How Managers Can Get the Most Out of Their Employees, with Ed Molitor

Welcome to the Athletics of Business, a podcast about how the traits and behaviors of elite athletes and remarkable business leaders frequently intersect. The real stories and hard lessons to help you level up your leadership and performance. Now, your host, Ed Molitor.

Welcome back to another episode of the Athletics of Business podcast. And I am your host and CEO of the Molitor Group, Ed Molitor. Today we are going to dive into and talk about a topic that consistently comes up in conversations with my current clients, with potential clients, even previous clients, where we revisit this subject time and again. And that is, hey, Ed, I have this manager and I think it could be really good. Man, did he kill it when he was a producer? He was, he was good. And I just, his team just underperforming and I don't know if I need him to be managing, if he should be spending time coaching, I don't know. And what should we do with him?

Well, here's the thing, and I want to make it very clear, this time we spend together today is not going to be discussing management and coaching and traditional versus non traditional sense. Okay? It is going to be real, it's going to be genuine. I'm going to talk about what I firmly believe. I have stats here to back me up, current statistical data to back me up. I'm not going to spend time just spitting out and spewing and drooling data because I think that's boring. But the bottom line is this. People want. People want one thing. I, you know, one thing I'll. I talk about often as a predictive index survey. What they talk about is people want managers who coach. They want managers who coach. And there's a lot of reasons for that. And we're going to get into that.

But before we do, let's set the table a little bit in terms of, well, okay, what's the traditional view of what a manager is? All right. And we all know that a manager assigns tasks. They track performance, they understand rules and regulations. They're the problem solvers, right? They're always putting out fires or troubleshooters or problem solvers. Managers get things done. They tell others how to get things done. And why do they tell others how to get things done is because they often think that they're coming from a place of greater experience and knowledge and often training tell you what managers do, they motivate. And what do I mean by that? All right. When you motivate, you're often getting people to do things that they don't want to do. Now, let's talk about coaches, right? The traditional sense of a coach.

And Ed, are you talking about an executive coach? Are you talking about a business coach? Are you talking about an athletics coach? Because after all, this is the athletics of business podcast, so we're going to revisit that point. What type of coach I'm talking about here in a few minutes, but let's just talk about a traditional coach in the sense of a business coach. They guide people to help them achieve their goals, okay? They listen, they explore options, they provide support, they facilitate growth, and they inspire. All right, what does that mean? Well, when you inspire, you get people to do things that they might not necessarily have thought they are capable of doing. They want a don't, you know, they set goals that they think are awesome. They're stretching goals, they're reaching goals. They make them get outside their comfort zone and reach.

But that doesn't necessarily mean they believe they can do it. So you really need that balance of motivation and inspiration, okay? Just like you need that balance of a manager who can coach. Now. Ok, back to the question. Ed, come on, man. What are you talking about here? Well, as you know, my previous life, I was a college basketball coach. I did that for years at different levels and coached at schools such as Texas A and M and Northern Illinois and DePaul and Lewis University, where I started my career, which was four amazing years. And I've also been an executive coach now for over three years. There's a lot of similarities. And people, you know, may think right now that I was dropped on my head as a baby a few times, but there are a lot of similarities.

Now, if you really don't know my whole background, I grew up the son of a legendary high school basketball coach here in the Chicagoland area. Matter of fact, I grew up among giants. Him and his friends, his circle. They say you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Well, there's a reason my dad is as well respected and well thought of as he is because, I mean, his guys, you know, Sully, Gleese, Anstead, just the whole group that, that he would spend time with X and Owen, going to clinics with. There's a reason they contributed to his growth. Well, anyways, there are a lot of similarities. Now, when people think of athletic coaches, of course they're gonna think of what they see on TV, what they see on SportsCenter, what they read, what they see on YouTube.

Coaching, yelling, screaming, berating, criticizing, holding players accountable, getting after them. Hey, I'm gonna tell you something, okay? There's a time and place in each industry, each profession, each role of life for doing certain things. Obviously, that part of the athletics world you can't do in an office. Though I have worked for some guys that may have done that every now and then, but I digress. Anyways, when I grew up at Coach's Son, and I would unknowingly sit and study my dad and. And the way he did things, and one of the things my dad did, a lot of which actually, when you play for him, could get quite annoying because you worked your ass off when you played for my dad. And all former players that are listening to this podcast can attest to.

