My Business On Purpose

Why Is It So Hard To Find Employees Right Now

We sat down for an impromptu Happy Hour last week with a handful of our local clients.  The topic we thought was most relevant was “how do we manage material delays and price increases?”

After some BIG Wins (we always start meetups with BIG Wins), we then lobbed the topic for discussion.  Within five minutes, all of our business owner clients were knee-deep in conversation about a different challenge... employees.

We started to slowly guide them back to our selected topic, and again within another five minutes, they were shifted back to a deep discussion about... employees.

It’s true, the number one challenge most business owners deal with... employees.  

Go out to eat and you will feel what it is like for a small business to not have enough employees.  Business owners are having to go to new heights to find and keep employees.

The common thought is that the extension of unemployment benefits are leading to a lack of motivation for people to get back to work.  That may be true, but there are other reasons.  

The pandemic pushed a significant amount of employable people towards the idea of remote work.  I can think of a few people in my social circles who have moved to remote work exclusively.  

It’s hard to tend the bar remotely. 

It’s hard to manufacture plastics remotely.

It’s hard to sort produce, load trucks, and stock shelves remotely.

Is it that people want to work remote, or is it that they just want to work somewhere they enjoy?

According to greatplacestowork.com, “84% of employees at The Container Store say it is a great place to work compared to 59% of employees at a typical U.S.-based company.”

The Container Store is a collection of physical retail and warehouse locations that require primarily in-person job opportunities.  

How is it they have high satisfaction but offer very little remote opportunity?  It can’t be the product, plenty of other retailers sell organizational products.

The Container Store has a remarkable culture of communication.  You can see it played out on their unique blog standfor.containerstore.com.

One of the seven foundational principles (core values) for The Container Story is communication is leadership.  In other words, when you communicate, you are leading.  The inverse is true also, when you do not communicate, you are not leading.

Before you write off my statement “culture of communication” as cliche, stop.  

Here is my question for you.  How have you communicated the job opportunities that you have?

Typically, an owner will simply say, “I’ll go post an ad to see if we can find someone.”  When they do find a couple of random people, they are fast-tracked through a half-baked hiring process and then wonder why in six months the owner is ready to get rid of the new employee.

Before you go try to the find the right person or people, here are four pieces of communication you can set in place to lead through your own communication.

First, shoot a video explaining your mission and values.  Explain, in your own words, how you integrate your mission into your day to day.  Also, walkthrough and demonstrate how you actually use your core values in decision making.

This assumes that you both have and use your mission and unique core values.  

Second, write a letter explaining exactly what you are looking for, and what you are not looking for.  This letter will accompany your job description.

Here is an example of the opening section of a letter we wrote to accompany:

We’re hiring a Marketing Strategy & Campaign Manager because we can’t accomplish our mission to liberate business owners from chaos without one. 

We need someone to wake up every work day and ask “how can I use A) all of the amazing BOP tools and talent, B) the right available digital tools, and C) the right invitation tools to get 100 people each week into the ‘BOP Train Station’ so they can have the opportunity to be liberated from chaos?”

We believe that business owners can have a great business AND a great life.  The best way to have them make time for what matters most is to liberate them from the chaos that distracts them.

And that is where you come in!

Third, write a job description that actually walks through the details of the job.  Scrap the corporate nonsense that fills most job descriptions with words like self-starter, or detail-oriented.  

Based on the DISC profile, approximately 86% of the world has a passive personality (C and S personalities), they need a catalyst to help them get started on something.  Only 14% of people are active personalities (D and I personalities) who would have strong capabilities to be self-starters.

Also, only 17% of the population has a predisposition to a high level of details (C personalities).

Tell us what the job actually is.  Cut the corporate speak, and write so humans can read it and understand.

Finally, publish all of your communication.  Post it everywhere!  Have a dedicated page on your website to all of the tools mentioned above with a specific URL that can be shared across your media platforms (yourwebsite.com/nowhiring).

This page will host your video, your letter, your job description, and the process for hiring so it is transparent and available.

You have not because you ask not.  

Start asking OUT LOUD.  Communicate and you will begin leading people to be a part of the intentional culture you are building.  

There is only one kind of culture that happens accidentally, and it’s not a culture you want, although most opt for it.

Your other option is to find the right employees by communicating the right message.  Start leading before they are your new employee.

4 Key Steps Away From Chaos

Chaos... that ever-present foe (or friend) to some of you. How do you take much-needed steps away from it? How do you close the door on it and lock it out for good? Well, let’s talk about that today!

Happy Monday friends! Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here.

Every single sales meeting we do inevitably comes back to employees and sales. Every. Single. One. But what’s behind all of that? What’s really at the core, the root of the problem? Chaos. It just boils up and keeps us from training our employees as well as we should. We’re chasing revenue numbers and trying to meet sales quotas, so we never put in enough time to build out the necessary systems and processes to alleviate that chaos.

So what happens? It just sits there, staring us in the face and daring us to make a change. But we don’t. We just let it chase us around until we figure it out or burn out.

So, how do you leave chaos behind? How do you turn the corner and get above the noise? 

A few weeks ago we sent texts out to several of our clients to ask them that question. They are rocking the BoP Roadmap and the ones we texted are far enough along to have some perspective of how they got there. We sent them a simple text. 

