Mark: Today on Power Tips Unscripted. We talked to Peg Buehrle, a business coach with Remodelers Advantage. A business only grows as much as its key leaders grow, and in turn, as much as the team grows. Having a development plan for each person on your team is critical to growth. Peg is here to explain how to make this a priority, and we’ll hear all about it in just a minute.

Victoria: Hi, I’m Victoria Downing and welcome to Power Tips Unscripted, where we talk about tips, tactics and techniques to help you build a strong, profitable remodeling company. And I’m here with my co-host, Marc Harari.

Mark: Well good morning.

Victoria: Hi, there. How are you?

Mark: Very good. How are you?

Victoria: Good. I’m excited about this. This particular episode with a brand new, member of our Rei consulting team, so it’s pretty, pretty cool. I’m looking forward to it. Yeah.

Mark: It’s exciting how to create a development plan for people.

Victoria: So I’m going to need to develop one for you, I bet. Think I’ll get those kinds of tips.

Mark: I think I’m excluded.

Victoria: Yeah. You wish. All right. Shall we dive in?

Mark: Yeah. Jump in.

Victoria: Peg Buehrle is based in Columbus, Ohio, and she has been working with business owners and their teams for years. She’s the coauthor of The Honest Truth About Leadership and an internationally recognized speaker. Peg has 17 years of coaching experience and has helped hundreds of hundreds of businesses grow. And earlier this year, she joined the consulting team here at Remodelers Advantage.

Victoria: And I believe she’s going to be training as a facilitator for our roundtable groups this spring. As well. So welcome, Peg.

Peg: Well, thank you. And I will be joining your roundtable. facilitating. So I’m looking forward to that.

Victoria: Thank you. The members of roundtables are the best. They’re smart, they’re sophisticated, and they love talking. Strategies are my kind of people.

Peg: Yeah. Amen.

Victoria: Yeah. So we’re going to be talking today a little bit about, development plans for individuals and and building up your team. Peg, before we dive into the quest, the nitty gritty. How did you get into the aspect of team building that you are so very focused on these days?

Peg: So it started when I started as a coach. you know, you’re you start with the leader, right? You start with the owner. So you’re starting at the high level. And I did that for the first couple years. And what I was seeing is that as the business grew, sometimes the team was creating a separation from where the owner was and where the team was and what that was impacting was the fact that we couldn’t grow as fast.

Peg: We were losing some of our people, people, or we were doing a culture shift, but the team wasn’t on board. Okay. So and it’s really interesting because we’re talking about team growth and because I had made mistakes because we always learn from mistakes. Right? Right. And I’m like, okay, what I know as a coach is I’m leaving the team behind.

Peg: So when we work with companies and coach them, we say, we’re your coach, but we’re the company’s coach, right? We’re the company’s coach. This isn’t just for the owner. It’s not just for the president or it’s not just for production. It’s the entire team. And then we started getting better results.

Victoria: So does that mean, like, I was talking to one of a remodeler the other day who was talking about his company and the tech, sophistication that was being built into the company, and he was saying, I’ve got this great guys, but I don’t know if they’re going to be able to take me into the future. And we talked about that, that philosophy or that concept that sometimes you outgrow your people.

Victoria: They don’t they can’t keep up with you. So tell me about your thoughts on that.

Peg: Okay. So I’m going to use an example. that is true. So we were with a company. And what’s great is when you are doing round tables and when you’re doing, coaching, you are going to grow. That’s who we are with. We’re with people that are growing. So you might be a 1 million, well, let’s say even a half a million or 1 million or $2 million company.

Peg: And in five years you might go to a 7 million. Okay. All of a sudden, the things that we’ve asked of our team members at 1 million become different at 7 million. so they have to grow maybe to a seven, like, maybe I’m going to have more directory reports or some direct reports. I’ve never had a direct report.

Peg: How do I lead them to accountability and to results? So when we were in this room, this one company was growing dramatically. And I said, when you guys joined this team, why did you join it? What were you looking for? And is it is this company providing what you need still for you? and it’s okay to say no, that’s okay, because we want people on board that are fitting our culture on board with our vision, and they always want to improve and coachable.

Peg: And I always want to grow and improve. And as you grow, not everybody wants that on your team, right?

Victoria: Right. Because a lot of people I mean, I guess I wouldn’t know of statistically, but seems like quite a few people don’t really want more authority. They don’t want more responsibility. They prefer to stay small, keep their own little world, and just not rock the boat.

