TOGCast
The ONE Group is a specialist recruitment agency with seven sector-specific divisions across Cambridge, Hertfordshire, Northampton and Peterborough. Our specialist consultants are proud to work with international brands, charities, and everyone in between, as well as some of the most exciting SMEs and agencies out there. The ONE thing we don’t get to do is share the experiences of the professionals behind these amazing brands. This is where TOGCast comes in… We believe that every professional has a great story to tell, which is why we have set up TOGCast to share successful stories and top tips on how our candidates and clients got to where they are today. Along the way, episodes will include guests from all backgrounds within our specialist sectors, providing listeners with insights from leaders, as well as some of their best survival stories. We are excited to be starting our podcasting journey at The ONE Group and can’t wait for you to start listening!
TOGCast
TOG Talks: Building Winning Teams
Welcome to The ONE Group's Podcast! We believe that every professional has a great story to tell, which is why we have set up TOGCast to share successful stories and top tips on how candidates and clients got to where they are today.
On this episode we are joined by Channel 4's Secret Millionare, Mike Greene, who has shared valuable insights into how companies can attract, train, motivate, and retain the best teams, to ensure ongoing success.
If you would like to be our next guest speaker, host or ask us a question, please email us at marketing@theonegroup.co.uk
Hosted by Leanne Davidson-Town and Producer Bex.
If you would like to be our next guest speaker, host or ask us a question, please email us at hello@theonegroup.co.uk
Hosted by Leanne Davidson-Town and Producer Bex.
[Music]
You are now tuned in to this week's
episode on Togcast it is our mission to
bring you guest speakers sharing their
latest and greatest tips skills stories
and know-hows within their Market let's get going
[Music]
welcome to today's Togcast I'm Leanne thanks
for joining us today
we're here monthly to help our
listeners out with the world of
Recruitment and job hunting
we held an event on the 12th of
September at Burley house where Mike
discussed building winning teams and
through attracting retaining
motivating and retaining
due to the success of the event we're
here today to record this podcast so
anyone that unfortunately missed the
event can get all the information they
need to help them in their business so
on today's show I'm joined by fellow
toger David Arden business networking
manager and Mike Green who is an
accomplished entrepreneur author and
growth and strategy Mentor Mike also
hosts the highly regarded podcast
success is a system and has appeared on
channel 4's secret millionaire David
would you like to say a few words before
we begin yes so more role within
The ONE Group is the business networking
manager so responsibility of that role
is essentially I develop
relationships with new businesses and
also to retain the businesses that we
currently have and try and develop that
further a lot of my role is involved in
extensive networking and that sort of
local basis and nationally as well so
I'm constantly meeting new people and
trying to really develop things for the
business far and wide so primarily and
that's where you met Mike that's where I
met Mike
yes it was yes it was at the Chamber of
Commerce so
something we've been actively
involved in over the last year really
and proven to be very successful and
very beneficial so they're the kind of
things we like to get involved in
so let's get on with the discussion then
so Mike building winning teams yeah so I
mean winning teams it it encapsulates so
much and there's lots of quotes that
often when I'm mentoring businesses will
make them uncomfortable because I'll say
things like winning teams only have the
best players and the key word there is
only and all too often we think well
they're not bad because if someone's a
bad employee we will exit them if we
can't help them become good if you like
but we don't address good people and
actually what we really need is the best
people so if you if you think I'll say
football we don't say oh we've got some
good players we say we've got the best
in the world and sometimes they can be a
best in the world player but if you take
Ronaldo
earlier in the year
stopped playing as part of the team so
even if they're a world's best deliverer
of whatever the job is if they don't fit
within the team it's time to think about
are they going to be right for the team
because
winning teams only have the best players
and it's a team it's not an individual
in a business so we constantly got to be
reviewing are our people still the best
people they might be great but if they
don't involve with the business and the
needs of the business we need to be
reviewing that constantly
and it should be something that every
board or key key um manager in a
business is constantly looking at and
saying are they the best are they good
can we take good to best or do we need
to start thinking about how we manage
that person out if we can't manage them
up yeah because obviously with every
business you have the probation period
And once people pass they're kind of
like in it then aren't they so it's that
kind of continual reviewing making sure
that they're on track and they're still
