Episode 075: Intentional Culture From a Tech's Perspective

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All right. Welcome back for another episode of the Fleet Success Show. I'm your host, Josh Turley, flying solo again today. Jeff Jenkins is out at a trade show, so I am here holding down the fort. It was fun last week. We talked at FleetCon and talked about the different things to help improve employee retention, specifically among technicians. And, you know, we talked last week about this on our podcast about the challenges that are facing the industry right now. You know, and how a lot of them, like, it comes down to pay and you got to be in the ballpark. We talked a lot about, you know, the 3 signs of employee engagement or job misery. And it was interesting to me is that as I had an employee come up, one of the technicians who was at FleetCon came up to me after, he says, well, you did a really good job explaining it from the managerial perspective, right? Here are all the things that you need to do as a manager is, you know, have one-on-ones and get to know your people. And go through and make sure that they know how, you know, what the score is and, you know, create this purpose and values and mission and, you know, go out and create that clarity for them and really define what a good culture looks like at your company. And he said, what about those of us who are not in management positions and, you know, like, are just, you know, the mechanics in the institution? What do we do? And I thought it was a really insightful question. And so today we're going to kind of tackle that a little bit and say like, what would you do? You know, you're the technician or the mechanic in this, in this position, and what do you do? A, you know, I'm going to take this from two different approaches. If your company doesn't have a culture or, you know, they, they don't have anything defined, what do you do then? Like, how do you instigate that change? And then the flip side of that is, how do you evaluate if the company culture is one you belong to? Because it's really all this is about, right? Like, when we talk about creating an attentional culture, we're really talking about creating a sense of belonging. And this goes back to our tribal days, you know, when we were out there hunter-gathering and being in our tribes, is that we have this primal desire to belong to something bigger than ourselves. And when we create a culture, what we're doing is we're basically saying, like, this This is what it means to belong at this company. This is what it means to belong in this position. And if you don't fit that, that's okay. You just don't belong here. We need to go find where you do belong. We need to go find that spot where you do fit. Um, if you don't have an intentional culture though, then you don't really have that sense of belonging. What you just have is a group of people that like, it kind of works, but we don't really know why. So that's kind of the premise of what we've been talking about with culture. But if you're in that, what if you're the technician and you don't have necessarily the ability to go out and just create your own culture and say, this is what we're all about? Um, so from the first get-go, we'll talk about like, what if you don't have one? If you as a technician, you see the value in this and you say like, I would really love to work for an organization that has this type of clarity, I will tell you is that I was kind of in that same situation when I first started on this journey. I was like, oh, like, I'm not the CEO, but I know this is what we need to do. Um, and so you have to lead up, right? We talk a lot about leading up and down the chain of command. You know, it's easy for us to say, well, we're the manager and we're the boss and we're to lead down the chain of command. But you also have a responsibility to lead up the chain of command, and that means giving feedback and giving suggestions And you have to be smart about it, right? Emotionally intelligent about it. You don't want to come into your boss's office and say, "You've been doing everything wrong and I'm here to help and make sure you do it right." Like, that probably won't work very well. So you might want to try a tactful approach. And sometimes what I've seen is like, "Hey, you know, I was at this conference and I heard this person speak and it really resonated with me. And I don't know if you've ever given this any thought, if you like, if you've ever heard of this before." And what you want to do is really give them the benefit of the doubt, give them an opportunity to kind of discover the solution on their own. And you just kind of put some things out there and like, you know, they talked about this and they talked about, you know, improving technician retention. And I know we've been struggling with that as of late. You know, can I give you his information? Can I talk to you about this presentation? Like, they've got a slot, you know, here's some of the slides that we went through. I would love to talk more about this with you because I've got some ideas if you're open to hearing them. And you really kind of like, you put it all that way and it puts the onus on your managers like, hey, you have somebody— one, it shows that you're engaged, that you're engaged in this outcome of achieving more, of shaping the organization, that you care, that your heart's in it, right? And as a manager, I can tell you what, like, if I've got somebody that their heart is in it, I like that. You know, it makes me want to go to bat for them. It makes me want to help them. It makes me, you know, feel