Peg: Exactly. In fact, we had one company where we were growing them and one of the reasons that we say why do you grow. Some people say Peg why do I want to grow. And I’m like well a lot of times it’s because the people that are really good want to be with a very, a, a company that’s growing and is developing.

Peg: And they know that the good people will stay with you.

Victoria: Yeah. If you don’t.

Peg: If you’re not under that mindset, you’re going to lose the good ones to people who are providing that.

Victoria: Now, define what you mean by grow.

Peg: Define it. Yeah. Oh so what I mean by defining is I’m innovating. I’m growing in profit. It doesn’t always have to be revenue but I’m looking for bigger, better ways of, of getting there. I mean, you’re going to get there faster. I’m going to get there with less effort. And there’s so many things that are involved in growth that I like how you said, how do we define growth?

Peg: So we have a company we’re working with right now who has seven employees. They do. They do quite a bit of revenue. Let’s say they’re at 10 million. I say quite a bit. That’s why I’m defining it, because I guess for anyone. Yeah. For for the seven employees. And we started coaching him and he said, I’m enjoying coaching and I like this.

Peg: He was successful before we came on as a coach. And he said, but I want greater impact. I’m going to go even faster. What do I need to do? And they said, I’m going to tell you my experience is we need to get your team involved.

Victoria: To.

Peg: Win the like, you know, how we at Remodelers Advantage have all of those master classes?

Victoria: Yes.

Peg: Routine in those master classes use that as leverage. Yes. Get your team to a higher level. That way, you’re not doing all the lifting. Right. How about you? We got to spread out the responsibilities, the accountability, the vision and the excitement.

Victoria: All right. That was great. Good. Because we are also of that mindset that it’s not just revenue. Right. Right. It’s GPS it’s net profit. It’s employee satisfaction. It’s customer satisfaction.

Peg: It’s happiness. It’s happiness. Happiness I always say let’s go for happiness and look what will happen.

Victoria: Yeah. What country was it that keeps getting, the highest ranked and happy people? I think it’s Finland or something. Norway. It’s one of those countries. Yes it is. All right, so let’s dive in a little bit. So what is a common admission that business owners have about their teams?

Peg: Well I would say almost when I, when I go into a company, I would say 99% of the companies do not have a plan for their people.

Victoria: Okay.

Peg: They don’t have a growth plan. So what I’m saying by that is okay, Victoria, where do you want to be? Like, let’s look at where you want to be. and let’s see what we need to do to get there over x amount of years. It could be a year. It could be. It could be two years. It could be.

Peg: You know, we want to break it into 90 days. And let’s look at our technical track that we need to grow skill level. Let’s look at our human track. What do we need to learn and leadership skills to humanize that. And what does that look like. And not everybody wants to be people leaders. And that’s okay.

Victoria: But how can that be? If you have a company with people, how can you be a people leader?

Peg: No, you need to. I thank you for that. I meant not everybody has to have direct reports.

Victoria: okay, I apologize. Yeah, I guess.

Peg: Everybody has to have those people skills. Yeah. You’re not often. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for that. I met. You don’t necessarily have to be a leader with direct reports, okay. Or 42, but you do every single person. If we have somebody that’s not skilled in engagement and in communication, it’s going to impact the culture.

Victoria: Okay, I gotcha. So, you know, I don’t know how many companies you work with in a year. Probably quite a few. What percent do you think have development plans like this?

Peg: Well, after they’re working with us.

Victoria: yeah. I mean, it’s one would hope.

Peg: Yeah, one would hope. And, and, you know, as you’re listening to this, I get this a lot. Gosh, I’m overwhelmed. I have 15 people. Does that mean everybody needs a plan? You know, what we want you to do is just start with one.

Victoria:

Peg: And start with another. We have one company. I, I am, I just, I’m so proud of them and what they did because this was the challenge. How do we make sure you have ten people. How do we make sure you have a people plan. And there’s different ways of going about putting this together. And sometimes I like them to tell me what they think is right for their company.

Peg: And it hit it out of the park. What he did is he said, I want you to come to the table and tell me two things you want to grow about you. And then I want you to talk about each person on the team and say, where do you think their opportunity is to grow so that it was like a 360 which is a, it’s a mini survey.

Victoria: Yeah. Yeah.

Peg: And it’s in it’s all about being positive. This isn’t you know you smell.

Victoria: You know.

