Latest / Cleaning Business Life / You Cannot Change an Organization From the Bottom—with Barbara Atkinson | Ep. 228

Transcript

You Cannot Change an Organization From the Bottom—with Barbara Atkinson | Ep. 228 · Cleaning Business Life

1:08
SPEAKER_02: Welcome back everyone.
1:10
SPEAKER_02: This is Shani Miller with Clean Business Life and today I am joined with Miss Barbara Atkinson.
1:15
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure I'm not hopefully I'm not butchering butchering your last name who is here to talk about company culture and what it's like for her.
1:23
SPEAKER_02: She comes from a totally corporate background.
1:25
SPEAKER_02: I'm super excited to have her here.
1:27
SPEAKER_02: Welcome, Miss Barbara.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, yes, I do come from a corporate background.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: I learned how to code in 1986 because I had three kids and was coming up.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: Divorced mom with three young kids coming up a hundred bucks short a month.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: What is the fastest way to the most amount of money?
1:48
SPEAKER_00: Go to coding school, at least it was in 1986.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: And that led to a a that led to to a very long career in in data engineering, business process management, and kind of as a lead engineer being responsible for translating the business to technology and and the technology back to business so that you could get from point A to point B as efficiently as possible.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: And um today I I'm I'm in the process of career transition.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Um I I am so done with a 60-hour work week and a pressure cooker being one of 50,000 cogs in a machine.
2:37
SPEAKER_01: Don't you also own a spa?
2:40
SPEAKER_01: Don't you aren't you in the beauty industry?
2:42
SPEAKER_01: I I'm trying to remember.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: I have a regenerative aesthetics practice that I started basically because um my med spa spend was skyrocketing and and my results were plummeting because I'm cranking on the years.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: And in tech, if you're old, you're irrelevant, and that goes triple if you're female.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: And it's like I cannot afford to look old.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: So uh I took two weeks vacation and um got my Laser Tech license and launched a med spa.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: So it's really, you know, and and I have 900 competitors in Scottsdale.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is like an unbelievably saturated market.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: Like all that is basically is my my personal treatment center.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: And I do I for me to do it on somebody else, it has to work on me first because there's a whole lot out there.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: Oh, this will work.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: No, it doesn't.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: So um that that's that's kind of uh in background mode.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: It's really just a part-time endeavor at this point, just because the market's so saturated.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: And and I just really do 50 plus skin.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of people that come in.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: I say, well, how much do you want to spend?
4:00
SPEAKER_00: If you want to correct that, let me tell you what it's gonna take.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: And um anyway, so yeah, um, I got my first laser series in 2004 because I was looking in the mirror, I was 45 at the time, and I was in a a leadership position and I looked in the mirror and it's like I cannot afford to have these wrinkles.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: And I spent what was in today's dollars,$7,000.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, on an IPL series.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: And you know, IPLs are like a hundred bucks a piece now.
4:29
SPEAKER_02: You're paying for the technology.
4:31
SPEAKER_02: You you really are.
4:32
SPEAKER_02: When you're when you're first on anything, you're always paying for the tech.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so and I have I have a project, uh, uh a women's health initiative project that at some point will actually take off.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: And and again, I'm in career transition.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: I've done uh a good 40 years in in corporate purgatory, and and I've done some small business stuff in between.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: Um and just I'm I'm done with the corporate hours.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: But one of the things I I find when I go and look at the small business community is is they don't have the operations management expertise that is often needed to take them from kind of where they are to to to being able to scale and and to be able to optimize um just um operational leaks from everything from money to time to property and expectations.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's really where culture comes in.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: Company culture, yeah.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but before we st we we we we turn the the video on, um we were talking about how um there are executive leaders in in very large companies who you'd be surprised don't really uh appreciate uh what defining a good culture means for the whole organization.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: Or I should say they define a culture in which the C-suite gets their pockets lined as best as possible at the expense of not only worker experience but the efficiency of the business, because they don't care.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: Because all they care about is their being counter bottom line.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: And um, that's not sustainable in my opinion, and I think that over time I will be proven correct.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: Defining culture is it's the personality of your business and how it's perceived and how workers are perceived and how you set the expectations for everybody to behave.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: And that's something that is really challenging uh across American culture because number one, nobody teaches.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: Who's ever been to a class about boundaries?
