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

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 handle challenges, with support available from outside resources. Chris attributes significant leadership and cultural development to more than 25 years in the CEO peer group Vistage, where he gained ideas, perspective, and friendships, and he recounts joining after his father declined and a humorous missed first meeting due to a Yankees rainout. He gives an example of involving employees in decisions by piloting a four-day workweek with a bonus program to address overtime fatigue and absenteeism, which employees chose to keep after three months. Chris closes by emphasizing that culture work is ongoing, evolves over time, requires continual attention and refocusing, and is never “done.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Culture from the heart means caring with shared purpose—supporting your people personally and professionally while aligning around a common mission
• The three-coin technique: Start each day with three coins in one pocket, transfer one each time you say something positive to a team member—it's harder than it sounds
• Give team members autonomy to make decisions and get comfortable with them making mistakes—micromanagement prevents organizational growth
• Culture work is forever—it requires ongoing attention, periodic refocusing, and continuous investment, not a one-time initiative
• Personal business philosophy guides leadership decisions: work hard, bring value, be nice to people

QUOTES

• "Culture from the heart is caring with shared purpose."
• "The three-coin technique sounds simple, but you try it. You'll probably get by lunchtime and find you've got all three coins still in that pocket."
• "My personal business philosophy: I work hard, I bring value, and I'm nice to people."
• "People are very capable. They can make decisions. And even when they go wrong, the company is not gonna implode."
• "The worst case scenario is if you try something and it doesn't work out, you can always go back to what you were doing before."
• "This work is forever. It's ongoing, it never ends. It evolves over time—it's not just a quick fix."
• "It's kind of like putting in a new, fresh set of batteries and things shine brightly again."

Learn more about Darrell and Larry.

Darrell's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/

Larry's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/

Connect and learn more from Chris Polek.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-polek-871205a/

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