Cultivate People Capabilities For Sustained Business Growth

In this episode of the Growth Leaders Podcast, host Alison interviews Jose Antonio Benjamin (known as Banjo), a seasoned growth leader. Banjo shares key insights from his career, how he handled a range of challenges, and how it shaped his passion for helping others achieve their aspirations. They discuss Banjo’s experiences as a young manager, leading more experienced personnel in a developing country, and later, managing people who were themselves managing others. Tune in to learn how curiosity, asking the right questions, and building trust played crucial roles in Banjo’s journey as a growth leader.

Discussion Topics: Cultivate People Capabilities for Sustained Business Growth

• Guest Introduction
• Learning to uncover people’s aspirations even as a child
• Leading more experienced people straight out of college
• Leading a team right out of college
• The trick to winning over an experienced team
• Three things learnt as a country head
• Three qualities in early-stage startup founders
• Lives are the only asset class that matters

Transcripts: Cultivate People Capabilities for Sustained Business Growth

Alison Eyring: Hey, Banjo or Jose Antonio Benjamin, I am so happy to have you on the Growth Leaders Podcast. It’s great to have you here today.

Banjo Castillo: Thanks for having me, Alison. I’m really excited to speak with you today and be on this podcast.

Alison Eyring: Fantastic. Banjo, I just love your background. You have such a nice varied career, of moving in between different roles. You’ve been in different countries, and one of the things that I am really excited to explore with you today is how moving into different levels as a manager caused you to lead and develop people in different ways, right?

Because one of the challenges for all growth leaders is growing people faster than the pace of business growth. And that’s what I want us to learn from you today.

Learning to uncover people’s aspirations even as a child

Alison Eyring: you actually started your career as a management trainee in sales and marketing for Unilever in the Philippines.

So before you ever became a people manager, I’m sure you still had to show leadership. You had to influence people, get things done. So what did you learn then about how you guide and coach and develop people even if they’re your peers and you don’t have formal responsibility for them?

Banjo Castillo: I think that stretches even beyond my working days, where I come from as a family, we didn’t necessarily grow up rich. My parents actually got married when they were 16 and 18. and when they were all living like 15 people in one apartment. And, they had to wait for my maternal grandparent who had to bring a pig that they just killed and drive it 15 hours in a bus, so that they could just eat because they were all still students. And if you look at them now, they all were able to make something out of themselves.

And what I learned from that is to make the most out of what you’ve been given. And I guess there was always something in me that wanted to make sure I made the most of what I have, but also a natural curiosity and passion to do that for other people.

So, I guess as a kid, I had a natural curiosity about the aspirations of people, what makes them tick, what they want to achieve, and how in one way or another, You’ll be able to help them in a smaller or big way.

And then when it came to work I just applied what I’ve always done since I was young.

Leading more experienced people straight out of college

Alison Eyring: So talk to me a little bit about when you actually did. Move into your first formal role as a people manager.

Where were you and what was the most challenging thing about that in terms of how you shaped and developed and really pushed people to develop themselves?

Banjo Castillo: So I think the first one was when I was a distributor manager in Unilever, and that was probably in my first 12 to 18 months. and the thing is with that, you’re not leading Unilever employees. You’re leading distributor personnel and I will be that’s quite a lot. So a distributor at Unilever will probably have 20 or 30 salesmen and supervisors. So one, you come in there young, straight from college and you’re expected to lead people that are.

Much older than you. And second, they come from very different education and social economic classes. You have been to a third-world country and developing country, and then you know, That is something you are completely aware of when you come there. That there, there might be, there will be differences in how, in your lives, how you were raised.

And that’s immediately there. But then you try to find commonalities, right? Everyone still wants, and still has the same aspiration, right? They want the best for their family. They’re working hard for their family. They wanna be the best version of themselves. There’s no one that I encountered that didn’t want that, except probably for very few exceptions.

So that was, I guess the first difficulty is getting the credibility to be a leader at such a young age and then leading people where, and you didn’t really share the same life, right? But then you need to find a way to. To really connect with them because unless you understand them, how can you develop them?

It’s but I guess like I said the natural curiosity that I had as a kid for okay how can we take this person from X to X and how can I be a part of that? Cause that’s what really gives me energy. So I think that’s what allowed me to really learn about their life, spend time with them and understand them.

And once you get to spend time with people and fight a few battles with them work-wise, they start to trust you regardless of your age. And you understand how to develop them. But that was the first difficulty. Young managers, straight out of college, most of them know about the distribution of consumer goods much better than you.

Alison Eyring: I really love showing curiosity. I think that’s just such a key part of building relationships with people, right? So it’s about asking questions and trying to find that common ground. Yes, for sure. I love that experience.

