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- [00:03]
Capital Group Announcer
If you're early in your career and looking for insight, inspiration and honest advice, listen to the Capital Ideas Podcast. Hear from Capital Group professionals about leaning into the differences that make you unique, making decisions that last, and what it means to lead with purpose. The Capital Ideas Podcast from Capital Group. Available wherever you listen. Published by Capital Client Group, Inc.
- [00:30]
Justin Colby
What's going on?
- [00:30]
Archie Manning
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- [01:00]
Thumbtack Announcer
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- [01:21]
Justin Colby
What is up the Entrepreneur DNA this episode's going to be incredible with a very special guest, the founder of Sharp Leadership Development and someone who's worked with over 20,000 managers to create efficiencies in their business. You and I both know we all need it. Glenn Sharp is here with us. What's happening?
- [01:43]
Glenn Sharp
Hey Justin, how are you?
- [01:45]
Justin Colby
I'm doing great, brother. I'm doing great. Listen, I'm excited about this because your expertise working with 20,000 managers to create efficiencies is something that we all as entrepreneurs, business owners, founders, we all need better efficiencies in our business and so none other than the leading man himself, Glenn, for you to be here. So I'm excited. I I immediately come into things that I go through and I want to start the podcast off there really more about creating efficiencies around people. I believe people probably are probably the the more difficult. Well, I wouldn't say that there's always challenges in business, but people in general create challenges. Right. Because they bring their own kind of baggage into the day to day work or they bring their own kind of stuff. So let's lean into some things that you would go over a review regarding people, management people, leadership, people, you know, efficiencies around all that.
- [02:36]
Glenn Sharp
Yeah. One of the things that I teach, you know, regardless of what industry we're talking about, is how important it is for, for you to do the work up front. Right. So I have this graph, I call it the green line versus the red line. It's in my book and it's an example be you get a new hire. Right. As a business owner, you don't have to put much time and effort into going over expectations. But how many mistakes do new hires make, how many inefficiencies and how many costly errors do new hires make? So you save time, but think about the time and effort it takes to clean up the mess that occurs versus putting the effort in upfront going over expectations. What does quality work look like? What does a clean area look like? How do I like to communicate? Communicate with you if you have a problem. This is the protocol assigning a big brother or big sister to them so that they feel comfortable and you can make sure that these guys know where to go. It's incredible to me those who do that and put most of the work up front, they literally don't experience half the things that people who are reactive and just wait for things to happen experience. And they wonder why entrepreneurs and managers wonder why. Why does that manager always have time to do extra things to, to, to get next level to think and anticipate six months down the road to understand market trends, that type of thing. It's the reason why they're not in the weeds is because they put the effort in upfront, not only going over expectations, but training and, and everything else. And it's just amazing to me how many people, once they understand that and embrace that, their lives are so much easier.
- [04:17]
Justin Colby
Yeah, you talked about your book for a second. Let's, let's share your book. I think you have it there. Talk to a little bit what's in that book?
- [04:24]
Glenn Sharp
So this is really a story about me and a coaching client. I'm currently coaching 53 people right now at all levels from COO all the way down to individual contributor. So this is the story of Johnny. Johnny is an amazing mechanic in the airline industry. And because he's such a Great mechanic. They made him manager of mechanics. Now what, what do I do? He's like, glenn, I don't know how to be a manager. I'm an awesome mechanic. Yeah, I know how to turn wrenches, but I do not know how to be a manager. I don't know how to conduct a performance appraisal or, you know, have a counseling session with an employee or, you know, do the things that managers have to do, coach individuals. So it's really a four month journey of me coaching Johnny and getting him up to speed and getting him on a level playing field with his peers. And so he answers, asks questions of me and I answer them. And there's a ton of really cool tips, tricks and ideas in this book. And it's not only for new managers. There's a lot of existing managers out there that I coach that literally told me, glenn, you know what? I forgot half of this stuff. I got so busy and I've got so racked up with just the minutiae that I forgot what got me here. And they're like, they went back to basics.
- [05:38]
Justin Colby
So let's go through maybe one of the, you know, I'd almost like to use that book to allow everyone to understand the things that you deal with, the things that managers or leaders or entrepreneurs or founders will, will come across. What would be a classic question that you're trying to solve for, for the leader, the manager, the founder?
