How do you motivate blue collar workers? Construction workers? Factory workers? The kind of work environment you create can have a big effect on motivation levels. If your work setting facilitates flow state, you’re going to have happier workers who are far more productive.

To get into the state of flow, a person needs to have a challenge that requires some skill. It’s important that the challenge is not too simple or too complex for the individual. According to Csikszentmihalyi, the creator of the term “flow,” it’s “a constant balancing act between anxiety, where the difficulty is too high for the person’s skill, and boredom, where the difficulty is too low.”

Csikszentmihalyi gave these specific conditions that create the opportunity for the onset of flow, which are valuable to know in running any company.

1. Specific, clear goals
2. Availability of immediate feedback
3. An appropriate match between the challenge and a person’s skill
4. Coming together of action and awareness
5. A strong focus on the task at hand
6. Perception that one is in control of the situation
7. Loss of consciousness of one’s self
8. Absorption into a task that allows one to lose track of time
9. Intrinsic motivation

How do Csikszentmihalyi’s specific conditions translate to creating flow within your company?

Knowing what flow is, the phases of flow, and the conditions that allow a person to enter into flow, you may be wondering how you can encourage flow as you are leading blue collar workers.

The points below tie into Csikszentmihalyi’s nine points above.

Flow within your company:

1. Create clear company goals

Set clear goals for your contractors and employees. Rather than work being something they have to invest energy into to achieve a leader’s goals, create organizational goals as well as team goals. Encourage your employees to align with the goals of the company. And give feedback that is clear, encouraging and constructive as they work toward those company goals. It’s important that employees feel a sense of ownership in the goals of the company, but also autonomy with healthy accountability.

2. Give feedback immediately

Performance reviews are great, but they are not the only or best way to give feedback. Recognizing an employee, mentoring or coaching them, and supporting employees engaging with each other can be a positive form of motivation. This can be done via a peer feedback program or through a company-wide initiative. A great example of this is video games. When a person plays a video game, they get real, in- time feedback on their progress and how they are doing in the game. The best work environments are similar. The key to remember is that the performance, not the person, is being evaluated.

3. Be aware of employees’ strengths and weaknesses

It’s important to be aware of your employee’s strengths and weaknesses so that you can match their talent to the right job within the company. Not everyone is meant to be a shift lead and not everyone is meant to interact with customers. The balance between being challenged by a task, and having the skill set for success in the task, is a big key to flow.

4. Align thoughts, intentions, feelings, and senses

Tasks that are performed with ease are not often associated with flow. It’s important to match awareness with action. If a task is done repetitively, it’s not likely to promote a flow state. Tasks that encourage concentration and discipline, ones in which thoughts, intentions, feelings, and senses are aligned on achieving the same outcome, create the harmony needed to encourage the state of flow.

5. Encourage employees to develop willpower

Help employees to be in the present moment by encouraging them to be thoughtful with where they put their attention. If any employee is overwhelmed, it’s important to encourage them to focus on something else. It’s also important to help them minimize distractions and, as noted above, encourage them to focus on overall future team goals and how they are helping work toward those goals. These factors cultivate willpower in your employees.

6. Promote executive function

Control of our inner emotions depends on understanding the ownership, having a sense of independence, and learning how to master skills. This encourages what is known as executive functioning. It’s what allows us to use self-control, especially when a situation for the potential of heightened emotions comes up. Allow your employees to practice some autonomy within the workplace and minimize micro-managing.

7. Worry less!

Worrying about rules, expectations, and how others perceive us can prevent us from getting into the state of flow. Encouraging employees to focus on what they can control, themselves and their own reactions and behaviors, will allow them to build that sense of self-control and worry less.

8. Allow for flexibility

When possible, allowing employees to have flexibility with their schedules and project time is important. When we are responding to our internal clocks and not to external pressure, we often produce better results in our work. One of the best indications that an employee is in a deep state of flow is when the perception of time is distorted or lost.

9. Internal motivation is key

Research shows that when motivation is internal, instead of external, it is more powerful. Internally motivated employees will typically have greater long-term outcomes and pursue goals more efficiently. This is because internal motivation often allows us to feel both autonomous and competent. One of the keys to encouraging internal motivation is to cultivate flow, in the ways noted in the first 8 points above.

