Welcome back. We've talked about meaning at work. 'Kay. You cannot copy some, what someone else is doing. You've got to create your own secret sauce. And the whole purpose of this class, is to get you thinking about, how do you create the right environment? Right environment. You have to work at it, and you have to maintain it. And you've seen the smiley face pictures, okay. Create and live your own secret sauce. Create you something believe, and live it. You have to role model it. You have to walk the talk. If you do it can you still fail? Yes. You still got to deliver value to customers. You still got to have operational excellence. You still got to have, if you will, strategic focus. But you've got to have This secret sauce. That's yours. You get to make it. You get to create it. That's one of the joys of entreneurshiop. I'm going to skip this. Trilogy, let's go to trilogy. Fascinating case. Think about the business as Randy Buford said we're in a business where it's 24/7 and all of our customers don't want to be here. They had rather be in their own home. How in an industry which has upwards of 150% employee turnover, how did Randy build a business that's got turnover in the 30% level? And that's the story here. And the purpose of the story is to go through on a very granular basis, granular basis what he did and to say: Hm, would that work for me? Why did he do that? How did that lead to high employee engagement? And it's fascinating. And his philosophy, if we take care of our employees they take great care of our customers and we have a bottom line. That should sound familiar. That should sound familiar. Randy, built a culture of compassionate service. He defined what he needed in his business, compassionate service. And in order for my employees to be compassionate with my customers, he had to be compassionate with them. A nurturing environment. He understood the environment they were working in. That we have to lead, not direct, employees. And he works very hard on humility. And he said we have a zero tolerance for ego or politics. Take what the company is doing very seriously. Don't take yourself too seriously. There's another thing he said. They had competitive benefits. That monthly recognition party. Remember, about emotional rewards? Remember how when people come in and joined this firm, they're given a, a blue badge when they're on their first 90 days because as research shows if most people are going to leave are going to leave in the first 90 days. And his management staff and other employees go out and reach out. Smile and welcome people and are there to help them. Because it's a big transition for most jobs to basically, eight hours, rendering compassionate service. One of the hardest jobs in the world. And people need a nurturing environment, and need friends, and need help. We talked about how we invest in employee training. So these are just like a, a checklist. Speak to everyone within ten feet of you and engage with all people. He reinforces his customer service principles through posters, payroll stuffers, constantly educating, constantly reinforcing what's important, constantly talking about it. You have to do that. You cannot communicate the important stuff too much. Constantly communicates through company and campus newsletters. OK? You can do things in your company. You can have every once in awhile a lunch break where everybody bring pizza in. Talk about it. Important issues of the week. You can at the end of the day have a break, talk about important issues of the day. Remember Andy Lansing? When I said talked about leaving restaurants at the beginning. We don't hire jerks Well, Randy says, he asked everybody, do you love the elderly? Well, if you don't, you shouldn't be working at Trilogy. Just not the right fit. Be honest about the difficulties of the job. He has a rigorous on-boarding process. Honors new hires at six months with a celebration and a pay raise. He finds most of his employees from an internal employee referral program. And if they refer employees that make it beyond, to the six months, they get a bonus. You get a bonus. He's trying to build an environment and he's trying to deal with this difficulty of hiring by saying, "References are no good anymore. I gotta talk to people who know the people. I got to hire people who come referred to me by people who's judgement I know and trust. By my employees, by my friends. He fears complacency and ignorance, he gets his executives in the field and his seven E's, Set expectations, excellence, employees, empowerment, education, earnings, and execution. It's a pretty good case study, to go back as a checklist. You had an optional case also to read, Leaders Bank, which you can do the same thing. Now, Leaders Bank, interestingly enough a community bank and in the real estate and financial crisis in 2008 they had a major change in ownership because of some financial issues that did not arise because of their high engagement culture. So it's interesting. You can read that case too. And focus on this. In a small business one bad apple, has huge negative impact. One rotten apple can ruin the whole barrel. Now, I want to leave you with this. These are just suggestions. This is not research. This is Ed's opinion, okay. Means you can take it or you can leave it. But it's based on my work experience, my research experience. And having been in, built, and researched high-engagement environments in business, in not-for-profits, and in, we'll call it, governmental organizations. Most important one single leadership word is please. How often do you use please? Two many managers rarely use it, and just give commands, directions, orders. The most important two words are thank you. Thank yous go a long way. Count every day how many times you say thank you. I had a tie for the most important three words for a leader. I am sorry or I am wrong. The leader that can say I am sorry or I am wrong is a humble leader. It doesn't show weakness. People are not going to take advantage of you. They're going to respect you. because everyone knows when you were wrong. Have the courage to admit it. Most important four words. May I help you? Notice it's not, can I help you? You're asking for permission. May I help you? Leadership in a small business is so critical. Every day when you walk in, everybody watches what you do. They know your mood, they know your tone, okay. you want a positive environment you've got to be positive. Use mental rehearsal, and mental replay to become better. Try everyday to have a positive impact In every encounter. That's the goal. It's hard. I know you can't, most of us can't do it. But we can get better. And, see if I have one more sheet, yeah. Be what I call a force of light, not a force of darkness. [SOUND] Be a force of positive energy. [SOUND] Not, a force that de-energizes, that sucks the energy out of a room. To lead is to serve. Good service to you.
