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Purpose, Passion, and Pride4 min read

In the early 1900s, Charles Schwab owned the Bethlehem Steel Company, and he couldn’t understand why the company wasn’t filling in on its quota. On one late afternoon, he walked down on the floor to talk to the Mill Manager and simply asked him, “Why cannot a capable man like yourself motivate these men to produce on the mill’s quota?” Unfortunately, the Mill Manager didn’t have any good answers. Charles Schwab then grabbed a worker and asked, “How many batches of steel did you produce today?” The man answered with the number six. “Great, get me a big piece of chalk and write the number six on the floor.” When the night crew came in, they saw that six on the floor and asked what it meant. The day crew just replied, “That’s how many batches of steel we produce today.”

The next morning when Charles Schwab and the day crew walked in, they saw that the six was rubbed out, and replaced with a seven. They then went to work and said, “We’ll show that night crew a thing or two.” So that evening, when the night crew came in, they saw that that seven was rubbed out, and replaced with a 10. And before you knew it, within a week, that steel mill was producing double of what they were producing earlier that week. Why? Simple friendly competition, and just a little bit of pride.

I have had the pleasure of working with one particular organization for over three years now. Just recently, we were conducting a culture meeting. I personally loved what they came up with as their culture. Three words: Purpose, Passion, and Pride. As they were discussing their new culture as a team, one of their team leaders sunk his teeth into one of the words, and that word was Pride. He talked about how they show up each and every day, and how they lead their team, and how they feel when they finished a job for a customer, that they take tremendous pride in the work they perform.

As we talked about Purpose, Passion, and Pride. You can see it in the owners, Jeff and John, how they just lit up. Their purpose of wanting to be the best. Their passion of not only wanting to be the best, however, enjoying the process of leading a great team, leading a great company. They showed up representing that culture each and every day. They understand as leaders, as they show up with the purpose, passion, and pride, that will drip down to the team, which will drip down to the extended team, which will drip down to the customers.

They understand that when you’re showing up with that pride each and every day, that’s an energy and a result in their services that cannot be missed by the clients. Their clients pick up on that energy, they’re satisfied, come back for more, and they tell their colleagues and friends.

Nature’s Experts, John, Jeff, Brian, and the rest of the team, I salute you for having that purpose, passion, and pride. And just like those men back in the early 1900s working at Bethlehem Steel and any of you reading this, put a little friendly competition in against yourself and your other competitors, of just showing up, having that pride, being your best, day in and day out. Because, not only you, your organization, and your team will prosper, however, your clients will keep on coming back because they will see that your mission is to be the best for them. 

COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com