
Light Up Your Business
Welcome to the Light Up Your Business podcast, where we dive deep into the strategies, stories, and insights that drive growth, change, success and innovation for small business owners.
Each episode dives into the struggles behind the scenes—from burnout and financial pressure to self-doubt and juggling personal life. Whether you’re just starting out or scaling up, this podcast offers candid conversations, practical advice, and encouragement to help you stay grounded, find balance, and keep going. Because building a business shouldn’t mean losing yourself in the process.
Light Up Your Business
Becoming a Great Boss: Unlocking Employee Motivation and Engagement for Business Success
Ever wondered how to transform your work environment into a haven of motivated and satisfied employees? Discover the secrets to being a great boss with insights from Gina Wickman's "How to Be a Great Boss" in our latest episode. We’ll explore why fostering a positive and engaging workplace is crucial, featuring real-world examples from industry expert Dave Ramsey and compelling statistics from a Gallup poll. Understand the significant impact of disengaged employees on your business and learn how to cultivate a team of dedicated "A players" who are not just productive but irreplaceable assets.
What makes an effective leader? Uncover the essence of great leadership and management by developing employees' skills, earning respect, and setting exemplary standards. We discuss common pitfalls of poor leadership and the importance of aligning employees with roles suited to their natural abilities. With practical examples, such as a new manager revitalizing a struggling big box chain and personal stories from the window business, you'll gain actionable strategies to turn around your team's performance and satisfaction.
Maximizing your team's potential is more than just delegating tasks—it's about building a cohesive, value-driven workforce. Learn the art of strategic planning with clear visions, financial goals, and priorities that keep your team on track. We emphasize the importance of regular evaluations, making tough decisions about underperformers, and the distinction between leadership and management. Delve into essential tools like SMART goals and KPIs to foster a proactive, results-oriented company culture. Join us for an episode packed with practical tips and inspirational messages that will light up your business journey!
Say goodbye to overwhelm and self-doubt, and hello to confidence and success. Join the Faith Filled Coaching family today and step into the abundant future you've always envisioned.
Visit FaithFilledCoach.com to schedule your free 30-minute consultation. Let's make your business dreams a reality, together.
Welcome to the Light Up your Business podcast, the show where we dive deep into the world of small businesses. I'm your host, ammy Hershberger, and each episode will bring you inspiring stories, expert insights and practical tips to help your small business thrive. Whether you're an entrepreneur just starting out or a seasoned business owner, this podcast is your go-to source for success in the small business world. Let's get started to source for success in the small business world. Let's get started. Hello everyone, I want to welcome you back to another episode of Light Up your Business podcast. I hope you're having a lovely day, as I am.
Tammy Hershberger:I want to talk today about a book that I've been reading. I don't know if you guys know this. I love to read books, and when I was younger, I used to read biographies because I thought it was interesting to learn about people's lives and where they came from and how they got to where they're going. But more and more I'm starting to read more self-help books, more business books. It just kind of interests me more than biographies. And so this book is by Gina Wickman. It's called how to Be a Great Boss, and I thought, well, how would that not be a great book to talk about? How would it not be a great book to read, because I am dedicated as a business owner to being a better boss and to teaching you on this podcast how to be a better boss and how to run a better business. He really mentioned there how highly motivated employees enjoy both personal and professional satisfaction from what they do and he said that they work hard, they enjoy the people they work with, they feel respected by their boss, they feel their work is making a contribution to customers' lives, they find the challenge of their work matches their abilities and they know why they go to work each day. So in the book it talks about being off balance, matches their abilities and they know why they go to work each day. So in the book it talks about being off balance and how you can get beyond the work-life balance. And Matthew Kelly was quoted in this book and it says and Kelly, in his research for his book, interviewed well-respected people at dozens of world's best companies. The findings those people worked an average of nine hours more per week than other employees at other businesses. And why was that? Because they valued their job satisfaction over work-life balance. So if you can see, there it talks about how it pays to focus on improving your team's satisfaction level versus the number of hours worked. So I mean, obviously they're willing to work more hours if they enjoy their job. I mean I don't think it's something where we have to work six hours a day. I think they're willing to put that overtime in if they enjoy their job, if they feel like it makes a difference, if it's helping the customers.
