The Eminem Method

Guess who's back, back again. Shady's back, tell a friend. Yes, all of us Gen X's were excited to see Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem's, surprise appearance at the Oscars in 2020. Full disclosure, I am a huge fan. I think, along with Taylor Swift, that Eminem is a musical genius. I am sure we can debate that topic, but for another blog post and a different place.

Seeing Slim Shady back on the stage reminded me of something I learned when I led human resources for FreshDirect. A mentor and board member and I were flipping burgers outside the FreshDirect building one day (we did this as a way to give back to the thousands of dedicated employees after their shifts). I was talking to him about the challenges we were having with recruiting. You see, the work was hard, the facility was refrigerated and cold, and the hours were late at night and into the morning. We had folks coming in to work for a few days to start and then leaving without a call or notice. Back then, we called it job abandonment, but it's now known as ghosting. We also were going through a patch of unionization efforts and had that challenge to deal with almost daily.

He asked me if I had ever seen the movie 8 Mile and was I an Eminem fan. With a peculiar look as having no idea where this conversation was going, I replied sure. He said, do you remember when he was going into the rap battle against Papa Doc? I said, of course, it was the most memorable part of the movie illustrated in his song "Lose Yourself." He said you need to use the Eminem Method. Of course, I continued to question where this was all going with the squinting of my eyes. He said instead of trying to rap and battle against his opponent by putting down his opponent, and he decided to call out his own weaknesses publicly and that helped him win the battle. He called out his shortcomings; he owned them and then publicly identified them all. His strategy of calling out his weaknesses left the other rapper with nothing that he could say about Eminem that he had not already recognized. He took away his whole rap battle.

So how does this apply to business and leadership? Stay with me...

In this rap battle, Marshall Mathers decides not to hide his weaknesses and realities, but instead, use them to his advantage. He took them away from Papa Doc so that he couldn't use them against him. We can do the same in business. We all strive to be the best place to work, but often we miss the mark, or the realities of our business force us into different directions. When this happens, don't hide, but call them out. Use them, like Eminem, and confront them in public. Be honest about the challenges of the job. For FreshDirect, it was hard work, it was at night, and it was VERY cold. We could never hide those things; they were always going to be a reality. Instead, we move interviews into the cold warehouse, we gave folks first-hand looks of the environment, and we were very clear on the hours and expectations of the job. We also said that because we were a startup, the opportunities to get promoted and earn more money were much faster than other companies. We also talked about the fact that we were disrupting a legacy industry to get folks excited too. In fact, we saw a 25% reduction in turnover in the first 6 months, which had a huge impact on our business. Having employees stay allowed us to deliver great products and services to our customers. Take away the arguments or obvious issues that aren't likely to change and use them. Be authentic, don't lie or hide them.

I now use this method for coaching leaders, too. I call it the Eminem Method. They typically look at me like I did my mentor at FreshDirect, with curiosity. I use it mostly because I think leaders get a kick out of a People Leader quoting Eminem. The way the Eminem Method works for leaders is especially helpful during difficult times, tough conversations, or business changes. We all look for frameworks or guidelines to help us through these situations. But, often, those frameworks are too complicated, and the humanity of the situation gets lost. In my Eminem Method, I try to put the leader in the shoes of the employee. What is the employee going to be thinking about these changes, the good and the bad? Then call those things out, don't pretend they don't exist. In fact, I suggest that they do the complete opposite, bring them to the surface, acknowledge them, and talk through them with the employee. Like Eminem, when he went on that stage, he knew what the other rapper was going to say about him, so he took it away. You can read the final rap battle here?online.?(note: a little Marvel geek out, the actor who played Papa Doc, Eminem's rap battle opponent, also played The Falcon in the Marvel series of movies)

So next time you have an awkward conversation, an organization or position change with your employees, try getting into their shoes to understand some of the things they are going through and the challenges they are going to identify. For example, when you talk about the automation of specific tasks, employees are going to worry about the loss of jobs. You have to be honest with them because we all know some jobs will be lost. Before they can, call it out. Yes, some jobs will be lost. The exciting part is that the tasks that most people don't want to deal with will be automated, allowing them to do more of the creative and strategic work.

We must use these challenges as a way to call out some things that may be difficult and talk through them with the employee. They will appreciate the empathy and honesty, plus you will officially be a practitioner of the Eminem Method and a potential future Rap God.