Dave Ramsey (23:31)
I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is the Entree Leadership podcast. You guys know I pick on corporate America all the time. I can't stand corporate America. And just as a reminder, corporate America is not the size of a company and it's not the fact that they're publicly traded or not, although that sometimes does influence it. Corporate America is a mindset and it could be in a small business or a large business and big businesses can be led well and run well, and then they don't fall under what I call corporate America. Because corporate America for me is an insult I am laying out there towards some company. You got me. But there's companies that do very, very, very cool things. Like I love that Amazon called their people back to work and the what that CEO did was very cool. The way he handled that and the memos that he put out and the whining that he endured and the negative articles he endured from the lefties. Oh, they're making people work from work. Oh my God. So we defended him. And even though Amazon's obviously a hu here's another huge company that this is pretty cool. Home Depot. This is from Forbes is implementing a new policy aimed at bridging the gap between corporate and retail operations. Starting in the fourth quarter of 2024, all corporate employees, including senior management and remote workers, da da da da da. Will be required to complete an eight hour shift at one of the company's retail stores every quarter. You have to work four days a year in the store to inform you how things work. Listen, this is cool. Bloomberg has reported this, citing an internal memo from Home Depot CEO Ted Decker. Way to go, Ted. This decision aims to bridge the gap between the corporate office and the retail floor. The intention is to ensure that all employees, regardless of their position, understand the challenges and daily operations faced by store workers, thereby fostering empathy, better decision making and a more cohesive company culture. Brilliant. We need to stay connected to the core of our business so we can truly understand the challenges of opportunities of our store associates face every day, Decker said in a note to the staff. Because people, when people sit in the ivory tower and never come out and visit the real people. They lose their soul. They become bureaucrats. The worst word you could ever call anyone. And then corporate starts coming up with really asinine ideas for the real people out there that are doing the real work. And they look at corporate with this sideways German shepherd look, like you people are morons. Because corporate has become disconnected from what's known as the customer, which is where corporate gets paid from, by the way. I love this. This is me injecting into Ted Decker's operation. But I'm just saying, way to go, way to go. Thumbs up right here. I like it. We need to stay connected to the core of our business, which is, by the way, the retail store has nothing to do with corporate. Corporate is there to actually support the retail store. Ha ha ha ha ha. This is real leadership. Home Depot, one of the largest retailers in the United states with over 150 billion billion in annual revenue, 450,000 employees is reviving this practice after it was suspended during the pandemic due to safety concerns for white collar workers. This move serves as an opportunity to gain firsthand insight into customer interactions, operational challenges, and the physical demands of retail work, potentially enhancing their managerial and strategic decisions. However, this mandate is considered an unconventional step for the retail industry, particularly in light of growing labor activism and a recent decline in sales after a surge in consumer spending during the pandemic. How this policy could backfire. The success of this initiative largely depends on its implementation. Well, no kidding, Sherlock. Wow. Okay. Doordash previously introduced a program called We Dash, requiring all employees in the US And Canada and Australia, from engineers to the CEO, to complete a food delivery once a month. This initiative aims to provide staff with a deeper understanding of their product, offer insights into how their decisions affect dashers and customers. See, it's a really good idea for everyone in the company to remember where money comes from. Money comes from the customer, not your bureaucratic bull crap. Coming from a disconnected corporate culture, this is brilliant. Way to go. Tad Decker, Entree leadership. Salute you. It's just well done. Like you care. You probably don't care, but it's just, I'm telling you, man, this is the kind of stuff. So when we were smaller, when you came on board, one of the things you had to do. We used to do about 40 live events a year, and there were like arena events and theater events. Anywhere from 5 to 12,000 people. And we would go around. We spent half our life on the dadgum road going out, setting up all this stuff. And Doing all this. And it required a tractor trailer, loads of books on the back table at the breaks, and, you know, all the setup of the live events and the, you know, getting all those people's tickets, getting them into their seats, helping them do all that stuff. So we would take. We have a live events team, but we would also require all new team members in the first six months that they worked here to. To volunteer. They were voluntold. You were going on the road with us, and you're gonna set up stuff and you're gonna sweat loading the truck, and you're gonna help us, and you're gonna hand out tickets, and you're gonna talk to the actual customer that's had their life changed by what we do, and the customer that's giving us money to come and learn from us, and the customer that's having an experience at one of our events that was properly run or there was a problem at it, and you got to watch the customer at that. So, new team members, it was part of your onboarding. In those days, our growth rate has been so high that we didn't need 200 volunteers doing that. And we don't do as many of those type of events anymore. So we quit doing it. But that was our way of doing what they're doing here to make sure our team was plugged in. And of course, we now have the Ramsey event center here on campus, and we do events here. And when the events are here, we voluntold people that, you know from all through the company to go up there and sit and watch and watch the consumers reaction to our speakers, our teachers watch how they interact with our products, talk to them, hear their stories, serve them with issues that they have. And it changes everything, guys. It gets everybody. Okay. The accounting team now suddenly knows where money comes from. The customer. The software engineers all of a sudden know why they're writing all these lines of code for the customer. You know, it's just brilliant. I mean, golly, this is so cool. Most small businesses that have 20 people, it's mandated just by the way the business functions. You're with the customer all the time anyway, so you've got this close interaction, but the bigger you get. And I can't Even imagine having 450,000 employees that just blow. I don't even want a tenth of that. Wow. I got 1100. It's all I need, I can tell you that. Wow, this is. I mean, this is just good stuff. So great lesson for those of us in smaller businesses, from the great people over At Home Depot, it's a good idea for your team members to be in the weeds. Get em out. Get em out from behind the cube. Put em out there in the weeds chopping. Seeing where money comes from comes from the customer. Teach em how to love the customer, how to super serve the customer, how to surprise and delight the customer. Yeah. And then when you go back to your desk to do your normal job, you have a different perspective. This is just. Man, that's really, really good leadership. Again, we salute you guys. Proud of you. We know you probably never hear this and don't care, but just the same, that's where we are. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. Motivating your team to work and lead with the same passion you have is one of the toughest things in leadership. But it's crucial if you want to scale your business. Fortunately, Entree Leadership Summit is the leadership event that will equip you to build a team that fights shoulder to shoulder with you so you can grow like never before. Join US in Denver, Colorado, May 18th through the 21st by going to ramseysolutions.comsummit or click the link in the show notes. Hey guys, if you want to send us a question, you can do that@entreleadership.com ask or you can call me at 844-944-1070. Now I love you enough to tell you the truth. So be ready. Cause I will tell you that. But hey, if you want to help the show out, we would appreciate it. You can do that by clicking the old follow button, the subscribe button. Leave a nice 5 star review. Mama said if you ain't got nothing nice to say, don't say nothing at all. Click the share button or clip the link out and send it to somebody and go, hey, listen to this show. If you spread the word about this show, we would appreciate it very much. You are our only marketing program. If we fail, it'll be your fault. No, I'm kidding. Thanks. Thanks for helping us. We know you're sharing it. We know you're telling people about it because our numbers are growing. There were two of you out there and now there's four. So it's getting better every day. Do call me though. We'd love to have you at 844-944-1070. Connie is in New York. Hey Connie, how are you?
