Your people are disengaged.

Lets fix it.

According to Gallop 68% of the American workforce is disengaged.

Two out of every three employees.

So next time you have a zoom with you and five others, know that four of them are just showing up, going through the motions, doing the absolute bare minimum to get by.

And who can blame them?

I sure don't.

I've been there.

I've had a bad boss.

I quietly quit on him.

He was horrible and had a huge ego and made it all about himself and his money.

I poured my heart into that thing, got zero recognition, and was severely underpaid.

He made me so mad. So, I quietly quit.

Looking back, I was young and dumb and should have just pushed through it -but emotions are real and when you get hurt you shut down.

You stop trying.

Quiet quitting a bad boss is normal.

LOTS of employees do that.

But what about the bosses that aren't bad?

What about the bosses that just don't know any better?

Maybe they were put into leadership without training? Maybe they are young. Maybe they just learned bad habits from their boss.

There are a lot of bosses out there who are just lost, and they need a better map.

So that's where we're gonna go this week.

I'm gonna share our map.

It took us about a decade.

But, we finally found it.

Lets get to work, because we owe it to our employees.

We have a cadence at Regal.

This is a four-step cadence.

Snow sleet, hail, tornados - it doesn't matter the weather, we hit our cadence.

It's called our 90 day cadence.

We learned this from our amazing coach - who taught us about about the power of living in a 90 day world. (This is 100% a Gino Wickman, EOS term!)

And it freaking works.

The 90 day cadence is basically this:

Dude, we gotta get together in person and talk about really important stuff every 90 days. Because if we don't, we'll start to separate. We'll start going in different directions. So no matter how crazy it is at the office or at home - we stop what we are doing and we come together. EVERY. FREAKING. 90. DAYS.

Engagement.

Think about date night.

Think of your significant other. I'll think of Alison.

Our lives are insane right now.

3 kids all under 8 years old.

Practices, dance, cheer, piano, co-op, business meetings, work travel, birthdays, carpool, dinners, doctors, dentists, etc.

I mean my goodness gracious its absurd.

Like dude, we have got to take time every once and a while to just step away from all this insane chaos and remember why we are here in the first place.

US.

If we don't get intentional about coming together every once and a while then we are going to naturally separate.

Just passing one another in the hall of our house.

It is no different with your employees.

What happens if we never sit down with them?

They disengage.

They don't know what's going on. They have no clue if they are doing a good job. We are just passing them in the hallways.

If we want to create engagement, we must take the time to sit with them every 90 days.

STEP 1

Quarterly Conversations.

Every single employee gets a one-on-one with their boss every 90 days.

And no, its not some lame conference room meeting with freaking forms and a damn checklist.

Its a genuine, authentic conversation that typically happens off site.

We take the time to just hang out. Talk. About whatever. Life, hobbies, work stuff - I mean the conversation can go anywhere it needs to go.

The point is not the gesture, it's the substance.

The best way to create a great company culture is to spend a lot of one-on-one time with your employees.

We talk about a few things in these quarterly conversations. What's working. What's not working. We talk about core values. We open it up both ways. Its not the boss talking to the employee. It's about talking with the employee. We are in this thing together. We are on the same team. Yah, I may have some hard things to talk about and you may have some frustrations with me or your role.

But lets freaking talk about it and get on the same page.

If we stay on this cadence "always and forever" with our employees, there's a good chance they will stay engaged.

But its not enough.

We still have to do more.

STEP 2

State of the Company Address

The Godfather of Company Health is Patrick Lencioni.

Please read all his books. They will help you in your culture journey.

One of my favorites of his is The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive.

The third obsession is "Over-Communicate Organizational Clarity."

Now, if you have ever been a manager or boss of any sort, and you want to implement change, you understand the importance of repetition.

You literally cannot repeat yourself enough.

Please understand this...what I am about to say in this next sentence changed my managerial life forever....

It takes SEVEN TIMES for your people to hear it ONCE.

Repeat yourself again and again - until you are blue in the freaking face.....AND YOU ARE HALF-WAY THERE!!!! hahahaha - I am not joking this is #FACTS

The reason why I am saying this.... we must over-communicate to our people through multiple mediums if we want impact and engagement.

That's why just quarterly conversations aren't enough.

So, what the heck is the State of the Company Address?

I travel around to each of our 8 locations, and we sit down together and just talk for two hours.

• It's always in person (we do not do this on zoom)
• It's extremely informal
• We do it during business hours (we literally lock the doors and turn off the phones)

I always start with Work Doesn't Have to Suck Stories. I talk about our purpose. Why we exist. Why what we are doing is so important for humanity. Etc.

I always start with this (as I do in our board meetings) - because this is the real reason why we do all the hard work. Always start with The Why. Always start with the heart.

But after that, I share where the company has been, where we are right now, and where we are going.

