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Recruiting, developing, and retaining good talent is on the minds of every manager and business owner. While there is always some new concept or fancy solution, the growth minded leader is always working to improve themselves and their team. Often this means asking some difficult questions as we review our own performance. For those professionals looking for some assistance in employee motivation, we will review two motivational mistakes and what you can do to remedy them. Robert More joined us for a live discussion on The DYOJO Podcast, Episode 88 and asked our guest, Josh Zolin, As a manager, one thing I have observed that kills employee passion is the lack of training or advancement opportunities. Do you have any advice on how to combat that within a growing company? Motivational Mistake #1 - Making empty promises at the time of hireJosh Zolin is an author, speaker, and the owner of the rapidly growing Windy City Equipment (WCE) in Phoenix, Arizona. He stated, "That's tough and you're absolutely right. The lack of training and advancement can be a passion suck for many employees." On area that Josh encourages managers and business owners it to be intentional in the phrasing and promises, perceived or actual, during the employee recruitment stage. By not being clear about the state of growth the business is in and not having a clear pathway to advancement, there is fertile ground for miscommunication which leads to unrealistic expectations. To be fair, many people in a position of leadership aren't lying, they are speaking from their vision and their intentions but the foundation hasn't been laid and the organization isn't ready for the types or pace of advancement that some employees may desire. Another mistake I've made, I used to sell our aspirations.  Motivational Mistake #2 - Selling your aspirations rather than your realityJosh mentions that he has used phrases in the past like, "We're going to train you fast growing company. So, there's going to be lots of advancement..." Speaking from his heart but not thinking through the expectation that it may be planting in the employees thought process. With several years of failures and experience under his belt, he now is much more intentional in the recruiting, hiring, and goal setting phase of onboarding new employees. He noted that there were a lot of people that reach the six month mark in an organization and wonder why they don't have a significant raise or a promotion. As an owner and people manager, Josh realized that he was setting up the wrong expectations by not clarifying the situation and the conditions that would need to be met for those next steps to be taken. Now the employee is frustrated and the company has to take responsibility for their unclear and inconsistent process. Josh recommends the following for managers and business owners, Be transparent up front. Say something like, 'We are a quick growing company, we suck at training, It's something that we really want to do something we want to get better at, and maybe you can help with that. I can't promise that you're going to get a promotion tomorrow, but I can promise that if we get the results from you that we need, advancement is an opportunity in the future. Be crystal clear about your process. Clarity, consistency, and accountabilityTo answer the question of offsetting the demotivation that comes from a lack of training or advancement opportunities, Josh advises, "Be crystal clear about where you are and what your process is." By doing so, Mr. Zolin believes that your will also help our organization to, "Weed out the people in the beginning that could ultimately be susceptible to this passion suck." Managers and owners might be tempted to think that employees have unrealistic expectations about advancement, but they also have ask themselves a few key questions:
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In this podcast conversation with Josh Zolin, I asked our guest if there was a recent business or leadership catchphrase that bugged him, without skipping a beat, the owner of the rapidly growing Windy City Equipment (WCE) in Phoenix, Arizona answered, Yes! Give it your best effort. This video is a snip of what will become The DYOJO Podcast, Episode 88. With our guests, Josh Zolin and Kelsey Isaacson. The video also introduces the article that will be released in Cleanfax Magazine titled Goals, Effort and Results, Developing Your Team. Josh wrote the skilled trades advocacy book, Blue is the New White and hosts a weekly podcast by the same name. This thought-provoking question that Mr. Zolin dropped during our discussion has caused me to think through our understanding and implementation of EFFORT versus RESULTS in our local contracting company, ARES Restoration based in Puyallup, Washington. Josh continues, "This was a big mindset shift for me. Look, it's a good indication of character. But that's about where it ends." In preparing for this podcast episode, which you can view on YouTube or listen to on Spotify, I did some research. I found an article called The Effort Effect from Stanford magazine. In addition to our discussion with Mr. Zolin, we're going to be talking about the research efforts of a professor of psychology, Carol Dweck. We will also review several quotes from other business minds on the topic of effort versus