Jeff Garrison With Results On Purpose

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Coach the Coach radio brought to you by the Business RadioX Ambassador Program, the no cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to brxambassador.com To learn more. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a fun one today on the show, we have Jeff Garrison with results on purpose. Welcome, Jeff.

Jeff Garrison: [00:00:42] Hi, welcome. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:44] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about results on purpose. How are you serving, folks?

Jeff Garrison: [00:00:48] Well, results on purpose is a system of teaching leadership teams, owners and leadership teams how to plan and execute and build culture and do performance coaching. Now all wrapped into one, so they learn the system and then we have ongoing coaching to help them do that. And, you know, every client doubles, triples their business and more.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:22] Now I’m sure the name of the firm wasn’t created by accident. Can you share why you chose the words results number one and on purpose number two? I would imagine in your work you’ve seen some folks get some results and not exactly know why.

Jeff Garrison: [00:01:42] Yeah. You know, we can grow our businesses. We can achieve some of our goals. But often we’re we’re working way too hard to get it done. And you know, that sometimes has the accidental part. But we chose results in the name because that’s what we focus on. There are so many folks that are busy. They believe that the things that they do, the activities that they have in their job, that that is their job. But really, every job exists from the receptionist on up to the CEO to achieve a certain result. And often we don’t know what result our company expects from us. So we start with that and then we’re, you know, we measure it, we hold people accountable and that’s the on purpose part.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:41] Now, how did you come to this because it sounds I mean, it sounds obvious when you say it, but I just know too many people that I’ve seen too many things to to have seen what you’ve said is actually 100 percent true that people are just doing things and they’re not really kind of. They just had did it yesterday. So that’s why they’re doing it again today. And they kind of maybe have lost focus of what their original result was that they were even after.

Jeff Garrison: [00:03:12] Yeah, and it’s throughout the company, and I’ll give you a really recent example, I had a client give me a call last week because he had hired a person in a front line position and calling to say, You know, I’m not sure it’s working out. We’re having some issues. She’s not showing enough initiative was kind of the global phrase he used and. And so I asked my client if he had shared with her exactly what result he wanted from her. Why does her job exists and what does it look like for her to be getting that result? And you know, the answer is, well, he kind of skipped that part. Well, go back and do that. And then, you know, let me know how that changes things. And it was really simple. And, you know, I did get feedback that things are great. And so, you know, it’s just that idea. We don’t we think about positions. We don’t think about why they exist. We don’t think about what the companies really trying to achieve and put that into action. We’re just doing stuff now.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:31] When you start working with a new client, is this something that you look at the business holistically as a whole and then get granular to each and every kind of process and person in the team?

Jeff Garrison: [00:04:43] I work with the owners and their leadership teams and then teach them how to push this stuff down to their direct reports and so on. So the implementation and and teaching starts with those what are typically four or five people and it and they have to figure out themselves what results they own as the, say, the finance leader or the sales and marketing leader or or the operations leader. And and when we talk about owning results, we’re really talking about very high level. If you can’t explain what result you own for your company in a sentence, then you’re getting too detailed.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:31] And then so there are some activities you go through with the leadership to kind of really hone in on maybe the things they own, maybe the things that they shouldn’t be owning and and then kind of helping them move around the pieces on the chessboard.

Jeff Garrison: [00:05:46] Exactly. We essentially build an ownership chart. We identify what needs to be owned in a company, what results need to be done and figure out who needs to own those things we can’t have. We can’t expect results and not have somebody in charge of seeing that we get them. It doesn’t mean that they do everything. It’s just that, you know, somebody makes sure it’s happening. And you know, when those things are clear and we put measurements around it, you know, that starts to help smoke out what the problems are with getting the results that they want in it. It may be processed it. It may be just defining what we need. It may be that the people who are responsible for getting those results really aren’t the right people for that. They’re not wired or they haven’t been trained, or they may not have the tools to get the results that you want. So when we do this, it smokes out a lot of other problems that the company needs to fix.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:58] So now what is kind of the engagement look like with you? What’s the first let’s start at the beginning? Like, what’s the pain that the client is having? Do they even recognize that they’re kind of a little out of whack? Or is it something that something is specifically happening like, Oh, sales are down? Let me call Jeff, or I can’t. I can’t keep any of my employees. Let me call Jeff.

