LESSON: The White-Collar workforce has become softer and less productive than any time in history. Don’t blame just Gen Z’s and Millennials. Post-COVID the Gen X’ers also never made a comeback. It’s embarrassing, and the world is eating our lunch – don’t kid yourself! Shock your company culture and give everyone something to be inspired by!
The lesson below is an excerpt from my course, Building Special Companies.
So, the last 2 days in Norfolk, Virginia have come with threats of 1-2 inches of snow and all the schools, government facilities, and larger companies have been preemptively closed, because they can and because that is acceptable C-Player behavior in our world today. One of my former partners, Steve, and I laughed online together today with how we always made sure we were all in the office on snow days, or government-directed holidays, to show we were not cogs in the machine.
If Bobby Knight was running the country today, we would all be running suicide sprints (I’m allowed to still call them that) because our performance is so embarrassing. And this would be at midnight once the team bus arrived back in Bloomington.
Snow days are only emblematic of the underlying softness, unproductiveness, embarrassing attitudes and expectations of today’s white-collar workforces. Here’s a few quick tips to try to bring your company and the country back to A-Playerness:
1. Slap yourself over and over every time you say you are swamped, you’re killing yourself, or you just haven’t been able to get to that!
a. The A-Players, if you’re lucky to have any in your company, are outproducing you 10x. When they are presented with challenges, they say to the boss, “No problem, I got it boss.” The boss always knows.
b. I have been shocked how two cubicles next to each other can, literally, have a 10x difference in performance and productivity. There is such great disparity between humans in the workforce, and now you are able to say that out loud again. Fire the C’s and your A’s will produce even more because they see you get it, and they respect you for it!
2. Reinvoke the time-tested hire slowly and fire quickly.
a. Based on the current culture of the last four years, the people you hire this January are likely living in a soft, privileged fog, so be careful and do not assume satisfactory performance. Go the extra steps with numerous interviews, make everyone take the Predictive Index, and take the time to have a coffee and get to know them personally. Otherwise, you will continue on the soft hamster wheel of the white-collar world today.
3. Have as little focus as possible on HR items, PTO days, and ridiculous benefits.
a. Of course, the bureaucracy of the country now forces us to check a hundred Human Resources boxes, but I urge you to provide as little as legally possible and instead give your teammates incredible opportunities to control their own destiny, take care of themselves and their families, and think like A-Player business owners. The nanny state just makes them weaker and less productive. Help them help themselves and to be independent, responsible adults.
Take this pendulum shift opportunity in our country to once again build your strong company. Deep down, all people just want to be inspired! This happens only through great challenges, not by allowing them to be soft. You can do it!
Have a great week!
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