Why would NFL quarterback AJ McCarron leave the security of the Cincinnati Bengals? Destefano implores business leaders to understand that not only do employees crave security in an environment where their basic needs are met, but they yearn to live up to their highest potential and add value to their business.
Why would NFL quarterback AJ McCarron leave the security of the Cincinnati Bengals? Destefano implores business leaders to understand that not only do employees crave security in an environment where their basic needs are met, but they yearn to live up to their highest potential and add value to their business.
Welcome to this edition of a survivor's journey with rocky destefano. The premise of the show is that everyone is leaving something or someone, whether you're a parent leading your family, a coach leading a team, a team member, leading a few or a CEO leading an organization. We are all on this path of being a leader. Thus the title, a surfer's journey, rocky destefano served since it's early days of working behind the counter to chick filet to having a very successful restaurant. If a zone being a server himself, he loves to talk about leading yourself. A few, many leading an organization.
Speaker 2:Wow. That sounds very impressive. Larry. Thank you so much and I just want to say that we are here in the servers radio network studio. I'm drinking my coffee and I have a the superdawg misty lying here at my feet. I can't think of a better place to be, but I'm going to pause us leery because before we get started, I want you to say a little bit about the man behind the buttons and the Control Board. Larry, tell us a little bit about yourself. You know, ever since I was in high school I wanted to be a broadcaster and a, so all my journey has led that way. I went to work at Caterpillar tractor company and of course every aspiring radio producer has to work in the factory. You got to work in a factory. And so just through life I've always found a way to get back into the broadcasting business and, uh, I've learned everything I know all by the seat of my pants. So that's the best teacher. And uh, yes, yes, we sure appreciate you Larry. I don't think I could do this without you and uh, our journey is been going on. Wow. 15, 16 years or so. So yeah. And the first day we met we just talked. That's right. That was great. I can remember exactly where we were that day. There you go. It's memorable. It's it. Today, I know you want to talk about employees and employee needs. Yeah, I would. But first, before we get started on that, I wanted to share one of those epic
Speaker 3:moments in leadership. So today we're going to talk a little bit about what happens when a tweet goes, oh, well, what can we say? Tweet goes out of balance. Maybe. Is it twitter? Is it a tweet? What do what
Speaker 2:you know it goes wrong. I was totally on the wrong page. I'm with you now. Okay? Yes. Tweets and the amazing thing about a tweet or an email or whatever. It's when it goes, it goes and you can't get it back. That's right. Once it's out there, it's out there forever. So you have to be kind of cautious. So unfortunately this moment is not going to be a good one. And we're going to talk a marketing manager at American apparel and he wanted to create business for himself. He wanted to create business and you wanted to kind of be tongue in cheek, be a little bit humorous, however, except what was happening at the time. So there was a small storm, uh, maybe you've heard of it. Hurricane Sandy, which was pummeling, uh, the coast, the east coast. And he maybe should have thought through this because he tweeted right before this, the worst of the storm in case you're bored during the storm. Twenty percent off everything for the next 36 hours. Okay. So the reason why that, that tweet wasn't maybe the smartest was that hurricane sandy claimed a hundred and 10 lights and it switched off much of the east coast. So, uh, yeah, twitter, as you can imagine, there was a pretty big response. I think he did get a response, which is what you normally want with twitter, but it wasn't the right response. Yeah, there was a storm that erupted for sure, but the storm was lambasting the retailer as insensitive. I don't know. But I'm assuming that this marketing manager may not be still with American apparel. Now you've gone through hurricanes, right? Absolutely. Here we are in Florida. And you've had, you've had the close, right? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Hurricane, he, he may have been somebody who lived in the Midwest and never went through a hurricane. Right? Um, yeah. They're, they're not, they're not always very fun. So it's a definitely an insensitive tweets. So when was the first time you went through a hurricane? Were you in south Florida and Central Florida? I was in south and it was a hurricane David. Oh Wow. But the worst one I went through was hurricane andrew in the early nineties. The one that sets all records. Yeah. Decimated the Fort Lauderdale, Miami area. And it's created a housing codes like crazy. Yep. Yep. And Lisa was one good thing that happened. I mean, yeah, you're right about that. Are Our homes are much more secure now for now when you, when you were in the, in the business and you have to close for a couple of days, what happens to all that food? We pray and hope we don't lose power. Uh, uh, be, you know, any, at any one point we could have thousands them in our store and so we do our best to get prepared for the storm. But there are some things you really can't prepare for. Yeah. Well, okay, well I know today, I'm sorry if I know you're fine. Went over, went overboard on good producing, good producing. Well, you want to talk about employees and employee needs. Yeah, sure do. And you know, this is of course a hot topic for us. We, we do talk a lot about this, but it's because I think that as leaders, we're slow learners to it. So I had the statement that I love and I'm going to say it really quickly. Here we are