If you play for my dad for four years, that's something to be proud of. And I don't mean that negative connotation. It means you worked your lips off. You were a part of something bigger than yourself, okay? At some point, you figured that out and you were a part of something big, you know, real special. Matter of fact, you're still part of something real special. But he asked a lot of questions. He asked a lot of questions about the simple things. Okay? Why did you throw that pass? What did you see? Okay, what happened when you threw it? If you had to do it again, what would you do? All right, so there's a side to coaching. There's also the empathetic side. See, as a coach, the thing you want to do as a coach and as a manager, you want to do this.

You want to figure out a way to put your people in the best position to succeed, to maximize their potential to be successful, right? And as a coach, part of that. And this is where I get into the whole why. As a manager, you need to coach. You need to get to know your people. You need to get to know what their why is. Why do they get out of bed every morning? What do they truly care about? What are. How about this one? What are the crucibles in their life that shaped them and helped them become the person that they were? What are the experiences that shaped them? What were the circumstances that they did not allow to define them? And the adversity that they grew through? Or what are the circumstances they're still struggling with? What are their struggles?

What are their strengths? What gets them fired up? What gets them excited? What makes them feel that love and belonging that Maslow's hierarchy of needs will tell you exist in all of us? And it doesn't. I don't care how high you are on the Food chain. A sense of love and belonging is important, and it's significant. As a manager, what are you doing to provide that to your people? How well do you really know your people? And I'm not talking about, you know, I asked them how their day was. I asked them how their weekend was. I asked how Johnny did in T ball the other day. Now, do you listen? Do you listen really to what they say? And not just what they say, but how they say it? And do you read their body language and see what they're not telling you?

Do you do that? See, as a coach, you do that. You know, one of the things I would do when I scouted in years, a few years into my coaching career, the NCAA put a ban one of the brilliant moves, put a ban on coaching in person at the Division 1 level. So you couldn't scout a team. I'm sorry, not coaching, scouting in person. So if I was going to play, if I was coaching at Texas A and M and we had Texas Tech coming up and they happened to play on a day when we had off, I couldn't fly down there and scout them in person. Well, why did I like that so much? I like doing it because I got to. I got to see what bothered the other team.

I got to see what excited them and what we could do to take them out of their rhythm and what else it did when guys came out of the game. I saw how they responded to getting corrected. I saw how they treated their teammates, whether they're a good teammate or not. And that's something I did as a recruiter when I was coaching college basketball. I wanted to see what made kids go, what made kids tick. And as a manager, you need to do that. You can assign all the tasks you want, you can set all the standards you want. You can provide them with the best tools and resources and most current technology, health. Give them technology that other people don't have.

But until you figure them out, what makes them go and what makes them feel significant and what makes it one of those positive cultures that's safe for them to fail, to take chances, to take risk and fail in and to actually open up to you and talk and share and intentionally learn until you can do that. And that's where coaching comes in. Do you ask questions and actually listen to the answers? Do you provide support? Not just support like, here's what you should have done, here's what you needed to do, here's what, you didn't make enough calls. Do you facilitate growth and do you facilitate Growth beyond the standard required training of your organization. Do you find articles on the Internet, you share them with them?

Do you show them a video of something that you think they'll enjoy that'll get their mind off something? Do you provide opportunities for them to grow and to be successful and to reach your goals? Because that's what people embrace, that's what people want, and that is what people crave. And that's where coaching comes in. And as a college basketball coach, that's what you do. And I keep saying that obviously, because that's my point of reference, but take whatever sport you want to. And if you say, well, I never had a coach like that, well, I feel bad for you, okay? And again, I'm not talking about aau, so. So if you're the parent of an AAU child and you say, well, my AAU coach doesn't do that.

There's some great ones out there, don't get me wrong, but the majority, no, you're right, they don't do that. Okay, but my point being is this. The things that coaches really do, hey, coaches, you know, coaches have metrics. They track performance, they look at stats, they watch film. They hold people accountable. The great coaches, what they do, they set expectations. And if those expectations aren't met, they'll hold you accountable. But they're going to help you meet those expectations next time. And not by clearing obstacles out of your way. I remember a while back I was reading something about what great managers do. They get obstacles out of their people's way. Well, let me explain something to you, okay? The teams that are really successful, you watch the NBA finals this year, you watch Nick Nurse and Steve Kerr, two of the best.