- [05:55]
Glenn Sharp
It's always time management. Time management is the big thing today. Like, what do we, how do I manage all this stuff that I have thrown at me? And if you're an entrepreneur, I understand. I mean, you've got a million different things, especially if you're just starting out. I mean, you're chief cook and bottle washer, right? You are just, you know, doing everything. And the ability to delegate is the interesting part of time management. The pushback that I get in coaching and in my classes, in my workshops on not delegating. And there's so many reasons why for me, I have to scrape away and really get to the root cause. Why aren't you delegating? So there is, you know, really, they're not going to do it as well as I would, right? Or I, you know, I, I, I have control issues and I don't trust it. The number one comment that I get, I had a group of 32 people in a class one time and I said to them, let me get this straight, you have people on your team that, that are capable, they have the time to help you. Why don't you delegate? And out of 32 people, the number one reason why they don't delegate, I don't know. That's what they said to me. I don't know. And I'm like, listen, you're your own worst enemy. Again, the key to time management and the green line versus red line, whatever you want to call it, is not what you think. It's opportunity cost, right? Think about that. Opportunity cost is typically associated with finance, right? But what could you be doing if you weren't doing the schedule? You could put your time and effort into things that get you next level, right? Negotiating deals and different contracts and things like that, getting your business to a totally different level rather than being in the weeds. And that's what a lot of people don't realize is opportunity costs is a killer, right? When you. When you train someone on how to do something, it's a man. You don't have to do that any longer. I'll give an example. I'm in Cincinnati right now, and it's snowing. We had 14 inches of snow, right? So a lot of our clients were like, hey, listen, you know, we got a level two emergency here. Let's hold off on doing anything. So I've got my. My son and his employees. They're sitting around. What do they do now? We'll keep ourselves busy, right? But I said to him, I said to my son this morning, train them. Pick a task that is terrible. It's horrible. It's tedious, but it's not that hard, right? These two are smart individuals on your team. Have a master at this week. I'm willing to bite the bullet with labor as long as there's a return on investment. So imagine kitchen work if these two, over the next four days, can really practice and master the art of crown molding, which is a very, very intricate, very, very specialized art form, right? If they can do that now, Jonah doesn't have to do that in the kitchen now. We can do other things, right? He can do, you know, drawings for new. For. For customers. He can, you know, seek after new business rather than sitting in the kitchen and doing crown molding. So it's just like. Rather than his. His idea was, let's just tell them they don't have to work the next couple of days. I'm like, no, no, Right? Let's. Let's utilize this time. Let's train them, because you will get. We will get our money back tenfold if they're able to master this. So that's. That's the Essence of time management. So many people, they have no idea why they can't get everything done in a given day. And that's one of the reasons why is there are they are involved in things that they shouldn't be.
- [09:20]
Justin Colby
Do you think that's the control issue? You think they feel like no one's going to do it as good as me so I'm just going to go do can be.
- [09:27]
Glenn Sharp
It can be. Sometimes it's just an inability to let go. Right. For, for a lot of individuals that I run into, they literally have said the following to me. This, listen, how ridiculous this is. Glenn. If I teach my people, if I train my people the right way, I'm going to be expendable. I'm like really? You think, you think you work for a company right now? That if, that if I'm your boss and you train your employees, you run a well oiled machine, right? You think I'm going to fire you over labor? I go first of all, if anybody ever does that, good riddance. Go find another company to work for because that's not the company for you. But I promise you I'll find something for you. And oh by the way, who do you think I'm going to promote? The person whose hair is on fire all the time, just barely gets it done or the person who not only gets it done but has time to spare? Right. I'm going to, I'm going, I'm going to promote the latter every single time and twice on Sunday. Right. It's just like, it's incredible to me that mindset. But there's lots of different issues. There's lots of different reasons why. The number one reason is what you said, that they'll control. I can't let go. Right? I'm the only one who can do it that way. And I literally look at them and I'm like somebody taught you how to do it once upon a time. Okay, you can teach someone else. Here's an interesting part of, of that equation, right? The number one reason why people leave their jobs is what everybody knows this. I mean it's, it's has always has something to do relationship with manager, right? Believe it or not, in the, in the large pools of data money, the number one or the, the highest I've ever seen at the lowest, however you want to look at is number five. When you know certainly people do leave for money, right. We'd be very naive to think that certain people didn't leave for the green. But the, the number one reason always has something to do with their direct supervisor. The new number two is the interesting one. Okay. The new number two, at least of all the thousands of people that I deal with when I talk to them is career path. And they're not talking about succession planning. They're talking about train me, develop me, give me skills and abilities I can put on my resume and I will stay or the likelihood that I will stay increases dramatically. Especially. And this will surprise a lot of individuals. The Gen Zs. Gen Zs want training and they're not going to wait. They think succession plans are a bunch of bs to be honest with you. And they have a point, to be honest with you. A lot of succession plans is a lot of timing, a lot of favoritism. Sometimes there's nepotism involved and a lot of people don't realize that Gen Zs want to be trained. They will stay with a likelihood that they will stay if they are trained. And they will even sacrifice money in some cases in order to be trained because very few organizations actually train them.
