404: Find your greater potential with guest expert Jim Wetrich

Jim Wetrich, author of Stifled: Where Good Leaders Go Wrong

Bill Ringle and Jim Wetrich discuss the traps and solutions to the causes of working in isolation, ignorance, and unawareness to gain greater clarity and effectiveness for small business leaders.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 400 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

Interview Insights

Top 3 Takeaways

Managers should have a classification system for who should be back at the office, continue working remotely, or work hybrid, and must be very clear-cut as to why because of the nature of these employees’ or this department’s job, they can be more efficient in this kind of work environment.
Always be explicit about what you say. Any misinformation or misrepresentation of a process or path can capsize our credibility and demotivate our people.
Fairness is not treating your people the same but based on their needs because some people need more assistance than others, while some need to be held more accountable. Remember that your employees are at different levels of the growth curve.

Read the Show Notes from this Episode

Jim got his first job as a grocery bagger for State Brothers and his first boss, David Gamon, made him realize that with the right leadership, work can be fun no matter what position you hold. [01:03]
His former manager’s influence seeped through his next, proving that in some cases, it is not enough to explain; it would be more efficient to demonstrate. [04:08]
A big problem in today’s work is that some people want things to go back to how they were before the pandemic lockdown while others fully embrace remote work. Each have their reasons. How can leaders handle this issue to benefit both the company and the employees? [07:15]
A big problem for most remote managers is trusting that their employees are working. What are some of the best tips on how managers can better work with employees despite the physical distance. [11:25]
CASE: Mike is a manager who failed to be explicit when discussing his promotion paths to his employees. As a result, expectations were crushed, and his credibility tanked. [16:10]
The dangers of being a ‘know-it-all’ manager. Jim gives excellent points on why leaders should say, ‘I don’t know’ more often. [18:51]
My Quest for the Best lightning round begins. [25:50]

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Expert Bio

James G. Wetrich, LFACHE is the CEO of The Wetrich Group of Companies and the author of Stifled: Where Good Leaders Go Wrong. His writing has also appeared in the 2021 anthology series Quitless: The Power of Persistence in Business and Life, a USA Today and WSJ best seller. Having led teams on three continents for more than 40 years and consulted with over 100 companies, Jim has seen great leaders who have thrived and ones that have failed. A noted expert in leadership, Jim’s leadership lessons are as highly sought after by today’s business students as they are among Baby Boomers. From 2006 to 2014, Jim built a team at Molnlycke Health Care that grew the revenue over 7 times and the EBITDA over 20 times creating over $1BN growth in enterprise value and taking the US business from number 5 to number 1 in the served market with an employee satisfaction index of over 95%. Jim is passionate about diversity and inclusion and hosted a two-day meeting for all women in the organization (not just high potentials) to discuss their unique challenges.

As the founder and CEO of The Wetrich Group of Companies, Jim focuses now on coaching and mentorship and spreading his leadership lessons to help individuals become better leaders and organizations create great leaders and managers.