Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hi, and welcome to another episode of Financial Snickens. I'm your host, Alisa McCabe. And today we're going to be talking about how great companies help employees find joy. We're going to be talking about the four G's and how leaders can create a culture in which employees are happier. So the other day I was speaking with a longtime friend and she was telling me about how unhappy and unmotivated she was at the job where she's worked for many years.
And she said that like once she starts her day, she gets into a routine and everything's fine. But our conversation left me thinking, what is the joy of working? I often think of her and then I think like, ah, you know, what kind of job would she like to do? You know, cause I'm a problem solver, but then he realized it's not the job.
It's the culture. And ultimately it's the company leaders that she's unhappy with. So company culture [00:01:00] is one of the strongest forces for happy employees. And it's the number one thing why employees stay with a company and the leaders are the ones who are creating the culture and delivering the message.
So Sean Aker wrote this book called Happiness Advantage, and he talks about the power that people have to influence those around them. So one of my favorite quotes from the book is how many well meaning managers shoot themselves in the foot when they remind those under them. at work of their weaknesses.
Conversely, when a manager openly expresses his faith in employee skills, he doesn't just improve mood and motivation. He actually improves the likelihood of succeeding. So I loved this because how many times do you tell somebody what they've done wrong? And forget to praise them about all the good things that they do as a manager.
And [00:02:00] as a leader, you need to have faith in your employees and constantly talk about all the good things they're doing. I'm not saying ignore their weaknesses or the things that they're doing wrong. You absolutely have to address those, but when you start to make it at the forefront, Hey, you're really good at this.
And I'm so glad for you and give them kudos about all the good things they're doing, it will improve their mood, their motivation and the likelihood of them staying. So, and a great example of, you know, putting this happiness and putting, you know, this influence, um, As an example, was a company called Mod Pizza.
The owners were Allie and Scott Svensson, and they possessed the four Gs, which I love. And the four Gs are gratitude, generosity, growth, and grit. And those are things that, um, Sean talked about in his book. So they started this pizza business and they knew that the world [00:03:00] didn't need more pizza, They wanted to create a place where people could be themselves and do work that meant something and to earn money doing it.
And Ali mentions that almost daily, she would get an email about how her team went above and beyond to help others and. Their ideas can be translated into any company culture using those four G's. The first one was gratitude. So it was showing respect and being thankful for opportunities and business owners who are here to serve others.
And once we realize that it will help make everything in your culture become people first. And that's when you can start to hire people who will be grateful to have an opportunity to work for you and in the environment you create. The Svensons who owned ModPizza, they set out to hire employees with intellectual disabilities or those who were formerly incarcerated.
And this [00:04:00] strategy succeeded because the team members were already grateful for someone giving them a chance to succeed. Number 2G is generosity. Being a big hearted and kind. Giving team members a chance to grow and being generous with them. With your time, with your encouragement, education, and empowerment.
When you do these four things as a leader, and I can't stress on this, it's important to spend time with your team and to let them feel as though They are the most important thing, too. And also encouragement. There is nothing like encouraging your team to do better and being their cheerleader. Providing them with education is incredibly important.
Also, anytime you can increase their skill set, they will be grateful for that. And then that also leads to [00:05:00] the last one empowerment. It allows them to do more work and they feel as though they are better people better at what they do and allows you to have better employees. All right, so the third G is growth.
Keep pushing yourself as an employee and a leader to grow more and grow personally. These results in growth for the company and employees wanna help customers more and welcome new team members into this growth. Grit. This is one of my favorites because so many people leave this out. Stuff's going to hit the fan.
It just happens. It always does in any company. You're always going to be challenged, but don't give up. Choose another way to do something and to have the part courage to have the courage to pick yourself up again to have the courage. To pick yourself [00:06:00] up and try again. That is grit. So the four G's apply to leaders and teams.
And look, if we embrace them, we're going to start to ingrain them into our cultures. And even if you're in a situation where your manager isn't practicing the four G's and you're the employee, you can start and it's contagious. People notice how you make them feel and they might even start to love their jobs.
If you want to talk more about company culture, head over to my website at firststepsfinancial. com or you can email me at Alisa at firststepsfinancial. com and we can chat more about this. We can talk about the 4Gs, we can talk about company culture and how they all work together. Looking forward to talking to you.