- [12:16]
Justin Colby
Do you think there's a connective, connective tissue between the age of you and. I love sports. I see the helmets here. The person who's on the field or on the court really never makes a good transition to being the coach or vice versa. The coach doesn't always mean that they were the, you know, best player on the field or on the court. Do you think there's some level of connectivity between, like, I know how to do the thing I'm doing, but I don't really know how to train the thing I'm doing?
- [12:44]
Glenn Sharp
Yeah, I mean there's a absolute connection. I mean, just because you're good at one thing doesn't mean you're good at all things. So I teach a class called situational leadership and you know, I'll have this D1, D2, D3, D4. D1's a newbie. All the way to D4 is, you know, your best, your high potential employee. Right. But just because you're a D4 like I used to oversee field training and development for Speedway, a convenience store chain. Just because you're a really great trainer does not mean you'd be a good manager of trainers. It's a completely different skill set. This is what Johnny learns in his, in the book, you're a great mechanic. That does not mean you'll be a great manager. Mechanics, it's completely different in sports. You could be an amazing player. Like they're, they're. I don't, I've never really followed up to the point of doing a ton of research. But there's some rumors going around that Michael Jordan dabbled in coaching for a second or at least thought about it. And people were like, no, don't even think about it. You will not be a good coach. You don't have the patience for it. Because one of the things that he would say was, why can't you just do this? Well, sorry, Michael. Not everybody could jump four seconds in the air and slam, you know, slam a ball down. He, he doesn't understand. And he was a pretty harsh teammate. Amazing player. I argue the best player of all time. That's my opinion. But as a coach. As a coach, no way. And that's exactly what you cited. The assumption though, especially with entrepreneurs, is person's really a good individual contributor. Let's make them a supervisor. Let's put them in charge of people. And that is a huge mistake. If you haven't tested them, if you haven't at least given them some skills and abilities to set them up for success. Otherwise you're asking someone to do something that they have no idea. They didn't learn they, how to be a manager through osmosis. Right. They, they have to learn that skill set. It's a completely different job.
- [14:42]
Justin Colby
What. So this is something I see all the time. The, you know, business owners, I guess promote, if it's the right word, their top sales rep to sales manager. So you just briefly talked about it like I, as a salesperson, right. I literally graduated UCLA and it went door to door. Sales is my very first thing I did, which my family was very disappointed. But I found that it was the very best education I got. Well beyond ucla. I see it all the time in, in organizations that they feel like they should promote the best salesperson because they will be the best to teach it. Talk about that because I, I know the answer how I would explain it. But the fundamentals of selling versus managing people or leading people. I think there's two criteria there, by the way. There's managing and leading. Let's talk a little bit about this dysfunction in organizations.
- [15:36]
Glenn Sharp
Yeah. So I'm. I just finished a three part series in December on sales training because one of my clients, I do a podcast. It's called now what so easy to find now what podcast by Glenn Sharp. But I did a, I did a sales series because I have a client who's going through this very issue right now. They have salespeople all over Ohio and they're trying to develop their district sales managers. Right. It's A completely different skill set. Sales is a little different, though, because in my opinion, you got to bring a little street cred to sales, right? If you don't know how to sell, it's really hard to actually sell your employees on how to change their behavior and things like that. It's kind of like me as a trainer. I used to go visit my people all the time, all over, you know, the Midwest. And I would literally say, I'll take the afternoon session. I want to show you a new technique or can be done. I literally turned the projector off and they were appalled. Like, oh, my God, you can't do that. Like, yeah, you can do that. Let's try it, right? And it was one of the best sessions we ever had as a sales manager. Got to bring a little street cred. But you're no longer doing sales, right? Not up their level. You're probably doing sales at a little bit of a higher level. But from what I have taught with the district sales managers is your job now is to coach them, right? Every single meeting. Here's an idea that I'll just present to you guys that I presented to them. How about every single meeting that you get together with your sales team? You never talk about the past. What? We always go over numbers. I know you do, and it's a waste of time. But if I'm going to bring 20 people together, I'm going to make it count. So why don't we go over a specific sales training technique? Why don't we go over situational training? Put them in a situation. How would you handle this? You know, things that you know inevitably are going to happen, right? How about doing that versus going over numbers? You can go over numbers anytime, right? Unless it's like a goal, a stretch goal that you want to do in eight months or the. The end of the year. This is where we want to get to type of thing so they understand context. But how about making those meetings count? Right? Here's another idea. One of the things that I teach in at the University of Cincinnati is still I'm down to one class. I teach change