“If you were to tell someone in one sentence how to succeed as a business owner, what would you say.” We were asking in the context of new Business on Purpose clients, but the message translates to any business.

Here are the top 4 answers we got:

1. Put in the work and show up.

We are asked all the time, “What’s so special about the Business on Purpose Roadmap?” Our answer? It’s packaged in a way that we can guarantee if you put in the work, you will see your business change. That may sound arrogant, but it’s getting to the point where we’ve seen it work with enough businesses... so we have the confidence to say that. Just like boiling water. If you put water in a pot and add enough heat, it will start to boil. If you have a business and put in the time on your vision, mission, values, delegation, recording, and training on processes, everything we coach. You WILL get above the chaos.

Here’s where that’s tough. You have to put in the work. We can’t do it for you! Just a few weeks ago I was meeting with a business owner who wanted to work with us. I asked him how much time he would have, outside our coaching, to work on implementing this. He couldn’t commit to any.

So... I told him we may not be the right fit. That’s right, turned down a sale. Because if you’re not willing to do the work, we don’t have a magic wand to wave over your business. It’s hard work, but it will succeed if you put in the work and show up.

Side bar there, if there’s ever a coach or consultant claiming a magic wand to cure your business? RUN THE OTHER WAY! It never happens outside of hard work.

1. Schedule time to work ON your business every single week, not just in it.

I was really proud of my client who texted back this one. Early on he struggled to find the time to work on his business. There were a lot of fires burning. A lot of things to do and spinning plates to keep in the air! He was a little frustrated at how slowly he felt like the ball was rolling, so I challenged him to set non-negotiable time to implement what we talk about every week. If he will commit to that for 2 months and it’s still not working, I’ll tell him to walk. No questions asked. The beautiful thing? He scheduled the time, never missed a meeting with himself to work on his business and the snowball is cruising downhill. He has an effective team meeting, he has a team leader that’s newly trained and crushing it as he leads in the field, and their finances are finally telling them something from subdividing their bank accounts and spying on their businesses money. 

It’s changed everything. But not without doing the work every week.

1. Implement quickly... don’t wait

This one seems like second nature. Like, why pay for the coaching if you’re not gonna insert this into your business. But we do this, right? We read self-help books and say, “Man, what a great book!” A year later, we can barely remember anything that stuck out about reading it. We go to a conference and listen to amazing speakers, but we don’t write it down and implement it, so it’s forgotten a month later. We remember the feeling, but there was no lasting impact. 

So to succeed in business, you have to LEARN AND IMPLEMENT. It’s why that’s a core value at BoP. The longer you wait to implement, the less chance it has to make any kind of lasting impact. Put in the work and implement today. This week. Now!

1. You get out what you put in, stop making excuses.

This one was one of my favorites because it was accompanied by another little quote. “Excuses are like butts... every business owner’s got one!” I love it! And it’s so true. Everyone has a reason why it’s not time for coaching or why they can’t seem to get free from chaos. But when was the last time you drew a line in the sand? When was the last time you were so sick and tired of constantly putting out fires that you did something about it and stopped with the excuses? We’ve heard them all! “I’m just too busy, I’ll jump on that when this slows down. We’re just in a busy season. I can’t find the right people. That doesn’t work in this industry. You just don’t understand!” Need me to go on?

No, freedom from chaos begins the moment you get sick of it enough to do something about it, get help, and get to work. It will never happen on its own.

So... which of those do you need to hang onto today? Are you sick of chaos? Ready to be free? Reach out, let’s grab lunch and get you started on your first steps of being liberated from the chaos. I can tell you after watching business after business dive in and taste freedom... it’s worth it!

Like I said, we would love to be a part of that journey for you. Make sure you’re following us on YouTube, listening to our podcast and let’s connect soon. Have a great week!

How To Make Work More Enjoyable For Employees

We were sitting by the fire when the phone call came around midnight.  On the other end were my son and a group of 17 and 18-year-old male voices practically shouting in unison saying, “You’re not going to believe this, we got Mr. B to do the worm in the middle of the dance floor!”

It was prom night, the final opportunity for these young men to slay the dance floor with their High School classmates, and they wasted no time making a night they would both remember, and joke about for decades to come.

Mr. B is the unpretentious and well-beloved principal of their High School, and yes, he succumbed to the pressure of a group of fun-loving Seniors and wormed his way into their hearts forever.  

A year prior to that night those same young men began developing a written plan for prom, what they would wear, what they would eat, where they would go before and after, and most importantly, the energy and dance moves they would bring to the dance floor.

One of the young men made this statement the next morning, “Like Sherman I came in and left destruction in my path... only mine was on the dance floor.”

The night was capped by the reality that their most unassuming and softest speaking friend would end up being coronated Prom King.

The after-party was a mix of acrobatic stunts still in tuxedo duds, an endless flow of food, long games of manhunt in the woods, crashing on air mattresses in an old shed, and then waking up to the delicious scattered, smothered, and covered delicacies of the always-open invitation to the Waffle House.

What of the Prom King? He decided to make his entrance to the after-party in running shorts, suspenders (no shirt), and his newly received Prom King Crown.  Of course, he did.  

These young men had fun.  

