Episode 124
LFG It's The End of The Year
Hey there, and thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Blue Collar BS Podcast! We’re hitting that end-of-the-year grind, talking about the challenges of reaching goals when the holidays and vacation days are taking up your calendar. Today, we’re diving into strategies to help you stay focused and finish the year strong.
As the holiday season rolls in, it’s easy for focus to slip and for teams to become distracted by everything happening outside of work. In this episode, we’re sharing actionable ways to keep your team energized and motivated, even when it feels like the year is wrapping up.
We talk about how to reset priorities, encourage brainstorming without judgment, and reframe goals to create a sense of urgency without slipping into a negative mindset. With some practical approaches and real-life examples, we lay out how leaders can boost morale, rally the team, and avoid the common pitfalls of the fourth quarter slump.
It’s all about finding those small wins, staying on track, and making the most of the time you have left before the new year rolls in.
Episode Highlights:
- Discussing the typical end-of-year slowdowns and how they impact productivity
- Strategies to re-energize teams and keep them engaged during the holiday season
- The importance of brainstorming without judgment and finding value in every idea
- How to leverage the “yes, and…” approach from improv to build on team contributions
- Setting clear, focused goals and narrowing down to the essential tasks
- Why leaders need to understand the real motivation for their teams, not just focus on hitting numbers
- The power of celebrating small wins and how that impacts morale and motivation
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Transcript
Hey everyone, welcome back to this episode of Blue Collar BS with your co -host Brad.
Steve Doyle (:And Steve.
Brad Herda (:There you go. Your excitement is overwhelming, Mr. Doyle. Your energy and positivity just oozing through the microphones.
Steve Doyle (:I'm today.
Brad Herda (:oozing today.
Steve Doyle (:just a radiating beam of sunshine.
Brad Herda (:you are that's that's one word we can use for you is a ray of sunshine you bet
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Brad Herda (:So Mr. Doyle, this episode's airing here sometime in early November, or that November 1st, 2nd, so we just had Halloween trick or treats over, all the fun things, Thanksgiving's right around the corner, Christmas is coming, New Year's is coming, and yet we are still way behind our 2024 goals.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:man. You saying your S O L.
Brad Herda (:How many organizations are having that conversation? How many organizations are having that conversation on Monday next week when they finally do their review and go, we got a problem.
Steve Doyle (:you're SOL. But are you? Right? Most people are going, well, how are we going to how are we going to reset? How are we going to hit this? How are we going hit these numbers? They start asking people for suggestions. They realize that, hey, half the office is out the rest of the year in various weeks. Interesting, interesting dilemma.
that we're now talking about.
at the beginning of November.
Hmm.
Brad Herda (:Correct. And I've watched it happen in my corporate career. I see it happen with my clients and you know, we try to keep them focused throughout the rest of the year on target on, and here we go. And, but inevitably there's always the one thing that shows up no matter what. goes, we got to get this done because customer A calls or employee B is gone going on vacation for, you know,
the end of the year for three weeks or whatever it might be, because we're not carrying any over, change this policy or did whatever. What are some of the things that come Monday morning?
business owner can bring his team, or her team into the conference room or into the office area or wherever it is, the job site, lunch, breakfast.
to get the team focused and ready to go? What are some of the strategies that we can give people to re -energize and refocus versus the doomsday press?
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, for me, when we're in those scenarios, I'm always more of the being more frank and more blunt, but not in a doomsday approach standpoint. It's more of, hey, we have this goal and we need some, we need some suggestion, some creative ways of how we can actually hit this. This is where we are. This is where we need to be. Here's the gap. We have 45 days, roughly.
to hit this knowing that there's holidays, there's vacation coming into play. We have about 45 days that we need to hit this. So what are some things that we can do? The first question, I always ask that first question is let's think outside the box, right? Because the traditional methods always bound us by these time constraints, right? And we don't want to necessarily be bound by those time constraints.