Tammy Hershberger:And your competitors can steal your products and ideas and they can copy your playbook, but they cannot replicate your people. So they may have your pricing, they may have your strategy, they may have literally what you're doing window cleaning or shed building or whatever but they do not have my people. They don't have Dan, they don't have Jonas, they don't have Cal and they don't have me. They don't have John, you cannot duplicate us. And so Helen, they don't have me, they don't have John, you cannot duplicate us. And so if your people cannot be duplicated, that is going to give you a leg up to make your company stand out, to make your company better, to make it different, and that's the good thing. You may have all of the systems in place. You may have a good product If you have bad people or you have people who don't like their job or who don't care about your company. It's going to show and it will ruin everything good that you built. So you want to surround yourself with people who want to work with you, who want to succeed with you. You want to surround yourself with great people and then you will attract great people. I believe you'll attract great clients. You'll attract more great people to work for you.
Tammy Hershberger:Dave Ramsey talks about donkeys and A players, and donkeys are the people that don't really want to do their job. They want to slack off. They're just there to make a check and if you have A players which I do they are not going to want to work. People like that. They're going to say if you're hiring this guy, you're making me, you know, do more work because this guy's lazy, or you're making me miserable they're not going to stick around, or you're making me miserable, they're not going to stick around.
Tammy Hershberger:There was a poll this book talked about. It was a 2000 Gallup poll and it conducted an annual survey of American workers and it said 31.5% of full-time workers are engaged in their jobs. What does engaged mean? It means they show up early, they leave late, they come up with creative solutions. They attract and retain customers and they bring energy to the workplace. Who doesn't want that? 17.5% of workers are actively disengaged. What does that mean? It means they don't like their boss or they don't like what they do. It's like a cancer. It spreads throughout the company. These workers are more likely to steal from you, miss work and drive customers away. Nobody wants them.
Tammy Hershberger:And then it said 51% are not engaged. I mean that's half. That is a huge number, 51%. Actually, it's more than half, it's 51. What does not engaged mean? It means they're barely doing the minimum. They're there to collect that check and estimates show these workers cost American businesses $500 billion yes, I said billion annually. That's a lot of wasted money, folks money that we work hard for, money that we're not spending time with our families, for money that we're depleting our health and our stress levels are through the roof and our mental health is not taken care of because we're throwing this money away on workers that are not engaged. Do you hear me people? So it says in this book the single most important thing business owners should do is to make sure they hire the right people to grow their business, because the wrong people hold the company back.
Tammy Hershberger:We just looked at the numbers. So in a 2015 Harris poll, 39 percent. So this is a newer poll than the last one. 39 percent of employees have no idea of what their company's goals or objectives are. What does that mean? It means your company if you're in this poll are not getting their workers engaged in what we're trying to do here. What are you trying to build? What does your company if you're in this poll are not getting their workers engaged in what we're trying to do here? What are you trying to build? What does your company stand for? Why is your company doing what it's doing?
Tammy Hershberger:47% are unfamiliar with the state of the company's performance. They don't know if they're losing money, making money, growing, not growing. They just have no idea, have no idea. 44% don't know their role in the company, how it helps to meet the goals of the company. Does that make sense? So they don't even know. Like you know, by being a foreman, for example, or a cutter or builder, they don't even understand what that is doing to help hit the goal of selling this many sheds or this much dollar amount to get us to where we're going. They're just there to do the job and then get out. So only a third of your employees are moving your company to its results or its goals. One third Now in my company. I would say that's not an average, because my company, everybody's doing it, because I have A players. I don't think there's one person on my team, not in my building business, my shed business. That would be that way. Now, that was probably accurate, maybe even higher in my window business, because we were having a tough time with employees there. I had some good ones, but I had some bad ones.
Tammy Hershberger:So the question becomes are you willing to take responsibility for the issues that cause employees to disengage? Well, you may say well, how is that my fault? Well, are you setting communications? Are you setting and communicating clear expectations? Are you talking to them? Are you telling them this is what you need to hit? Dave Ramsey talks about KRAs, key result areas, and so that way they know this is what you're expecting from me. These are the things I need to hit and these are the things I'm missing and not doing. Kpis, or key performance indicators that's another way to call them the same thing. Are you setting it so they're clear on what they're supposed to do? If you are not, then you are part of the problem.
Tammy Hershberger:George Carlin has a quote that says Most people work hard enough to not get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit. That sounds exciting, doesn't it? You know, that's not my temperament, that's not what drives me, but there's a lot of people like that. So let's go back to what is your job. To be a great boss, how do we do that? Well, you need to develop your people and improve their skills. You need to earn your employees' respect. So I can tell you from working with people that were bosses of people that I worked with the boss would lie to them. The boss would not show up to jobs. The boss would tell them things that were not true. They would say I need you to do this, but I'm not going to do it. They were not setting a good example and the employees didn't respect that person. And that's going to happen to you if you do those things.