management at the master's level at University of Cincinnati because I love those Gen Z's. I love them to death. And they're just fun, right? But one of the things that we talk about in change management is making sure that you identify the bright spots. Okay, what are bright spots? Bright spots are the individuals who are knocking it out of the park, regardless of limitations, regardless of everything that's thrown at them. Right? But utilizing Them. So here's just a different way to look at it. Imagine as a sales manager, you rotate your meetings. You and your two bright spots rotate and doing the meetings now you're in attendance as a backstop. But imagine a peer looking at the other peers and saying to them, this works. The reason why it works because I did it the other day. Try this, try that type of thing, right? That comes across. The psychology behind that is interesting. For example, if I'm ever going to train an employee now, certainly I'm involved in the training process, but I always will pick a peer over myself. Now, it's not because the peer necessarily is better than I am. A lot of times they are, but the psychology is different, right? They'll ask a peer, they'll ask a bright spot. Tough questions they'll ask. They'll be vulnerable with them. Chances are, as their boss, they won't be vulnerable with me or as vulnerable. So they'll be like, is this place kind of weird? Did you experience this when you were first here? That type of thing? Or how do you do this? I don't even know how to do that. That's really intimidating to me. That bright spot will answer them. And it's Apple samples now. It's not, hey, boss, you're not out in the field. You don't know what's going on. The bright spot is out in the field. It is time tested. It's a proven technique. They're much more likely to listen to them than they are to a manager. That doesn't mean they won't listen to a manager, but their psychology is interesting. So that's kind of what I am teaching the sales teams and they're embracing it. And it's working, by the way, those bright spots, they want more responsibility. So the likelihood that they stay, the likelihood that they are happy with where they are increases dramatically. So it's a win win. Right? Opportunity cost. The manager doesn't always have to do that. Meeting the bright spot, you kind of separate them from the rest of the team. But also they get that skill set
- [20:06]
Archie Manning
of running a meeting.
- [20:08]
Justin Colby
You know, it's funny that you say that. So when I left UCLA and went directly into door knocking, how that business worked is basically effectively. I had my own business and there was a warehouse of clients, Verizon, UPS, credit card processing, your first, etc. Right? And there is essentially a manager who we would work out of his office. His office. He was the manager that we, the leading salespeople, would train all the other salespeople not because we were meant to manage them, but because we were meant to show them how to be good at what we did. Right, right. And so that connectivity really, I really lean into that. I love how you explained it. And I'm now almost thinking of my past about how that business was built. It's not a function of. I'm now managing these salespeople. That's the manager's job. But I'm showing them and I'm helping them with their processes to be as good as I can be.
- [21:02]
Glenn Sharp
Yeah, no, absolutely.
- [21:04]
Justin Colby
That's a huge distinction. The thing that I think most especially business owners tend to, and this is at the biggest corporations, I know you work with very large corporations all the way down to the operator. But what I see too many business owners, regardless of size, is they use the term and. Or they work through management techniques rather than understanding the difference between management and leading. Right. Because people, as an instance, I believe to be the hardest part of our, our any business because we all bring our own baggage to every single day. Right?
- [21:43]
Glenn Sharp
Yeah.
- [21:43]
Justin Colby
Some can control it, some can't. There is a vast difference between managing the numbers of the output or input of your employee and then leading that same employee. How do you overcome that? How do you make the distinction? How do you separate that in your world, the management versus the actual leadership? Because it, to me, there's a vast difference. And I actually believe there's a vast difference in success level between management and leadership.
- [22:11]
Glenn Sharp
Yeah. I'll give you a great example again, comes from, you know, my change management experience. But I'm just going to draw this with my finger. Imagine a change curve of human behavior. People have seen this before. So as I start off, someone will listen to a change, but inevitably they have to. And this is the dip down. They call it the valley of despair. Right. It has to get worse before it gets better. Okay. So the question I ask is, is it possible to make a change without going through some sort of discomfort? And the answer is no. You have to. You either have to come to one of my classes or you have to try it or whatever. Right. But here's what the difference between a manager and a leader, individual contributor and a leader. A leader will understand that it's going to get worse before it gets better. So as I draw this out, imagine you dip down here. It's getting hard. People are making mistakes. Right. People even quit. One or two people even quit. Oh God, let's just give up. 90% of the people just give up. All right? Versus a leader. A leader would literally Say, especially if he or she believes that it has to get worse before it gets better. Oh, God. They're getting, they're making mistakes. People are leaving. Okay? There's, you know, all sorts of, you know, complaints.
- [23:27]
Justin Colby
Good.
