Driven to Business with Eddie Mayfield

You don’t build a business..  you build people and they build a business Zig Ziglar

Everyone has the sordid experience of walking into a business where the employees obviously don’t want to be there.  You remember; you walk in, employees are either staring into space, or talking on the phone, or talking to each other, and refusing to acknowledge your presence much less try to serve you.  The term “motivated” doesn’t come to mind.

One  dictionary definition of motivated is the “state of being eager to work.”

You’ve probably had the opposite experience as well.  Where you were energetically greeted with a smile, and it was obvious they were happy you were there.

What kind of business or organization do you want to lead?  Because, in truth, it is up to you.

The Harvard Business Review published “Employee Motivation: A Powerful new Model” in their July-August edition of 2008.  They attempted, in a well researched article,  to “peek under the hood” of the human brain, and answer some questions about what actually motivates us.

The researchers listed four primary drivers of employee behavior:

1. The Drive to Acquire: (material goods, or intangibles such as social standing)
2. The Drive to Bond: (form meaningful connections with others)
3. The Drive to Comprehend: (satisfy innate curiosity about the world around us, and make sense of it)
4. Drive to Defend: (protect against external threats and promote justice)

We are all driven to acquire goods and or social standings that bolster our sense of well being.   We experience delight when this happens, and disappointment when it doesn’t.  Our assessment of this is relative; we always compare what we have with what others have.

The Drive to Bond applies not only to bonding with other people, but to organizations.  People enjoy feeling that they are part of a larger good.  This drive, when met, leads to positive emotions such as love and caring, and a boost in motivation when employees feel proud of belonging to the organization.  This is also why very negative feelings erupt when the institution betrays them.

The Drive to Comprehend means that we want to make sense of the world around us. We become frustrated when it does not, and invigorated when it does, especially by doing  by meaningful work.  Employees are demoralized by monotonous jobs and environments that appear senseless.

The Drive to Defend is because we naturally defend ourselves, our property, and our accomplishments.  We defend our family and friends, and our ideas and beliefs. At work, this often manifests itself as feelings of security and confidence.  This also explains why people resist change.

One thing that became very clear in their research, is that you can’t increase satisfying one drive at the expense of another.  It doesn’t work.  For instance, you can’t just pay more (drive to acquire) for boring meaningless work and expect long term motivated employees.  You have to deal with all of the drives.

“Why people work anyhow”, has been studied extensively.  In 1960 MIT professor, Douglas McGregor wrote that most managers had the following assumptions:

1. Humans dislike work and will avoid it if possible
2. Because of this, they must be coerced, controlled, directed, or threatened to force them to work.
3. The average person prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has little ambition, and values security above all else.

McGregor challenged those assumptions, and proposed these instead:

1. Work is as natural as play or rest to human beings
2. People will, on their own, exercise self direction and self control in service of objectives to which they are committed.
3. The average person learns, under proper conditions, to not only accept but seek additional responsibility.
4. A high degree of imagination, ingenuity, and creativity is widely distributed in the population.
5. Modern Industrial life under-utilizes the intellectual abilities of the average person.

McGregor’s concepts became the foundation for modern motivational techniques, and they remain so today.

Here’s some practical hints for motivating employees:

Give employees as much autonomy as possible.  No one likes being micro managed.

Engender a sense of ownership to employees.  When people begin referring to “my” company, and taking pride in it, you’ve come a long way.

Let everyone see the big picture, and in fact, as much as possible, let people see jobs from beginning to end.  The term is “task identity.”  When someone cannot see the end result of their work, they are much less motivated to work.

Involve staff in making decisions that affect them.  And avoid burdensome and unnecessary rules and regulations that stifle and annoy employees.

Communicate, communicate, communicate.  Be sure your folks know what is going on, and how their contributions contribute to the overall mission.

And perhaps most importantly..  care.  Employees do not like being used, they want to know you care for them as people, not cogs in your wheel.

As Einstein famously said, “I want to know God’s thoughts, the rest are details.”  You may find this surprising, but I feel the same way about studying human motivation, marketing, and leadership.  I think these studies are, in effect, trying to unravel God’s thoughts on our design.

I find myself surprised, and then, surprised that I’m surprised, to discover that good leadership, motivational, and business practices are the same concepts presented to us in the Bible and traditionally held in the Christian culture.

To list a few:

1. People have inherent value, so much so that God gave His son to pay for our shortcomings.
2. Since people   have value, we should value them.  And not for what they can do for us, but simply because of God.
3. People have another drive, not listed in the Harvard Business Review, although it is alluded to.  It’s knowing that we answer to a higher power, and are responsible to Him.
4. Understanding these concepts, and living them, gives life meaning and purpose, far beyond business dealings.