like, hey, this person's here not just for the paycheck, they're not just here for the job, they're here because they want to make a difference, right? And like, that just— it adds to my motivation as their manager. Like, I want to do more for them and serve them because they're all in. You go to your manager with stuff like this, and if you've got the right manager, this is a great sign, is how do they take that? Do they take it as a threat, or do they take it as a, wow, like, I'm really glad this person cares, and yeah, I'd love to learn more about this and like what they did say about improving your retention. Um, and I'll tell you is if you don't feel safe saying that, like sometimes maybe that's just you, maybe you just have some insecurities to work out, but a lot of times it's probably because you don't trust your manager, right? You don't have that relationship with them. So you start there, you start and you build the relationship, and you get to talking about things that you'd like to see done different. And you get to a point where you feel like, yeah, we have ideas and they're respected. And that's probably like my number one thing is if you don't feel like you can even get an idea across the table, that's a good sign that you're in the wrong place. You don't belong there and you don't belong there because they don't want to listen to your ideas. Now, this isn't to say that because we've all had those, we've had ideas that totally were just, they were bad ideas. People are going to shoot down your ideas and they should, because not every day idea you have is a good idea. But I'll tell you is if you don't feel comfortable even voicing those ideas like that, is that tells you something. Is that you probably are in the wrong spot. So you can talk to them about, you know, hey, I've got these ideas. You know, we've never come out and like said these are our core values. And you can even share with them the quote too from Tony Hsieh. Just go look it up. You know, like, core values are really core, and you've got to be willing to hire, lead, and fire to those values. You know, like, that's what it means when you really have good core values, is they're not just true some of the times, they're true all the time. And if you haven't ever come up with those, then that's a great exercise for you and your shop and your fleet to define those and discover those and say like, this will help us find and retain the right kind of people. Because that's the other thing you got to get, you know, and hopefully they're akin to this or keen on it, is that not everybody belongs here at this, at this organization. And if they fight back against that. You can say, okay, well, what about so-and-so? Like, were they really a good employee? Well, no. Okay, there's cases— everybody's got these. Everybody, you know, we call them skeletons in the closet. Everybody's got war stories, you know, scars, battle scars. It's actually the title of my next book, is going to be Organizational Health, uh, you know, or Culture Wars, uh, The Battle Scars to Prove It, or something like that. Anyway, it's a working title. Give me a break on that one. So you sit down and you kind of talk about some of these ideas, and you help shape it as a technician, right? You lead up. And you help convince management that this is something they should really invest in, invest the time in creating that type of culture. And as part of that, like, you have a voice in that process. And assuming this is a place that you really, you know, like, you love and you enjoy working at and you want to love it even more, then it becomes a really fun, energizing process to go through and help discover that and create that clarity. If, however, you kind of go through it and you're like, "Yeah, this just isn't for me," or, you know, maybe your company has already discovered like, "This is the core values that we're looking for," and you feel like you don't belong, like, at that point, life's too short. And so my recommendation, you know, and maybe this is counter— a lot of fleet managers are going to cringe because it'll be like, "You should just quit." But my recommendation is if you have those conversations and you want to see change happen, but it's not happening, there are a lot of opportunities out there in the market. Um, and this is something I tell my people all the time, is that because there's all these opportunities out in the market, you shouldn't ever feel beholden to a job. One of the stats I threw out in my session last week is there are 37,000 technician jobs that are going unfilled right now, which means pretty much that you should be able to find the type of company, the type of work that you want to do. Right? It doesn't mean necessarily that, you know, well, I could just go out and get my own check, or I can go get a raise every time. And yes, you can go do that. You're not— you know, my philosophy is you don't just chase the almighty dollar, because at some point, like, you get enough money that now it doesn't matter as much as finding a place that you really love working. And so my perspective on that is that if you do find that you're just not into it, or that you're at the wrong company, or nobody wants to listen to this idea like, hey, I think we should really create a purpose, values, and mission, and we should have an environment where we're doing one-on-ones and we're, you know, eliminating irrelevance and anonymity and immeasurement, right? Like, we're getting rid of those things that cause job misery. If I'm not working for a company like that, I'm gonna go find one. And that was kind of my advice to, to the