In past years I used to "present." Meaning I did all the talking. Well, a few years ago we scrapped that. Who the heck wants to hear me talk for 2 hours anyways. Could you imagine. I already talk enough.

Now, I sit back and let them talk. It's their state of the company anyway.

They share successes, lessons learned, and core value stories from the last 90 days. We go with the flow, and people open up. We share a lot of laughs, and sometimes tears. It's an extremely healthy thing that we do as a group.

Team.

Notice the repetition of mediums. Notice the prioritization.

Quarterly conversations = off site, face to face. One on ONE. Substance, not gesture.

SOCA (state of the company) = doors locked. phones off. in person. informal. real. authentic.

So here we have two completely different ways in which we engage our employees. We communicate exactly what's going on in the company. We share the numbers and if we suck or if we are doing well. We get real and give shout outs. Nothing is forced. No one has to talk.

But they all do.

Notice another thing - this is during business hours.

Our people see that they are more important than the numbers. I mean we literally close the doors and turn the phones off. Prioritizing them over our customers. We don't stay late and do this after hours. We don't come in early. We would never have our people to do that.

Multiple mediums.

Repetition.

Engagement.

When your boss cares about you. And wants you to be successful.

When your on a team that encourages a lot. And values one another.

When the company communicates. And shares pretty much everything.

You're gonna be pretty damn engaged.

STEP 3

Branch & Divisional leadership teams.

Let take a step back.

We run a decentralized company. What does this mean? Basically, each one of our divisions and branches is run autonomously. For example, the general manager of our branch in Miami is really the "CEO" of that business unit.

Our role on the executive leadership team is only to coach.

We would never tell our managers what to do.

That's just not how we run. That's not who we are.

They have to be empowered to make the decisions themselves.

ALL the decisions.

Let me make this very clear.

***When you empower, you empower all the way.***

This is very important to us (obviously) because we believe so much in people and empowerment.

So, as we were setting up our company architecturally, we knew we had to have Leadership Teams at the branch level that created their own yearly and quarterly goals. They created their own quarterly objectives and priorities.

It's their damn branch anyways. It must be them that make the decisions.

So, every single quarter our COO & VP of Supply Chain travel to each location in person, and mediate an in person off-site "quarterly."

Again, we run on EOS and so this is very much in the EOS framework.

But framework aside, it's the substance and prioritization that works - along with again, that 90 day cadence.

Just as individuals, teams have to get on the same page. We must stay aligned on the big stuff - why we are here and our values. So we come together and share stories.

We also must stay accountable to one another on the team. So, we review our results. How did we do? Where did we miss?

Then we set up new priorities for the next quarter.

During this 6-8 hour session there is so much really healthy team stuff.

There's conflict and arguing - most importantly, there's tons of communication.

Getting on the same page. Aligned.

Engaged.

See how all this stuff works together?

And again, notice the prioritization.

Offsite. During work hours. In person.

Our teams see that there is nothing more important than getting back on the same page and working on the business.

Together. As a team.

So powerful.

STEP 4

Branch Level Hang Sessions

Man, this may seem lame to some of ya'll, but we get together every quarter and hang outside of work.

It's not some lame required thing. You don't have to go.

But what we've realized is that when you do the three things above at a consistent cadence, people actually want to hang out.

Our divisions have done everything from Pickleball in Dallas to a Boat Cruise on Lake Austin.

It always changes. But what we've found is that getting away from the office and bringing family or spouses - or whatever - deepens the relationships.

Being known. Outside of just what you do at the office matters.

And when your known, you are more confident bringing your authentic self.

Which is really what we want in the workplace right?

Soo many people I know tell me they have to act like someone else at the office. They can't be themselves. They have to act all this certain way because of their boss or whatever, who knows.

But it's stupid. Because fake is stupid. So we need to do everything we can to break down the armor and get rid of the fake.

Bring your authentic self to the office.

Well, it really helps you do this when you are known.

And hanging out and shootin the crap and drinkin some beers or whatever outside of the office really helps people get to know one another.

If you've ever seen Ted Lasso, think back to all the moments he took the team away from the pitch. To spend time together. To hang. That had nothing to do with football.

We are all humans. We have lives and passions and those things will always be far more important than work.

So getting our butts away from the damn office together helps. A LOT.

That's our experience anyways.

Employees and teams that truly know each other?

Engaged.

68% of the American workforce is disengaged ya'll.

That's so freaking sad.

Work is not supposed to suck.

It can be fun. It can encourage us and fill our cup.

We can easily turn that number - but we must start leading differently.

Just like Ted Lasso said, " I don't care about wins and losses. I care about helping these guys be the best versions of themselves."

Amen.

When we prioritize the numbers and the results we get a rigid, heartless organization.

But.

When we prioritize our people we get soulfulness. We get heart.

We get engagement.

And if we have engagement, the numbers will follow.

So prioritize your people.

It works.