Brad Herda (:Correct. So one of the things as you go through that brainstorming opportunity, and this is really difficult to do unless you've got a really good leader who can facilitate, I'm going to suggest that possibly you don't have a leader facilitate those conversations or even that the leader's not even the leader might not even be in the room. You let the team come up with a solution. But the one thing that you can't do is you can't judge the idea as good or bad. You just need to take it. And I just recently had gone.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Correct.
Steve Doyle (:Yes.
Brad Herda (:completed some training on my own here. And the one thing I got out of that piece of it was when you do that and you don't judge, every idea has got 10 % of something in it that will work. And if you just take the 10 % that'll work and you can stitch it together and do whatever, and all of sudden you got some, you're like, wow, how did we come up with this? Because you didn't judge the opportunity, you found,
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:what will work in that suggestion versus why the suggestion.
Steve Doyle (:Yep. Yeah. Yeah.
Brad Herda (:together.
Steve Doyle (:One of the things that I found adding into it came from a surprising source, actually improv. So a lot of times from the brainstorming side, right, we kind of chuckle, right? But when we do the brainstorming, it's really hard to kind of put those emotions aside to say, yeah, there's no bad ideas. Because everybody's like right there, yes, but, yes, but, but, but. And every time we use the word
But in those scenarios, it becomes a negative. It basically is telling us, no, we can't do this. So rather than use the word, what I learned in improv, use the word and. Yes, and. The other component with the improv is we're always trying to make the team look good, make the other players and improv look good. It's never about us trying to be that shining star because we have it. We have a gap as a team. We have a gap. How can we fill? How can we hit these numbers or hit?
hit whatever the target is as a team, because it's really the only way we're going to solve it. So if we can solve it as a team and help lift each other up, it amplifies everything we're going to do. And now we have some very creative ways of how we can do it. Now, again, we're probably going to have to weed out, OK, is this really a good, tangible idea that we can actually go run with? Yeah, it may or may not be. We'll get to that point. But how can we take these ideas and make them better?
And we try to employ the yes and philosophy when we get into those scenarios.
Brad Herda (:Yes, and purple monkeys might not be a good idea. And blue bowdolters could be a better idea.
Steve Doyle (:Yes. And taking Friday off would be amazing.
Brad Herda (:You take every Friday off Mr Doyle to do this. We do this on Fridays because we have that flexibility and when I when I share what I share with people that want to be guests on the show and or other podcasters are like. You just record on. That's it. That's the only time you guys record like huh. Like how do you make that work like well, so we just put it out there and if it works for them great if if it.
Steve Doyle (:Well...
Steve Doyle (:Yep.
Steve Doyle (:we make the time.
Brad Herda (:doesn't work. doesn't. Instead of this, fit it in, do it wherever we can come in with the appropriate mindset, so to speak, to provide this great content to our tens of listeners, our tens of tens of listeners, as you have told us over and over again. other part that I'm going to, after you get done through your brainstorming and finding the ideas, it's really creating the opportunity for the accountability of who's going to do what along the way. And
Steve Doyle (:Ugh. All right.
Brad Herda (:and having agendas, having somebody control the narrative and control what's going on and document that Sally is gonna go get the purple monkeys. Johnny's gonna go get the blue bulldozers. Steve's gonna go and buy donuts. know, whatever that's going to look like.
Steve Doyle (:Right.
Brad Herda (:We know who's doing what and when it's going to be due and staying focused and using that time effectively versus bitching and moaning about, we're never going to make the target. You got to sit down and relax. And if the target is.
Steve Doyle (:Yes.
Brad Herda (:So I don't know if you remember Andy Wines on the show way back early season one first year you know as he's got his books his book of you know words fucking matter and One of the things that his big story is did anybody die?
Steve Doyle (:No, right? No, they didn't.
Brad Herda (:Nobody's likely going to die from you not achieving the goal.
So let's make sure we do everything we can to make sure we do what we can to achieve the goal. But it's not life and death in most scenarios. And if you put forth all the effort and you're doing all the right things and you're giving that difference of opinions and you're creating collaboration and you're doing all of, you're going to achieve it. Whether it's December 31st or January 12th,
Steve Doyle (:Right. Right.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:Does it really matter? Maybe, maybe not. Just because we turn the calendar page doesn't mean that we go back to zero all the time. And that's gonna be my other suggestion for folks is use a run rate for your targets. And what I mean by run rate is do your math as to if you're trying to hit an annual sales goal, you need to be at a run rate of X. it's a million dollars a year, you need to be at a run rate of $83 ,000 a month.
