{"id":9768,"date":"2009-02-02T14:24:31","date_gmt":"2009-02-02T14:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\/prosales\/article\/facing-the-fire_o"},"modified":"2009-02-02T14:24:31","modified_gmt":"2009-02-02T14:24:31","slug":"facing-the-fire_o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\/prosales\/business\/facing-the-fire_o\/","title":{"rendered":"Facing the Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\r \r <p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r <\/p>\r \r<\/div>\r<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\"><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r What tactics did Confederate general Robert E. Lee employ to inspire his troops to fight so successfully against a Union army that was better trained and better armed? How did coach Herb Brooks convince his team of relatively unknown college hockey players to believe they could beat the Russians in the 1980 Winter Olympics? How will you manage your sales, admin, and yard staffs to find success in the economic and housing recession?<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Perhaps more than any other time in your managerial career, your leadership and ability to motivate others are being put to the test. As revenues and profits drop, you likely have already taken steps to reduce costs, from layoffs or across-the-board salary cuts to shuttering an underperforming division. Such actions can depress, worry, and further burden the workforce that remains. Meanwhile, the dragon of economic doom remains outside your gates, still breathing fire. You need to manage thoughtfully what&#8217;s left of your operation and your work crew so that your yard can withstand the flames.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Your first step is to ditch the old ways of motivating workers, which frankly never proved effective in the long term. The traditional, top-down &#8220;carrot-and-stick&#8221; and &#8220;club-and-whip&#8221; approaches to getting subordinates to straighten up and fly right have been replaced by a &#8220;caring-and-supportive&#8221; model that is much more collusive and collective. Still, your role as a leader in setting expectations, recognizing accomplishments, and providing support is even more important than it was when you held the carrot and stick.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r This new-age style, designed for lasting success with a new and fundamentally different generation of workers, isn&#8217;t easy or quick. It takes constant action, time to implement and earn trust, an ever-positive attitude, and a sincere commitment to change the culture. The old ways are easier, but in this economic climate they&#8217;ll prove to be deadly to the business.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r And there&#8217;s no better time to take the leap. With your workforce honed in recent months from a bloated payroll, you presumably have a right-sized and skilled staff in place that will most likely respond to (and maybe welcome) change if it results in a new definition of success and sustains the company. You also have a smaller number of people to lead and time on your hands to set a new course.<\/p>\r<\/div> \r<!--nextpage--><div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\r \r <p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r <\/p>\r \r<\/div>\r<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\r <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">First Things First<\/h3><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r The first tenet of motivating workers is that they can only motivate themselves. Your job as a manager, then, is to provide a work environment that encourages, recognizes, and rewards the behavior you want and the performance expectations you&#8217;ve set. You also need to practice what you preach.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r &#8220;Good leadership is getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it,&#8221; says John Mehrmann, president of Executive Blueprints, a business practices consultant in Aliso Viejo, Calif. &#8220;A manager motivates his staff by getting them committed to the tasks that need to be done, not by forcing them.&#8221;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Inspiring that behavior is a process. It begins with honing in on what the business needs in terms of personnel per the customer base, product mix, sales volume, and spelling out expectations and standards. Then, you provide your employees with the tools to enable success\u2013and lead by example.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Many dealers already have pared down their payrolls and may conduct more layoffs, so the challenge is to allocate who&#8217;s left to fit the business and be very specific about their jobs (a written job description helps) and performance goals. However, that&#8217;s often a recipe for overburdening a pared-down staff, so calculated investments in training and technology to streamline the workload is essential\u2013and motivating. &#8220;Our job as managers is to support and grow the good values and motivation that an employee already brings to us,&#8221; says Tony Shepley, president of Shepley Wood Products, a three-location dealer in Hyannis, Mass.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Experts advocate a combination of regular inside training sessions about your products and services, outside research of the market and competition as well as general professional training classes, and industry seminars and networking opportunities to engage and motivate your team.