MR CORPO PODCAST

MR CORPO prescribes 3 things you should do every single day (including Fridays) if you want to be successful at your job.

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Confidence is a zero sum game. It's either going up or going down - so what kind of boss - what kind of human being - are you? Are you giving people confidence or stealing it? Plus or minus - you decide.  

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Being a boss isn't about trying to be popular. It's about doing things the right way, so that the people that work with you respect what you do and how you do it. In this episode, MR CORPO offers 3 easy ways to make people like working with you. 

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Why does everyone hate me? Why do I suck at being a boss? Everyone has tons of advice for things you SHOULD do as a boss, but MR CORPO takes the opposite approach and focuses on 3 things you should NEVER do as a boss...

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Hiring, firing, motivating, leading, interviewing, promoting, partying, oh - and feedback. Season 4 of the MR CORPO podcast is going to focus on what it takes to be an awesome boss. Whether you are a new boss, a veteran of middle management or aspiring to bosshood, the MR CORPO podcast has you covered. This season's episodes are an accompaniment to Justin Kerr's new book: HOW TO BE A BOSS - available now at mrcorpo.com.

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Have you ever stopped to think how absurd it is that you are judging your accomplishments and self-worth vs. a random (tiny) selection of people who happen to work in the same building as you do? There are millions - no billions - of people on earth, so get outside, zoom out, and stop worrying about whether you get promoted in August or February.

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FULL TRANSCRIPT:

JUSTIN: Cause you are beautiful, no matter what they say. Life can't get you down.

(Intro music)

JUSTIN: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Mr. Corpo podcast. And in fact, this will be the last podcast of Season 3 of the Mr. Corpo podcast show. The reason for that is, we're gonna take a few weeks off, because I am negotiating a new book deal with a major book publisher. That's fantastic. I'm also finishing up the edits on How To Be A Boss. And that will be coming out in October. Very excited about that. And thirdly, I'm hiring an assistant. And I want to take a little time to get them into ship shape and get the new, new out there in the world.

So for that reason, this will be the last episode of Season 3. Stay tuned, we'll get some new and exciting things coming at you. But in the meantime, let's get on to today's episode. The topic for today is why you should never, ever, no matter what, compare yourself to other people. Now, whether we're talking about work or life, existing in a constant comparison of yourself versus other people is a losing battle, and surefire way to go through life unhappy, unsatisfied, and basically miserable. Now, let's get to work.

(music)

JUSTIN: If you work in an office, it is far too easy to fall into the trap of comparing yourself to the people around you. After all, you see them every day. They do similar jobs to what you do. So it's natural that in a society, in an organization which values measurements, achievements as proof of the individual's worth, it's natural that we want to know if we're winning. It's natural that we want to know, am I winning?

Now, let me zoom us out for a minute. Do you realize how ridiculous it is that you're judging yourself, your self-worth, your level of achievement, your success in both life and work, versus the 10, 20, or 200 people you randomly happen to work with in the same building? 200 people out of billions of people! There are literally billions of people on earth, and you're judging yourself versus 10 of them. Or five of them. Or the three people on your team. It's ridiculous! It's silly. It's wrong. Zoom out.

Forget about the 10 people immediately around you on your team, and think about the millions of people in your state. Think about the hundreds of millions of people in the United States, or whatever country you happen to live in. Think of all the things that you have to be grateful for, exactly where you are today. You see, the problem with comparing yourself to other people is that we have a tendency to focus on what we don't have and what we need to do to get more. And rather than being able to be happy or enjoy the moment or grateful for what we have, we're worried about what we don't have.

Alright, so that's the general framework of what it means to compare yourself in this false judgement of the immediate people that happen to be around you as friends or co-workers. That's a false premise to judge yourself against. So don't compare yourself just to this small group. But let me take this into the work zone.

Now, the place where this shows up the most often is when it comes to promotions. And trust me, I used to do this, too. You pick the worst-performing person one level higher than you, and then you go to your boss and you point at that person and you say, "I'm better than they are, so I should get promoted." In this case, you're identifying the worst performer as the easiest shortcut to justifying, in your own mind, why you should get promoted. But the truth is, this is a false measuring stick. Instead of looking at the worst, why don't you look at the best, and challenge yourself to reach for new heights?

