TGIM!

TOP 5 REASONS WHY ACCOUNTABILITY DOESN’T WORK

(AND WHY THAT’S ALL BULL SHIT.)

Accountability is THE difference between a pretty good company and a company that is WORLD CLASS.

Here are the top 5 reasons why accountability doesn’t work- and why it’s all bullshit.  These are all things real people have really said to me in the last 3 months.

#1.  I don’t want to get someone in trouble. (Similar to: I don’t want anyone mad at me.)

Seriously, are we in 8th grade?  I don’t see anyone “getting in trouble” around here.  We are professionals looking to improve.  You can’t feel you are getting anyone in trouble- because you aren’t- you are just looking to improve Drexel, the way you work, or the way another great teammate works.  Don’t worry… store leaders CAN NOT, WILL NOT operate in a way that it will be a blame game, for them it’s a coaching lesson, not a time “get a detention.”  We can’t have BULLIES at work, that blow off corrections, they must also listen and learn and be better for it..  If  you do have someone bullying you, get your store leader involved.  AND LASTLY, NARKING ENDING IN HIGH SCHOOL- GET OVER IT.

#2. It’s not that big of deal.

If it’s not that big of deal, then why aren’t you holding that person accountable for a little detail?  Improvements often come in the smallest gold nuggets of information.  Little details also have ripple effects.  Meaning:  Often a little thing not done right, speaks to a bigger problem.  When you clean a room if you focus on the corners… the rest of the room will be cleaned!

#3. That’s not my job to speak up.

Well if you are waiting for your coach, leader, store leader, downtown person, or gulp, me, to figure out how to hold someone accountable that we don’t work with as closely with as you, you must REALLY think we are amazing people.  I barely know what’s going on IN MY OFFICE… how would I begin to know what is going on in yours?   I am telling you we are good, but not that good.  We can’t know what people are doing right, and wrong, and the corrections that need to be made, on a daily basis, we are just aren’t as close to it as you are.  We don’t do your job.  Only you do.   ONLY you can make the situation better.

#4. My job is to help people.  So that’s what I do.

There is a fine line in helping someone or ENABLING someone.  You know where the line is.  You know who and what you are ENABLING.  ENABLERS are almost as bad as addicts aren’t they?   Simply meet with the person you and are enabling (and your store leader if necessary) and say, hey, sorry bro, but I am not enabling you anymore.  It’s not fair to you, me, the team, and your client.  So let’s not do that anymore.  Cool?  You do YOUR job so I can do MINE.

#5.  I know it’s not right- but it’s just the way it is around here.

Nice.  Don’t fix it.  Give up.  Punt.  Seriously, I know we are better than this.  DON’T GIVE UP GETTING BETTER.  1% continual improvement means just that, continually improving.  Every team member must live that way.  Don’t accept what’s just ok, for what WILL BE AMAZING.  Strive for perfection, even though we know it’s not attainable.

PEOPLE, do you want to be held accountable for excellence?  I think we all would say “YES, please tell me if I am doing something wrong so I can correct my issues.”

You know when you have that thing in your teeth and only your best friend tells you, you have a thing in your teeth, and how HAPPY you are they told you!   Same with accountability!

People will be THANKFUL you told them that some of their issues need to be addressed.   Especially when you do it with a sincere tone.

If you are not properly pumped up yet listen to Kyle Williams from the Buffalo Bills explain it:

If you’re not pumped yet…#GoBills pic.twitter.com/tSMNyrg2Tg

— Buffalo Bills (@buffalobills) December 4, 2016

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

— – Joel Fleischman. Joel is Head Coach of the solution providers for Drexel Building Supply. (drexelteam). You can follow him on twitter: @JoelmFleischman. Our mission is to be a supplier of others happiness. I hope this little post did just that.

TGIM!

We present to you for your knowledge and motivation:

THE INKY JOHNSON STORY

TGIM!

It’s hard enough to compete against the competition you don’t want to compete against yourself as well. Team unity is key.

– as posted by Jon Gordon

* t e a m *

— – Joel Fleischman.  Joel is Head Coach of the solution providers for Drexel Building Supply.  (drexelteam).   You can follow him on twitter:  @JoelmFleischman.   Our mission is to be a supplier of others happiness.  I hope this little post did just that.

TGIM!

THANK GOD IT’S MONDAY!