6:56
SPEAKER_01: I have, right.
6:58
SPEAKER_01: Have you really?
7:00
SPEAKER_00: Oh yes.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Oh yes, um, Townsend and Cloud, let me see.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: I think I have, yeah, Thomson and Cloud, this is awesome.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: This uh they they were making the circuits, I want to say maybe uh 15 years ago when they first came out with with boundaries, when to say yes and how to say no to take control of your life.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: And I've been a lay when you lead a team, um, your job is to optimize the performance of that team, at least in my opinion.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: And and that's what I built my career on building consistently outstanding performing teams.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: And you do that by optimizing each person.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: And so you have to become a lay psychologist because you have to meet people where they are to help them get out of their own way because everybody's their own worst enemy, and nobody's an exception to that.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: I mean that's true.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: That's just welcome to the human condition, anyway.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: This particular book is is is about codependency, uh particularly for women, this is a huge issue because we get all caught up in everybody else's drama trauma, and uh the reality is that we do it so we don't have to deal with our own stuff.
8:15
SPEAKER_02: That's interesting.
8:16
SPEAKER_02: It's an interesting perspective for sure.
8:18
SPEAKER_02: So, do you do you find that taking the boundaries course was really beneficial for you for your team?
8:26
SPEAKER_02: Or did you learn anything that you didn't already know?
8:28
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I know you mentioned the book and then the class.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they they were doing seminars, and and I went through it just because I'm I'm always interested in in how to communicate uh human dynamics so that people can better understand their behavior.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: I did a lot of study in transactional analysis and Eric Burns his Games People Play, which was that book.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh that that that's an oldie but a goodie.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, I think I read it like in 1986.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: That's an oldie but a goodie.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: And it really is because it's about what drives people's behaviors, because that's what you want is you want everybody to behave.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: Because and Joseph, management is there's an analogy that it's like herding cats.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: Because it can get that's true.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: And it's it is, it is, and I don't care where you are in the leadership chain, it's always the same thing.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: You bring people together, you get everybody on the same page, everybody says, yes, this is what we're gonna do.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: And then you set them loose, and then when you check with them and see, well, what exactly are you doing?
10:07
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, I'm doing this, and it's like, well, where was that discussed?
10:12
SPEAKER_02: It happens.
10:13
SPEAKER_02: I think that there's a lot of um grooming isn't the right word.
10:17
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of tweaking along the way of the path for every employee, whether they're cleaning tech or they're in the beauty industry or they're in tech tech.
10:28
SPEAKER_02: Um, there is a lot of things that get missed in lost in translation, so to speak, where they what one person says is blue isn't really blue, but three people down see it's blue, but the person in the middle didn't see it's blue.
10:40
SPEAKER_02: So you're trying to figure out how to get the person in the middle to there.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: You have nailed the number one problem in every organization with more than one person, right?
10:51
SPEAKER_00: Communication, accurate, concise communication that conveys the depth of understanding.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: It is not an easy task.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: What is company culture?
11:05
SPEAKER_00: You always have to start with definitions, and and this is a concept that is a big deal throughout organizations from a management standpoint across the board right now.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the big word is ontology.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: It's like, what do you call things?
11:20
SPEAKER_00: Because that goes to communication, because what you call something, making sure that everybody's calling the same thing the same thing is is really important, especially as the number of people who are communicating uh grows.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: So company culture is really kind of nebulous, it's a a shared set of core values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and practices that define an organization.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: And where does it start?
11:53
SPEAKER_00: It always, always, always without exception, starts at the top.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: You cannot affect change in an organization unless it starts at the top.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you this with without any hesitation.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: If you want to change an organization in any way, shape, or form, it has to come from the top.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: And what leaders illustrate is what sets standards.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: So it exists whether you intentionally create it or not.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: So it's probably a good idea to intentionally create it.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: Um and why?
