People follow Shepherds, not Peacocks

In that moment when I really needed someone to help me through it, I’m so glad you did nothing…. Said no one ever….

John 10:4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.

5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

It is from the New Testament and actually still rings true today.  What does an awful leader really cost you?  How can you quantify how much the bad leader takes you back.  In the short term it may seem more appealing, but in the long haul it is painful, costly, possibly terminal.

This is a 2 part story, one great, one less than optimal. You decide. 

Part 1

The Shepherd watches over his flock. The real Shepherd, cares for his sheep and his sheep know him.  How does that apply to business?  Is there a quantifiable way to know what a Good Shepherd does, and what a bad Peacock ultimately costs?

What does it mean to have his sheep know him?  And, after all of that how does a leader respond and react to the people in his Charge so that they know what it is they are asked to do.

Case Study 1: A President of a Trucking Company. For size purposes over 115 Drivers, with over 42 other staff in Dispatch, Operations, Office, Wearhouse, Mechanic Shop and Yard help. Over 30 million a year in commerce. Just over 150 people that count on him to be brilliant in what he does. To watch over them so they can do their part.  Everyone has their own job, their own responsibility to keep the company rolling along ( yes I get it, Rolling along/trucking company).  Each has their part, and he makes decisions in an office, away from many of the little tiny decisions that make the whole thing work, and in this way they are quite efficient.  He dresses the part, but isn’t aloof from them, he is one of them, yet has different responsibilities and carries those out quite well.  When the recession hit in ‘08 they survived, and everyone did their part to get through.  So for the most part your average Owner, CEO, Boss.  Where this changes.  A few years back they had just acquired a smaller trucking company in a neighboring state.  Four months into new ownership there had been a roll over on a mountain pass.  There they were, a moment of definition... a moment of choice... Does the CEO send a couple of people out to help and go back to bed, or does he jump in, drive 4.5 hours to help with the situation?  This particular owner tries to live the Motto he talks about in his monthly meetings with his employees. “Don’t tell me how much you know, show me how much you care.”  Let that sink in.  Another motto or slogan, there is “No I in team, and we do this and we do that as a Team”

This is a Defining moment: What happened?  He Climbed into a truck with his new sales guy, he drove the 4.5 hours to get there, and when he was almost there he said to his new sales guy, We will be judged by how hard we work. Let’s work with them tonight and SHOW them who we are.

 They transferred 44,000 lbs of Drilling mud over the next 4 hours.  The mud was in 30 Gallon Buckets, moving from one trailer to another so it could be salvaged and delivered. What did the Owner teach that night? How did he teach it?  He had not penciled in a rollover so he could show what it looked like.  It was who he was. It didn’t happen so he could show off. It was an actual moment of Him living his motto. Being what he said he was.  To make this expand better to business, this company has almost 0 -ZERO turnover. It isn’t part of what they do.  They may have a few guys retire each year, but they are not spending thousands to train for the same spot month after month and year after year. People know when he speaks. People listen, and by what he does they understand and CHOOSE to follow. They know the Shepherds voice and follow him.

What can you quantify here? Do they overspend on training new people? Do they constantly restart the employee process? They don’t , it isn’t part of what they do. It isn’t part of what the owner/manager is and does. It isn’t him, and the people that understand that (Those that hear him and know his voice) remain, and remain extremely loyal.  

Case Study 2:

A Peacock: Big, Bright, Looks amazing, makes lots of noise, and yet really does nothing?  They are critical of others. The Peacock is afraid that others may shine, so they puff their chests up bigger, and make louder noise.  Do you recognize this person? Have you seen them?  Do they shine bright in the spotlight? Say all the right things, great everyone just so, then when the bright lights are off, do they disappear when the work is to be done? People don’t follow that. They don’t get better, they don’t improve, intact improvement is seen as a challenge to the Peacock, and he gets even bigger feathers and makes more noise. 

Let see if you have seen this scenario before. 

It is the last day of the month, they need 9 more units to hit the Factory Goal and get a good amount of cash.  This could make or break the month.  It’s 8am, all the managers have been summoned to a meeting. (Yes I chose that word on purpose).  They arrive, they are greeted with about 20 minutes of “what the hell were you thinking last night” and then they moved inside to get a longer pep talk, which was mostly a long monologue filled with great “what I would do” quips that are shot at them like a machine gun that can’t shoot bullets fast enough.

