How to build the workplace culture you want

Andy
Hell yeah.Hey there listeners and welcome back to another episode of The Tradie Show. 

Ange
Yes, it is great to be here and I’m excited about today’s conversation because it’s clearly starting to have an impact on all of our businesses if it hasn’t already. 

Andy
Agreed. This topic affects all of us. 

Ange
Yes, we’re talking about workplace culture and team happiness.

Andy
These days, job loyalty isn’t what it used to be. Millennials and Gen Z employees want more than just a job. They want a sense of purpose and meaning in their work. 

Ange
Yeah. Look, last season, we did a fantastic episode on leading Gen Z. I’d encourage you to listen. It was fascinating to hear about how to connect with Gen Z who work, actually going to make up more and more of your trade business team.

Andy
Yeah, more broadly, people are increasingly drawn to businesses who share their values. 

Ange
Yes, it’s a biggie in workplaces everywhere. And there is a shift. People want to have a positive impact on the world, not to mention a sense of belonging and a shared purpose among the team. 

Andy
That’s all well and good, but what does it actually mean for hardworking trade business owners who are already snowed under with their day to day work? 

Ange
Yes, of course. That’s a good point. That’s why we called in Dale Beaumont to have a conversation about it. 

Andy
Yeah, Dale is one of the king entrepreneurs that we know. He’s an absolute legend. He’s a business growth expert. He’s the author of 19, that’s it, 19 bestselling books. Plus he’s the founder and CEO of Business Blueprint. Dale is a long term friend of Lifestyle Tradie and Ange and I personally, and he is an absolute superstar. I just want to welcome Dale to the stage. 

Dale
Thank you, Andy and Ange. Great to be here. Love that, uh, introduction. 

Ange
Absolutely. 

Dale
Really looking forward to chatting about this, uh, very cool subject. 

Ange
Yeah, so good. Thanks for joining us in the studio. We love when our guest speakers actually come and, uh, sit in here in our podcasting area.

Andy
Absolute superstar. So I’m going to get stuck straight in. So Dale, I’m really interested to hear your perspective on this. Do you agree more employees and job seekers are wanting a sense of purpose and meaning in their work today? 

Dale
Yeah, absolutely. And to sort of set the scene around this conversation, sometimes when we hear the word culture. Some people can think that it’s a bit kind of an airy fairy or woo woo sort of like stuff. And you know, it’s maybe for big corporations. It’s not really for, you know, us sort of small business owners. But culture is something that, like we said, is really important for all businesses. And it doesn’t really matter how big or small the team is. So things I’d like to explore is, you know, well, what is culture even all about? And how do you actually craft and build the culture that you want? Because like it or not, every business has a culture. It’s just whether it’s been created by design, where it’s deliberate and it’s intentional, or you’ve got a culture by default.

And if you want some examples, you can kind of think about things like, what was your culture like as a family, you know, growing up? What words come to mind? You know, are they really positive? Maybe there’s some rules or kind of guidelines or Boundaries that you had as a family, you know, you can think about sporting teams around the world. Maybe it’s the, uh, Aussie cricket team or the all blacks, uh, in New Zealand, or maybe the Chicago bulls, you know, in the nineties with the Michael Jordan team and Dennis Rodman and Scotty Pippen and all of those types of guys. So culture is a real thing and, uh, it does become ultimately like a secret source in terms of why people are going to be attracted to work for you, why they’re going to stay long term because of the culture that you have created. And it really differentiates you from all of your competitors as well. So there’s lots of reasons why you want to build a great culture.

Andy
Yeah. And I just sort of, what you said there at the start is that a culture by accident or by design. And I look back at the Dr. Drip days when we were a growing team and it was actually by accident. Um, we just had a young, energetic, great group of guys coming through and they really helped us grow that business to be at the level that we got to with Dr. Drip. But then I look at Dr. Drip in the later years. And I think I was trying to design it more because we didn’t have the same buzz. It was a little bit different. We didn’t have the same team. The team wasn’t as big, you know, we had a team of 17, then we ended up having a team of 12 and then we had a team of about eight. So the team was different and the makeup was different and trying to get the right people to be working with, because let’s face it back in the, um, early 2000s, you know, you could pick and choose who you wanted to come and work for the business. But if you look now, you’re pretty much taking whoever you can get and that can really affect that culture.

