What Do You Give Your Employees?
Posted by
Paul Alves on Fri, Dec 04, 2023 @ 01:38 PM
"It's better to give than it is to receive." Really, it is.
The Holidays always make me think about giving. When I was younger and just beginning my career, I never believed in the saying, "it is better to give than it is to receive." To me, receiving always felt a little better, but then I became a husband, a father, and a CEO. I have been blessed with the joys of fatherhood and have also enjoyed business success.
As it turned out, the material things I always equated with success, while nice, has not been the source of my happiness - at home it comes from seeing my wife and two boys enjoying life and having fun, and at work it comes from seeing my AG Salesworks family enjoying life and having fun.
To the extent that I have played a role in helping the AG team reach their personal and professional goals, I am grateful. I know now what my wonderful and very wise mother meant when she said "you know Paul, [material things are] just stuff, more of it won't make you happy. You can always get more stuff, but you can't get more time." I have lived by this philosophy, and ironically by focusing on helping others find happiness and reach their goals, the "stuff" has come, but my happiness has come from enjoying my time with my family and company every day.
What got me thinking about this is that today we are saying good bye to Ian, a brilliant, hard working young man, as he embarks on the next step in his sales career. Some excerpts from his parting email below.
"Today is my last day at AG and I would be lying if I said I'm not sad to be leaving this place. Before I get out of here I wanted to thank some people.
First, I want to thank Pete and Paul for giving me the opportunity to work at AG. I have had nothing but a great experience being an employee here. As we all know, they are great guys in and out of work. I am leaving AG with a set of skills that I did not have prior to my employment here. These skills are absolutely going to benefit me as I move on in my career and I have to thank them for giving me the opportunity to learn and grow professionally. Thanks guys.
I also want to give thanks to everyone else in the office. This place is great, bottom line. As I leave, I know I have inherited a great group of new friends. Never once was I in a bad mood to come to work cause I knew I was going to get see and work with people I consider friends. I think that is a special and unique thing that we are very thankful to have. Needless to say, I am a big fan of AG and the people of AG. I wish you all success and happiness."
Over the past eight years we have had the opportunity to work with a number of young men and women just like Ian, most are still with us but many have used AG as a stepping stone to reach the next level in their career. I call them AG Alumni. They have moved on to successful careers in Marketing & Sales and all remain friends to AG to this day.
What I have learned and found a bit surprising, is that what they all appreciate most, and mention upon their moving on, is the fact that they enjoyed their time at AG. Certainly, we hear the same thing every day from the team. Probably the reason AG enjoys industry leading retention in a business with arguably some of the highest attrition numbers. I doubt it's the cold calling that is providing such a high level of engagement and satisfaction.
So in this season of giving, I am thinking more about helping others enjoy their time. What about you?