Driven to Business with Eddie Mayfield

Donald Trump was not my first choice, and I didn’t vote for him in the Republican primary.  Nonetheless, he won my state of Georgia.

Like many others, when he first announced his candidacy, I thought it a joke.  In fact, I said to a number of people that he was just doing it for press attention, and would soon drop out.  Again, like many others, I was wrong.

After he got the nomination, I began to admire his frankness, and ability to inspire crowds.  I’ve long admired his business acumen. But, it seemed that every time I moved toward him, he would say something that pushed me back.   I’m talking about things like making fun of Carly Fiorina’s appearance, viciously attacking Ted Cruz’s wife, and  other examples.  These weren’t things a biased press said, they weren’t things he said decades ago,  these were things that I heard him say.

Perhaps the worst thing I ever heard him say was during a radio interview discussing his faith.  He was asked about repentance.  He said, in effect, that he couldn’t think of anything he’d done that required repentance.

As a Christian, I find that attitude almost unfathomable.  What kind of person thinks he never does wrong?

After he secured the nomination, I adopted an “I’ll hold my nose and vote” attitude.

I was actually surprised Hillary Clinton got the Democrat Party nomination.  I didn’t think Bernie Sanders would get it because socialism just will not stand up to scrutiny by anyone.  But, Clinton is such an obviously flawed standard bearer, that I thought the Democrats would run Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, or someone more palatable.

The Wikileaks emails have since shown that the fix was in for Clinton from the beginning, and that the primaries were really a coronation.

I’ve been convinced the Clintons were criminals for years.  The Whitewater deal, the White House Travel Office deal, Vince Foster, the Mark Rich pardon, and most recently the Clinton Foundation just to name a few.   But, even I was shocked at the depth of corruption revealed by Wikileaks regarding the Foundation.  This is banana republic stuff, and a less powerful person would be in prison for it.

On top of that, from what has been leaked from her staff, and security personnel, she’s disdaining and humiliating of underlings, untruthful, arrogant, and mean spirited. Trump,  often accused understandably of being arrogant, is however spoken highly of  by his underlings.

So again, here I am facing an election choice.  Some would say that the answer is to vote 3rd party, but the reality is, the choice is a binary one.   Either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will be our next president.  A vote for a third party, if the pollsters are correct, is in effect a net vote for Hillary.  It’s the same for not voting at all.

So, here I was prepared to do a “nose hold” vote for Trump.  But, that’s changed.

I’m a small business owner, and while not especially active in politics, have given a fair amount of money to political candidates, Pacs, and causes.   I became so annoyed at Republicans, at all levels, that I stopped doing anything more than an occasional small donation.

It’s frustrating to help elect someone promising to “fix” this or that, and then to be told after they’re elected that “fix” is impossible.  Obamacare is an example.   We elected a Republican majority in both houses, only to watch them agree to  fund Obamacare long term.  The same with doing something about the open borders; Republicans talked a good game, but in the end, did nothing. Trump is often accused of somehow destroying the Republican party, but from my perspective, he is the result of established Republicans lying to their constituents.   It’s really no different for many democrats who have been told their party is for the “little guy” only to discover that their party leaders are in bed with big business.  Many of them voiced the same frustration, hence the rise of the outsider Bernie Sanders.

For that reason, I was not enthusiastic about nominating another establishment presidential nominee.  I supported Ben Carson for the nomination.  He was intelligent, moral, and an outsider.  My wife and I have been fans of Dr. Carson for years, long before he ever considered politics.

But, for a variety of reasons, Trump won the nomination.  Carson has enthusiastically endorsed and supported Trump, and will, I hope have a place in a Trump administration.

The late Phyllis Schlafly’s endorsement of Trump was one of the best I read.  She makes the case that the Washington elite cadre (of both parties)  has grown so powerful and corrupt, that only a talented and  fearless executive like Trump can overturn it.  She referred to them as the “kingmakers.”  There are few people I admired more than Ms. Schlafly.

“Trump is the only hope to defeat the Kingmakers,” Schlafly told Breitbart resolutely. “Because everybody else will fall in line. The Kingmakers have so much money behind them.”

I’ve come to agree.  Trump is an imperfect messenger,  in some ways, a horribly imperfect one.  But, he is the only person in political life at the moment who can, in fact,  change anything.