Creating the conditions for flow within your company is what will allow for long-term growth and overall success. Flow encourages employees to engage in work in an efficient and productive manner. It also creates a sense of autonomy and accomplishment and fosters a healthy workplace environment. These are all important for employee happiness, retention, and productivity.

The idea of the state of flow was first introduced by Hungarian psychologist, Mihaly Csizkszentmihalyi. His work on mental focus and engagement started in the 1990s, and he came up with the “flow” term that we use today.

What is flow?

Flow is when a person is so focused on a task and their intention is so intense that they lose track of everything else. Attention is given to only that singular activity and there is no brain bandwidth left for other activities. It’s when a person almost feels at one with the task they are working on.

The state of flow, as it is often referred to, actually feels good. It produces neurochemicals and amplifies brain waves that are addictive because they feel so good. This creates a sense of motivation that is natural.

What happens during flow?

During flow we are so absorbed in the activity or task that we are tuned inward. Time becomes distorted. The energy that we normally use focusing on external things becomes energy-efficient, and we begin to process our subconscious thoughts at a faster rate. This creates increased attention to the task at hand.

Processing information happens quicker and pattern recognition is heightened. Neuroscience confirms that all of this relates to our natural biology. During these times of being in the state of flow, our intuition is also enhanced. Due to this enhancement, we can grasp information that would normally be beyond what we are consciously aware of.

The additional chemicals created during flow also allow us to store information more efficiently. Being able to store information more efficiently means that we can move what would normally be short-term memories to long-term memories. And creating long-term memories is one of the biggest keys to creativity and learning.

Being in the state of flow also creates a sense of selflessness. We stop hearing our inner voice and chatter. The anxiousness that we experience as humans is neutralized as the external world falls away. This helps create the sensation of effortlessness as we complete the task at hand.

What are the benefits of flow?

Besides enhancing our creativity and ability to learn, one of the best benefits to the state of flow is that it increases our performance. When a person is in the state of flow they are both being and doing as optimally as possible.

Being engaged in the work being done benefits both the individual in flow as well as the company he or she works for. Some of the other benefits include enhanced creativity, a stronger sense of intuition, increased motivation, and the desire to continue to engage in learning.

Can you imagine running a business where both you and your employees are in a constant state of flow? Where everyone is both being and doing all their tasks at their heightened best performance state?

That sounds like an incredible workplace, for both employees and leaders.

Next, we will look at the four phases that happen as we experience flow.

The Four Phases of Flow:

To start the process of getting into these four phases, we must go beyond our comfort zone and be willing to challenge ourselves and our sense of self.

1. “Struggle Phase”: This phase does not feel good. During this phase we experience frustration and tension, sometimes even stress or anxiety.
2. “Release Phase”: This phase occurs when we’ve decided we will accept the challenge of the task at hand. To accept the challenge, we need to step away from the problem and allow our body to activate our parasympathetic nervous system, which allows us to relax.
3. “Flow Phase”: This comes right after our brains release several chemicals that allow us to shift from conscious thought to subconscious processing. This is when we lose track of time and experience the feeling of being at one with the task at hand.
4. “Recovery Phase”: This is the last stage, and it happens as our brain begins to rewire itself and store the experience of flow that we just had. It’s a critical piece as it allows our brain to rebuild and balance the experience so that we can retain the skills and/or knowledge we just learned.

How do we enter the state of flow?

Sadly, it is not possible to always be in the state of flow. It’s a state that we have to work to create for ourselves, especially in the world of constant distractions that we live in today.

So how, as a leader, can you work to help create this state of flow for both yourself and your employees?

In our next blog in this series, we will go over part two, which is how to create the conditions to enter into the state of flow. This process will benefit your workers and YOU as you are leading your blue collar workers.

The real question is how can you build trust quickly with the right leads so that this all comes together. As a general contractor business coach, I believe this process of building trust happens by selling with action.

What are the exact steps to selling with action?

Know that people buy YOU first:

So many people miss the fact that prospective clients buy you, the salesperson, first. After that comes the company you work for and then the product you’re selling or providing. This means you have to look the part. Have nice boots on, clean your work truck, put your phone in your pocket when you’re talking to the prospective client and look them in the eye. Make that sales prospect feel like they are the most important person in your world during your conversations.

Understand that telling isn’t selling:

What I’ve learned over the years is that telling does not constitute selling. For example, I’m not going to tell you how great my company’s product is, but I am going to show you. I’ll have samples and client success stories ready to share with you. I’ll bring photos of successfully completed projects, and I’ll ensure that you have a visual for what we are discussing.

