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8/19/21 Journal Entry

I got pulled into and made a member of the executive team and now I feel like I’m under earning again. I was only making about $45,000 when I was at the $180 million per year large scale vegetable producer and shipping operation. I was casually brought in to serve on the executive team. There were about 800 people who worked there, and I was making so little salary, but had responsibilities of being on the weekly 3G meetings…The third generation of owners and their right-hand employees. I was Charles’s right hand man, but I don’t know what amount of money I could have received to feel like I was making enough.

It seems more like just an extension of the marketing business development group. It was more so today the casual way that it went down. There was no company wide announcement. It was just “you 5 people sitting around this conference room table….you guys are the executive team of WARREN.” I was thinking, really, me? I’m just the Business Development guy.

Would the random guy who would have filled my position if I wouldn’t have taken this job have been brought into this meeting? Am I just brought in because of my last name? It seems like it should be an honor. Like something that I should put on my resume and my LinkedIn profile. But it also feels like a double load of responsibility just got dropped on my lap…and no more pay. We are talking about new policies, procedures, hiring, firing, revenue goals, strategic planning, weekly meetings, quarterly meetings, off site meetings as a executive team….man, oh man. What if I say, I’m good, I’d rather not be on the team, I just want to do business development. That probably won’t go over very well. I struggle with the “You are in charge of our revenue number.” No pressure, ya know.

“Matt, every company I read about in these business development books say that we need a ‘Champion of Revenue’….You think you are that person?” Dad asked about 3 or 4 months into the job. “Oh Yeah,” I replied, not thinking too much about it but also, not wanting to disappoint or let his father down. Who wouldn’t say that?

Our homework is to read Chapter 1 in the Scaling Up book. It seems like it is mainly Revenue and Business Development. A question are we supposed to read this Chapter 1 homework on business hours or off business hours. Being in DA and tracking my time to the 15 minutes, I’m struggling if I would be reprimanded for reading it during work hours.

It seems like it is an extension of business development. Did he come up with this because everyone is not doing their billing goals.

Was July being a bad month the reason for starting this? Why is it that the first time I’m hearing about July not being a good month for billings on 8/19/21? We are not communicating the numbers to the billers and the people spending the money. If cashflow is tight, everyone needs to know about it.

Let’s also not forget that July 4^th, 2021, was on a Saturday, people took Saturday to Saturday off. If it was on a Wed, people would have worked a few days and not have taken the whole week off. And everyone was so grateful because they could go somewhere because this time last year, no one could go everywhere due to Covid.

Why does no one in the company know that we had a shitty July?

Putting up charts and graphs for experts. I believe we should be displaying the billing goals and charts. Maybe that is the 4^th attachment that I send out every Monday before the Monday morning Business Development Meeting. We don’t have to go over it, but everyone could be given the graphs to review and be shown how they are doing compared to their goal.  

One thing is, why am I doubting why I am in the meeting? I think I need some reinforcement in my value to the company. I have a feeling that this meeting is to push me to work harder.

Do they think I’m not working hard or are they not getting enough value from my work?

The crazy part is that just 10 days prior, we had a bi-monthly check up on our strategic goals with the same Rick and I was given so much praise for all we were doing, all we had accomplished and how on track we were. Nothing was brought up about people not hitting their goals.

When I got out of this meeting on Thursday, it was back to fear. Two totally different messages. We were not going over anything good that had been accomplished in that meeting. Very briefly were things brought up that had been accomplished and comments made about how far we had come.

Basically, I got brought into the strategic meeting with others who were already on the strategic team. Also, I’m confident that everyone else in the room, Valerie, Jennifer, Jeff and Phillips are all being compensated somehow based on a percentage of profits….but not me. There was a feeling that this is just a scaled-up Business Development meeting with stake holders. I’m not a stake holder. I’m just an employee at the company today.

Now, if someone wants to make me a stake holder or someone who has skin in the game, that is different. I’m not too excited about spinning about issues that are not mine. I show up, do my job and do it well, I believe. I like being held accountable, the best people in the industry do. But I must stop underearning and not speaking up for myself. My gut feels in knots about all of this today, on a Saturday morning as I am writing this. I have already shared about it on two recovery meetings, and about to share on it in a third meeting. Praying for willingness to dive deeper into what might be really going on here.