Another way that this comparison game rears its ugly head is when someone, maybe a peer, gets a promotion and you don't. It can sometimes feel like one of the great injustices of the world. It can also make you feel like you aren't good at your job, or you wonder, "Why are they better?" Or, "what's wrong?" When you're in this situation, it's hard to see the forest for the trees. The truth is, it doesn't matter if you get promoted in August or January. Sure, it may feel like, in the moment, that was a make-or-break promotion. But the truth is, very quickly, and with the smallest of perspective, you realize it doesn't matter at all. And what's more, no one else cares about it.

05:00 With the benefit of hindsight, I can say with 100 percent confidence, no interviewer has ever asked me why I got promoted in February instead of November. Because in the big scheme of things, it doesn't matter. I also want to reassure you that it all evens out in the end. So if someone you hate, someone you don't like, someone you didn't think deserved a promotion, if they got promoted faster than you did, don't sweat it. Over the next couple years, and certainly over the lifetime of a career, you too will be the beneficiary of a too-early promotion or a quick promotion.

Sometimes it's circumstance, sometimes it's luck. Everyone's gonna get their lucky break. And if yours didn't happen today, don't worry about it. That just means you're saving it up for later, when there's more money and bigger titles. So, better to get your lucky break later, rather than early.

You know, my friend Nick Lewis always talks about the fact that he peaked as a fourth grader. He was the biggest, the strongest, the smartest, the funniest kid in fourth grade. But guess what? Everything since then has been downhill. Now he's the shortest, he's still kind of funny, he's still kind of smart. But he looks back and says, "My great moment was in fourth grade." So don't worry if you didn't get your promotion when you wanted. That means you still have room to peak. You're not peaking, and it's all gonna go downhill.

Now, instead of wasting energy comparing yourself or the promotion schedule of other people in your office, pay more attention to yourself. What's important to you? What do you want to accomplish? When do you want to accomplish it? How? Why do you want to accomplish it? Don't get distracted by measuring your self-worth or your level of accomplishment by comparing yourself to other people around you, because who cares? There's an entire world out there, and everyone's on their own journey with their own issues, their own problems, their own hangups. The more you obsess and compare yourself to others, the more energy you are wasting that could otherwise be spent on good things. So next time, when you find yourself tempted to justify your promotion or compare yourself to a weak performer, or you get discouraged because someone else got promoted 10 weeks before you did, take a deep breath, go outside, count your blessings, and get to work.

Alright, now I want to move things over to the bonus section. We haven't been in the bonus section in a little while. Bonus section! Bonus section! Bonus section! Bonus section! Bonus section, I love you! Bonus section.

Now, I was just thinking of this as we were going through the episode today. One of the things we all like to do in life is get promoted early. And I wanted to recommend a very unexpected, a very easy way to put points on the board toward your next promotion. And my recommendation is: set up a volunteer event. It's as simple as that. Figure out: what do you care about? Do you want to volunteer on the recess, do you want to volunteer at a food bank? Do you want to clean up a beach? Do you want to invite a nonprofit to come speak at your company? Whatever it is, figure out a cause that you care about, and schedule the one event.

It doesn't mean you have to sign up for the rest of your life. It doesn't mean you have to get the whole team to commit to a year's purpose. Just go find a single event to rally everyone around. Build it around a lunchtime. Go to your boss, say, "Hey, I'd love to build a team-building event. We go offsite, it'd take two hours, it's all taken care of. I'll make it easy for everyone." Of course your boss is gonna say yes. And guess what? It puts you in a position where you're showing leadership, you're showing organization. You're making everyone feel good about themselves. You're getting a little bit of perspective. We talked about that in today's podcast.

And everyone's gonna say, "Hey, you know what? That Justin, he's thinking beyond himself, he's not always worried about what's going on at work, he got me out of the office." And guess what? You're gonna all of a sudden break up the monotony of work. You get three hours outside the office, one week this month. That's awesome.

Now, hopefully that leads to people wanting to volunteer more, giving you a better perspective, keeping you from comparing yourself to other people. Because all of a sudden, you realize how much you have to be grateful for, that you don't have to worry about the exact day or month of your promotion. But my point is, put some points on the board, figure out a volunteer event, a couple hours, a one-time event, and go do it. I promise, it will contribute to your reputation, and your ability to get promoted sooner than you would have otherwise.