12:36
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is your public image.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: It reflects in in everybody's interaction with your business.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, whether whether it's it's a call, whether it's a a follow-up, whether it's somebody going out and doing something.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, it it reflects in all of that.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, one of the big ones too, and and and it it goes to turnover, which um uh every business turnover is really expensive.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, it's crazy.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: It is hard, it is hard to find the right people.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: Um when when when I've been a hiring manager, and granted, this is all in corporate purgatory where you know you have have a lot of technical requirements, a lot of technical knowledge requirements.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: But when I've been a hiring manager and and and been able to hire my own team, I typically go through a hundred resumes to talk to 10 people, and out of that 10, I might have one come in for an in-person interview.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's that much.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: And these are pre-screened resumes coming from HR.
13:47
SPEAKER_02: That's actually pretty similar in the cleaning industry as well.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, oh, so that makes a lot of sense.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is hard to find the right people.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: And and when you have a culture that keeps them, it reduces turnover.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: When you make your expectations clear, and that's the hardest thing, is to make expectations clear.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: And they're expectations that you as a leader have to live up to if you expect anybody to take you seriously.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: Right.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: Um and and then, you know, just building trust and and uh uh especially, you know, uh uh culture when it comes, if if you're gonna be in that biohazard business, uh yeah, that that's not for the faint of heart.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: No, no, it's not.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you really need to have that organizational structure available to support and ensure the safety of your workers and the experience of everybody that you come in contact with, just because there's so many details and and so much risk, because that's about risk mitigation too.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, and and it doesn't matter whether you're residential, commercial, or biohazard, um intentional culture delivers an organizational excellence that will help you stand out in the marketplace.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: And that was supposed to click, click, click, but it didn't.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: Oh well.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: It's totally fine.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, it and and this just again, reiterating and reiterating and reiterating, it's not about what you say, it's about what you do.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: If you have children, you know how that falls out.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: You cannot tell your children to uh do as I say, not as I do, and not have them do as you do because they will.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: So it's the same thing in company culture, and that's where you have to stand back.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: And this is hard for a lot of people, um, because they've not because it it's hard to do, but because they've never done it.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you have never done a personal values exercise where you step back and and you identify your top five values, what are the values that are most important to you and why?
16:07
SPEAKER_00: It's very hard to articulate them if you have not done that exercise.
16:11
SPEAKER_02: It is.
16:12
SPEAKER_02: It's really challenging when you really put pen to paper and articulate what it is you're trying to convey and get it out of your head.
16:19
SPEAKER_02: It's a it's actually a very intense project or lesson to do.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: And and and it's a personal development exercise.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: And and I believe it should start in 11th grade because I think 11th graders are perfectly capable and that it will give them a tool that will improve their their ability to navigate life tremendously.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: Right.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, just it starts with your values and uh having those on paper is is a really important step because it creates the framework for everything else.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: And again, the accountability, it's not do as I say, it's do as I do, and and you set the tone with everything, with every behavior.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: And and that just if your teams aren't performing well, you always have to look at how am I modeling it wrong first and make that correction first.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, looking in the mirror um when you have operational problems, that's the hardest part.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: It is, and it was and and I learned that in coding school.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: It was really interesting when people would when I was in coding class, and like it was it was me, one other female, and and 27 guys.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, a little lopsided, and and and and predominantly with the guys, and and and I don't have enough women because there was only one and we were both of the same mindset, but for all the guys, when they'd code and they'd compile it and they'd get an error and it, they'd say, What's the computer doing wrong?
18:02
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, wait a minute, it's what you're doing wrong.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: It does exactly what you tell it to do, and that's kind of like people too.