All this meeting seems like is merging HR and Business Development. There is so much fear in all of this, especially the name “Sustainability and Scalability for Warren”. It is all fear. Are they thinking, if we are not in all of this, we are going down? What if I say I’m not interested in it? Thanks, but no thanks. How would that go down.

I know that as owners and people getting a percentage of profit that there is a level of fear. I didn’t sign up for a fear-based position. I might can be talked into it, but I’m not so sure that I want to do that again. I’ve been at a job where I was afraid and the pressure was real, but made less money that what I was worth. This meeting seems like a way for Rick and Jeff to say…“let me teach the business development team some things that will help us get more billings.”

I can just hear people saying, “We have to get Matt and Jennifer to hold the biller’s feet to the fire.”

No, that I Jennifer’s job. My job is to make the phone ring. I have zero control over how some of the billers are under earning themselves.

Here are my notes from the meeting:

There are three categories of business sizes: Mice, Gazelles and Elephants. We are mice.

Mice– can be swatted by a cat; can change direction fast

Gazelles – Amazon, scaling up, systems and protocols are fast; quickly can retain talent; highly attractive for new talent; marketing dept should drive hiring 

Elephants– becoming a beurocratic failure. Don’t pivot quickly, awkward; a company could get so big that it can’t shift and ridden with policies

4 Foundations 1) People 2) Strategy 3) Execution 4) Cash

The goal is to hit gazelle status and sustain gazelle status without going to elephant status.