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

— Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

********* Some say this proves there is no God.  To me this proves there MUST be a God.   – Joel

TGIM!

Random thoughts over the last several weeks that I have accumulated in the brain.

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One of my favorite ALL TIME quotes:

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, education and his religion. He hardly knows which is which; he simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.”

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What core values are the Packers missing?

For me, it’s accountability.

In fact, I see that here.  Things are going pretty well, so we tend to let things slide a little bit.  We aren’t being jerks when we hold people accountable.  We are just trying to get better.  And the best organizations accountability is a WE THING, not a top down management thing.

The Packers success, bred a sense of arrogance and a sense that things will be fine, because they have always been fine.

It’s not any ONE thing, it’s ALL THE THINGS.  That’s what is so frustrating.

I think the Packers problem is that they keep looking to what worked in the past, not what needs to work now.

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CHOP WOOD.  CARRY WATER.

You have to wake up every day and chop wood and carry water.  Things going bad for you: chop wood, carry water.  Things going good: chop wood, carry water.

The second reading at the Mass I attended Sunday spoke exactly of this:

Paul wrote a letter to the Thessalonians around 51 A.D….

Thessalonians 3:7-12New International Version (NIV)

⁷ For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, ⁸ nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. ⁹ We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. ¹⁰ For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

¹¹ We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. ¹² Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat.

Are we busy or busybodies, a huge difference!  I can be busy but really not accomplish much in the next 10 hours here at Drexel… or I can chop wood and carry water.  This is not Joel “driver” mode, but reality.  Think how much you GET DONE the day before your vacation, what if you worked with that intensity everyday?

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Do you believe how good you can be?

As many of you know I love coaching youth basketball.  Currently I am coaching some 7th and 8th grade boys.  The 8th graders, the natural leaders on a middle school boys team don’t expect to win.  It was halftime of our 3rd game in the tourney.  The game was tied.  I told them I expected more. I told them we should be winning by 20.  They looked at me like I was on drugs.   I think they expected me to be thrilled.  TIED AT HALFTIME COACH!   I said if they believed in themselves 1/2 as much as I believed in them, they would be upset as well.  They went out and won that game by almost 10 and got 7th place in an 8 team tournament.  We can’t shoot, dribble, and are very short, and the coach is mediocre at best, but besides that we rock!

I think that is how our margin works.  “Joel, you don’t understand MY customers…. WE ARE SIMPLY NOT WORTH 2% MORE.  WE AREN’T, I AM NOT.  If you only believed in yourself as much as I believe in you, we wouldn’t have margin problems.  We could change the world.  You have to BELIEVE.

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“We shouldn’t act surprised when we don’t understand what a God who says He surpasses all understanding is doing.”

Good point.

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Being more intense rarely gets more done.  Having fun gets more done.  BEING INTENSE AND HAVING FUN CHANGES THE WORLD!

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As we grow, look for SOLUTIONS… not why we CAN’T DO IT.  Same with your customers, you don’t have to say yes… just don’t say NO.

DON’T SAY: Sorry we CAN’T.  Instead say “How about this?”

You have to work as a person that lives for this moment, this time to shine, not a person burdened by rules.  MAKE SHIT HAPPEN.

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Speaking of that…

URGENCY.

Department coaches change the world… IF IT MAKES SENSE, have your annual pow wow scheduled sooner than later.  You can host it in March, but schedule it now, the date is up to you.  Start building that agenda.  Then execute it!

Be sure Andy and I are invited and talk to us prior.  We can help share the vision.

Big topic:  REVIEW YOUR PRICE INTEGRITY.  ALL SHOULD BE REVIEWED, SOME NEED A BUMP UP, AND SOME NEED A BUMP DOWN.  PRICE INTEGRITY IS A PERFECT BULLS EYE.  FIND THAT RIGHT SPOT so we can SELL WITH OUR SOULS ON FIRE!

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What were you gonna get done this year, but you know time got in the way….  That’s a buzz kill friends!  GET.  SHIT.  DONE.

The joy of accomplishment is much better than the joy of fear.

Our company wouldn’t be where it was if we didn’t move FORWARD.

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PEOPLE TIED TO SALES:

DON’T MEASURE YOUR SALES.  I AM TALKING TO ALL OF YOU THAT DO.  I REALLY AM.  YOU ARE MEASURING YOUR FRUIT.  FRUIT IS THE RESULT OF THE PROCESS.