First of all, it’s a good example of one of the advantages of just getting thrown into a big role young, because suddenly you’re like so outta your league, you don’t know what you’re doing. You’re influencing or leading people who have twice as much experience as you. You have to establish your credibility.

So fast forward to the time then where you were now managing. People who were managing people. So what changed? Were you still in the Philippines? Was this, were you now somewhere else? What, what was happening, and now, what were the types of challenges that you faced in getting them to develop people faster?

Banjo Castillo: Yeah. My first role in leading people was when I was a director at Unilever Japan. So I guess that was the present. Double challenge. It’s the first time I did it because we’ve, previously, I was a senior manager, so I had a lot of people reporting to me, but I didn’t manage people that manage people.

In taking that role in Unilever, Japan, technically you had, I had at least two or three layers below, in a country that I haven’t worked in before. And so it’s a. It was a different challenge. So I think the first one as well, there is a different level of establishing credibility because I went there when I was 34, going on 35.

Most of my colleagues in the sales leadership team were probably 20 years my senior. To the point that probably some of my team members preferred not to bring me to meetings with customers because they had to explain a lot that this was really their director, not some tea guy that they were just but it was really, I grew a beard and all that thing.

No, but I think the first one there is to have, to show credibility that in spite of my age that there’s something that I can contribute. No, I didn’t pretend to be older than I was. I really showed, yeah, this is, I know there are some gaps and, I’m very happy to take advice and to be guided on those things.

I, but there are things that I do know, and I do wanna help with those things and I think that’s the first difficulty just establishing that age is not an issue. And then of course, yeah.

Alison Eyring: But I wanna know what you do? Because I think about, wow, that’s challenging. And I think that in so many countries I can think of where being much younger and being none of that culture could be challenging. What would be one thing you did that you think, ah, Hyatt would always give someone this advice?

Banjo Castillo: What I would do, one is to be patient with yourself. Something that I think I do.

I’m a very accountable person, and for six months I was really stressed. So because I felt I had to do something of value already within the first three to six months. That’s just for me. That’s always a standard for me that in the next first three to six months, I need to do something of value.

And if you’re coming into a culture and a leadership role where there are so many things that you need to learn you need to cut yourself some slack. Really, especially there, there are many factors that came in. It was my first director role, it was in a different country. I didn’t give myself any slack, so I was so stressed for two to six months.

And when you’re stressed, you’re not able to have the emotional or mental breath to actually do your job properly. So I think once I adjusted I think I was able to, I just focused on the people that were willing to give me a chance first. That’s what I am, that’s what I did. Like I knew there were two or three people in my team managers that, for some reason immediately trusted me.

I don’t know if I deserved that trust for the first three to six months, but nonetheless, I was able to, Just grab hold of it. And for those three to six people, three to two to three people, I just made sure that I showed them that I can really add value to them and that I am really there. Especially if you’re an expat and you go to a foreign country, they think you’re just there for three to four years and then you’ll go, what would really contribute to that country?

So I really wanted to make sure that is not the position I was in, especially for these two to three people. Okay, I’m here to think long-term. I don’t care if the fruit is not here when I go. As long, as you guys will be here, let’s plant it together. Let’s plant something that will be relevant to your career.

No. And then when those people saw that and they, it started to bear fruit, I guess more people trusted me. And then the two to three became, six, became eight, and then suddenly the whole team was able to do it. And probably in my after. Eight to 12 months, I really felt I was already hitting my groove.

That came from six months ago when I thought I didn’t add any value to the organisation to approaching my first year where I thought, actually we, our team did achieve something. We were able to grow leaders. But I’m particularly proud of Japan. I had four managers reporting to me, and they were all relatively young probably.

And once I was able to promote the fir, the youngest female manager in Unilever, Japan. I was, I’m particular and now she’s the sales VP of Unilever Japan. At that point, it was a bit controversial, but now obviously they saw that and. All the three people that were there, they’re now all part of the leadership team of that country, and I think that’s more what I’m proud of, that you plant things that will probably have fruit. Even after you, and I’m more, I’m really happy when I see that because then you know that you did something good for that person, or at least in some little way you helped in their development.

Alison Eyring: I love that.

I think you’re bringing this. The story of, or bringing the theme of stewardship in. And I love that line of thought. I started with the willingness and I think it’s so easy for people to fall into, I gotta prove myself. And I think that what you’re describing is finding people who are ready for you to help them, and then using that to demonstrate that you were trustworthy to the others as opposed to forcing yourself or making grand gestures or focusing on people that maybe weren’t doing as well. So I think that’s clearly quite strategic.

Banjo Castillo: Yeah, and I think that I just stumbled. I wouldn’t say it was because of wisdom. I guess I just wanted to start somewhere.

