81. Motivation Triggers Part 2 - Career Needs

Hey, my friend. Welcome back to leadership in a nutshell. I'm your host, Kenny Chapman. This is episode 81, motivation triggers, part two, career needs. That's right. Last week we talked about part one, being human needs. This week, we're going to jump in and hit career needs. So, you know, I talked a little bit last week about how the. The fact of the matter is we have human needs, we have career needs. I believe we only have human needs, and career is a part of it. But in the interest of really kind of chunking down and getting clarity for ourselves as leaders, we know the company can do certain things in different ways, shapes and forms. But the ultimate responsibility we have is to utilize the business as a platform to. To help our team members uncover what they need to uncover in their own lives. And so I spent a little time last week running through the five levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And this week, I want to talk about five things that you can do in order to kind of best address what the human needs are. Remember, last week I asked you that number one question, and I want you to keep that in mind this week as we kind of jump right in here. And that question was and still is, is your company fulfilling basic human needs? And a lot of times, you know, we don't want to talk about human needs, and we don't want to talk about the soft and the fluffy stuff. And oh, my gosh, God forbid I have a relationship outside of work with a team member and, you know, loving on your team. And I don't mean intimate relationship love. I mean like, just caring genuinely about your people and oh, my go, we can't do that. And different things. You know, hey, here's the reality. We all come from a place of. We spend a lot of time at work. Yes. We know the statistics and the stories. And oh, my gosh, in the 80s, when the technology movement was kicking in and rocking and rolling, we were all going to be working five hours a week by now. Right. And making five times as much dough. And here we are, and we're working like crazy to make ends meet. And we're working at home, and we're working at on the road, and we're working at children's soccer games and basketball games, and we're working during spouse dinners and all kinds of different stuff. Right? So there's a reality that, yes, the business has needs, but we also live in a world where we've got to get conscious clarity about what we're using our business platform for and how we want to ultimately impact people. And so what we know is that there's a recruiting challenge in the trades. We know that there's a talent pool challenge. We know that skilled labor is a challenge, and we know that people are going a lot of different ways about solving this. And one of the things I would encourage you to think about, I've got Ashley on my team that loves escape rooms, right? And so when I went to an escape room with her a couple years ago, and I don't know if you've ever gone through that, but you think about the escape room, you get like a small set of instructions, and there's four or five or six of you, however many are in there. And like, okay, try this, and let's try that, and let's open this drawer and let's try this key on this lock, whatever it is, and then it plays out. And if you guys figure out enough, you end up, you know, you're on a timer, and you end up like, okay, finally we escape. Well, that's what's happening when it comes to recruiting and retention in the trades and meeting the career needs of new generation as well as older generation. The world is not the same as it was when you and I were coming up. If you're in your 50s or 60s or the game is different now than it was, and you can either resist that, like I talked about several episodes ago in Resisting what is, or you can embrace it and go, okay, not exactly sure what to do, but I know I can't do what I've been doing. And the fact is, until you find that right key that opens the right lock, you're going to be stuck in that room until you find the way to escape. And escape meaning to solve the human needs and the career needs that your team has in order to elevate them to the next level. So what we know is that it's more than just money. Right through the 70s and 80s and 90s and even part of the early 2000s, like, oh, let's throw money at it. Just give them a raise, give them a signing bonus. Now we see companies running $20,000 signing bonuses, and it's still not working. Why? Because people see through some of that. And I'm not saying if you're running a $20,000 signing bonus, good on you. If that's your culture, that's your fit, that's your thing. You might say, no, Kenny, it' that's fine. Whatever works for you, works for you. But we know there's people that are not having Success because team wants more than just a $20,000 signing bonus. The other thing we know is in the trades we post some of the highest job satisfaction of all industries. And it's because people get to make a contribution and they fix things for other people. And there's a lot of really great things. But how are we communicating these types of things? How are we going to the wall and saying is going to meet basic human needs and we are going to fulfill those and here's how we're going to do it. So last week we talked about Maslow's hierarchy of needs a little bit. Now what, Kenny? What are we going to talk about now? Well, here's an action plan. I'm just going to jump right into it with you and I would encourage you to take massive action on these and write these down if you're in a place where you can write and possibly we'll put them in show notes as well. So here we go. Number one, it's about consistent, relentless communication. So yes, you're going to hear me talk about communication a lot. I consistently talk about communication because it's one of the biggest opportunities that myself, if I'm on site, if I'm talking to leaders, if I'm doing my life mastery coaching work with clients. Communication is a part of our world and it's challenged. And now there's so many things competing for people's attention and different things like that. And we go, oh man, communicating a lot. I'm communicating a lot. Well, guess what? Just when you think that you're communicating enough and your team is rolling their eyes at you as you communicate, then I want you to communicate some more. Because the reality is it's got to be consistent, it's got to be relentless. You got to talk about core values, you got to talk about mission, you got to talk about vision, you got to talk about sales process, you got to talk about where you're going and why you're going there and who you want to go with you. That is constant. So first off, consistent, relentless communication. The second thing in your action plan is kick it up a notch and improve your training, your coaching, your education platform in your business. What we know is that people want to be valued and how we value them is by helping them grow. And we help them grow by giving them better training and helping them with more coaching and helping them educate themselves. Whether, whether it's self guided things and different things like that or it's coaching programs like what blue collar runs, whatever that is, that's where I want you to really hang your hat and really kick it up a notch, because the new generation wants to be fed and they want to be educated and they want to be coached and they want to have better results. That is a reality. Third thing in your action plan, simply write this down, love your team, and you go, oh, Kenny, I'm not writing that down. I'm not doing this soft skill stuff. I'm old school. Fine, then you can old school yourself