Pushing up People

by Art Williams

There has never been and there never will be a test that can look inside a person and tell if he has what it takes.

If your only goals are to be successful in business and to make a lot of money, you will grow to be a bitter old man or woman.

We built A.L. Williams based on the principle of treating people right, of making all of our decisions based on what was good for our people and our clients first.

I have always believed that you can run a company to obtain selfish goals by using intimidating management techniques only for a certain period of time. Sooner or later, the people who work for you will figure you out. They’ll figure you out, and either try to cheat you back or quit. In either case, you reach a point of zero growth, or possibly bankruptcy. You wake up one day and find you’ve built yourself a business where maybe you’re a little ashamed of the way you do things.

Folks, I believe that 99 percent of all Americans would build their business that way if they knew from the start they were going to make money. But a lot of people won’t even try because they don’t think you can have both. They don’t believe that treating other people right and helping the people who work for you to succeed is going to make you financially independent. Well, I’m here to tell you right now that the beautiful thing about A.L. Williams is that you can have both. In fact, we have built our company in such a manner so that the only way you can succeed is by “Pushing Up People.”

Quality is more important than anything else in building a business that will last.

The biggest threat to any business is lack of activity.

the thing that will determine the success or failure of your business is the effort and the dedication of the people who make up your business “team.”

If your people are unhappy, unmotivated, or have attitude problems, your success and the success of your business is bound to suffer.

That can be a problem, because people don’t like to be made to do anything.

But, in some businesses, people are valued less than the office furniture.

You show people how they can succeed, help them to achieve personal success, and your own success and the success of your company is assured. Your people are your company’s most important asset.

the newest recruits are just as important to the long range success of the company as the experienced managers and administrators. The new reps are the experienced managers of the future, and if they do not succeed today, there will be trouble in years to come. The failure of every new member of the company becomes a potential loss of leadership down the road.

Managers manage things, leaders lead people,” she said.

Your leadership can result in your people achieving personal success and even financial independence. Or, if you don’t take it seriously, it can result in personal failure for your people and business failure for you.

the very credentials that many people value so much can actually inhibit success.

They are the people who want to win so badly that they just go out there and do it.

but nothing in the world is cheaper than a good idea without any action behind it.

there has never been a test, and never will be a test, that can measure the heart of a man or a woman.

But show me someone who is willing to go out there and take a chance one more time, willing to dream one more time, and willing to pay the price, and I’ll show you a person who can do something great in the free enterprise system.

A man who started out with me in the early days of our company is one of the people who proved this philosophy to me. When we met, he was a basketball coach making $6,000 a year He had never sold anything when he joined our company as a sales rep. He was very nervous and didn’t have a lot of confidence. The first time I asked him to speak at a company gathering, he was so shaken he got sick. The second time, he almost passed out on stage. But he wanted to be somebody, and he believed in the principles of our company, so he stuck it out. Every day, he would go out and try to make sales. I knew he was dying inside every time he went out on a sales call. He agonized over every appointment, and couldn’t disguise a sense of relief when someone cancelled. But he got up every day and went out anyway. His first year he made $5,000. Ninety-nine percent of the people would have quit then. The second year he made $9,000. He went to those appointments, and he made those presentations because he believed what he was doing was right. He got doors slammed in his face over and over again. The third year, he made $18,000. He was getting better at his business. Finally, everything clicked. The fourth year, he made $100,000, and the fifth he made a quarter of a million dollars. Given what this man went through, most people would have quit the first week. Selling never came less naturally to anyone than it did to him. But he made a decision to give it his best shot, and he just wouldn’t be de...

I really believe that people want three things: 1) to be their own boss, 2) to control their own destiny, and 3) to work at something they believe in. I know very few people who don’t have these three basic desires. They may still be “just an employee,” but deep down, that’s their fantasy. Every “red-blooded “American wants to stand on his own two feet; he wants to work for himself and build security for himself and his family. Those are the desires and dreams that built this country.

Many people have been so beaten down that they have forgotten those basic dreams.

Ultimately, a leader is judged by the success of the people he led during his career. If you want to become somebody special yourself, help your people to become somebody special. The more successful they become, the higher they will push you up.

Fear isn’t the most effective management tool.

It’s a terrible atmosphere, and I’m convinced that it produces tense, fearful people with lower-than-average work performance.

I think management by intimidation is easy management. It’s “chicken management.” It’s so easy to just fire somebody with a problem. It’s easy to reprimand people. But you can’t get the maximum out of people that way.

insurance salesmen at the bottom of a list of respected occupations.

All people won’t perform the same way, but a leader should offer an equal opportunity to succeed to every person in the group.

standard of excellence,

In any company, that should be the only standard for promotions and recognition.

I believe that no purpose is served by categorizing people within that group.

don’t forget the “people quotient” in your decision-making process.

Commitment is a two-way street.

You’ve got to be proud of your people. You can’t just say the words. You’ve got to be sincerely excited and enthused about their success, and appreciate the efforts they make.

Treat people good — and they’ll return the favor through a dedication to their work and a commitment to you that you never dreamed possible.

in many businesses, the manager doesn’t realize that his people are the most important ingredient in his own success.

you must become a master at communicating with them about all aspects of your business and their place in it. The only way you can let them know how much you value their contribution is to show them — and tell them.

Your people may mean more to you than anything else —but if you can’t communicate those feelings to them, then the feelings might as well not exist, because your people will never know.

You can’t expect people to build a relationship with you without your help. You are half of the relationship, and you’ve got to do your part to make it meaningful. Most important, you’ve got to learn to communicate person-to-person on a daily basis.

sometimes the closest relationships with people are built during the bad times.

Unfortunately, many managers ignore people when there’s trouble; they run from their people rather than deal with their problems.

But there’s no situation you can ever be in that you can’t count on your mom and dad. We might hurt, we might cry, we might be disappointed, but here are two people who are going to stand by you and fight with you to overcome your problems.” I think you’ve got to have that same feeling about your people at work, or something pretty close to it.

But you can’t ever put yourself in a position where you cut your children off when they disappoint you.

If you stand by them and love them through their difficulties, they’ll come out of the situation eventually, and you will have built a bond with them that’s unbelievable.

You’ve got to be proud of your people when they win — and tell them so — and care about them just as much, maybe more, when they lose.

And when you’ve lost the faith and trust of your people, you are absolutely worthless as a leader.

Building personal relationships requires ‘unconditional commitment.’

Leaders really know their people, their families, their goals, their abilities, and their dreams.

Leaders always put their people before themselves.