Be on time. If you say you’ll call someone at 2:00 pm, call them at 2:00 pm. If you have a meeting set up, you don’t need to be an hour early to the meeting but don’t be late, either. If you tell a prospect something, back up your words with non-verbal action and communication.

Talk to someone, not at them:

Talking at someone will never work in sales. Instead of talking at someone, have a conversation. Explain how the process will work when they sign on. Encourage them to ask questions. Make time for them to feel heard and important.

Ask open-ended questions:

Open-ended questions start with why, how, what, describe, or tell. One example of an open ended question is: “Tell me what’s the most important thing you’d like to see done during this project?”

Know the questions you need to ask in order to get the important information you need to make the proposal and bid feel specific to the prospect and their needs. Then follow up with the action step of mentioning how you will specifically address their need in the proposal you send them.

Don’t assume:

Don’t assume that you know their budget for the project. For many prospects quality will matter more than the price, so give them options. Ask what’s important to them so you know how to guide their selection process. Then demonstrate to them that you are the expert contractor they need by showing them the materials that will work best for their project and budget.

Set yourself apart from the rest:

If you know that other people and businesses are getting the same leads you are, find ways to set yourself apart. Are you being memorable in the right way? Be memorable by asking the right questions, by appearing professional, and by sending a formal proposal or bid. Proposals and bids should not be drafted on the back of a piece of paper. Show that you’re not in over your head and that you want their business by creating a proposal that looks clean and professional.

Relationships Matter:

The saying “once a customer, always a customer” is the key to a lifelong business. Relationships matter and if you want your sales to increase over time and to receive referrals from past clients, it’s important to remember that a customer will always be a customer. Don’t write them off after the project is complete. Follow up with a simple thank you card for their business, or a quick thank you phone call. You worked hard to earn their trust to secure the proposal. Follow through to the end by ensuring they know how much you appreciated that business. Turn them into a forever customer.

When you meet a new prospective customer, think through how you’d like to be treated. We’ve all had experiences of being sold to – some experiences are more positive than others. Think through the last time you made a large purchase, on either an item or a service. What made you trust that salesperson? What made you feel good about buying it? Then implement those same action steps into your sales conversations.

Why Upskill?

There is so much new technology that has come about in recent years and is continuing to develop. Upskilling allows you to teach your employees how to adjust, adapt and use the newest technology to better their work lives and performance. It also teaches your employees how to move into leadership roles that may not have been as necessary prior to technological advancements. Upskilling allows you to help your employees bridge the gap between technology and implementation. If you’re looking for tips on how to motivate blue collar workers, upskilling is a great method.

Blue-collar businesses will continue to adapt and adjust to new technology in areas surrounding how to use tools in production. Along with that, they must continue to facilitate growth in management as it relates to technology. They need to open opportunities for people to oversee systems, run reports, and ensure proper maintenance of any new tools.

As society continues to see record high job openings and employees leaving companies during this time of the “Great Resignation,” it’s key that business owners and leadership understand internal training. By teaching your employees upskilling, you’re teaching them how to create and instill the techniques employees need to feel successful and valuable, as well as how to think more critically about key issues going forward.

Times They Are A-Changing

In years past, many in the blue collar work industry only needed a solid foundation of work ethic and a healthy body to build a thriving career. Today, things are very different. Many of those from the Boomer era are retiring, and the new generation of those who could become blue collar workers are choosing white-collar jobs. Many of those in the new generation are shying away from blue collar jobs because of the reputation those jobs have for being so intensive in labor.

It’s important to adjust blue collar jobs so that they offer the opportunity for workers to grow, learn, and adapt. Blue collar workers must learn to work different systems and see issues before they happen, even in the most complex of manufacturing production environments.

This means that education doesn’t end when school or training ends. Instead, this means that today’s blue collar workers must still be willing to perform on the job physically, but also keep up with the trends in technology and management. They must accept that they will need additional training several times over throughout their career, in order to keep up with advancements in technology.

How to Upskill your Employees?

In addition to the obvious benefits and continual need to train your employees on issues related to safety and compliance, it’s important to teach them skills such as how to work together on a team, how to set both individual and team goals, and how to solve unexpected problems quickly and efficiently.