Tammy Hershberger:Now me, there's some things I don't want to do. I mean, I've worked hard to get where I am. I don't want to do it, but if I have to, I'll do it. I mean there was times in the window business if I saw someone was struggling to get the van clean and I knew they had worked all day and they just they weren't just being lazy. I went out and I stayed late and I helped them clean that van. Now, was it my job? No, is it my company? Yes, I will take care of it and help you. I will make sure you know I have your back. That's being a good boss.
Tammy Hershberger:To be a great boss, you must one get it. You need to know the job, you need to know what it takes and have the natural ability. Now, in my window business, my job was to run the office. That is what I do, that is what I am good at, that is what I enjoy and I freaking killed it there. Now, I also was willing to go out and do sales when we were slow and I went out and cleaned windows when I had to. I did okay at it. I didn't do it enough to become an expert by any means, but I was willing to step out and do it. I am not well, some may say I'm a good salesman. I don't think I am. I don't enjoy it, but I'm also not a pushy salesman. But I stand behind what I say. So I believe what I'm saying to you.
Tammy Hershberger:Number two you have to want it. You really want the role of boss, because if you don't want it, it's going to show to everybody. And three, you have to have the capacity to do it. You have to possess the emotional intelligence, the intellectual intelligence, the physical intelligence, the physical ability I think that's the word I was looking for, not intelligence, physical ability, sorry, folks and time and capacity to do the job. So you can't just be the boss and never be around. You can't just be the boss and focus on every other project you have. You can't be the boss and never interact and communicate with them. You have to want that job, you have to do that job. So getting it and wanting it are absolutely essential.
Tammy Hershberger:The book says you have to have the capacity, which means you have to have the time and you have to put the effort in the get. It is your natural ability, the intuition, the real feel for what the job is, how it works and how to do it, which means leadership. It means paying attention, digging into numbers. You know all these different things. Now, boss in a smaller company is like the owner You're doing advertising, you're doing marketing, you're doing ordering, you're cleaning the floor, you're doing whatever you have to do Sales. As the company grows, you know there could be a boss over production, a boss over the office, whatever. So they're going to have a little bit different job description than maybe overall entrepreneur boss, but I think you get the picture. So he gave an example here. Big box chain is struggling with sales, even though it's got great visibility and traffic. They have a huge advertising budget.
Tammy Hershberger:They replaced the manager with someone who gets it, and then things quickly turn around. What did he do different? Well, the manager asked each employee if they're a box person or a people person. Now, I, until I read this book, had never heard of that. What does that mean box person? But they explained it as a box person or a people person. Now, I, until I read this book, had never heard of that. What does that mean box person? But they explained it as a box person. Are you very organized and keep things in order, or are you a people person? Do you enjoy engaging with customers and meeting their needs? He then assigned the employees according to box person or people person, and then he led his people and put them in the right roles in the company by figuring out where do they fit. What are they good at? So ask yourself have you ever done that with your people?
Tammy Hershberger:Because if you have a box person, as he calls it, and you like to just be organized to deal with paperwork and honestly that's probably more of a me I'm becoming more outgoing. I've. As I worked for the marketing company, I had to deal with oil field trade shows and conferences, things and dealing with a lot of men. I got used to not being shy and I got used to just BS with them and joke with them and they're happy, and so that has become more natural for me. But typically that is not my role, that's not what I love to do. But owning a business, I've had to overcome that and so I would say sales and dealing with grumpy people is not my forte. So if I was working for someone and they asked me, I'd say I'm a box person, put me in that little box and let me have my paperwork and I'm happy. Now if you put me out in front of people selling, I'm probably not going to typically do very well because that's not my role. So I think that's a good thing to do with.
Tammy Hershberger:You know, wherever you're struggling in your business, find a solution. So the question is did you get it as the leader? Do you? Sorry, I can't talk Do you appreciate your people? Do you know their strengths? Do you have people in the right roles? How would your employees describe you to their friends and fellow coworkers? That's a good question. Dig into that. Do you have the want wanted? You genuinely desire the job? You were talked into it, or did you actually want it? Or did you beg to have it? Were you promised to raise bonus or a company car to entice you the job? Obstacles and challenges entice you and you're energized by overcoming them instead of them wearing you out.
Tammy Hershberger:So now let's flip this a little bit. Let's not even think about as you the owner. Let's talk about you need to hire, and you need to hire a leader or a production manager or some kind of boss for your company. Right? These are questions to think about for these people, why, when they come to you and you know maybe somebody wants to move up in the company, we'll ask them that Do you appreciate your people? Do you know what their strengths are? Do you have ideas of how you put these people in the right roles? Do you really want the job? You're just wanting more money, because I've heard stories of that, where people move up into management and they hate it and they quit.