Steve Doyle (:Mm
Steve Doyle (:Mmm.
Brad Herda (:Cool. Like am I above or below that target to go through there instead of saying, hey, we ended the year, we're at zero and January 2nd is our first dollar is so demoralizing and so upsetting and just doesn't really bring a whole lot of morale to people when you when you start setting your goals and objectives. So gonna urge you to work on that run rate scenario.
Steve Doyle (:Mm
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, one of the other things I actually like about having a short time to achieve whatever the gap is, is everyone becomes very focused on achieving that. And that's the other thing to keep in mind is on the focus component is really making sure that we're focused on the main thing. Because sometimes when we set these annual goals and these targets,
Brad Herda (:correct.
Steve Doyle (:Usually there's there's five or six components in it and really of those five or six components
Brad Herda (:If you're lucky, there's only five or six.
Steve Doyle (:Yes. Well, the point I'm trying to make is the 80 % of it is a lot of busy work. 20 % is really where you're going to reap the most rewards. So we can narrow it down and really focus on that one thing to reap those 20, that the majority of the reward is in that being singular focus and focusing in a short period of time. Let's kind of strip away every, you know, the other things that we quote unquote have to do.
as because we've deemed it a priority, we're going to re -level set the priority to focus on what is that one thing that we have to complete within the next 45 days.
Brad Herda (:And whether you, you know, you want to take a crash course and go through and use some of the tools out of EOS or use some of the tools out of 10 week year or 12 week year. you know, the four day work week or four week year, whatever the, whatever those things are, there's tools everywhere to use. leverage your team to find those tools, to use those tools, to try something different.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Great.
Brad Herda (:Because if they believe it and it works for them, let them do it.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:This is where you can find innovation. This is where you can find opportunity. This is where you find and stumble across 3M Post -it notes.
Because it was an accident. It wasn't supposed to be there. They were behind and you had a secretary that liked it and all of sudden like, wow, we could do this and change our whole business model. Yes, you can.
Steve Doyle (:Yep.
Brad Herda (:Alright, so don't look at it as an opportunity. Don't look at it as the holy shit we're all gonna get fired.
Steve Doyle (:Right. You actually just brought up a really good point of bringing somebody else in that might not necessarily know all the inner workings, but having them come in to listen in on what the brainstorming suggestions are, because again, they may be the one that has that great idea to help figure out what it is that's going to solve the gap, all because they look at it differently.
They heard it differently. They see it differently.
Brad Herda (:Yeah.
Having having a shop floor guy come into a sales meeting as much as it may be awkward and really weird. That shop floor guy might give you the key that you never thought of as the key feature to go win the big deal.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Brad Herda (:Cause now you're talking through it differently and you're talking through it with somebody that's building the product, knows the product, understands its features and benefits, et cetera. And it might not be the design engineer. It could be the guy actually making the part and that client may care about the things that the shop guy understands and knows.
Steve Doyle (:Right. Which is, it's actually refreshing when you bring in a fresh set of eyes at crunch, at that 11th hour of that crunch time.
sometimes.
Brad Herda (:And everybody needs to be open to it. And everybody needs to their ego at the door.
Steve Doyle (:So like.
Steve Doyle (:Right. Yeah. Cause like, so one of my clients right now, they, they brought in a new employee and they're, they're always, they were a little hesitant because they're like, Hey, we, how are we going to make this work? And you know, this, this new employee has a lot of great ideas on things to do, but the other members are hesitant to actually kind of move forward with it because what if it doesn't work?
But what if it does? Well, if it does, then we have more work. But you want more sales.
Steve Doyle (:Right? And so when we're looking at that, it's like when we bring in somebody with those new ideas, we want to just we want to embrace that. We want to push that because that's going to help us get out of get out of the zone of, we can't make this work. We can't make this happen. We only have 45 days. We can't make this happen. No. But what if you could?