The type of fun you want to have.  Fun that builds a culture.  Fun that you want to remember.  Fun you want to share with others so they can enjoy a morsel of the fun.  Fun that breeds more fun down the road when you’re sitting around your own fireplace reflecting.

You push back saying, “well, that’s not my personality”.  That is where you are wrong.  Fun is not reserved only for those who are considered to be “fun”.  

Fun is not a scarce commodity.  Fun can spark at any moment.  You could even stop and have fun right now.

You could listen to a Jim Gaffigan joke and belly laugh... right now.

You could think about your most embarrassing moment and belly laugh... right now.

You could pull a goofy prank on a family member or teammate and belly laugh... right now.

The English word for fun has its roots in an old French word amuser meaning to stupefy, waste time, gape, wander, loiter, be lost in thought.

Jeff Campbell encouraged me to be “intentionally wasteful” every now and then.  That is what fun is.  

Of course, fun is not our continual state in life, but it is something we should certainly make more time for.

Here are a few ways you can begin to incorporate more fun into your day to day.

First, schedule fun.  Putting an activity on a calendar feels like it cheapens the sincerity of the activity.  It’s not true.  Think about the National Football League.  They schedule their fun every Thursday night at 8 pm, Sundays at 1 pm, 4:25 pm, and 8:20 pm, and Monday nights at 8 pm.  

An example of scheduling fun in a business is to start each team meeting with BIG Wins; something fun, interesting, or special that has happened in life or business that is worth sharing.  Every time our team shares BIG Wins we always end up laughing along with one of our team members following something they share.

Also, put dates on the business calendar to go do something different... something fun.  A make time to plan for those dates.  Not just classic team building, but even a one-day training each year where you inject some light-hearted fun in the day.

Shoreline Construction recently had their annual offsite team training that was loaded with learning and laughter.

Coastal Shores Landscaping did the same and the room was filled with smiles!

Those High School Seniors made a plan and they haven’t stopped talking about the results.

Second, give yourself permission to be intentionally wasteful.  The intention makes it purposeful, the wastefulness allows you to not be productive for a while.  

For a productivity hound like me, the permission to intentional wastefulness is hard.  It helps that I am married to a lady who knows that I struggle with intentional wastefulness and will often just nudge me and say, “Hey, enjoy... it’s ok.”

Time is a scarce commodity, but it does not require perfect efficiency.  

Third, spend more time with fun people.  This is not a call for you to surround yourself with who live life steeped in mindless immaturity.  Jim Gaffigan is by far my favorite comedian on what is a very short list, and what to us sounds like goofiness is actually the product of hundreds of hours of thought, script, practice, rewrite, edit, practice again, and deliver.

Comedy is hard and requires mature discipline.

The most ineffective comedians are the ones who lace their comedy with profanity and crass thoughts.  Creating comedy with immaturity is easy, but not very funny.  Creating comedy with maturity is hard, but ragingly hilarious! 

We assume that someone is naturally funny and simply stands on stage and cracks whatever jokes happen to populate their brain the moment.

Jim Gaffigan's entire stand-up routine is deeply scripted, in fact, his wife is often the writer of the majority of his comedy bits.  

Being fun may feel hard to you.  Surround yourself with fun people who share your same values and work hard to have fun... and to be funny.

While many students made different, and in some cases, regrettable decisions on prom night, the group of young men who shredded the dance floor decided to surround themselves with fun friends who share the same values...and it led to a fun night they wish to remember.

So here is your challenge.  Go throw a frisbee today.  Go google a joke and share it with your friends, your family, or your team members.  Give yourself permission to laugh, to have joy, to loosen up a bit, and to be lost in some goofy thoughts.

By the way, my favorite Jim Gaffigan bit?

“I like to make people comfortable... that’s why I would like to talk to you about Jesus.”

First time I heard it, I cried... and smiled.  Maybe you will too.  Here is the bit starting at 00:17.

Do You Have The Time?

Hey there, Brent Perry with Business on Purpose. Happy Friday. I hope whenever you have stumbled across this video you are doing well.

I ran across a quote from Laura Vanderkam this week, “Do you not have time or do you just not want to do it? There is a difference! Blaming time for what you aren't prioritizing doesn't complete tasks.” I ran across this quote as I was studying because I was having several conversations around time management and weekly schedules this week, and this idea really got me thinking. What kind of time are we prioritizing? 

In college, I fell in love with ultimate frisbee. I grew up playing every sport you could think of and played baseball all through high school. So when I got to UT frisbee was something new. Something exciting. Something fresh. I was in. And I remember one night as I was cramming for an accounting exam the next day the text came through…” frisbee at rocky hill tonight?” Now you should also know that up to this point I had procrastinated, and this was the first night I was opening the books to study for this exam. This decision really was a no-brainer. I had put off studying, and now I was going to miss out on something I loved because I hadn’t managed my time. But, alas, I just couldn’t help myself. Ultimate frisbee was calling, and I had to go. So I went and played, for hours. Had a blast. Came home, tried to pull an all-nighter, and got up the next morning went to my exam, and walked out with a C-. It really could have been worse, but not my finest moment as a student.