- [23:28]
Glenn Sharp
They're halfway there. That's the difference right there. And I'll give, I'll, I'll, I'll give you something else. The leader, before they make the change, they will get with their team and go over what to expect. Right? Let's talk about if somebody leaves. Let's talk about if people make mistakes. Let's talk about if people start to complain. Let's get prepared now as a group so that we are a united front when it does happen. We expected it, right? And that's the difference right there. For me, the, the biggest difference between a manager to leader is vision and influence. Do they see ahead? Do they think ahead? Do they look ahead? And the influence piece is, can I get people to do things that they ordinarily would not do? Right. They go places where they ordinarily would not go. That's a different animal altogether. There's a lot of subtleties and a lot of tasks that both do leader and manager. But a leader is different, right? Totally different. They don't overreact when things get hard. They. Because they put the effort in up front, but they understand it's supposed to be hard. Right? They get that particular aspect of it. So I just think a lot of individuals are very reactionary, right? A leader is a little bit different. They see they have a vision, they articulate their vision, but they understand that people are going to have to go through the process. I'll give you another small segment of my classes that I teach. Here's a question. Why in God's name would you ever make a change without talking to the end user? Does that make any sense at all to anyone? Right.
- [25:08]
Justin Colby
Why would you make change without talking to an end user? That's the question.
- [25:11]
Glenn Sharp
If you think about that. Why would you ever make a change without talking to the end user? Right. It doesn't make any sense. Correct. Who's the most important person in the entire change process? It's the end user, right? Especially when, yeah, the user. They're very smart and they're an unbelievable source of information. An unbelievable source. Yet time and time again, when I go into organizations or when I talk to individuals who are running businesses, they say, no, I didn't talk to my people. Like, okay, they can tell you what I mean. They might not be as educated, they might not be as articulate, but they're smart. And then experts at what they do, they do it every single day. They can tell you what's working, what's not. They can give you ideas. Right. Whether you take the ideas or not, that's up to you. But it's incredible. Not only do they, do you get great ideas from them, but you show them respect by offering, you know, offering your time to them, but also listening to them. And it's incredible how many people miss that in regards to. And making changes.
- [26:19]
Justin Colby
Yeah, it funny enough I lean into getting feedback more often than not. And what I say is very similar to you. I really love what you're saying is, is talk to the end user first because we are in our own silos. When you're at the upper level, whether you're in a C suite, you're the founder, you're, you're quote, unquote, the manager, whatever the role might be, you're in your own four walls a lot of these times. Right. You're not in direct connection to the, to the, the sales transaction. You're not talking to the buyer, the client. Like, because you're now at a level where you don't. I believe in always asking, not just the generic, how's it going? But how can we be better? Hey, I'd love to have a team meeting. How do we actually become better at what we do? What are you guys seeing in the field? What are you guys seeing out there? What are responses? I'll give you a great example. I've had USAA for 23 years. I'm 44. My grandfather was in the military. That's how I was able to get it. I've always used them. I get a new car, I use usa. I do all the. Very recently, an Allstate representative who carries a lot of my homeowners insurance, they reach out to me, they, you know, making sure I have my wind fire homeowners, blah, blah, blah. I'm here in Miami Flood, of course, and they say, hey, I see that you have, you don't have our auto insurance. I'd love to at least give you a quote, see if you can compare it to whoever you have. I went to USA and I looked at my six month, whatever premium they call it. Allstate literally said, okay, what do you get for all these things? I'll give you a quote. So I said, I have this, this, this, this. It was literally half what I pay usa. Now USA is known to be the best and the cheapest of the blah half mind You? Yeah. I said, okay, do you make sure you have this, this, and this and this and this? They said, yes, I immediately change because it makes no sense to pay for the exact same thing. Pay double. It doesn't make any sense.
- [28:14]
Glenn Sharp
Right.
- [28:14]
Justin Colby
But as I'm changing, all state has to get. There's a process, I guess, that, like, I had to get on the phone with Allstate and USA at the same time. Make it super awkward for USA to realize they're losing a client. Right. For 23 years, if their management team would have asked what's going on in the field, the first reply should be, we're losing people to cheaper pricing. Because they've never reached out to me to see if I wanted to do anything or if there was lower pricing. But as I'm changing, they want to throw a hail Mary pass to say, hey, do you mind if I see if I can quote you something comparable to what Allstate is? And they said, absolutely not. You had your chance for 23 years to keep me. Your process is broken. You're not going out and listening to end user client, and then the manager or sales team is not going out asking how you become better.