Tammy Hershberger:Or sometimes good leaders will notice something's not right here and they talk to them. Or sometimes good leaders will notice something's not right here and they talk to them and they find out I wanted the extra pay, I didn't want the more responsibility, or I wanted the extra pay, but I didn't want to really deal with customers or having to cover when they're sick or whatever, and so you got to really dig into that. And then he says do you have fire in your belly to lead? Because a boss, you have to lead these people. If they say yes, ask them how they're showing it, and these are good questions for interviews. I mean, if you're interviewing a boss, you have to lead these people. If they say yes, ask them how they're showing it, and these are good questions for interviews. I mean, if you're interviewing a boss, get on these questions.
Tammy Hershberger:There is tons of training and there's great mentors, but if you don't want it, it won't stick. So you can tell yourself. Let me rephrase that you can tell these people want it because they'll put in the effort to achieve it. So are you willing to go the extra mile to complete the project on time, or do you want to leave work early, no matter how it affects your team? Because I've seen that the team has a project or an event or whatever coming up and we've got to get it done and you can tell everybody's staying late, except for the boss. He's out. Well, what does that tell you about your team, if we're all having to stay late to try to complete this, which, really, as the boss, your butt's on the line just as much as ours is, and you're out. It just told us that you don't care about your team, you're not invested in this company, you're out. It just told us that you don't care about your team, you're not invested in this company, you're not invested in your team and you're going to be looked down upon. You're not going to be respected.
Tammy Hershberger:So then, this book talks about capacity to do it. Do you have the emotional, intellectual, physical and time capacity to be a great boss? So, emotional capacity, let's talk about that. I'm noticing, the more I live life, there are some people who do not emotionally have the intelligence. They have the emotional ability of a 13-year-old and they're 40 or whatever. They don't think like an adult, they don't emotionally react like an adult. So it says what is it? It says it's the heart to feel what others are feeling, the ability to walk a mile in their shoes, to be open and honest with yourself and others, to be humbly confident and to be self-aware enough to know how you are influencing people. That's being emotionally capable, or emotionally intelligent is the right word.
Tammy Hershberger:Then you have to have an intellectual capacity, so it says the brains to do critical thinking, solve problems, especially complex ones, to do some predicting of what's going to happen, some prioritizing of what needs to come first and then plan, along with the ability to conceptualize it. How am I going to make this work? You've got to be able to strategize it and systematize it, so that way it's basically orchestrating this human resource of people and you're putting them to work right and you've got an organized process. Um, there was an old saying you have too many chiefs and not enough indians, and what that meant was like it happened a lot in volunteer work, where everybody's trying to do their own thing and be their own boss, but no one's organized. No, we're all doing different things and we're not pushing the bus towards the same goal right, and so you've got to really get that straight.
Tammy Hershberger:Especially as a boss or as a leader, you have to have physical capacity, which means you have to have the stamina, energy and tenacity to do what it takes, to finish what you start, to pour it out when necessary. You have to devote time and effort to master your craft, to do the work, to get your hands dirty when necessary. And then there's the time capacity to avoid the tyranny of urgency and to have structure and to prioritize and organize and delegate in a way that frees up and optimizes the most precious resource of all time, which is what your time. We don't get enough time. Time goes so fast. So again, I'm talking about how to Be a Great Boss by Gina Wickman.
Tammy Hershberger:All of this is coming from this book. It's a great book. I highly highly recommend you read it. Make your bosses or your leaders read it. Let's switch gears.
Tammy Hershberger:So he talks in the book about bad bosses. I'm sure if you take a second and you think about who's been a bad boss in my life, we all have them. I would be shocked if you didn't. If you've at least are over 16, because they're going to come. And he talks about. What is that? And there's four things he mentions.
Tammy Hershberger:So it's literally the opposite of what we just talked about. They have low emotional capacity, so they don't realize how they treat others and what that does to their employees. It makes a superficial connection Not honest with themselves and they lack confidence to be open and honest, to say, hey, I don't know, I need your help, I need, I made a mistake. And then they take credit for success but never take responsibility when things go wrong. The treating others to me is huge. It almost, in some cases that I've been in, becomes almost abusive because it's like they don't. They say sometimes awful things, or they say hurtful things or mean things or degrading things and they don't realize. Like, do you hear yourself? What you're saying to me is not making me want to work for you. It's not making me want to drive this company. It's making me shrink back, play small, and we don't want to play small.