The root gives you the fruit, the fruit is just the byproduct.  If you count your apples, it is really hurting the root.

Grow your root and your fruit will grow in abundance!

SO WHAT SHOULD YOU MEASURE WEEKLY?

HERE’S SOME IDEAS:

JOB SITE VISITS

NEW TOUCHES

PERSONAL THANK YOU NOTES

HUGS GIVEN

HOW MANY SINCERE APPRECIATIONS

ON TIME AND IN FULL FOR YOUR PERSONAL JOBS

FIRES PUT OUT (LESS IS BETTER)

TEXTS RETURNED IN 15 MINUTES OR LESS

E-MAILS RETURNED IN 1/2 A DAY OR LESS

ORDERS YOU DELEGATED OUT

HOURS NOT IN THE OFFICE

FOLLOW UP CALLS AND THANK YOUS

A DONATION YOU MADE PERSONALLY BECAUSE OF YOUR SUCCESS

BOOKS READ

I can’t tell you what to measure.  What do you want to get better at?  Measure that!

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CHANGE:

The progression of change:

Shock

Fear

Resistance

Reality

Faith

Positive change

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Recently Nick Whitty and I were discussing a book he just read:

In the United States car assembly factory, they were PROUD of the fact that after each car was put together they had a quality control manager with a wooden mallet walk around the car and tweak anything that was off.

In Japan, they were PROUD they had no such person.  When done right the first time, no such person was needed.

DOES YOUR DEPARTMENT HAVE A WOODEN MALLET PERSON?

IF WE DID OUR JOB RIGHT THE FIRST TIME, COULD THEY OR RATHER THOSE STEPS BE ELIMINATED.

CURRENT PROCESS OF A POTENTIAL LOAD THAT GOES OUT AT DREXEL

1. PULLING TEAM, CHECKS OFF ALL ITEMS AS THEY PULL AND MARK ACCORDINGLY AND DESIGNATE A SPACE FOR IT.
2. LOADING TEAM, DOUBLE CHECKS PULLING TEAM FOR ANY ERRORS.
3. DRIVER BEFORE LEAVING, DOUBLE CHECKS LOAD.
4. JOBSITE WE UNLOADED AND THEN TAKE PICTURES OF OUR LOAD

COULD ANY OF THESE STEPS BE ELIMINATED OR STREAMLINED?  I DON’T HAVE THAT ANSWER… BUT YOU MAYBE DO.

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If your customers love you and you love those around you and you are having fun doing it…  your job just got really easy didn’t it?

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— – Joel Fleischman.  Joel is Head Coach of the solution providers for Drexel Building Supply.  (drexelteam).   You can follow him on twitter:  @JoelmFleischman.   Our mission is to be a supplier of others happiness.  I hope this little post did just that.

FROM THE BOOK

START WITH WHY. BY: SIMON SINEK

SUPPLY HAPPINESS.  TO YOURSELF. TO YOUR CLIENTS.  TO OUR VENDORS.  TO OUR COMMUNITY.   HANG OUT WITH PEOPLE THAT BELIEVE IN OUR MISSION, AND BUILD A GREAT ARMY OF HAPPINESS SUPPLIERS.

TGIM!

GUEST WRITER CAITLIN STOLL.

Caitlin leads the charge on the supplied happiness front.  What a wonderfully cool and impactful career.  And she is the perfect fit.  Tough when it needs to be, but soft when it has to be… she is heart of our operation.

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I recently moved back in with my parents after living on my own for 10 years. My small remodel turned large remodel forced me to move out and my parents graciously offered to have me move back in until the remodel is complete. Let’s be honest – once you move out of your parents’ home and move back in you can easily notice the different generational characteristics. Having more than one generation under one roof had me pondering generational differences and what they mean – For my family, for Team Blue, and for our ever changing world. Here are my findings thus far…

Interesting fact about Team Blue:  Our team has a generation demographic of roughly 59% Millennials, 29% Generation X, and 12% Baby Boomer.  Each group has its own unique characteristics and mindset on life and work that are based on experiences during their lifetime. To continue to maintain success (supplying happiness) as a team we need to understand each generation

“The Boomers”

The Baby Boomer generation were born between 1940 to 1960 and grew up in a time of dramatic social change. They have seen civil unrest, assassinations, and Beatlemania. Many parents of this generation missed out on their youth due to WWII so they pushed for the best possible life for their children (The Boomers). This generation is extremely optimistic and open to change. With their parents’ efforts to give them the best life possible, the boomers are seen as being very career focused, shown through their loyalty to those they’ve worked for and their incredible work ethic. With the intense focus on the personal career we also see the envelope of the 40 hour work week being pushed out.