gentleman I spoke with last week was Help try to create that environment in your shop. But if you can't, then go find one that does, that either already has it or is willing to do that. Now, the willing to do that, it's harder to suss out, right? Like you're doing this interview process. If they don't already have it, you can't really tell if they're really open and willing or they want to do that. Maybe, you know, you're talking to the fleet manager like, oh yeah, I would love to have people on board that want to do this kind of thing. Maybe they have a vision. And this is why I think it's so important that as you're interviewing, you're not just interviewing for the role, but you're also interviewing the manager and you're interviewing the leader and you're getting an idea for like what their vision is and what do they want to go do with it. And do you align? Does that excite you? Because I'll tell you what, is if some leader or manager has a vision and it doesn't excite you, what do you think you're going to be working on every day? It's not going to be your vision. It's going to be theirs. And so you got to find something that you're aligned behind, that you can give your effort and energy to and feel good about. Um, and so as you're interviewing, you know, try to find those things out. It's like, where do you see the biggest challenges in the organization? Where do you see Fleet being in 5 years? Um, what are the biggest challenges in the shop and how do you want to go change them? What are some of the initiatives that you want to go run through? Uh, what do you see my role being in this transformation that you're going through? What do you need from me, right? And if somebody's just like, look, I just need somebody to come in and turn the wrench— if that's all you're looking for, then you found somewhere you belong. If you're looking for something where you can instigate change and you can do a bunch of different things, like, this is why it's so critical that you get clear about what you want in a job and what you want in a job environment. And if you want somebody that's got purpose and vision and values and they do one-on-ones, look for that. Ask them to show you evidence, like When's the last time you did a one-on-one? When's the last time that you incorporated a piece of employee feedback? These are questions that you as the employee and that, and really as a candidate, should be asking any organization you're interviewing with because you're trying to find somewhere you belong, not just somewhere they can fit you into their schedule, right? Or somebody that can fit you into the shop floor. There's 37,000 job openings. Anybody can fit you onto the floor, right? You want to find somewhere where you fit, that fits you. It's got to be a two-way street. And so if you're looking at your current job and you don't feel like it's that two-way street, then you got to make a decision. You know, is it worth it? Maybe you like the location, maybe you like the benefits. Everybody has a price. And so you have to ask yourself, like, is it worth it for me? And if it is, then keep working there and have fun, right? Like, find ways to find the engagement. Uh, but if it's not worth it to you, like, hey, we've got this really great pension, but man, I just, I hate coming into work every day. You're selling your soul for time, right? And, and the way this works is you can make more money any day of the week. And this has always been my philosophy, right? You can, if, if you don't have a dollar today, you can go out and do something and earn a dollar tomorrow, right? You can always make another dollar. And you can find a way to put more money in your bank account. What you can't ever make is more time. And this comes to my whole philosophy, is that it doesn't matter how much money you have, if you're trading away your time for something that doesn't give you fulfillment, you're wasting something that you can never get back. It's a finite resource, right? No amount of money has ever bought a second more of time. And that's the idea, is that if you've, if you've given up a day at a place you're not loving, that's a day you'll never get back. And before you know it, you're going to be all out of days and you're going to be in the grave 6 feet under, right? And ain't nobody going to mourn any of that except for the people you love. Um, I've never met anybody that on their deathbed says, you know, I really regret that I didn't work more. And so my advice to any technician who's in that position is like, how— what do I do as a technician in this shop? Make the change, right? Be the change and then make a change. Go out and try to instigate and try to propel and make it an awesome place to work. Because you know what, you probably are not the only person that wishes they could have that type of environment. You're probably not the only person that sees the things that are going on and being wrong, right? And so you want to go through and, and sit back and say, look, this is what we need to change, and, and work with your managers and work with your management and try to help Find that and create that and discover that about what is it that makes this place awesome, and let's find more people like that. And where are we going? What's the mission and what's our purpose, right? If you can't shape the change, if you can't shape it at your current location, then be the change. You know, just make it. Go out and say, look, I need to find something because life is too short. And that's honestly all the justification you need. Now, you might have to, you know, talk to your spouse and make sure