This piece was originally published in August of 2010.

I will stay with my point this month that a recovery is coming. I don’t know when but one is coming and you, as a leader and small business owner, need to be ready. And the success of any entity begins and ends with people. So, as you look forward with a positive belief that things can and will get better, you need to look at who is on your team. And you need to look closely at what you need to succeed.

Years ago I was struggling with my company. We were doing “okay” but we were not performing nearly as well as we could; there were small problems everywhere. I had a bunch of nice people who did great work. A bunch of nice people who did okay work. And, truthfully, a bunch of nice people who didn’t do very good work and needed to go. But as many leaders do, I kept poor performers around way too long. Why? Because they were nice. Because I liked them as people. Because they had been here a long time.

In business a lot of companies operate like this. They promote people because of their length of service rather than their performance. Long time salespeople are made sales managers and we are surprised when they don’t do well. Long time team leaders are made into department managers and they don’t do well. Family members are promoted due to their last name and not their performance. I’ve seen it, I’ve done it, and you have too! It wasn’t until my board of advisors, that I meet with quarterly for advice and counsel, pointed out to me the problems I had in my company were due to my inability to see the big picture. And my inability to make some tough decisions and get the poor performers out the door, regardless of how nice they were. In one instance, my board members made me realize how much one manager was an impediment to my success. I didn’t see it at first; I thought I was a great leader and motivator and I would be able to fix them. It wasn’t until I heard my friend Pete Luongo, who is an author and speaker and former CEO of a Fortune 500 Company, say two things that I became armed with the confidence to do what I needed to do. The first thing was, “I can make you more than you are, but I can’t make you something you aren’t.” And my personal favorite, “I love you, but you just can’t work here anymore.”

My quest to improve then started when a board member advised me to write out my organizational chart the way I wanted, not the way it was then. He told me to “focus on the position, not the person” and write out what I wanted the shape of the organization to be. He helped me write up the types of people I needed in each position. Ten years later that organizational chart has hardly changed and I have an excellent team of people who are in their positions because they perform, not because they are nice or are family. It was amazing the change that took place with my company in terms of culture, accountability, and the overall support of the company mission by removing poor performers. I hope you are seeing my point and maybe I am even making you a little uncomfortable. This month take some time and look at your organization and make sure you’ve got the right people in the right positions.

Here’s an exercise to help you. Get out your organizational chart. If you don’t have one, put it down on paper as best you can. Go to my website to view mine; I have posted it on the home page so you can see it to help you with this. (www.martygrunder.com/org-chart). After you have your organizational chart, get out three magic markers: one red, one yellow and one green. Go to each person on your team and if they are someone who you know needs to go work someplace else and can’t be trained to improve, or moved to another position, circle them in red. If they are someone who you think might be able to be trained to improve or do something else in your company effectively, circle them in yellow. And if they are someone you are certain you want included in your future and you want to invest in to improve and they are a leader, circle them in green. Your job as an owner or leader is to continually be looking for opportunities to improve and develop your team. You need to see on this piece of paper how good or bad you’ve got it. If there is more red than any other color, don’t feel bad; at least you know what you need to do. The outcome of the exercise should be to show you what you need to improve upon in the coming year so that your company can succeed.

Nobody ever said running a business is easy. But I can promise you, if you get the right people in the right positions focused on the vision and mission of the endeavor, you will have a very good chance to take advantage of the opportunities that are coming our way. People often ask me how I can speak, consult, spend time with family and still run a landscaping company. Well, I can tell you, the only way I can do all this is by having an outstanding team of professionals who understand what we are trying to do. We are not perfect and make mistakes all the time but we do a lot right; I am very excited about our future and there’s a whole lot more green on my organizational chart than there was 5-10 years ago. 

This piece was originally published in November of 2011.

You’d think with all the talk about jobs that it would be easy to find people. That is not the case in my area of the country. At Grunder Landscaping Company we are having a very tough time finding people. We can find people but to find people that we feel are a fit and can pass a background check and a drug test is next to impossible. We’ve tried all sorts of tactics to find people, some successful, some not successful. And I’ve spent a lot of time of late trying to figure out some ways to help my own company find new people to hire. Here’s what I’ve found the best companies do to hire and recruit. 

1. Have a process for hiring. Successful small business owners know that processes improve your chances for success. UPS has a process; McDonald's has one; I could go on and on. When you run things, like hiring, by the seat of your pants, you’re not going to be very successful. Years ago my idea of hiring was about a two-minute interview and then a “you’re hired” and we’d put them in a truck. Not today! If that’s your hiring process, please stop! You need a process for hiring, just like you have a process for installing a tree, mowing a lawn or balancing the company checkbook. There is a very good book that was recommended to me called "Who: The A Method for Hiring" by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. It is excellent and if you are looking for some ideas on how to set up a hiring process, then you need to read it. I am in the process of reading it with my management team. We are working on improving the process of hiring. And over the winter, before we go into hiring mode in February next year, we will have a new and enhanced process. If you have a process, great. Make it better. If you don’t, this should be the first step to improving your hiring efforts – get a process.