Eddie Mayfield

Driven to Business, hosted by Eddie Mayfield airs every Saturday morning at 11 on Atlanta’s Biz 1190.  The program is streamed live on biz1190.com and and podcast on eddiemayfield.com and itunes.  Simply the best business radio in Atlanta..  Driven to Business

Listen to Building Relationships on Driven to Business with Eddie Mayfield on Saturday, August 15th at 11 AM on 1190 AM or streaming on Biz 1190.com

Assuming that you have the chance to lie on a deathbed ( as Jerry Seinfeld quipped: “who on earth would get in one?“) and evaluate your life, I can assure you that it will be judged  by you, and everyone else, in terms of relationships.

Nothing is really more important.  Those relationships are with God, family, friends, and yes,  even business people.  In fact, in terms of business,  it is my contention that absolutely nothing is more important than developing long term relationships.

I recently had the opportunity to have dinner in Vienna Austria with a long time customer. Our company, EMA Inc. , has for years repaired, supplied, and serviced electronic motor drives.  Many years ago we got in a unit for repair, manufactured by a company we didn’t know in Austria.  Following that repair, we sent a fax (remember, this was years ago) to the company asking if they needed a North American service center.

We’ve done directly and indirectly over a million dollars in business with them since.  The Austrian company was recently purchased by a large multinational corporation, but due to our relationships there, we’re still doing, and in fact, expanding our business with them.

The gentleman I was dining with has been a major part of us getting that business, and we talked about our relationship and how it had grown and deepened over the years.  It’s a relationship that was built, and still stands, on trust.

Every good and profitable relationship is built on that.

We live in a seemingly digital impersonal world, but don’t ever believe that.  Malcomb Gladwell, in his book Tipping Point  makes the comment toward the end of the book that in his opinion, we are in fact re-entering  the age of word of mouth.  I’m not sure we ever left it, but think about yourself for a moment.

If you are looking for a place to eat lunch, which has the most influence on you?  An advertisement you saw, or the recommendation of a coworker you trust?  That “relationship” based referral far outweighs any advertisement.

It can also work against you.  An unhappy customer talking about your business can destroy any chance you have of doing business with anyone inside that person’s sphere of influence.

Here’s another thought..  it’s a lot more enjoyable to do business with people with whom you have a good relationship isn’t it?  And that’s true regardless of whether you are supplying the product or service, or consuming it.  It’s also the trick to long term business success.

It’s the secret to overcoming problems, and every business, including yours, will occasionally have problems.  John Maxwell talks about “Big Mo” or momentum.  If you have a great relationship with a customer, and a problem arises, then it tends to remain a small and contained problem.  On the other hand, if you have little or no relationship with that customer, that little problem will become a much bigger one.

So, how does one go about building long lasting, positive relationships?

Here’s a few ideas.

Jeffery Gitomer wrote a great little book called “The Little Black Book of Relationships” in which he talks about exactly that.  His number one rule..  it’s NOT about you. 

If you approach relationship building with the idea of what you can get out of it, the other person is going to think they’re being used, and no one, responds well to that.

Gitomer talks about giving value to people, John Maxwell talks about adding value to people, but they both mean the same thing-  Try to enrich people’s lives.  How do you do that?

Well, start off by being friendly and recognizing their accomplishments and skills.  I’m not talking about phony brown nosing, I’m talking about actually noticing what people do well, and how they do it.  When someone does a great presentation, instead of just applauding and walking to your car, seek them out and tell them how much you enjoyed it.  And make a habit of doing this whether or not that person is in a position to benefit you.  Gitomer is right, it’s NOT about you.

Become a resource to a customer, far beyond the service or product you provide.  If you see an interesting article about their business,  send it to them.   Offer to help  in ways that do not directly benefit you, but benefits them.

If you find a common interest, then use it to enhance the relationship.  Let’s say you play guitar, or golf, or are a big baseball fan.  Find those common points and build a relationship around it, even (and again) when it does not directly benefit you.

Above all..  be trustworthy.  If you make a promise .. KEEP IT at all costs. Do not fudge on the truth..  if your product isn’t great at some little aspect of the business, then tell them that.  Daniel Pink in “To Sell is Human” suggests that the best and most effective sales pitches are those that include something slightly negative about your product or service.   This is because trustworthy people don’t lie about their products and services.

Gitomer again, has a great line in which he asks you to think about a customer you WISH you had.  Then he says, the primary reason you don’t have that customer is that someone has a better relationship with them than you do.  Maybe a hard dose of medicine to swallow for some of us, but true nonetheless.