that, you know, your husband or your wife are on board with that. If you're married, if you're single, this gives you obviously a lot more freedom. But the idea is that you need to look at that and say, what am I willing to trade my time for? Because at the end of the day, we're all self-employed. You guys are getting like my employee sermon. This is what I tell my team all the time. We're all self-employed, right? Like, we are in an agreement to sell our time and services for a paycheck. Right now it just so happens that we're a W-2 employee versus like a 1099 or, you know, somebody working on Fiverr. But if we had that self-employment mentality more often, I think we'd realize like we, we need to make sure we pick the right clients, like we're picking the right people to work for. Um, and when you're saying that, like, you're really, you're, you're talking about like, who am I going to sell my services to? Uh, you know, and is it the job I want, right? Like, is it the service that I want to sell? And are they paying me the right price? So that's my advice is if you're in an environment, lead from the bottom, right? Lead up. Help encourage your managers to look at things like purpose, values, mission. Share them the slides from FleetCon if you were there. If you weren't, go read a book, you know, read a book like Five Dysfunctions or read a book like The Advantage and just, you know, say it in passing like, hey, I read this really awesome book, you I heard it on this podcast. What do you think about this, right? Give them a copy of the Fleet Success Playbook. Give them a copy of— shoot, send them a link to this one. Yeah, send them a link to the podcast. Um, just, you know, hey, I heard this podcast and they're talking about some really cool, awesome, radical things. I thought we could use some of this in our shop. Um, you know, and then follow up with them a week later. Hey, did you ever get a chance to listen to that podcast? They have to tell you, no, not really, you know. Then it wasn't a priority for them. You have to kind of set the urgency for them too, right? It's like, oh, I think it's going to be really important. Like, it's really critical. Here, just go listen to this one, right? And you kind of pave the road for them a little bit and really do all the hard work for them and then just follow up with them. And again, if you get to a point where you're like, okay, they're clearly not going to change, then you need to, right? But hopefully, hopefully the fleet managers out there are like, okay, like, I'm open and receptive to new ideas. And I want to hear this, and like my tech is saying, this is really important. And if he really values your opinion, uh, then, you know, he'll come, he'll come listen to a podcast or read a book if you give him a recommendation. A couple of the ones that I recommended, um, during our session, right, about creating clarity and creating vision and all that, was The Advantage. We talked about Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Ideal Team Player. You know, the one that I really liked from an employee engagement perspective was, you know, the 3 Signs of Employee Engagement. And all 4 of those are Patrick Lencioni books. And so, you know, like, you know, they're going to be good. Jim Collins is another one that's a little bit harder to read, but it's super scientific. And really, it's got some awesome data to back it up about companies that create a vision, right? So if you read like Good to Great or Built to Last, both of those are awesome. Books about building great enduring companies and what they all have in common. I mean, any leader worth their salt is going to want to gobble that up. They're going to want to know that information and implement some of that stuff. So you can just start there, you know, start with some book recommendations or start with a podcast. If they want to, you know, get a— send us a copy if they want to get a copy of the Fleet Success Playbook. We talk about all this stuff, right, and why it's important. And if they want to be a successful fleet manager, or as we like to call it, a fleet success manager, you know, versus just a manager of fleet or manager of fleet maintenance, you know, have them go to fleetsuccessplaybook.com or fleetsuccesssummit.com and they can, you know, check out some of the resources we're throwing out there. And again, if they don't want to, if they're not receptive to it and they don't want to make the change, give them a chance. But if they don't want to and they're just flat out like, no, we're not interested, And make sure that you give them that chance, right? And they're not just busy because everybody's so busy right now, it is crazy. But if they're just, you know, not interested, then you got to make that decision for yourself. Nobody else can make that decision for you. And it won't be that it— you know, you could stay there and you probably could be just as fine, you know, figure out if you can be happy there. But if you can't be happy and you decide to stay there, then you are selling yourself short. Like, you were purposely handicapping your life. And that makes me sad for you. So hopefully that, that comes off the right way. But I just want to remind everybody, we do have Fleet Success Summit coming up, and we're announcing speakers for that, I feel like, left and right. That's gonna be March 21st, 22nd in Las Vegas at the wonderful Luxor Hotel and Casino. And you can go to fleetsuccesssummit.com, go register for that, check out any of the details. And until next time, I'm your host signing off.

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