Speaker 3:all searching for three things. Everything in life, every decision we make in every goal, we have breaks down into our need to fill three areas of our soul, those areas, our intimacy, destiny and meaning. So we're going to talk a little bit. This is the employee, I think it's everybody, everybody, everybody including the leader. Um, but you know, we talked several shows ago about Abraham maslow and his hierarchy of needs and so we're going to kind of really focus in on those again today because I think that he didn't, he didn't have a, a meaning around work for those, but I think that you can apply it pretty well to the workplace. So. So he talked to[inaudible], he had this hierarchy and it was a pyramid and it was a pyramid of needs and he theorized that all human beings must fulfill these needs to be happy. Right. And he basically wrote that people couldn't get to the next level of need until they first met the lower levels of needs. That, that makes sense. Right, right. And he also theorized that if, if you get stuck at any one of these levels and you don't feel like you're moving forward, that that can be where maybe depression or stress or pain might begin to manifest in your life. And I don't know, Larry, if you heard about the stats on the number of people in theU, s that claimed to be depressed. Well, I know there are quite a few. What did you find these, what? Yeah. So, you know, of course the Internet, the interweb okay. But it gives you a good answer. That's right. It does. And you know, the last, a survey that is credible, it claims that uh, almost$25 million Americans claim to be depressed. Wow. And, you know, we've met a lot of people that are under the age of 10 that are probably not being surveyed. So if you think about just the 12 year old and up population, you know, you're probably talking somewhere between eight to 12 percent of the population that claims to be depressed. Wow. So, so we do know that, uh, these, uh, work environment isn't the major thing here. No, no, this was definitely a more of a psychological tool. But, but I firmly believe that, you know, leaders that and those in the business world, if we can adapt these principles to our, to our workplaces, I think that there's a competitive advantage here. If you can help your team members meet important needs at work, your no, no doubt, you're going to create a highly motivated and happy team, which is a course one that's more likely to be productive. And if you get this and if you apply this at home with your kids or your spouse and don't even get me started about the changes that could happen. So what are some of these basic needs that mass law talks about? So Larry's reading ahead, his first, his first level was basic needs and these are the lowest levels and he shared that there are basic needs such as the need for food, the need for rest, and when it comes to the workplace, Larry, this is kinda where we talk about a basic need, a basic need would translate into money. So make no mistake, a job has to provide enough in quotes to reasonably meet some needs. It if the job pays employees enough that they can pay their rent and their utilities and buy food and clothing than the Jap satisfies the employees basic needs, you know. Now let's talk about basic needs. Larry. Everybody deserves a mansion, right? No. Okay. So let's, you know, the basic needs, you know, there's some discrepancy on what we might think of. Basic need is, I don't mean a mansion or, or every new gadget, the moment it comes out, you know, there is some responsibility on the team member, but simply put a job does have to meet the basic needs around a place to live food and breast. What about this$15 minimum wage thing? Yeah, I, you know, I think it's um, it sounds great. I mean it says like, okay, we're just going to meet everybody's need. Yeah. So I think that there's, I, I. okay, so we're going to get political here for a moment. I think in America we are lazy politically, and what I mean by that is we throw these great words, right? In fact, um, another great quote, Winston Churchill, people love Republican words and democratic, uh, acts basically. So$15 minimum wage sounds fantastic, but does a 16 year old who's a first time wage earner and getting a job for basic experience in the workforce need$15? I don't think so. And I think if you pay him that, then you better get prepared to pay$8 for gas. I think in America, if we sat there and said, can we pay people that are actually supporting themselves a living wage? Okay, then that might make more sense. Maybe we can do something where over 20 or over 21 you're making 15, but it still leaves room for first time people in the workforce to be paid less, if that makes sense. So that's a highly volatile issue, but I know if you are angry about what I just said, please center guzman and now please email us on a server's journey.com and we can engage in a nice conversation about that. Fantastic. Okay. So what else is needed here? Okay, so second level would be around safety and security. And so once your basic needs are met, your next needs are safety and security. Um, and so in the workplace, this would look like, you