Ange
It does mean you’re trying to get someone to be attracted to you as a business, aren’t you? 

Andy
Yeah. And that’s right. And you don’t want to just find someone that needs a job, you want to find someone that’s looking for a better job and you’re the one that’s standing out amongst the crowd of, they want to work for you. And if you do that, you’re attracting the best people. 

Dale
So let’s maybe talk about what, what culture is to sort of establish it. There’s lots of definitions, you know, really around that. Culture is, the easiest way to describe it is what happens after you leave the room. When you’re the boss, you know, you, you kind of like say, I want this done, this done, this done, and this is how I want it done. But when you leave, what remains is the culture of the organization. And if you’ve got a few, you know, lazy kinds of folks, people that don’t really care, then basically, they’re going to end up matching that kind of lowest common denominator of the group. And so it comes down to the feelings of the organization and, uh, it comes out of the behaviors, it comes down to the standards that you’re going to set, what you’re going to allow and not allow. And when you know culture is really strong and present, you don’t even have to be there in your company. In fact, if there’s one company we all know of, it’s Apple, you know, Steve Jobs is dead. However, the culture of Apple still remains and they still run the business as if he was there because that’s the rules, the standards, the feelings that he set around. This is how we do things at Apple. And that still remains, you know, long after he’s there. So that’s really what culture is about. It’s what happens when you leave the room and what’s going to happen next. 

Ange
It’s a great definition, actually, because I agree that it’s almost an energy. So it’s a feeling that you have about being connected, not just to the people that you work with. Because the team could be small, as you say, it could just be a small business that is a team of two or five or whatever. It doesn’t have to be a big corporation. But they feel so connected to that business because they have a purpose. They know they belong there and the picture of the business is bigger than them. So they’re so happy to be where they are, regardless if the owner is around or not. 

Andy
Yeah, I think it’s, it’s interesting you say that because you know, we have a lot of trade business owners say, you know, I want to have a business that works without me. And then there’s a lot of people out there going, well, that’s like the unicorn. You can’t have a business that works without you. And that’s totally wrong. You definitely can have a business that works without you, but you’ve got to have the right structure. You’ve got to have the right systems in place to make sure that everyone is doing the right thing. But if you don’t have the right culture, you’ve got Buckley’s. So that is the biggest thing is you can have the best business model and set up the right way. But if you don’t have that team culture that has bought into what you’ve done like an Apple, then you’re never going to have a business that can run by itself. 

Dale
Yeah, exactly. 

Ange
So, Dale, saying that, what are some of the things that employees are looking for in a business and why perhaps are values becoming more important than salary?

Dale
Yeah, like in the past, people were, would just work to, to just have a job, you know, now a lot of young people, you know, they don’t actually necessarily need a job. Like a lot of them are staying home for a lot longer before you 16 or whatever. And it’s like, okay, you’re on your own now and you just had to get a job. Now it’s just like, you know, moms and dads actually prefer for their kids to stay. They like it. They don’t have to, they have food in the fridge. Um, they get their washing done. You know, um, they can watch, you know, TV whenever they want. Kids don’t actually need a job anymore. They can stay at home till they’re 25. Maybe even stay at home till they’re 30. 

Andy
A hundred percent. 

Dale
So you have to give them something that is going to be beyond just a job. Beyond just making money, you know, and what a lot of young people are looking for, they’re looking to be part of an organization that has a bigger purpose other than just, you know, doing the do. And so, uh, we can talk later on about things like, you know, vision and mission and those types of things. They’re really important. But then having a series of, of, of values, because a lot of young people are looking for leadership and they’re looking to belong to an organization where they have some clear guidelines and clear direction and also some clear standards. And people love actually lifting up their standards and their values and helping them become a better person. And that’s what your values actually do. They’re looking for leadership and they’re looking for consistency as well. And you say these are our standards. These are the rules. This is how we do things here at insert the name of your company. And people will go either I want to step up and I want to become a better person. A lot of young people are looking for that personal development and having goals and becoming a better person. And if they’re not, then you probably don’t want them in your company, you know, anyway, if they’re going to bring the standards down, then better off that they don’t work for you.