results including this one from Mark Cuban whom you may recognize from the television show Shark Tank. “The one requirement for success in our business lives is effort. Either you make the commitment to get results or you don’t.” - Mark Cuban It appears that Mark blends the concepts of effort and results, and to some degree they are inextricable. What Josh was trying to get at is that it becomes more of the "work smarter rather than work harder" mentality once you have a level of competency in your field. But, when you don't know necessarily what to do you can't just start out working smarter. As you develop your skills and abilities, you have to gather the pennies (see video below). Once you are proficient in gathering pennies, or whatever work you can find, they will eventually turn into nickels. Then eventually your nickels will turn into dimes and so forth until you are up-and-running to the point that you have quarters (better quality work). Gathering pennies is a reference to a rather old video and article (see above) title The Five Phases of Business Startup. Distinctives of Business Startup Phase One include:
In this first phase of business, the entrepreneur is asking, "Where can we get our name out there with fairly low cost and high exposure?" Often, these opportunities are in the various networking meetings that not everybody likes going to. “The best results are achieved by using the right amount of effort in the right place at the right time. And this right amount is usually less than we think we need.” - Tony Buzan For The DYOJO Podcast, Episode 88 we consider this question from Josh Zolin and review several others, such as the one above from Tony Buzan, with Kelsey Isaacson, a successful realtor in Pierce County, Washington. It is important for people in a position of leadership to question whether what they believe, practice and reward is leading their team down the right path to achieving their shared goals. Dweck's research uncovered many interesting insights about goals, performance, and achievement which we will discuss in this episode and dive deeper into for the Cleanfax article. As people in a position of leadership, it is important to take a step back and determine, with brutal honesty, whether we are developing the right mindset and habits for success; both for ourselves as well as for our teams.
Please join us on Thursday as we help you shorten your DANG learning curve! For the upcoming Episode 88 of The DYOJO Podcast, we have a conversation with a returning guest who shared a thought-provoking question that I believe all leadership teams should consider, “Which is more important, effort or results?”  Josh Zolin is an advocate for helping young people recognize opportunities for gainful employment and career development within the skilled trades. This passion is the impetus behind his book and podcast, both by the same name, Blue is the New White. As prominent as Josh has become as an author, podcast host, and speaker, he is also the owner of the rapidly growing WCE in Phoenix, Arizona where he is implementing the leadership challenge that he shared. This teaser video gives you a glimpse of our discussion on the intersection between goals, effort, and results as you develop your team. Be sure to check out the article Goals, Effort, and Results: Developing Your Team by Jon Isaacson and published in Cleanfax Magazine. In this content clip: 0:00 Josh Zolin drops a thought-provoking bomb 1:30 Psychology professor Carol Dweck weighs in 2:14 Kelsey Isaacson squares up with Mark Cuban 3:17 Pennies for your business growth 4:25 Join us for the 3rd Annual SOCKTember Competition 5:55 Curse words and question marks Thursdays are for The DYOJO Podcast - helping you shorten your DANG learning curve for personal and professional development. This content is sponsored by the new best-selling book, How To Suck Less At Estimating: Habits For Better Project Outcomes by Jon Isaacson.   How often is there a miscommunication between the estimator (scope of the estimate) and the production team (agreed-upon scope of work)? What if there was a resource readily available to every member of your team that could help you reduce miscommunication and increase profitability? In this article and accompanying video we will discuss how you can improve project outcomes with THIS simple tool.
Watch The Video Prevent Scope Creep & Increase Profitability Doing less than you estimated and having to go back is costly as it takes resources that could otherwise be performing profitable work offline to return to a jobsite that should have been completed. Doing more work than you estimated and not capturing the revenue means your teams are working for free. Both outcomes will impact project completion, profitability, and customer satisfaction. One simple tool, that is already in the tool kit of every estimator, is the video function on their smartphone. Did you know that conducting a job walk through video recording what they are seeing and uploading that to a shared database, can help offset miscommunication during the project lifecycle? Save your team time, your company money, and your customer frustration by making a recorded initial scope walk a habit. Conducting a Video Construction Scope Walk Through A video construction scope walk through does not have to be anything complex, but it does need to cover a few key points.