Alright, that's it for the bonus section. Now, before we wrap up today's episode, we did have one question from a listener. Rob, do you want to talk about that?

ROB: The hotline. They sent a text to it. And that was: 10:00 there's a woman, a VP at my work, who I frequently have to contact to get information from, or share information with. I get the vibe she doesn't really like me. Not sure why. I can only imagine it's because I'm new. She rarely responds to my emails, except at times, to just say, "Thanks." And cc another person high up, in some attempt to hint, I should always cc them? Although I don't necessarily agree. It just feels very condescending and makes my job harder.

JUSTIN: Very interesting question. I like this. I think this is a common experience for a lot of people. And I'm gonna pick up on a couple points. I think one, it's gonna depend on: how new are you? Have you taken the time to build the relationship? And maybe, if this person's an EVP, they're gonna be pretty powerful, time's gonna be difficult to get with them. But you've got to make a priority, next time you see them in person, to say, "Hey, I'm wondering if I can steal 10 minutes of your time, just to touch base and talk about how we work together." It's harmless. Anyone has 10 minutes.

And you're even admitting, by using a word like "steal your time," you're admitting that you know their time is valuable. And you just want to borrow a little bit of it. Or, it would do you a favor if you could take some of their time. So I recommend, there's no way you're gonna fix any of the relationship stuff through electronic communication. You gotta get right to the person. You gotta get this meeting. It doesn't even have to be a meeting. You can say, "Can I buy you a coffee? Can I steal five minutes of your time?" Just get your foot in the door. Even five minutes is enough to get what you need out of this.

And the point is, all you want to do when you sit down with them, you say, "Hey, I've been here for a little while. Hey, I've noticed that sometimes in our communication, it seems like I may not be getting the information to you in the way that you might like. Or, my perception is that I might have a better way of communicating. Or, you know what, I have things every week that I need to get from you. What's the best way that you like to receive information?" Ask it as a question. So be right up front, tell them it feels like you haven't connected. Or ask the question of, how do they like to be connected? And let them tell you.

Because even by bringing the topic up to them, you've now made them self-aware that you're on the radar, you're paying attention to how they interact. And now you're not just a name in their inbox, or a new person who they don't know who it is, and they're annoying. All of a sudden there's a face to the name. And you've addressed how they communicate. You can also say, it depends on what bothers you. If what bothers you is, you don't hear a response, you should feel free today that to them. And say, "You know, I just want to check with you. Sometimes I don't always get a response. Does that mean you approve everything, or should I follow up to try and make sure that we're on the same page?"

It's really about asking questions, letting them know how you like to work, and then getting the advice back and forth. It's really simple, it's not accusatory, you're not saying they did anything wrong. But you're letting them know that they value your opinion. You want to make this relationship work. And then the other thing I'd say is, while you're together, give them a way of getting to know you. Share about your family. Share about a hobby. Share what you did in your past job. Become more than a number to them. An EVP level probably has 10, 20, 30, 50, 100 people below them. And they don't even know everyone's name. And especially if you're new, unless you're a rock star or someone's made the introduction, or your boss has made a good introduction, then you're just one of many.

And by the way, another thing to think about is: if you -- I can't remember in the question if they reported directly to the EVP or not -- but if you don't report directly to the EVP, you can also talk to your boss in your weekly touch-base, and say, "Hey, I seem to be struggling with this. Do you think you could make an introduction for me, or do you think you could get me a chance to get time with them?"

Now, you don't have to make it all political and complicated. But looping your boss in, if they have a great relationship with the EVP, maybe there's an easy way for them to say, "Hey, here's what you need to do." Or, it gets it on the radar. So don't let this go a long time. Don't become a victim and just wait six months and never have a meaningful interaction with the EVP. You've gotta get out in front of this. You've got to fix it. You can ask other people how they work, watch what other people do. And ultimately, hopefully when this EVP sees you work, and sees the good work that you do, it'll get her attention. And in that case, she'll all of a sudden want to answer your emails.

The last thing I'm gonna say on this is, have you read my book? Do you write good emails? My book is called How To Write An Email. There's a certain way to write an email, especially writing up the ladder, and the chain of command. There's a certain way you need to write the email so that it's easy, succinct, bullet points, easy to reply to. Cause I promise you, at the EVP level, they're running from meeting to meeting. And I always like to say this, but they have 99 problems and you aren't one of them. So you need to figure out a way to get on their radar. Let them know that this is important, if not critical, that they reply. And then write a good email. Okay? You can go back, listen to the podcast episodes. You can buy the book. Whatever it takes, there's a way to solve this.