- [29:07]
Glenn Sharp
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is the essence of the show Undercover Boss, right? It's like when these guys come down from on high and actually do the work and realize that their policies are incredibly difficult and time consuming and taxing on the employees. They're like, who created this? And like, sir, you created that. Like, okay, I'm changing everything. I know they ham it up for TV a little bit, but that's the essence of Undercover Boss. It's like, get your butt down there and talk to these guys. You will save yourself a lot of time and effort. I have a story in my book where I have a client. They have two hubs in Ohio. They have one in Wilmington. They have another in Northern Kentucky, CVG airport. And these guys fix and maintain airplanes, right? So the CVG folks are struggling a little bit, so they decided to send 50 mechanics down to CVG from Wilmington. What? What Nice guys, right? The problem is they didn't tell anybody. So they get a bus, and these 50 people go down there. And they didn't realize that, number one, they don't have any badges. And the person who's in charge of issuing badges is not there that day. So they're sitting in the break room. 50 people just wasting labor dollars, okay? So finally, the guy comes in after a few hours. They don't have the paperwork certification. They have to be Certified in paperwork in order to touch anything in cvg. Okay, so they're sitting for another few hours. Actually, they had to go back on the bus. It was a waste of time. Roll back the clock. Imagine just a quick zoom call. A couple of people from cvg, a couple of people from Wilmington. Hey, we want to help out. What do you need? What are we missing? Right. You need this. You need this how they could have got that, got the badges issued well ahead of time. They could have got, sent them the paperwork and they could have all been certified and signed off on it before they got on the bus. Right, but that's the reason why you asked these guys first. It would have taken how long? Yeah, a five, five, ten minute phone call. Yet the intention was good. But they don't understand business. They don't understand how it works, their mindset. The furthest thing from their mind was to ask the end user. And that is troubling sometimes because again, when it comes to real dollars, it might be. It might sound like soft skills. It might sound like, oh, yeah, communication, Glenn, whatever. I get it. Talk to the end user. If you saw the bill, how much money that they forked over for labor costs for that day, it's not so funny anymore. They don't roll their eyes anymore over that. And that's why this stuff is so important to an entrepreneur. I mean, margins are tight. Right. Especially in the first five years. You can't afford to make these kind of mistakes. It will cost you dearly. Right. And that's one of the reasons why it is so important to be efficient with your people.
- [31:49]
Justin Colby
Yeah. Now I want to lean into what you see is probably the biggest issue. Time management. Right. And I'd love to hear your perspective on time management. I think the entrepreneurs out there in our space, you know, wake up earlier, work harder, create more time, which, you know, the Ed Mylett of the world have a great system. Speaking on stage, where he talks about, he breaks his day up into threes, right. He runs his six hour intervals and he's able to accomplish more in a single day than most people do in a week or, or a month or whatever the case is. What do you say to the manager, the leader, the founder, the entrepreneur, the person that is just struggling to do it all? Like, I got everything on my shoulders. I have all this stuff, I'm inundated, my plate is totally full, and I never am able to get it all done.
- [32:32]
Glenn Sharp
Yeah, I mean, I had, I had someone in Miami, an individual, coincidentally, and he told me the same Thing, Glenn. I'm up to my eyebrows and stuff. I'm totally consumed. What do I do? So I go, all right, I'm going to come down there and I'm going to. I'll make you a deal. You listen to me for 30 days. Give me 30 days, and I'll solve all your time management issues. And he's like, you're on. And I went down there and I go, okay, give me an employee. Who are your best employees? Name them. And one of his really good employees was Jack. Okay? And I go, which one of your employees wants to be promoted? Right. Of the two. And he goes, jack does. I'll go, let's take Jack. I go, well, here's what I want from you. Pick a task that is not that hard, but really time consuming, all right? And he goes, so the schedule. I go, good, let's do the schedule. Jack gets to come in. He usually comes in at 8. Usually come in at 8. You both come in at 7:30. Jackson hourly. So he gets to leave at 4:30. So you don't incur over time. I want you to train him for 30 minutes a day on how to do the schedule, okay? So he goes, deal. I go, all right. First day screws it up. Second day, he screws it up. Third day screws it up. After about two and a half weeks, Jack became better than his manager at doing the schedule. So I go down to Miami, and he's smiling at the cat that ate the canary. And I go, what are you smiling at? And he goes, what am I smiling at? I don't have to do the schedule anymore. And I go, how much time do you save by not having do the schedule? He has a staff of 30. And he goes, probably like five, six hours a week. And I then I explained to him the concept of opportunity cost, right? I go, now the reason why he was smiling is not that he doesn't have to do the schedule anymore. He got the fever. Now he's going to select someone else to do something else. Right? Now he's got eight, nine hours back in this week. And that's the way time management works. There is no easy button where you're like, bing. All of a sudden all your time management issues are solved. That's just not how it works. It's chipping away. Chipping away. But I had to chip away at his mindset. His mindset was completely flawed, right? So this is a little provocative. So I ask people, and it's in the book as well. I ask people to really listen Carefully, because a lot of people have screwed this up and tried to get me in trouble over it. Okay? I said to him, I go, your time is more valuable than the people that work for you. Now, I did not say you are more