18:11
SPEAKER_02: There's there are definitely some similarities with that.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, really, um uh it's about the example that you set.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: And I I can't emphasize that enough.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: And I wish it was more emphasized with the leadership uh that we have in in even some of the largest organizations and and and and political stations in this country because we've kind of forgotten it.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: Um we we're supposed to be setting an example, and whether you want to or not, you are.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: And what is it?
18:43
SPEAKER_00: And being intentional about it, that's gonna be a big factor in making and breaking your business.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, so how do you do this?
18:53
SPEAKER_00: Well, clear mission statement.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: And I don't come across a lot of small businesses that really have taken the time to do this.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: What is is your mission?
19:06
SPEAKER_00: And what are the lived values?
19:08
SPEAKER_00: And again, this starts at the ownership level and and the leadership level.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, what is it that is most important to your organization?
19:19
SPEAKER_00: And then um again, leadership behavior models the values daily, and your leadership needs to model whatever values you set forth.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: So making sure that those are in alignment is an important step.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: And then, oh yeah, documenting processes and procedures.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, I find that's lacking in so many businesses, small businesses, because it it's really time consuming, it's annoying.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, it seems like a time sequence.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: It's really not if it's done correctly, meaning that you're documenting and defining the right things.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, how people are hired, um, your hiring process, how do you evaluate the candidates?
20:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh and and what is a process that keeps them advised of their status?
20:14
SPEAKER_00: I mean, one of the things I see all the time right now, because you know, tech itself, the whole industry is in upheaval.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: People um either hearing, oh, you're such a great candidate, and then nothing ever again, or hearing, you know, through interview after interview, oh, this is gonna be wonderful.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we've we've changed our direction now.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: We're not even gonna fill that position.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, that's um um not just poor human relations management.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: That's that's that's poor public relations because these people are developing an opinion about your business and people talk to each other.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: You'd be surprised.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: So how they're hired, how they're onboarded.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Um I've been in situations where like day one, it's like, well, sink or swim.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Right.
21:02
SPEAKER_02: I think hopefully that doesn't happen as much anymore because that used to be a common practice in the industry, in every industry.
21:10
SPEAKER_02: It was trial by fire.
21:11
SPEAKER_02: Here you go, we're gonna give you two hours of whatever it is, you're expected to know everything.
21:17
SPEAKER_02: But that I think that's gotten better over time.
21:19
SPEAKER_02: I would like to believe.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: It's about positioning people for success.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: Right.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: And this is something that as if you are managing people, your job is is to make them successful.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: And I don't understand to this day, you know, my undergrads in management.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: I did not hear one time in four years of college that your job as a manager is to facilitate the excellence of everybody who reports to you.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: Not once.
21:46
SPEAKER_02: Nope, not once either.
21:47
SPEAKER_02: I don't recall ever that being a topic of conversation.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like kind of, isn't that the bottom line there?
21:56
SPEAKER_00: Or at least um if if you are running a business, that is in your best interest to approach it that way.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: So um, your onboarding is is needs to be designed to ensure that people know what they're supposed to do, when they're supposed to do it, and how they're supposed to do it.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: Because that sets expectations.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: And when it's in writing, it's very clear to people.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: It's very different than when you talk about it.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: So making sure that what's important is well written so that it's understandable by everybody and going back to communication so that it's well designed, and any kind of training, especially if you have any specialized cleaning uh procedures, um, that that's can't the the importance of doing that well cannot be underscored enough.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: And then job descriptions.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is one of the just and it's not just in small businesses.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: I've been in in very large organizations where they struggle with keeping up with job descriptions and having accurate job descriptions for people.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: That's the foundation of setting your expectations for somebody to perform.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: And if it's not clear, if it's not concise, if it's not accurate, and they don't perform, how can you hold them to it?
23:17
SPEAKER_02: Right.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's and just documenting what makes sense and.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: Picking and choosing what you invest in, because all this is administrative overhead, but it's about the return on investment, meaning a better operating business.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, communication standards, uh, when somebody's sick, when there's an issue encountered on a job, when when you know, when's how is the phone answered?