And I know it's Nick's first year, which in of itself is an amazing story, but Steve and Nick, I for years have admired those two. Was fortunate enough to play in an open gym down at University of Arizona when I was working their basketball camp with. Steve Kerr had already known his story. He was in the league at the time. It was like his second or third year. And Nick Nurse knew him as a college player. Knew him, knew him when he first got his first college head coaching job at Grandview and Des Moines. Just a ton of respect for those guys. But you know what? Their teams are the same as pop. And obviously Kerr is a product of Pop down in San Antonio. They're player led teams during games often. They are often player led teams.

And that's what happens as a manager when you coach. You empower your people to make Quick decisions. You don't always have to be putting out fires, solving problems, people coming to you and saying to you know, I don't know what to do in this situation. Have you prepared them for it? As a coach, that's what you're going to do, ok? And you say, well, I don't have time. I can't afford to coach them as well as manage them. No, I'm going to tell you can't afford not to. And that's just one example. One of the big things as a coach you do is you help your players be successful off the floor. So what are you doing for your people in your organization to make sure that they're successful away from the office? What value are you adding?

Does their wife or does their husband or do their kids love the fact that they work for you? Do you know that? Work with you, work within your organization? No. I mean, you think about that. Those are things that coaches care about. And as a manager, you may say, well, I've never done that. I don't know how to do that. Okay, you can learn. But here's what a coach, here's where you really dig into the coaching. You really, after you figured out what makes people go, after you figure out what makes them tick, now the real fun starts, okay? Now you provide that support, you facilitate the growth. You listen, you do explore options with them. Because the great coaches, just like the great managers, realize that their people had the answers. Their people know the solutions. It's getting to them again.

Well, I don't have time to do that. You don't have time not to do that. And that's why I think, you know, it's funny because people say, oh, the millennials, oh, man, that Gen Z. And for people who may be asking what Gen Z is, it's people that were born after 1997. Now I'm gonna throw this one out for you, okay? First time ever in history, there are not four, but five generations in the workforce. And you may be thinking, well, that's impossible. There's no way. Well, guess what way, because it is possible and it's very real. Why is it, why is it that way? Well, there's plenty of reasons, but the first one that jumps out at you is 2008 necessity. Traditionalists, there's traditionalists, and that means they were born before 1946 have to work, okay? Then you have the baby boomers.

And baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. People are living longer, healthier lives, mentally, physically, emotionally. So if you think about. If you think about the baby boomers, if they truly love what they do, and the traditionalist as well, if they truly love what they do, why are they going to walk away? What if. What if they don't know any different and they love going to work every day and it's just something that fills them. Okay, that's another reason. Then you have. Then you have. After baby boomers, you have my generation X. And they're born between. We were born between 1965 and 1976. And then following Generation X. X is the one that people love to just drill, and that's the millennials, Generation Y. Are they different? Yeah, they're different. But guess what? Generation X was different than the baby boomers.

So if you're a manager, if you're a CEO, if you're a director, if you're a senior vp, if you're a VP or if you're just a team lead, it's your job to figure out how to lead them and how to get them to produce. And that's all part of being a coach or being a manager who coaches. Okay? And then after the millennials is Generation Z, and that's what I mentioned, and that's folks that were born after 1997. So there's all sorts of different things going on that are the reason why, as a manager, you should really embrace the opportunity to grow as a coach. And at the end of the day, what does it do? What does, as a manager, effectively coaching your people do? It does several things. I mean, first thing it does, it's gonna.

It's gonna get your people to produce at a higher level. And isn't that what we all want? That, that production level is gonna be a byproduct of the way you've done things now. And here's one, and I mentioned this before, it's going to raise employee engagement. I don't get it. Why is it gonna. Why are they all of a sudden become more engaged? Because you got to them. Right? I mentioned as a college coach, I wanted to get the guys. I wanted to figure out how I could get guys to play as hard as possible, as smart as possible, for as long as possible, and to enjoy doing it. Because at the end of the day, that's the way we are going to maximize our potential individually and collectively.