Jeff Garrison: [00:07:20] It’s, you know, thus far, my business has been 100 percent referral. And what’s happening is they’re looking at somebody they know and seeing what’s happening in their business and they start talking about it. And then they’re referred to me. And usually they they may not have something specific. They just know that their business is not clicking on all cylinders or that they’re feeling stuck. They haven’t progressed like they thought they would or for owners. A lot of times it’s they’re stuck in the weeds and they’ve got, you know, little personal freedom. They don’t have the freedom that they thought they would have when they became an entrepreneur and started a business. So more often, it’s not that they know that something specific is wrong. They just know that things aren’t right.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:18] Now is today’s world where there’s a lot of kind of remote work and you’re you’re not kind of in close contact with folks as much as you had been in the past, and a lot of people are working kind of in an island, really, you know, they’re they’re connected to the company, but they’re not seeing it in the in the frequency they used to. And they they’re not having kind of these accidental collisions that they might have had in the past is to me that you would need to be so clear on expectations and the results you’re after. Or else something can really get off the rails pretty quickly with a miscommunication and not being caught. And then, you know, days turn to weeks like it can turn into a bad outcome if you don’t get this right, and it would seem like your kind of methodology fits perfectly with today’s hybrid remote working world.

Jeff Garrison: [00:09:08] Yeah, it does. And and for me personally, I have not stopped seeing all of my clients in person. I work with the leadership teams all together for full days and in state in person, but in helping them deal with remote workers. It’s, you know, with remote workers that leaders often have this question What are they doing? What are they doing with their time and when results aren’t exactly what they want or things aren’t timely, they start getting stuff into their head, you know, are they working? What are they doing? And what we’re finding is that just there’s a misalignment in expectations. A lot of time and leaders can easily jump to conclusions that aren’t accurate. And so when we go back and we make things really clear for everybody or help them to make things really clear here, the results that we want, here’s what it looks like when you’re getting those results. Here’s what we might measure. You know, where’s the proof? And if if that’s good, everything’s good, we don’t worry about all these silly details.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:29] So now is there any advice you could share with the listener right now? Is there something they could be doing like today with their team? Some easy thing to implement, maybe a baby step in this process, or at least open their mind to thinking in this manner?

Jeff Garrison: [00:10:45] Well, to start with, I would say for everybody, just talk more with your leadership team and on down. You know, we often don’t appreciate as business owners that the people working for us don’t know what’s in our head. You know, we what our vision is, where we’re trying to go. What we want to accomplish. And how we want to impact our communities in the world and and what’s in it for the people helping us do that. And you know, that’s where I tell people to start is, you know, really think about what your business is trying to accomplish, the impact that it’s going to have and how does that affect your employees? And be sharing that with them all the time and then start, you know, communicate what part they play in getting that done. And some people won’t be excited about that. And you probably ought to find a way to get them out of the way or out of the company and replace them with people who are excited about what you’re trying to do. It’s, you know, when everybody’s excited about what, you know, the bigger picture and when they appreciate their role in that, that is simple enough to make things a lot better for you. It kind of releases people’s initiative and motivation, all moving towards a single goal. So now when you’re working, it’s not. It’s kind of it sounds complicated. It’s not. It doesn’t have to be perfect the first time you just start talking and repeating, you know where you’re heading.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:35] Well, I think when you reframe things and focus on results and you start drilling down and say, OK, everybody, no matter what they’re doing, there’s an expectation of a result to just kind of just define, even at people who might not think that their work has maybe a measurable result. Is there some, some jobs or job functions where it’s more difficult than others to really say, OK, the result of your position is this like you’re like some administrative roles? Is there a way to kind of put measurements on those?

Jeff Garrison: [00:13:12] You can probably, yeah, you can get creative about those things. But, you know, some things are it’s OK for them to not be quantitative. They can be qualitative. I’ll give you an example. I use a lot to illustrate this idea. You have probably called the customer service department for your cell phone carrier at some time. And you know that person, they may have answered your questions or solve your problem, but at the end of the call, you didn’t feel great about the call. When I share this, I usually get head nods from people. Yeah, I’ve experienced something like that. And but that person who helped you, if their supervisor was standing right there and ask, how did the call go? They’d probably say, great. I answered their questions. I solved their problem. I’m going to the next one. And they think that solving your problem was the result that the company wants. And really, if the company were to define it well, what they want is a great relationship with their customers. So how they solved your problem might not have been great. They might have gotten it done, but they did not enhance the relationship that you had. And so that’s just a misunderstanding of what the result they have. And that thing that right there is not quantitative, it’s it’s qualitative, but even sharing that with the person. It’ll change the way they talk to people on the phone. You know, they might be a little bit more personable when they’re thinking, I’m trying to make this person love our company, that that kind of thing. On the flip side, you’ve probably had these kind of phone calls where you didn’t get your problem solved, but actually you enjoyed the conversation with the person that was trying to help you. So, you know, does that make sense?