He’s not the first imperfect man of the hour.  Teddy Roosevelt comes to mind.  He was selected by the power brokers as Vice President, so that he wouldn’t run for NY governor.  They thought it a good place to park this popular man they considered crazy.  Of course, then Mckinley was assassinated, and Teddy became a great and beloved president.

In the Old Testament the prophet Samson was an arrogant  brawler and consorter with prostitutes, who nonetheless rose to greatness.

Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Adams, and others of the founding fathers were very imperfect men that accomplished great and enduring things.  We idolize Lincoln today, but at the time, he was considered by many in the established political class as a joke.

I’ve come to believe that Donald Trump is the man of the hour.  His strengths, vision, and ability to lead are nowhere else to be found in the present political landscape.  This isn’t to discount his faults.  Trump claims to have renewed his faith in Jesus Christ.  That report is from James Dobson.  If that’s true, and I have no reason to doubt Dobson, then we still can’t expect perfection.  We can expect stumbles along the way.

I also think that we can see real progress in a federal government that has become an incestous cess pool of special interests and self preservation at the expense of  the citizenry.  He has also pledged to appoint conservatives to the courts, even  supplying a list of possible supreme court nominees.  That alone is reason enough to vote Trump.

And finally,

Democrat Evan Bayh said in an interview with the late Chuck Colson that none of us should expect politics to “save us.”  We will always be disappointed if we do.   He further said that politics in general is downstream of the culture.  Meaning that a corrupt culture will produce corrupt politics.   I think he’s correct.

Alexis de Tocqueville said many years ago that in a democracy, people get the government they deserve.  I think Bayh’s contention is really just a paraphrase of de Tocqueville.

If we as Americans elect the Clintons to high office, knowing for certain now given Wikileaks of their corruption, then we deserve to live in a corrupt nation.

Vote Trump, and do it enthusiastically.

Anyone that thinks they have nothing to learn about customer service, and is in a leadership position of any sort, in any organization- is foolish.

No organization holds a technical or market advantage very long, and the defining factor for growth is often customer service.

For small businesses and organizations  especially, this can be the great leveler when competing with a large company.   This program starts out by asking “what kind of a customer are you?”  Using that as a springboard, Eddie then uses both personal anecdotes and professional standards and research to discuss and examine the “how to’s” of good customer service.

Tune in Saturday morning,  at 11 AM on Atlanta’s Biz 1190 radio.  The program is streamed live on biz 1190.com and podcast on eddiemayfield.com

Driven to Business with Eddie Mayfield is heard every Saturday morning at 11 AM on WAFS, Atlanta’s Business Radio.   Tune in.

Simply the best business radio in Atlanta..  Driven to Business.. 

“I’ve come to see institutional decline like a staged disease.  Harder to detect but easier to cure in the early stages.  Easier to detect, but harder to cure in the later.” Jim Collins

When I first founded EMA, I would panic if we had a bad month. The panic wasn’t  completely unfounded, I had limited resources and  wouldn’t have survived too many bad ones.  Conversely, I would be almost giddy when we had a good month.  What I learned over time, was to control my emotions a bit, and keep a more even keel.

Almost every organization, even very healthy ones, experience downturns.  On the other hand, very unhealthy ones can have a temporary upturn.  The wisdom is knowing the difference between a blip and trend.

Author and business researcher Jim Collins wrote “How the Mighty Fall” in which he chronicled stages of business decline.

Collins suggests there are five stages to decline:

1. Hubris born of success
2. Undisciplined pursuit of more
3. Denial of risk and peril
4. Grasping for salvation
5. Capitulation to irrelevance or death

Honestly, the one that frightens me the most is number one, hubris (or arrogance) born of success.  “I/We are great because we do/know certain things,” as opposed to understanding WHY these things we do or know work for us.

I see this all the time in others, and to be honest, have seen it in myself.  All of us like to think highly of ourselves, and if we’ve experienced career or business success, it confirms our opinion.

It’s a recipe for disaster.  Arrogant people don’t learn, and the moment you stop paying attention to what’s going on in your organization, the market, and within yourself- you’ve taken the first step to failure.

I don’t accept president Obama’s “you didn’t build that” statement.  But, neither is it true that any of us achieve success entirely on our own.