• Encourage goal setting. Establish targets for your company. Then, have individual employees set goals that support those targets. This not only gives each employee something to strive for but fosters the goodwill that comes from working together toward a common goal.
• Teach communication. No matter what your industry is, good communication is always needed. This can help avoid misunderstandings that could hurt your business outcomes and staff morale. Along with this, make sure to teach conflict resolution – how does a manager handle a conflict when it arises in the field or on the production line? It’s a rare dispute that can’t be defused through skilled and diplomatic negotiations. On the other hand, poor conflict resolution can lead to an explosive and toxic work culture.
• Build emotional intelligence. Some people innately have more emotional intelligence than others, but it can be developed. Emotional intelligence refers to being aware of your own internal response and managing your own emotions so that you can interact effectively with others, even in stressful situations. Knowing how to control your stress response can pay off in untold dividends down the road, both in keeping employees and customers long-term.
• Train for tech. Providing employees with the trainings they need to keep up with technology changes is imperative if you want to stay ahead of the competition. Maybe there’s a new industry app that employees need to use in the field. Or repairs that can be performed on your equipment in-house. Employees will appreciate expanding their skillset, and you’ll have a smarter, more capable workforce.

If you’re leading blue collar workers, you can’t afford to perpetuate static leadership. By continuing to help your employees grow in both technical skills and in emotional and leadership knowledge, you’re creating a true environment for success within a company. Your workers can be your greatest asset if you take the time to help them cultivate new skills.

It seems obvious, then, that it’s much better to invest in retaining employees than to have to deal with the expense of consistent turnover. During this time of the “Great Resignation” when so many are leaving their jobs, how can you work to retain your best employees?

In my work as a blue collar business coach working with everyone from custom home builders to factory owners, I’ve come up with five tips that seem to make the biggest difference when it comes to employee retention.

1. Incorporate flexibility into your employees’ schedules

It’s wise to think through if you need your employees in the office, or if they can do their work from home. It can also be wise to think through if they need to be on a 9-to-5 workday, Monday – Friday, or if there’s room for flexibility in those hours and days.

Sometimes, of course, the answer will be “Yes, I need you in the office on these specific days and times.” But often, asking your employees about what works well for them can lead to an arrangement that works well for everyone. Perhaps you have an employee who works better from home, without a long commute added to their day. Perhaps another employee prefers to be at the office for work. Maybe the best hours for one of them is on Saturdays or later in the evenings when they can focus without distractions, instead of a typical 9-to-5.

2. Ask and listen

You won’t know what works best for your employees until you ask them. You want your business to run impactfully and efficiently, but top-down decisions aren’t necessarily the best way to get there. When you rely on input from your employees, you’re most likely going to end up with a higher-yield business in the long run.

Set up ways to receive feedback from your employees by asking pertinent questions and allowing them to give feedback in a safe and direct manner.

3. Recognize your employees

People like to be thanked and appreciated for their work, so recognizing employees needs to be an important part of your business.

Gallup did a study a few years ago of the American workforce and the study showed that only one in three employees strongly agreed that they had received recognition for doing good work within the last seven days. The Gallup data also showed that people who don’t feel appropriately recognized are twice as likely to say they’ll quit in the next year.

The simple act of creating a recognition program for employees within your company can help you retain employees.

This can take the form of an Employee of the Month program or a spotlight at company meetings or a feature in the company newsletter. Gifts are nice incentives to go along with these recognition programs, but if you don’t have the budget for that, a personal note or complimentary words shared in a public setting can go a long way.

4. Think beyond the initial employee training

The importance of initial training for a new employee is critical. There’s the human relations onboarding, the deep dive into company policies, and a thorough introduction to your company’s culture. But are you following up two months after the initial hire? What about six months later?

New employees can give you a great deal of information about both your recruiting and your onboarding processes, and they can also give you a fresh take on your company culture. New employees will be trying to put their best foot forward with the company, and it’s important that your company does the same.

Getting new employees’ feedback ensures that they are happy with their role and with the company at large and helps encourage them to stay and grow within the company.

5. Professional Development is important – for your employees and yourself

Employees who are given the opportunity for professional development and who understand the expectation of growth culture will stick around. Keeping professional development as a core expectation within your company ensures that your employees are not becoming stagnant and bored. It also allows them to grow into leadership positions within the company.

Sometimes professional development can look like a mentorship program within the company, other times it can be investing in someone to come and speak to your employees or lead a workshop. The time and effort devoted to professional development convey to your employees that you care about their growth and success within the company.

