A couple of years ago I heard a work story most of us would refuse to believe as I was listening to the EntreLeadership Podcast hosted by Chris LuCurto. Chris interviewed Joe Scarlett – former CEO of Tractor Supply Company (TSC). Joe is now CEO of Scarlett Leadership Institute and is both very knowledgeable about and committed to developing the next generation of leaders.
Joe shared an interesting story. He said as they expanded TSC from 300 to over 1200 stores, they had to identify district managers. So they watched the store managers and found those who were the hardest working, obviously committed to their work – they were responsible, dedicated and most were working 7 days, 60-70 hours a week. So they promoted those managers to the district manager positions – and met with dismal success. While they continued to work 60-70 hours a week, they failed to reach set goals, and many burned out and left the company completely.
Alarmed, the TSC executives were determined to discover the reasons why these hard-working guys were ineffective as district managers.
Essentially, what they determined was this:
Those guys worked 60-70 hours a week because they were ineffective at communicating, delegating and managing.
The strategy was then changed – they looked for store managers who were working 5 days a week, who went home to their families in the evening and who seemed to be much more casual and at ease in the store positions. Those people had learned to communicate well, delegate well and manage the people working with them in the stores.
“The cars that are still in the parking lot at 7:00 PM are seldom the corporate heroes.
More likely, they’re unorganized, ineffective managers who simply
can’t get the job done in a timely manner.”
— Randall Tobias, CEO of Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals
So – would you be promoted at TSC? Are you organized and effective enough in whatever you do to go home at 5:00 and enjoy other parts of your life?
PS –
I had the privilege of joining Joe Scarlett for his monthly Scarlett Leadership Institute Lunch & Leadership FREE Conference Call. We discussed leadership principles from my newest book – Wisdom meets Passion – and ways to manage diverse generations of workers. Click here to listen to that free conference call. Managing the Generations
************************************
The hottest buzz around 48 Days right now is the excitement about The Ultimate Advantage Cruise coming up in February 2015. It’s not too early to book your cabin for a life-changing experience.
Dan, that’s great. I would sooner get up earlier to get things done at the office while my children still sleep than rob them of their dad time by staying at work late. I love the graphic, “I am not my job.”
Benjamin,
Yes there are always choices we can make – sounds like you’re making some good ones.
Dan,
This hits it on the head. I found even back in school that it is more important to be clear headed and focused than just throwing time at problems. What I find as a professional is that most people are so focused on the work details that they are bad at determining what is important and what is not. Also if you can delegate work to those under you, then you should. The reason is that that will free you up more time for you to work and think on what is important. This also trains the next generation of leaders on what is required for the next level.
Regards,
Kirk
Kirk – we’ve been so conditioned to think we should be rewarded for “time” invested when often it has little connection to “results.” As more and more companies recognize this they are beginning to put less value on the time people hang around the office. What TSC did saw is brilliant – and they had the guts to verify it in their actions.
Another example that you need to have a balanced life to be your best. Making deposits of success in more that one area is key.
I would really wonder what these burned out district managers wheel of life would look like! I’m guessing it would be pretty lopsided.
Peter – yep – when I see someone putting in 60-70 hours a week at work I can guarantee you their borrowing from success in some other areas of their lives.
It’s sad when many in the world would see someone in the world working 60-70hrs a week and think the opposite.
Dan, Great Post! This mentality is so prevalent in today’s corporate culture. I have seen it in full force in both companies I have worked for and clients we work with. At such companies you see lots of activity but productivity levels are very low. Being busy does not equal being effective!
It reminds me of the book your recommended, Thou Shall Prosper, by Daniel Lapin, where he discusses how the wage mentality that has taken over our culture. The wage mentality = trading hours for dollars. This is a good example of that thinking for me.
Thanks for sharing such a great real life example of this mindset.
Mark
I struggled with this for years at my company. The prevailing assumption was that I was working way too hard. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. I knew my strengths and those of my team. I played to everyone’s strong points and we were rewarded with explosive sales growth.
Then I was reprimanded for not working enough hours. I was told that if I was able to achieve the sales growth I did working 40 hours a week, then sales would be even higher if I worked 60 hours a week. How absurd is that?
The fact of the matter was, those above me only knew 60 hour work weeks (they called it “dedication”). Needless to say, I was passed over for several promotions.