Believe me, your business life will get a lot easier once you’ve built meaningful and deep relationships with your customers and vendors.  So do it.

Eddie Mayfield

Driven to Business with Eddie Mayfield airs at 11 AM every Saturday on Atlanta’s business radio, Biz 1190 AM.  The show is streamed live on biz1190.com and is podcast on eddiemayfield.com and

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

Sean Clark is a management consultant specializing the hospitality industry.  He had years of experience as a chef prior to starting True Hospitality.   (www.truehospitality.org)

The restaurant business, especially in Atlanta, is a tough one, and the failure rate is high.  Sean’s perspective on why this is so is not only interesting to those of us that frequent restaurants, but contains valuable business insights for anyone in a business leadership position.

You’ll enjoy this program.  Tune in Saturday July 18th at 11 AM on 1190 AM.

Driven to Business, hosted by Eddie Mayfield, is heard every Saturday morning at 11 on Atlanta’s business radio, Biz1190 AM.

The show is streamed live on biz1190.com and podcast on eddiemayfield.com and itunes.

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

First of all, let’s clarify the terms. A “team” is people, individual people with their own frustrations, gifts, passions, and problems.  When you lead a team,  you are dealing with individual people, not some amorphous entity.

This is why you don’t lead with memos, emails, and blog posts.  You must deal in the messy reality of individual people.  Anyone aspiring to leadership must come to grips with that truth.

To begin with, you have to care.  In their well researched book on military leadership,  Five Star Leadership, Patrick Townsend and Joan Gephardt  interview a hardened marine corp gunnery sergeant about what he felt was the most necessary ingredient for being a good leader.  His answer was surprising- you have to love the people under you.  Hardly the answer you’d expect, but nonetheless, exactly correct. You have to care.

Jim Collins is famous for comparing a business to a bus. At first, one might think that the role of the leader is to drive the bus, but Collins says no; the role of the leader is to put the right people in the right seats on the bus.  Who is in what seat will determine where the bus goes.

The late Zig Ziglar said that you don’t build a business, you build people. Then the people build the business.

But how do you do that?

The first thing, as mentioned, is to care about the people you lead.  Don’t skip this step. For many aspiring leaders, it’s the hardest one.  Tim Cummins, a Christian leader here in Atlanta, said one of the mistakes young pastors make, is trying to build and grow a church from a computer.  It doesn’t work for them, and it won’t for you in your business.  You have to care about people, and that starts by engaging them.   Anyone that thinks this is easy has never done it.

Learn to trust.  Jim Belasko and Ralph Stayer wrote a great book some years ago- Flight of the Buffalo. They discuss a hunting technique used by buffalo hunters to simply shoot the dominant bull first.  The rest of the herd would then mill aimlessly around, and they could pick them off one by one.

The question this generates is: what is your team doing when you aren’t there?  Milling aimlessly around?  In many cases the answer is yes, and here’s why.  You’ve taught them to do it.

When we make it clear that we don’t trust the people we lead,   when we make it clear that mistakes are not tolerated, when we, in effect, punish creativity and energy, we will get lethargic, unmotivated team members.

Townsend and Gephardt talk about a class at a British military academy where after a leadership lecture, the instructor was asked: “Sir, what do you do if you are assigned to a crummy company?”  To which he replied, “if you have a crummy company, then you are a crummy leader.”

If you have a terrible team, then you are a terrible leader, period.  While that may sound harsh, in fact, it’s empowering.  IF I am the problem, then I am the solution. That mindset allows much clearer thinking and corrective actions, then blaming everyone else.

Get the right people in the right seats.  Encourage, encourage, encourage.  Don’t concentrate on failures, concentrate on solutions and successes.  People will make mistakes, and by the way, so do you!

Another great Zig Ziglar quote is that we judge others by their actions, but ourselves by our intentions.  Stop finding errors, and instead find opportunities.

No One ever arrives at being a great leader; it’s a journey. So get started.

To say that Glen Meakem has been a successful entrepreneur would be an understatement.  Glen was an early achiever in the technology boom, founding several high tech firms.  Among them were Kiva Systems- sold to Amazon, Hotpads-sold to Zillow, Shipwire-sold to Ingram Micro, and CloudMeter-sold to Splunk.

Glen is a venture capitalist, and co-founder of Freemarkets, which at its height, had a market cap of $13 billion.  In addition to all of this, Glen hosts a nationally syndicated radio program, “Glen Meakem on the weekend.”  Glen was a combat officer in the Gulf War, and is a Harvard MBA.