“The Middle Child”

Generation Xers were born between 1961 to 1981. This generation is seen as the middle child because of its placement between the two largest generation demographics. Known for being independent and adaptable to the workplace and its challenges.

“The Activist”

Millennials were born between 1982 and 2002. This generation has seen significant change throughout their lifetimes.  September 11th, the Financial Crisis of 2008, and the intense rise of technology. Extreme ambition and desire to make big impacts on personal projects or their careers can be easily misconstrued as seeming entitled.  As a “team based” generation with a civic mindset, many Millennials were part of teams and groups whose focus was to work on projects and ideas as a group. The internet helped foster the ideas by allowing them to always be connected to their friends and could focus their energy on causes that emotionally connect with them (i.e. Komey 2012).

Why is this important? In 2015 Millennials surpassed the Baby Boomer generation as the nation’s largest living generation.  As we continue to grow our Drexel team, our Millennial demographic will also continue to grow. By 2025, Millennials will make up over 75% of the workforce. In an industry that has been hit hard in past years due to recessions and other financial woes, it will be even more important in the next 4-5 years to attract new talent and retain our current “rock stars.” The grouping listed above are buckets of what the media and ourselves have stereotyped each generation. In the next 4-5 years we will need to focus on each other’s strengths and work as a team to retain our current team and grow with the incoming millennials. It truly is an equation for success = supplying happiness!

Don’t Generalize my Generation:

Wanna hear something else that may perk your ears up, WE ALL want to be ourselves and not be bucketed. From baby boomers to Gen X’ers to Millennials each one of us is different.

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TGIM!

Matt K just conquered the book challenge, here in all it’s glory is his final review.  (Spoiler alert, if you are IN the book challenge, um, don’t read this.)

Matt, Millwork Guru and assistant store leader in Brookfield, aka “Gronk,” pictured with his wife Cari and some dude in a Bucky Badger costume.

CONGRATS MATT! WOW.

MATT IS A ROCKSTAR, WORKS HIS BUTT OFF, SMILES A LOT, NEVER MAKES EXCUSES, AND ALWAYS HAS CONTAGIOUS POSITIVE ENERGY.   LOVE THAT GUY!  – JOEL

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Hey Joel,

ALL DONE!!!!

Thanks for initiating the challenge.

Thank you Keith for staying on me in the beginning.  It was a push that I was not initially a huge fan of haha, but well worth it.

This is by far the most I have read since college and it has been well worth it.

I won’t apply everything (really learned a lot) but I will do my best to take what I can and use it when makes sense.

SETTIN THE TABLE

This was my least favorite book.  There is a lot to gain from this book, but it was just a little slow for me.  In the begging when he was talking about all the places he had been and all of the different food he has eaten it just made me hungry…but honestly I’m hungry all the time so it may not have been the book.

Biggest take aways for me from the book…

-Be selective at times, don’t dive in without thinking it through.  He had many opportunities to open restaurants, whether it was a different style of food or different location.  He was always selective.  Did his research about the neighborhood, other surrounding resturants, timing, would he have the right people and time to make it successful?  We also need to do this at times.  Is a new account awesome?  YES!  Are they all good fits? NO

-Anyone can do what we do…we will do it better.  It’s the little things that make us special, makes us different…makes people talk.  Anyone can open a restaurant…most fail.

-Don’t set out to be average, everyone can be average. He was always pushing for profection on every night, because any given night could be the night the critic comes in.  Head of house, wine temp, items on the menu, salt placement…nothing over looked or unnoticed.

-Be passionate!  Give it your all, if you can’t don’t bother.  When you go out to a resrutaunt you know when they don’t care.  I’m sure our clients can tell too. Anyone can push paper, take orders etc…we you have a passion people see it and feel it.  Clients will feel that genuine passion and be less inclined to find a new supplier…or restaurant.

TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE

-Great life book.  Are there things to take away that you can apply to work? Absolutely, but this is a must read for everyone and anyone.

