The truth about "labor shortages" and why it's hard to fill open positions.

WARNING: You may develop a higher level of awareness.

Read at your own risk. Reading content like this has been proven to make those who tend to make excuses and avoid taking responsibility feel extremely uncomfortable. My intent is not to offend. My intent is to provoke thought and raise awareness in effort to motivate and inspire struggling leaders to intentionally begin transforming themselves and the culture of their organization. You may want to buckle your seatbelt because this newsletter if filled with leadership truth. Leadership truth is like a surgeon’s scalpel, it may hurt. But, it’s meant to help, not to harm.

Struggling to fill positions? Blaming the "labor shortage" is just an EXCUSE! Watch below for a 3 minute explanation.

Stop the Excuses!

"EXCUSES, EXCUSES, EXCUSES...we all come fully loaded with an unlimited supply. We always seem to have as many as we need at any given time on any given day. Excuses can always be found on the tip of our tongues waiting to escape past our lips. I believe low impact leaders come loaded with a few extra in case they also need to make excuses for those who report to and/or follow them. Excuses won’t help you attract and retain top talent. However, excuses will make it hard to find people to fill open positions within your organization." ~ Mack Story

Leaders please STOP making EXCUSES.

Your team needs you to STOP making excuses and START taking responsibility.

As my wife Ria Story says, "You can make excuses, or you can make things happen. But, you can't make something happen while you're making excuses."

I often hear leaders across multiple industries as I travel and speak throughout the USA and beyond say, “We're struggling to find people because there’s a LABOR SHORTAGE in our industry.”

Let me be clear....That is an EXCUSE!

I'll help you validate my belief throughout the rest of this newsletter.

I NEVER hear those words spoken by high impact leaders who are taking responsibility, developing themselves and all of their team members (top to bottom), and have a track record of leading their organizations well.

I only hear those words spoken by leaders who don't know what they don't know about personal growth, leadership development, team building, and cultural transformation. These leaders aren't necessarily bad people. But, they are poor leaders. They don't realize they are the reason they, or leaders on their teams, struggle to fill open positions.

Why am I loading this newsletter with leadership truth? Because it's obvious to me that many leaders at all levels across the USA and beyond need to hear the truth. Even if they don't want to. Even if they disagree. Even if they would rather keep making excuses.

I learned a long time ago as a teenager, "If the truth hurts, it probably should."

When leaders justify their struggles to find people and blame the perceived labor shortage, they're doing nothing more than making excuses for their poor leadership without realizing it. However, most of the time they associate with like-minded leaders who agree with them and support their reasoning.

When two or more leaders believe a lie, that doesn't make it the truth.

As I've mentioned...too often, leaders don't know what they don't know. Unfortunately, there are some leaders that if they don't know, you can't tell them.

High impact leaders move beyond making excuses and justifying our circumstances and take full responsibility.

The Truth about the Labor Shortage

"No leader within an individual organization has the responsibility for filling jobs across the entire industry." ~ Mack Story

First of all. There may or may not be a labor shortage in your industry. Even if there is and everyone knows it, IT'S IRRELEVANT. It makes no difference for an individual organization.

Yet, many leaders speak as if they do, "My industry is experiencing a labor shortage. That's why WE (the individual organization) can't find people."

That's the lie that is repeated over and over and over by leaders within all industries.

An industry wide labor shortage is not the reason leaders in an individual company can't fill their open positions. There is no labor shortage for ANY single company no matter how big it is because every company has competitors.

YOUR competition is filled with an endless supply of skilled candidates that can fill your open positions, IF THEY WANT TO. There are likely hundreds if not thousands available. People turn in notices all the time. Why aren't the best and brightest working for your competitors turning in their notice so they can join your team?

Organizations outside your industry are also filled with candidates who can leave their industry and thrive in your industry. It has always happened. There are endless numbers of people available to fill your open positions within your industry and beyond your industry.

Leaders: Stop making excuses. Start leading!

"Those with a growth-mindset look for options and opportunities. Those with a fixed-mindset look for problems and excuses." ~ Ria Story

Leaders must make a mindset shift if they want to stop making excuses that aren't serving them or their teams.

This is the mindset shift leaders need to have if they want to start telling themselves the truth:

I lead one organization surrounded by many other organizations filled with people who can work in my organization. Why don't they want to join our team?