I was fortunate early in my career to work for two incredible entrepreneurs that taught me not only the technicals of the electronic motor drive business, but allowed me to take a leadership role in a growing company.  They also put up with a lot of mistakes, and I’m forever grateful to them.

The undisciplined pursuit of more is another big problem.  Growth has ruined companies and the people that led them.  (See Grow or Die, is that true?)

Denial of risk and peril goes along with hubris.  “We’re a great company; our customers love us; our competition is inferior to us.”  Often said, without a shred of objective data to back that opinion up.

A number of years ago we landed a big job, in fact at that time, the biggest job we’d ever gotten.  It took a lot of our resources, but it was very profitable.  When that project ended about a year later, I began to have some nagging unease about our company.   We seemed to have lost our edge, but everyone was telling me different.

I hired an outside consultant to help, and an indepth and unemotional analysis confirmed my suspicions. We were losing ground in every area.  The large project had distracted me and allowed a number of unresolved issues to fester. We were in denial.  Fortunately, we got out of it.

When you find yourself blaming external forces for your problems, you’re in trouble. It’s empowering to take personal responsibility, and its the first step to resolution.   IF I am the problem, then I am the solution.

Many companies that find themselves in decline start grabbing at straws.  Hire a superstar, go after another market, begin supplying more products and services, can all be desperate attempts. And, the research indicates they rarely work.

Here’s some hints on avoiding decline:

First of all, stay humble and pay attention to your business. Never assume you deserve success; it has to be constantly  earned.  You MUST provide excellent services and products, and you must be friendly and accessible.

Be sure you have the right people in the right seats in your company.  This is a primary leadership responsibility.  Building a success culture, and instilling it in your people is your job.

Rather than trying new things, the path out of a decline is often returning to good leadership and business practices.  There’s a great story of a fast food company CEO who was hired to pull the company out of a terrible decline.  Prior to beginning his job he visited many of their stores.

At his first meeting, people were telling him the reasons for decline, ranging from changing consumer tastes to increased competition. He interrupted them and said, “the problem with this company is dirty bathrooms and surly employees, and we are going to fix that starting right now.”  The company did indeed turn around.  Never ignore the basics of your business; it’s easy to stray from them.

In a decline..  here are a  few steps to consider:

1. Put all emotion aside and deal with the scary truth.  This may mean getting some outside help. Don’t underestimate your own hubris.
2. Avoid the temptation to blame external factors. Accept responsibility.
3. Be diligent in rectifying systemic failures in your customer service or operations.
4. Do not grab at straws.  Hiring the competition’s best salesperson usually does not work.
5. Back to basics.  Why do customers use you? What’s an ideal customer look like?
6. Fight!  Most companies can,  in fact,  be turned around.

Eddie Mayfield

On Sunday evening, at 6  PM, choirs from Mountain Park and Snellville First Baptist will combine to lead a nostalgic service of traditional music at Mountain Park First Baptist Church in Stone Mountain.

Admission is free.   This will be a wonderful evening of music featuring both choir and audience singing of historical hymns.   Doors will open at 5:30.

Mountain Park FBC is located at 5485 Five Forks Trickum Road in Stone Mountain, GA.   This is near the intersection of Five Forks and Rockbridge Road.

The word “hymn” comes from the Greek word hymnos, which means songs of praise.   Per the New Testament Jesus and his disciples sang hymns together.   For a number of years, hymns primarily were the Psalms and other scriptures set to  music, but Martin Luther changed that with his classic “A Mighty Fortress is our God.”   He used scriptural principles, but not the literal scripture verses.   Although we hold this hymn in high regard today, at the time it was controversial.

Issac Watts created additional controversy with his hymns, but was successful in convincing churches in England to expand their music to include (at that time) modern hymns.   In the America’s, Charles Wesley played a big role in setting the tone of American hymns.

Church hymns do tend to reflect the times.  Hymns written during hard times often talk of heaven and rest.  There are hymns that are celebratory  in nature, hymns that are evangelical, hymns that explain doctrines, and hymns that are prayers.

It’s a marvelous art form, and the impact of hymns and music on the Church is hard to overstate.

Come and join us on November 6th, and enjoy a nostalgic time of worship and praise.

Everyone runs into negative people at times.  You know, the guys who always see the glass half empty.  The people who seem to suck all the energy out of a room when they enter.

