The Game with Alex Hormozi - Hot off the press. 🔥🔥🔥 GYM LAUNCH TENET #2: DONT SUGARCOAT IT... Talk To Your Employees Like You Do Behind Their Backs... >>How to Spot Talent And Identify Cancers | Ep 100

Episode Date: January 24, 2019

"It’s about having honest conversations, not sugarcoating them." Today, Alex (@Alexhormozi) discusses the importance of identifying talent and "cancers" in the workplace, shares examples of successful and unsuccessful promotions, and how overconfidence and pride can lead to difficulty managing star performers.Welcome to The Game w/Alex Hormozi, hosted by entrepreneur, founder, investor, author, public speaker, and content creator Alex Hormozi. On this podcast you’ll hear how to get more customers, make more profit per customer, how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons Alex has learned on his path from $100M to $1B in net worth.Timestamps:(0:37) - Identifying talent and spotting cancer in the workplace(2:16) - The impact of ego on management(3:40) - Difference between prideful and productive employees(8:35) - Identifying prideful people in the interview process(9:53) - The benefits of being a truth-teller in the workplaceFollow Alex Hormozi’s Socials:LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Acquisition

I'm super stoked to be making this for you. This one is hot off the press. We just finished an hour and a half long meeting, reviewing all of our individual teammates. We have over 70 employees at gym launch. And yes, 70, crazy. And it was such a great example of don't sugarcoat it that I wanted to share this with you

so that you guys could use some of these frameworks to spot talent when you're interviewing people, spot talent on your team that might be underutilized. And then really also, on the flip side, identify cancers, people who are not serving your community or are going to be blocking the growth, right? And so how to spot talent and identify cancer. So the second tenant of Jim Launch is don't sugarcoat it, right?

Which means that, like, at all times, our job as people within a company and then also, especially as a CEO, is to be a truth teller. That is what our job is. And so the more you sugarcoat thing, the less effective your communication is. But like, people don't understand it when you're just not true, right? You don't speak the truth. And so let me show you when it's like when it actually comes into play. It's almost always when you're communicating with your team,

especially about performance and how they're doing, right? And so if someone's not doing well, a lot of times we he and haul around it because we're trying to protect their emotions, trying to protect other fields. We don't want to deal with some sort of reaction. We should already tell you that that might not be the right person or that that character trait might not be best for the role. And so something that we've made a mistake on over and over and over again at gym launch, and it's something that I hope that you don't need to repeat this mistake is that we have time and time again promoted someone who was an excellent technician at something into a management role.

And you read it in all the books and they say, don't do that. And then here we are doing it. And we've done it like in the meeting identified five different situations where we had absolute all-star, star performers who are crushing it in their role. And then we promoted them up and then they failed as a manager. And I was trying to think about what separated the people who we have promoted up and flourished as a manager and leader in the company and moved up versus the ones who we moved up and then we had to fire, which is the worst because not only that, you have to find a new manager, but you also have to replace the stark performer that you promote it. It's the worst of both. And when it really comes down to it for us is that all of those people had pride. They had egos.

And so when that person was, like they were the person who wanted to take. everything on as an individual performer because they wanted to inextricably get themselves into the business so that the business were relying on them, right? And so they wanted to prove how much they could do, how much they could do, how they could rise to the top, which is great until that person starts suppressing the people underneath of them because they want no one to be as good as they were, right? That is when pride gets into management, right? You can see that. And unfortunately, those people a lot of times will smile to your face, but then behind your back will act completely differently. And they think they're outsmarting you by putting on this

face, this facade when they're not really fooling anyone, right? And then what happens is you start to have two lines of dialogue and maybe this is real for some of you, but you have two lines of dialogue whenever you're talking to someone who has a huge ego, especially if they're sport in it. Because what happens is they think they're smarter than you. And so when they're talking to you, they're smiling and they're saying these words, but what their feeling is underneath. And so constantly you start having this dual dialogue that's going on at any given time, and you have the passive-aggressive thing that starts. And so this is where the worst-case scenario comes in. You take a star performer who was a prideful start to perform because they totally

crushed it because they wanted to rise to the top for themselves, not for the company. And then once they take on all these things, right, then you do promote them, then you have this passive aggressive, and then what do they do? They start hiring people just like them, right? So they're hiring this passive, and so what happens is you get this pool of people, who are passive aggressive and not communicating the same way, and then fake communication begins. And then nothing real ever gets set, which is why the second tentative gym lunch is don't sugarcoat it. Don't gossip, don't sugarcoat, just say it like it is. And the easiest way and the best way I can think of this because I was talking to one of our directors today,

and they're like, how should I say this to this person? And they had just said all of the things, they're like, you know what, I'm really worried about, like, if I don't promote this person at this point, how they're going to take it. I'm worried that their performance is going to suffer. They're not going to want to, because they're going to feel like they got skipped over, all this stuff. And I was like, you need to look at them and say exactly what you said to me. Like, most times the words that you need to tell the person are exactly,

you're telling everyone else on these meetings. So speak to people as though you were speaking behind their back, but just say it to their face. And then you'll be amazed at how effective your communication will be. And what's interesting is that when you do that, you actually give someone the opportunity to grow. because then they actually know what you think, because they know what you say behind their back. And so one of the biggest goals that I've had in my life

has been to always speak to people behind their back the way I speak to them in person. And sometimes even when I'm at a dinner party before, if I do ever say anything they've got to really try not to, I'm going to say, everything I'm about to tell you, I have told to this person first. So if I say like I really disagree with how they do the fulfillment,

I think they do X, Y, Z wrong. Like, I have said that to that person first. And I will never say something behind their back that I have not told them to their fix. And so the same thing, if you have employees, if you have these little groups that happen, or you're talking to your managers, maybe about frontline employees, and you're like, well, I don't know how she's going to take that. Tell her, hey, Sarah, I wanted to do this.