The truth was, I just didn’t want to study. I had the time. There was nobody or nothing to blame but myself and my lack of time management. Again, Vanderkam’s quote, “blaming time for what you aren’t prioritizing doesn’t complete tasks.” The task at hand wasn’t completed. 

In sharing this story, I am sure that most (if not all of you) can relate to this story from some point in your life. And I hope that as we have gotten a little older, maybe a little wiser, that we can learn from these times. Especially when it comes to the businesses you run and work in. How is your time management? How is your schedule? 

Are you making the time for all that matters? Are you making time to work on your business and not just in your business? 

Our hope is that you have a weekly schedule, an ideal weekly schedule if you will. One that allows you to focus on your business and those tasks that you need to get done. 

Do me a favor...look at your week. Monday through Friday. And let’s start filling in some time. Start with the “big rocks.” The non-negotiables. Maybe that's a weekly workout you need in your life. Maybe that’s taking your kids to school. It probably involves specific roles in your work that need to get done. And let’s get those down on paper. 

An easy place to start, write out a calendar for next week. Write out the non-negotiables. And then use some space to write in time to work on your business. 

Ask yourself, do you have the time? Or do you just not want to do it? This will help you as you move forward, and begin to work on delegation in your business.

Thanks for your time... literally! 

Have a good weekend. 

Four Ways To Deal With Material Shortages And Price Increases

In the third month of building out our Ram Promaster van as an off-the-grid getaway camper, I walked into our local home improvement store and gasped out loud.

A ¾” sheet of Oak plywood was $65 (USD).  An 8’ section of poplar wood was $40 per board.

Ouch.  

For an amateur just learning how to do basic woodworking and sure to miss-cut, these would mean some expensive experiments.  No longer was it measure-twice-cut-once... but instead, measure for an hour and cut (hopefully) just once, and sometimes twice.

We spend much of our day with business owners and key leaders in the contracting, services, and supply industries and it did not take long to start reviewing their bids to customers and realize that $250 per square foot pricing was rapidly increasing to $300 and $400 per square foot in our area.

A perfect storm of production cuts in anticipation of COVID increased demand of services during COVID, and the intracontinental migration of people from more-restrictive to less-restrictive geographies has led to a class increase of demand and a decrease of supply.

Restaurants are running slower with longer wait times due to a shortage of staff.  Architects are running slower with longer start times due to a glut of new projects.  Builders are running slower with longer supply delays due to material shortages.  Landscape construction providers are running slower with challenges finding both labor and material.

In a study in classic macroeconomics, supply and demand are dancing reluctantly like two kids at an awkward seventh-grade winter dance.  

When demand is the lead with supply weakened, business owners have the uncertainty of getting the time and materials to complete the work.

When supply is the lead with demand weakened, business owners have the uncertainty of finding work.  

In this time of massive demand with struggling supply, how do we deal with unpredictable material shortages and price increases?

Here are four tools in the toolbelt of a purpose-centered owner... 

First, communicate with your team and your customer.  

How many times have you sat in an uncomfortable airplane seat while the aircraft rests still on the tarmac with no rationale as to why it is not moving?  Although we are grateful to have the benefit of air travel, it is made less frustrating with information. 

Pilots have access to an amazing amount of information and yet consistently (not always... but often) withhold the information from the tens or hundreds of people sitting blindly in the back of the aircraft.  

Sometimes a simple, “We’re still gathering information and I will be back with you in 10 minutes for an update whether we know anything new or not.”

Communication is a powerful tool even when the communication is “I don’t know.”

Be thoughtful in your communication, don’t be hasty.  Your team members and your customers are your partners, without them, you do not have a business.  Without you, they do not have the valuable service you offer.

Second, grow your cash.

Recently, Rick Steves was interviewed by Guy Raz on the powerful How I Built This podcast.  Raz acknowledged to Steves that his multi-million dollar travel business had to have been decimated by COVID.  Steves agreed, and was then asked by Raz how he maintained his staff?

Steves responded by saying that he kept his entire staff of 100 people with virtually zero revenue for the entire year of 2020.

Raz pressed and asked how, Steves said simply, “We had a good 30 year run as a privately held company and I saved up cash.”

Steves’ cash reserves have provided options.  

Business owners are susceptible to obsessive tax advice that encourages minimizing how much taxes are paid by purchasing unnecessary assets.

If legitimately needed, then these can be beneficial purchases.  Just remember, when you spend that cash you a) likely pay a premium for whatever it is you purchased, b) you must now pay to maintain that purchase, c) and you no longer have access to the cash used to make the purchase and used to maintain the purchase.

Access to your own cash, even though you have to pay taxes on it, can be a powerful hedge against the uncertainty of material shortages and price increases.  Review your cash position with a qualified CPA who is not obsessed with buying a bunch of year-end distractions.

Third, ensure your contract language clearly spells out what happens in the wake of material shortages and price increases.

For many industries, there is a gap between the time a contract is signed and when work is performed.  Markets and materials fluctuate daily.  Some vendors have price locks and some don’t.  It obviously helps to communicate the consequences of such changes up front.   

We know of one builder who had recently removed the price fluctuation clause from their contract months prior to COVID because they felt it was a barrier to clients feeling comfortable.