Andy
Yeah, that’s 100% right. And I suppose the challenge that trade businesses have got out there at the moment is it’s so hard to get tradies and we’re taking anyone on just to fill a hole or fill a seat in a truck. And, and that’s where a lot of culture within bigger businesses I’m seeing going downhill really fast. So. 

Ange
We’ve got to work harder, don’t they? To make sure that the team is connected and cohesive. 

Andy
Well, I had a tradie reach out to me the other day and he just said to me, he said, mate, the tradies coming through at the moment is at an all time low of quality. They’re just not the tradies that we grew up knowing. They want top dollar and they don’t have the skill set of what we used to have. And you know, he was an older guy, so I understand that. You know, if you’re a business owner and you’re asking yourselves, well, what in terms of making a cultural shift should I do? Like what are the next steps for me? What’s the answer to that Dale?

Dale
Yeah, there’s a number of things to do when it comes, steps to creating your culture. The first thing that you need to do is look inside yourself and go, what do I want this business to be about? What’s important to me as the business owner? What are the rules or values that I want to run this business by because ultimately it is, you know, your business and so you can create it however you want. So for example, if work ethic is something that’s important to you, then you may want to put that, you know, as part of your company culture. Maybe it’s around efficiency, maybe really important to you, or maybe it’s about a sense of fun. Or maybe it could be around, yeah, playfulness. And so at the end of the day, the person that needs to be inspired most is you. Because if you don’t even love coming to work, how can you expect other people to come to work? So you’ve got to think about what’s important to me as a business owner. How do I want to run the company? What are my rules? What are my standards? And, uh, that becomes kind of like the core.

Now the other thing which is really important is to make sure if there’s two or more business partners that you guys have to get onto the same page before you kind of worry about the team because I’ve seen so many situations where there’s two business partners and they both have You know, in business together, but actually they want different things and they haven’t actually discussed it. Like for example, there was, um, I’ll give you two examples. One was from a company and one of the people really wanted to take the profits and reinvest it back into the business and wanted to grow. And the other person, their goal was to try and suck as much money out of the business as possible. And that led to a whole bunch of different issues because they were both trying to make money, but one wanted to reinvest and one didn’t. And then there’s another example of, uh, two business partners. One of them was all about speed and they didn’t really care so much about quality. Just how could I get as much stuff done? And the other one was really just about going really slow and they used to just clash all of the time. And if you’re not united as, let’s just use a family analogy as parents, then the kids, which in this case is all the staff, are going to just find the weakest link. If I’m going to go to dad and if dad says, no, I’m going to go to mom, cause mom will say yes.

Ange
Let’s play them off each other. 

Dale
And so what needs to happen is both of you guys need to get on the same page as business partners and say, why are we here? Why are we doing this? What are our agreed ways? And sometimes you need to do a bit of a trade off. Look, this is really important to me and I want to make sure this is part of our company culture and our values. And then the other person goes, I can handle that. And this is really important to me. And so maybe you take your top three things and you kind of put them together. And so you’ve got a united kind of list of values that you have as business owners. And then from there, it’s really important to just put your own ideas to the side just for a moment. Because if you can just, if you just go into the team and say, here’s the rules, guys, this is what we’re going to do from now on. And you’re not going to have a say in it, they can sort of feel like it’s just being forced upon them.

Andy
Dictatorship. 

Dale
Yeah. And it’s not a very kind of inclusive way of doing things. So what you do is you both get on the same page, you come up with your list of five, six, seven things that are really important to you about how you’re going to be running this business. Okay.  And then what you do, put that aside and then you sit down and you talk to your team and you go, Hey guys, why are you here? Why are you, what do you love about this business already? And what do you think we do really, really well? And what are some things that you think we can improve? Where can we do better? And where do you guys want, you know, us to be stronger as kind of leaders or what are the things that you’d like to fix or improve? And then you can kind of compare what the consensus of the staff with your own kind of values and then you kind of merge them together as well. And then from there you come up with like little titles for each of the values that you have.