Around 9 am the managers leave the pep talk,  Then they gather the sales people for another monolgue-a-thon!  “This is 4th down folks, we have one day to get 9-12 New Cars and SUV’s on the road.  We have hit our truck goal, thank you, but we need 9-12.  Who is going to sell what today?”  Mind you, the biggest day seen in the last few years was 12, so they have to match that just to hit the number.  After 9:45 and the second monologue is concluded, the salespeople all walk away not really having attached themselves to much of what was just said.  Lots of noise, lots of flash, the standard sell 25 today and you will get a fantastic spiff!  25, just double the biggest day in years.  Seems reasonable.  So, boom the gun goes off and the first 7 cars of the day were all trucks. All of that excitement and not one single car or SUV sells. 

Throughout the day there were requests made for help or assiatance. One manager in the group said to the GM, as he was walking around scowling at people, we are short on people, I will go down and help down on the floor, please take my desk and I’ll work out there. The GM retorted, “No, I’m air traffic control” “I won’t be doing that”.  This was an all hands on deck moment.  If the house was on fire then why wasn’t EVERYONE trying to work to put it out. Then 5 pm hits, still needing 9 more new cars and SUV’s, another moment for the Peacock to scowl at the employees, on the showroom floor, another angry look at everyone.  They didn’t have time for this, they, were deeply engaged in finding more deals. So Since time was short the Peacock called another meeting to bark more and make more noise to get these cars moved, we would fail if the cars are not sold.  Who has what, who has called where, then came the request from on of the managers.  Another round questions fired from a machine gun.  Another manager offered,   “I will call 4 to 1 with what you do” “Will you help us”?  The look came across the table, with a solid no, “I don’t do that.” SHOWing again, what the managers already knew, there was going to be no extra help. No team work. Just a lot of noise from a Pretty Bird. 

 It was 6 pm now, a little traction was going on.  Several frantic calls out to people who actually got those deals you hear about on the last day of the month and they hit it.  They got the last commitment at 9:48 and it was reported before the 9:59 cutoff point from the manufacturer. They only had to lose $5000 on the last deal to get it in before the deadline! The GM in this story was long gone.  He had a date at 7 and was far away from the store.  No engagement, no help, no extra hands to move a bucket of water closer to the burning house.  That was for someone else. A Peacock. 

When the moment arose over and over, the GM always deferred to non-engagement. Not only were his hands not willing to get dirty, you could not pry them out of his pockets. His employees do not know the shepherds voice, they cannot hear one. They do however hear the squeaking of a Peacock…HeYaaaaa. HeYaaaaa

Moral of the story:

There it was, did you see it. All the noise and flash in the world could not overcome this desire to not engage.  Some call it getting your hands dirty, others call it moving 44,000 lbs of drilling mud, some call it being side by side, shoulder to shoulder. 

Let’s look at some key components that maybe you didn’t consider here. Yes the auto industry has a higher turnover than the trucking business. In these two scenarios the are amazingly different.  The trucking manager has literally almost no turn over. He knows his employees, one driver had a mother pass away and he went to his employees funeral for a woman he never met, but he knew it was important to his driver.  The GM of the auto dealer had almost a 130% turnover in 2017 and a 200% turnover in 2018. So the question is what do people want to follow.  What is the cost to the dealer too retrain, reshuffle, hire, un-hire and spend all this time and personal capital because they hired a Peacock. How costly is 200% turnover? Is that a real question? Could someone really not know how much that costs them?

Are you  playing the long game. If you want this business to be passed down to the next generation and the one after that and so on, you cannot play the short game of burn people out and drive them into the dirt.  If you have employees, you are in the people business. People want a leader, they are craving a Shepherd, they will follow a shepherd and run through a wall for them.  Once the Peacock has burned everyone out and moved them along, you will be left with a wave of destruction that will take a long time to recover. 

Napoleon Hill said  "There are two forms of Leadership. The first, and by far the most effective, is LEADERSHIP BY CONSENT of, and with the sympathy of the followers. The second is LEADERSHIP BY FORCE, without the consent and sympathy of the followers.”

The true Leader gets his hands dirty and knows his flock.  He is willing and able to work shoulder to shoulder and hand to hand.  The greatest lessons in life come in little micro moments during these times.  The Peacock feels a great monologue should do the trick and everyone should love it and be happy.  He could not be farther from the truth.

A Peacock is good at 3 things.  1) Looks Good , 2) Makes noise, and 3) there aren’t three.... No one wants a peacock.

Change the path, engage, get involved and be the Shepherd your own flock needs.