performing the way they should yeah and
I mean
I'm gonna always have slightly different
views but when we after a probation
period if someone's in it we're still
going to deliver as a business we're
going to deliver a great environment
hopefully and we're going to talk and we
did talk about how to attract train
motivate and retain people but
that's a cycle that's a commitment
from any business person to commit to
those individuals equally those
individuals have got to keep their value
to the business and evolve with the
business so whether after the
probationary period they're in after so
many years they get more and more rights
but at any point in a business even if
someone's been here eight or ten years
if they start to become a threat to the
business we have got to
be honest about that person is now
like a cancer and we either cut we we
try the best we can to treat that but if
not we cut it out because it could be
the death of a business so there's no
point in time at which firstly there
shouldn't be an honest upfront
conversation within individual and if
that doesn't work and some extra
training or guidance or support doesn't
work we need to cut them out because the
business and you know the most people I
ever employed were 2600. and at one
point we had to get rid of 600 people
and because I had to had to negotiate
with unions and the upset and it
gets local press and bad press but the
point is sometimes if you don't get rid
of one or six hundred you put all of
them at risk yeah and so if you're in
charge you've got to take charge and you
know some of the cliche sayings about
everyone wants to be the the king of the
jungle the beast if you like until they
have to do what the beast has to do and
if ripping the throat out of a gazelle
to feed your pride is something you
need to do nobody wants to kill anything
or or cut someone loose but you've got
to think about the interest of the
business holistically every individual
within that because whether you're
employing three people or three thousand
they're not people they're they're
mortgage ages their holidays that
they've booked it's a big commitment and
you can't let any one individual
threaten that yeah what I absolutely
loved was your cycle that you just
touched upon there you know the
attracting training motivating and
retaining and how businesses can sort of
adapt that to work for them yeah and and
to me you know people like processes and
the reason my podcast is called success
is a system is it's understanding the
systems for success and you know one
business can have completely different
systems to another one individual can
have different uh systems to another
individual and part of that for me is
about finding out what did you do to
become successful or what do you
attribute your success to and then
sharing that with the world as it as it
were to say you don't have to exactly
emulate somebody but if you can find a
system that you think will work for your
business adopt that system emulate that
system deliver that system then it
might help you become as successful as
the person or people that you're
emulating and part of that is to taking
a concept and we're talking about people
and saying how can I put it in a way
that people can remember it and if we as
we talk about how to attract train
motivate and retain and I'll say that
several times in any presentation as we
did or in any meeting by the time we get
to it they might not remember all of the
details yeah or even though we it will
be in there we can pull it out but they
will remember a track train motivating
retain yeah and from that that's a
system then that they can start to look
at in the business and say what are we
doing to attract the right people are we
training them are they motivated and are
we making sure that we're doing the
right things to constantly retain them
so what can we do then to attract these
people what are your top tips guys yeah
so David well one thing we produce on
an annual basis which has proven to have
been a huge success is that we do a
salary guide for our clients and that's
something which we take from quite a
high volume of businesses and that helps
those businesses to determine whether or
not they are providing the right
financial package so that might include
the basic salaries the bonus scheme so
just to make sure that when they are
recruiting in the market they're
competitive in order to attract the
right Talent across all sorts of
different Industries and that really
helps them to ensure that their planning
and are ahead of the game so that's
available we produce that and that's
available through our website so it can
be downloaded for any business to
utilise and analyse it as to as to how
they want to to to to go forward and
attract staff yeah it really is a great
tool actually it's also available in
hard copy if anyone wanted it posted to
them yeah really good yeah so I mean my
thoughts on that is and my original
business or primary business I grew up
through retail and then set up a retail
consultant so that we grew globally and
I think salary is a bit like cost or
price of products in the sense that
you've got to be in the right boundaries
otherwise you you know if we look at say
the price of a bottle of water yeah
we used to talk about there's value
pricing there's Supermarket pricing
there's convenience pricing and then
there's insult pricing you don't want to
be into insult and so if it if that was