Use purpose statement vs mission statement

EXECUTION: Rockefeller Habits Checklist ™

1. The executive team is heathy and aligned.
   1. Team members understand each other’s differences, priorities, and styles (4/5)
   2. The team meets frequently (weekly is best) for strategic thinking – we don’t currently do that; I remember at WPRawl, the exec team met every Wednesday afternoon at 3pm
   3. The team participates in ongoing executive education (monthly recommended) – what does the team need to focus on; what are to grow in and how to grow together.
   4. The team is able to engage in constructive debates and all members feel comfortable participating. – we don’t but we are able
2. Everyone is aligned with the #1 thing that needs to be accomplished this quarter to move the company forward (All of these can be driven from the annual strategic planning meeting)
   1. The Critical Number is identified to move the company ahead this quarter. There is a number, but everyone doesn’t know it. Everyone has a monthly billing goal, we used to publish that and everyone would know where we stand; we don’t do that because we believe that it is a lagging indicator, if people had the jobs, they would bill them
   2. 3-5 Priorities (Rocks) that support the Critical Number are identified and ranked for the quarter – we have the rocks for BD Dept; which is the critical number? Billable hour number per week; making 5 client contacts per week; the critical number is the sustainable income;
      1. Plates
         1. Al – full plate, new certification, raise his rate; he has a preconceived mentality of what a case is worth; need a proper training program for pay rate; (we are giving engineers too much authority to the experts)  
         2. Tom- needs work, but no way to market him; get a copy of his contact from previous employer that prohibits us marketing him on social media; Matt has a whole mindmap on what we can and cannot do to market Tom
         3. Jennifer- needs work; running out of ideas for her to do for marketing; she produces blogs, but gets salary for management too; doesn’t track marketing hours because she thinks writing a blog is part of her salary.
         4. Phillips- needs more work, but is busy with more strategic stuff; hard to get blog content;
         5. Holecek- good, but could be busier; Top biller
         6. Chad – needs work
         7. George – got three big jobs recently, but needs more work; maxed out on blogs, although I’d like for him to keep going; Creating a ebook for him, Chad and Tom
         8. Steve- as full as he wants
         9. Roger- taking new job or two
         10. Jeff- seems maxed out, but runoff work is not rolling down to Chad like we planned. More content from Jeff would be great. Would love it if Aron could write blogs for him
         11. Aron- seems to be about 60-70% full of work most times; solely taking work from Jeff. Not my problem to market him.
   1. A Quarterly Theme and Celebration/Reward are announced to all employees
      1. Golden wrench and the spark plug
   2. Quarterly Theme/Critical number posted throughout the company and employees are aware of the progress
3. Communication rhythm is established and information moves through organization accurately and quickly (we don’t do any of these)
   1. All employees are in a daily huddle that lasts less than 15 mins
   2. All teams have a weekly meeting
   3. The executive and middle managers meet for a day of learning,
   4. Quarter and annually, the exec and middle manager meet offsight
4. Every facet of the organization has a person assigned with accountability for ensuring goals are met (accountability – is the person who give the account of what happened) (have to read the book and not sure how much this will apply to us)
   1. The Function Accountability Chart is completed (right people, doing the right things, right)
   2. Financial statements have a person assigned to each line item
   3. Each of the 4-9 processes on the Process Accountability Chart (three circles – inner self accountability – peer accountability – executive leader)
   4. Each 3-5 year Key Thrust/Capability has a corresponding expert on the Advisory Board if internal expertise doesn’t exist – we believe in just a one year out strategic plan, 3-5 years is just too much
5. Ongoing employee input is collected to identify obstacles and opportunities
   1. All execs have a Start/Stop/Keep conversation with at least one employee weekly.
   2. The insights from employee conversations are shared at the weekly executive team meeting
   3. Employee input about obstacles and opportunities is being collected weekly – yes
   4. A mid-management team is responsible for the process of closing the loop on all obstacles and opportunities  – yes
6. Reporting and analysis of customer feedback data is as frequent and accurate as financial data – direct phone contact, not a mailing postcard; we don’t have a process; if client does a deposition, we have no way know; 10-15 years ago, we would get calls about expert doing a poor job; we are not getting those today
   1. All exec have a 4Q conversation with at least one end user weekly
   2. The insights from customer conversations are shared at the weekly exec team meeting
   3. All employees are involving in collective customer data
   4. A mid-management team is responsible for the process of closing the loop on all customer feedback
7. Core Values and Purpose are “alive” in the organization
   1. Core Values are discovered, purpose is articulated, and both are known by all employees – no, everyone doesn’t know it
   2. All exec refer back to the Core Values and Purpose when giving praise or reprimands – not happening now
   3. HR processes and activities align with the Core Values and Purposes (hiring – yes, orientation – yes, appraisal – no, recognition- no)
   4. Actions are identified and implemented each quarter to strengthen the Core Values and Purpose in the organization
8. Employees can articulate the following key components of the company’s strategy accurately – how do you motivate a golf team? We are all going to state championship – If we hire A players, marketing is real easy; Young and Associates hired away key managers and leaders by paying big salaries; there is a constant struggle with experts seeing new hire experts as competition and a threat
   1. Big Hairy Audacious Goal- Progress is tracked and visible – excited to announce that we need to do this and roll it out in the annual strategic planning meeting
   2. Core Customer – Their profile in 25 words or less
   3. 3 Brand Promises – and the corresponding Brand Promise KPIs reported on weekly
   4. Elevator Pitch- A compelling response to the question “What does your company do?”
9. All employees can answer quantitatively whether they had a good day or week
   1. 1 or 2 Key Performance Indicators are reported on weekly for each role/person
   2. Each employee has 1 Critical Number that aligns with the company’s Critical Number for the quarter (clear line of sight)
   3. Each individual/team has 3-5 quarterly priorities/rocks that align with those of the company
   4. All exec have a coach or peer coach holding them accountable to behavior changes
10. The company’s plans and performance are visible to everyone – Wood Badge training and the things he did for two little beads; by everyone an apple watch for $450 per person; what gets measured and rewarded gets accomplished. Related it to activity and exercise
    1. A “situation room” is established for weekly meetings (physical or virtual)
    2. Core Values, Purpose and Priorities are posted throughout the company – Monthly Traffic control meetings will start back.
    3. Scoreboards are up everywhere displaying current progress on KPIs and Critical Numbers – we need to recognize the effort; not being able to meet the billable goals because the clients are not calling; the question is how do we get the phone to ring; we don’t have a defined and discrete set of things that if you do this, we get cases; our goal is to create a scratch tool that when one day someone gets an itch, they have the tools to scratch the itch
    4. There is a system in place for tracking and managing the cascading priorities and KPIs – no, we know blogs work, but the lag time is large.