The key takeaway

Remember that there is value in helping your employees have an open dialogue with management, an understanding of a clear mission, and knowledge of the expectations for their success within the company as well as the company’s overall results. Retaining employees and ensuring their happiness within the company is best for your bottom line.

Below is a list of the most important things to look for when attempting to spot conflict. We’ll also share ideas for mitigating this conflict.

No one wants to deal with conflict in the workplace, and no one automatically knows how to resolve every workplace conflict that they are presented with. But following these guidelines and approaching each situation with intention, curiosity, dedication to the company’s overall best interest, and empathy toward your employees can make conflict manageable.

The Most Important Thing:

In my trade business coaching, I always stress that the most important thing you can do about conflict in the workplace is to be proactive in spotting and addressing it.

Some signs you can look for to spot conflict before it gets out of hand are:

• A drop in the quality of work that an employee is producing or a drop in how they are performing
• A decrease in water-cooler chatter. Less talking about the simple things, and less general friendliness between employees.
• An increase in requests for days off and/or sick leave being taken.
• An increase in requests for changes to routine assignments
• An increase in requests to move to other teams.
• New problems being brought up in one-on-one meetings

What you’re looking for in these signs is a change in behavior amongst one or a few employees that is both new and unexpected. This is a red flag that there is more going on.

How to Assist in Resolving Conflict:

The best way to assist when there is conflict is to listen, provide consideration to all sides, ask clarifying questions, and make any final decisions with empathy and based on facts, not emotions.

Below we outline the four tips in more detail.

Listen:

When an employee comes to you with a conflict, put your phone down, close your laptop, and offer the employee your undivided attention. Listen carefully to what they have to say about what’s causing them distress. Understand that all conflict has three sides – their side, the other side, and the unbiased truth. The employee talking with you needs to understand that you hear them, even if you don’t agree with their perspective.

Consideration:

Remember that the employees involved likely have heightened emotions. Have your employees listen to each other. Then, have them summarize each other’s points of view on what they agree and disagree on. Show them consideration during the conversation and model the type of interaction that you would like for them to have with each other. Keep an open mind for yourself, and manage your own emotions during the discussion.

Questions:

Ask clarifying questions that don’t place blame or fault, but that seek to better understand. Try to ask “what” questions or “how” questions over “why” questions. “Why” questions can often be seen as judgmental, so avoid them if you can. Ensure that you’re not putting words into your employees’ mouths and that you are asking questions that allow them to express their concerns and frustrations.

Decisions:

If the employees can’t reach a compromise on their own, then you will have to make a decision. The decision isn’t about who is “right” or who is “wrong” – the decision is about what is best for the team, the company as a whole, and for overall employee morale. Be willing to hear frustrations about your decision, but hold the expectation that their feedback will be delivered professionally. Make sure you keep appropriate documentation on the event, the solutions offered, and the final outcome.

Final thoughts on resolving conflict:

The whole process, from noticing the potential for conflict or the conflict being brought to you, to going through the process of assisting with resolving the conflict and making a final decision, needs to be handled with empathy.

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and to see things from their point of view. Being empathetic does not mean you agree with them, it simply means that you are trying to better understand where they are coming from. Empathy allows you to ask questions and to give a final decision from a place of firmness but also kindness. Showing empathy during times of conflict and distress allows employees to feel heard and to know that no matter the final decision, you have their best interests as well as the company’s best interest at heart.

If you’re in this position, how do you determine which strategy you need? Below is an overview of the benefits and downfalls of both SEO and PPC.

Benefits of Pay Per Click:

Pay Per Click, sometimes known as “pay to play,” leads to quicker exposure for businesses and there is more short-term control over the results. Google Ads and social media ads are great examples of PPC. The ads can be turned on and off, directed toward a certain market, run quickly and you can control where the ads show up. When running ads you can determine if an ad shows up on the top of a Google search results page, or on the sidebar of Facebook. The other good thing is that you can see quickly from data if the money you are spending is resulting in sales or not. The numbers are there for a quick report, and testing, re-testing, and tweaking are the keys to PPC.

Downfalls of Pay Per Click:

The downfall to PPC is that you don’t own the platform the ads are shown on. You’re paying to have your business show up on Google or a social media platform. With that comes a need to spend a daily budget. While the ads can be a quick win, you will need to keep the ad spend flowing, and that budget can increase or decrease dramatically depending on the season or the market. One easy example: social media ads always increase in cost around the Christmas holiday. So not only will you always need a daily spending budget, you never know how that will ebb and flow to get maximum results.