His latest venture is perhaps his most interesting.  Glen founded Forever Inc in 2012.  Forever is the world’s first and only permanent media storage and sharing company.  Visit Forever’s site HERE.   Forever is actually hosting a 3 day photo and scrapbooking extravaganza right here in the Buckhead area September 24-27.  You can read about that HERE.

Most of us use digital media to take pictures, videos, and generate documents.  We attempt to store them for safekeeping, perhaps on a DVD, hard drive, or even using the online storage sites.

A common and reasonable concern has been that the media we’re using to back things up might not be readable in a few years.  As a for instance, at one time our company backed up files on 7 1/4 inch floppy disks. We now have nothing that will read those disks.  There is almost no media any of us are using, that will not be replaced or fail at some point.

That has opened up a huge market for online backup, but there are issues.  Google, for instance, is a great company, and does a good job at storing your data online, but it has a downside.  Google’s free storage is limited, and they mine your data.  Under Google’s present plan, you can only store up to 16 MP resolution.  Larger files are compressed, and original documents are discarded. The question of exactly who owns those files once uploaded is an open question.  Facebook, for instance, to their credit, is very open that THEY own your photos once you upload them.

Glen founded Forever with a different mindset.  Their mission  is to back up your media and memories, guaranteed for your life plus 100 years.  To accomplish this, he founded the Forever Guarantee Fund, designed to grow over time like an endowment.  The majority of fees paid by Forever subscribers goes to this fund, to ensure that the media is preserved for generations.  It’s a unique and smart approach, much like most of Glen’s other business ideas.

Don’t miss this conversation with one of the most interesting businessmen you’ll ever hear.  Glen’s interview with Eddie airs at 11 AM, Saturday June 20th.

Driven to Business, hosted by Eddie Mayfield is heard every Saturday morning on Atlanta’s business radio, WAFS, 1190 AM.  The show is streamed live on biz1190.com and podcast on eddiemayfield.com and itunes.

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

Nicole Fallon wrote an article for Business News Daily listing 15 business ideas for 2015.  Not all of her ideas appeal to me, but it’s an interesting article, and  the topic of our discussion this week on Driven to Business.

In the first place, this is an exciting time to be an entrepreneur.  Opportunities that never before existed are out there to be seized.  At the same time, we’re in one of the most unstable times my generation has seen. Obamacare, the devaluation of currency, a huge increase in the dependent class, and the subsequent rise of class envy  has eroded much of the American dream.

Here’s how I look at that; no one can predict the future with certainty.  Even the New Testament warns against this in the book of James, saying: “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow”

So, we live until we die, and the worst thing anyone can do is hunker down in a hole and await the apocalypse. But all that being said.  I remain an optimist.

Here is a sampling  of Ms Fallon’s ideas..

• Kid Friendly Apps..  Reminds me of when Apple began supplying computers to elementary schools so kids would grow up liking Apple computers.  ANYTHING you can do that appeals to kids AND their parents is probably a good business idea.
• Freelancing..  figure out what a business manager hates to do, and learn to do it for them.  Outsourcing is huge, driven in part by businesses leery of adding employees due to regulation, insurance, and instability.
• Translator..  don’t laugh..  IF you are fluent in languages other than English (and are fluent in English) many businesses need you.  Heck, even if you don’t speak another language, you can still start this business and simply hire those that do.
• Traveling beauty and nail salon..  admittedly, not for me, but with an aging population still wanting to look good.  Mobil services like this can fly.

There are more, and we’ll talk about this and other topics Saturday at 11 on Driven to Business.

Driven to Business hosted by Eddie Mayfield is heard every Saturday morning on Atlanta’s Business Radio..  BIZ1190.  The show is streamed live on biz1190.com and podcast on eddiemayfield.com and itunes.

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

Major league hitters sometimes go into what’s described as a “slump.”  The time honored advice-  is to  “bat your way out of it.”  That’s actually sound coaching, because slumps get worse when you stop swinging the bat.

It’s the same for us in business; the worst thing you can do is resign yourself to being in a slump, because just like the batter, it will become a self fulfilling prophesy.

One of the temptations is to think that the business environment in which we live today is somehow, not the norm.  Here’s a news flash..  it is!  Accept that, and learn to be successful in the new normal.

Here’s a couple of quick ideas to help you swing your bat.

Play the paradigm game:  It goes like this..  gather your team around you and ask “what is impossible to do today, that if it were possible, would make a substantial positive impact on our business?

