Creating a Great Team Culture with a VISION for Your Business

Hey everyone, it's Mike Andes and you're listening to the Business Boot Camp podcast. Today we're talking about why being a selfish entrepreneur is bad for you, your team, and for your bottom line and what you can do about it if you're in that situation. Now, before we get into this show though, a big thank you. Today's sponsor, which is Gusto, if you haven't already, go to gusto.combootcamp and by going there you can get a free 90 day trial instead of their regular 30 day trial. You can use the software completely free or. One of the things I love about Gusto is the fact that the employees have their own app where they get notified as soon as payroll is submitted. And they also get to see a breakdown of every single element of their paycheck in terms of the taxes and Medicare, Medicaid, all that stuff that's taken out. They can see it's very transparent. They see their net pay, they see when it's going into their bank account. And they also can request things like time off right from the app. So really a great tool for you as an employer. Check it out. Today, go to gusto.combootcamp now. This episode really kind of came from. The thought behind this really came from.

Just recently we had an off site meeting for everyone that worked at Augusta Lawn Care at the command center and had an evening where we kind of get together, focus on the vision of what we want to accomplish this year and share results, reports, numbers, financials, things like that. So, so we have open book management, so we share what investments we're making, what we've made, things like that. So they know where the company is at from a financial standpoint, what the goals are, where we're trying to achieve, what we're trying to improve, things like that. So in that meeting I briefly kind of mentioned this. And then I've been thinking about the past couple days and I've been thinking more and more about it and I wanted to share it with you. And that is selfish versus being unselfish. And I think most people would say that they're not selfish. Most people will not admit to being selfish. It's definitely something in our society that we push away. But I want to dig into this a little bit deeper. And that is really around the mission of why your business exists. Do you have a mission? What is the drive behind your business and does your team know about it? And I really felt like when we were talking about Augusta, what we talked about is like the organization that we're building is not being built for the people building it. Right? We're building this thing, this machine. And our goal and our mission is to change the level of professionalism in the landscaping industry. That's not for us. That being accomplished, that goal being achieved is not for us, it's for the industry. It's for the franchisees, it's for business owners in this industry, it's for the employees of the business owners in the industry. It's not for us. We can achieve that goal without accumulating massive personal wealth, without accumulating with the people. When we are having this meeting. The people in this room are not going to benefit from what we're trying to do. It's going to be the people after us and then the business owners beyond what we're trying to do, beyond even Augusta Lawn Care, what we're trying to do in the industry. And so I was thinking about like self serving purposes and missions and you might have a mission statement or something you think about like why your business exists, maybe you share that with your staff. But I really feel like self serving purposes and missions will never endure the test of time. And the reason for that is because if you have a self serving purpose in your business, and that literally could be literally if you just are like, hey, all I want to do is make a bunch of money or I want to retire early, or I just want to be able to take vacation without ever having to worry about anything being done. And like it's very self serving and there's nothing wrong with that. There's definitely elements of being a business owner that are self serving and there are financial benefits and there are a certain amount of freedoms that we get in terms of time and things like that to decide what we want to do. I'm not saying that those things are wrong. I'm saying that if that is the singular only purpose, reason, mission for your business existing, and the only reason for your business existing is to selfishly serve you, your purposes, your finances, your bank account, your family want done. If that's all there is to will not stand the test of time. Because if a business is centered around that and as time goes on, there's going to be misunderstandings between staff members, there's going to be misunderstandings between frontline workers and management. There's going to be disagreements between management