15:13 So thank you very much for your question. I don't know if we got a name on that. No, anonymous. Okay. But give us a shoutout. Let us know how it goes. Hopefully these are some helpful hints. Without you here, I can't ask more question. So we'll leave it there. Rob, thanks for reading the questions. Thanks for producing Season 3. Thanks for recording, editing, mixing, everything -- all the good stuff for Season 3. Everyone that doesn't know, Rob is actually a musician, and he is responsible for writing and producing and recording the theme music of Mr. Corpo, which came from his band called Beowulf.

And I think that's all the good stuff. Sound good? Of course, reach out to me at mrcorpopodcast@gmail.com. Keep your questions coming. Visit mrcorpo.com, or hit me on Twitter at mr_corpo if you have any questions. I think that's all the big stuff. Let's get to work.

Getting stuff done in a big company can be complicated. Sometimes it can feel impossible to make real change even if everyone agrees that they hate the current situation. MR CORPO prescribes a 9 step process that will guarantee success for problems big and small. The secret is to create visual proposition to break through the corporate white noise and get people's attention. Plus MR CORPO explains how the Republican Party went wrong with their repeal and replace approach to Obamacare. (If only Paul Ryan  would listen to this episode he might actually start to get sh*t done).

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FULL TRANSCRIPT:

How to Get Sh*t Done (in a Big Company)

(Intro music)

JUSTIN: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Mr. Corpo podcast. Today's episode, we are going to tackle a huge topic, a gigantic topic. We are going to talk about how to fix a big problem at work. We could also call this -- and to be honest, I'm not sure on the title -- but we could also call this How To Be A Hero, or we could call this episode How To Get Shit Done In A Big Company.

No matter where you work, no matter what you do, there is always something that is a huge waste of time, and everyone knows it. And yet, no one ever steps up to fix it or change it. It might be a file. It might be a report. It might be a meeting. It might be data entry. The point is, it is something that you and everyone around you would like to see changed.

Well, I'm here to help. Let's get to work.

(music)

JUSTIN: To fix any issue at a big company, I want to prescribe a nine step process. Now I know you hate to hear nine steps. You wish there was only three. But the thing is, it's a big problem. And working big problems at a big company, there's a certain process you should follow. And if you follow these nine steps, I promise you, I absolutely promise you, money back guarantee, you will fix this huge hairball, this thing that you hate, it will be solved, if you do what I tell you.

Now, the nine steps are as follows. Number one, identify the issue. Number two, identify the specific problem. Number three, visually represent this specific problem. Number four, prescribe a very specific, small solution. Number five, shop it around. Number six, visually represent the specific solution. Number seven, take it to your boss. Number eight, explain the change clearly. And number nine, implement it.

Now, there's no way you're gonna remember all nine of those. And there's way more details I wanna go into. So let's take it one step at a time. I promise you -- stick with me. This is going to change your life forever. Okay, let's break it down.

Number one: identify the issue. Everyone hates this meeting. Everyone hates this report. This report takes too long. This is the easy part. Identifying the issue is just a broad stroke. It's just saying, everybody hates this report. That's all you have to do. Just identify the thing everyone hates. Just listen around your cubes for a couple minutes, you'll know. You're doing the work, you'll know what everyone hates. That's the first thing to do.

Step two, you need to identify the specific problem. Now, this is different from number one because it is specific. In number one, you simply said you don't like this report, or "I think this meeting is a waste of time." But you didn't identify the specific problem. What are you trying to solve. This formate requires too many extra steps. This report takes three hours to fill out. That's the specific problem. The specific problem is, it takes three hours to fill out. The specific problem is, the format leads to wasted time. You need to zero in on the very specific problem, because otherwise you're just complaining.

Alright, you identified the issue, you identified the specific problem inside that issue. Time for step three: visually represent the specific problem. Everyone already knows about the issue. Everyone hates that form. It takes too long. Or, the formatting is wrong. You can all agree on that. The problem is that most people, 99 percent of people, stop right there. You need to break through all the white noise of Corpo complaining, and you need to get people's attention. And you know what they say? A picture is worth a thousand words. So when it comes to step three, the point is to be able to visually represent the specific problem in a way that makes everyone immediately see, "Woah. This is a fucking problem. We need to fix it." You need to get everyone's attention.

