Summary5 min read

Podcast Summary: The Game with Alex Hormozi

Episode: "My Employees Don't Take My Business Seriously...Why?"

Release Date: August 11, 2023
Host: Alex Hormozi

Episode Overview

In this episode, Alex Hormozi tackles a key leadership struggle: why employees often don't take business tasks seriously or follow through on important directions. Using his signature direct, practical, and humorous style, Alex flips the script—revealing the three best ways to guarantee people do not do what you want them to do. He then explains how to reverse-engineer these concepts to get the results leaders desire. The episode is rich with actionable insights, practical scripting for tough conversations, and credit to thought leaders who've influenced Alex's approach.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Three-Part “Failure Triangle”

(00:10 – 06:00)

Alex introduces the "triangle" of actions almost guaranteed to make employees neglect responsibilities. By inverting these, leaders can instead foster serious engagement.

a) Don’t Set Clear Expectations or Communicate Properly

The number one reason people don’t follow through: they don’t even know what’s expected.
If you fail to communicate clearly or only mention things in passing, tasks will fall through the cracks.
Lack of documentation or repetition means employees don’t internalize priorities.

Quote ([01:15]):

“The easiest way to make sure that they do not do what you want them to do is don’t tell them, don’t communicate the expectation, don’t even let them know that you want them to do it.”

b) Don’t Provide Training or Show How To Do It

Giving clear tasks without appropriate training is a recipe for failure.
If employees don’t know how to do something—because no one has trained them, or shown prioritization within their workload—they’re set up to fail.

Quote ([02:55]):

"Don’t train them around what you want them to do in general. Don’t train them on how to prioritize their time so that they can get it done given their workload."

c) Demotivation and Lack of Incentives

To really sap engagement, make sure employees don’t see purpose or direct benefit to their work.
Don’t link their tasks to either the bigger picture, their own interests, or the benefit to others.
Not offering praise or clear compensation for desired behaviors further reduces motivation.

Memorable Analogy ([04:05]):

“You want the work to feel as pointless as possible. You want them to feel like they’re digging a hole, only to push the dirt back in at the end of the day and then have no one there to even see that they did it.”

Alex illustrates with an internal example—showing how failing to communicate the impact of simple data-entry tasks can destroy motivation.

2. Scripting Better Conversations

(06:00 – 09:30)

Alex shares a structured dialogue approach, credited to his wife and business partner, Layla Hormozi, for addressing task avoidance with empathy and clarity.

The Three-Pronged Question for Employees

Protect the employee’s ego by not making it personal.
Provide options for honest feedback:
- Did you not know what to do?
- Do you not know how to do it?
- Do you just not want to do it?

Sample Script ([07:05]):

“Hey Johnny, it’s not like you to not attend to the details. Is it that you didn’t know, you don’t know how, or is it that you don’t want to?”

This approach lowers defensiveness and makes it easy to pinpoint the real blockage.

3. Foundation in Management Thought

(09:30 – 11:45)

Alex attributes much of his thinking to Andy Grove’s “High Output Management,” adding his own twist. According to Grove (and Alex):

The boss’s job: Motivate and train.
Alex’s addition: Also set expectations clearly.

Quote ([10:23]):

“In [Andy Grove’s] mind, either someone doesn’t want to do it or they don’t know how to do it. I add in the third piece, which is that they didn’t know that you wanted to do it to begin with, which I think happens a lot.”

4. How to Get Employees to Do What You Want

(11:45 – End)

Alex recaps the practical levers to reverse the “failure triangle” for maximum employee engagement:

Set and record expectations.
Communicate frequently and clearly, using metrics.
Offer detailed training, including how the task fits into bigger workloads.
Motivate by connecting work to:
- The business’s success
- Other people they care about on the team
- Deep personal values and self-interest (including bonuses or financial incentives)

Closing Summary ([12:40]):

“By doing this, you are aligning with these values that are true to you. And then finally you align to their pocketbook—hey, and if you do these things, you can get a $500 bonus, right? Or thousand dollar bonus, whatever it is.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On neglected communication ([01:15]):

“If you just say it in passing or say it on a conversation or a Zoom call, and it’s not written anywhere, you can still virtually guarantee that they’re not going to do it.”
On thankless tasks ([04:05]):

“You want the work to feel as pointless as possible... digging a hole, only to push the dirt back in… and have no one there to even see that they did it.”
Effective scripting for accountability ([07:05]):

“Hey Johnny, it’s not like you to not attend to the details. Is it that you didn’t know, you don’t know how, or is it that you don’t want to?”

Timestamps for Important Segments

00:10: Introduction to the problem; “failure triangle”
01:15: Don’t communicate expectations
02:55: Don’t train or show how
04:05: Demotivation and work without purpose
06:00: How to script better accountability conversations
09:30: Management theory from Andy Grove
11:45: Recap: reversing the “failure triangle” for success
12:40: Aligning tasks to values and financial incentives

Final Takeaways

Alex Hormozi offers a clear, witty, and actionable breakdown of why employees might seem disengaged—and how leaders can systematically address it. By avoiding the “failure triangle” of unclear expectations, poor training, and demotivation, and flipping those strategies into positive practices, any business leader can build a more accountable, motivated team. Alex also models how to have tough conversations with empathy—turning what could be confrontations into opportunities for mutual understanding and improvement.

