Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: If you want more time, money, freedom, and have a business that's not reliant on you, then you're in the right place. Each week, Mark Creedon, along with some of the very best business minds in the world, will take you through simple, practical steps you can take to create the business you always wanted. From his own practical experience, Mark will show you how to work less, make more, and get the business you always wanted, the one that you deserve. Now, here's your host, one of Australia's most sought after business coaches, Mark Creedon.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Welcome to the latest edition of the Mastermind for Business podcast. I'm Mark Craig, your host. If you have a team, then you are 100% in the right place today. Because today we're going to be talking about culture and what culture really is in a business, what it means, how to develop it, how to make it better. Give you some examples what we're going to be working through in today's episode. Let's get that underway.
So we're talking about culture. As always, we've got nick in the chair again. Hello.
Good to have you back, mate.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: So, Nick, let's talk about culture. It's such a bandied around statement. Oh, we've got to have a great culture.
[00:01:38] Speaker C: I think it's a very overused word, isn't?
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I hate some of those overused words. When I'm interviewing people to work in our organization, I always say to them, what's your view on culture? I'm looking for a really good culture. And the question I always ask is, but what does that mean to you? What does a good culture mean to you? And I think that, for me, the definition of a good culture is when you have an alignment of values. Yes. So when the values of the people running the business and the values of the people working in the business are in alignment, then you've got a great culture.
So I'm going to go through some of the culture things that we do, and for our listeners, hopefully you can pick up some of these ideas and maybe you're already doing it. Maybe there's some things that you can tweak. Maybe there's some things that you actually need to change.
There's a couple of principles. The first one is when we're interviewing somebody, Nick, one of the things I always say is, look, in this office, we don't have a somebody.
Most offices have a somebody, right? Somebody who empties the bin or empties the dishwasher in the morning or fills up the kettle or whatever it might be somebody who sees that we're running low on milk and gets milk. We don't have a somebody in this office. In this office, that somebody is everybody. Now, the truth is we do have a receptionist. And shout out to Beck if you're listening. We do have a receptionist here in the Brisbane office. We do have a receptionist and Beck does look after things like milk and all that sort of stuff. But the principle remains the same and that is that it's actually everybody's responsibility.
You know, one of my pet hates, one of my pet hates is when you go into a kitchen of an office and you want to put something in the bin and you see somebody putting something in the bin and the bin is full. So all they do is just push it down a bit further or they just jam it into the bin and then try and close the lid as opposed to going, oh, well, that bin is full. I'm going to bag it up and take it out. Right. So for me, one of the things that. One of the great philosophies that we work on is that there is not a somebody. It's everybody's responsibility.
Because you spend more time. If you're talking about being in a physical office as opposed to being a remote worker, you spend more time with your coworkers than you do with your family in lots of ways. And hopefully you wouldn't do that at home. No. And if you do, then hopefully your partner gives you a good.
[00:04:20] Speaker C: Yeah, I may have been guilty of.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: It a couple of times, let's be honest. That look, right? Because it's just. It's lazy and it's disrespectful because it's disrespectful of. And you know what Tony Robbins says, know, never forget where you came from. The further you progress and the more money you make, use that money to free yourself up. And the example he uses, pay somebody to clean your toilet, but pay them well, right? Pay them well and respect them, because every job within an organization is important and every job contributes to the outcome for the business. Guideline number one is we have this nobody, nobody. There isn't a somebody.
Guideline number two is that it's something that my mate Mick says from australian special forces. He talks about, we leave no person in his world. We leave no man behind. Right. Dead or alive, we leave no man behind.
We have a very similar philosophy in our corporate group as well. We leave no person behind. So if somebody's struggling and, you know, they're struggling, whether it's a personal struggle or a professional struggle, then we get in and support them in every way we can. And it's everybody's responsibility from me as the CEO down through to the receptionist. For example, if we've got somebody who's clearly struggling. And it's amazing how support really improves the culture. When people see that they're actually getting that level of support, they start to feel better about themselves and better about the business they're working in.
