What 2009 Taught Me

What 2009 Taught Me
In 2009, many businesses ground to a halt – almost a complete stop. Corporate customers stopped buying. Consumer sentiment was down, and people stopped spending. In the U.S., this was our entire economy. Most leaders found themselves navigating uncharted business waters, and leadership became narrowly focused on one thing: survival. I am proud to say I made it through to the healthy market now in its tenth year. However, I remember every vivid detail of how I spent my days as the President of a once #20 Baker’s Dozen RPO firm during the recession. Here is a candid look at my recession-era experiences from that time and the lessons I learned.

Failure is a Good Thing

During the recession, much of my day involved customers calling by the dozens to say they were no longer hiring that year. “Yes, I know we have a contract for services, however, I need you to simply cancel services.” I couldn’t blame them. They were feeling the same pressures I was. I remember the fear, frantic calls, and discussions with my staff and managers. We were living in a whole new world. At first, everyone played nice at work. We were all in this together, right? We were a good company with solid values and a great culture. We could survive anything together. But we were all nervous. Big contracts went away, one right after the other. Our recruiters came to work knowing there were no placements to be made. I’m sure they felt that their clock was ticking. Eventually our business shrunk. Staff had to leave. Or be asked to leave. Everyone was fighting to feed their family and pay their bills – the future trajectory of their career was an afterthought. We all had fewer choices. My people found new jobs. Me? I had to stay and decide if I would run or fight. I’m not ashamed to admit that the “let’s get the hell out of here” path looked all too welcoming at times. But I wasn’t going to give in.

“A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.” – B.F. Skinner

I stayed and fought. And for a long time, I did every job in the company. And no, I didn’t do it near as well as the folks who left. I worked for less. Some weeks I worked for free. I survived, so no failure…right? Wrong. I failed. But as a company, we emerged stronger through the failure. Here’s what 2009 taught me:
  • Entrepreneurs are only done when they throw in the towel.
  • Money can always be found even if it’s at a premium.
  • My first business was not recession-proof, but you better believe Placers is recession-proof. Here’s why:
    • We make money to save money.
    • We avoid debt to grow.
    • We pay attention to the economy and how it impacts staffing.
    • We move up and down with GDP.
    • We have a good business model that is proven.
    • We’re not a jack of all trades so we can be a master where it matters.
    • We know where we are going and relentlessly work towards that plan.
Throughout the recession, I was humbled. I had to be depressed. I went to work numb. I worked out a lot. I had dinner with my family. I could not work late – there was nothing to work on. Every minute I was not looking for new customers or ways to lower costs, I spent staring at my notebook hoping the answer to my problem would magically find its way on to the paper. What I found out at the end is that painful situations fade. They get better. Everything changes. One of those things was my focus. I was going to learn a lesson from failure and run my business resiliently, and I still do. The biggest lesson? We’ll never, ever, ever, ever quit. How about you?

The Story of the Bucket

The Story of the Bucket
The world of business is fast-changing. Fickle, almost. Climates evolve rapidly, markets come and go, consumer demand is continually in flux. Any company that navigates these inherent trials and tribulations with grace isn’t doing so because of sheer dumb luck. They have a secret sauce: Their employees. The lifeblood of any company is its people. It’s the individual and unified ideas, thoughts, solutions, innovations of employees that make up the heart of any organization and ultimately cement its differentiators in an otherwise crowded marketplace. Why then, after making a great hire, are many organizations tempted to force exceptional talent into the rigid confines of an empty space on a jigsaw puzzle? Operating under strict SOPs, essentially telling them to sit down, shut up, and do it “our way”? It’s counter-intuitive – and an unfortunate waste of the brilliance inside each and every one of their employees. I strive to avoid this pattern at Placers at all costs. When I sit down with one of our new team members, I tell them the story of the bucket. Take a look below.

