I was visiting with a client recently who has dealt with many types of employees, both good and bad, over the years. I asked him what his management philosophy was for dealing with so many young employees in his blue-collar field. He said that in his type of business, you have to be patient with training the new hires. His philosophy was basically that if you are willing to work at it and be disciplined and show respect, he will be willing to work with you for as long as it takes.
But for those that aren’t willing to hold up their end of the bargain, my client had a saying that I really liked, “No sense is nonsense.” In other words, after a certain point he is not going to keep giving second chances; if you are full of nonsense, he isn’t going to keep wasting his time on you.
One of the titans of his industry also believed in a variation of this management style. He would watch all of the divisions in his vast company and if they fell below 1st or 2nd in their respective fields, he would immediately sell the underperforming division. In his mind, if they fell below what they knew was expected of them, it meant that no amount of talking or training he might do would be enough; they didn’t have the drive needed to keep them at the top.
Although I believe it is healthy to want to hire people who want to improve and commit to being the best, I believe some people take longer to progress than others. I don’t think the “one size fits all” approach works when it comes to hiring and training employees.
For example, our brokerage team at McShea regularly has some of the top-performing brokers in Maryland. Top to bottom, I feel we are among the best around. However, I’ve been at McShea for 26 years and have had the chance to see all of these folks at different stages of their professional development. With one exception we all struggled in the beginning as we learned our business. There were no “overnight sensations.”
Some of our brokers even came to us from other companies who hadn’t given them enough time to develop. Two of the top brokers in my business left other firms after achieving only limited success at their initial positions. At McShea, if you worked at it and stayed with it, they stayed with you. It was that simple.
All I can say is, it sure worked for me. And that’s a big part of why I’m at the same firm 26 years after I started in this business.
Have a great weekend,
Ro