[00:06:04] Speaker C: Yeah, 100%.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: So guideline number one, there isn't a somebody. Guideline number two, we leave no person behind. Guideline number three, I think, is to create an environment. I heard this quote, don't even know where I heard it now, but I love it. It's treat your team, train your team well enough that they could leave you treat them well enough that they don't want to.
Train your team well enough that they could leave you treat them well enough that they don't want to. So we believe in investing. I'm a huge believer in investing in our people.
Richard Branson once said, and Bob Ansett says that Branson got it from him, but Branson once said that if you're looking, know how you run a business with your people and how you create a culture, it's know people talk about, oh, we're a client first business or we're a customer focused business.
Branson turns it around and says, you actually have to be a people focused business and it's your people first.
So team one, customer two stakeholders three.
[00:07:09] Speaker C: Because if you have your team right and you have your team sorted out, then they're going to sort out the customers, aren't they?
[00:07:14] Speaker B: 100% right. So if you've got a really happy team who love working with you, love being part of the business, they're going to pass on that level of service to your customers and your customers are going to continue to do business with you and that's going to look after the stakeholders. So I've certainly consulted in my time with businesses where we've had to work to flip that around, where they were stakeholders first, customer second, team last. Yes, sure.
[00:07:44] Speaker C: There's plenty like that.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: Yeah. I remember consulting with a guy once and he said to me, I said, what do you do for your team? He went, well, what do you mean? I said, well, how do you thank them? How do you reward them? He said, well, they get paid, don't they? Yeah, they get paid. So hopefully there's nobody listening to this podcast that has that view of the world, but you want a roof over the head. Yeah, that's right. Aren't they great? They should be grateful.
[00:08:07] Speaker C: Thanks, mate.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: But you know what? If you are listening to this podcast and you're going, that's kind of how I have been thinking. Good news is you can teach old dogs new tricks. My best mate's a dog trainer. He tells me that all the time, you can teach old dogs new tricks. So now's the opportunity to make that change.
You were just sharing a story with me before off air where you were saying that you were working for this organization where they expected you to come in early and stay late.
And it wasn't that you weren't prepared to do that, but there was no basis around the expectation.
[00:08:49] Speaker C: It was just an expectation.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:52] Speaker C: And it was almost like an ultimatum of, well, if you want the job, if you want to keep the job, this is what's expected of you.
But that's no way to keep the employee, is it?
[00:09:06] Speaker B: No.
[00:09:07] Speaker C: And that's where the focus is. Their focus is, well, if they want a job, but it should be like, well, do we want good employees?
[00:09:13] Speaker B: Yeah, 100%. It's funny you say that, because one of the things we do in recruitment at the moment, my aim in recruitment is to have people walk out of an interview going, yes, I want to work at that place. Now, that doesn't mean it's all beer and skills, right? We'll talk a little bit about the importance of having fun. One of the terms that we use is we work hard and play hard, everybody chips in and works, but we also look after people and we have some fun and we enjoy ourselves as well. In that situation, the company that you worked for, where they wanted you to work really long hours, well beyond the hours they were paying you for, that would have been less of an issue if you'd felt like there was an alignment of values and that the culture was really good and it was a great place to be.
[00:10:04] Speaker C: I think one of the things, when we talk about culture as much as we say that's an overused word. One of the main things we talk about culture, and I think you would agree with me on this, is not only does it take time and effort and consistency to achieve the culture that you want, but the main thing it takes is it starts from the top, starts at the top.
You need to lead by example. And if the people that are giving you these directions that are telling you you need to stay back, you need to come in early, and this is what is expected of you. If the same thing is not expected of them, then why would you ever do it for them.
And it's the same in teams, in sports. I played a lot of footy.
In a footy team. If you're the coach or the captain and you're just barking orders, but you're not actually leading by example, no one is going to follow you. No one is going to want to go into the trenches with you. You have to lead by example to get people to follow you.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Simple as that. Yeah, you're right. I remember years ago working for a company where the expectation was that you got in early and you stayed late. And I did because I was forging a career. And I thought that's really where I wanted to be. But the boss would then roll in at like 930 in the morning and be gone at 04:00 in the afternoon and never turn up to any social events. And the truth is, those social events were only organized by us anyway. And I think the only social event they ever organized was Christmas, and then it was on the smell of an oily rag. I think you're 100% correct. You have to lead by example. Fish rots from the head down, right? Yes, fish rots from the head down 100%.