salaries we were talking about you as an
employer should know that you're not
insulting your employees they shouldn't
have to come and and ask just to get the
right salary for that job it should be
your job to keep on top of that and to
make sure that you're giving that now
that said if we use the analogy or the
metaphor of pricing of product similarly
the price I'm willing to pay in a
convenience store because I'm on the
motorway and I'm having to pull off and
it's a service station you say if you
took a bottle of water it might be two
pound in that in that environment but I
don't want to pull miles off to an
unknown Village to find a shop that
might be cheaper because the overall
cost to my time and convenience might be
uh worse if you like now I know that I
can buy that bottle of water for ATP in
a discount over a pound in a supermarket
for one pound fifty in a convenience
store or for two pound in Motorway
Services equally when it comes to jobs
you know if it's a much better salary
but it's in London and I've got to spend
two day two hours each day commuting
that's an inconvenience that even a
better salary might make it not
attractive enough and so we end up
looking at things like London waiting
and so on but then again it might be a
case of we've got two jobs one's in a
startup and one is in an established
business that's got lots of brand
value and I think well I'm working
for that brand that I'll add to my CV
working for that brand I might have
other other opportunities around the
world or in the company equally I might
say I'd like to work for a startup
because it could be new fun funky
energetic so I didn't think celery or
price needs to be a fixed number it
needs to be within a boundary that takes
into consideration other factors that
will wait positively or negatively yeah
on that particular job and so think of
it as a set of scales you know what are
the positive reasons I'd want to work
there the negative reasons why I might
not want to work there and is the salary
enough to counterbalance that to get it
in the right position for my needs that
also satisfy your needs as an employer
yeah well I've got a great example of
that I once worked for a company massive
company
but left that company to actually
come here because the benefits of
working here just matched with me and
aligned with me a lot more than that
massive big brand you know we have like
payday breakfast every month then lots
of social things that we do and we are a
small company but it's a bit like a
family and I absolutely love it and that
would trump anything about working for
the big multinational brand and again
Leanne what we do as well to to try and
help companies whether they might be an
existing client or a new client is that
we offer a benchmarking service so that
means that we support a business to
ensure that they are are attracting the
right kind of talent in whatever
industry it might be and that looks at
competitor analysis and it shows that
you know they can re they can attract
the right people for the right reasons
and retain them within the business so
that's something that we offer and we
find a lot of clients benefit from that
because it brings our expertise in to
support them in their planning for the
future and does that take in does that
then give them guidance on what the
initiatives or elements are that could
counterbalance yes it does yeah yeah
yeah totally it totally supports that in
terms of the benefits to make sure that
they're attracting the right talent in
that specific area so it will look at
the competition in that area and it
really gives them all the tools to
ensure that they're getting the best
people you know within that area exactly
so we might have a client who's using
staff got a high stir turnover and they
don't know why and they can come to us
and we can say well in your local area
we've got all these other SIM similar
companies and they're offering hybrid
working or Fridays off you know so but
they might not know that until they
actually look out there and as we know
businesses invest a lot of money in
their training and attracting programs
so if they're losing people then rather
than they replace them with other people
we need to determine what are the
reasons why they're losing them and then
maybe they can make some changes within
that business to retain that and I think
that's a key point that that fits
into the cycle in many areas of the
track training motivate and retain and
one of the examples I shared was Kip
Tyndall of Container Store who it's an
American company is a bit like dunelm
and habitat sort of thing it's Gadgets
in effect and and household gadgets and
uh Kip Tyndall the founder of that for
20 years in a row he got double digit
growth as a business which is incredible
he also got voted best company to work
for in America for three years and
and for a relatively unknown brand that
many people wouldn't know until you talk
about it but the key thing that relates
to what you were saying is he paid
double the industry average salary and
so when I when I spoke in South Carolina
an event that he was at and uh you know
the one of the audience members said
well you know 10 to the normal rate of
uh of salary to retail how can you
afford that
and not be bust and he said well
mine's only 10 as well I said well how
can you be paying twice as much but I
have the same ratio of of salary to
sales and he said because when you when