And then the prices started to increase and a $1mm home was now $1.4mm.  You can imagine the shock to the clients.  They immediately called all of their active clients under contract and explained the situation, the removal of the clause, the reality of materials and labor.  Fortunately for them, each of their clients agreed to move forward.

They caught a huge break... but I would not press my luck.  Review your contract language with a qualified attorney.

Finally, be a student of your industry (aka - don’t be so head down in your business that you miss the macro-view that will affect your business).

Building a business on purpose means building a business that you work on and not a business you work in.  Working on the business means that you study trends, talk to industry peers, know the flow of supply and support.  

Where in your weekly schedule do you have time blocked to study the industry?  To attend events?  To network with other owners and key influencers?

Supply and demand are constantly slow dancing in a burning room (thank you John Mayer).  Let’s not be surprised when one of them trips and falls.  Instead, let's prepare now.

Why Do I Feel Busy, But Not Productive?

She was sitting across the conference room table about to take on another task and then finally sat back, looked up, and let out an exasperated sigh.

The only words she could seem to muster were, “why do I feel busy, and still seems like I get nothing done?”

In other words, why do I feel busy, but not productive?

It is a frustrating reality for many owners and key leaders.

Owners feel it when they are slow to delegate, or sit with the quiet sentiment of “it’s just easier to do it myself.”

Key leaders feel it when they are inundated with abdicated tasks, and sit with the quiet sentiment of “why can’t we just get more help to handle all of this work!”

Busy has become a badge of honor, suffering, and importance.

What if you struck the word busy from your response when asked how you are doing?  We say it all of the time.

“How have you been?”  Your response, “busy”.

Looking back on the use of busy in written history, Google NGram Viewer shows that the word has seen two spikes.  The first was around the 1920’s and seems to be in response to the Industrial Revolution and the incessant work life of the factory laborer. 

The second spike in the word “busy” started back in the 1980’s as the efficiency-laden personal computer technology revolution began in widespread earnest.  The use of the word continues to rise.  

To be busy is to simply have a lot to do.  Busy says nothing of effective, impact, positive, negative, helpful, or hurtful.  Busy is not good and it is not bad... it’s just busy.

It is entirely possible, dare I say the norm, to be busy and yet to not be effective.  To be busy and to not be valuable.  To be busy and to not be productive.

Much of our busy-ness is an exercise in simply in busy-ness, and not in activity that is leading us towards a defined vision.

So why do we feel busy, but not productive?

Three reasons.

First, you do not know that ultimate vision behind the work you are doing.

This one is easy to overlook.  We all assume that we are all headed in the same direction.  Without a constant reminder of the endgame, the finish line, the vision, then we fill the vision void with our own, competing personal visions.

A business without a written, and oft reviewed vision is a business that is filled with as many visions as there are people.

Imagine a misaligned military where each member is left to choose their own mission.  

Ask yourself, and ask your team, “do you know where we are headed?”  If they do, then keep repeating it.  If they do not, then write it down, share it, then keep repeating it.

Second, you feel busy but not productive because you have little to no boundaries.

I recently heard Lance Golinghorst articulate that we all have access to three major scarce resources: time, energy, and attention.

Attention is indivisible.  It is well researched that multitasking doesn’t work.  As I am writing and reading this, I should not be brushing my teeth or checking my bank balance.

Energy is renewable (I can generate more energy), and transferable (I can give you energy and you can give me energy).

The real wake up call is in regard to our time.  Time is non-renewable (we cannot make more of it), and it is not transferable (you cannot give yours to me).

You go into each week with a defined, finite allotment of time.  Either you put boundaries throughout your day roping off all of the tasks and responsibilities, or we will do it for you.  

If you do it, it allows you to maximize your scarce resources of time, energy, and attention.  If we do it for you, then we will devour your time, energy, and attention.

You can make excuses as to why it won’t work in the specific role you are in.  We love you, but your role is not a special unicorn or snowflake.  Own your role by owning the boundaries for your role and then share those boundaries with us so we can support you.

The third reason you feel busy but not productive is because you have yet to disappoint the unrealistic expectations of others.

You think that we expect you to drop everything to pay attention (one of your scarce resources) to us.  There is one thing that you can do to allow us to extend an unlimited amount of patience around your boundaries.

Communicate.

Communicate your boundaries.  Communicate your delays.  Communicate your completions.  Communicate your expectations.

We have unrealistic expectations of you because we assume you are at our beck and call.  Instead, communicate with us that in fact, you are at our beck and call…

“... between 2 pm and 5 pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.”

Then, on those days and times, communicate with us.

Do not focus on the rare exceptions to this truth like the time a customer called you in a panic at 11 pm because they had to know the answer now.  Does that always happen?  No.

Know where you are going, why you are going there, create boundaries with your weekly schedule, and communicate.

Soon you will begin to feel productive, but not busy.

How Do You Handle Conflict In The Workplace

Let me paint a picture for you... you walk into work, look to your left and the admin won’t lock eyes with you. You walk into the break room to grab a donut, no one’s talking in there. You sit down at the team meeting and it’s quiet as everyone is looking at their phones. What happened to our team? We used to laugh a ton and all get along, but for some reason, we can’t seem to move past all of this conflict. 