Another reason for the manager to keep sane hours and balance in his or her life is that it sets the standard for those he manages . I have had people on my team who feel guilty going home unless I do. But when I have good boundaries, I help others to have them too. I can’t say I care for those who work for me…. their health, prosperity and family …. unless I model that sanity myself .
Thank you for this post. I work in a company in which appearances are everything, results are nothing. Many of the managers show up at 7 am, leave at 7 pm but spend hours yapping on their cellphones (personal calls), playing on Facebook and eBay and streaming sports on the computer during work hours. The actual work they do in 12 hours could be done by someone with the ability to organize and prioritize in 4. People like myself who are more goal and task oriented don’t fit the corporate culture because we won’t spend our lives at work, even though it’s acknowledged that we do our jobs well. However, because the car comes in at 7:55 and is gone by 5:05, we aren’t “company (wo)men.” Is it any wonder I want out – badly – even though I’m paid above market for my job???
Great post Dan! Sad to say that some companies still fall into the trap of looking for team members to have marathon days rather than shifting to a results focus.
Redneck Credit,
Find workers who can get 12 hours of work done in 8 and promote them. But its harder for bean counters to pick them out.
I recently took on a leadership role in my company. The CEO stopped in early on and we had quite a chat. One of the things he said to me was, it doesn’t matter how hard you work, what matters are results.
Initially, I was frustrated by the seemingly impossible to meet stretch goals. Everywhere i went in the organization, other leaders expressed their frustration as well. Not only was I frustrated but, working far too many hours as well.
As I continued to listen to the 48 Days podcast and began to listen to the Entre’ leadership podcast, it occurred to me, I can be part of the problem or part of the solution. I am being paid to find a way to get the job done. The negative energy is now absent.
So, I continued to team build, brainstorm ideas, allow others to shine while being part of my team and taking responsibility for those things that are problematic. I see the energy that brings to others, the more success we have, the more others have wanted to get on board. We are beginning to build bridges between different segments of the company that have not existed. No one has all of the answers. Recently a peer remarked, I like how we are working as a team with departments x and y instead of just saying the words. We had more silos than I thought and we really are breaking them down.
As far as balance, my wife and I were driving home after having dinner with friends. We talked about friends having some difficult times and we having had some difficult times not all that long ago, I used the terms consciously making many deposits into our relationship, she said, you are good at that.
I have learned much through the teachings of Dan, Dave Ramsey amongst others including reading Seth Godin’s blogs. It also occurs to me that if I worked as hard for myself as I do for others, life would take a different shape. A year ago I was exhausted and angry while thinking I would like to go back to my old job. Now, I wouldn’t even think of such a thing. We are picking up positive forward momentum and just getting started. There’s a long way to go but our direction is right on.
Thanks Dan
Very insightful. The best workers work hard on the right things. The key is “on the right things.”
Learning to to properly delegate is hard, we naturally have a hard time letting go.
I remember that episode. It changed how I was operating my business! It is so easy to glorify hard work in my own mind. Like as a business owner I am supposed to be worn out and exhausted. Thanks for the reminder this morning.
Thanks for relaying the story, Dan! Wow…I remember when I was a new retail manager and had no clue how to delegate. I was that person working way too many hours, and it was almost like I took pride in not going home when everyone else did. It took me a couple of years to discover my real managing skills and learn to delegate and use my expertise for things that only i could do, rather than doing jobs other people were better suited for. Such a great reminder to work smarter, not harder!
Elyssa,
It’s so easy to pride ourselves in working hard. Delegating effectively can feel makes us feel guilty if we haven’t learned to see the big picture.
I totally agree. When my mentor finally sat me down and laid out how much more successful I and my staff and whole store would be if I worked strategically instead of like a steamroller, I stopped feeling guilty and started thinking creatively!
Yikes. convicting!
Reminds me of the adage “Work smarter, not harder”…..Inherent in any job/career is hard work, but that doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice health, family, and fun for the sake of it. Great story.