you pay that much money you only get the
best people you only accept the best
people because you're paying that much
money when you're paying that much money
they don't leave so you've not got this
constant churn that we talked about
they're happier in their job and he
said great people are at least two to
three times as effective as good people
who are at least two to three times
effective as average people and he'd
then say how many average people do you
employ so a lot of people don't realise
the cost of a high churn rate to their
constant recruitment costs to their
child to their extra training needed to
the overall happiness of an
effectiveness of their teams yeah and
equally the loss of business to losing
somebody that probably you could have
retained had you paid the right salaries
and offered the right package the cost
of losing somebody and then having to
bring somebody new in and the cost that
it takes to get them up to the level
that the person they lost cost on time
and all the time during that time
they're interacting with customers they
could be losing customers they could be
given a less than optimal service to
those customers
okay so moving on to the next point of
the cycle then training we've touched on
that a couple of times in this
conversation already yeah I mean
trainings it's got to be a lifetime
thing and and when I'm mentoring
individuals I talk a lot about because a
lot of individuals think I've done my
education if you like I went through
school didn't really enjoy that or
whatever or I went to UNI it was really
hard work glad to be done with that yeah
they need to learn so when I Mentor an
individual that it should be about
lifelong learning it should be about
constantly evolving with a changing
world you know we know in the last year
AI has become a massive thing and is
changing lots of jobs so if they don't
change they'll become irrelevant and
and outdated for their jobs so but
equally I work with a lot of smes who
recruit people because they've got the
right skills and then they think well we
don't have to do a mini trip we we
recruit them because there are let's say
a heating engineer or a plumber or
whatever it is I don't have to train
them well if the technology has changed
or the needs of customers have changed
or the systems have changed we need to
keep them trained otherwise they're
gonna everyone should join the job know
that when they leave they're more
valuable yeah
you'd want that as well because they
should be more valuable to you the only
way that happens is through training
experience training experience and an
ongoing commitment to training and
some people look at it as a cost it's
got to be seen as an investment a
crucial investment that without you you
slowly become a dinosaur and I think
we've found it haven't we as being a
recruitment specialist we get to see
lots of different companies and
different Industries and it's become
very clear particularly over the last
few years and since you know the
issues we've had with brexit and and the
pandemic then investing in your staff
training your staff as we mentioned
before Mike is it motivates people and
you retain them and that makes business
sense so
essential training in any
organisation is is key to a successful
business yeah and we found that you know
with a lot of our clients but and
training can be
multifaceted a lot of people think of
it oh God got off on the training course
it could be as simple as being able to
Shadow someone it could be as simple as
someone more senior in the business
mentoring mid and junior members of
Staff because training is about giving
them some of the skills confidence
attributes that someone who's good at
the job can hand down too many companies
assume it's an outsourced thing and
there are some courses that will
encapsulate it and there are some
companies that will give training that
will be better at training than maybe an
in-house person might be but training is
is something that can be just the way we
run a business yeah you know we're
constantly training uh coaching
mentoring which all forms of training
really aren't they and it's enhancing
the experience as well that you have
retained within you know your own
business to train newer people and less
experience so often the answer to your
training is actually retained within
your business and you can help develop
that rather than necessarily bringing
outside trainers in it's actually there
in front of you you just need to utilise
that experience exactly and I I love
sort of finding old sayings that have
been in in place for hundreds of years
and passed down and you know one of them
that comes to mind is every day's a
school day and if you sort of
encapsulate that and take it on board if
every day's a school day you should be
asking yourself what have I learned
today if you're a business you should be
asking yourself how have I helped that
individual grow have I taught them
anything is there something new are we
communicating as much and effectively
as we could and companies think it's
a once a year thing or you haven't done
any training we'll get them all annual
training yeah exactly exactly that
you've got to build it into your culture
yeah I think if you do that then it
becomes business as normal doesn't it
yeah definitely and obviously if you
implement new systems of things with you
know to make your company more effective
or efficient you've got to have the