and the owner, you, the founder, the small business owner, there's going to be economic pressures, there's going to be competition coming to the marketplace and try to tear you apart. And if the owner Only thing keeping you in the game is your selfish motive to personally excel, personally achieve without any sort of ambition, desire to help the greater good, to help the community, whether that be your industry, your family, the families of your employees, your employees. Like if there is no sense of mission or desire to also see those people get something from the business, I feel like it will not stand the test of time. And maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like living for others in general is a good thing to do. I feel like in terms of being a business owner, living for others and making the business as an organism, live for others. Whether it be like I said, the community, your industry, the employees themselves, whatever it might be doing that really gets others to rally around the mission. Because if you got up in front of your staff and said, and if I would have done this the other night, got up in front of them and said, hey, like we just want to make a bunch of money and I want to retire early and I don't want to have to work very much. And so to do that we are going to work longer hours, we're going to cut pay, we're going to do this, we're not going to invest in the company, we're not going to put the profits back in. Like that would be very hard for them to rally around. What they can rally around is when they can see from a business owner and if you are investing back in the business, if you have a mission that's greater beyond just lining your pockets, but either investing back into them, investing in the business, investing in opportunities for the company to grow so that they can excel, investing into the community, investing into your industry, helping other people, these are missions, these are things that people can rally around. People do not rally around you being self serving and all you care about is yourself and you're good and, and your financial success, they're not gonna rally around making the owner more rich and if that's all they come to work for, they're not gonna stick around. There's no desire to achieve, there's no desire to go the extra mile unless they in themselves are also trying to be self serving and trying to get something and just make more money or get to another spot or use their position with your company as a stepping stone to something bigger for them. You're not gonna have people stay on board with your mission when they could make more money elsewhere if there's not something that is going beyond you or even them. And I feel like that's a trickle down effect. When a business owner Has a mission in the business to only serve themselves. And then they wonder why people don't want to put in the extra time. They don't want to act as a team. They don't want to act as a cohesive unit. And yet the business exists for them to be selfish and only care about them and what they want out of the business. Like, you know, it's always been famous, the saying, like what? Can not think not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. The same thing can be said for your business. Like when we talk about countries, it's an organization. It's a group of individuals coming together and creating some sort of organization around a democracy. When it comes to a business, it's the same concept. It's an organization. And when you as the business owner are always thinking, what can the business do for me for financially freedom of time, being able to elevate me in social economic status, like, whatever it might be, get me a bigger house, if that's all you're thinking about, what can the business do for me? That business will not survive. The same way in which a country will not survive when the citizens of said country are only thinking about what they can get from the country instead of what they can give to the country. I feel like living for yourself and living when your business only lives for itself and for this personal interest of the owner, I really don't feel like it's gonna ever create a legacy that lives beyond your mortality. So when it comes to you personally living for others not doing that, I really feel like it doesn't allow you to create a legacy that lives beyond your mortality. In other words, when you die, there is no legacy to continue living. Because all you were living for was a reflection of you. All you were doing was looking in the mirror every day and. And seeing you. There was no window. There was nothing to perceive and look forward into the future. There was nothing to live for other than the person right in front of you. And so I feel like, whether it be individuals that you look through time, individuals that we would say that changed the course of.