Let everyone run pretty wild with this; after all, you’re talking about the impossible right?  Write the answers down on a notepad or whiteboard.   If necessary, trim the impossible thoughts down to two or three.

Then ask a harder question..   ” is there any part of the impossible situation that actually could be possible?”  Here’s a quick example:  Let’s say your lunch restaurant would do incredible business IF you could serve everyone their meal under ten minutes.  But, that’s impossible because it takes longer than that to cook much of the food.

But, boring deeper, what food could be prepared in less than ten minutes?  And, would there be a market for having a “quick serve” menu that people could order from if they were in a hurry?

Maybe yes, maybe no, but these kind of exercises put energy and creativity to work for you.

Here’s another idea..

Take a look at your customer list with your team, and spend some time talking about who actually buys from you.  Then consider what that same person might be buying from someone else, that you could supply at a profit.

It costs a lot less money and is a much easier sales effort to sell additional products or services to people with whom you already have a relationship than it does to prospect for new ones.

Here’s one more..

Brainstorm about how you can “add value” to your customers and prospects. 

Do you have expertise that would be of value to them, even if its not directly related to what you sell and service?  IF so, then offer “lunch and learns” (or webinars)  and add the value of your expertise to them at no cost.

This allows you to earn the right to their business, and puts you in a much better position than your competitors who are simply trying to sell them something.  Remember the adage, people love to buy, but hate being sold.  Add value to your customers and prospects

That’s this week’s discussion on Driven to Business.  Tune in Saturday at 11.

Driven to Business with Eddie Mayfield  airs each Saturday at 11 AM on Atlanta’s Biz 1190 AM.  The show is podcast on eddiemayfield.com and itunes, and streams live on biz1190.com

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

Rich Russakoff is an internationally acclaimed speaker, business consultant, and coach.  Rich’s website is www.coachtothebest.com .

He is the author of ”The Bible of Bank Financing” and a current contributor to CBS MoneyWatch, blogging on topics of interest to CEOs who wish to deliver more to their own bottom line.

I’ve known Rich for many years;  he was instrumental in coaching and consulting with me during the formative years of EMA Inc.

You’ll not want to miss the reprise of this lively discussion ranging from leadership practices, to business management.  In fact, the discussion was so good, we’re doing a part one and part two.  This week’s program is part one.

If you’re in a leadership role in any sized business, you’ll find this helpful and informative.  It would be a good idea to have a notebook handy to jot down ideas that could help you transform your business.

And.. on top of everything else, it’s a fun program that will make you smile as you are encouraged to expand your business thinking and horizons.

You can email Rich at rich@coachtothebest.com

Eddie Mayfield

Driven to Business, hosted by Eddie Mayfield is heard every Saturday morning on Atlanta’s Business radio, WAFS, Biz 1190 AM.  The program is streamed live on biz1190.com and podcast on eddiemayfield.com and itunes.  Subscribe to us on Itunes.

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

Easy to forget that the legal is business, is..  well, a business.   Patrick Norris is the Managing Partner at the Atlanta Law Group, where he oversees the firm’s corporate and estate planning groups. (hit the links for contact info)

People, in general, have a love hate relationship with lawyers. Patrick has a great sense of humor, and he and Eddie disuss this and other facets of running a small but highly regarding legal firm.   Think customer service doesn’t matter to legal clients?  Think again.

Think that the internet and other technologies hasn’t affected how they do business, how they find clients, and how they serve them?  Again..  think again.

You’ll find this an interesting and enlightening discussion.  Patrick appears on Driven to Business Saturday, May 16th at 11 AM.  Tune in!

Driven to Business, hosted by Eddie Mayfield, is heard each week at 11 AM on Atlanta’s business radio, Biz 1190 AM.  The program is streamed live on Biz1190.com and podcast on Eddiemayfield.com and Itunes.  

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

Matt is the director of marketing for Vacation Myrtle Beach.  Did you know that Myrtle Beach is the third most popular vacation destination in the country after Las Vegas and Orlando?  You can find Matt at www.vacationmyrtlebeach.com . 

The vacation rental business is hot, and Matt is in the midst of it.   Per Matt, many vacation properties are now owned by individuals and rented;  these developments are planned that way from construction.  People choose their vacation destinations in a variety of ways, and people that market destinations such as Matt have to be atop of these decisions.

It’s a great interview.  Matt is on Driven to Business Saturday May 9.  Don’t miss it!

Driven to Business, hosted by Eddie Mayfield, is heard every Saturday at 11 AM on Atlanta’s business radio, WAFS, Biz 1190.  The show is streamed live on biz1190.com and podcast on eddiemayfield.com and Itunes.

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