The Story of the Bucket

When I started my first job right out of college, my new boss gave me a metaphorical empty bucket. Every day when I showed up on time or successfully completed my tasks, I would earn a thimble full of trust to fill my bucket. If I showed up late or made too many mistakes, I would consequently spill bits of trust out of my bucket. Frankly, in the early days I think I carried around an empty bucket that certainly had to have holes in it! I was a fresh college graduate. I had big ideas and a brain but did not always know how to use it. This company preached “earning trust”, but I came to learn that “earning trust” is subjective and finicky. It works off of fear. Instead, at Placers, we give out full buckets of trust on our employees’ first days. By starting with a full bucket, they’re able to spill some trust as they learn and experiment without fear. Thinking creatively and pushing the envelope won’t sink our ship, but it sure as hell might take it to even greater shores. In fact, a study by the Harvard Business Review showed that employees in high-trust companies reported 106% more energy at work and 76% more engagement than employees in low-trust companies. It really does matter.

“To be successful, you have to be out there. You have to hit the ground running and if you have a good team around you, and more than a fair share of luck, you might make something happen. But you certainly can’t guarantee it just by following someone else’s formula.”

Richard Branson

We say to our new hires: Don’t be afraid to spill a little! We need you, full body and soul, eager to make waves. We want you to be outspoken and curious. We need you to answer the call even though you don’t have the answer yet. We need you in all of your glory, not tepid and cautious because you don’t want to spill your bucket. We have big and important work to do together that can’t be accomplished with lukewarm ideas. Don’t be afraid of messing up. We trust you. So, yes, at Placers we like our buckets full – with just the right amount of water sloshing over the edges as our employees make leaps and bounds. That’s where our secret sauce is.

The Master Puppeteer

The Master Puppeteer
“Recently, I was meeting with our recruitment consultant, Freddy, over lunch and I shared this story. Back in the early days of Placers 1.0 and the CBI Group, we set out to propel one of the key tenants of our culture: employee empowerment. We asked ourselves how self-directed our teams could really be. Would they prefer an environment where they weren’t told what to do but instead treated like internal owners or “intrapreneurs”.  We gave our employees the power to make executive decisions, and the tools and support they needed to make wise ones. We developed a No Strings culture. Twenty-five years later I dare say it is the only way we can compete.” -Chris

The Master Puppeteer

Many organizations run as if they are a puppet show. Leaders are the puppeteers and employees are the marionettes. To drive the behavior of the marionette, the puppeteers subtly pull on a string. Seemingly like magic, the marionette follows the carefully calculated moves of the puppeteer. The strings are thin and transparent, barely visible until you take a closer look. As invisible as they may be, the marionette simply doesn’t have the freedom to make its own moves. In organizations, these strings can represent a number of things. Compensation and bonuses, performance management initiatives, strict SOPs, rigid management, a culture that is closed off to change, a fear of coloring outside of the lines, the list goes on. Inadvertently, the strings met to protect businesses are stifling the game-changing ideas that could make a big impact. My goal with Placers is to have No Strings. Ever. As servant leaders, one of our leadership team’s core goals is to provide the right people, that fit the right job, with the right tools and environment to succeed without dictating their decisions. Every employee must choose to take initiative every day, to continuously learn, to try new things, to support one another – to be great at what they do. To have No Strings each of us must:
  • Practice See/Think /Act. This is how we make solo and team decisions. Slow down. Gather all of the information. Analyze it. Then decide on the best approach.
  • Be a knowledge worker. We all must be on a quest to learn. What can you learn from someone today? What can you teach them? The key is to always better yourself. You are your best asset.
  • Own it. At Placers, one of our key values is to have no excuses. No Strings mean you own whatever comes your way. When we operate under this value, our productivity is limitless.
No Strings doesn’t mean our employees are on their own. It means that they, and their ideas, are trusted and valued.  A No Strings culture is rare – and is perhaps our greatest single day-to-day advantage. Help us stay true to our No Strings culture. If you’re a Placers employee and have identified processes that go against No Strings, just let me know. This is how we’ll get it right. Are you outside of Placers but want to receive weekly insights / tips / thoughts to ponder? Just follow the button below to subscribe to Outside Insights.