training to go along as well so would
you say then that the training is enough
as a motivator or is there something
else that we need to do to motivate our
employees no I think well so two things
I talk a lot about motivation I mean
I've done whole all conferences on
motivation and and I love the way that
if you break words down it helps sort of
bring it to life more so if you take the
word motivation and split it into motive ation
that's a bit like motive for
Action so motivation is why will people
do what they need to do and what can we
do to change their motive to take more
action yeah so if you think about it in
that sense now firstly a lot of people
think I'm just not motivated or give me
some positive motivation you know well
firstly at least 60 to 70 of all
motivation is negative so we are more
pushed by what we don't want than we are
pulled by what we do so you know let's
say I set a goal I'm going to build a
business because I want a Ferrari and
I've currently got a fear not a good fit
but you know the motivation get that
Friday if I'm having a really tough day
week month I can easily self-justify I
don't need it needed for
cost a lot less it's more fuel efficient
the insurance is cheaper but if for
instance the the motivation is that same
money could buy my mum a house and she's
worked all her life for me and I don't
like the fact that she's having to live
in squalor or
my daughter needs an operation and
and it you know I've got to wait two
years on the NHS or I could pay for it
now if I had the cash often we are more
pushed by our fears than we are pulled
by a dream so and equally in a job the
best motivation is and and this is the
hard side of it yeah if you do your job
you'll keep your job yeah you know and
if you do a bad job you won't keep them
bad so there's got to be a hard edge to
it but the other side is I always
recognise that people spend more time
with their with their ways than they do
they do their loved ones you know they
might see their mom or dad once a week
they might see their kids for an hour
before bed if they're working hard by
the time
the average couple in the UK sadly
spends no more than seven minutes of
worthwhile conversation each day and you
think oh that's rubbish and then you
think other other than have you had a
good day yep what's for
dinner yeah it's not much really
substantial conversation but we're at
work for eight ten twelve hours
sometimes so we're going to spend more
time at work so it's got to be an
environment that I want to go to an
environment where it feels like a family
in the positive sense so I knew as um
uh as a businessman when I was building
my business which generally SMA you
small and medium Enterprises that I
wasn't the big Nielsen or or price of
Waterhouse Coopers or something like
that so what could I do differently
better best that they couldn't emulate
but would be a reason why people would
want to work for me stay with me and
and contribute in that motivated way so
we'd look at things like you know
for instance I had a thousand pound a
year social budget for every employee I
didn't care how they spent it they
decide between themselves they they
nominate a social secretary and that
could be any man or woman in the
business that comes up with some ideas
and they put ideas in
and that might be as simple as every
week on a Friday we're gonna go out for
a drink and we've got 20 pound budget
per person that's a good year it might
be we're going to do that once a month
and we'll have a day trip to beloin as
a team and it's often things that brings
a team together really because but it's
like there is money that will create
things that the equivalent money would
you know 20 quid a week isn't going to
change anyone's life particularly but
the social connecting them as a team
rewarding the week and so on
equally they might say they want
to go and do a show and so there's that
then I would have an incentive scheme so
my uncertain scheme that I've used for
years in different companies and
recommended to many companies is I would
give each team member a point for every
month they worked in the business and a
point for every thousand pound they
earned now the monthly Point recognizes
loyalty and Longevity and the point per
thousand pound of salary recognize
seniority in the business
and arguably if they're a board
member they're more necessary and and
often valuable to me than someone who's
just started yeah but that gave me a
fixed number of points per year I would
then say if we hit our stretch Target
it's not just for doing the normal job
but if we hit our annual Target 20 of
all of all profits will be shared
between the team and then that's divided
by those points and allocated
accordingly so every year there was
there's some fun things happening there
was the incentive to look forward to
and motivate them to work harder to
deliver the target but also they have to
be in place at the end of the year to to
access that and then little things like
we would always have fruit breakfast
cereals and that so but we'd say you
know if you get in before your start
time there's all the breakfast stuff
there if they got in on time they ain't
having breakfast yeah because they're
working then so and often they'd come in
early because of that we'd have a masser
come to the office every Thursday they
get a free 20-minute massage if they
want a longer one they compare a bit