23:49
SPEAKER_00: All of those things.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, those are important too.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: And and how accountability is administered.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: Um in in industries that use uh lower wage workers, you tend to have to deal with lower wage worker problems like them deciding not to show up.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, and not that that doesn't happen in corporate purgatory anymore, because it it kind of became a trend there too, but um particularly in something like a cleaning business, um, where where just people ghost you.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: How do you handle that?
24:27
SPEAKER_00: Um if if you have um um if you have a worker assaulted, and that's a real that's a real thing.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: It is um how how how do you handle that?
24:38
SPEAKER_00: How have you written out your policies and procedures so that when it happens, you open a book instead of trying to pull something intelligent out of your rear?
24:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean, these are this is this is important and you know uh how mistakes are handled.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: The wrong person goes to the wrong address on the wrong day.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just you know, certainly you want to prevent that, but should it happen, what do you do?
25:02
SPEAKER_00: And you know best the the things that your particular business and your particular area are are are going to encounter.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Making sure that you have uh written out how you will respond to those is is important for you to be able to execute well when the unexpected happens.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: And that's not an if an unexpected happens, it's when an unexpected happens, because they always do.
25:27
SPEAKER_04: They do.
25:32
SPEAKER_04: How do you make people feel valued?
25:36
SPEAKER_03: That's a really interesting question.
25:39
SPEAKER_03: What things did you use to make people feel valued?
25:44
SPEAKER_00: What I found works best, and I have I have shared this with CEOs, and and and they they just kind of get a blank look on their face.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: And and it's and it's this this is what I do.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: I go to each person on the team, and like uh one time, yeah, we had a death march in in tech, it's called a death march where you work yourself to death.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: A whole bunch of people work themselves to death to get a project through a finish line um uh at a designated time, and instead of just you know uh coming up, let's give everybody a plaque.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: It are so meaningless to so many people, but not everybody.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, I went and asked each person, hey, this was a stellar job.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: How would you like to be rewarded?
26:29
SPEAKER_00: And I had one say, Oh, I'd really, really like a gift card to this, you know, really expensive restaurant so I could take my wife out to eat because she's been so great through all this.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: And another one said, Oh, I want this training course.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: And another one said, Oh, I want to work on this project because I want that skill set.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, you know, at the end of the day, it ended up costing me way, way less than I thought it would, because you know, it just and and and each person was very uh felt valued, felt like like they were appreciated.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: So um what resonates with with each person is really important.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, every group is gonna be different.
27:14
SPEAKER_05: Right.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: When you have older people, younger people mixed, when you you have, you know, a density of a particular culture in your workforce, um, there there's you it's about actually talking to people and finding out what's meaningful to them.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: That's what I found works best.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: And then putting and putting something together.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I found that oh, when you have people come and do, you know, Sunday night maintenance that starts at 6 p.m.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: and ends at 2 a.m.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: on Monday morning, if you feed them, they're real happy.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: True, very true.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: I know, so yeah, it's like you know, just really um uh uh honestly caring about what matters to them, and and that's how you uh build your your recognition and your rituals and what you do to make people feel like they're valued in your organization, because that more than anything else will keep them around.
28:13
SPEAKER_02: I do have a question for you as regards to value, because for a long time, and and it's not um Hard Rock Cafe is no longer owned by Hard Rock Cafe.
28:21
SPEAKER_02: They were bought out by a company in Florida.
28:23
SPEAKER_02: But in when they first opened up the casino in Las Vegas, the biggest thing, the biggest ply for them for you to commit to them was that if you work 10 years, you got a Rolex, and it was actually hand delivered by the CEO at the time.
28:37
SPEAKER_02: I don't think they do that anymore.
28:38
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever heard of any corporations that you've worked for that did a reward just like that?
28:45
SPEAKER_00: No, they typically just do golden parachutes for the C-suite after they mess up.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: So that's the reality.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: Um it has been, you know, I've I've been on a a a number of of of soapboxes to uh uh executives at different levels at um different size companies for years, uh and they they tend to really uh live in ivory towers.
29:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: Well, and and that hinders their ability to be effective, in my opinion.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, I'm not there anymore.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, so anyway, how do you do this?
29:30
SPEAKER_00: Well, and number one, don't reinvent the wheel.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: Right.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: Um there's plenty of existing mission statements and value statements, and and Google and and LLM chatbots are your friend.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Um find somebody else's work that you like and improve it.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's number one.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: And and same thing for um your hiring process and and all the documentation that goes around your your workers.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's all kinds of templates out there.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh and and it's so much easier to start with something that somebody else has put together and and modify it to fit to your business.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, one of the things that you always want to do, especially when it comes to anything with employees, is make sure that you're in compliance with with your your your state and and and any other um regional or city laws that you have, because they do vary.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: And um and let's see, what's the next one?
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: Big one, you know, uh emphasizing again that our emergency operations plans, um, especially when your worker safety uh is compromised.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: And and there's something called called due care and management where you have a a moral obligation to make sure that your your workers are are not put in excessive uh in in excessive risk, um, or or um um if there is an issue, uh making sure that you you are addressing it in a way that doesn't end you up in a lawsuit that ends you up um bankrupt because that does happen.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: So um emergency operations plan.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: I can't, especially if if you're doing biohazard cleaning, man, uh there should be there should be stacks of of documents on on what to do.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: And then this big one, character, and and and it's something that we we don't talk about in in American culture enough, um, that that we really need to get back to because uh you can hire somebody who doesn't have experience, but if they have the character, if they have the the the drive, um if they demonstrate the qualities that they can learn and perform and perform well, um that's way better than somebody with tons of experience who's gonna burn you in the first month.
32:12
SPEAKER_05: Right.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: And how do you even look at character?
32:16
SPEAKER_00: And this this um I use this one time to decide that I was not gonna hire somebody because I I found that um the integrity, the it just wasn't there, and integrity is one of my personal big ones.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just that that's foundational for me for having it.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: And I I like to run integral operations.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: And if somebody doesn't demonstrate that same integrity and and a hiring process, um that that's that's a deal killer.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: Uh and all of these, the accountability, their sense of justice.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you, uh it's about being fair when you're managing people.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: Um it's about being fair.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: And you can you can punish people real good, and everybody will agree.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: As long as it's fair, you're not gonna have you're not gonna have a morale problem.
33:19
SPEAKER_02: Right.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: So, um you know, and and you know, are they are they collaborative?
33:25
SPEAKER_00: Um what what about their compassion and their their humility?
33:30
SPEAKER_00: I mean, nobody is beyond messing up, so um, yeah, we all need to to to take ownership of that.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and how passionate are they for what they do and and and uh all of these other qualities that when somebody comes in the door um to to perform at any level and and also looking in the mirror, you need to be taking these things into consideration and how they all how how you're you're establishing a consistency throughout your organization.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: And that's it.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: That's all my slide deck.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna stop sharing now.
34:08
SPEAKER_02: The I liked the the character wheel.
34:12
SPEAKER_02: Um, there were some major key points on those things that should be emulated throughout the every level of your business.
34:21
SPEAKER_02: Um integrity is really big with me, always has been, especially in my industry because it is a trust-based industry.
34:28
SPEAKER_02: So if you don't have integrity or you show signs of lacking integrity, then uh cleaning in a residential home might not be a good fit.
34:37
SPEAKER_02: But you could certainly clean for a bank if you had some integrity issues because everything is on camera and you don't have to worry about those types of things.
34:45
SPEAKER_02: Am I saying that you should hire someone without integrity for a bank?
34:48
SPEAKER_02: No, but that's the first example that I would like to give for those types of things.
34:55
SPEAKER_02: Judgment is a big thing.
34:57
SPEAKER_02: We have a, and I don't want to discriminate against one workforce versus the other, but we have a certain societal uh discrepancy, so to speak, when it comes to judgment.
35:10
SPEAKER_02: And when you are fair and you're consistently fair, then everyone looks at the bigger picture and says, well, you know, I got in trouble and this is what I got, and you got in trouble and you got the same thing.