right out of business, too. Because it's called old school for a reason and there's no place for it. And I'm not saying you got to be like me, and I love people. I love hugging people. I love sharing human connection and energy. That's fine, you don't have to go there. But I'm telling you, you better love your team and what they represent to you. They need it. I talked about it last week. It's a hierarchy of need that they have in their walk as a human, having the human experience. They're craving love and satisfaction, and it's harder and harder to get it in certain places. And there's so much division in the country and in the globe. I should say overall global division. When your team really feels that you value them and that you love them, they'll go to the wall for you. And don't do it for that. Do it because you care about them. Oh, man, Kenny, I know. I used to go have a beer with some of my direct reports and it backfired on me because they thought we were friends and they thought they didn't have to do their job. That's a leadership problem, not a love problem. That's a communication problem, not a love problem. That's an education problem, not a love. So the fact of the matter is, if you don't love your team, change your team or change how you feel about your team. Very, very powerful. Make sure you're addressing that. Fourth thing. Allow, and not just allow, but encourage self expression. Allow and encourage self expression. Oh, I don't know about the millennials and Gen X and Y and Z and A, B, C, whatever the new ones are that we're coming out with. Here's the reality. People want self expression and the business is where they get that. And that's why we lose people, is, oh, I can't be my creative self. And these darn millennials just want to go and create and do this. Yeah, that's right. And you got plumbers that want to create self expression and you have call takers that want to have self expression. You've got to allow it and you've got to encourage it. You've got to listen to them. You've got to encourage them to share with you. You've got to open your mind and your heart and listen to what they have to say. Because they all have great ideas. Not all of their ideas are great, but they all have some great ideas that we can all listen to and pay attention to. And allow them to be unique. Allow them to be themselves. Yes. Put them in uniform. Yes. Have a process for their job and what they do. But allow them to be unique. Allow them to be themselves within that process. And you will retain team and you will attract team because people want to have their own view and expression. I'll say that's what they want. Let them have it. The fifth thing, certainly not the last, my friend. Just enjoy the process. Life is too short and I won't get in on my tangent about going through all that. But the reality is we're just in a moment of time. I mean, I've been an entrepreneur since I was 23 years old. I'm now blessed to be 51 at the time. I'm recording, recording this and I just, I feel that we're super fortunate to spend our time doing what we do and you know, hopefully loving what we do and loving those that we do it with. And, you know, yeah, there's challenges. Sure, there's challenges. That's part of God's gift for us to grow and that's part of the human experience and we evolve in our creativity and our human consciousness and all that. It's all part of the game. So let's enjoy the game. And when we don't enjoy it, guess what? If you don't enjoy it and you're a leader in the organization, then how's your front line going to enjoy it? How can you expect them to possibly embrace and enjoy anything about their jobs or your organization if you don't enjoy it? So recapping these five consistent, relentless communication, improve training, coaching and education. Love on your team. Allow and encourage self expression and enjoy the process. Now, in the interest of the one thing theory, I would encourage you to go back to that list and pick one of those that you're going to focus on. You go, man. Kenny, I definitely, I really need to improve my training and coaching. I know that. I know we kind of got stale with it. Covid didn't help. I know I've really got to ramp it up. Okay, cool. That could be your answer. Maybe some of you are like, yeah, we've been a little bit militaristic. I'm not sure if that's a word, but I'm throwing it in there anyway. I was in the military, I get to. But you know, we're a little stringent. A little. Maybe we need to allow a little more self expression. Maybe we need to allow them to be themselves within our process. And some of you might be going, man, I know we got to communicate. We haven't had a company meeting for six months. We need to have a company wide meeting where the team can hear from me as a leader, whatever that is, you pick your one thing out of that list of five and some of you, maybe you just need to enjoy the process. Man, this is life. You only get one that you're aware of. Let's have some fun. Oh my gosh. And here's the reality. If we don't provide some of these things and I'm going to give you another little, you know, here's another little list. I think I got seven of them here for you. So there are some other things that if you're not providing these things, people are going to leave and they won't come to you. So they're looking for consistency and safety and if we don't provide that for them, they feel anxious, right? We don't want them feeling anxious. They're looking for variability and fun. And if we don't provide that, then they get bored. And people that get bored keep seeking and they go elsewhere. If we don't give them, they're looking for some status and some significance. Even Maslow talked about that in his chart. Without that they don't feel valued, they feel undervalued and they're kind of craving that. They're looking for love and connection. I've talked about that a lot the last two weeks. Without that, they feel lonely, they don't want to be lonely, right? And then we're looking for self expression and without self expression we get stuck and we can't express the meaning of life and different things like that. And so they're craving that. They want growth and knowledge and without growth and knowledge then, man, we kind of feel stuck as a person. We want to grow and ultimately maybe one of the most important things is they crave contribution and without that they don't get satisfaction, my friend. And ultimately that's what it's about. Yes, they're showing up to do a job, to get paid, to take care of the bills and all those different, different types of things, but really there's a lot more going on here. And when we can build our companies around meeting the career needs that we can provide, which ultimately are meeting the human needs that they have, that's when the magic happens, my friend. That's when it doesn't matter that the signing bonus is this, where you might not even have to pay the top, top, top of the market. I don't know why you wouldn't if you're capable. But people are looking for this well rounded thing and they're going to continue to do so and people seek that out. The companies that figure this out, meaning the leaders that figure this out in companies are the ones that are going to continue to not just survive but thrive in the new economy and the new chapters of our business experience together. I'm Kenny Chapman, your host of Leadership in a Nutshell, Motivation triggers Part two Career needs. Thank you so much for being with me. Give us a like a rating, a review, kick this over to somebody that could find some value in it. I appreciate you. Until we talk, make it a better than fantastic week. We'll see you real soon. Thanks everybody.