Why Annual Reviews Are SO Important

Hey, everyone, it's Mike over@landscapebusinesscourse.com today. I'm going to shoot a quick episode for you, whether you're listening to the podcast or watching the videos on YouTube or on Facebook. Thank you so much. First of all, though, a big announcement. And that is, we only have about eight more days for you to register for Landscape Summit, the conference coming up in January, January 17th, 18th and 19th. It's in Bellingham, Washington, right next to the airport. So check it out. Go to landscapebusinesscourse.com conference. Sign up today. It's going to be fantastic. It's going to be the best conference you have ever been to for the landscape industry, guaranteed. The reason for that is because it's not going to be full of fluff. We're not having trade shows. I'm not spending a bunch of money on lunches and swag and T shirts. I am going to try to create a conference that you get so much value out of that, you know, some people have asked, why is it only 100 bucks to come to conference? And they're kind of worried because, like, usually it's 1,000, $2,000 to go to a really good conference. And the reason is this. When you go to those really good conferences, they are not paying that thousand dollars towards great content for your business. They're paying that thousand, two thousand, three thousand, five thousand dollars towards fancy lunches, alcohol, all the shirts and the notebooks and the little bags that you get and all the fancy stuff. We are not buying any of that. $100 is literally just going to cover the rental of the room we're in. And so it's going to be just a lot of really good. Like this one isn't going to cost you a lot. It's not a thousand, two thousand, some odd dollars, but it's going to make you a ton of money. And if it doesn't, I'm willing to pay you back that 100 bucks. I'm willing to pay for your hotel and for the stay while you're at the conference, if you leave and don't feel you've gotten an enormous amount of value. I feel, hands down, this will definitely be the cheapest conference we ever put out because I just want to get people there. But some people have expressed concern as to why is the price so cheap. And it's very simple. We're not spending. This is not going to be a fancy thing. You're going to come and like, literally the thing you're going to get from us is Going to be like a name tag, maybe a few hors d' oeuvres once in a while to like stay refreshed. But this is not going to be fancy smancy. This is going to coming with your business partner, with your manager, somebody maybe just by yourself if you're a small business and coming and learning about how to grow your company. It's going to be a lot of in depth workshops, looking at your numbers, looking at your website. I'm going to show you mine, I'm going to show you yours and we're going to compare the two and there's going to be enough people there where you can actually get one on one access with me, ask me questions and every single person will be able to talk to me since It'll be under 50 people, business owners, businesses represented at the conference. So we only have a few more days. Go to landscapebusinesscourse.com book your tickets now because you have to book it by the end of year. So it's what today is the. You have like a week left. You have like a week left until the end of the year and it has to. Your rooms have to be booked by then because they're giving us a special deal for everyone that comes to the conference and books the their hotel. Stay through the website so you can look at all the information. Go to landscapebusinesscourse.com conference. If you don't get enough value out of these days and you feel like it wasn't really worth it, I'll give you 100 bucks back and I'll pay for that hotel that you're paying for. If you can honestly say that you're not getting a value of this conference, I feel like it's going to be the number one place to be at in a few years and everyone's going to know about it right now. It's the first one, it's small, yes, it's not going to be fancy, but it's something I'm very passionate about doing is bringing landscape business owners together. The ones that are thinking about systems, thinking about procedures. I just got a Facebook message from a business owner that is looking. He says, well, I'm at 380 and I'm trying to get to a bigger business but I can't find employees. And the bottom line is yes, the labor market is super hard but the best way to get employees is to pay them more. If you all of a sudden we're paying 30% more than your competition. I have a strange feeling that you have your door Being knocked down by all your competitors employees wanting to work for you without you having to go out and poach them. And so how do you pay someone 30% more though is you have a profitable business that is able to afford to pay those employees more. And so how we make that system oriented profitable business is what we are going to be talking about this conference. And I really look forward to seeing you there. And I guarantee that, that the conference is going to be far above your expectations in terms of the value that is presented and that 2019, even if economy gets tanked, you're going to learn how to capitalize it on it on that contraction during this landscape business course conference. So check it out. Landscapebusinesscourse Conference I promise you won't regret it. I don't want to feel like I'm pounding a dead horse, but we just have a week left, so jump in now, book your tickets and I promise you it will be a lifetime change in your business. So check that out. Now today I want to talk about annual reviews. I'm just going to spend a few minutes. It's something we've done in our business that has been invaluable, extremely a real big learning experience for me. So it's great for your employees and it's great for you. So there's two different areas I want to talk about today. Annual reviews is something we've done in our business recently where at the end of the year the employees get to do anonymous peer to peer reviews and basically we give them a form that has all the names of our employees and then it has the areas of improvement and then areas of excellence. So they get to talk about all the things that they're really good at, their employees, sorry, their co