If we're talking about developing a great culture, I think a couple of things that we can look at the concept of not having a somebody. The other thing is, know you leave no person behind. The third thing, make sure that you are actually leading by example.
The other thing, I think, Nick, is to make sure that whilst we're all focused on getting the job done, that we're allowed to have some fun in the process, that there's a certain level of relaxation. Then the other thing, I think, is to understand the principle of give and take, which is a really huge thing for me. I'm a big fan of give and take. And when people talk about culture and values, it's really interesting. I was having a conversation with somebody the other day about values.
One of the things we do in our mastermind group a lot is talk about the values within a business. And sometimes you say to people, what are your core values in your business? And they'll run with things like honesty, integrity.
[00:12:34] Speaker C: They got it out of a textbook.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: Yeah, man. They're not values.
That's a given, right? That's a given.
I did a values exercise with an accounting firm, part of our mastermind group recently, and we started with those principles. But they're not principles. They're not principles. They're a given. I expect that my accountant is going to be honest. Yes, I expect that my accountant is going to have loads of integrity. I expect that that's not a value. No, but what is a value is the way you treat your clients and the way you treat your team and the way your team treats you and each other and the clients, they are the core values of the business.
So one of the things that we see within our group is that there's an element of give and take.
If somebody comes to me and says, I need to start late on Friday because I got to take first day of school or whatever it might be, which wouldn't be a Friday, obviously. First day of school, that's fine. Just go do what you need to do. And the thing that I find is that if you have that give and take, so you give and what, they will give back. Yes, maybe it's give and give, not give and take. Yeah, right. So they will give back. And what I hear a lot of business owners say, well, the problem with that, mark, is that they'll just take advantage of it. And the truth is, some people will.
[00:14:02] Speaker C: But that's how you get rid of.
[00:14:03] Speaker B: The ones that 100% who you want. So in the last episode, I was referring to the book jump. Was it jump, shift.
[00:14:10] Speaker C: Jump, shift.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: Here it is here by mocker Sherlock and Ellen Anderson. They've got this principle of culture called fiFo, which is fit in or f off. And what they're saying is that they develop these sorts of things, like the give and give mentality, so that if the person does take advantage of it, then they're not a fit, they're not a culture fit. So that concept of give and take. And I used an example with you just before. So we had some air conditioning going into one of the offices, and the aircon guys wanted to get in here at 07:00 in the morning.
And our receptionist was doing all of the coordinating and she said to me, they want to get in at 07:00 on Friday morning. I went, okay, no worries. Well, I'll be here, I'll be here. I'll unlock and let them in. And she went, no, don't be silly. I've already got it planned. I'll be here. Now, can I tell you, I hope there's no HR lawyers. Listen, we didn't pay her any overtime for that. We didn't do anything special for that, actually. We gave her some time off. I said to her, well, do you know what? If you're coming in at seven, then bug her off at 03:00 or 02:00 or whatever it is, honestly. And we didn't even check the time. Have you ever seen. You're too young to remember this, in fact, but you ever seen movies where people go to a job and clock in the old time card and you have to.
[00:15:22] Speaker C: I'm not too old, by the way. I used to do that.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: Did you?
And I think it's important. I was talking to one of our mastermind clients, and they're saying they do expect people to be on site at a certain time and off site at a certain time because there's liquidated damages claims and things like that. If they'd run over time in a contract, sure, that's still okay. But even in that, and that's an amazing company. But even in that company, whilst they do have that expectation, there's still this great element of give and take if you're late on a couple of days, but you can stay back or you can put in some extra effort, or you work through your lunch or whatever it might be, and their team do. And the ones that sort of take advantage of it really are the people that probably don't belong in that business in the long run.
[00:16:06] Speaker C: Yeah, 100%.
I think with that sort of stuff.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: Too, is we've just got to be realistic.
