Greg's Right FIT #439

Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week. 

In this issue: 

- Thoughts on Meaningful Work
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Thoughts on Meaningful Work

• Do your people have a direction and are they allowed to get there however they see fit, using their self-identified strengths? If you answer yes, chances are they will say they are engaging in meaningful work.
• Do employees engaging in meaningful work get more done? Maybe. But it's not because they are aligned with the mission. It's because they get to use their strengths at work.
• Your company's vision shouldn't be confused with mission or meaning.  Vision is a directional tool. Plenty of companies are muddy on their mission, but have a clear vision. They communicate it, then let their people work to get there.
• If you are dealing with what feels like low employee engagement, do this: focus on building momentum with them. Remove obstacles to their progress. Momentum is motion and action. Action leads to engagement. 

Being Human - Why they make the donuts

An excerpt from my book, "The Human Being's Guide to Business Growth," the best, first, business book I ever wrote. 

The Three Reasons Why They Try

The third concept as you work to unleash your team’s hidden selling power: not everyone will buy into your strategic vision for the same reasons. When we talk to business owners and managers, the idea we hear is that their people are either on board, or need to get on board with the strategic direction. However, over the years we’ve found that being on board with strategy is more nuanced than that. There are three reasons your people are on board with strategy:

1. They are bought into the strategy as promoted by management.
2. They see their peers bought in and they want to support them.
3. They have an affinity for your customers.

What we’ve found is that expanding the reasons why an employee is on board with your strategy—going from one to three reasons why they try—does two things for management. One, it increases the manager’s empathy toward their employees, deepening their understanding of the employee’s point of view. Two, it moves the needle on employee trust of management. Both do wonders in opening communication between managers and employees, which The Human Being’s Guide to Business Growth relies on for results. You’re going to ask many employees to step
out of their comfort zone for the good of the company, and they’ll want to know they can trust you when they take those first, wobbly steps into the future.

To make this happen, we don’t suggest walking up and asking, “Which one of these three reasons sounds more like you?” and marking it in their file. This question of why they try changes over time, and if our managers are open to multiple reasons for buy in, they are more effective, which we’ll cover in Chapter 7. Until then, a small nonprofit that I volunteer for is an example of this topic. Wear Yellow Nebraska raises funds for cancer patients through an annual bicycle ride. The funds are primarily used for a single purpose, to pay for cab rides transporting cancer patients to and from their treatments when needed. It’s a noble cause and provides a necessary service to the community. One would think that to volunteer time or money, you need to be on board with the specific mission, getting patients in need to and from their treatments. A cursory survey of the 20+ volunteers doesn’t quite match up with that.

There are some members who are volunteering because they have direct experience with cancer, know what it does to families, and see the need for a service that shoulders some of the burden on the patient’s support system. Most are members who volunteer because they have friends or family on the board or involved with the ride. When asked, they will answer that it’s because of the mission of the organization, but their actions suggest that they are involved because of their relationships with their riding group, their coworkers on the board, or their family members on the board. Still others are bought in because they will buy into any service related to cancer. Their affinity with people who have been touched by this dreadful disease is strong enough that they may not even know what a bicycle is or care where the money goes. They will give time because it’s related to cancer.

When your managers go deeper than the binary “on the bus, off the bus” and consider multiple reasons why a great employee does what they do for the company, they open up a flood of new opportunities for engagement.

Random Stuff

"Every purchase is a small victory." – someone on TikTok

I overheard someone saying we overestimate what we can do in a day, and underestimate what we can do in a decade. I've been thinking about this because a decade ago water got into our basement. This required ripping some things out for replacement, which led to a rethinking of the space. The basement was where I started an apparel company, the kids played, and we hid from tornadoes. We transformed it into a teen-friendly space. Last week, just over a decade later, water got in again, and we're rethinking/re-imagining the space once more. (It feels like a good time for a new TV)

A few years before the first big basement remodel, I merged the  apparel company I started with another one. The six months it took to go from letter of interest to completing the transaction was torture. I remember being at the middle child's high school basketball games and walking out to take call after call. There were lawyers, accountants, intermediaries, vendors, investors. . .so many people. Every one of them with amazing, yet unhelpful insights on how to get the deal done. "Is this how it always is?" I thought. So difficult. So much drama.

When we finally finished the deal, we consolidated inventory. Piling endless numbers of boxes in the aisles. Stacking them as high as the forklift would go, trying to mark what was where for future shelf placement. It was chaos. 

My memory may be collapsing events, but it felt like the same day we finished the inventory transfer, one of the warehouse emergency lights malfunctioned. It sparked, catching boxes on fire. This set off the sprinkler system and the section where most of my inventory hid was destroyed. The Iguana Fleece, Slow Tees, brightly colored tropical shirts. . . .all gone.

I can almost remember the smell. The feelings. It was like an omen. The first months of the new company were spent fighting with insurance people, vendors, investors, and asking the lawyers how to unwind the deal. Not ideal. 

A lot happens in a decade. The future is unpredictable. About the only thing you can count on is that there will be lots of new stuff on TV. High definition stuff will need brighter colors, higher quality sound, and faster processors. Stuff my current TV won't be able to handle. 

I definitely need a new TV.