So basically your culture is just a series of values and normally we recommend that you have anywhere from four on the low side to maybe seven on the high side. Average is five. So we have five values in our company. For example, normally they have a little catchy title or a slogan. Sometimes they’re one word or they might be a little, you know, two or three words, like a little bumper sticker type thing. And then they have a short description that describes what that actually means. And, uh, you’ll see that if you go to different companies, you should see them on their wall. But then it’s not just about putting them on the wall and doing nothing. It’s about them living and breathing these values, you know, every day. And we can talk more about that and how to, uh, create, you know, your values.

Andy
Just on that. I just wanted to say, you know, I’m just thinking I love sport obviously, and I love my football, soccer, but I love my rugby league, but you’re looking at someone like the Penrith Panthers and for those rugby league supporters, you know, they’ve been the team at the top of the tree for so long. But when you see them on the field, they’re all as one. They all look like best mates from the moment they get on the bus, to the moment they’re in the change room, to the moment they come on the field. When someone scores a try, how they react, that whole culture, that whole passion and that fun and excitement. And a lot of them have played football together from a young age. So there’s got to be a really good bond. I mean, that’s what you’re trying to create in a business, isn’t it? 

Dale
Absolutely. And the way of describing that in the way of describing culture is you want to have many voices, but one heart in terms of your, your business, many voices, meaning everyone is valuable. Everyone has an opinion, you know, I want to know what you think, but at the end of the day, we’re all going to be moving as one. And we’ve all got to have that same, you know, care or discipline, whatever your values are, you know, and these different businesses will decide what’s important to you. For some businesses, it’s going to be all about speed, speed, speed, speed. And it doesn’t matter if a few things get broken along the way, because that’s the culture that they’ve set.  And others are going to be really about attention to detail. And there’s no right or wrong here. It’s your business. You can kind of decide what your priorities are and how you want to run things. But when we move, we move as one. And this is how we do things here at, you know, our company, my company’s business blueprint. This is the business blueprint way. And that’s what you want to develop. And you’re talking about before. You know, kind of like this challenge around trying to find quality people, you know, one option you’ve got as a business owner is to bring your standards down.

The other option you’ve got is to actually bring your standards up and to actually say, this is how we do things here. And you might find that you’ve got a whole different talent pool of people that are actually where you want to get to, people that are fighting to work for your organization because they love the way that you do things. They love your consistency around it. They love your strong leadership, the care factor that you have, and the fact that you’re so, you know, united. And this is where there’s a lot of due to that sporting analogy that would probably accept a lower pay to play for the Panthers because I want to be on that team. You know, you think about Manchester United as well. There’s a time when people would play for free. If I could just be alongside those guys, I just want to be on the field and I want to win. And, and so, and even look at someone like Richard Branson, he doesn’t pay more than all of the other airlines. He pays pretty much the same, but he gets three times more applications than any of the other airlines because people want to work at Virgin Airlines as opposed to any of the others. And so when you create a strong culture and there’s something almost kind of magical about working for you, you become the company that people want to work for.

Ange
And I’m sure that a lot of the trade business owners that are listening to this podcast right now go, this just doesn’t relate to us. This doesn’t relate to our industry, doesn’t relate to my company. Well, all three of us here would beg to differ because regardless of your industry and regardless of your trade, whether you’re a plumber, electrician, pest control, makes no difference. It is important to stand head and shoulders above what you class as your competitors so that when you go to employ other people, they are actually a magnet to your business because they’ve seen you around or seen your vehicles on the road or they’ve interacted with your team and they actually say, if I’m going to move from where I currently am, if I’m an apprentice and I want to go somewhere, I ultimately want to work with X company. And that is a position that all of us as a trade business owner should aspire to. And to your point before Dale, it can be designed versus just allowing culture to create itself. We as owners can make that decision as to how we want our business to be seen in the marketplace and therefore suppliers see you like that. Customers even see you like that and you become so attractive to really good talent. 

