Hey, y’all! Brent Perry with Business on Purpose.
Do they know… who are they?
And what do they need to know?
Let’s talk about your employees. Basically, we want to know if your employees know what is in your head. Or a better question, are you on the same page?
I just finished a call with a client of mine (he’s a builder), and for the first time since we have been working together, we got his project manager on the call with us. Not the first time I have heard about him, but the first he was able to join us.
I have heard about him… a lot. I have written his name down in my coaching notes… a lot. I have taken calls from my client about this PM… a lot.
By now you can see where I am going with this.
My client is good at what he does. This project manager is good at what he does. But there was something off in their relationship.
The work being done was inefficient. They were slow to complete jobs. A job or two had to be revisited because of some simple oversights. The amount of trips to Lowe’s, simply baffling.
Again, they know what they are doing. But these misses were costing the company time and money. So the question we had to answer, what do we do?
After we chatted for a bit, it became clear…these two were not on the same page.
Now, if this story sounds familiar at all, it’s because at some time or another you as a business owner have probably felt this way. Actually, it would be hard to imagine if you haven’t felt this way. You have been there.
If you have been listening to Business on Purpose (via your coaches, podcasts, YouTube, etc.) you have heard us say that 2022 is going to be a year of flourishing.
Part of flourishing is being on the same page with your people. It is essential to your business. It is essential to you.
This client is indeed going to flourish in 2022! And for this to happen, he and his project manager need… no have to be on the same page. So where did we point him?
The first… vision! You must be able to communicate the vision of your business with your employees.
How do you do that?
Simple, weekly team meetings. They are essential.
A few excuses I have heard over the past few weeks from business owners when asked about why they haven’t been doing team meetings…
Let me stop us there. If you are running a weekly / effective team meeting… these excuses don’t even make sense. We would love to help you. We would love your feedback. We would love for you to be doing team meetings in 2022.
You will not regret it.
Thanks for listening.
If you haven’t done so already, subscribe to our Podcast, and/or our YouTube channel.
We mix our own SOIL and get it ready
FIRST: Schedule Time For People:
Howard Shultz, Starbucks CEO for so long said, “Want to build for one year from now, grow wheat... 10 years from now grow trees... if you want to build for 100 years from now... grow people”
REMEMBER: The product is a commodity, the process is the product, and the people are the linchpin... without people, there would be need for neither
We are not built for commerce... we are built for relationships... commerce is merely a stage by which relationships can connect, form, and thrive
Here is the reality... you are scared. It’s ok... just admit it. It can be awkward
We know in order to meet on the stage of commerce, we need to sync our calendars and actually shape our time to have the conversations that matter most
But we’re scared of…
Not saying the right thing
Not saying the right thing the right way
Not being sensitive enough
Being mocked... or being called out for not being sincere
Not having enough emotional energy to listen well
Having the implement another thing that you don’t have time for
That it could get out of control... I AM TOO
Imagine a Coach who busied themselves with administrative things (schedules, jerseys, tickets, etc.).... but never actually coached players?
2022 is the year that the Owners will make time in their schedule to be the Chief Training Officer of the business... doesn’t mean they are leading training sessions, but it means that they are making sure training and development is happening year-round!
How do we MAKE time?
BOP TOOL: That’s what the Culture Calendar is all about... its the reminder you need to do the things that matter most
SECOND: Optimize Process:
How do plants flourish? How do they grow?
A PROCESS... photosynthesis... the leaf acts as a solar panel drawing in the energy needed for all other parts of the plant
Here is what DOES NOT happen... Plant A only does 3 steps, and Plant B adds six additional steps today, but tomorrow will only do two of the steps
How do we optimize our process in such a way that it brings LASER CLARITY to our teams?
We will MAKE time to review our processes as we go!
How?
BOP TOOL - in our weekly team meeting agenda, we will have a 3-minute segment where we simply take a look at the Master Process Roadmap and see if anything needs updating
THIRD: Implement Accountability:
Kayce Dutton. A ranchman who grew up as the black sheep of a proud, but dysfunctional Montana family.
He once said, “ I’m always in a position where I need to kill or be killed”
His father John Dutton, played by Kevin Costner places nepotistic expectations on this lone ranger soul to be the male heir apparent to the family ranch. He often assists w/ his father's dirty work in the hopes of preserving their family's land.
After one particular fight, he responded this way, “I like having somebody to fight for rather than something. When you fight for a thing, the thing doesn’t care if you win or lose because the thing ain’t alive. But when you fight for people, they care..” - Kasey from Yellowstone
When we set parameters and schedule accountability... and then follow through on it… we are fighting FOR people instead of being distracted by things…
When you spend time with people... they care
Things don’t
Part of spending time with people is having honest conversations about
How they see the business living out its mission and values
What they are seeing and thinking
What blind spots they may recognize that you don’t
What they need from you
And what you see and need from them?
How do we do that?
BOP TOOL - that’s where we begin scheduling those brief, intentional, check ins with each person
Which leads to the L of SOIL...