[00:16:12] Speaker C: You've got to be realistic and realize that people have lives outside of work. And if you want good employees, if you want your employees to be productive, if you want them to go that extra mile for you, it's not by telling them, it's by being flexible with them. It's by putting yourself in their shoes and realizing they are real people. They have things going on in their lives. And these days, if you don't come to the party on that, if you don't put yourself in their shoes, well, they will find someone who will.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And so they should 100%. It's about. I think we're talking about culture. We said at the start it's kind of an alignment of values. And I think there's a couple of little principles we spoke about around the concept of there isn't a somebody.
It's all for one on one for all. So you leave no person behind. It's the give and give, having some fun. I think they're all great principles in order to create the kind of culture that you want in your business. And you're right, Nick, because otherwise they will find someone who will give them that. So one of the things that I love to do is take a genuine interest in my people. So at the end of last year, we gave out some Visa cards. Everybody got a Visa card as a little Christmas gift. And in years gone by, what we've done is it's just been an envelope with the card in it with their name on it. And what I did this year was wrote a handwritten card to every employee.
But it wasn't just, hey, George, thanks for the year. Regards, Mark. It was, hey, George, hope you spend this well with Susie and the kids. Yes, specific and it was very specific and it took me a bit of time. And you might be listening to this podcast going, man, how am I going to do that? I got like 50 people working for me. Honestly, I did about 65 of those cards and it was no problem. I actually took them home, poured myself a glass of wine and sat down and just wrote them out.
[00:18:05] Speaker C: Did it in front of the telly.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I actually really enjoyed it.
I got a buzz out of it because I could imagine in my mind's eye people opening that and going, oh, well, not only did we get the $100 card, but we actually got like a little note from the boss going, yes. Hey, thank you. And acknowledging the family. What was really interesting, Nick, is the number of emails I got from team members in other cities saying, hey, Mark, thanks so much for the know.
Susie and I will hope you and Caroline have a great.
So it's, you've got to connect, you've got to take an think, you know.
[00:18:47] Speaker C: Showing, showing, know, it's once again going back, know, putting yourself in the shoes of the people that work for you. And one of the things that I say all the time in the video squad is to make, I get people to make a thank you video. Showing gratitude is actually a really rewarding experience for yourself. But it's a great way to build rapport. It's one of the best ways to build rapport with people and to have them on your side is by showing genuine gratitude. And it goes a long way, I guess, having people say, and no one really, I mean, some people do, but no one really, I guess, loves their boss. Everyone's going to have something to say about their boss at some point in time, right?
[00:19:27] Speaker B: No, I'm a man of the people. People love me.
[00:19:29] Speaker C: I'm sure there's a couple of things said behind the scenes, but I think if the majority of that is positive, then you're doing something right.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. And in some ways, what I always say is that people may not like some of the decisions I make, but if they respect me, yes, then they will accept them. So if you are a business owner with a team listening to this podcast right now. Nick's right. You're not going to get everybody to love you, but you are going to get people to respect you. But you have to earn that respect. And how you earn that respect is by developing culture, which is really what we're talking about here. So what are the simple things that you can do if you're in business? You go, all right, this is great, guys. This is a great theory. What are the things I can do? I think that really simple things. What Nick said before, fish rots from head down. So leading from the front, be the person that takes the bin out. Be the person that brings the milk in. Be the person that gets in before everybody. Be the person that leaves after everybody.
[00:20:25] Speaker C: And you were talking about values and morals within your business. Be in charge of those.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:29] Speaker C: The only way that you can be in charge of those is by leading from the top, is by doing those things, taking the rubbish out. Then when people see that, they'll see, oh, well, if the boss takes the rubbish out.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:20:38] Speaker C: Do it, too.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: And, you know, I've actually had conversations with staff. We had staff member here in Brisbane who just didn't get that, and he said to me, well, I'm not paid to take the bins out, but I take the bin out. Yeah, I don't get paid to take the bin out either, but I take the bin out.
[00:20:52] Speaker C: Someone has to do it.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Someone's got to do it. And so we should all be doing it. And before we get on to having fun, I just want to impress upon the listeners the great value of getting to know your people and taking a genuine interest on the podcast. Twice now, we've had Tim and Felix from Borac, and one of the things that those guys talk about all the time is that their team are like a family.