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[00:00]
A
In this video, I'm gonna give you three ways to guarantee that people do not do what you want them to do, especially employees in a business. Every one of us, every day has tried to influence people internally in the business to do things that we want them to do. We try to influence them with money, we try to influence them with praise and accolades, come with a big vision so that they get internally motivated to do the stuff. But some people don't do it. And so in this video, what I want to do is break down the three best ways to guarantee that no one does what you want them to do. You can take this process and you can reverse it if you want them to do what you want them to do, or. But if we think about the things that we can do to get them to not want to do what we want them to do, then it's much funnier. From the top, the easiest way to make sure that they do not do what you want them to do is don't tell them, don't communicate the expectation, don't even let them know that you want them to do it. If you even do, let them know that you want to do it. Make sure you don't record it. Because if you just say it in passing or say it on a conversation or a zoom call and it's not written anywhere, you can still virtually guarantee that they're not going to do it. Especially if you don't repeat it. Don't ask about it frequently. One line item on a quarterly report that happens versus you checking in twice a day about a statistic like, if you do that, they're definitely, definitely going to think it's important. So don't do that. Just trying to ask for it as infrequently as possible. Even so, not even give them the metric to track. So that's number one. Number two is make sure they don't know how to do it. So if you want them to do something, give them the task that's clearly communicated. You've repeated it, you did it in a recorded fashion. You do it frequently in terms of how frequently you ask them. But then just make sure they don't know how to do it. It's the best way to set them up to fail. Don't train them around what you want them to do in general. Don't train them on how to prioritize their time so that they can get it done given their workload. And then also make sure that you don't tell them how you specifically it done, because everybody has preferences Right. Just make sure you don't train them on any of those things. First two items in the triangle, Alex, is how to make sure people don't do what you want them to do. Triangle. The third piece of this triangle. All right, this is. This is a killer motivation. We want to make sure that they are as unmotivated as humanly possible and maybe even ideally motivated or incentivized to not do it. A couple ways you can do that is one, don't pay them or directly compensate them for doing it. Number two, you want the work to feel as pointless as possible. You want them to feel like they're digging a hole, only to push the dirt back in at the end of the day and then have no one there to even see that they did it. You want to definitely not praise them for digging a good hole and then not actually show them that that hole is how you lay pipe, how you lay electrical lines to turn a building on. Geez, I'm just. I'm just killing it right now. You don't want to show how it benefits other people that they care about within the company. So, for example, if I said, hey, John, I need you to put the call notes in from your sales call, because Suzy in finance, it makes her life five times harder to have to go through all this stuff. And she can't be with her kid because she's working overtime taking all these calls, trying to glean all this data, going through customer support logs to fill in the blanks that you could do in five minutes. And I know that you're the type of person. So we went from purpose, other people they care about to now we're going to talk about their own self interest, which is like, I know you're the type of person who is honest. Right, of course. Well, you wouldn't promise something that's not real. Right. Okay, well, what you're doing right now, you might not know it, is that you're not giving us the notes to actually fulfill the promises you're making. So appeal to values, and then you can also appeal to self interest in the most tangible way. You make more money by doing this. When you do this thing, it actually helps us through the applications so you can close a higher percentage of people at higher prices. So you make more money per hour if you take these five minutes. Does that make sense? Cool. And on top of that, there's a little nugget on your bonuses according to making sure that you fill out call notes for over 95% of sales calls. If we did that we'd have a high likelihood that they would do it. So you want to reverse that whole equation. When you're thinking about having a lens through which to have the conversation with somebody who's not doing the things that you want them to do, this is how I would approach it. This is the scripting. I got this from Layla. All kudos go to her. She has a great YouTube channel. You should check it out. Is say, hey, Johnny, it's not like you to not attend to the details. Is it that you didn't know, you don't know how, or is it that you don't want to? One, we protected the person's ego because we said it's not like you. So I'm not attacking you, I'm attacking the activity. It's this tiny little shift that makes these conversations so much easier. Then you give them a context through which that they can reply. Is it that you didn't know, I didn't tell you, I didn't record it, I didn't talk about it frequently, and I didn't give you the metrics. Is that what it is? Or is it that training wise, I didn't train you on how to do it, how I want you to do it, and how to do it within the context of your larger workload? Or is it the things that I just covered with motivation? Motivation and training I stole from Andy Grove Ruthless, a founder of intel, and he wrote a book called High Output Management Recommend A Little Bit Advanced. And in that book he says the job of the boss is two things to motivate and train. In his mind, he's at either someone doesn't want to do it or they don't know how to do it. I add in the third piece, which is that they didn't know that you wanted to do it to begin with, which I think happens a lot. And so that has given birth to the acquisition triangle of how to get people to not do the things that you want them to do. On the flip side, you can reverse those things and make sure that you set expectations, you record it, you talk about it frequently, you give them the metrics to talk about it, about train them on how to do it. You train them how you prefer they do it and then you train them on how to do it within the context of the larger workload they have. And then you motivate them them from a global level of how this feeds the business, the other people that care about employees, on how it impacts their life in a real way, how it's going to help the customer and their experience from a values perspective, you are this way. And by doing this, you are aligning with these values that are true to you. And then finally you align to their pocketbook. Hey, and if you do these things, you can get a 500 bonus, right? Or thousand dollar bonus, whatever it is.