Andy
I think though, when you said at the start, Ange, that a lot of tradies may be listening to this thing and it’s not us, they’re the older guys. I honestly think that people in their twenties and their thirties are really on board with this and they understand what they’ve got to do to attract good staff. And I think people in their forties and then going into their fifties. We’ve been used to over the years ruling with an iron fist, a bit more, and a bit more of a dictatorship and a bit more of a control freak. And now we’re getting a bit of pushback and those companies are getting pushback and they’re going, well, we want more. And that’s where a lot of these older companies with staff are losing a lot of staff to these younger,  smaller companies where these people are going and feeling more valued. 

Ange
Sure. Listening to their feedback and actually taking things on board.  They’re very  inclusive.  They’re a really tight collaboration and they really feel purpose with regards to the team. They feel really bonded. They would even go so far as to call them family. They probably do hang out on a weekend like I think about what we were like with Dr. Drip. That’s what we were like. 

Andy
Well, when our business was at its best from a culture point of view, we would hang out on Friday night. We’d hang out on the weekends, but as everyone got older, our staff had their own families and their own people to hang with and that’s where the culture changes again. So then you’ve got to probably bring in more of a family sort of culture and do a barbecue on the weekend and do something a little bit different. 

Ange
So Dale, is there anything business owners should avoid doing when moving towards a more purpose driven culture? 

Dale
Yeah, I suppose like, you know, doing nothing, uh, or thinking that this is not, you know, important. We’ve sort of discussed that because, you know, some people, what will happen is if you go, this is not important, you’ll get two, maybe three, maybe four staff, but then you’ll hire some bloke that kind of starts doing it his way. And then, you know, it’s like, that’s the way we’ve always, you know, done things. Then you hire another guy and he’s got his own way of doing things. And then you’ve got your way of doing things. And you, and so it just ends up everyone’s kind of pulling in, in, in different directions. And it’s really hard to then get people kind of back on track. And so it’s much easier if you can go, okay, this culture thing, you know, is important. And culture is made up of a series of lives like actions and behaviors. We call them kind of like values. And so you’re going to write yourself, you know, that list of five, six, seven, you know, values, and then that becomes your way of doing things. So just as an example, you can go online and you can type in, you know, values of Apple, values of Netflix, values of any kind of major kind of company, just as inspiration that you can have.

And I’ll just give you a couple with my company Business Blueprint. So one of the values that we have is called high performance. And so there’s a little description around, I don’t know the description off the top of my head, but basically kind of goes like this. We don’t believe in average. If you’re going to show up to work, then you want to give your best each and every day. We show up with energy, we have fun and we make the most of every opportunity, something like that. So the first one is really about high performance. And so that’s kind of good. It’s like if you’re an average person don’t work here because we’re not looking for average players. We’re looking at people who are going to show up, you know, with a smile on their face. with good energy and are here to have fun and do a great job. And so that’s one of that’s the behavior that we’ve set and I have to live that and be authentic as well. If I come into the office and my energy is down and I’m like, my team will go, Hey, Dale, what’s going on? You know, what’s, what’s happening with the high performance here, you know, so I come into the office. Hey there, everyone. Great to see you. How’s everyone doing? Because that’s the kind of culture that we have, uh, have set. Another one is called creating efficiency in our business. So we’re always looking for ways to go, how could we do this smarter, more efficiently without sacrificing quality? So we’re constantly like looking at, Oh, is this maybe a piece of technology that we could use here? Or maybe efficiency is sometimes about cutting costs. You know, my staff came to me and said, Hey, there’s this software program. We’ve been paid for the last four months and we haven’t used it. Do we need to keep paying or can we cut it? I said, well, let’s cut it. And they said, yeah, exactly. So they came to me because there was wastage in the business. It’s like, we’re not being true to our values here because they’re paying for something that we’re not using. And so that’s not efficient.