[00:21:15] Speaker C: Yeah, 100%.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: And the way you create that is by actually getting to know them and taking some interest in who they are and what's going on for them. Many, many years ago, I did some work with the guy by the name of Jack Butler. Some of the older listeners might remember Jack from Jack the slasher food barns, but Jack Butler was amazing. Jack had the ability.
He probably had a couple of hundred staff, but you could sit down with him and he would tell you everybody's name, their partner's name. I mean, Jack was so good. He knew the goddamn dog's name. He was just.
[00:21:45] Speaker C: All of the employees would have know he's the best bloke to work for.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: They loved him. They absolutely loved him. In fact, when he left the job that he was at before he started his own business, he was made redundant. And a vast number of the people that were working in that company walked out the door with him because they may not have always loved every decision he made, but they respected him so much because he took a genuine interest in them. So if you could walk away from this particular episode and change one thing in your business, please take a genuine interest in your people. Get to know them. And the more you get to know them, the more you spend time getting them, the more they're going to appreciate it.
Nick, one of the risks is what happens if I put all of this effort in and then they leave. I've wasted all that effort.
[00:22:36] Speaker C: Well, I don't think you have, because you can hold your head high knowing that you've set a standard, and then when the next person comes in, that standard is already set.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Right? Yeah, exactly. And I think the other thing, too, is I always say, what happens if you don't and they stay? Yeah, right. You go, what if I do this and they leave? Well, what if you don't do this and they stay? You're just going to have disgruntled people who are just. I never want somebody working for me that's just working for the dollar. Don't get me wrong. You got to live. You got to survive. I understand that, but I really want to know that we've got a culture that moves beyond just the dollars. And that's what you listening to this podcast in your business or professional practice, that's what your aim should be.
Last thing is to have some fun.
Now, fun doesn't have to be. And we've done a whole bunch of things. We've gone axe throwing, and we've done wine tasting, and we've done painting, sip and paint things where I was absolutely the worst. But you can do those things and they're great. But you don't even have to do that. You can just have some fun in the office. Yeah, of course.
One of the great things I think you can do if you are in an office environment is to actually break bread with your team.
Make sure that you get to have lunch with them.
[00:23:54] Speaker C: Yeah, I know I've said this before on the podcast, but it's not one of those things where you just ring up Domino's and order a bunch of pizzas and then leave the room.
[00:24:01] Speaker B: No, because that's what a lot of people do.
[00:24:03] Speaker C: Oh, well, I bought them lunch.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:24:06] Speaker C: That's good enough, right?
[00:24:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:08] Speaker C: You need to have lunch with them.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Because when you have lunch with them, that's where you'll find out what's going on in their life. And it's amazing around the lunchroom here how much I hear. Some of it I don't want to hear, quite frankly. There's dating stories and stuff on it I just don't want to hear. But there's great value in it. So, guys, in your business, you want to develop culture. You need to get an alignment of values. Think about the fact that you're prepared to lead from the front. Think about the fact that you leave no person behind. If somebody's struggling, you get in behind them. Make sure that you have fun and make sure you get to know your people. The more you do that, the more value you're going to see out of the people and the more that they will want to do for you and for the company.
[00:24:45] Speaker C: And the more likely they're going to come to you about things, isn't it?
[00:24:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:48] Speaker C: If there's rapport, then they're able to talk to you about their day to day things in life. Then they're going to be transparent, be able to come to you and talk to you about things that are important within the business.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Yeah, 100%. It's a really good point. Great point to close the show off with Nick. Thank you.
[00:25:00] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: Good to have you joining us, guys. That's a wrap on the latest edition for the Mastermind for Business podcast. If you're in small business or you know somebody in small business who would benefit from this, please share the podcast like the podcast subscribe because that helps other people to find us. And until we chat next, please make sure you spend time with those who matter most. We'll see you soon.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us on the Mastermind for Business podcast. If you're ready to have a business that you're not a slave to, check out metropolemastermind.com au or have a chat with Mark and the team at all the W's, see what's possible today.