workers, what they're really good at and then what areas they need improvement on. And so what's really great about this is when we do our annual reviews, what we do is it's just one on one with me and one of my employees. But I didn't even have to give any feedback this year because the content was so great and the feedback was so great from the other co workers of the employees. So I was able to look at all the reviews, I was able to see all the positives of each person, all the negatives and give them constructive feedback, ask for ways that I could help them be better in those areas of weakness, look for ways that try to ask them ways they were going to try to tackle those issues and become better. And so one of the ways to do this or One of the most important things about doing these employee reviews or annual reviews where you're doing peer to peer reviews is we made them anonymous. I did not know who wrote what. So I had in my office, this isn't type up each individual, I don't know who wrote what about so and so. And like I don't know any of that. So I get objective feedback and kind of don't get any bias. And then also you really need to push your people to be really honest and give really good feedback. You don't want an annual review where everyone just like, great person, works hard and just like a bunch of random stuff. And like the negative thing is like, don't take, don't eat tacos, like random stuff. You don't want that. You want really constructive feedback, something that someone can learn from. See the areas of improvement, see the areas where they do really well at and where their co workers are really appreciating the work that they're putting in. And so I did beforehand for the couple weeks leading up to the reviews, when they had to hand them in was just be really, I really pushed them to be really open and honest about it. Really pushed them to put some thought, put some time and not just do like one word answers, but like a couple sentences about each person in each category. And so it turned out to be fantastic feedback for the employees. And then I really pushed them to give me critical criticisms and feedback on how I can do better and my areas of improvement as well as my areas of excellence. And so we're making big changes in my landscaping company in terms of organization and who does what and what my role is come January because, and you're gonna hear about this at the conference, exactly what I'm doing to make my role different at my company from these annual reviews. And so it's gonna be more efficient, it's gonna grow a whole lot better with the new rule. However, what kind of kicked me over the edge is the reviews that I got back from people. And at first, sometimes they hurt. Like when you ask someone for honest feedback, sometimes you read that review and it kind of hurts. And then you sit back and you reflect and you say, okay, well, five people said the same thing. Maybe I need to take a look at this. And then you start to look at how I can change that in my business. And so it's going to make a better culture more transparent between you and your employees, a better culture between employees because they know what's going on, they know who works hard and they. And Pulls their weight. They know the person that slacks off, takes the long breaks, is on their phone a bunch stops at gas stations for the breaks like and they'll tell you in those reviews if they're anonymous and they know you don't know who is saying what. So you get to really get really honest feedback and you can really dictate where you give raises to who you give bonuses to, who you promote, who you put in leadership positions, who you make project managers based upon the information that is being given during the annual review. If they're talking about how their positives are always leadership and that they're good with the customer, like those are things you might want to use for a project manager. If they're saying that their areas of weakness are they're too introverted or they don't want to talk to do you probably want to use that person for a trainer or for someone that's going to be an estimator. You're going to need someone more outgoing or extroverted and being able to talk to people. So these are really valuable things for you as the employer, but also for your employees to learn from how they can get better at their job. And, and if you created the culture where it's constant improvement on themselves and the business, then they are going to accept that feedback, want that feedback and embrace that feedback and become better. And so it's been transformative for my business, it's been transformative for the role that I have in the business. And when you come to the conference, I'm going to talk. I would share it now but we haven't had our all hands on meeting. We're having it in January and I'm going to explain it to everyone, how the changes in the company are going to happen. And then so I don't really want to talk about about that yet. So anyways, big changes though from my perspective. And when they start to see the changes I'm making based upon the feedback I got from the reviews, it might be a little bit easier for them to see the feedback that was kind of harsh or hard they might think and then really digest and be like, okay, well Mike made all these changes based on his feedback. Maybe I should look objectively at the feedback I received and make changes on my work ethic or what time I show up to work and all these other things. And so I'd really encourage you do these annual reviews, do them peer to peer, do them employee based and then have them all handed in. And then you go over, you basically just go over the pros and the cons or areas of excellence and the areas of improvement with that employee, one on one, create that bond. Ask where you can help them improve in those areas. Ask for some more feedback from them if they have any for you. It's just a great time to kind of get everyone back on track at the end of the year, See, know, Reflect and assess 2018 and then look forward in 2019 and see how they can get better. So I hope that helps you today. Again, don't forget to sign up for the conference. This is the last week where you can do it. I look forward to seeing you there in January. Mike Andes, landscape businesscourse.com.