The Perfect Employee

As management personnel, I have had a lot of recent conversation about employees and finding and retaining employees.   It’s hard to explain to hires what they are getting into.  Being part of a precast plant and small business is a different entity.  You aren't putting part A into part B, you aren't on an assembly line, your job is different everyday and the work is tough.  I push my employees hard and I expect perfection.  But my definition of perfection is different than most.  I don’t expect everything to go flawless, every product to come out perfect.  How do you define “perfect”?  Perfect is about your relationship with your family, your God and your co-workers.  Being able to be true to your family, true to your religion, and true to your co-workers is perfect.  I always tell my guys family comes first, than Dalmaray.  But when you come to work I expect them to leave nothing unturned to end the day saying there was not one more thing I could have done to be better.  Now it’s easy to relate this motivational speech to sports, but how does it apply to business.  To me business is about succeeding not only for me, for my company, but for my employees as well. It’s about being the best and employing the best. When I wake up every morning, it’s a new game, a new Championship, a new Super Bowl and I’m going to win.  Why do I feel this way?  Simple I have a legacy to carry on, this is my company.  I have more on my shoulders than employees, but I wish everyone would see what I see and feel how I feel.  It’s hard to change mindset, but I wish every day would start with this speech, start with this motivation.  I want people to stay motivated; I want everyone to know that I do everything I do, not for me, not for the company, but for everyone at Dalmaray, for the guy next to you and I want employees to feel that way to.  That’s what the perfect employee is.  I realize it is hard for the guy making the low wage to feel that way, but I think that if everyone looked at a job with honesty in their eyes and say I will do the best job possible and make this happen then we as a company would be perfect.  Eventually good things will happen and times will be better, but for now if we do everything we can to make the day easier on each other with truth and love we will move forward in unison and be perfect. 

-- I will not stop fighting and turning over the stones

Technology

Technology is something we all take for granted.  Technology exists all around us, yet for some technology is ignorance.  Technology can be a machine or a tool, but it also comes in the form of ideas, processes, and innovations.  It tends to be the ideas and processes that people have a hard time adjusting too.  When you see the latest and greatest tool at the hardware store it is easy to make the impulse buy and upgrade.  But when a person develops a new idea, it is hard sometimes to make that “impulse buy”.  Why?  Sometimes its risk, sometimes it’s the fact you can’t see the monetary gain, most of the time it’s the simple fact that it may change the way you have been doing things for years and years.  Is that bad to think that way no, there is the risk it will fail, but the other side of the coin is the technology succeeds and benefits are skyward.  I have found that in this industry some people aren’t investing in the technologies needed to take us as an industry to the next step.  There seems to be this stagnancy that most will blame it on not having the money to take risk.  Others will not want to shake the dice, but it was that dice rolling that built this country from the ground up.  So I really encourage those in the position to listen and “invest” in the new technologies.  They exist every day, but we are muting them out.  Take the time to unplug from the negativity in the news and tune into to something positive…FORWARD THINKING!!!  Everyone has thoughts every once in a while and those are the technologies that need to come out and no one should have fear of bringing these thoughts to the surface.  It is these thoughts that could save your company thousands of dollars or make your company thousands of dollars.  So please for the sake of the industry invest and stay hungry. 

You Learn Alot From Your Boys

One of my greatest releases from the daily grind is to sit back and watch movies with my sons Brady and Caleb.  I get excited every weekend when it’s too cold out or too rainy out because I know its movie day.  One of Brady’s favorite movies is Ratatouille, the story of a mouse who has acquired a special talent that makes him an effective chef in the kitchen just like his idol, famed chef Gusteau.  One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Remy, the mouse is talking with his father Django.  Remy and Django are arguing over life and death matters and meshing between rodent and human.  In front of a mouse trap store Django says to Remy. “Take a good long look, Remy.  This is what happens when a rat gets a little too uncomfortable around humans.  The world we live in belongs to the enemy, we must live carefully.  We look out for our own kind, Remy.  When all is said and done, we’re all we’ve got.  Remy replies, “No.” “What?” Says Django.  Remy mutters, “No. Dad I don’t believe it.  You’re telling me that the future is – can only be more of this (this being mice killed in traps)?” Django replies, “This is the way things are. You can’t change nature.”  Remy wittingly says, “Change is nature, Dad.  The part we can influence. And it starts when we decide.”  As Remy walks away Django says, “Where are you going?”  With a sparkle in his eye Remy turns and says, “With luck, forward.”  There is such a positive message in this conversation that maybe my sons don’t see, but I do and I hope they do one day.  Change is nature, but it only happens when we decide.  When we get off our asses and say I’m going to be better, I’m going to rebuild this, I’m going to write this and it’s going to be successful.  The motivation in that piece is so powerful, as buffered as it is in a Disney movie it’s still present.  I’ve been beaten down my whole life, told you can’t do that, no it will never work, you can’t do that.  You know what that does to me?  Motivates me, I love showing thet world that I don’t live to the standard, I make the standard.  That’s who I am and I hope my boys live this way too. 

            The last part of this piece where Remy says “With luck, forward” is a tremendous message for everyone.  I can’t stand being around negative backwards thinkers.  It drives me up the damn wall.  Think positive, generate ideas, and above all move forward.  The waters get murky from time to time, but if business was easy everyone would do it.  It’s hard at times, but creative thinking goes along way.  I encourage my people to bring up their thoughts; it is the only way we learn as an industry.  Owners don’t always have the best ideas.  Typically it’s the guys who do the day to day stuff every day.  Its pure ignorance of the owners to deny these people their God given right of change.  Listen, learn, and for Christ sake change.  Get out of the wheels and sprockets of history.  History is important, but it’s also a school subject.  Change isn’t.  We make change by what we do every day.  So do it and stay motivated. 

            So it’s been a blog of ranting and raving, but it’s time to change folks.  We live in a constantly changing world; let’s apply this to the way we think.  Live, learn, and listen.  Sometimes a little listening goes a long way both to the person listening and to the person speaking.