Alison Eyring: So I, you’ve used the word talked about fruit a few times and planted fruit. So I’m gonna fast forward because one of your roles was the, I think it was head of Dole, in the Philippines.

And so you were destined to be a country head. Actually, when I first met you, you were a country head for Singapore. 

Banjo Castillo: Yes. Of Unilever. 

Alison Eyring: For Unilever, yeah. So when you moved from managing with layers to actually running a business what then what were the challenges?

Because then, then you’ve got hundreds or thousands of people, you have so much more complexity. So you’ve really gotta be changing your tactics as a leader if you’re wanting to get that layer that’s reporting into you just to be rock stars in terms of growing talent and building capabilities.

So what’s your secret? What have you learned in those roles?

Banjo Castillo: Yeah. I think when I started to really lead businesses, as a CEO, as a GM as I think the first one is to, because then you, everyone looks at you already. The first one is really a mindset shift as an accountant as someone who’s really accountable.

I tend to blame myself for every outcome and obsess over it. One thing I had to learn the hard way because I led during the pandemic and there were many things that you couldn’t control or you didn’t know how to manage during the pandemic, and it is during those times that you. Especially if there are things that didn’t work, that used to work that you begin to question yourself.

And I think it’s a mindset shift that, because if you need to then change a mindset that as long as you’re. Able to be a better person tomorrow to today as compared to yesterday. If your team is a better team today than yesterday, if your organisation is the same way, you’ve taken that step forward and that step forward leads them to be a better organisation and such an achievement.

Better results through time, then some outcomes you just cannot attach yourself to. And the reason why I say that’s important is that if you don’t have that mindset and you attach yourself to outcomes and some outcomes that are hard to control, especially in this world where it’s so volatile and unpredictable, then you would tend to have swings in the way you lead emotionally.

And I think at that level, Emotional stability and consistency are important. And you cannot lead people. We can, when we cannot lead ourselves, you cannot develop people when you, that is something that you cannot do for yourself as well. So that is something I had to learn the hard way that in my mind, I needed, but I couldn’t attach.

Myself to those outcomes. I was blessed that for some reason, I was able to achieve my results excellently and I was promoted quite early in Unilever and so on now when I do the same thing, but if you get attached to that and you define yourself by outcomes, there’s gonna be, there’s gonna be that issue. So I think that is the first one.

The second one is to simplify messages. No, I just honestly, especially during the pandemic, then a lot of the communication was online. You need to be very clear about it, you need to find ways to communicate and help your team develop and, but not have too many messages for me in a year. I just choose three themes that I talk about.

I may have changed one of them because of what’s happening within the year, but essentially, Consistency with what you know now. So in simplicity what you want to land as a message.

But third, and I think it’s more something I’ve learned through this. I’m a Christian and I really am proud of my faith. No, and I really try I’m the same person whether at home or in my church, or at work.

So, because I also love developing people. I also always see people half full, always BE people half full. And there’s a pros and cons to that, Alison, and I think I need to accept that sometimes I give people too much slack.

I gave people too much slack, and as such, because. If I probably would’ve been honest with how to develop them. Okay, maybe it’s a mismatch. I need to move them immediately. Maybe this is really not the sort of role that is fit for them, or maybe this is not even the company that’s fit for them.

And because I just always saw it half full. I always try not to. Let’s try to develop this person. Let’s try to, and, but sometimes that doesn’t work. No, sometimes it’s a fit issue. It’s a role issue or it’s even, it’s a company issue and you need to accept that early because if you don’t, then the other people suffer.

And especially if you lead a business already, then that trickles down. The more you don’t make those decisions early on. The more it will affect the acceleration of the development of your team. So that is something I am very aware of now that I had to learn the hard way.

Alison Eyring: Wow, That’s a tough lesson.

I’m so interested that Now in your life, you’ve now continued to move into big and challenging roles. You’re also an investor and I’m so interested when you invest in companies often you’re investing in the person. So you’re someone who grew up and you were groomed and developed over years in large companies.

So what did, now, when you’re investing in a founder or in a startup, how is that shaping how you look at that person? How you see what, how you want them to be in terms of how they’re gonna build their team.

Banjo Castillo: I think just as a background, the venture fund that we started is called Archangel. The faith-driven investment community abroad, especially in the US, is already established, but in the Philippines, ironically, for a Christian nation. It’s not, so we’re the first fee-driven impact fund. And what does that mean? We wanna invest in entrepreneurs that not just not just focus on economic impact, but also social impact and spiritual impact.

That makes it harder to find those people, but that’s why we have a lot of focus on interviewing and getting to know the leader, the founder, the CEO, and the leadership team. Because ultimately we invest in people, as you said, a lot of what we invested so far are early-stage companies. 

