What a Garage Sale and a Hiring Mistake Taught Me About Leadership

Garage sales can teach you a lot about business and leadership.

This is fresh on my mind since Kiersten and I spent most of our time and energy last week on what I hope is our last one ever.

Some garage sale lessons are right there on the surface and easily seen.

How to advertise.

How to negotiate.

How to set prices.

But I’ve been thinking about a deeper principle that is less obvious but foundational to all those more tactical topics.

I’ve been describing it with this question:

“What do we value?”

It’s been on my mind because we were reminding ourselves of it as we made countless decisions during the garage sale.

And the question applies not just to garage sales but also to creating and developing your team so your business can grow.

With respect to the garage sale, Kiersten and I had to continually think about our overall goal.

In the simplest of terms, we were trying to get rid of our stuff in the least amount of time.

We were valuing our space and our time.

If you’re a long-time reader, you know that earlier this year we moved back to my hometown into a house that’s just over 800 square feet. And we don’t have a garage.

 Storage space is limited. And, therefore, valuable.

We don’t have room for things we don’t need.

And we’re closing on our house in Wichita in a few weeks.

Time is also limited and valuable.

Remembering what we valued most helped guide us through decision after decision after decision last week.

Before the sale, we were asking ourselves things like:

“What price should we put on that queen-size bed that’s almost brand new?”

The answer at this point in our lives?

Whatever price makes it go away.

During the sale, we faced similar choices.

“Will you take a dollar for that thing you have priced at $8?”

The answer was, of course, “Yes. Yes, we will.”

This was not easy for me.

I have been described by some as a “bit of a pack rat” with a strong leaning toward being “a tightwad.”

There’s more than a little truth in those accusations.

I can easily dream of a future situation when I’ll need 8 crockpots and a dozen glass 9×13 casserole dishes at exactly the same time.

They’re in perfect condition, so why get rid of them?

And if we do have to sell them, they’re certainly worth more than THAT!

That’s the mindset I had to fight against.

But what kept me grounded and helped me keep making progress was knowing what we valued.

We valued our space and our time.

Keeping those kitchen tools might have provided us with convenience and utility in the future, but they cost us space now.

And trying to sell them for a few bucks more would have taken our precious time.

As would have packing them up and taking them to Goodwill.

Time and space.

We kept our focus on valuing those things in our decision-making process.

And based on our goal, our sale was pretty successful.

So how does that apply to building and developing a team?

Just like with our garage sale, knowing what you value is critical.

I was listening to an episode of Owned and Operated – A Plumbing, Electrical, and HVAC Business Growth Podcast hosted by John Wilson.

John was talking with Jim Lose of The Military Veteran about how to hire leaders to support growing businesses.

Jim told the story of a client who was a Marine and an exceptionally tough Ironman competitor.  This guy ran a business with a physically demanding work environment and wanted to hire someone who was just like him.

He wanted a hard charger with an infantry background who would push people to deliver and get things DONE.

A “butt kicker” as he described it.

That’s what the client valued.

And that’s what he got.

What he also got was a problem he didn’t anticipate.

Jim said the client called about three months after the hire and told him, “We’re a non-union shop, and now everybody wants to unionize.”

Jim described it as a costly hire and said the leader ultimately didn’t work out culturally.

I don’t have all the information, so I can’t say what the client learned from that experience.

But the story made me think about how clearly we define what we value in a leader.

We may say we want someone who pushes people to deliver results. But do we also make it clear that we want those people treated with dignity and respect?

A leader who cares for the people entrusted to them while helping them deliver exceptional results.

If that’s what we value, we need to be clear about it.

I recognize this in myself because, if you examine my behavior, you’ll see that I’m not always clear on what I value either.

And my actions don’t always align with what I say is most valuable to me.

During our garage sale, I said that I valued space and time.

But I know I kept things that I will spend time packing, moving, and unpacking. And will never use.

I’m sure I priced some items too high because I wanted to make a few more bucks.

And my actions caused a potential buyer to walk right by instead of paying me to get rid of what I no longer need.

During the sale, my actions weren’t always consistent with what I said I valued.

And this has been true throughout my career as I’ve led teams.

I said I valued their personal development but didn’t always spend enough time talking to them about how they might want to grow.

It was easier to stay focused on delivering the short-term results.

You may be thinking of similar situations you’ve been in with your people.

I encourage you to spend a couple of minutes comparing what you truly value with what you actually do as a leader.

If you say you believe in developing your people so your business can grow and you say that investing in your people is valuable to you, do your actions show that to be true?

You may find opportunities to get clearer about what you value and make adjustments.

If that’s the case, I want to encourage you. You’re not the only one with room to grow as a leader.

We’re all works in progress doing the best we can at the time.

I’m rooting for you.

Helping you lead with kindness and confidence,

Greg

P.S. If you’re in the Wichita area and would like to pay me to take away our remaining stuff, let me know. I’ve got a deal for you!