Humanity, changed the way that we thought about civil rights, what we thought about religion, what we thought about science, what we thought about politics or economics. If you look at those people, a lot of times, the people that change the course of mankind and society rarely are remembered for what they did for themselves. We don't remember people that built something great for themselves. We remember people who built something for those that live beyond them, Whether it be Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King or Jesus Christ. Those were people that, that we live thousands, hundreds and thousands of years beyond their lifetime. We talk about them and we study their lives and we commemorate them and we have holidays around them and their lives. Why? Because during their life they live for something other than themselves. And if your business, if you personally are only living for yourself, no one's gonna care when you're gone. Your employees will not care, your community will not care. There will be no one that you affected their lives to the point where they are. So like we actually celebrate Martin Luther King Day, we have a President's Day for people like Abraham Lincoln who did not think about what how their life could be benefit or how they can make their life easier. They were thinking about the common good of the collective, the community, the people that would live for generations beyond them. We talk about Jesus Christ who gave his life. And the reason we talk about it is because he didn't have a self serving mission for coming to earth. He came to earth for other people. And so I feel like whether it be a business or you personally, when we start thinking about mission statements, why a business exists, why an organization exists, and this trickles down beyond business, this goes on any organization of society, whether it be country, church, volunteer group, business, you know, anything you want to talk about, club, any sort of organization that has a mission that is greater than just serving the self interest of those people inside of it. They're the ones that stand the test of time. They're the ones that think do something great for humanity. They're the ones that people rally around the movements of mlk, the movements. I was thinking about Nikola Tesla. Nikola Tesla. You know when everyone, when you say that name, everyone's like, oh, Tesla. That's what Tesla is named after, is this scientist physicist guy whose last name was Tesla, who did all this work and probably spent years and years of his life figuring out physics and science and all these things. And now years down the road, using parts of his scientific work, Tesla, this massive billion dollar, trillion dollar company is being born out of what this man did decades ago. And by the way, there's another company called Nikola after his first name. Literally a man that in his lifetime did not create an electric car, he did not create renewable energy, he did not create the next hundred billion dollar brand around what he was doing. He built, he created the building blocks for someone else to do something great for him down the road. And that's why companies were named after him, because he lived a life that was unselfish and had a mission beyond just the self serving efficacies, which I don't even know if that makes sense. But he did not try his entire life to just take what he learned and make money from it and then personally boost his reputation and boost what he was all about. He poured it back into his science and his research and poured his life out so that one day someone like Elon Musk could pick up something, make a vehicle, make a car, take that technology, take that science and change the world. And a lot of people ask me even like, no, I don't sleep maybe as much as I should. And sometimes I try to make up for. I'm trying to get better at those sort of things. But like the times that I'm in the flow, in whatever that means, whenever I'm in the place where like I am feeling very good and I'm not sleeping very much and I know when there's a difference, there's a difference when I'm sleeping little and, and feeling great, and then when I'm just getting work done and I'm not really passionate about it, stuff I have to get done. And you do feel tired and you do feel worn out. But like the same amount of sleep's going on, the same amount of rest is taking place. But when there is something, a goal, a mission that is beyond me, the times when I can not sleep very much and continue to operate at a high functioning level is when I'm doing things for other people. Like hands down, whether it be conferences, whether it be when I'm working with the franchisees, whether it be when I'm trying to help other business owners, whether it be trying to figure out systems for the employees, whatever it is, if I am trying to pour myself out for other people, it's like you tap into a different energy source. And I think if you would interview people like Nikola Tesla, they would say that they tapped into something different. That whether it be creativity, whether it be energy, whether it be stamina, whether it be the way to look at a scientific method or a hypothesis or a test and put themselves, poured themselves out. And I truly believe when you begin to invest your life and your life's work and your mission and your purpose for the greater good of others, whether it be community, family, employees, the business that you're affecting, the people you affect in the business, if you begin to do that, I truly believe you tap into a completely different set of energy, a completely different set of values that can really allow you to do things that you otherwise could not do. And so people ask me, why can you stay up all night? If you actually have a purpose, that you actually care about other people, you actually care deeply about your employees and deeply about their good and deeply about the people that your business is touching and what it's doing in the industry, what it's doing in your local community. If you actually care about those things, you tap into an energy source greater and far deeper than you can ever tap into when you are self serving and only looking out for yourself. I truly believe that. And you know, when we talk about, you know, one way to show how great you are, you know, it goes back to this. And this is something I think about a lot, like, you work for those you lead. That is something I've always thought about. You work for those you lead. And so whether it be the people that I try to lead on this podcast, business owners, people in the landscape, community, whether it be the employees that I hire, whether it be, whether it be the businesses that I lead, whatever it is, I work for those I lead. That's always the way I've thought about it. And yes, they get a paycheck and you know, traditional mentality is like, you come and work for a boss and they give you money in exchange for time. That's how it's traditionally thought. When I think about the people that I lead, not like workers, that's not how I think when anyone is trying to. Whenever I'm guiding someone, whenever I'm leading someone else, when they come and they are being challenged or motivated or I'm leading them in some way, I work for them. That's how I look at it. I work for them to succeed, I work for them to make a better living. And so whether that be growing the business so they can do that, giving them opportunities to grow, giving them opportunities to become better people, learn, educate themselves. That's how I think about it. And one way to show that you're great as an entrepreneur and a business owner is that when you're gone, everything falls apart. And this is very seductive for small business owners as they begin to get.