more and over 40 minute one but little
things like that and they would tell
their friends and their friends would
say cool I want to work for your company
now partly they're all good things that
companies can think of that and other
initiatives that they could adopt but
also
it it gave them reasons why we were a
little bit different special nice if you
like relative to some of the big
corporates and the big corporates
couldn't do some of those things at the
same scale that an SME can but all those
things added together make a huge
difference to people actually like
saying enjoying the time and the place
that they work yeah and I think your
language there is really important
because when you say added together I
once worked with a French consultant and
um one of his sayings and I won't try
the French accent Welsh or something
else but but was that you know explain
to me
the different ingredients that make
success he said uh for instance if it
was ingredients in a food sense what's
the key ingredient in beef Bourguignon
anyone you want to guess beef that's
what I said and he said well without the
herbs and the wine it's just boiled beef
so I said well the herb said well
without the beef it's not beef and his
point was it's not one
ingredient on its own it's the
combination of all those ingredients
added to the right extent at the right
time in the process and if we think
about business there's a recipe for
success you know if you add boiled beef
it's a stain you it'd be all right it'd
be good and that would be an okay
business but what difference between an
okay business and a world-class business
is having all those ingredients
difference between an okay boiled beef
and beef bourguignon is having all those
ingredients in place to the right
proportion added at the right time in a
process that works again and again and
again and that's where I'll come back to
success is a system
and so those elements might seem to be
oh they're just small bits and you're
right in and of themselves they're not
enough to attract someone to come and
work for me but combined together in a
world-class recipe they can be world
changing to give you great growth great
success and everything you need in a
business from a from a well-balanced
team so the attracting them the salary
the training the ongoing training and
the motivation all these little other
things that we can do is that enough to
retain our employees or is there some
other yeah well if if you think about
retaining why do you do what you do
and why would you stay where you're
staying and work is a relationship so if
you think about it as a relationship you
can be completely in love with somebody
but if they didn't give you any time or
they ignore you or completely in love
with somebody
and they change
you start to question is that love
enough so you've got the right salary
but when things change is that salary
enough are those little extras enough so
if my life stage changes and I'm happy
I've been happy to commute for 10 years
now I've got a baby my stage my life
stage has changed you might say it was
not my problem or you might say they're
so valuable we need to change what we
can offer them to retain them have we
got the good the right maternity
paternity systems in place and and
programs in place
are we doing enough to keep that
person locked in because what you'll
find is there'd always be somebody if
they're doing a great job and they're
great that's going to come and offer
them more salary so you should always be
saying and that's why I draw it when I
draw it as a circle a cycle it's not
we're going to attract them we're going
to train them we're going to motivate
them great that's enough we'll retain
them yeah it's always going on so you
might have been here 10 years but I've
got to re-attract you and I've got to
think about what do I need to do to keep
you attracted to keep them relevant and
resonant to your needs and then is that
about more training am I not motivating
you with the scheme so for instance
let's I say oh this year we're all going
to go to Miami for a team trip and
and people who are single and young
might think it's awesome I want to go to
Miami but someone who's got young kids
at home or might also look after an
elderly parent or something that that
becomes anxiety all of a sudden so
you've got to be thinking it's okay I
think it's a good incentive but is it
the right incentive to retain and
continue to attract train motivate and
retain those right people so it's an
ongoing everlasting process that is a
cycle that you've got to always be
keeping on and if you are putting those
first three in place consistently
reviewing those first three attract
training motivate and and reviewing
them relative to individuals and their
needs you will retain them but you have
to consciously think about are we doing
all that we need to do at any point in
time to retain the great people now the
converse of that and if you look at Jack
Welsh who I often talk about what's
called Neutron Jack because
he believed that every year you had
to get rid of the bottom 10 of Staff
every year and if you didn't I'd get rid
of you because you know as a teacher now
when you remember he had 440 000
employees as a CE CEO of General
Electric he grew it to be the largest
company in the world of the time but and
I haven't got all the stats to me with
me but he grew the value of the business
a thousand times he grew the