And so here's my thought process. Because of how you've reacted in the past, I didn't know how you're going to take it. Now you can actually have a real conversation about the issue rather than having all these constant, like, for lack of better term, pussy pudding around the issues. Right? you get to really say it. And then that's when you have real conversations, real relationships. And then you can build bonds in your group, like real teammates, like that you will stand

there and you'll have each other's back and you'll do it because everyone knows you are real, right? People are always like, man, oh, it's just so real. Like, I mean, I see some of these things and I appreciate it. But it's just being a truth teller. Just say what you actually are thinking and say it to your people. Hey, guys, real quick, if you're new to the podcast, I have a book on Amazon. It's called $100 million offers that over 8,000 five-star reviews and it has almost a perfect score.

You can get it for 99 cents on Kindle. The reason I bring it up is that I put over 1,000 hours into writing that book. And it's my biggest gift to our community. So it's my very shameless way of trying to get you to like me more. And ultimately make more dollars so that later on in your business career, I can potentially partner with you. So that's my give. Go check it out. Amazon and back to the show.

Right. And so to be true to the headline of this video, how to spot talent and identify cancer, the difference between the star player who is able to move up and manage well and lead, and the difference between the star player who is not able to move up and manage and lead is pride. Because the person who has pride is not willing to grow, because in order to grow, you need to admit fault. You need to admit there is a deficit. You need to admit there is a gap between where you are and where you should be or want to be.

The prideful person is always right. They are always the smartest in the room, and they have nothing left. and everyone needs to acknowledge them, right? And that is the problem. If you feel like when you're saying something, it's falling on deaf ears, like, I mean, you grip up this from Avatar, like you cannot fill a cup that is already full.

If that person thinks they are smarter than you, think they always have the answers, always has the quick, like, quick response, that person is a cancer. They're talking shit about you behind your back. And very likely, they're not going to grow. And if you put that person in charge, then that person is going to create a culture of that,

which will literally destroy your business. promise. So when you are hiring those people, look for the star performance. And a lot of times, interestingly, this is just from our experience of hiring people who go from frontline to lead, to manager, to directors, right? Like we've had four levels next to see the people who actually go through all of them. Sometimes it's not the loudest person. Sometimes it's just someone who's like medium on their loudness. Like they do their work and they don't say anything. And sometimes when you have the conversations with those people, they are willing to grow because they don't have an ego. And there's a difference between being prideful and like taking pride in your work and it's semantics because of the English language and different languages those words are different.

But like taking pride in your work versus being prideful, right? One is about I want to I want to do this for the best. Like I want to put my best into this versus I am the best and therefore it is the best because it was made by me. That's the difference. So use those filters when you're looking at people and your and your and your, interviewing them, think, like, and one of the best tactical things, if you're trying to, like, interview someone is, is poke at that, like, give them a scenario, and then ask them what they would do, and then poke.

Why would you do that? Why would you do that? But why? And the prideful person will be become annoyed, and then they will start to lash out. You'll see their pride come out, right? And then you can identify those cancers early and get them out, right? Not to say that somebody like that isn't smart. Tons of very smart.

That's why a lot of them, you know, they were a little bit smarter than the people or maybe a lot smarter or whatever as they grew up. And so they started thinking they were always the smartest person in the room. But the problem is when you're the smartest person in the room, there's nothing left for you to learn. Right. And so if you have that mindset, it's very difficult for you to grow someone who has that mindset. It's very difficult for them to manage a team because they don't actually want anyone to be better than them. Whereas when you're actually trying to grow a high growth team, you need every single person to be a servant leader. You need every single person to be willing to grow and literally put themselves out of a job.

and that is counter survival. Because survival tells you I need to get as many things on my plate as I possibly can so that they have to keep me, right? But growing in our organization means you need to get everything as much off of your plate, coach and grow the people underneath of you so that you can then have a free plate and then grab the things from above you and bring it on your own. That is how you move up, right? That is how you move up in our company and any company that's growing hopefully the right way.

So, anywho, guys, I hope that was valuable. for you. That is why Jim LaunchCorpant. Number two is don't sugarcoat it. Our job as CEO is to be a truth tell the truth. At all costs, always tell the truth. And if you can confront the truth, people will respect you for it because you're having efficient communication. You're telling them what is actually happening. And then you create the platform for real growth within your team and then even with customers. Like this is what's actually going on. If you're like, hey, this is something that's going to be a profit center for us, just say it. Like, it's not like they don't know. It's not like people don't know. You know what I mean?

So like just say it. And then that way the air is cleared so you don't have two lines of communication. The words and then what you're really saying. Just say what you are really saying. And then you'll be amazing how much easier life gets. So lots of love guys. And I hope that was valuable for you. If you can, drop a line on here, drop a like.

Thanks, guys. Have an awesome day.