Lifelong Learning:
When you ask, you learn
When you look, you learn
When you make time, you learn
When you are present, you learn
Learning requires pausing and listening... and more importantly MAKING time to learn and listen
Learning is passive (initially)... we have to learn to sit quietly in order to learn
None of these are skills that you were told were priorities when you start your business or started your job.
We live in a pedal to the metal society... go, go, go
We are back… as many of you are watching Yellowstone, like my wife and I. I always leave the show thinking. While it’s driven with action and filmed in the heart of a breathtaking landscape, it’s the dialogue and sometimes lack thereof, that drives the show and causes you to think.
So, we’ll dive back in here in a moment but just wanted to thank you for listening or watching. My name’s Thomas Joyner and I’m a business coach here with Business on Purpose.
If you haven’t seen this week's episode of Yellowstone, I am going to discuss a scene from it. So, if you need to pause this so you don’t freak out at me and get upset for spoiling a 30-second scene… that’s on you.
At the end of this past episode, Jimmy, one of the guys who’s kind of being redeemed over the past several seasons. Going from meth addict to miserable stable hand, and now sent to Texas to learn how to be a cowboy, is at the end of a long workday.
The last conversation with his boss, they’re sitting there watching someone work and he looks at Jimmy and says this. “Jimmy, if you really wanna be a cowboy… learn to rope.”
So that night, Jimmy comes home to his little bedroom. Eats the plate of dinner left for him and notices a rope on the wall. He picks it up, walks outside and pulls the little fake bull into the yard, and starts practicing.
As the scene progresses, it’s daylight. First throw with the rope? A miss. Second, a miss. Third, and fourth, and fifth. All misses.
This goes on for hours as it’s late into the night…more and more and more misses. Until finally, the last shot is him roping the bull and pulling it tight.
Now, what are we supposed to take from this?
What does some fictional former Meth head turned cowboy learning to rope have to do with you running your business?
I think it’s all about what work are you willing to do in private. What work are you willing to do when no one is watching?
THAT… is the work that truly matters. That truly gives you a leg up.
In the scene with Jimmy, they zoom out and there’s no one watching. No one encouraging him. It’s just him. Because he knows deep down that the only way to be the cowboy he wants to be is to put in the reps. To put the work in. To do the stuff that’s no fun and so far from any type of predictable success that it’s frustrating and downright discouraging.
So, what work are you willing to put in that no one may ever know that you do? Is it taking the time out of your week to pour over your books, your numbers, to make sure you’re making wise choices?
Is it the hard work of recording your systems and processes to be able to train your team in a repeatable and accountable way? Maybe it’s getting in to work before anyone knows you’re there to map out the day and logistically save your business money by getting everything organized.
Or maybe you, like Jimmy, just need to put in the technical reps to get better at your craft. To take rep after rep after rep knowing that there is no shortcut to success.
I think if I could take something from this scene, it’s that there’s no shortcut to success. No get rich scheme out there. There are businesses out there promising that you’ll crush it if you’ll follow this 5 step program. It’s all fake!
There is no shortcut. You have to pay the price and put in the reps.
But here’s the good news. The encouragement in all of this. One day instead of stringing together one success, it will be two. And then three. And then onward and upward.
I’ll never forget the story of Kobe Bryant before a scrimmage at the Olympics in 2008. He called his trainer at 4:15 am and asked him to come to the gym with him. Even though they had a noon scrimmage. So, they got in a 90-minute workout and Kobe told the trainer, he could head out if he wanted to.
The trainer left, went and got a few hours of sleep before the scrimmage and when he got back to the gym, he went up to Kobe to encourage him on a great workout that morning.
“Great job Kobe!” Kobe just looked at him and said, “Huh?” “Great job this morning. What time did you get back to the gym?”
Kobe just laughed. “I actually stayed here. I wanted to make 500 jumpers from the corner before I stopped and then just decided to make 800 instead.”
Kobe, a guy who was born with more talent than probably anyone, realized the value of putting in the reps while no one was watching. He didn’t just put up 800 shots, but actually MADE 800 corner 3s BEFORE a scrimmage to make sure he was prepared.
Because here’s what Kobe knew… and what Jimmy is in the process of learning in Yellowstone. You don’t rise to the challenge. That’s a myth. You fall to the level of your preparation.
What are you doing when no one is watching to raise your level of preparation to a place where everyone else notices when it’s time to perform?
That’s the important question.
Have a great day everyone!
Jessie, who has been the longest-serving team member at Business On Purpose, and started almost from the beginning, was sitting quietly staring to my left.
We were in the middle of a very familiar time, our formal weekly check in. It is a prescribed, 20 minute or so time where we stop what we are doing, and I ask four familiar questions of Jessie (and our other team members).
At the end of that time, I make a statement.
I had just asked the fourth question, “what do you need from me”, and Jessie thought for an unusually long time before saying anything.
Then she said this, “the second half of our mission is ‘making time for what matters most"... I feel like we do that with conversations like these.”
We chatted a bit more about the challenge of owners investing in their team, and the return they should expect.