Does that scenario sound familiar at all? Ok, maybe it’s a bit dramatic. Maybe everyone’s not avoiding each other’s stares. But, I don’t think I’m that far off. Are there situations that are off-limits to talk about? Maybe jokes that are a bit too close to home and when they’re made everyone kind of awkwardly laughs?

Maybe there’s that suggestion at the meeting for the boss and you start to see some steam leaking out of one of his ears? I don’t know what it looks like in your business, but I know one of the constants in every business is conflict!

So, how do we typically deal with conflict if, and when, it comes up?

Most people do one of 3 things... ignore it, take it on too directly and run over everyone in their path, or take it on just enough to make it go away in the moment, but never fully deal with it.

I’ve actually seen this with multiple businesses I’ve worked with recently. There’s always that one person the owner says, “Oh, well, I can’t say that to them.” My response is always, “Why not?” 

We go back and forth for a bit, but it almost always comes back to conflict that was ignored and never dealt with. It’s created this “No Fly Zone” that everyone steers clear of and has to walk on eggshells around.

Or maybe you take it on too aggressively. Maybe you, as boss or supervisor, shut it down immediately, raise your voice and humiliate the person in front of the team. Proving you’re the alpha and they are not, But what did you do in that situation? You lost all chance of them ever wanting to follow your leadership willingly. You bred discontentment and resentment in the workspace and a culture of shame. That’s NOT what we’re going for.

You see when conflict happens, and it inevitably does... most of us react. We move past it or move in too quickly. We have a knee-jerk reaction based in emotion that we normally regret later on and realize that it was in no way productive for our team or our business. Instead (React or Respond), we should focus on responding. Surveying the issue at hand in the conflict, analyzing the best response, keeping emotion at bay, and dealing with it in a level-headed manner.

This React VS Respond battle is waging a war in our country right now. Typically something happens and everyone jumps on one side or the other of an issue before taking any facts into consideration. They React... and whoever shouts the loudest gets heard.

What our business needs is time spent responding. Thoughtfully, to whatever happens.

There’s a great verse in the Book of James in the Bible. It says this…” Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.”

“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” Now, I don’t know about you, but how many of you, if someone asked your friends or coworkers about you, think that those words would be used to describe you? I’d wager not many of us.

No, so often we’re the exact opposite. We’re caught in this Reaction mode of never truly listening because we’re too busy thinking about our rebuttal or thinking about how we’re going to respond. So we never hear the other sides thoughts to be able to empathize. 

Slow to speak? Come on Thomas I have things to say! I’m the boss, I’ve earned the right. Well, yes that’s partly true. You’ve earned the right to respond in a healthy way that builds your team up. Not to just berate and belittle out of emotion. 

Slow to become angry? “Well, you don’t know what they did. You just don’t get it. You don’t know what their mistake cost me!” That’s true... I don’t. But I do know that our businesses are made up of people, that represent families and they deserve to be treated as such.

Quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Man, I can’t help but think that if we adopted those words right there, our businesses would culturally change almost overnight. 

Now, here’s something I get really often... especially with the popularity rising of things like the Enneagram or the DISC profile tests. 

I’ll hear people say, “Thomas, I can’t help it that’s just the way I’m wired. I’m an 8, a challenger, you know?” Or “I’m a D on the disc profile, so I’m just direct!” 

Look, being an 8 on the Enneagram or a D on the disc does not give you permission to be a jerk. It just doesn’t. Learn some self-control and watch your employees and coworkers respect for you grow. When they know you could blow up, but you choose to respond, man that’s next-level leadership.

Or on the flip side…” Thomas you don’t get it, I’m a 9 on the enneagram. I’m just a peacemaker...I can’t say that! I don’t have it in me.”

Well being a peacemaker doesn’t mean you can shy away from leadership. It means that for the betterment of your team, sometimes you have to respond and have hard conversations and not just internalize it. It’s what your team needs.

So, where is conflict crippling your team? Are you ignoring it and pretending it’s not there? Are you going over the top and steamrolling everyone? Or maybe doing just enough to sweep it under the rug and hope it goes away on its own?

That’s no way to lead. Are you someone who Reacts? Or someone who takes their time, surveys the facts, and responds in a way that leads your team towards a healthy conflict resolution?

I know conflict is coming. Choose to Respond the right way and I promise you the culture will change for the positive and the workplace will be an enjoyable place to come every day.

Hey, thanks for listening! I hope you’ll take a minute to subscribe to our YouTube channel and Podcast. We have 4 coaches adding content to that every week now, so enjoy!

Have a great weekend...

Choose your hard

One of the conclusions I’ve come to over the last year of being a business coach... is that everything in the business world is hard. Nothing comes easy. Especially this year in the midst of a pandemic! It’s all really, REALLY hard... managing employees, staying on top of your numbers, scheduling, estimating, selling, HR, getting sleep, getting time with your family, all of it!

So what do we do with that? How do we figure out what to make of that? Well, let’s talk about it today, happy Friday Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose here.

I was zoning out after putting my kids to bed this week and just scrolling along on Facebook seeing what was up in the world and I saw a quote that forced me to read it a handful of times. 

This is what it said.

“Relationships are hard.
Divorce is hard.
Choose your hard.

Being Overweight is hard.
Being fit is hard.
Choose your hard.