If people working in other organizations don’t want to work in your organization, that doesn’t mean there’s a labor shortage/problem. It means there is a leadership problem in your organization because your leadership team can't effectively lead/attract enough people to fill the open positions in your organization.

EVERYONE with or without a job (that’s 100% of the people) within your industry can be hired to work in your organization IF they have a desire to work in your organization.

Using the labor shortage or a low unemployment rate as a reason leaders can't fill positions is simply an excuse employers use when they aren’t able to attract people to their individual organizations.

The best organizations also have the best leaders who have people lined up waiting for an opening to join their team. They are attracting the best and brightest from their competition whenever they need them. Their competition may be experiencing a "labor shortage," but they aren’t.

The Questions We Ask Ourselves Matter!

The question leaders should be asking themselves, their leadership team, and their workforce isn’t, “Why can’t we find people?”

The question leaders should be asking themselves, their leadership team, and their workforce is, “Why don’t people outside of our organization want to work inside our organization?”

"A personal and organizational truth: Who we are is who we attract. If we ain’t much. We won’t attract much. It’s that simple. Be more. Attract more." ~ Mack Story

As the top leader, the question you must answer isn’t, "Can I create a high impact culture and build a high performance team that will ensure my organization becomes the employer of choice within my industry and in my area of operation?"

That’s easy to answer. Yes, you absolutely can. And, you should!

The harder question that only you can answer is, "Will I create a high impact culture and build a high performance team that will ensure my organization IS the employer of choice within my industry and in my area?"

I don’t know if you will, but time will reveal whether you do or whether you don't.

The determining factor will not be how much time, money, and intelligence you do or don't have. Those who say, "I would, but I don’t have the resources or the time." are simply making excuses for why they haven’t done what they know they should do.

The determining factor will be your character.

High impact leaders with a high degree of character will always find a way. They WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Low impact managers with a lower degree of character will always find an excuse. They will hope and wish for things to change. Hope is not a strategy.

"I never knew a person who was good at making excuses who was good at anything else." ~ Benjamin Franklin

If the truth hurts, it probably should.

Many low impact leaders will choose to be offended by the content of this newsletter. Those who choose to be offended are the ones who need to read this the most. Unfortunately, they’ll likely dismiss it because their too attached to making excuses and dodging responsibility. Instead of learning, they'll be defending.

Most low impact leaders have a mouth full of pride and ego that will always prevent them from swallowing a dose of leadership truth.

However, I’m inviting everyone to pause and think about the content I've shared. Those who do will likely be able to see the truth in what I’m saying...IF THEY WANT TO.

The truth about what's really preventing leaders from easily and effectively filling open positions is crystal clear to anyone with the ability to think intentionally and a willingness to take responsibility.

High impact leaders already know what I say is true. They’re already trying to build a team of high impact leaders and team players who can attract and retain the best of the best. And many leaders who have done it repeatedly are writing books, making videos, recording podcasts, and creating online courses to help other leaders learn how to do it themselves.

When it comes to creating a high impact culture, those who don’t make it happen will absolutely be left behind by those who do.

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” ~ Albert Einstein

Need help building a team that is capable of attracting and retaining top talent?

That's what we do!

Please reach out! I'm always open, but I'm not always available.

My cell is 334-728-4143. My email is [email protected]

“My first words are, GET SIGNED UP! This training is not, and I stress, not your everyday leadership seminar! I have never been a part of anything like it. After 30 years in technology and two years in Concrete Construction, I have attended dozens and sent hundreds to the so-called ‘Leadership-Training.’ I can tell you that while all of the courses, classes, webinars, and seminars, had good intentions, nothing can touch what Mack and Ria Story provide. I just wish I had it 20 years ago…I could go on-and-on…100% of the team that attended said that they were ‘blown-away, they did not see that conviction and passion coming.’ Many thanks, Mack and Ria!” ~ Sam McLamb, VP, CMP

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Mack Story spent many years in the blue-collar workforce, starting his career working as a front line machine shop operator. Later in his career, he logged over 11,000 hours leading hundreds of leaders and their teams through process improvement, leadership development, organizational change, and cultural transformation, both as an employee and as an independent consultant.

Ria Story started her career working as a waitress while earning her GED and going to community college at night. She pursued a career in the healthcare industry, eventually earning her MBA and serving as the Director of Corporate Compliance for a hospital. She now has over 20 years of experience in leadership and management.