What really caught our conversation was the reality that most owners likely don’t have a targeted plan of team investment outside of a couple of special events per year, and maybe some last-minute bonus items around the holidays.
We asked ourselves, “how do owners invest in their employees?”
In short, it’s likely the total opposite of what you think.
The bean bag chairs, free food, the team building... those are commodities and are meaningless without the true investment of at least these four items:
TIME
ATTENTION
REPETITION
IMPLEMENTATION
First, your time is a non-renewable resource which strikes at its value. The time I am spending writing this post is time that I will not get back, so I have to determine if it is worth the time writing.
Our mission is to liberate business owners from chaos to make time for what matters most. I believe this article will help liberate you from chaos, therefore it is a good investment of time.
Unfortunately, we often give our time to things that are time-wasters. The easiest way to determine the resourcefulness of your time is not necessarily looking at checklist-able productivity (although I do love a checklist), but instead determining if the task you are working on is aligned with your mission.
When you make time to spend with or for your team and their growth towards the vision, and mission of the business, that is time well spent.
Do a mental audit of last week, how much time did you actively (not passively) invest in your team?
Second, your attention is another non-renewable resource. Attention is bound directly with time. It is quite possible to spend time with an employee and yet your attention be elsewhere.
In order to fully give your attention to something, it is helpful to have mapped out what you wish to accomplish while with that person/place/thing.
Obviously, you can over schedule a relationship; but most of us are guilty of the opposite, having very little purpose for the engagement of our team.
The best, simplest, and easiest tool to put in place to aid with attention is to simply write a BASIC agenda for your time. How long, what will be discussed, what is the follow-up?
That’s it.
The check in discussion I referenced earlier follows a very basic outline and each of our team members knows exactly what I’m going to ask... because I ask them every week!
That leads to the third element of investing in your employees; repetition.
Zig Ziglar said, “Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.”
I’ll ask a business owner, “did you all start doing your team meetings (or whatever)?” More times than I care to remember the response is, “yeah, we tried that (once) but it didn’t work.”
Even untalented actors get gigs. Why? They repeatedly continued to ask long after the rest of us gave up.
Monster biceps come not from a long, extended 8-hour workout at the gym.
They come through long, extended 8-hour workoutS (plural) at the gym day after day. It may not be fun...but it is effective.
Finally, Joe Calloway says it best, “vision without implementation is hallucination.”
I have a Monday checklist that I work through each Monday morning. Some of the “tasks” on that Monday checklist directly impact our team members; small investments of time, attention, or repetition.
The Monday checklist does not pull itself up on my computer...it does not scream and yell at me for attention. The Monday checklist sits there lifelessly until I pull it up and use it.
Business owners... we must implement the tools we have access to.
There is no silver bullet, but there is time, attention, and repetition...if you wish to implement.
These four things make the bean bag chairs, the ping pong tables, and the team-building not a farce, but something of real value for your team.
Hey, y’all! Brent Perry with Business on Purpose.
So, what is your word for 2022 going to be?
As I am recording this, it is December 1st, we have officially made it to the last month of the calendar year. In a few quick weeks, we will be closing the books on 2021, and heading straight into 2022.
When I joined the Business on Purpose team earlier this year, one of the first questions Scott Beebe asked me was about “my word for the year.” Now I’ll be honest, I had never done a word of the year before, so I didn’t have one at the ready. It felt like a big decision, one word that would define the year ahead. I wasn’t sure where to start, or how to narrow down my outlook on the upcoming year to just one word. But nonetheless, I started the process.
I wanted first to take a look at what others had to say about choosing a word for the year...here are a few quotes I came across..
The website Mountain Modern Life says, “I don’t know about you, but I love the idea of choosing a Word of the Year vs. New Year’s Resolution because it helps bring focus and clarity to what we want to create in our lives.”
Elizabeth Rider says, “Use your Word of the Year to help guide your decisions and continue moving towards what you want.”
A different Elizabeth, McKnight, states, “The practice of choosing a “Word of the Year” is that, instead of setting a lot of different New Years Resolutions, you select one single word to be your focus for the year. You can use that word to set goals or intentions for each area of your life, but have them all tie back to the single word.”
There is even a popular website that has popped up recently around this idea...oneword365.com
So again, I want to ask you, what will your word for 2022 be?
I mentioned earlier that our Business on Purpose team takes this idea to heart. Some of our words for 2021 included…
Abundance
Heart
Explore
Disciplined Peace
Transformation
Embrace Normal
Each of these words holds a special place to us. A word that we can keep coming back to in the midst of this year.
So do me a favor today. Take a few minutes and pull out a pen and a piece of paper...yes we are going old school here. I want you to write it out. Take 3-5 uninterrupted minutes (phone on airplane mode, no music or podcasts, no calls or emails...just you and a piece of paper.
Jot down some ideas. Some thoughts. You can start with phrases or sentences. But look back over your year in 2021, and start to get some ideas of where you want to head in 2022.
Thanks for listening.
If you haven’t done so already, subscribe to our Podcast, and/or our YouTube channel.