. You know, Eco Ask Why, the tagline when we first started is people and ideas over products. And we've spent over a hundred years helping industrial customers solve problems and improve performance. And during that time, really think about it products, technologies, markets, everything has changed dramatically. Just think how things were in 1926 versus how they are here in 2026. It's so much different. But the constant has been the people who build the relationships, solve the problems, and serve customers. I mean, that's what carries an organization forward, and that will continue to be true for ego as we move forward in the future. Because technology, just look around, it's evolving every day. The industrial marketplace was will will continue to change, but strong organizations will still depend on people who trust each other and believe that their contributions matter. So valuing everyone means recognizing the role each person plays in that success. It means showing appreciation, sharing knowledge, listening to these different perspectives, supporting one another, and remembering that the strength of eco is not found in any one department or individual. It's found in the collective contribution of all our people. So that's the heart of value, everyone, everybody, and it's an important part, important part of what will carry us into the next century.
So we really hope you're enjoying these podcasts. They're a lot of fun to put out give us time to think and reflect on the cultural beliefs of the company as a whole in general. And now, other than that, share this stuff out. Maybe these cultural beliefs, you may want to implement them at the company that you're at, or have or share this with your leadership team. And we would love for you to do that. You can also head over to ecoonline.com, connect with us right there. We invite you to come in, schedule some time, whether you're in Virginia or the Carolinas, wherever you're located, we have labs. We'd love to invite you in to share so you can uh put your hand on some technology and sharing some fun with our team members. Get to meet some of our team members that maybe you've never had a chance to meet before, talk about value in everyone. We'd love to invite you in to do that. So all that can be found at ecoonline.com. If you give us a rating and review for the podcast, that would be great. Or subscribe to our YouTube channel, wherever it works best. LinkedIn, we do a lot of stuff on LinkedIn. So connect with us on LinkedIn. We'd love to see you there and hear from you there as well. All right. Well, other than that, thank you so much for hanging out. Thank you. Hopefully, you're enjoying this series as we celebrate 100 years. This is just a tremendous milestone that we don't take it lightly. We're looking forward to many more, many more of the years in the future. So have a great day. Remember just to stay at it and good value, everyone. And remember, keep asking why. Thank you for listening to Eco Ask Why. This show is supported at free by Let's Go Equipment Company. Eco is redefining the expectations of the Let's Good.