know, employees must have a, uh, a safe and secure place where they can succeed at the job site so they, they have to feel physically safe. And so in order for that to happen, the leader must take things like sexual harassment or physical threats pretty seriously and they have to have policies in place to deal with the potential that these could occur. And some people just don't take those seriously. Yeah, I hope that in today's society where it's supercharged around safety and guns and all the violence we're seeing and public places that doesn't still happen, but um, yeah, you have to take this pretty seriously. If somebody makes a threat or God forbid, brings any type of weapon into the workplace, it has to be dealt with and stopped very quickly and after that, Larry, I'm the employee needs to fill that. Their jobs are secure. So if a company does layoffs and even worse if an employee, if a company doesn't communicate with employees about potential layoffs or firings of people, the employee may begin to feel frightened about losing their job and that would mean that they would no longer be able to meet their basic needs, which if you follow me, would lead to a worried and unmotivated team. Boy, they're just so many times that I've been in those situations where you don't know if you're going to have a job the next day or. Yeah. I've never understood. I, I haven't directly had a job. I guess I've been let go only when I. It was well deserved, but it, I couldn't imagine living in that pressure cooker where you didn't know if tomorrow you would have a job, you know, come to think about it. I had that same situation happened to me. Really? Yeah. I got dumped when I was a kid. So. So you want to share with us or is this just a thought came to my mind. I went, oh my goodness. Yes. I remember that. It's not under. Yeah. Anyways. So, uh, okay. So we have those needs, needs, Matt, right? You have your basic needs and your need for safety and security. So the next one would be around, and these are words you don't always think about in the work floors for us, but um, the next needs would be belonging and love. Okay? Yes. So our basic needs are met. Our need for securities and safety has been met. And so now people begin to think deeper and we begin to try and meet our needs around belonging and love. And so as a leader, and this is whether you're again leading your family or leading a organization, you've got to create an environment where their team feels comfortable with their coworkers and their supervisors, they don't have to like or get along with everybody, but they do need to feel like they belong and that they are loved by at least some of the people that they work with. And that kind of makes sense. Right? I don't ever ever worked at a place where you didn't feel like nobody liked you. Well know I hate to say it, but everybody loves me. Well, you know, you do have that charming personality. Oh well, you know, goes so far. Well, if, if an employee fills alienated from the company, they're just not going to do their best work. And this is doubly important when it comes to employer, employee relationships. If employees don't feel like their bosses value them or their contributions, they may not do their job as well. I come to, there's like two people that come to my mind. I'm thinking about the that used to work for you or maybe one still works for you. Yes. Yeah, I do. I think the, for instance, this one guy, he just seemed like he never fit in. Yeah. Okay. What happened? So you know, there's a balance and you're definitely walking a tight rope and I think you're going to kind of draw a comparison between two different people. Um, there are people that just don't fit but could fit and you know, you have a culture at your store or at your workplace and you know, it's hard to. I mean it's, we've already talked about culture. It's hard to create and then it's hard to change once it's, it's moving. So if you've got a good culture and it's working for most of the people and you have a person who comes in that just can't fit, sometimes you do have to cut. The kindest thing you can do is to cut your losses. But in this situation with this young gentleman, it was more around his tone and the way he talked to people, but I felt like, okay, this person can fit into the culture of our organization. So with them it was more sitting down and really, hey, this is what we value, this is what we places important, these are the core things that we want from our team. And once that person was able to figure it out, he kind of flipped the switch and he stills with us, one of our top leaders and gets along with the majority of the people in our store. That's fantastic. Feels like he belongs. You have that. You have that insight to see that people do can fit in a share. Let's, let's, let's go with that. We, you know, sometimes you think they can fit in and you try to force it and you try to put that round peg in a square hole and it just doesn't work. And I've done that too. So I've been successful. I think as an, as a leader, as an, as an employer, you want to err on the side of grace and mercy, so you do want to try and you want to communicate, hey, here's what we need. But we've also had, I think this was the second employee you were talking about, this happened to be a young female and no matter what we did, she just was not going to fit into the culture of our organization and she was kind of the outlier because most people fit. So once I realized that no matter how hard she tried to fit in or no matter how hard we tried to help her fit in, it