Benefits of Search Engine Optimization:

One of the biggest benefits of SEO is the long-term return on investment. There’s stability in SEO. Once you’ve achieved successful SEO results, it’s there for the long term. Often for higher market value businesses, such as contracting companies and hardware businesses, SEO is the better option.

With SEO you own the platform: your own website! And since you own your website, and it ranks organically on Google and other search engines, you never have to worry about paying for it to show up on search results via an advertisement. Any competitors you may have can’t just outbuy you on an ad cost, which means you have a strategic advantage for the long-term, especially against those who are only leveraging PPC.

You’ll also have the benefit of enhanced trust and confidence from potential customers who come to your website. Since they found you from an online search organically, and not from seeing a paid ad, they’ll give you the benefit of their trust from the organic search result.

Downfalls to Search Engine Optimization:

The biggest downfall to SEO is that it doesn’t work overnight. You can’t just turn on an ad and immediately get results. It doesn’t have quick data to test, either. It simply takes longer to get the data and desired results.

SEO is typically not a good investment for seasonal retail products that are low cost, have a smaller profit margin, and need fast results during the holidays. Think of the ads you see around Christmas time for tree ornaments or specific holiday toys. Those are usually best served with ads, not with long-term SEO.

Benefits of Investing in Both:

There may be a time when investing in PPC and SEO will benefit your business. This can occur when a business wants the short-term result of PPC but has the ability to invest in the long game of SEO, knowing that once SEO begins to get traction, they can decrease their paid ad budget or eliminate it altogether.

Which is the best strategy?:

Typically, for high ticket items and long-term sales, SEO investment will be the best strategy for your business. SEO will usually see the highest return on investment, but since it takes time, you will need a business that can maintain profitability as that happens.

SEO will allow you to grow your business the same as you would grow muscles. It might be slow, and you’ll have to eat your veggies and protein along the way, but the payout will be significantly more, and you’ll be building a stronger and more trustworthy brand site that you own.

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1. Stay On Top of It

Once you’re busy, it’s easy to stay busy. Between responding to emails, attending meetings, working on projects, and an endless number of miscellaneous urgent tasks, proofreading an SEO post might be low on the docket for the day. You might push your SEO-related tasks back a day, a week, and before you know it, a month has gone by. Indefinitely postponing your SEO posts is a shot in the foot, particularly if you’re still paying someone else to handle it.

The search engine algorithms prefer recent, frequent, and consistent content. Each time you postpone a post, you’re lowering the impact your SEO makes. The key is to keep your SEO posts rolling on schedule, so if you’re so swamped that you’re unable to keep up with them, you may need to find someone else in the company who can ensure consistent communication with your SEO firm.

2. Keep Communicating

Once you have your campaign up and running, check in regularly to keep your campaign in line with your company’s goals. If your business starts to focus on one particular product or service, you should modify the campaign to match or risk sending clients in the wrong direction.

A quick document, meeting, or even a video or audio recording of feedback can keep your SEO team moving in the right direction. Small adjustments will help keep your SEO aligned with your company’s interests, goals, philosophy, and brand.

3. Find a Leader

Using a single representative of the company to interface with your SEO team will keep your SEO operation streamlined and efficient. Each layer of leadership that has a voice in the decision-making process will add time to that process, but most decisions can be made by a single person. Even if your chosen representative needs to run their decisions by other managers, having a single, designated spokesperson means your chosen SEO company only has to wait for sign-off from a single source. That beats waiting on staggered replies from multiple company representatives and bogging down the process. Additionally, any disagreements can be resolved in-house, rather than in a chain of conflicting email responses with your SEO team.

4. Let Your SEO Team Handle the Small Stuff

The urge to micromanage can be strong, but don’t let it control you. Micromanaging projects isn’t just frustrating for the team you’re managing, but it is a time-eater for you, and it distracts from the big picture. You’ve made goals, decided on a campaign plan, and hired a team to implement it. Now let them do their job!

Over-focusing on copy editing or choosing stock photos or quibbling over minor design elements is rarely the most effective use of your time. Choose only the most important issues to address with your SEO team and let them sweat the small stuff. You have hired a team that you believe to be competent—now trust them to do the work for you. If there are large issues that need to be addressed, by all means, let them know, but leave the writing and editing to the writers and editors.