Being in debt is hard.
Being financially disciplined is hard.
Choose your hard.

Communication is hard.
Not communicating is hard.
Choose your hard.

Life will never be easy. 
It will always be hard.
But we can choose our hard.

Pick wisely.”

Man! Let’s unpack so much of the truth in those words. I think so often, we feel like we’re missing the boat because work is hard. Or life is hard. We think for some reason we missed a turn or made the wrong decision because it’s hard.

Hear me say this... the hard doesn’t make anything you’ve chosen wrong! In fact, oftentimes it may mean that you’ve made a wise choice! 

Life is going to be tough, but it’s the tough that you choose that defines your direction in life. 

And it’s no different in business. Business is tough. It will always be tough, but we have the choice to decide which hard we want. We can be fully intentional to choose a hard that is worthwhile.

Think about this. 

Running a business with no direction is hard.
Running a business based on vision, mission and values is hard.
Choose your hard.

Trying to do it all yourself is hard.
Delegating and training your team to own their role is hard.
Choose your hard.

Going through your week haphazardly is hard.
Facilitating meaningful team meetings is hard.
Choose your hard.

Building a business absent of systems and processes is hard.
Building and recording systems and processes is hard.
Choose your hard.

Running a healthy business without knowing your numbers is hard.
Staying on top of and tracking your numbers is hard.
Choose your hard.

Work is hard.
Building your business into a work worth doing is hard.
Choose your hard.

You see, we don’t get to decide whether or not business is hard. Don’t believe me? Well, can you tell me the last time you heard someone say… ”It’s just kind of been a breeze recently, I don’t know what everyone else complains about. This entrepreneurship stuff is cake!” No! It doesn’t work that way.

But we can choose what matters. We can lean into the hard that we want to choose. And we can build a business that has real impact in everything it accomplishes, knowing full well the hard that will happen along the way.

That’s life-changing stuff y’all! Spend some time today, choosing the right hard things! Don’t get nervous when things get hard. You didn’t mess up? Or maybe you did and you need to course correct. THAT’S OK! But don’t make the mistake of stumbling along with no direction. 

Choose your hard. 

Hey, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and podcast if you haven’t already. It’s been described recently as “going to business church!” 

Ha! I love it. Hope you enjoy.

Can You Answer This…” What do you want to be remembered for?”

Thoreau’s quote while living near Walden Pond for two years, two months, and two days has been rightfully recalled and repeated amidst the noise of the past five to ten years, “most men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

A really famous lady died last year.

A really rich guy died the year before that.

A really successful lady died the year before that.

Did any of them matter?

The more modern poet John Mayer thinks through his checklist in his song Something’s Missing:

“Friends, (Check), Money, (Check), Well slept, (Check), Opposite sex (Check), Guitar (Check), Microphone (Check), Messages waiting on me when I come home (Check)...How come everything I think I need, always comes with batteries?”

We have all of the stuff and yet we still seem so unsatisfied and obsessed with more.

It is said that when the acclaimed “father of modern management” Peter Drucker was in school, he had a teacher who gave his entire class a profound question, “What do you want to be remembered for?”

The teacher at the time told the young class of teenagers that it was ok if they were not able to answer the question immediately, but that if they could not answer the question by their forties, then their life would have been wasted.

Could you answer that question?  What do you want to be remembered for?

Let me ask another way, what do YOU want to be remembered for?

Not what the loudest voice in your life wants from you...but what do YOU know that you have been built to do even if those things are not the most commercially lucrative offering?

Even if you will be seen as an “outsider”.

C.S. Lewis was speaking to a group at London College in the 1940s and likened the constant striving of a person towards the expectations of others to an onion peeling contest saying, “You are trying to peel an onion: if you succeed there will be nothing left.”

To the outsiders, Lewis goes on to lend them courage saying, “Until you conquer the fear of being an outsider, an outsider you will remain.”

The irony?  Being an outsider is only true to those who are not following their God-designed calling and are trying with all their misdirected might to do what is popular... and constantly following short.  

These battles are solved if we are willing to put in the hard work of answering the simple question lobbed to a group of teenage students, “what do you want to be remembered for?”

This is such an important question to have a written answer for that we will begin to have every business owner we work with answer this.  

Three reasons you should answer this question in writing.

First, the answer to this question will color and guide every decision you make in the all important “back half” of your life.  You do not have time to waste.

At the time of this writing, Ashley and I are 48 days away from cheering on our second child as he departs for life beyond our home.  The speed of time is punishing.

Second, the answer to this question will influence the people who matter most to you.  

Can you imagine if you held a piece of worn paper in your hands with the handwriting of your great-grandmother or great-grandfather describing what they hoped to be remembered for?

It would be a relic to be cherished and possibly guiding wisdom to provide clarity as you pursue what you want to be remembered for.  At minimum, you would be grateful for the effort they gave.

We all wish to have some impact on the people in our lives who matter most.  Being intentional about knowing what you wish to be remembered for will allow you to align decisions with that desire.  

Finally, the answer to this question will lead you to a life less inhibited by widespread fear and more in line with a life of purpose.

We want to matter.  We want our work to matter, our family to matter, our children to matter, and our own lives to matter.