Another one is around being accountable. So being accountable in our company is all about taking responsibility for your particular area or department of the business, not blaming other people, you know, making excuses. It’s about realizing that I’m in control. It’s about having numbers and KPIs. And being accountable to those. Another one we have is called show the love and show the love is all about making sure we really care about our customers. We listen to our customers. We take on feedback. We always do our best to, you know, make it right. And we’re constantly growing and learning. But really, if you don’t care about what it is that you’re doing, we don’t want you to work at our company. And the fifth one is about achieving things together. And that’s really all about. You know, coming together and celebrating our wins, you know, having drinks, you know, once a month that we all catch up. And also it’s about having goals individually, having team goals and celebrating those goals when they are achieved. So if someone does something cool in their personal life, you know, that we have a big kind of like, you know, shout out to them and congratulate them. And we kind of care about them beyond just, you know, employees. And so those are the values of, of Business Blueprint, high performance, show the love, create efficiency, uh, be accountable and achieve together. And so you’ll come up with your version of that based on what’s important to you. And then you’ll talk to your team about it. You’ll workshop it with them. You’ll have these values become your core values. Maybe it’s again, five to seven little descriptions around each one. And then if you want to take it to the ultimate level, you look at each value and say, if this is true, What are the behaviors? What are the standards that we’re going to set? So, for example, if creating efficiency is true, then we always get three quotes and we choose the one that is going to be, you know, the most affordable and quality or if I show the love. Then once a quarter, we’re going to write a handwritten note to our clients. So just you take these values and you turn them into actions and behaviors and things that you’re going to do on a regular and consistent basis to make sure that you really stand out. 

Andy
Yeah. I loved what you said in regards to business owners and what they shouldn’t do. And then really we’ve talked about what they should do. I mean, I think the biggest thing for trade business owners though, a lot of people out there are wearing so many hats, they’re stressed, they’re overworked, they’re tired, and they’re trying to be a good leader, but they’re not actually walking the talk. And as you said, if you’re coming into the office or you’re turning up on site, or you’re catching up with your team, And you’re grumpy, you’re unhappy, you’re not bubbly, you’re not yourself. That whole culture that you’ve tried to develop is gone out the window because you’re not actually abiding by those rules yourself. And that’s one of the biggest challenges all trade business owners have out there is they want this expectation of where their business needs to be, but they as business owners aren’t even doing it. They’re not being that leader. And walking the talk, right? So it’s a really big point that if you’re going to go down this path, you need to let your actions speak and you need to be the number one person that’s driving this.

Dale
Exactly. And I actually tell my team, guys, these are the, these are our values, not just my values, these are our values. And I give you full permission. If you see my standards dropping and you see me breaking these rules that we have all agreed to, you let me know. And if I have permission to do the same for you as well, that’s what it’s about open, clear, honest communications. We’re never going to be perfect, but if we drop our standards, if we start breaking our own, own rules and we keep doing that, then it’s just a downhill spiral. So if you feel that I’m not being true to our values, You let me know.

Ange
I’m sure your team would appreciate the fact that you’ve said that I’m open to feedback as an owner because they come into your business seeing you as the boss and that they can’t step on your toes or whatever. But instead you’ve created this open and honest environment where they feel actually quite comfortable to call you on, you know, if you’re not perhaps living the values themselves. So I can see how it completely works for every single person inside the business and they would love having an opportunity to speak their mind.

Dale
This is, yeah, really important that people want to be part of an organization whereby they’re going to learn, they’re going to grow, but also they can contribute and they can give, you know, feedback to their bosses as well. They just, this kind of like, just shut up and do what you’re told and it’s, it’s my way. And if I change my mind, then just deal with it. That just doesn’t cut it anymore. Young people are just going to say, well, you know, I’m out of here. So we need to be a boss that actually listens and asks questions and also is prepared to change and be flexible and say, if you think that I’ve made a mistake, let me know, and we’ll have a discussion about it. And maybe you may not see my reasoning for it and I’ll explain it to you. Or sometimes, you know what? I stuff up too, but I’m going to fix it and I’m going to make sure it doesn’t happen again. And people go, wow, I really kind of love that because we’re all growing and learning together. 