Tammy Hershberger:Bad bosses have low intellectual capacity and that's lacking ability to visualize outcomes before taking action. So if you can't see where we're going and you have no plan and we just get to work, we're going to be wasting so much time and energy on things that probably don't even matter, don't even help, you're just going for it. You're setting goals without anticipating resources needed to hit those goals. So, for example, I had a company I was working for and they had a goal of me hitting so much in revenue sales, basically, and instantly I thought, well, that seems possible. And then I started to kind of look at like, okay, we have this many people, this many teams, I need to sell this many jobs. The average ticket is this and I realized like, hmm, this is going to be really tough because I don't even think we have enough manpower to do this. And if that is the case, it means for me as a salesman, I am pushing for a goal that's not even possible. I'm going to wear myself out and actually probably hurt myself mentally and emotionally because I'm going to, you know, give everything I got to hit this goal and it's not even possible. So it's like, well, you're setting me up for failure because you know I can't hit that. It's not possible unless we grew and had more help.
Tammy Hershberger:And so then that means your person that gave you the goal didn't really think that through or was just flying by the seat of their pants, or whatever. They didn't think it through. They lack mental agility, so they overanalyze some things and oversimplify other things. I've seen that where some people can't make a decision because they take way too long looking at stuff and they get paralyzed by it. Other times they oversimplify and it's like it's not that simple. It doesn't work like that. Maybe they don't understand it, but they do that, and then they point out the flaws in others but they ignore their own. Again, that is going to drive your people, your business partners, your friends, your employees, whatever it's going to drive them away.
Tammy Hershberger:Because it's like you keep mentioning how awful I am, but you are pretty tough on, your tough to deal with, or you're not organized or whatever, and you're not even trying to fix your stuff. Not good. You have low physical capacity, so you have no stamina, no energy. You can't get your tasks done. You rarely leave the office to check in on things. I mean, you're that lazy, you're unable or unwilling to do the hard work or get your hands dirty and pitch in when they need it. And then it says you have low time capacity, you're busy but you're getting nothing done. You're just kind of like flopping around like a fish on the water. Well, what good is that doing right? You expect others to drop everything to catch them up, and then usually you're late for meetings, you're behind schedule, you're overwhelmed and you're afraid to let go. So that's a bad boss. You don't want to be those. So now you're saying, okay, so I know what a good boss is, I know what a bad boss is. But how do I become a great boss? I mean, I hear you, but how do I really work to change? So one it says in the book to delegate and evaluate. So it says identify what you need to delegate to others, to free up your time.
Tammy Hershberger:To be a great boss, boss-related activities focus on leading and managing people. So he gave an example. You want to do this for a week to a month and basically you use this to determine what tasks you're doing and if you enjoy them and what you need to then delegate onward. So you're going to list out all your business related tasks you do each day, each week, each month, and then you compare. He has a printout in his book that talks about these are like boss tasks, these are not boss tasks. And then he has four quadrants and you write them in there, and so the whole point is really to examine like these are things that the boss has to do and these are things I can let go of. So if filing is on your thing, you should not have to be filing. Give that to the secretary, give that to the office manager, let someone else handle that. You know, if there's meetings that you don't have to be in, let someone else handle those and you take care of your stuff.
Tammy Hershberger:I said in here, minimum 80% of boss tasks should be in the top two quadrants. So some of this isn't going to make a lot of sense to you until you read that part of the book. But it's good to look at your tasks and then spend time doing the most important matters in your company. He says in there you only want to do 90% of your capacity because you want to leave the other 10% for growth and avoid burnout. So when you spend your time doing what you're good at, you become more valuable to your company because you're productive. You get in that zone and you just you work faster, you work smarter, you work better and that's kind of where you want to be. So now you say, okay, well, that's interesting.
Tammy Hershberger:What are some excuses we use to not delegate? So if you're in your company and you're burned out and you're stressed out and you have too much to do and I've actually talked to a couple people about this and you're just like I can't get it all done, what excuse are you telling yourself? Some of the top excuses are I have no one to delegate to. Well, that's your fault. Either you don't trust anyone you've never built them up or you need to hire someone. Number two it is too time-consuming to train someone. That is the stupidest and lamest thing I've ever heard. It's not time-consuming if you hire the right person. It might be time-consuming if you hire someone that's not going to work and you already know that. So why are you hiring them? The time you're going to spend on someone is going to be worth it when it takes it off your task, when it's something you don't have to do anymore and you can focus on the more important task.