What does it mean to matter?  We know what it is not.  Mattering is not general success in societal metrics (your net worth, your work title, your number of social media followers).  

To matter is to live out what you were built and designed to do.  That is what you need to find because that is what you will wish to be remembered for.

Lee Iacocca, the famed automotive executive who brought Chrysler back from the brink reflected, “Here I am in the twilight years of my life, still wondering what it is all about...I can tell you this, fame and fortune is for the birds.”

May you not be a business owner or key leader who arrives to your twilight years still wondering what it is all about.  May you instead be a thoughtful soul who had forethought and intentionality in knowing what you wish to be remembered for and then align your remaining days with that aim.

How To Hire The Right Person... Even When You Can’t Find People To Hire

Never have I seen so many “Now Hiring” signs on the side of massive manufacturing plants, in the front windows of bistro shops, and permanently wrapped on the side of service trucks.

Ashley and I were on a date weekend and three places that we went to eat were all noticeably short-staffed.  In one local public house, with around 30 tables and a full bar available, they had one, non-kitchen staff working... one.

We all tipped her well, helped serve ourselves, and cheered her on but the realization hit.  Regardless of cause it is hard to find good people right now.

Meeting us at the front door of another restaurant we visited was a smiling hostess who, after some conversation, was laughing that the only reason she was there is because her friends work there and called her last minute to see if she could come help “seat people”.  She technically was not on the payroll.

The vision of our business is calling for growth and growth is calling more people but how do you hire the right people when you can’t find any people to hire?

Someone told me last week, “INDEED (the online job posting site) must be making a killing right now!” 

Probably so, and yet finding and hiring the right people seems to be killing us.

What do we do?  Where do we find the right people?  How can we get good people to buy in to our great mission and provide an exceptional service?

I’ve got hard news, and even harder news...and yet there is hope.

The hope is this, people are still people and people migrate towards experiences they find fulfillment in. 

The good news is that the bar is low right now for business owners creating a fulfilling work experience for people to migrate towards.

The other bit of good news is that people are still people and people are social...they want to share things with others they know.  But the things they share must be remarkable...worth remarking about.

How can you create a remarkable culture that a very small group of people will be attracted to and then go and invite their friends?

This is the hard news...it ain’t easy, but it is doable.

Let’s take this in two parts.  Part one, creating a remarkable culture.  Part two, finding the right people to come join your remarkable culture.

Starting with part one, how do we create a remarkable culture?

For many, it means ping pong tables, free sodas and snacks, cadillac-style benefits, and unreasonable perks that do more to promote not-working than aligning great people to do great work and lock in on a collective mission.

Culture has very little to do with ping pong tables and Reese's Pieces.  

First, in order to have a great culture, you simply must have written and installed structure.

Noise and shifting foundations are the new landscape for our society.  We are being encouraged to each have our own worldview.  It is a curious thought that after deliberation leads to the realization that society cannot function without agreed upon collective structure.

Too much structure leads to dictatorial rule, too little and truth becomes relative, and stop lights become suggestions rather than law.  

In business, structure equals written vision, mission, values, process roadmaps, job roles, org charts, hiring and onboarding processes, and consistent communication hubs like team meetings and daily huddles.

Bad cultures are built (yes, bad cultures are actually built) by business owners who say they have structure, and then disregard the structure.  

Second, in order to build a great culture, you must repeat and maintain your structure over time.  

Built by leading your weekly meeting...every week.

Built by working your hiring and onboarding process...every time.

Built by reviewing your mission and values...at every gathering, at every sales call, on every page of your site.  Talking about them in real conversation when you rise up, walk around, and lie down.  They become engrained.

Built by showing up to your huddle...every time.

Bad culture is built by saying you will do this, and not showing up.

Culture is created through the intentional planting of either the right or the wrong ingredients...it is your choice.

Culture is not reformed in a retreat, or after a two-week strategy period with a culture consultant.  Culture responds directly to the effort you apply to the systems and structure you create.

Ashley and I want to be married for a long time so we put a series of structure in place that facilitates connectedness in our relationship like dating weekly and getting away quarterly.  You could say, “that’s not love if you have to schedule your relationship!”

I’m not sure it’s love if you don’t intentionally schedule it.                                                     

Part two, how do you find the people to come join your culture?

First, KNOW the job role you are asking people to commit to and KNOW the processes you are asking them to do.

A good job role will be a simple outline of all the tasks and processes you are asking that person to commit that is tied directly to the vision of the business and the mission that binds you.

A good role must also be written down and shared.

Second, start with your connections and not with a global blast for people.

This will not always work and yet it must be the first place you start.  After you have written your job role...share THAT job role with your friends and relationships.  Ask, “who do you know who would be great at the items on this role...AND would buy into our mission?”

In order for them to know the mission to buy into...it means you must first know it and share it.

That’s right, share your mission with your friends and networks.

Third, when you have team members who are buying in, ask them who they know who would fit the mission.  If they don’t invite people then it may be an indication that they aren’t sold on the culture themselves.  

If they do invite people then it shows you they want others to be a part of what they are a part of.

It will be easy to dismiss all of this under the sentiment, “well you just don’t understand what it is like in our market/industry/business INSERT EXCUSE HERE”.

If you intentionally build an attractive culture through repetitive structure...people will come.