-Every day we take things for granted, being able to walk, fresh air, healthy, I can see, I have food at home…the list could go on forever.  Take time to appreciate how lucky you are…every day.

-Don’t get caught up in the rat race.  When I die no one is going to talk about what I sold in millwork in 2034, no one is going to announce how many sq. feet my house is.  Hopefully everyone is going to talk about the people I touched, the memories I made, the relationships I made, love I shared…My wife is not going to care how much money I make….they are lots of rich people that are divorced.  Remember what is important every single day!!

-Living funeral.  Everyone always says these amazing things about people after they die…Did they ever get to hear that?! Why not?! Tell them!!  I could call my mom and let her know how much she means to me on the way home tonight and she would cry, I know because I have done it.  That’s not hard.  How many guys tell that to their dad?  One of their buddies?  Tell people what they mean to you, how much you love them, it’s ok.

-I knew he was going to die when I started the book, yet I found myself trying not to cry while finishing it at the gym in a cut off t-shirt…super badass

-Don’t get lost in your day to day…everything else is going to go away, and it doesn’t matter.

-LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

STARBUCKS EXP

-Culture..live it, breath it, embrace it.  They do it and so do we.

-They sell something that tons and tons of other people do, and so do we.  They also try to WOW everyone they can.  Little things can go along way.  Spill your coffee?  On the house.  Coffee for the road? Take your Drexel travel mug.

-Create loyalty.  Everyone has “their” Starbucks.  We are making so they have “their” supplier.  We are and will continue to do the little things along the way and make everyone from top to bottom feel special, and that is why they will stay.

-They really care about their “partners” just like we do our team members.  It is a lot easier to buy in when you aren’t just another number.  From top to bottom everyone cares about me here, I love that and I tell everyone that asks.  I think people love to work at Starbucks, not that they love coffee, but the culture around them.  That’s why my closet is full of blue…love it here!

-Employee empowerment…empower to WOW.  We are all have the ability to WOW, put out fires, make the call (within reason)

-Surprise and delight.  We come in early, stay late, send the wiene wagon…that goes a long way.  Don’t forget that.  This is what makes us different, makes us special.

-Embrace the resistance.  Good, bad, really bad…always an opportunity to get better, learn, put out a fire so fast it makes you look good.

-Leave your mark. Charity, loyalty…just care when others don’t.

-Attention to detail.  Letting the coffee go for longer than an hr, one guy noticed.  One guy notices when we kill it too.  He talks, word spreads.

BURN YOUR GOALS

-You always have a choice.  Choosing to do nothing is still a choice.

-Everything happens for a reason..even when stuck in traffic.

-Everything is in your best interest and use it as an opportunity.  Even when we was bleeding from his nose he still said this.  I am focusing on this, bad thigs are a way to get better.  You can always learn or find good in every situation.  It make take some effort, but it’s there.

-READ READ READ READ…someone has done everything, and they prob did it really well…then wrote about it.  This is the most I have read since college and I am going to continue to better myself, I promised myself that.

-Don’t focus on your goals, focus on the process.  If you do everything it takes to get there and you do it all right, or bounce back…you will get there.

-How are you using all your minutes?  Are you getting better? Are you getting better mentally? Reading? Practicing? Embracing the grind?

-Don’t wait for the moment, train for the moment.  If you are always training for it, when it presents itself you will be ready.

-Don’t listen to yourself, talk to yourself.  It’s easy to talk yourself out of things or put yourself down.  Pick yourself up and talk yourself  into it!

-Learn from others, mimic what they do, pick up good habits…Julian Edelman did it with Wes Welker, seems to be working out.

ALL DONE…

Again, so glad I did it.

Thanks for the push fellas.

GRONK OUT

Matt Kavetschanky

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TGIM!

Time.

Be early.

Or be late.

It is impossible to be exactly on time, so choose to be early.

Being late shows that you value your time more then the other person’s.

They might think you are rude or arrogant.  Nobody wants to be thought of as rude or arrogant.

It’s a discipline.

Don’t be afraid to call out a team member or trade partner for being late… and use core value #10 #accountability as the reason.

Being early is important.

— – Joel Fleischman.  Joel is Head Coach of the solution providers for Drexel Building Supply.  (drexelteam).   You can follow him on twitter:  @JoelmFleischman.   Our mission is to be a supplier of others happiness.  I hope this little post did just that.