Ange
Fabulous conversation that we’re having here about culture and absolutely every single one of our listeners would be taking out so much information about this. So thank you so much. It’s always great to hear your opinion, Dale. I know you’ve got a super busy schedule and we really appreciate you making time to join us on the show. 

Andy
Yes. But before you go, mate, one last favor, we always do three rapid fire questions for our guests on the tradie show. 

Dale
All right, here we go.

Ange
Are you ready? 

Dale
Let’s give it a shot. 

Ange
All right. What is one strategy you use to start your day right? 

Dale
All right. So, um, it probably starts, I believe your day starts the night before. So make sure that you go to bed at a decent hour, because if you read a line that night, you’re going to pay for it the next day. And the other thing is write down what are the three things that you need to do tomorrow, like your to-do list before you go to bed that night. And your brain kind of starts working on them. Processing them, uh, and think about strategizing how it’s gonna make it happen. But then you wake up not going, well, what am I gonna do today? You wake up kind of knowing, you know, these are the three or five things that I’ve gotta, you know, get done. And also, uh, I know a lot of tradies are out in the road all day every day, but doing something physical every day as well, you know, is gonna be super important to make sure that you’ve got, I believe energy creates more energy. So if you’re doing something physical, then you, it’s actually an investment that you’re making to get more energy in the future. 

Andy
Energy creates more energy. I can see for 14 years we’ve been running Lifestyle Tradie and the business owners that are doing something to make sure their level of fitness and mental health is at an all time high. Energy creates energy and are the ones that are most successful. 

Ange
Valid. 

Andy
And some of the most successful entrepreneurs I know are always making sure they’re bringing the energy and they’re at their very, very best. Great answer there, Dale. Great answer. So, mate, another question is, what’s something that has made you smile recently?

Dale
Uh, this morning, I, uh, chucked my, um, undies on the floor and my cat was rolling around in my undies. Oh, that is terrible. 

Ange
That’s the best. 

Andy
Oh, gee, I’m only going to leave that there. Let’s move on. 

Ange
So, Dale, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? 

Dale
Well, it’s a big question, but we’ll do something around this particular topic just to kind of wrap it up. I remember someone saying, you don’t get the people that you want, you get the people you deserve.  And it’s, it’s a tough pill to swallow. No one likes to hear it. We end up, you know, pointing our fingers so often at other people, you know, and whinging about our staff. But whenever you’re pointing your finger at one of your team, three fingers are pointing back, you know, at, at you. And so you’ve got to ask yourself, you know, the question, you know, what have I done or not done that’s allowed this to happen? So what we need to do is we need to improve our, our leadership, you know, skills and, and culture and understanding what your values are as a company is, uh, is really important because people will rise to your level of leadership. Um, there’s a guy called John Maxwell. He’s written a whole bunch of books on leadership. His first principle was called the law of the lid. It’s like what law of what? L I D. And basically what it means is that people will only be as good as their leader. And so if you want your people to be better, then you need to be better. You need to step up, become a better leader, and you’ll get better people. 

Andy
Absolutely love that. When you’re pointing the finger at one person, there’s three fingers pointing back at you. Love that. It’s so true. And obviously that’s another one is being a good leader. You need to lead the way and be at the top of your tree. And if you’re not at the top of your tree, then don’t expect your staff are going to follow. Dale, it’s been amazing having you in the studio here today. Just want to say a real huge thank you. Everyone knows, we know you’re an absolute superstar and we really appreciate you spending the time to talk to our listeners today on The Tradie Show.

Dale
Pleasure guys. Great to be here. And we’ll, uh, See you again soon. 

Ange
Fantastic. And you know what listeners? We know it is a bit daunting to consider culture and values when you’re just trying to get through the day, but it’s not on the wish list of younger employees. They’re actually demanding it. 

Andy
And as they say, change is the only constant. The question is, Are you guys keeping up? 

Ange
Well, we’ll leave it with you on that thought of today. So until next week. 

Andy
Thanks for having us. Hell yeah!

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