Now, what form this takes is up to you. But the point is, 05:00 it has to break through. So let me give you a couple examples. Often times you're gonna be doing a lot of work digitally. And so no one can see all the different forms you have to fill out. No one can see that it's so many different pages that you have to fill out. So one of the easy things I like to do is, print out every single form that you fill out during this process. Sometimes it's gonna stack up to 30 pages. Sometimes it's gonna be 100 pages, cause you look at 100 different screens. My point is, you've gotta break through. No one sees it. A computer -- they can't see what the files are. If you print it out and drop a stack of papers on someone's desk, all of a sudden, you've taken what is this imaginary problem, and made it physical. So print it out. That's the first example.

The second example I want to give you about visually representing the problem: represent it in a chart. If you've spent three hours to fill out a form, make a chart that shows 30 percent of your day was spent on this form. If you just say three hours, your boss may brush it off. But if you say 30 percent of your day is spent on this, it may help them understand that this isn't where they want you spending your time. So just changing the frame of reference. Saying, "this takes a long time" doesn't mean anything. Saying, "this takes two hours" doesn't mean anything. Saying you're spending 50 percent of every day on this form? That will get people's attention. And then represent it visually. Make them look at it. See the black and white. This will help you break through.

Now, here's a third example. Maybe the inputs for a form are really complicated. Make a flow chart to visually represent how many different people, how many different inputs, how many different sources of information you have to go get in order to fill out this form. That's the point. No one's gonna understand it if you say it's complicated. But if you can represent it in a flow chart that looks super, super complicated, all of a sudden, people can easily look at it and just go, yeah, that doesn't seem right.

Alright, step four. Prescribe a very specific solution. This is not the time to try and throw the baby out with the bathwater. I usually don't like to try and change everything at once. And throwing out a complicated system to replace it with your complicated system, that's not a solution. That would just be change for change sake.

Now, think about the Republican Party and Obamacare. They tried to repeal and replace -- and look how that went for them. It's really, really hard to build something from the ground up. Now, instead, think about if the Republicans had said, "You know what? I think we have five specific ideas that we want to improve the existing system. Here are the five specific improvements we're gonna make, and this is why they're important." They would have gotten all those approved, easily. So my point is, start small. Think of what specific -- super specific, super small -- thing that you want to change in order to improve the situation.

Now, don't focus on the big stuff. I'm talking about the smallest, smallest thing. Even if this means that you're only going to cut down the three hour process to two hours and 45 minutes. You should do it. Saving those 15 minutes is a start. People will appreciate it. They will notice it. And likely, that 15 minutes that you save will lead to an additional 15, and an additional 15, and eventually maybe you get it down to two hours and then an hour. Or, you get rid of the form altogether. But start small, and be specific.

Let's go to step five: shop it around. If you try and go directly to your boss, you're going to fail. Before going to your boss, you need to get feedback from your co-workers. Not just your team, but actually all the teams and all the people who touched this issue in any way whatsoever. Now, it's tempting. I get it. It's tempting to only get input from your own team, because likely, they're gonna agree with you. But the secret to success, the secret to getting big change in a big company, is to get everyone to agree with your idea from the ground-up.

Even if your idea requires extra work from someone else, you need to discuss it with them. Now, you may think there's no way someone's gonna voluntarily sign up for more work. But actually, if you follow these steps, I think they will. And you'll be quite surprised. Here's what you need to do. When you meet with each person, you explain the issue. You identify the specific problem. You show them visually, so that they can really, really get it. And then you tell them your specific idea for the solution. Maybe they have a better idea. Don't be afraid of rejection. If you've taken the time to explain the why, no one is gonna be mad at you. People are only gonna want to help you. They may not agree with everything you say, but they're gonna understand what you're trying to do, and they're gonna offer different solutions. 10:12 They're not just gonna be a roadblock, I promise.

Now, this is perhaps the most important step, and it's usually the one that people skip: you need to build momentum. You want consensus, you want support. You want your boss to feel that this is a big issue, not just a "you" issue. Getting other people's support is critical. Don't skip this step.