valuable. That's absurd. That's obnoxious, unbelievably condescending and arrogant, right? But your time is more valuable than the people that work for you. You have a higher education level. You have 32 years experience. This guy had, what are you doing tasks for that 10 other people could do. If you were the CEO of a company and someone found out that someone with 32 years experience was still doing the schedule, would you be angry? And the answer is yes. Okay? You should be doing only tasks that you should do, but you have to let go. And that's the essence of it. That's where you run a really, really efficient operation. I'll tell you something funny. So I am CEO of Common Sense U. We do business to sharply dish and development and dream kitchens. So Dream kitchens is just refinishing, you know, sorry, Refacing kitchen cabinets, doing full kitchen remodels, things like that. Investing in my son. Now, when it comes to being the CEO, I'm the alpha. My time is more valuable than everyone else that works for me, right? So I have that vision. I handle finances, I do some big deals, that type of thing. I am pushing the company forward. However, the other day I went and helped my son Jonah out in the kitchen on a Saturday because no one was available. So help your boy out, right? So I. He is now the alpha. I'm an idiot when it comes to fixing, repairing, anything like that. You do not want me touching your kitchen. But I can go get lunch, I can go to Home Depot, I can throw out the garbage, I can cut up boxes. He is the alpha. Now, that's that switch, Correct. And that's where a lot of individuals don't realize that, you know, when you hire people who are better than you at specific areas, that's not a sign of weakness. That's a sign of strength. That's what I want. That's diversity. When I have someone who's really, really good, like, I always tease my wife, she's amazing. Project manager, program manager. She works with me. She's the own, you know, half owner of the business. He's amazing at the minutia, you know, the paperwork, stuff like that. I am a dreamer. I push the company forward. Together, we make a big A full brain, right? Do you think about it? That's diversity. I Teach diversity in the context of diversity of thought. Right? But a lot of individuals through ego, through just discomfort, lack of, you know, lack of willingness to give up, control, that type of thing, don't understand how efficient that is. When you hire people who are better than you in certain areas, it's not a sign of weakness, it's actually a sign of strength.
- [37:35]
Justin Colby
I. We should do to podcast. I'm about to answer a qu. Or give you a question that I think is probably a long answer and maybe we do another episode. By the way, but what I heard there, by the way, just for I want to re, I want to reposition maybe what you said, how I heard it and make sure it's accurate. You are asking the manager or the leader or the founder or the business owner to come in or to start a half hour earlier than he normally would to train the new individual who's going to take over this role so that that new individual will forever hold the role. Now that might take two weeks. In your story, that manager leader had to train for roughly two weeks for this guy to get how to do the schedule. But now for the rest of time, this manager leader will not have to do the schedule because the new guy knows how to do the schedule better than he does.
- [38:29]
Glenn Sharp
Exactly.
- [38:30]
Justin Colby
You're sacrificing 30 minutes a day for two weeks, for quite literally five hours a week. In your example, forever.
- [38:39]
Glenn Sharp
And it's the gift that keeps on giving, right? That is investing your time versus spending your time. And the question in the coaching room is, is it worth it? Is it worth coming in a half hour early in order to get that long term benefit? Right? And the answer, in my opinion is yes, there is no other way. I wish there was. I wish there was an easy button where you could just say, you know, hey, let's just make, make sure people are trained and, and everything is solved. You have to make some sacrifices, right? But the people who make the sacrifices up front, it's amazing, they don't have to make the sacrifices long term. The people who don't are constantly reactionary. They're constantly, their hair is constantly on fire, they're spinning their wheels, things like that. But yeah, making I don't think a half hour a day in order to achieve a goal like that is a big sacrifice. I really don't. It's just as an entrepreneur, I'm used to making sacrifices. I'm used to working all the time. The question is, am I investing my time or am I spending my time? Right? That's the question. And both work hard. No one's saying that if you work your butt off and you do the schedule, you don't work hard. But one of them is working smart. One of them is going to get a return on their investment. I'll give you one more. I'll go one more layer with you. Justin, not only did that person in Miami teach that individual on how to do the schedule, he told him, listen, once I delegate the schedule. And by the way, you don't delegate anything until they prove proficiency, right? They must prove that they know how to do it. Now it's yours. I don't want to know. But if I'm going to train you, you must train someone else on how to do the schedule as well. Now, he's got two layers between him and the schedule. Chances are he'll never touch that again. If that person, if Jack goes on vacation, the schedule is still handled, right? I mean, that's investing your time from his standpoint as well as his employee's standpoint, because now he has a backup.
- [40:37]
Justin Colby
Everyone rewind. Listen to that again. What I mean, Glenn, you've, you've dropped diamonds and gold all over this episode. But like, that is so investing your time versus spending your time, right? As entrepreneurs, as business, like there's always a return on investment. Are you investing your time? Are you spending your time? Because otherwise it's like cost, you're costing yourself. Like I just. Oof. That's amazing. Listen, I want to wrap up with this. Glenn, first of all, go get his book if you're liking some of this. Go get his book. You're on Amazon, right?
- [41:07]
Glenn Sharp
Yeah, Amazon as well. Yep, Amazon. It's on, it's on Kindle and paperback.