Tammy Hershberger:And kind of mixed in with that, people say oh, it's faster and easier to do it all myself. Well, I was that way like 15 years ago excuse me, um when I thought I had to be perfect and do it all myself. Well, that's not true, because there's people that know things more than you do. There's people have more experience than you or they'll say it's too complicated to explain. How about you take the time to explain to someone, let them handle it and then you move on to the things that you have to do that they can't do. Or if you say I spend too much time fixing their mistakes, well that means you hired the wrong guy, fire them and find a new one.
Tammy Hershberger:Because you take time, as a great boss, to evaluate your team, you want to make sure that they get it. They want it and they have the capacity to do it. So go back to what we talked about earlier. Apply that when you're hiring your team, one great person could easily be as productive as three good people. So if you have more production happening, you have less labor costs. Do you understand that If one guy can take the jobs of three, you are saving yourself time, money and stress?
Tammy Hershberger:Are your people working to their full potential? That's a good question. Are some people doing more than others? If that's the case, the ones that aren't doing their job get rid of them. What are you keeping them for?
Tammy Hershberger:I actually talked to a company recently. They had a bad. They had. They made a bad hire unfortunately Sounded good on paper, thought it was going to work. It didn't. They kept them too long and they made everything messy. You don't want to do that. You want to get rid of them fast.
Tammy Hershberger:So hire people that fit your company culture. Your company culture defines who you are, what you value and what attracts like-minded people to you. You believe these things. You live by these things. Your core values guide your company and people in moments of truth when they're put to the test. Have you done your core values? Have you taken time to sit down and figure out for yourself what your core values are, personally and professionally in your business?
Tammy Hershberger:I just talked to um, a detailer here in town, and I was talking to him about core values and he's a young guy and he's doing really fantastic and I was telling him how you know you need to do these core values because they lead you and guide you. I heard someone say recently they become your north star, right. I grew up in Minnesota. You want to know you need to do these core values because they lead you and guide you. I heard someone say recently they become your North Star, right, I grew up in Minnesota. You want to follow that you need a pathway and something to follow. You know, I believe in the Bible and I believe in God and he's obviously my, he's my true North Star. But I'm talking about core values in the sense of, like I look at God, I look at my family, I look at my values and and these are the things that are going to direct me, they're your compass.
Tammy Hershberger:And then you want to analyze your team against your core values to see how they stack up. Are they the right people? But they're in the wrong seats. That could be one option. Did you just completely hire the wrong people? How are your people stacking up? And then, when you look at leadership and management and accountability, great bosses create a work environment where people are fully engaged and highly accountable. So in this book he talks about four truths. He talks about one being a great boss can be simple. Your style doesn't have to change. You just have to be yourself, be authentic, build trust with your team Generally, care about your people. And you have to want to be great. You want to be a great boss, you want to invest time in yourself, to continually improve yourself so you can pour more into your people.
Tammy Hershberger:I recently was listening to a gentleman that's in the service business space, if you will. He's now branched out and doing other things. I think of him as very savvy in business. I look up to him and he said about how his cup was was empty and he couldn't pour into other people. And you know, if you let yourself get to that point, you now are going to be a bad boss because you have nothing left to give. You're going to be a bad friend. You're going to be a bad husband, you're going to be a bad whatever you are, because you're you are so empty inside, or mentally or physically or whatever that you have nothing more to give. So that's why you don't want to do these things, because it's going to show. It's going to show to the people you work with, your customers. They notice it.
Tammy Hershberger:So he talks about leadership and management and accountability. So his breakdown of this is leadership involves working on the business, right? So leadership involves working on the business. You want to provide clear direction, create openings for people to move up, take time to think about where is the company going, create vision and what are you? You know, what are these people buying into? What is it you're selling them? I mean, I'm talking about vision for where the company is going, and then management is working in the business. So that's the difference between leadership and management. In management, you create clear expectations, you communicate well, you ensure things are getting done, you gain traction to achieve the vision of the leader correct. Does everybody understand that? Thomas Edison said vision without execution is hallucination? I mean, how good is that?
Tammy Hershberger:So then it talks in this book about five leadership practices One giving clear direction. Create that vision for your people and then ask yourself eight questions what are your core values? What's your core focus? Why does your company exist and what does it do best? Create a 10-year target of where you want your business to be and then in that 10 years, you got to think about who, what's the seats I need to fill, what's going to motivate these people to do that? You're going to need a marketing strategy to find your ideal customers. You need a message that attracts those customers to you.