Peg: You know like in it’s a positive way of getting feedback. And then from that they’re sitting down and then they’re going to this is one of their commitments from the round table. And they’re going to sit down and they’re going to, create the plan of what are the skills I need to learn, what are the steps I need to take, what books or videos am I going to do, and how am I going to be measured to know that I’m there?

Victoria: Okay.

Peg: That’s good, like a lot, but it’s not once you just take 1 or 2 things, right?

Victoria: Right. That’s very good idea. I love that concept. So did it work the way you had intended? Was it positive overall?

Peg: So okay, so if you guys are listening, I’m going to tell you what not to do to get through this. So when the person did this, it said here’s when it has failed. when you do get feedback from people, this happened in a different industry and it was people that were angry at people. And they’re like, you smell and you’re late.

Peg: And it became punitive. And, that may happen, but your job is to filter that, like, right, when to put punitive personal attacks in the feedback. They left that in the feedback and it became just.

Victoria: so in your opinion, they should have taken that out.

Peg: Yes. Now, if there is a pattern of misspeak behavior that’s happening, we’re going to address that one on one, create maybe a performance improvement plan, whatever. But we’re not going to say all these people think this of it. You know what I mean.

Victoria: Like yes, yes.

Peg: This is supposed to be way. So when you say did it work? He did it the right way. He got great feedback. And then it’s a it’s a close company where it’s a very positive culture.

Victoria: Yeah.

Peg: And they were thrilled by it. He gave them plenty of time to think about it. Like, you don’t miss it. You have to tell me now.

Victoria: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. All right.

Peg: Great. You know, give me a week, give me two, and then don’t over complicate it and make it one, maybe two things.

Victoria: So you’re saying that, either the owner or the person who is the the boss of the direct reports should be the one leading this charge. Come with two. And this is one. One way to do it, right.

Peg: It’s just one.

Victoria: Way. Right. But two things you want to change. And maybe some of the other team members ideas on things they could work toward, or ways they could grow within the company to bring value right now.

Peg: And that was like overall, which I always like bringing in the human element of what do I need to do? Communication and not just technical. me to tell you how to I’ll tell you how somebody else did it technically in production.

Victoria: Okay.

Peg: What they did is they said, here’s all the skills I’m going to. I’m just going to make up a like a carpenter. Sure. Here’s all the skills that I want my carpenter to master and I’m going to grade. So they had multiple cars. They had a big team. As a big team, it was like, I shouldn’t say big team.

Peg: Seven people. Okay. What they did is they gave this spreadsheet of all the skills, and these people work together, right? So they know how, you know, John is or they know Sarah, they, they get their skill level.

Victoria: Right.

Peg: So he now I didn’t think I got a little afraid of that. So I’m telling you because I didn’t want it to be punitive because that’s not what this is about. Right. And so this was his idea. I’m telling you things that these brilliant people are doing, and then we just get to learn from them, right?

Victoria: Absolutely.

Peg: And so he, he said, I’m going to go ahead and have everybody read everyone on these skills and don’t complicate it. Don’t make it 30. You know, just keep it simple. Keep it simple, keep it easy. And I’m going to rate them. And then I’m going to average it. So he did that. And then and this was technical skills right.

Peg: Right. Then he sat down with each person this is the manager and said okay here’s ten skills. Let’s work on. You know the one skill we need is trim. I’m just going to bring that up. And it looks like you’re at a ten. You you know rate it a one out of ten you get an average of seven.

Peg: And right now that’s where we need you to get better. Let’s create a plan for that okay.

Victoria: All right. Great.

Peg: Or you’re at a four for this. Let’s make that your plans to the person just picks one and you figure out okay, what job site am I going to go on so that I can learn from that mentor or what job site am I going to do to get more practice? Or what class do I need to take to learn more?

Peg: So that was like another way of doing the technical track of people development.

Victoria: So then does that boss check in with them every month? Every quarter on their progress? What if they just start blowing it up? Oh, I’m so busy. You gave me five jobs. I was going to have time to do this.

Peg: Well, I like that question. And I usually see issues happen when we’re not talking one on one with our team, by the way. So, communication is really key. I think you get agreed upon, development of where you meet. I wouldn’t say quarterly. I’d like it to be more often.

Victoria: Okay.

Peg: It’s a check in. I think we have to be sensitive to people being busy, I love that. So, I’m going to give you a tip when somebody says I’m too busy.

Victoria: Oh, great. We get.