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Setting goals is also essential, says Mehrmann. &#8220;It&#8217;s the job of a manager to make success possible,&#8221; he says, a method that extends from stating clear and measurable goals and expectations to empowering associates to make decisions\u2013and mistakes without reprimand\u2013while removing roadblocks. &#8220;Without that, incentives and rewards won&#8217;t work.&#8221;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Another step to motivating workers is knowing what they value\u2013be it salary, benefits, or something less tangible like job security or greater responsibility\u2013and determining that value on a case-by-case basis.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r &#8220;People are motivated by their unmet needs, and those needs differ from person to person,&#8221; says Ron Smith, a business management consultant and author in Knoxville, Tenn. &#8220;Find out what&#8217;s in it for them.&#8221; Often, Smith says, managers wrongly assume that what they value is the same as what employees value. So, for each employee, identify and prioritize a list of needs, from salary and benefits to participating in decisions, opportunities for growth, and company loyalty, among others (see &#8220;Maintainers vs. Motivators,&#8221; opposite page). Confirm and refine the list with each employee. This process not only instills motivation in itself by making it a collaborative process, it also sets a course for maintaining that motivation as needs are considered and met. &#8220;If managers misinterpret what is important to their employees, they&#8217;ll choose methods of motivation that are entirely off base,&#8221; says Smith.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Also included in the starter set of motivational methods is leading by example. &#8220;Managers who are positive create high-performance expectations,&#8221; says Smith. From simple actions such as arriving at work on time and treating customers respectfully to seeking out additional management training to finetune your skills, set the example for others to follow.<\/p>\r<\/div> \r<!--nextpage--><div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\r \r <p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r <\/p>\r \r<\/div>\r<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\r <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rifle or Shotgun?<\/h3><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Until July 2008, for the 30 years he had been in the LBM business, Shepley had never resorted to layoffs. But as business and revenue continued to drop off early in the year, he initiated staff reductions that eventually trimmed his payroll from 159 employees to 126.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Though the layoffs were tough, Shepley chose that route instead of making across-the-board pay cuts. &#8220;We recognized it was better to adjust our size to the volume of the business than do something that affected every employee,&#8221; he says. According to the global consulting firm Watson Wyatt, 23% of U.S. companies across all industries plan to lay off workers this year.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Such cuts are never easy, especially in what is usually a local business and family culture among LBM dealers. &#8220;It&#8217;s like putting a knife in my heart and turning it,&#8221; says Rick Baumgarten, president of Lee Lumber, an eight-location dealer serving Chicagoland that recently pared down its payroll, the first time the company ever made permanent workforce reductions. The next round, he said late last year, would cut workers with up to 17 years seniority. &#8220;We had to lay off people who had done nothing wrong other than getting caught in this miserable economy.&#8221;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Though right-sizing remains the prevailing way to reduce costs against a revenue drop, job cuts in 2007 and last year have left many companies with a core group of valued and productive employees, causing managers to seek alternatives to additional layoffs as the recession continues. Businesses trying to keep their best workers have used tactics including direct wage cuts, four-day work weeks, unpaid furloughs, voluntary unpaid vacation time, and halting bonuses or matching 401(k) contributions. Though experts warn that workers eventually will tire of sacrificing for a sinking ship, these cost-cutting alternatives appear to create loyalty among those who remain. They also spare the company the time and cost of hiring and training employees when the market recovers.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r On the other side of the ledger, some dealers are benefiting from a diverse array of products and services that hedge against slowdowns in new construction. Mark Graber, sales manager at Graber Post Buildings, a $29 million, single-location operation in Montgomery, Ind., says that keeping the company&#8217;s toes in several business lines, including metal roofing sales and installation, retail hardware, and trusses, has let it maintain its revenue levels during the recession. &#8220;If we were only in residential trusses, we&#8217;d be in trouble,&#8221; he says.