Lintel lessons

I have heard from a lot of folks in the last six months that they “can’t find good people” or “don’t have good people.” As a coach, a teacher and a leader, I have to take exception with those comments and I have to point out the fallacy in those statements.

“I can’t find good people.” I recently had a fantastic discussion about this statement with Clay Mathile, a mentor and friend of mine. Clay is the gentleman who turned the Iams Corporation into a $1 billion a year operation and, as the only shareholder, sold it to Procter and Gamble in 1999 for $2.3 billion.

Today, Clay shares his wisdom at Aileron, an organization that teaches the principles of professional management that Clay used to grow Iams. It’s an amazing place that every one of you ought to look into. (Check it out at Aileron.org. Full disclosure: I teach there.)

Clay said, “You can’t say you can’t find people; that’s wrong! You can find people.” He said it’s a mindset. I agree 100 percent. You can find people.

You just have to look and you have to make sure the company you have is run in such a way that people want to stay and encourage others to join your team.

Quit commiserating with other negative people and start talking about how you can keep people and attract more.

Find your Seth.

And that leads to the next comment I’ve heard, even from folks on my team: “We don’t have good people.” That’s a ridiculous comment as well. Saying that is basically saying you are a terrible leader incapable of developing talent and making new hires better.

We have a new person in our production department named Seth. It didn’t take me long to realize this young man was special. He started out in the sales department and excelled there.

However, we realized he would be a better fit in the production department. That’s where we moved him and he is functioning as a group leader. He has a very nice way of going about things. He’s humble and leads by example.

We needed a few lintels made for a job site. In the past, we would either have a company make those lintels for us or, at the last minute, dump the job on Joe, our fleet and facility manager, and ask him to do it, erroneously thinking none of our team leaders could do the job.

I watched Seth personally teach one of our young team members how to cut the lintels. I’m sure it didn’t go as smoothly as it would have gone had Joe done the job.

However, it got done. The job was done to our satisfaction. We have now taught another person here how to make things.

We’ve thrown a young team leader the ball and asked him to score a touchdown. You have to take the time to teach, and I mean really teach, and work with your people. In doing this, we have shown we have faith in this young man by teaching him and, most importantly, we have delegated an important task, which will let Seth work on something else that adds value to Grunder Landscaping Co.

How are you ever going to grow your company if you don’t grow your people? Why would anyone want to work for a company where they never get pushed? They’re basically told they aren’t capable of doing anything important by what we don’t give them to do.

Where would the New England Patriots be if Tom Brady was never given a chance? He was drafted in the sixth round, meaning he must not be very good, right?

Can you honestly say you, yeah you, have done everything you can do to equip your teams for success? What expectations are you setting up front? Do you look at training as an experience or investment?

Hire for attitude and train for skill. Give your people a chance and you’ll be surprised what they can do and, by all means, don’t say you can’t find people.