Peg: That. Okay. So, and we get this in coaching, they go, I can’t coach, I just don’t have the time. so I said, okay, let’s calculate. How many hours do you work in a month? All right. So what is that? Let’s just say 40. So okay. It’s just use it’s four weeks. I know that technically some months or longer.

Victoria: Yeah.

Peg: What’s four times four? Right.

Victoria: 162

Peg: We got 160. So all I’m asking you to do is to do, let’s say two hours a month. That’s only a little over 1% I’m asking you to give me. Right. whenever anybody says I’m too busy, calculate the percentage of time you’re asking for them to get better.

Victoria: Okay?

Peg: Because we should be devoting at least 10%. Just saying.

Victoria: I would think. Right.

Peg: Yeah. But if I’m just going to start in I would start small. Victoria, like you said if this is a new experience start with one of them to see the success get their buy in, have them part of that conversation. and then have them say, hey, should we do a check in. And it could be a huddle of ten minutes.

Peg: It can be a huddle of five minutes.

Victoria: Right?

Peg: But just, what happens in goal setting and and improvement is sometimes if we wait too long to do the follow up, we forget.

Victoria: Yeah.

Peg: If you could do a twice a month check in, I mean, every other week or week, it’s with your one on one make it part of your agenda.

Victoria: Okay. Great. So really that creates calendar. It creates a schedule. It creates the discipline that these leaders may need to get this done. Yeah. Well like we talked to a lot to the, to the roundtable peer group members. Right. And so often the lack of results comes down to the owner not having the discipline to have the meeting to be at the meeting, to not blow off the meeting, to have the one on one to do the review.

Victoria: All that stuff is so easy to blow that off and that it causes so many problems down the road.

Peg: Oh gosh, you’re saying everything I would have said. That’s perfect. I love it exactly.

Mark: Peg, how would you differentiate this from, say, just the annual review? you might get some notes or like why I do an annual review. What’s the big deal? We talk about how they’re performing and then send them on their way.

Peg: Mark, it’s almost like you’ve heard that before. I do hear that often. And this is my response to when if you’re if you’re saying that I want to ask what generation you’re in, okay. If you are, you’re probably a, a baby boomer, you’re probably a Gen X or you’re an older millennial. Okay. In this time and age, when we talk about managing generations, I’m sort of switching topics for a moment, but right now you need to check in minimum quarterly and not wait for an annual review.

Peg: And one of that is that the generations that are coming up with us right now, if you imagine they have been brought up on constant feedback. Yes, super seven. so that like, like I posted something, I get a like, even if you’re not on social media, you don’t have to be on social media. But that is the culture that we have.

Peg: So when they don’t have feedback or lack and you’re waiting a year, I can guarantee you it’s going to be filled with negative thoughts, not positive.

Victoria: okay.

Peg: All right. Because we tend to think negative first, 70% of our thoughts are usually negative. And without feedback we’re going to go to a negative space. And so when we do the quarter and it doesn’t have to be the same as the annual review, you can have a different format for checking in. Whether it’s I do have some people do monthly.

Peg: that can be that could be tiresome because if you’re really busy, if a lot of people at least quarterly, you know, at least quarterly, do a check in. And it doesn’t always have to be really long. Does that make sense?

Victoria: Yes. Makes sense to me. Okay. So when you are working with a new client and if they’ve not said anything to you about their team being an issue or have a problem or anything like that, how do you know if it if that person, that owner is having challenges with their team? You know what I mean. Unless it’s very blatant to you, how do you what do you what do you look for?

Victoria: What do you want to pick up on.

Peg: So some of the signs that I see I’m going to do a few. So number one would be your turnover. So if people aren’t staying with you.

Victoria:

Peg: That is in in in in in the other thing is you got bad people that are with you that you don’t get rid of too.

Victoria: Right. Yes. Yeah.

Peg: So it’s, it’s the same way like we have to be disciplined. And you know when I get a lot of pushback in fact today we have somebody we have to let go. And it’s going to be an emotional thing. But we have to think of the families that support the company that are impacted by the decision of no decision.

Peg: Yeah.

Victoria:

Peg: So that’s another thing. So looking at your turnover if it’s too much or you’re keeping bad people rate like that’s not good either. We need to make decisions faster. That’s a conversation we have with a lot of people we coach. one thing is if I am like, I’ll tell you right now where we have one company where I’m seeing a lack of growth, and it’s because the leader of the company has outgrown the leaders capability.