Tammy Hershberger:And then he talks about a three-year practice. You know what is this company look like in three years. A one-year plan, establish your financial objectives and three to seven goals for the next year. Quarterly rocks, which I think I learned about in Traction, I believe, which is also Gina Wickman's book you would create three to seven most important priorities that must get done in the next 90 days to hit your yearly goals, and then lists of ideas and issues, opportunities, barriers, whatever to address and resolve, both long and short term. So me and my business partner at the time would sit down and go through those things and then you want to share them with your team every 90 days.
Tammy Hershberger:Find out where have you been, where you are, where you're going, the performance, the goals, recognize team members who are, you know, really doing great with core values or who exemplified them, and then make sure your employees have the necessary tools to hit all these things, such as training, technology, the right people. Do we need to hire more people? Do we need to give anyone personal time and attention? You know, kind of train them up or mentor them or whatever they need. And then you got to let go. You got to trust your people, empower your people to come up with solutions instead of just fixing the problem for them. Ask them what they would do. Don't take them. Don't take their monkey, and then like, oh, here it is, but sorry, you're going to have it back. That's what that means Like don't take the problem from them. Make them help find the solution for it right. That way, they learn to trust themselves, they learn to problem solve and then act with a greater good in mind of the company. Are you setting the example when you're making company decisions? Ask yourself how it will affect your reputation, your relationships, your community and the family.
Tammy Hershberger:And then you need to take clarity breaks. We talked about scheduling time away from the office to think and work on your business, your department or even yourself. Because why? Because it brings clarity, restores your confidence, brings freshness and allows you to think bigger picture. That was some of my favorite stuff in the one business I had For a long time. We were serious about that, like we would take and we would talk about strategy, we'd talk about how the company's doing, we'd talk about vision, we could talk about clarity. We did some personal things on vision boards and that was like my absolute favorite time of owning that company and my favorite part of that business partner was like he had growth mindset, he had these visions and you know, later things just kind of didn't pan out that way. But that is like that's the stuff that gets me excited in business. That's who you want to be, because then your team sees it. So he talks about these clarity breaks when you're not in the office and you're separately working on the business.
Tammy Hershberger:He has 15 questions. I'm going to go through them kind of fast. But it says in my vision plan for business is it on track? What is the number one goal? Am I focusing on the most important things? Do I have the right people in the right seats to grow? What is the one people move?
Tammy Hershberger:I must make this quarter. How strong is my bench? You know all the people on my team. If I lose a key player, do I have someone ready to fill that spot? Are do I have someone ready to fill that spot? Are my processes working well? What seems overly complicated? That must be simplified. Do I understand what my direct reports truly love to do and what are they great at doing? Am I leveraging their strengths? What can I delegate to others in order to use my time more effectively? What can we do to be more proactive versus being reactive? What can I do to improve communication? What is my top priority this week or this month? So think about that Like, are you sitting down and talking about that with yourself, your spouse, your business partner, whatever, whoever you have on your team.
Tammy Hershberger:And then he talks about management practices. He says remember, you cannot manage someone. Did you hear me? You cannot manage someone. It's not what you do to someone, it's what you provide for someone. If you feel you have to manipulate or overly manage someone, you have people issues. You have hired the wrong person. So you want to keep your expectations clear. On the roles be clear what their jobs are, what their tasks are, what their job description is. On the roles be clear what their jobs are, what their tasks are, what their job description is. On the core values do your employees or the person you're hiring, or whatever, do they know your company's core values? Do they know how you expect them to act and can they make decisions in your absence that align with the company culture?
Tammy Hershberger:And then he talks about the rocks again, which are your goals, objectives, initiatives. Make sure they're measurable, make sure they're specific, attainable, realistic and timely. So it's smart. So I said it kind of out of order, but it's specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. And then the measurables, which are your KPIs. Your team members need numbers to hit, as numbers give you data and facts. Numbers allow you to cut through assumptions, through ego, through opinion, through emotion, and you can focus on deliverables and then get your employees to expand energy on results. So you're saying, okay, what are some measurable things?
Tammy Hershberger:So here's some examples. Maybe you have sales appointments scheduled, like how many sales appointments do they have this week? How many bids did they submit? How many new deals did they close? How many errors were made? How many customer complaints did we have? How many defective parts or products returned? Are they AR, which is your accounts receivable? Are they greater than 45 days? Is there a lot of service items? Customer reviews came in overtime hours, billable hours and sales? I mean, there's so many things you can track to give these people that you've hired to see are they doing their job. And then it helps them to build their confidence, their ability, because they can see, like, this is what you told me to do and I killed it, and then they're going to do better, or they, or maybe they're like well, I tried and I didn't really do so good, they know. Okay, next time I need to improve, okay.