The problem is negative people can sometimes be your more intelligent employees.  And, you do in fact need their input.  So how do you keep a workplace positive, and still remain realistic?

First of all, let’s talk about negativism for a moment. According to research, a baby will usually spot a frowning face in a crowd of smiling faces, and will focus on the frowning face.  I’m not sure we ever grow out of that.

In the Old Testament book of Numbers we find the story of Moses sending 12 spies into the promised land. The Israelites had been wandering through a barren land, and now they were getting ready to enter the lush valley of the Jordan.  A land promised to them by God.

The 12 spies returned with glowing tales of the fertility of the land, but they also reported that the inhabitants were big and fierce.  They had fortified cities and frankly, they terrified the spies.

All, that is except two, Joshua and Caleb, who acknowledged the size of the  challenge,  but said with God’s help, they could take it.

The response of the others is instructive.  The more they talked about the downside, the more negative they became.  They began to make irrational statements, even saying at one point that they would be better off dead.

The negative ones  became hostile to Joshua and Caleb, even threatening to stone them.   And finally, they descended into complete rebellion, and attempted to replace Moses and return to Egypt.

So, here’s what we learn:

• Negativism is contagious
• Negativism leads to irrational thought
• Negativism leads to hostility
• Negativism leads to rebellion

Peter Bregman, writing in the Harvard Business Review gave some advice for dealing with negativity.  Here it is:

• Don’t counter their negativity with your positivity

That seems counter intuitive, but it appears to the other person as argumentative.  People don’t like to be emotionally contradicted, and trying to convince them NOT to feel something, tends to make them feel it more stubbornly.

• Don’t counter their negativity with your negativity

Your negativity, if you try this, will only add fuel to the fire.  Avoid doing it.

• Understand how they feel and validate it. 

This is hard, but you are not agreeing with them, you’re simply showing that you understand how they feel.  Inc Magazine offered some good advice in this area.  “Inquire first, and advocate second.”  In other words, seek to understand why they feel the way they do.

• Find a place to agree with them. 

You do not have to fake it, and you don’t have to agree with everything they’re saying, but if you can, agree with some of it.  You can express, for instance, that you too have frustrations over the way some things are done.

• Find out what they’re positive about, and reinforce it.

 You are not trying to convince them to be positive, you’re simply giving attention whatever they are positive about.  Almost no one is negative about everything.  If they are in fact, completely negative, then make sure they see you supporting others who are positive.

This offers them concrete hope, because it’s based on the positive feelings they already have, rather than on feelings you think they should have.

Negativity DOES have to be dealt with, because it costs money.   Gallop says that negative and disengaged employees cost American businesses around $350 billion per year.

Gallop author Curt Coffman calls these actively disengaged negative employees “cave dwellers.”  C.A.V.E. meaning consistently against virtually everything.

Inc Magazine suggests the following:

• Strive for healthy conflict

Healthy conflict, goes back to the earlier suggestion, inquire first, and advocate second.  There can be opposing views, but as long as both sides are actively engaged in doing what’s in the organization’s best interest, the results can be positive.

This works in all organizations, including volunteer ones, but I think that profits can be a strong motivator for a business leader reticent to try this.  Negativity costs money; there’s no escaping that fact.  So deal with it.

• Hire positive people

That sounds almost trite doesn’t it?  But consider this: do you want a positive environment in your company?  Then don’t hire negative people to start with.

This doesn’t mean hiring yes men.  A healthy organization needs men and women that will express themselves.  But, you want people that overall, have a positive outlook on life; people that primarily look for solutions, not problems.

• Be completely transparent

When people aren’t given the whole story, they tend to make up the rest, and it’s usually more negative than the truth.  This as much as anything can lead to negativity and disengagement.

• Encourage innovation

This is all about letting go, and allowing people to use their creative talents.  You can counter negativity by giving people the tools to change the things that bother them the most.

• Allow fun

I am convinced that fun is greatly underrated in most organizations.  Think of ways to make your work environment fun, even crazy at times.

• Prune bad apples

Unfortunately, there comes a time, when a consistently negative employee has to be cut loose.  These are the grenade throwers, who don’t provide solutions, but simply exacerbate problems.  Give them a chance to change; help them.   But, if that fails let them go.

Your business’ future depends on it.

Eddie