- [41:14]
Justin Colby
Perfect. The name.
- [41:16]
Glenn Sharp
Now what?
- [41:18]
Justin Colby
Now what? Yeah, Glenn, where do you, where do you land? When you're talking about management, talking about people, talking about time, how is AI going to play into all this?
- [41:33]
Glenn Sharp
I think AI is going to help us dramatically, I really do. But I caution everybody in regards to AI that what I see out there is individuals who take a vehicle like AI and take it too far. Let me give you an example what I mean by that. Before COVID happened, people were starting to trend toward computer based training. They would say things like, glenn, we don't need you in the classroom. You know, we'll just give them a computer based training module. And saturation rates, you know, testing rates were terrible. They're absolutely terrible. Right? It's still about people, it's still about connection. Now certainly AI can help us with that. There's no doubt about it. But I am warning my graduate students all the time, please don't remember that the key to business is connection. It always will be, it always has been and always will be connecting with people. So AI will be a great tool for you. It certainly will help you in many, many areas, right? I mean, getting information and disseminating information and everything else that AI is producing for us. But it's still about connecting with people. And don't try to substitute AI for that connection. I'll kind of leave you with the following story. I asked a class one time, these are Gen Z's. Keep in mind, okay, are we better at communicating today than we were 50 years ago? Very simple question. They wouldn't let me finish the question before they started going, no, we're not. And I go, what do you mean? I go, look at, I go, look at this, I go, look at the, look at my, I got a couple of phones here, I got a laptop, I got this. They go, we have more ways to communicate, there's no doubt about it. But we suck at the one on one piece and we know it, right? And we gotta get better at it. So my final exam in one of these classes was a speech. They had to get up there and actually talk to people. They were not graded on public speaking ability. Right? But get your butt up there, get off of that email, get off of, you know, those devices and everything. You're gonna have to learn how to influence people because that's the difference between an efficient organization and an inefficient. So to answer your question, love it. I think AI is going to benefit us greatly. But just like email, remember email used to be, it was set up to be the secondary. It was set up to be a tool, but it for communication, it became the primary tool. So when was the last time you got, you received an email and after you read it you're like, what the hell did that mean? Right? And now you have to, you have to call the person or you have to respond back to them. Next thing you know, it's a dumpster fire. It can be completely, you know, taken way too far. And that would be my only caution to people when it comes to managing individuals. Don't use it for what it is, it's a tool, but don't let it sacrifice. The people piece, the connection piece.
- [44:27]
Justin Colby
Goodness gracious. Everybody, this is Glenn Sharp. Now what is his book? Go to Amazon, go to Kindle, get his book. And Glenn, where else can people find you? I think there's going to be a lot of founders, entrepreneurs, business owners, managers, leaders that really want to connect with you. Where can they do that?
- [44:42]
Glenn Sharp
Yeah. So the podcast, I drop every single week. It's designed for you guys. It's designed for managers, for owners. It's not three hours, it's 15 to 20 minute snippets. And I go over a lot of these concepts. So I'm on YouTube, I'm on Spotify. It's designed to be a supplement. A lot of people are like, I don't know how to do this or I don't know how to do that. And I will create a podcast just for that topic. Right. So someone asked me one time, they're like, I don't know how to do a counseling session. It's in the book. But I did a counseling session on YouTube. Right. A 15, 20 minute session. This is how you would counsel an employee that's not doing what they're supposed to and you have to correct their behavior. So they're designed for individuals to, to really learn quick skills. Right. To. To be able to make them think a little bit. And I'll be doing that and, you know, obviously just about forever. My clients love it because they can send their people ahead of time. Hey, here's a, a quick clip of Glenn. I don't know if I agree with everything he said, but I want you to pay attention to what he said about, you know, you know, spending your time versus investing your time. We're going to talk about that on Friday when we get, when we get together. And that gives them a huge advantage. So that's what it's designed for.
- [45:57]
Justin Colby
Glenn, you're amazing. Get them all over social media, Go to Amazon, go to Apple, go to Spotify. Listen to his podcast. Glenn Sharp is his name. Now, what is the book? I am Justin Colby. This has been the entrepreneur DNA. I appreciate your buddy. And if this was pretty good and you think Glenn's expertise is worth sharing, which I damn sure do, make sure you share this episode least to your friends. Appreciate you guys and see you on the next episode.
- [46:20]
Glenn Sharp
Thanks, Justin.
- [46:21]
Justin Colby
What's going on?
- [46:22]
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- [47:52]
Alex Kanchrowitz
Hi, this is Alex Kanchrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast, a longtime reporter and an on air contributor to cnbc. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it, asking where this is all going. They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, in meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
- [48:27]
Glenn Sharp
If you like the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.