The estimator walks through the project and verbalizes what they are seeing on-site, unique aspects of the work, specific directions from the client, and how they are approaching the estimate. Having this video in the shared database will help everyone downstream to have a better understanding of what IS and what IS NOT in the agreed-upon scope of work (contract).
If this is helpful, tune into The DYOJO Podcast - helping your shorten your DANG learning curve - Thursdays on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple podcasts.   Property restoration historian and watchdog, Pete Consigli, writes, "Lloyd [Weaver] introduced the first specialty designed Porta Dryer for on-location wet carpet drying. While that might not seem like much in today's sophisticated world, 35 years ago (written in 2007) Lloyd's methodology challenged the rug cleaning establishment and its in-plant wet carpet service." Lloyd Weaver is an icon of the water damage restoration industry, he is the man behind many of the core inventions of the modern age of property restoration as well as an early educator who trained many other industry contributors; as well as butted heads with a few others. This is an extended clip, with new content, from a prior conversation (Episode 87) with another industry Founding Father, Cliff Zlotnik. Writing for Cleaning and Restoration (C&R) Magazine in March 2007, Pete Consigli identified Martin "Marty" L. King, Lloyd Weaver, Cliff Zlotnik, and Claude Blackburn as the Four Faces on Mount Restoration. This video includes some additional footage with Cliff, Jim Thompson as well as part of our conversation with Lloyd Weaver's two sons and grandson, all of whom are still active in the industry. Learn more at PropertyRestorationHistory.com In this video: 0:00 Lloyd Weaver 1:00 Lloyd invents the Porta Dryer 2:50 A discussion with Lloyd's two sons 6:45 Cliff learns water damage from professor Weaver 9:10 Cliff & Lloyd as business partners 11:00 Mr. Weaver learned through trial and error 12:30 Lloyd's restoration industry friends YouTube.com/thedyojo 12am PST Thursdays THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: Institute of Inspection Cleaning Restoration Certification (IICRC) Advocate Claim Service (ACS) THURSDAYS ARE FOR The DYOJO Podcast INFOtainment to help you shorten your DANG learning curve. New episodes of The DYOJO Podcast are released on Thursdays via video through YouTube and/or audio is distributed through platforms such as Apple, Spotify, Google, etc. READ MORE in The DYOJO Blog Additional Resources from The DYOJO: BRAND NEW: How To Suck Less At Estimating: Habits For Better Project Outcomes (book 4) Be Intentional: Estimating (book 1) Be Intentional: Culture (book 2) So, You Want To Be A Project Manager (book 3) Property Restoration History dot com The DYOJO Podcast SOCKTember is an annual competitive community involvement event (see video). It was designed as a team-building exercise as well as a great outreach tool for local restoration contractors. Would you believe that SOCKTember started with four teams in Washington State raising over 5,500 pairs of NEW socks for local charities in 2020?
Each team leader reached out to their local vendors, clients, team, and community members to raise as many pairs of NEW socks as they could. During the shutdown, this event provided us all with something to talk about and safely interact with each other. Socks came through physical donations and via Amazon wishlists. They were counted and distributed to local charities selected by each team. As you are likely aware, NEW socks are a huge need for many local community members in need including shelters, care closets, and other outreach programs. Join The 66 Companies That Participated In SOCKTember 2021 In 2021, we were excited to see an increase in interest by contractors and entrepreneurs across the United States as well as every office for On Side Restoration in Canada. For the second annual DYOJO SOCKTember, we grew from 4 local teams to 66 teams in 2 countries. The competition elevated intensely and combined we were able to raise over 66,000 pairs of NEW socks for local charities. The top five teams of the 2021 event were:
Reach out to Jon Isaacson, The DYOJO Podcast, if you would like to START, JOIN, or SUPPORT a local sock-raising team. Our goal is to raise OVER 100,000 pairs of NEW socks for local charities this year and we need your help. Read the prior article from C&R Magazine for more information and check out the 3rd Annual SOCKTember webpage. To help you promote the event:
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AuthorJon Isaacson, The Intentional Restorer, is a 19 year veteran of the property restoration industry and a business coach through his organization The DYOJO. Archives
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