Alright, step six: once you land on your solution, once you've built the consensus, take the time to represent it visually. The reason you want to do this is so that your solution can stand in contrast to the problem. If your complicated flow chart becomes a simplified flow chart, everyone can see that your idea's a good one, without too much explanation. It seems like an extra step, and like I said, no one's gonna do this visual thing, but I promise you, it's gonna make it easy for everyone to understand. No one wants to listen to your long, complicated explanation. But they do understand looking at a complicated, messy piece of paper, and then a clean piece of paper. Or, they do understand looking at a stack of 50 sheets of paper, or looking at a stack of ten sheets of paper, and saying, ten is better than 50, okay? So use the visual paradigm to break through the corporate noise.

Step seven. Step seven is the "take the idea to your boss." Now remember, often times the boss will have no idea what the actual issue is. The boss doesn't have to fill out the form. That's the great thing about being a boss, you don't have to do any work. But the problem with that is, the boss doesn't realize that this is a problem. Now, trust me. I've been a boss for a long time, and I have been in corporate America, what? 17 years. I can tell you, I stopped filling out forms and putting data into different systems probably 11 years ago. I haven't had to get my hands dirty with a system or a form in 11 years, so trust me, I have no idea what's going on on the ground. So that's why it's good for the people to bubble up ideas and bring them to the boss.

Now, because the boss doesn't know what the problem is, this is why it was important for you to represent it visually, because now it's easy for the boss to see the problem, and to see your solution. Be sure to mention that you've spoken to X, Y, and Z, and everyone agrees with you. This makes it easier for the boss to say yes. They know other people have already agreed. You've already built momentum. And if they want to say no to you, guess what? Now they're not just saying no to you, they're saying no to all those other people too, and nobody wants to do that. Bosses want to be popular. So if you line up more people on your side of the ledger, you're more likely to get a yes.

Now, if your solution required further approval from your boss's boss, it's okay. You've done the work. You've clearly articulated the problem and the solution. And what's more, you've given your boss a gift. You've given your boss a chance to be a hero. To actually do something. They'll appreciate you for this. And you'll look good to them. Congratulations. You've solved the big issue.

But wait! There's more. There's still two steps left, so don't screw it up now. Step eight: you need to clearly communicate to everyone about what is going to change. And when it is going to change. And you need to make sure that person X, Y, and Z have all approved this change. Now, this is critical. Before you send out the email gloating about your boss's approval, you need to send your announcement email to the key people, separately, individually, one-on-one, to make sure they still agree and they like your email that you're gonna send out to their teams, or to people that they work with.

The worst thing that can happen is if you rush to send out your email, all high and mighty, saying you got approval from the boss, here's what's gonna change, and you changed everything, and then someone replies to your email and points out something you forgot. Or someone replies to the email and says, "I never heard about this. I can't agree to this. This doesn't seem right." That will take all the air out of your balloon, and you will look like a fool. So do not do that. Write the email, then send it individually as a draft to the key people. And you know who the key people are. You know who are the people that are gonna hit reply all and take pleasure in knocking you down. Send them that email and say, "Hey, I know we already talked about this. The boss approved this. I was gonna send this out to all the team. Does this look good to you? Do you have any feedback?" 15:06 You're gonna make them feel important. You're gonna block them from totally making you look like an idiot. Now, make sure you do that before you send it.

Okay. the last thing. Step nine. It's not done yet. You need to implement the tool. Now, whatever change you're making, you can't just send out an email and say, "It's changed." You need to prescribe: what day of the week is it gonna change? How are you gonna follow up? How are you gonna check that everything works? How are you gonna gather feedback and adjust things? That's an important step. You're the owner of this improvement, so see it all the way through. Don't try and change it, then let it fail, and then try and walk away. You broke it, you own it. Alright? Boom. You just changed the world.

Now, remember: Rome wasn't built in a day. Even if your idea's small, do it. Solving people's problems, solving people's pain points, is the kind of flagship accomplishment that's going to get you promoted. It's going to get you recognized, and it might even get you loved.

Now, before we leave today's episode, I want to share a few examples. Because this is something I'm really passionate about, because at each stop in my career, whether it was at Gap, Levi's, or Uniqlo, I've always made a point of trying to create one of these improvements, these flagship accomplishments. And I remember when I was young, there was this process we had to fill out. And it would take six hours, and you had to do it once a month. And everyone hated it, and it was just the worst thing in the world. I printed out all the forms. It was something like 350 pages. It killed the photocopy machine. I used more than an entire, like, package of paper. But I printed it all out. And when I went to the CEO and dropped a pound of paper on his desk, it said everything that I wanted it to say. It said, "This is a mess. And we have to fix it."