was never going to be a good fit. So then at that point the kindest thing I could do was sit down with her and offer her the chance to transfer to another culture. And uh, thankfully that one worked out too. And we're still good friends. I still really respect her as a person and a leader, but it just didn't work in our culture. It's good that you can identify these issues. Yeah. Well, I think it's more of being willing to identify him, you know, I think it's the easiest thing to do is just ignore him. Like, okay, they'll just kind of take care of themselves, but you know, a team member that doesn't fit and it's never going to fit is the biggest cancer in your organization. And if you don't get rid of that, then your other people, they get affected and worse, they begin to look at you as a leader who's an effective because you know it, you're letting somebody damage the culture. So maslow theorized that people begin to look for self esteem and self actualization after they get these basic needs met. So Yep. So we've got basic needs, we've got the needs of safety and security, we've got belonging and love. So then you reached this need for self esteem and self actualization. And this is the highest level of maslow's hierarchy of needs. Once they fill all these other things, once they had the basic needs, once they feel safe, once they belong and feel loved, and they begin to think about themselves, they begin to look at things like self esteem, which is how much the employee likes and values himself and employees who feel that they are productive and doing something worthwhile, what their time tend to have higher self esteem than those that don't, which is great because once you have self esteem and once you know that you're productive and you're doing something worthwhile, that goes back to the why, you're going to start really producing some great stuff. Um, and then self actualization, which is the highest level of the is an employees need to feel like he is living up to his potential in life and as using his creativity and passion, you know, employee sometimes change careers if they find that their current career can't meet that need. However, if an employee is working in the right job for him and all other needs are met, they should be able to fill self actualize and the job should satisfied their highest needs should.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think Larry, you're going to talk a little bit about something to you. You had me actually work. I was in between as they say in the trade and you offered me an opportunity to work and you put me to work and I worked behind the counter and I had a problem. I talked too much. But yeah, we, we have a saying in the service industry that you want to be friendly but not friends. Yeah. And so he was friends with everybody. I could sit and talk for 15, 20 minutes. Right. Which did not help production. But then you discovered that maybe I had a, another goal that I could do something else. Yeah. And you put me in charge of the marketing, which just blew me away. I had the best time of my life. I was five years I best five years I've ever had. So I totally enjoyed that because I was, I felt like I was doing something. You gave me the ability to be free and do create the, you know, I think within the culture, you know, we're going to get my, we're going to give me a lot of credit here and I'm going to accept it because I'm this great leader, but I think we know better. I think that really with you, I realized that you had creativity and you had a passion and I really wasn't quite sure exactly where it was, but I hoped that marketing would kind of scratch that itch. And then we got lucky. There was some providence there for sure. Like I said, it was one of the best jobs and then you've got to be friends with everybody. And Larry became the mayor of our city. In fact, many times people would say, oh, I met the guy you work for. And I was like, yes, I work for Larry. You are, you know, many times I did. I, I, I worked for Larry, which is okay. No, no. And then I had to say, no, I'm not rocked. I was okay with letting Larry take take the brunt of most of them. Okay. Okay. But you had thought there, I had a thought that I was actually going to say with, with this, with this a line that we're on, it came time for me to leave, right? You know, and you, you accept that, that was beautiful and I was able to start it, a little radio station in and had a ball. The rest is history, the rest is history. And now we're here doing podcasts. So here's what I've noticed and you know, I'm going to use an example. We talk a lot about sports. I think that people are generally getting that. My bent is towards football, but you know, we talk about self actualization and self esteem. And so let's talk about Aga mccarran. He's the backup was the backup quarterback