Peg: in of them, bless their hearts, they’re doing the best they can. But we need more. So we need to find this person a different seat. Great employee. He needs it to be in a different state.

Victoria: Okay. All right, man, that has to be a tough conversation to have.

Peg: Oh, yes. And that’s why sometimes we avoid the conversations because it is difficult and it is emotional. And we are dealing with humans.

Mark: All right. Well, so I got a big question for you. are you ready for the lightning round?

Peg: I’m ready for the lightning round. Oh, oh.

Mark: And now here’s a remodelers advantage. Lightning round. It’s a tri. All right, I’m put in 60s on the clock. Let’s do six questions. What’s your favorite business book and why?

Peg: it would be Marshall Goldsmith. I like him. He’s an executive coach. Just to let you know, I, have been trained by him. I like his approach. He wrote a book called What Got You Here? We’ll get you there. He wrote a second book, too. But my favorite one is that. And it’s for teams that are growing.

Peg: I want you to read this because a lot of times you are where you are because a habit you created. If we want to get to the next level, you’re going to have to stop doing some things and start doing others. And it’s a great book to teach you that.

Mark: If you weren’t a business coach, what do you think you’d be doing?

Peg: Yeah, I originally was in social work.

Victoria: And.

Mark: What are you not very good at?

Peg: I’m not very patient. So I do my affirmations that say I’m in the process of being more patient.

Mark: Stuart Smalley, what do you think is the greatest invention ever?

Peg: I think libraries. I know, that’s pretty awesome. I go to a library. I feel like it’s such a gift to the world that we get as much education as we want.

Victoria: Yes.

Mark: What’s your biggest pet peeve?

Peg: when you don’t do what you say you’re going to do?

Mark: In one word, describe your high school self.

Peg: And I’m super aggressive, competitive.

Victoria: Were you an athlete?

Mark: Is that high? Isn’t that.

Peg: Great? Yes. I played three sports and I was I was all in.

Victoria: Oh that’s great. So this has been great, Peg. so before I let you go, though, I want you to share with our listening audience your five words of wisdom and why they resonate with you.

Peg: Okay, I would say your people are your future, okay? And the reason that resonates is I have coached enough companies to realize when you get that right, life is easier. You’re happier, and you have a bigger impact on customers and you have a bigger impact on yourself in your team.

Victoria: Awesome. Perfect, perfect way to wrap this up with a little bow. That was great. So thank you so much. I know that the listeners are going to love this, and if people want to learn more about you, where do they find that?

Peg: I would say go to Remodelers advantage.com. You’ll see the links and learn all about us.

Victoria: Perfect. Yep. That’s great. We’re delighted to have you be part of our consulting team. And you’re going to be at the summit this fall in September in, San Diego and have a great time with the roundtables meetings.

Peg: Well, thank you, and thank you for bringing me on board. It is just an honor.

Victoria: Same here. Peg, thank you so much. You know, one of the things that Peg was talking about, well, all of it, but she was talking about what’s really focusing so much of your energy on your team and giving them the tools and the resources that they need to be able to grow and help them find the resources. You know, if it’s technical skills, how are they going to learn it, what’s available to them out there?

Victoria: If it’s people skills?

Mark: Yeah, you should absolutely have an education budget, right?

Victoria: Yes, absolutely.

Mark: Money set aside for that. And you need to let the team know that that exists. Yes. And encourage them also, not just I don’t think it always has to be. you egging them on. I think it’s good to let it be known. I mean, we do that here, right? I’ll have someone come up, PJ or Dominic or someone will say, hey, I saw this course or I saw this workshop.

Mark: I really want to be a part of it, you know? So letting them have that desire to grow and approach you with permission to to follow that. Right. And then you’re, you’re enabling them and that’s, that’s even better. And it takes some stress off of you.

Victoria: You know, I really like the idea of having them come with two areas that they feel they need to improve, they need to strengthen. I know you’ve got a review coming up coming up soon. Yeah, maybe that should be part of that process even though you’d want to check in, like Peg said. Right. But be part of that process as a way to kick it off.

Mark: Yeah. For sure. Absolutely. I was taking notes.

Victoria: Oh good. How nice that we can learn from this podcast ourselves.

Mark: It’s great.

Victoria: Yeah, she was good.

Mark: Well, we want to thank Peg for sharing these, tips and insights with all of us today. And of course, we want to thank you for listening week in and week out, I’m Mark Harari.

Victoria: And I’m Victoria Downing. See you next time.