So you’re investing in the person. So if the question is what we are certain is, at least the goal where they wanna go is first, the values are the same. The direction is the same. The destination may change. No, if the direction is the same based on the values, then even if some things are still unclear, the map is still unclear on how to get to where they want.

Or sometimes even the ultimate destination is unclear. But if we’re clear of the driver, We are aligned with the driver’s values and we like the direction in which he’s driving. We agree that this is the direction we can sort out the map to the ultimate destination later. So as an example of that, a goal we want is we want each archangel investment to help at least a million Filipinos to positively impact a million Filipinos.

That needs to be clearly aligned with the founder. That needs to be something that, oh, okay. That is not something that resonates with you, it doesn’t matter to us. If you’re the next big startup or the next big company, we won’t invest in you. This is not why we went here in the first place.

So that’s how we do it. We spend a lot of time asserting, making sure that the values are aligned and the direction by which they wanna lead the company is aligned. And then if there is also a natural willingness to learn, which is the third aspect. That’s also an important criterion. These are leaders that we invest in people, for example, we have a logistics company where the average age of the founder is 45 to 50 years old.

So they’re not young, but they still have a curiosity to learn. They still, when you ask them, do you wanna go, for example, learn about this, they do ah, I don’t need that. No. That in itself is once we have that we don’t invest in those people. It’s people that have the same values, we’re aligned with where they wanna go, and they still have a natural curiosity to learn more and develop themselves.

Because if they are that, if they are that way, then they can pour themselves. If people think that they’re full cannot pour onto others. So I guess that’s. How we do it. And I enjoy it because then I get to talk to so many of these teams, so many people, and now, similar to, aligned to my team of stewardship, right?

So I’m able to put my money where my mouth is, my money and my time to where my wife is that you want, I’m stewarding my own time and money, but also for them to influence them to do the same. For their own time and money and then pass it on, pass it forward, and pay it forward.

Alison Eyring: So you began your story and ended with a theme of stewardship and curiosity.

I wanna just ask you one last question. So on the journey, what has been the most important thing you’ve learned about yourself? In terms of being able to have an impact on others’ Ability to grow and change.

Banjo Castillo: Okay. I think one thing I learned is the importance of cultivating and maintaining relationships even across jobs, and even across the practice. I think that’s the only thing that you really do take for yourself after your long career. It’s the relationships you’ve developed, the friendships that you’ve had. You will forget all the targets, you’ll forget all the achievements, the awards, and it’s ultimately the relationships that you’ve built along the way that will mean something to you.

When you’re already retired and cannot work anymore. For me, there’s even another measure of a relationship. For me, the only lives are the only asset class that you can bring to heaven. All the other asset classes. Moth and Russell will destroy, but it’s lives that you can bring.

It’s the only thing. So in my mind, that’s something I learned from myself. But in the first part of my career, I was really focused on outcomes and promotion outward. Things because I was a competitive child and up to a certain point I realised honestly, that those are all meaningless.

I really wanted to focus on things that stand the test of time. And after, yeah, studying the Bible, studying life, and studying my experience it’s really relationships. How, and I really want to spend more time on that. And I want to have deep, meaningful relationships, and build more of that and spend my time doing that.

And yeah. And so far, when I had that shift in mindset it allowed me as well to be able to develop people more because you are more curious, you’re more empathetic, you’re more genuine, and you don’t see them just within the confines of when they relate with, when you’re working with them, because, Even after that, when you don’t have any, anything to do with them work-wise, they still contact you.

They’re still your friends, you’re still that’s a true measure of whether you’ve made an impact in their lives.

Alison Eyring: It’s a wonderful statement as a leader that lives are the only asset class that matters. I love that. Banjo. I loved having a conversation with you today. 

Banjo, thank you so much for your time, for sharing your stories and your experiences. I think it’s just great to learn from your experiences as a leader and a grower and a cultivator of others. Thanks so much.

Banjo Castillo: Thanks for having me, Alison. Really enjoyed the conversation and I do hope I was able to share something that people can learn from.

Our Guest: Banjo Castillo

Banjo Castillo is a seasoned growth leader with an inspiring story. Coming from humble beginnings, Banjo’s early life experiences fostered a natural curiosity and passion for helping others achieve their aspirations. With a career that started as a management trainee in sales and marketing for Unilever in the Philippines, he quickly rose to leadership positions, leading teams of various backgrounds and experiences. Banjo’s journey took him to different countries, where he successfully managed people, guided their development, and navigated the challenges of driving sustained business growth while bringing diverse people along. Join us as we delve into Banjo’s unique insights and learn from his remarkable leadership journey.