Tammy Hershberger:So, once you share expectations with employees, ask them now that I've shared my expectations of you, what do you expect of me that will help you to win. That's interesting take, isn't it? And then you need to communicate, well. So, um, ask them about, like, can you give me two emotions where you are right now? So it says you want to avoid assuming that you know. So say, if you could share two emotions about how you're feeling right now, a positive and negative what would it be? And then you share your two and then I'll share mine. Okay, so that's how it works.
Tammy Hershberger:Um, questions to statement ratio 80-20. So remember, listen 80% of the time and talk 20%. Ask questions, don't just make statements. Ask why, who, what, where, how, those kind of questions. So instead of saying you should have done this, instead of saying that because it's a statement, you should have instead said knowing what you know now, what would you do differently or what do you think we should do?
Tammy Hershberger:And then it talks about echoing, having them repeat back what you're asking. So say, just to make sure I'm communicating well, could you please tell me what I just told you? I do that in coaching sometimes because I feel like people listen, but am I really getting what I'm asking? And then that can also help me to know. Did I talk too fast. Did I not communicate it? Well, I can read, you know, reiterate it. Or you can say like uh, I'm not sure if you quite heard me. Um, could you tell me what? What you heard me say? You know that's a good way to ask.
Tammy Hershberger:And then talks about maintaining the right meeting pulse. Have meetings the same link, same same day and same frequency every time. Build consistency. Meetings help you communicate better, solve issues sooner, hold people accountable and get more done because you're keeping everyone in the loop. Have quarterly conversations face-to-face. Do out of the office. It's not a review, review, you're just going over core values, rocks and rolls.
Tammy Hershberger:He talks about rewarding and recognizing your people quickly. Studies show people work harder for recognition than they do for money. Good to know there's a 24 hour rule. Give positive, negative feedback within 24 hours. So if something goes awry, you don't want to wait three days to go after jimmy. It's like if your kids went and, I don't know, hit their sister, are you going to wait three days to reprimand them? No, because they're going to be like that was three days ago. I've done so much since then.
Tammy Hershberger:You want to get it and handle it quickly, because it's just going to cause more problems Do public and private recognition Criticize in private or it destroys trust and relationship. It's praise in public. I mean we all should probably know that. And then, boss versus buddy Be their boss, not their buddy, because once you become their buddy, it's hard to correct without hurting their feelings. That is a truth. I've experienced it myself. I struggle with that one, but it's the truth.
Tammy Hershberger:And then, lastly, there's the three strike rule. Strike one meet with people or a person and identify the issue and agree on a course action to correct it. So you want to put it in writing what you've agreed upon, and then they get one month to resolve it. Strike two if not resolved, identify remaining issues and agree on a plan of action to fix it. Again, put it in writing and they get one month to correct it. Strike three if they have not fixed it, you terminate the employee if they haven't already quit. And then, lastly, he talks about quarterly conversations questions to ask. I'm going to go through these quickly.
Tammy Hershberger:What are you most proud of accomplishing during the last quarter? How did you accomplish it? What process or procedures worked well? The obstacles that you experienced did you overcome them? How did you overcome them? What was most helpful to you. Do they feel they're working on things that really matter? Do they feel appreciated for work they're doing? Did you provide them with the tools they needed? Did you give them clear expectations? Then share what is working. Folks, it's not that hard to be a great boss, as you can see Again, I recommend this book, how to Be a Great Boss by Gina Wickman. Read it, share it with your team, start implementing these things. These are things that will grow your business, change your business, make you enjoy your business.
Tammy Hershberger:Everyone. I hope you liked today's episode. If you liked it, if you'll like it, share, subscribe, subscribe all of that good stuff. I'm everywhere. I'm on iHeartRadio, youtube, google, spotify. I actually think Google no, not Google, apple is the word I meant to say. I think there was a Google one, but I think that one went away. Anyway, I hope you're all enjoying this.
Tammy Hershberger:Thank you for listening. There is a share, a message on the link above the transcription. If you want to send us a message, if you have questions, if you have episode ideas, you want to be on the podcast, let me know. I like hearing from you guys. So thank you for listening. I hope you all have a great day and remember. In the world of business, every success story begins with a passionate dream and ends with a strategic billion-dollar handshake. Stay ambitious, stay innovative and keep making those deals that reshape tomorrow. Thank you all for tuning in and until next time, remember Proverbs 3.3 says let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. That way you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. And remember if you like what you heard today, click the follow button so you never miss an episode.