5. Listen to Experts

Steve Jobs once said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” Just like you should trust your workers to do the work for you, you should trust experts to guide your decision-making.

SEO specialists have years of experience in producing focused content that will channel customers to your business. While it’s up to you to decide what parts of your business you want to promote, who you want to attract in your campaign, and how you ultimately run your company, it’s up to your SEO team to make the SEO part of the equation work. Their job is ultimately to facilitate your goals, not to fight you on minor details. If you’re getting pushback from your team on how to make your campaign more effective, it’s likely they have the experience and data to back it up. Slow down, listen, and learn. Then make your decisions alongside the experts with the best information available.

6. Good Things Take Time

A costly ad blitz can generate quick results, but SEO is a slow and steady approach that cuts costs and generates long-term success. Initial results may take a little longer, but an SEO campaign will create a more sustainable, cost-friendly ad campaign that builds on itself. The longer you stick with it, the more credibility you build as a brand that appears on the first page of search engine results. Abandoning an SEO campaign early will leave you stuck in obscurity, wasting the time you spent building it and without a path forward in effective digital marketing.

Whether you’re figuring out how to grow a hardware business or run a home building business more effectively, hiring an SEO company is a powerful way to boost your revenue, as long as you use them effectively. A thoughtful campaign, communicated and managed appropriately, with experts and experienced team members doing the work, will reap huge benefits for you and your business.

My father started the company in 1974 and ran it single-handedly with about 15 employees working with him. At that size, it was possible for everything to go across his desk, and he made sure it did. He liked to have control over every facet of the business. He managed to keep this managerial style throughout his career, growing the business from a small operation to a $10 million company. While he was obviously successful, his business was static. There was no room for new ideas, new growth, or changes in direction driven by his employees.

One of his employees was me. It was frustrating to deal with his black and white thinking. Either an idea or process was successful, or it was a failure. There was no capacity for anticipating the future or foreseeing the shifts in the industry ahead of time. Other employees and I would suggest ideas, only to be shot down.

The first idea we managed to implement was switching to an in-house marketing team. We knew there was a need for better marketing, especially as relics like the Yellow Pages slowly became irrelevant to our customers. This small change worked wonders. In 2014 our sales increased, and we demonstrated that small changes in strategy could drive growth.

When my father finally bowed out of the business, I gained more control over how our company was run. After spending a lifetime watching my father, my instinct was to continue running the business the way he had. Tight control over every decision. This method was exhausting. I was burnt out from micromanaging every aspect of every project. As I grew into the role of a leader, I realized that leadership means allowing your employees to do their job without you looking over their shoulder. You can create space for them to work and to exhibit their own expertise.

Restructure for Growth

This meant restructuring the business. In order to meet our goals, which centered on growth, less burnout for me, and a way to let our employees contribute more meaningfully to the company, we had to change. It was at this point that we restructured Rocky Mountain Forest Products to let the managers do more managing. The growth after this point was staggering, as we set increasingly lofty goals and smashed through them with each project. By the time we made it through the learning curve, we had grown our business from $10 million to $40 million. We quadrupled our business.

With all this success came new struggles. While the managers had more freedom, the growth exposed gaps in our processes, where things occasionally fell through. The expansion in the business had left us spread thin, struggling to keep up. This forced us to restructure once again, as we created a new level of executives starting with C: CFO, CEO, etc. The restructuring allowed us to keep up with projects, continue growing, and continue delivering on projects.

For example, one of our employees had more than two decades of experience with our company as a salesman and sales manager. That amount of experience in the processes, products, and day-to-day interaction with customers left him uniquely qualified to understand our needs as a company. By making him our Vice President of Efficiency and Integration, we leveraged his invaluable experience to help us streamline and improve our company.

Empower Your Staff

We invest heavily in our staff, from top to bottom. From sales training to management training, we are pouring resources into our employees, so they can rise to the challenges that meet them. We find that the more we add to our employees, the more they add to our company. Allowing the employees to drive new changes within the company has kept us changing and adjusting to keep up with new trends and challenges. This symbiotic relationship between the company and the employees has not just allowed employees to unlock their own potential but created efficiency within the company.