35:21
SPEAKER_02: It's the person who doesn't know how to regulate themselves that always causes the problem.
35:26
SPEAKER_02: I can't tell you how many times when I did have W-2s or when I was working with another company, you know, I would carry the load and the other person would just be in the bathroom texting.
35:37
SPEAKER_02: And it was just like, okay, the house is done.
35:41
SPEAKER_02: It's like, so thanks for participating.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: And and and and you, you know, you can blame some of it on something called safetyism.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: And that's where everybody has to create a safe environment and and you have to have participation words because nobody's feelings can get hurt.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, whenever you have two people, you're gonna have a conflict.
36:08
SPEAKER_00: And it's just that's just how it is.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: And if you do not have the the resources and and the resilience and the and the ability to deal with the natural adversities that that are going to unfold in your life, you're gonna have a very challenging life.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: Right.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: And how do you get that resilience?
36:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, you part of is is an expectation that you will have it.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: And that's part of what's what has changed in our society is is um when I was growing up, you were expected to behave yourself in public, and you were expected to to to exercise decorum and and and courtesy.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: And today you get the most clicks and views by by by being uh just uh just a criminal on tape.
37:03
SPEAKER_02: It's it's it's impressive on so many levels.
37:06
SPEAKER_02: It's um someone told me that Facebook got violent towards them.
37:08
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, what?
37:10
SPEAKER_02: Meaning that they're they were picking at their posts, and that actually got more more activity on their feed, which gave them a reward for the bad activity.
37:18
SPEAKER_02: I was like, this is just nuts.
37:20
SPEAKER_02: But that's just the way it works right now.
37:22
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully it will swing back in the other way.
37:24
SPEAKER_02: But as far as um having actual employees, I think it's really important for everyone out there to develop these things, the the common values and then having job descriptions and all of the basic stuff that you need to make yourself successful.
37:42
SPEAKER_02: I I always thought when I was in management that I was the bottom supporting the top.
37:46
SPEAKER_02: I never I would never ask anyone to do anything that I wouldn't do myself.
37:51
SPEAKER_02: Um, and they knew that, right?
37:52
SPEAKER_02: Like I would never subject them to do something wild and crazy unless I was wild and crazy enough to do it then.
37:58
SPEAKER_02: I think the worst thing I ever did is when I worked for TGI Fridays, this was back in the day.
38:05
SPEAKER_02: I on on their birthday, I would come in on my day off and I would work a full shift for them.
38:10
SPEAKER_02: So all of the tips they got paid for the day, and all of the tips that I made that day waiting on tables for them, they got to keep.
38:18
SPEAKER_02: So I don't know.
38:19
SPEAKER_02: I would have a whole audience watch me every time I did it.
38:22
SPEAKER_02: But that was way back.
38:24
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if management does that now, and we know that TGI Fridays is barely crippling along.
38:31
SPEAKER_02: It's not the same organization it used to be.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: That was rewarding people in a way that's meaningful to them.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: Right?
38:39
SPEAKER_00: They watched me.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, even even even though it was at your personal expense per se.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: It it it it and and and that's uh what that's the foundation of morale is people feeling appreciated and valued.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh and um their performance will always reflect that in some way, shape, or form.
39:02
SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
39:03
SPEAKER_02: So remembering their names is really important too.
39:06
SPEAKER_02: So do you have any questions for me, Miss Brebra?
39:09
SPEAKER_00: No, no, I hope I this is my first podcast.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: I have no idea.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: You're totally fine.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: I hope I didn't mess it up.
39:16
SPEAKER_02: You're totally fine.
39:18
SPEAKER_02: I want to thank you so much for coming on and taking the time to be with me and the audience.
39:23
SPEAKER_02: And um, I look forward to talking to you soon.
39:25
SPEAKER_02: Take care.
39:26
SPEAKER_02: All right, thanks, Shannon.
39:27
SPEAKER_02: Bye bye.