2. Get everyone involved in hiring. Your best source for new hires is always going to be your current team. That’s why it is so important to have a nice work environment. If your people like where they work, they will naturally tell others. If you incentivize them with some cash or other benefits like a day off, you will see your team send you folks. If your culture is not a good one, you might be able to hire people but once they see what’s really going on, they won’t stay either. Maybe it’s time you looked at your company’s culture. I could go on and on about what a good culture is all about. Let’s just talk about two things.: integrity and communication. If you have an environment that does not tolerate any form of dishonesty, you are on the right track. You have to realize that if you do the right things, the right things will happen to you. That’s integrity at its best. Communication is the other part to a company others want to work at. Bottom line: NO SURPRISES. Let your people know everything you can about what’s going on. When they feel well informed, they feel connected and a connected, well-engaged workforce is what you want and it’s the type of place others want to work in. Get this and your people will help you find others to work at your company.

3. Hire slow and fire fast. I have used these words for years. And they are true. If you treat hiring as something you dread, you will rush through it and make mistakes. Look at it differently. Look at it as something great, a chance to add another awesome person to your team. Someone who can take some burden off you and make your good company great. Take your time. When you interview people, doubt everything they say. Make them show you they are who they say they are. Remember, they will never look or even smell as good as they do at an interview. (If I know you are coming to see me at my house, it will look a lot better than if you just drop by!)  So, I think the best way to interview is to be a skeptic and make the potential new hire give you so much proof they are who they say they are, you have to hire them. Take your time, go through your process, ask a ton of questions and be careful. If you find they aren’t who they say they are, get rid of them promptly so they don’t influence the good ones you currently employ. Hire slow and fire fast.

4. Don’t overlook the good people you currently have in your quest to find others. Sure, we need to hire and always be looking for new people to add to our team. But, in doing so, don’t forget the good ones you currently have. Don’t take them for granted. Remember, the best way to get new hires is to create an environment where people love their work and feel important. If you do this, they will tell others. It’s hard to find a good job in today’s environment, so if your place is liked, others will hear about it quickly. It is important to spend just as much time on hiring and recruiting as you do at making sure your place is a good place to work. You know what you need to do; just go do it.

It’s not going to get better any time soon with hiring, I fear, so now is the time to look at this part of your company and make some improvements. Talk to you next month.

This piece was originally published in June of 2004.

For too many years, I wasted time driving to the dry cleaners to drop off my clothes. Always looking for ways to save time, I had noticed a home delivery dry cleaning service in our neighborhood. I asked my neighbor Steve about the service. He gushed with praise about the service and said, “You’ll love Larry!” He was right; I would love Larry.

Larry is someone all of us could learn from and a person who understands the value of great service and, even more importantly, a GREAT attitude.

For the past 25 years Larry has driven the delivery truck for Gough Lamb Cleaners in Middletown, Ohio. But driving the delivery truck is not the only thing Larry does well.

As a very satisfied customer of Larry, let me share with you what he does. For starters, he is very dependable. On every Tuesday and Friday at 7:30 p.m., Larry knocks on our door to drop off clean clothes and pick up the dirty ones. In comparison, I’m still waiting for the cable guy who was supposed to be at my house three years ago. (Seriously, this is true. They never showed up and I never called. I just fixed the cable myself and, to the surprise of my whole family, my repair worked.)

In the few years we have worked with Larry, he has never made a mistake. No wrong clothes, no damage done to our clothes and no lost clothes. In comparison, a few years ago a repair shop lost a lawn mower of ours; they gave it to someone else.

Larry knows all my kids’ names, my name and my wife’s name. In comparison, the gate agent at the Dayton International Airport who has taken my boarding pass and assisted me literally hundreds of times has no idea what my name is.

On several occasions Larry brings us small tokens of appreciation. Again, for comparison purposes, a vendor we have at our landscaping company that we spend thousands of dollars with annually has never so much as uttered a “Thank you” to me, even though I see him in church every Sunday. (Granted, their service is good, but a thank you would be nice.)

Finally, Larry’s truck is always spotless. And, needless to say, Larry is always nicely dressed. He also smiles, is extremely pleasant and always thanks us for our business and wishes us a good day. Look around today as you drive; chances are you’ll find more companies with dirty trucks than with clean ones.

What can we learn from this? Frankly, a whole lot. For starters, little things make a big difference. Nothing that I have told you that Larry does costs a lot of money. He’s on time, he’s dependable, he’s conscientious, he pays attention, he cares, he smiles, he is clean, he is polite, he is enthusiastic and, most importantly, he loves his job.

And that leads to the message of this month’s column – a great attitude is the best asset your company can have. Not only is it contagious, but it sells your services like crazy. Because of Larry doing all the little things so well, many, if not all, of my neighbors have decided to use his services. Think about what your company could do with a whole stable full of employees with great attitudes serving your clients. Spend some time hiring the right people – the ones with great attitudes – and then train them how to take care of your clients. While training, remember, the way you treat your team will clearly show them how to treat your clients. If you do, you’ll have what Lovable Larry has – clients who love him and his service and are happy to find other clients for him.