So when you do that and people feel like they're a part of something special and that they belong and that what they do matters because you've talked about it. And because you've told them and you've shown them, they're going to get more engaged. And again, it goes back to the positive culture. When you create a positive culture, you make it safe. Not soft, but safe. They can take risk, they can fail. You can hold them accountable, but you can also. You can also support them. They can fail and they can learn and they can grow and they can make themselves vulnerable and they can ask questions. That's why you're going to raise your employee engagement. And what does that do? Think about what that does.

And this is very significant in a tight labor market and really in any labor market, because what it does, it helps you as an organization sustain your growth and really just explode your culture. And that increases effective coaching, increases your retention rate. You keep your best talent, you keep your best people, you keep your best role players. Okay? You see it all the time now in college basketball with this transfer portal. The stupidest thing I. It is so bizarre. You talk about the tail wagging the dog, and I'm not going to get into. Players should be paid. I'm going to tell you what, the NCAA might be one of the biggest band of misfits ever. And I'm not talking about just currently going way back in time. All right? But here's the bottom line, all right? You want to keep your players.

You create a culture with the right people. People don't want to leave. People don't want to leave. Now, will people make mistakes and leave? Absolutely they will. All right? Absolutely. I did it in college. I left Creighton after two years. I was immature, dumb. I wasn't a dumb kid, but I made a dumb decision and I regretted it. You know, but this whole letting people just, just go make people want to stay is my point. Make people want to be a part of your organization, of your culture, knowing that they're going to better because of it and the fact that they're having fun. And when you do that and you increase your retention rate and then you say, well, what happens if people aren't happy in the role, then why did you recruit them? Then why did you hire them?

Okay, so let's coach them up. Let's, let's be effective as managers in our coaching. And when you do this, you're getting people to. You're getting your people to embrace their opportunities, to improve their skills. And how about this? To stand out, to shine, to be acknowledged again. I go back to know that what they do matters. And at the end of the day, to achieve their goals and to achieve your goals collectively as an organization. That's what effective coaching does. And I'm going to be honest with you, it's a lot more fun. It's a lot more fun. You're going to enjoy your job more. You're going to enjoy. Going to work more. I'm going to say something that. It's one of my favorite sayings of all time. When I changed the way I looked at things, the things I looked at began to change.

Don't look at this from the vantage point of I have to. I get to. And as a C level leader or someone who can drive this change, who can foster this change, I encourage you to. I encourage you to. This isn't traditional versus non traditional. This is right versus wrong. This is what is going to make you massively successful over a long period of time as an organization and to contribute to your people not just inside of their professional career, but in their personal life as well. Okay? So that's what I have for you today. I mean, it's. We could talk a lot more about this and we will do another solo cast around this topic in the. In the future. But again, I would love to hear feedback.

I would love to hear reviews because the more feedback, the more reviews we have, the more people we can reach. And currently we are being downloaded in over in 17 countries. The athletics of business currently is being downloaded in 17 countries. We want to do more. We want to go deeper. My whole mission is to make a positive impact on people's lives so they can work towards maximizing their potential. Okay. And that's why we have the amazing guests that we have on every week is just. It blows me away the things I get to learn. I wish you could see my file folders here of notes that I take while I'm interviewing these guests. And if there's anything that you've missed, go to the athleticsofbusiness.com and you can download previous episodes. You can go to itunes, stitcher, Google Play. All right?

If you want it, you can find it. Please rate and review the podcast again. I appreciate you taking time out of your day to spend some time with us and I hope this was enjoyable for you. I hope you found value in it. If you have any questions, here's what I'm gonna do. If you have any questions, reach out to me personally, reach out to me directly@ed themolitorgroup.com that's Ed the T H E Molitor group. M as in Mary O L I t o r group.com Any questions, any requests that you may have Something else I'll do. If you're interested in some of the books that I read, some of the coaching book both on the executive side and the athletic side, I would love to. I would love to. As I turn and look at my shelf here, John Wooden.

I couldn't even tell you how many John Wooden read anything that John Wooden wrote. Coach Kyck I'll tell you another great one. Pete Carroll win forever. Seth Davis recently came out with them. It's called they get to Us or Getting to Us I believe it's called. It's another great book. But hey, I would love to help you with resources Anyway. You have any questions about our executive coaching packages, about our leadership consulting and training, we or bringing me out to keynote at one of your events again ed@themolitorgroup.com I appreciate it. Have a great day and keep doing great things.

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