profitability so over his tenure over 20
years they ended up with 300 000
stocks so he got rid of 140 000 staff
but they grew the sales they grew the
profitability they grew the share price
the degree the effectiveness they grew
the number of countries in the world
they were working in and so on now a lot
of people thought he was nasty because
he said get rid of the bottom 10 but if
you stop and that's the hard edge if you
stop being relevant and resonant of the
needs of the business I need to cut you
loose to be amazing somewhere else
because you've lost your love of the
business you might not realise it yeah
but you've lost your love of the
business so we're not retaining for
retention's sake sometimes you will lose
great people if you don't address the
the people who are taking the if I can
be blunt piss because there's nothing
worse than being the hardest worker in
business and see that Fred and Mary are
getting away with turning up late
leaving early not working hard and I
feel part of the value in me and
retaining me is that I'm in an
environment that would recognize me over
them if I'm working harder than
different to them and so on but also I
don't want to be part of a team that has
got this big anchor that's dragging us
back and and it's a I often use
visual analogies or metaphors that
that hook into people's brain as a
behavioural profile I want them to stay
with people every single person in your
business is a propeller or an anchor
okay they're either Propel in the
business forward or they're anchoring it
in some way and if no in the middle
because people say oh well yeah but
they're not quite they're so no they're
an anchor or propeller can you be a
propeller one day and an anchor another
day you can and if you're an anchor too
many days in a row then you're I've got
to stay on the equation because I always
go back to these sets of scales in the
balance of labels
they're losing their value to me right
so you know we're all going to have
anchor days and it's a really good thing
to recognize the first step is if
someone's become an anchor or
occasionally being an anchor is there a
mental health issue I can address are
they have they lost their motivation
because they're feeling like they're not
being paid enough or they were missed
out on a promotion promotion so the
first step and that brings me on to the
third person I shared about which I
always share about these things
is Michael Abreshoff
who wrote a book called turn your ship
around and he was the most successful
captain in the American Navy but he
started from the third worst ship in the
American Navy and he said if you've got
a crew of 900 and you're sent off on a
nine-month draw of Duty three days in if
someone's an anchor let's say I can't
just what I'm gonna do throw him
overboard if a second I've got so and I
need everyone on that boat to be working
so I've then got to say I need to really
understand what they're going through
how I can get the most out of them or
what's being missed are they are they
around pegging a square hole do I need
to find a different role in the business
yeah so you know you've got Neutron Jack
Jack where else you would just say we're
never going to lose the top 20 we're
always going to lose the bottom 10. am I
a kip Tinder who says I'm going to
create such an environment that I value
you so highly that you'll never want to
leave or am I going to be a
microliposhoff that makes it his
responsibility to find out so much about
you that I know exactly what makes you
tick in order to make that a track train
motivate retain Circle work
but eventually if someone is too
much of an anchor you can't be anchored
in a business you you know to survive
you've got to keep on keeping on and
you've got to keep on growing or
suddenly you become irrelevant and out
of date and bust the light you're saying
it so I think pointing out all these
things that you've been through Mike it
makes it clear to see how essential it
is to businesses to constantly analyse
and assess themselves and and assess
those anchors or propellers within the
business to ensure that you know things
run efficiently yeah until the end's
point it's it's assessing that regularly
because some things change in people's
lives yeah you know I had a guy who
worked for me had worked me for eight
years he was amazing and he just lost
his Mojo he got bored with the job and
we tried different things and he was
still not motivated yeah and so
sometimes it's that conversation that
says listen I'll make a couple names
Fred it's not work it's not working out
yeah we've tried this with you it's
still not working out
we're gonna have to let you go now
I don't want to go through a HR
process of finding a reason to give you
a verb one and then a written warning
but it's not working out can we get to
an amicable position where we manage our
exit yeah I can give you a genuinely
positive reference but we need to work
to a point because you're not enjoying
it eventually if I had to I would find
the rationale and reasoning to get rid
of you because you're not not delivering
I'd rather keep the respect that we've
gained over the time keep the friendship
that we've grown grown over the time but
work to a point where you find something
you are excited and passionate about and
we get someone else in the job who's
excited passionate about that job yeah
yeah and there's nothing worse other
than having a negative atmosphere I