All good comments. But from my own experience I must add: 1) I’s not only that you can’t figure out how to get your job done in roughly 40 hours (P.S. Isn’t that a union-developed standard ? I’m neither pro- or con- unions .. another discussion; just saying that the privilege of going home to your family before bedtime practically every day, and staying with them 2 additional days per week, is probably not the normative historical standard. We are blessed when we can do it, and ought to when we can) . It’s often that you’re not sure what ‘your job’ is because your superiors etc. don’t want you to have the luxury of feeling that you have completed it. They think that this way they can get more work out of you, or even more cynically, that their superiors will approve of all the hours they are getting out of their people. It’s true what someone said about appearances. It takes some serious political and self-awareness skills to overcome these challenges. (There are even some supposed gurus, Dan not included, who think it’s appropriate to cultivate this kind of, um, culture.) Also, many jobs have fuzzy and undefined responsibilities these days, and people have not necessarily learned how to deal with this; they had always thought they should just do extra good work, pay attention, and maybe reposition themselves from time to time. Have you heard the term from the 80’s or 90’s, “FUD” ? Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Create an environment in which all your real or potential competitors (which in a predatory culture means everyone) don’t know if they’re doing what they should be doing at any given moment .. so that you maintain the advantage, and can hopefully destroy anyone with the stroke of a few emails and documents if you choose to. We were told that we were all in intense competition with one another, not true colleagues. Every (especially multi-site) meeting was the Hunger Games. Your were supposed to volunteer for all sorts of extra projects, without having anywhere to bill your time. (Can we say free overtime here?_ I could say more. I actually don’t think that most people who work too much want to. They just haven’t figured out their alternatives. That’s why career/life planning folks who really understand can be lifesavers for others.
Patrick,
The things you describe are certainly still true – in companies that are less than optimal places to work. More and more we’re seeing companies that embrace balance and success in areas other than just “work.” And yes, I still struggle with doing too much myself – feeling that no one can do it quite as well as I can. It’s not a boss looking over my shoulder – it’s my own small thinking. Thanks for your input.
Tractor Supply may be an exception to this, but many corporate cultures place high value on appearances rather than on actual substance. My supervisor, for example, prides himself on coming in early and staying late. However, if you actually calculated the number of hours he works, it is less than 6 per day. He’s been caught time and again not following through on assignments, but he falls back on the “I work so HARD” mantra that he’s been preserved (altho’ he has been demoted). There are others in our organization that do the same, but are a little smarter about hiding their work product. And, like the Saturday Night Live character, the consensus among upper management seems to be “it’s not what you do, it’s whether you LOOK good.” (P.S. – I don’t. I get my job done in 6 hours and LEAVE. Poking the bear seems to be my specialty.)
Those corporate cultures are shrinking in influence as more and more discover the freeing power of valuing accomplishment over activity. Thanks for your input.
So true ! My current boss truly values more the time you spend in the office than the work you actually get done. Thus many employees are staying late while they don’ get anything done but browse social media or the Internet. I tried to point it out but it was useless so I’m starting to explore new opportunities.
Anne,
How sad – and yet that is still often true. I don’t pay anyone by the hour, only by the completed task or the results gained. I don’t care if someone starts at 5:30 AM or 10:00 if they get the job done. No meetings or time clocks – only really cool accomplishments in moving the company forward.
This is a very true reality, especially from my perspective in Corporate America. Without fail, all the folks that I have seen in my 20 year career that worked consistent overtime hours were inefficient at their jobs and spent more time “goofing” than working. Meanwhile, I have logged only a handful of overtime, never work weekends, and get to go home at 3:30p everyday.
William – here’s another quotation that relates to your comment:
“The cars that are still in the parking lot at 7:00 PM are seldom the corporate heroes. More likely, they’re unorganized, ineffective managers who simply can’t get the job done in a timely manner.” — Randall Tobias, CEO of Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals
What I have experienced in my 35 years working in the oil field is that the less experience less productive seem to be promoted into management positions. Looking back I see that my problem has been I spent to much time learning the work I do as well as I could thinking that experience would be a key to promotion, not so. When I first came into this type of work it was always the older experienced that were promoted into a position to enable them to share their experience with the newer field people. Now days it’s the younger inexperienced set that are getting the promotions into management leaving the older experienced in the field. I have been in the oil field for 35 years and my supervisor has three years experience and this has become the norm across the board. My supervisor attempts to instruct me on how and what to do in different aspects of my job, of which I learned before he was born, I act as though it’s a whole new concept. I’m really not discouraged about it but it is an interesting observation of how things have changed over the years, it is what it is.