Lee Kantor: [00:15:19] Yeah. Well, that’s I mean, I think that I’m just trying to give a frame for the listener to think about their own business and how there are some things that you can count and then some things that maybe you shouldn’t be counting and you’ve got to kind of define what it is the result, the outcome, what outcome are you trying at the end of the day, do you desire? And then being clear on that and communicating that to everybody involved and that way you can. Somehow measure that and that, and that’s where I guess it gets tricky for business owners, where when it is subjective, like you said, the employee thinks, you know, high five, I killed it and then the customer’s angry and the owner’s like, what happened? I thought we just we did good. And you know, it’s just not being clear on on what it is that is truly important.

Jeff Garrison: [00:16:14] Yeah. Yeah, and you asked for your question was about a baby step, and I know that that’s not necessarily a baby step and you know, the long term steps, so to speak of this is when you’re when you’re doing this. It does smoke out the people who can’t get it, you know, they’re just not wired the way they need to be for the the role or they don’t care. They they need to be coached either up or out of the organization. And this is sort of a long term thing, and this is where our coaching comes in to help leadership teams define these things for themselves, you know, get it right, communicate it well and then do the performance coaching with those folks to make this stuff true for their company.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:12] Right. And I think at the heart of it, that’s what you’re really trying to do is make sure that the leadership and the whole team is aligned and they’re all kind of have the same vision of what could be and should be. And then the sooner you identify the folks that aren’t a right fit and replace them with people that are, that’s probably where in the growth really can happen rapidly.

Jeff Garrison: [00:17:33] Yes. Yeah, that’s that’s a big part of it. And that’s sort of the everyday operational culture building side that we work on. That’s sort of in the business stuff. There’s also the on the business stuff, and that’s really about the leadership team hitting their own goals, those things they need to achieve to keep moving the the business forward. And you know that that’s a different thing and we do help them set the long term goals. What’s the big picture and then chunk those down into really 90 day sprints that we call deliverables. We don’t call them goals because goals implies that, you know, maybe you’ll get it done. Maybe you won’t. We’re trying to. But a deliverable is something that as a leader, you deliver and we get our clients into this rhythm where every quarter as a leadership team, they might have four or five deliverables and they they have to get it done. Or we lose what’s called compounding effort. You know, that opportunity to finish and make a new investment and deliverables and get that compounding over time. But at the end of a few years, if you’re operating this way, your leadership team might have gotten, say, 30 or 40 significant things done on your business. And that really accelerates the growth of the business when they’re that focused and getting things done. And that process itself will also smoke out those leaders that are able to plan and execute and those that are not and often those that can’t wind up volunteering to move to a different role off the leadership team or leaving the company because they know they’re not getting it done now in the business and on the business aspects of what we do.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:41] Now, when you say deliverable, what’s an example of a deliverable is that like a sales number or is that an activity? Like what is how is a deliverable defined?

Jeff Garrison: [00:19:51] It is anything that needs to get done. You know, working on the business, for example, where a lot of companies start is they don’t have their key processes documented. So, you know, a deliverable might be to document, you know, a customer service process or a product development process or something to get it done and get everybody following that process. It might be, you know, maybe we need a technology upgrade. So how far can we get in the next 90 days on that thing? It’s whatever the business needs. It might be exploring a market could be buying a new piece of equipment. You know, I have a a client in in Washington, D.C. It’s just one that comes to mind was redesigning the manufacturing floor for greater efficiency. So in 90 days, they want to have their study done and know where they need to be moving equipment and supplies to move faster.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:16] But it’s things that can be that you control, rather than things that you might not be able to control, like a sales goal like.

Jeff Garrison: [00:21:24] Right? Yes. Yes. And sales goals selling should be part. It should be an indoor business thing, part of the everyday activity that those people who own the business development results do. So, you know, that’s that’s more about managing their own personal results in the company and not so much in on the business thing that’s in the business.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:54] Right. So you want to control what you can control and create tight processes so that you’re getting the you’re achieving the goals that you have set forth. But the process is more important than the goal because the process is the engine that drives that. Yes. Now do you work in certain industries or niches or is this something that is kind of industry agnostic?

Jeff Garrison: [00:22:17] It is definitely industry agnostic. Again, it’s since it’s been by referral. From the beginning, I’ve gotten a chance to work in a variety of manufacturing and service businesses, financial businesses. It’s kind of all over the board. The thing is, is obviously different industries have their nuances and there’s there’s things you need to know and do to succeed in that industry. But in the end, most of your success boils down to the time tested blocking and tackling business things that you do and getting the right people in place to do them. So if we can help with those things that the last say, 20 percent of the equation becomes pretty clear to owners and their industry specific stuff.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:27] Well, congratulations on all the success. It’s a great story, and it sounds like you’re doing really good work. If somebody wants to learn more and get a hold of you or somebody on your team, what is the website?

Jeff Garrison: [00:23:40] It is results on purpose.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:44] Well, Jeff, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Jeff Garrison: [00:23:49] Thank you very much, Leigh. I enjoyed the conversation.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:52] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Coach the Coach radio.