Speaker 3:for the Cincinnati Bangles. So I look at it and I'm like, what a great job. I mean, being a quarterback, well, being a quarterback in the nfl, his basic needs are definitely meant he's got a house, he's got food and he's got rest. He definitely belongs. He definitely feels loved. I mean, w in the truest sense, he was part of a team. I mean, he got to wear the colors and you know, he was a bangle and he had this comradery with all this team, so we know those were met and we know that, uh, you know, the next one is around self esteem or self actualization. That's where the disconnect happened because I'm thinking, okay, you get to hold a clipboard. You, other than going in and mop up duty, you're never in harms way. You're making millions, you're living every boy's dream. And yet he exercise. You didn't feel selfish. Self fulfilled, right? He, he exercised his ability to leave the bangles and join the buffalo bills, which some would say a, it's probably not as great of a, you know, a team at the moment and not when it gets to get chased by 300 pound men that want to kill them for basically no more money. What W, why? Other than the fact that he felt like his potential, he wasn't living up to his potential and he did. He wanted a chance to create and show his passion and his passion is I want to be a starting quarterback in the NFL. Now speaking about starting quarterbacks, you have another example of something that kind of like turned around but somewhat have found their self esteem found where they wanted to be. Yeah. Can you tell me about Phil Robertson? Sharon, and this is a weird one because you know, we talked a lot about the nfl here and everybody knows Phil Robertson and they either love him or hate him. He's, he's a very polarizing figure and we're not going to talk about whether we love him or hate him. He, he's a successful media personality now. He's on or was on a show called duck dynasty, which for several seasons was the highest rated cable show ever. Right. So, so where did he come from? I mean, I thought it was always just a backward boy, right? Just a good old good old redneck hunter. Right? So, so he always was, but he, here's the unknown or it's known to some people, but unknown to a lot of people is that he actually was a athlete of real renown in Louisiana. In fact, um, he got a full ride scholarship in football to Louisiana Tech University. Here's the quarterback, the quarterback. Yep. And by most accounts, he was good enough to play in the pros. In fact, he was all state and football in high school. He went to Louisiana Tech on scholarship and he was the first thing, first string quarterback in 1966 and 67, so that we understand. But Larry, who was his backup? Yeah. Yeah. A guy named Terry Bradshaw was just mediocre quarterback named Terry Bradshaw who was not good enough to beat out Phil Robertson at Louisiana Tech University. In fact, Terry Bradshaw didn't even play quarterback until 1968 when Phil stepped down. Yeah. When Phil Basically said, uh, yeah, I don't want to play football anymore. And um, so, you know, Terry Bradshaw went on to become the first quarterback chosen first overall pick in 1970 and went on to the steelers and won four superbowls. And none of that could have happened if Phil, Robert Robertson just kept playing. And in fact, here's what a, there's a quote from Terry Bradshaw about Phil, and he said, Phil Robertson loved hunting more than he loved football. He'd come to practice directly from the woods, squirrel tells, hanging out of his pocket, duck feathers on his clothes. Clearly he was a fine shot, so no one complained much. So it's interesting because again, I'm, most people would have just went with that career of football, but he realized that probably wasn't going to meet his needs at creativity and passion. He wasn't going to be as productive as he could. So he, he is a different route. He invented a duck call and prior to the show was a millionaire already because of this duck call that he used, what he was a passion of his to create. So anyways, he's got media and merchandising empire. And it's a family of rednecks. No, no. Donald, Louisiana. So Duck Dynasty. Well, thank you guys for that great example for us. Uh, do you have a favorite quote that you like to share? Yeah. And, uh, so. Okay. So this is one of my all time favorite, um, it's by a gentleman named Samuel Taylor Coleridge, I believe. And he said that common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom. Would you repeat that for me because I have a hard time? Sure. Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom, which I love that. Wow. Okay. Well, thank you for sharing that. Uh, because I, you know, it's great when you have a guest on you have them share a quote two in the and
Speaker 2:that's good to hear these things. We're going to get either share a, quote, a quote at some point. Here it is. I like working for rocky. I'm sorry. That's my quote. Okay. We're gonna. We're going to get a better one for you. Oh, okay. Well, you know, I want to thank everyone for being with us today. Here on the servers journey you don't remember. You can subscribe and your hill, all of what rocky wants to share with you. You can go back and listen to some of the other episodes as well. Oh, if you subscribe, you'll be getting the servers journey moment, which is a quick pick me up to help start your day. If you like what you hear, tell a friend, let us know on facebook, on Instagram, share it. We'd love to have it also from time to time. Rocky has some great personal stories that he likes to share and you can get them on the website, a survivor's journey. So rocky. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Until next time you're ever faithful companion there. See, I'm supposed to have another, uh, tonto and long ranger, but I can't be a lone ranger, but I can't think of one now. I always think of the title in the Lone Ranger. So that's the one I think too. I think we've already used Batman and Robin, so we're going to just go ahead and say here that if you don't understand, we are all on a journey and it's, it's how you serve in that role that's really important. And that's why we're sharing this information. We're sharing the servers journey and I'm rocky desteffano and remember, it's been my pleasure. Servio.