Keep Perspective

As the leader of a company, it is imperative to consider the broadest perspective. While the details are important, getting bogged down in the details can prevent you from understanding the systemic issues. Getting feedback from down the line will let you identify your pitfalls and company-wide challenges, which in turn allows you to address them by changing course, restructuring, or implementing feedback from your team.

When we are leaders on a construction site or in any trades business, our role should be as a coach, just like coaching football. Our value is being able to see the whole field and draw from years of experience to make decisions on how we play the game, but it is up to our players to make decisions on the field. Our value is in the broad perspective of the sidelines, not our ability to play on the offensive line.

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Friends and fans know that I am a staunch advocate for subtle leadership. While the stereotype of leaders, particularly in the trades, is a rough and tough man with harsh things to say and little tolerance for BS, I don’t think that is the most effective way to lead a team or get a project done. Not only is it ineffective in motivating employees, but it is a draining way to work for the leader. I don’t know about you, but I get worn out and hoarse if I cuss and yell too much. It is far simpler to tell my team what I want to achieve and let them figure it out. In other words, I think it is easier to let people do what I hired them for.

Here is the thing: Have you ever had a boss with a stick up his rear? Do you feel like having him breathe down your neck motivated you? Or made work even remotely enjoyable? Probably not. The same is true when you’re running a construction company. Being forced to do someone else’s work without input in how it gets done is miserable, especially when you know there is a better way to do it. It might seem easier to dictate how you want things done, but in a business of any size, it’s likely you don’t know how to do an employee’s job as efficiently as the person you hired to do it full time. Worse, the more you push a dictatorial way of leading, the less likely your employees will be to disagree with you.

Give Your Employees Room to Grow

I spent so much time trying to convince employees to do things my way. I wasted energy trying to persuade others that my way was the best way. Sometimes I managed to convince them, sometimes we walked away in disagreement, even if they didn’t vocally disagree. After years of trying to lead this way, I finally started asking my employees, “What would you do instead?”

This question changed our dynamic. Rather than trying to persuade or argue, I was listening to an employee enthusiastically explain their idea. They want to prove their idea works, and they are usually willing to work hard to make that happen. I started to use this method constantly, even when I knew for a fact that my way was better. Sometimes I wanted an employee to learn from their own mistakes.

For example, I had a head manager of a sales team struggling with two individuals who only did the bare minimum in their positions. They never attempted to improve. My head manager poured all of his energy into these two individuals, trying to get them to improve. He knew that the business needed to grow, and if it was going to grow- these two salespeople needed to grow with it.

I told the manager that he was wasting his time with these two individuals. They weren’t interested in growing. With 27 years of experience, I could see the red flags in these employees that showed they didn’t want to be helped or coached in how to improve. I let that manager attempt to change these employees for a year. Unlike the two problem individuals, this manager allowed me to coach him from the sidelines and listened when I suggested reasons they should be let go. Eventually, the manager learned on his own that some employees just aren’t a good fit for our company, regardless of how much you help them.

It was painful to watch him struggle with these individuals in his department, but in the end, it made our manager stronger in his position, as he has the experience to recognize similar characters in the future. While it hindered our growth for a little while, I know he won’t make the same mistake again.
That means the time and energy we spent on those employees wasn’t wasted; it gave us a better manager.

The moral of this story is that employees need space to work and to learn. Allowing small failures provides valuable learning through trial and error. The successes we gain from allowing employees to experiment with what works may very well pay off down the road.

Ask and Support

Personally, I never dictate our growth plans. Instead, I ask my employees, “What are your plans for growth next year?” Then we work together to make sure that plan is implemented appropriately. While some new leaders or managers need guidance on what plans are viable, I always try to work with their ideas because I know people will work harder to implement an idea that reflects on them than they will to implement an idea that only reflects on me.

I’ve personally seen the benefits of cultivating this leadership style in the company, from top to bottom. Letting employees do their work their way means putting the people who are most in contact with the day-to-day conditions of their job in charge, letting them create the most efficient processes, and giving them the freedom to create success.

This was recently apparent to me when visiting one of our lumberyards. The yard was in pristine condition and running flawlessly. The upper management gave freedom to their operation team to achieve the results they were asked to achieve themselves. This allowed the operations team to strategize the outcome. They set up their own procedures and designated responsibilities in a way that had never been done before. I saw how each individual foreman took great pride in their role in achieving the end result. I saw how much happier their team was when we allowed them to participate in the company’s success. This is the power of subtle leadership.