If you could, what would you do?
Brad Herda (:My favorite question if you didn't know what to do, what would you do? My favorite question on the planet
Steve Doyle (:Your favorite question. Yeah, but if you didn't know what to do. But if you did know what to do, what would you do?
Brad Herda (:my favorite question to use all the time. It gets you perplexed looks. gets you the lots of fuck use along the way because you've double dogged there them in a certain fashion that they didn't want to. They knew the answer, but now you've challenged them to come up with it. And it's the best question ever.
Steve Doyle (:Yup.
Steve Doyle (:Hey, you're back.
Steve Doyle (:So what else, would you say in this meeting would people need to do?
Brad Herda (:So we're starting out with, you know, the agenda, the idea generation, the non judging.
the opportunity, clear communication as to what the objective is. understanding that here's the minimum threshold, here, the goal might be a hundred, the minimum threshold might be 92. The stretch might be 106, be very clear as to why this is important to the folks in the room. Not, not that, Hey, this is important for the company survival.
Steve Doyle (:Mm. Yeah.
Brad Herda (:Why is it important to the people in the room?
Steve Doyle (:Mm, that often gets missed.
Brad Herda (:Why is it important to everybody in that room? Are there jobs really at stake? Is there a problem? Is it really, really there or is it, Hey, it's important because when we do this with where we're at, we will be the team that's going to be recognized as the opportunity for potential growth and future leadership opportunities. Or we get to take on the new, Knutson valve project because we were able to solve this problem.
Brad Herda (:So make it important to them. Do not come in with a threatening situation because then you're operating out of fear and scarcity versus abundance and opportunity.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, we can't stress that enough because. As a leader, you need your team to go execute. But they're not going to follow you. They really don't have a reason to follow you, and if you're going to threaten him with the job, they're going to be like, OK, great. Then let's do it, because guess what? Everyone's hiring right now.
And you're gonna, now you have a.
Brad Herda (:Well, and if you
Steve Doyle (:Go ahead.
Brad Herda (:And if you're doing it because your bonus is depending upon it and they know you're doing it because you're worried about your own self preservation. Good luck getting them to follow you with a full heart and opportunity.
Steve Doyle (:Hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Yep, they might do it just to get through it, but guaranteed they're not going to be there much longer.
That is a guarantee.
that because of the selfishness, specifically around money and maybe they get some, maybe they don't. But because of that, they know it's truly a reward for you financially. Why do they care? Why should they even care?
Brad Herda (:correct.
Brad Herda (:Correct.
Why do they care that you get to upgrade your BMW or your Mercedes or whatever or go to your three week vacation to wherever you go or do all those things because of the bonus structure or whatever your targets are. You need to make sure they understand why they're doing this and what the benefit is for them, not just for your own benefit.
Steve Doyle (:Mm
Brad Herda (:It is vastly, vastly important.
Steve Doyle (:Mm.
Steve Doyle (:So this is a good topic, just from the standpoint of, from a meeting structure to who's involved, the cadence, the responsibilities, and the purpose why. Because the goals are achievable when you can rally the troops around a specific purpose and really handle why should they be dropping everything else, narrowing down focus.
to hit this target.
Brad Herda (:correct. Right. And and the other part about this from a leadership viewpoint is that when they achieve the target and when you hit the goal, you as the leader need to be humble enough to give them that praise of success.
and put yourself in position to say, hey, you know what? I failed you for the first 10 months out of the year for losing focus and keeping us on track. And you guys are the ones that really achieved this goal. Not me, but you. And let success be theirs. And your failure was the first 10 months. Their success was the last two.
Steve Doyle (:Great topic today, Brad.
Brad Herda (:That will go, that will go a huge long way. So, yes, here we are end of the year, go get shit done. Stay focused, stay, keep the eye on the prize and stay focused and rally the troops. Get done what you can get done. Be realistic and don't, don't do it for selfish reasons. Do it for the right reasons.
Steve Doyle (:That's right, LFG, let's fucking go!
Brad Herda (:See you, sir.
Steve Doyle (:We'll see ya.