Some bits of success is like when you pass it on to a mid level manager or you pass it onto your successor for things to fall apart. It kind of brushes your ego because it proves that everything relies on you and that you are the master juggler that keeps everything in the air. And there is definitely a sense of pride and ego that is caressed when that happens. When you hand something off to a mid level manager or you delegate something and it falls apart or the business begins to not do as well. And then you can step in and be the savior. There's definitely an ego game there. But if you truly have a mission of being unselfish and serving those who work for you and for those who you lead, you do work for, that's the wrong way to think about it. How do you empower them? How do you get them so wrapped up in the mission of serving other people, other communities, other organizations that they no longer are thinking about what's best for themselves when they begin to lead and when you put them and you delegate something to them, they don't have to question, they don't have to debate, they don't have to have you micromanage, they don't have to always ask you questions. They have to have one singular thing in mind. Does this align with the mission, the goal, the driving force of this business? To help the common good, to help the, the community that we're working to help the employees, to help the team I'm working with. That's what's going to unify a team that's going to create a culture of doing good for others and doing good for yourselves in within the team and really being able to go the extra mile. And you as the owner are not. Your pride is less wrapped up in how much you can juggle all the things. Because all of us as entrepreneurs, that's what we pride ourselves in, is being able to do a lot of things really well. That's what our pride is in. And so when we can prove how valuable we are, when we hand things off and delegate and then things fall apart, the greater I feel like the great companies, if you listen to Good to Great by Jim Collins, he talks a little bit about this. Like when companies are handed off to the successor, the great companies continue to do well. The good companies, the ones that are okay or even not that great, or maybe had an incredible leader, entrepreneur, CEO that led for years, but then when they die or when they leave the company, the company falls apart, goes beyond, goes below the average return on stock value, things like that, the company begins to click decline because the strong figure was there and maybe that person was self serving in the fact that they wanted to see it fall down because everything was relying on them. They didn't ever did delegate, they never did empower their team. They never created a mission or, or any sort of goal beyond the self serving stock price or the quarterly bonuses or. And so I feel like the greatest companies are the ones that when the founder leaves. When the founder begins to delegate, the company does better, the company continues to succeed more. And so that's something I've challenged myself to as I'm stepping away and will continue to do so, is I want to. What can I do to empower? What can I do to make sure they're set up for greater success than I could have ever brought that company to, ever brought the employees underneath management to, with me being there? And I feel like that's what an enduring company does. Building an enduring company that outlasts you is an unselfish thing to do. You could sell the company, you could take it public, you could make all the money yourself. But to build a business that outlasts you and endures you and stands the test of time, and you can hand it off to a successor, you can hand it off to your employees, you can hand it off to a second, third generation in your family, and the business continue to do good. That is an unselfish thing to do because it means you have to build a business that is not about you. It's about handing it off. It's about the people that are gonna come beyond you, the employees that are gonna be hired in 20, 30, 40 years. That is an unselfish thing to do. I'd ask yourself this question. As a small business owner, as a leader, are you selfish? Or is the goal that you've built, the mission for your business, the reason for your business being here, the purpose that you personally and from an entrepreneurial standpoint, were put on this earth? Does it just serve you? Your motives, your objectives, your pocketbook? Or is there something you're doing for somebody else? I promise you, by living for others, by your business, living for others, it will lead to greater success for you, your employees, and your happiness in the team that you build. You've been listening to the Business Boot Camp podcast. I'm Mike Andes. Until next time, be great. Nothing else pays.