<\/p>\r <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Inside Incentives<\/h3><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Experts argue about the benefits of incentives, particularly those doled out as salary increases, bonuses, higher commission rates, or &#8220;spiff&#8221; bucks toward personal purchases. Some swear by them as effective ways to recognize\u2013and thus motivate\u2013workers. Others consider them akin to treating a rocket scientist as a kindergartener, and quote studies that say money doesn&#8217;t motivate better or even steady performance. &#8220;I find that incentive systems don&#8217;t fix someone; they simply reinforce good people who do it right anyway,&#8221; says Shepley.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r The question of incentives, though, really gets back to a flexible style of management. &#8220;If an employee, usually a sales associate, sees value in a bonus or higher commission rates after achieving a certain goal, more so than a few extra days paid vacation, then that&#8217;s his or her motivator,&#8221; says Graham Weatherall, a business coach in Fort Worth, Texas. &#8220;Someone else on the team may value the vacation days or a higher level of authority.&#8221;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Financial incentives also may work if they are a new wrinkle for the company. Happily propelled by the housing boom of the first years of the decade, mostly from large production builders, the Stockton, Calif., location of Golden State Lumber has since seen new home-building activity in its market area drop 50% since 2007. &#8220;We used to be so loaded with orders that everything else fell to zero,&#8221; says sales manager Beau Nobmann. &#8220;Now, we have the opportunity to introduce some incentives.&#8221;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Nobmann and his counterparts at Golden State&#8217;s three other locations initiated a fourth quarter &#8220;game&#8221; to spur sales of specific product categories. In Stockton, for instance, the sales staff focused on moving hardware: those with the highest percentage, gross profit percentage, and total sales were eligible for a grand prize of an all-expenses-paid weekend for two to Las Vegas.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r And while the dealer scaled back its matching amount to employees&#8217; 401(k) retirement plans as a cost-saving measure, it also initiated a deferred compensation plan that puts a percentage of total revenue into a managed account should Golden State Lumber meet its bottom-line goals. &#8220;It&#8217;s part of our showing [employees] that they are part of the overall success and stability of the company,&#8221; says Nobmann, even if sales at his location are off. &#8220;They see themselves as contributing, and hopefully that&#8217;s a motivator.&#8221;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r Reward or not, sales guru Nicki Joy of Nicki Joy &#038; Associates in Johns Island, S.C., advises sales managers to set intermediate and shorter-term goals, including those not directly related to sales. &#8220;Maybe the goal is a second meeting or a demo pitch,&#8221; she says, which helps breed success and build momentum and confidence. &#8220;It also gives managers more ways to evaluate and recognize associates,&#8221; she says, while strengthening the sales process after it was allowed to soften in boom times.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r At Graber Post Buildings, though, bonuses and commissions\u2013in fact, any sort of extra financial incentive\u2013is not part of the motivational mix for employees. Located in an Amish community, the business enjoys what Graber describes as an enviable work ethic among its staff, and the owners see no reason to introduce sales incentives. &#8220;There is no future that will lead us there,&#8221; says Graber. &#8220;If you do a good job, we pay you a fair hourly rate.&#8221;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r The company does offer periodic (usually annual) wage raises to cover cost-of-living increases and recognize superior performance, and the owners may provide a surprise bonus now and then. But Graber says his workforce is primarily thankful to be working, which motivates the owners and managers to maintain a steady ship and foster that environment.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r &#8220;If you feel good about coming to work and doing your job, you&#8217;ll like working here,&#8221; says Graber. The company rewards that ethic by being flexible about personal time regarding family and vacations. &#8220;We don&#8217;t want to lose a good employee by being inflexible.&#8221;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r That kind of give and take is a trademark of a new management style that appeals to both longtime employees and a new, younger generation of workers that generally feels entitled to be included in company decisions and policy development\u2013and in turn gets motivated to perform. &#8220;We encourage our staff to bring ideas, and we try them with the attitude that the worst that can happen is that they don&#8217;t work and we have to start over,&#8221; says Shepley. &#8220;It&#8217;s not the end of the world, it&#8217;s just the next idea.