think negativity breathes negativity and
you're sitting at your desk and if
someone's moaning and not really doing
anything it just sort of brings the
whole environment down no you need a
positive environment don't you yeah yeah
and I often talk about terrorists in the
business and
what I mean by that is you you know if
we had a hundred people you wouldn't
know who a terrorist was because
they're not walking around with a bomb
jacket on you know they're they're often
well integrated into crowds and society
and so on and in a business they can be
the person who you think is a really
good team member but the coffee machine
suddenly they'll say to other people of
course you know what's happening don't
you and often they've been around quite
a long while and the new person might
say I don't know what what what are they
going to get rid of it was all at the
end of the year or on business sketch
yeah and you sometimes these people are
well hidden and you've got to constantly
be looking at all your people and and if
you're always looking with that attract
train motivated retain and anchor and
propeller and and when I say always it's
not it you can see it really quickly you
can see people's performance really
crisp and black and white but take
the time regularly to look at all your
people and say are they in Anchor are
they perfect if I had to look in one pot
which part am I going to put them in you
know are they motivated is it if they're
not it's not about training because
we've given them plenty of training and
so on so and it's making those tough
choices back to the Beast analogy I gave
earlier that everyone wants to be the
Beast or they have to do what the Beast
does if you want to be successful in
business sometimes you need to be the
Beast if you want to be the head of a
pride or the head of a wolf pack that
isn't about cuddling and nurture that's
about making the tough decisions
sometimes now that's not to say there's
not nurturing roles in the business but
as the head of a business you've got to
make sure those tough decisions are
being made anyone can say oh we're gonna
have a team event we're gonna have a
motivational night out yeah but balanced
against that there's got to be there's
tough decisions in life that are made in
business that are made if you're
going to survive and thrive yeah yeah
wow we've discussed so much it's
actually been really good I've been like
really drawn in yeah but I think
unless there's anything else either of
you'd like to add I think we've come to
the end of today's
discussion no it's it's a pleasure the
hardest thing for me is you might ever
guessed it is is to stop me speaking I'm
always happy to talk about people
because you know
one of the things that the last thing I
would say is this people talk about are
you B to C or B to B and the big thing
now is it's not about b2c or B to C it's
about P to P people to people people
work for people people do business with
people so if we can always keep people
at heart it'll get us in the right frame
and mind to review whether we're doing
the right things to attract train
motivating between them yeah people are
essential to any business yeah
well until AI comes along
that's a that's a time a place for a
different subject matter already well
here we are doing a podcast and using
that replacing when the when TV was born
they said the radio would become a thing
of the past more radio stations now than
ever when calculators were created
they said nobody would do math anymore
so these things are only tools you know
and if I look at a beautiful piece of
cabinet work and I say was it the tool
that built that or was it the master
Craftsman use the tools to build yeah
and we will always need the master
Craftsmen of different roles yeah to
build those things I'm always excited
about Innovation I'm not scared of it
maybe we're all right for a while then
yeah right then say final task of the
day is the one word so this is where we
just pick one word to leave with to
leave our listeners with to ponder at
the end of the podcast so I'm going to
go first and steal everyone else's word
my word's going to be passion
okay Mike
can I be a bit bit naughty and have two
actually because they sort of always
but it's focus and discipline the
reason that successful people are
successful and the reason that failures
are failures is because they don't focus
and they aren't disciplined those two go
hand in hand and are attributing to all
successful people I know
brilliant David and I think finally mine
would be all about delivery because to
me whether you're an individual or
whether you're a business in order to
succeed you need to deliver okay
brilliant Becca
re-attract
okay I love it well it's been absolutely
amazing having you both here thank you
so much for coming on
and it's been great to hear your
thoughts on just everything and the
event was a huge success
so yeah we'll gladly do other events
with you in the future
and if you'd like any more
information on anything we've spoken
about today please get in contact with
us
our number is
01733-23400 or email us at info@theonegroup.co.uk and yeah thank you
very much don't forget to subscribe to
podcasts so you never miss an episode
[Music]
that's a wrap for this week's episode if
you want to be our next guest speaker on
podcast then get in touch with the one
group and don't forget to subscribe we
would hate for you to miss the next one
[Music]