And in that case, they ended up spending 100,000 dollars to improve the system. I got a president's award, it was like, probably the last trophy I've gotten in my entire life, at the age of 22. It might have been all downhill since then. But the point is, it put me on the map. It got me a super-fast promotion. Everyone liked me because I took three hours and gave it back to them. And really, if I got down to it, the only thing I did was print out this form and show everyone visually, this is how painful it is. That's what I mean about the visual breakthrough.

Now, when you become a boss, you're not gonna know all these things to improve. You're not filling out the forms. So if you're a boss, solicit your team. At the weekly team meeting, ask them, "What is bothering you? What's you're number one thing -- if you could change it, what do you want me to change?" Get them to bubble this up for you, and then your job is to help usher through getting this problem fixed. That's why you're there. You're not there to do the work. You're there to make other people's lives better.

Now, if you can improve something that they hate, well gosh. Then they're gonna think you're a good boss. And life is good. So whether you're an employee, a boss, or no matter where you are, these are the nine steps you have to take in order to solve big problems, even through small changes. Don't skip any of them. You've gotta follow these nine steps, be methodical, and trust the process.

Alright, that's it for the Mr. Corpo podcast this week. Hopefully you've got something at your work that you want to change. I'd love for you to go out and change. Start it tomorrow. Let me know how it goes. Hit me up at mrcorpopodcast@gmail.com. Ask me if you have any questions. Whatever you want to do, shout at me. Please visit mrcorpo.com. And that's all I want to talk about today.

Rob, thanks for another great episode. And without further ado, get back to work.

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MR CORPO explains why bosses aren't allowed to party and he also makes an open call for anyone interested in becoming an assistant to the MR CORPO world of books, podcasts and publishing. 

LISTEN HERE:

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

 JUSTIN: You gotta fight! For your right! To party!

(Intro music)

JUSTIN: Hello, and welcome to an especially short but an especially important Mr. Corpo episode. I have two topics I want to talk about today. The first is why you, as a boss, need to leave the party early. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but people do not want to party with you. There are a lot of great things about being a boss, but one of the things that sucks is that you can't -- you shouldn't -- party with your team anymore.

It's okay to get the party started. Actually, it's important that you grease the wheels by buying the first round. But after that, do yourself a favor, do your team a favor, and remove yourself from the equation.

(music)

JUSTIN: As Peter Parker's uncle reminds us, with great power comes great responsibility. And in this case, your responsibility is to get out of the way so your team can party without their boss, looking over their shoulder. High school parties would have sucked if your mom and dad were sitting in the corner, watching your every move. And guess what? In this situation, you are the mom and dad. So leave the party early.

Alright, that's my advice from the Mr. Corpo podcast today. The second thing I wanted to talk about is, I wanted to officially announce I am in search of an assistant. If anyone out there is interested in working for Mr. Corpo, I am looking for an assistant. It's going to be up to five hours a week. I'm going to pay 20 dollars an hour. Focus mainly is on social media, generating leads for book sales and talks. And I'm also willing to offer a percent of sales of anything that you generate.

And you get a chance to work with me. You get to learn about the publishing industry. You get to learn about being an author. And hopefully we can make this thing really big. So an open call for anyone that's interested in becoming the assistant of Mr. Corpo. You don't have to be in New York City. It might be slightly preferable, but I'm open to young, hungry, even old and hungry people, who are savvy on social media, who can help me get my message out, and have a few extra hours a day to learn and work together.

So hopefully some people will come and reach out to me. Hit me on mrcorpopodcast@gmail.com. Or hit me up at Instagram at JDKJDKJDKJDK. And it is a requirement that you have read the book. You must have read the book, How To Write An Email, because that tells you exactly how I like to work with other people, and I want other people to work with me. So if you're going to apply, make sure you read the book first. And the email you send me is a reflection of whether I'm going to want to work with you or not. So take some care, write a good email, and hopefully we'll get some people interested.

That's it from today's episode. Check out anything else you want at mrcorpo.com, and otherwise, that's all we got this week.

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