&#8221;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r For the record, Robert E. Lee was a quiet leader, a master strategist whose men believed they were doing everything themselves. He motivated his troops by reminding them that the fate of &#8220;helpless others&#8221; depended on their actions. Herb Brooks, meanwhile, devised an innovative and relentless attacking style against the Russians \u2013and the rest of the world at the Olympics\u2013and built a team not of the best players, but of those he considered the right players for his vision.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\r How you and your management team choose to lead your business through your own version of adversity and challenges will likely earn you a place in the company&#8217;s history.<\/p>\r<\/div> \r","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What tactics did Confederate general Robert E. Lee employ to inspire his troops to fight so successfully against a Union army that was better trained and better armed? How did coach Herb Brooks convince his team of relatively unknown college hockey players to believe they could beat the Russians in the 1980 Winter Olympics? How [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"scheduledNewsletterDates":[],"_scheduled_newsletter_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"zonda_content_type_url_append":"_o","zonda_dfp_zone":"","zonda_exclude_recommended_contents":false,"zonda_exclude_most_popular":false,"zonda_exclude_tagged_results":false,"zonda_eyebrow":"","zonda_last_newsletter_date":"2099-12-31T23:59:59.999-05:00","zonda_original_url":"","zonda_pdf_version":0,"zonda_print_headline":"Facing the Fire","zonda_promo_abstract":"What tactics did Confederate general Robert E. Lee employ to inspire his troops to fight so successfully against a Union army that was better trained and better armed? How did coach Herb Brooks convince his team of relatively unknown college hockey players to believe they could beat the Russians in the 1980 Winter Olympics? How will you manage your sales, admin, and yard staffs to find success in the economic and housing recession?","zonda_promo_headline":"","zonda_promo_image":0,"zonda_subheadline":"In these dark ages, the survival of your business could well depend on how you lead the charge and motivate staffers. But beware: You can't use old tactics to get past this dragon."},"tags":[],"news_item_type":[780],"section_9":[11548],"subject":[30,573,67,2052,29,184,471,31],"organization":[78304],"award":[],"person":[4428],"product_type_9":[],"content-group":[],"event":[],"location":[],"state":[],"brand":[],"jlc-category":[],"year_tax":[],"sponsor":[],"coauthors":[689],"class_list":["post-9768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_item_type-feature","section_9-business","subject-business","subject-company-culture","subject-construction-management","subject-firing","subject-management","subject-sales","subject-value-engineering","subject-workforce","organization-golden-state-lumber","person-rich-binsacca"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.2 (Yoast SEO v28.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Facing the Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In these dark ages, the survival of your business could well depend on how you lead the charge and motivate staffers. 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But beware: You can&#039;t use old tactics to get past this dragon.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\/prosales\/business\/facing-the-fire_o\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ProSales Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-02T14:24:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\/prosales\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2009\/feature-facingthefire-tcm71-980300.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"793\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"11 minutes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"Rich Binsacca\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\\\/prosales\\\/business\\\/facing-the-fire_o#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\\\/prosales\\\/business\\\/facing-the-fire_o\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Facing the Fire\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-02-02T14:24:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\\\/prosales\\\/business\\\/facing-the-fire_o\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":2221,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\\\/prosales\\\/business\\\/facing-the-fire_o#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\\\/prosales\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2009\\\/feature-facingthefire-tcm71-980300.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\\\/prosales\\\/business\\\/facing-the-fire_o\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\\\/prosales\\\/business\\\/facing-the-fire_o\",\"name\":\"Facing the Fire\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\\\/prosales\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\\\/prosales\\\/business\\\/facing-the-fire_o#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\\\/prosales\\\/business\\\/facing-the-fire_o#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\\\/prosales\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2009\\\/feature-facingthefire-tcm71-980300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-02-02T14:24:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"In these dark ages, the survival of your business could well depend on how you lead the charge and motivate staffers. 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