My Student Works Adventure

I embarked on my Student Works Painting adventure just over a year
ago, when I was in my first year of studying commerce at university. I had never
heard of the company previously, but it was very intriguing and the company
representatives quickly spiked my interest, with all of the buzz about “owning your
own business,” “being your own boss,” “setting your own schedule,” and “making
a lot of money,” among many other exciting and rewarding aspects of the business
structure.

When Student Works came into my life, I had always known that I wanted
to work in the business sector, but I was not quite sure where I wanted to work. I
had zero management experience, other than coaching soccer to primary school
children, and was very interested in the opportunities that Student Works was
offering. As I went through the recruitment, hiring and eventually the training
process, I was nervous, as this was something completely outside of my comfort
zone.

I made it my goal over the preseason and summer to work as hard as I could
towards my business, with a goal of really pushing my comfort zone to the next
level and really developing myself as an individual. By the end of the summer, all
my hard work paid off, my business revenue was just over $76,000, and I now
have a lot of great new skills! In my efforts to ensure a successful business my
time management and planning skills were greatly enhanced, and even though I
was actually spending less time focusing on my studies, I was working much more
efficiently and my marks actually increased!

Working at Student Works Painting last summer was the most beneficial
and influential job that I have ever undertaken. Everyone in the company is very
supportive and does their best to help mentor you to succeed and prosper in the
program. No one at the company is going to sugar coat the workload and tell you
that it is going to be an easy job, but nothing in life that is worth doing is easy! I
came out of the summer with a newfound skill set and I now have more experience
than the majority of my friends. Working with Student Works also opened my eyes
to the world and it caused me to reassess, where I want to be in the next few years.

I will be back this year, and I am looking forward to another great summer
filled with personal growth and a nice chunk of change for school! Best wishes to
anyone who is undergoing the recruitment process.

Sincerely Ashley Hannan
Owner/Operator of the Erin & Caledon Area
Summer of 2011

Discovering Your Core Purpose

I read a study once that looked at 1500 people that graduated from university business programs in the year 1960 and tracked their long-term wealth. Of the 1500 graduates, 1245 said that they wanted the focus of their careers to be making money while the remaining 255 wanted to make a difference and do something that they cared very passionately about. Twenty years later the leaders of the study found that there were 101 millionaires, all but one of which came from the smaller group.

When we are doing what we love, we see no distinction between work and play. This allows us to invest more into our pursuits with no lost energy or resistance. By finding our purpose in life and identifying what we love to do, we can create this blend between work and play. At Student Works, we assist you in finding your purpose.

The following is a quotation that speaks well to this concept of finding one’s purpose:

“A Master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.”

-Françoise Rene Auguste Chateaubriand

When we are following our passion, our jobs do not seem like work. It certainly still takes an enormous amount of time and energy, but it all seems worth it when you are doing something you genuinely enjoy. And yes, even those who truly love their jobs at times find it unpleasant at times, but with passion comes joy and these unpleasant times provide balance and appreciation for having a job that we enjoy. Extra time and energy are found rather easily when working on a project you care about. You should look to join causes or companies that in line with your core purpose. Research potential employers and make sure their vision is aligned with your own.

               Our program assists young people to learn the skills, habits and gain the wisdom to successfully execute their core purpose. Imagine there is a world-class leader coming to speak in your town about leadership. Now imagine that this person had no idea what their purpose was. They have no idea why they were doing what they are doing and why they are serving the group of people they represent. This scenario can’t possibly make sense. A great leader, above all else, must be clear about what they are doing so that they can effectively lead others. They must be aware of their purpose so that others can feel that positive energy and rally around their cause!

Another way of thinking about a core purpose is to consider it as a “mission”, “vision”, or a “path”. This concept is critical and can be overwhelming. Trying to discover your interests can stir your soul and make you nervous, but it will put you at an overwhelming advantage. Your purpose will make sure that the ladder you are climbing is against the correct wall. You should get excited about pursuing something that is aligned with your personal goals! If you are going after something that you value you will not lose energy and you will not be stopped wondering why you are achieving goals that do not matter to you. Instead, you will feel rewarded and excited about your accomplishments!

               As part of our program, we assist you by going through a facilitated process to define and clarify your purpose and then work to align your business with it. This is something we will be doing continuously – thinking about what it is that you are passionate about and making decisions that allow you to work toward that. Work with your own goals in mind and set targets for yourself and use that to kick start your future!

The Fast Train is Moving From the Station

I want to ensure that you understand that once you have experienced taking on the responsibility and control of an enterprise, you will be on the Express Train! Few other experiences will allow you to learn this much about running a business and just how much work is involved. An entire world of opportunities opens up! The challenge is that all of those other jobs that seemed reasonable to work at suddenly seem not-so-challenging; perhaps even unrewarding or boring. This is certainly the case for many of our operators. Many student jobs are created to provide minimal responsibility and the expectations are rather low. A VP of stores for Wal-Mart, Loblaws or Rona will not make a proposal to have a student take over their local operations for the summer! It is neither practical nor realistic. It is feasible for us to hand over the operations of the business to a student because, unlike Wal-Mart, we do not operate 365 days of the year and we are not an ongoing enterprise.

             

Our business is unique in that we spend the fall of every year recruiting the best candidates from across Eastern Canada to put into our program, typically selecting one out of every twenty five interested candidates.  In January, we start intensive training of these local operators that involve up to 70 hours of training over eight months.  These Operators set up local businesses in specific markets, (Peterborough North, Pointe Claire, Cole Harbour or London Southwest).  These Operators start recruiting employees, marketing and selling around their winter and spring school work load.  Once they are approaching the end of their school exams they start learning to paint and then training their staff.  They start their crews slowly and methodically to ensure great quality work so that their teams start with the best habits.  During the summer they are running their own business.  They are hiring and paying their own staff, marketing and selling their own clients and having their staff produce that work.  Finally, they earn a net profit after all of their expenses are paid.  They earn whatever the business profits, not a wage like their peers.

If Wal-Mart won’t hand over its stores to university students, why does Student Works Painting?  The uniqueness of our business is what makes handing over all of this responsibility to our young leaders in our mutual best interest.  As a result of our training and support systems, we are able to run successful operations across Eastern Canada that we would not be able to do in a more traditional model.   Our student business leaders are able to take their raw skills and develop them in a model that is extraordinarily rare. We would not be in these markets without students, so it is a win-win situation.

It is a competitive world out there and there are many people looking for the same opportunities that you are.  I always like to use the example of a hockey player playing AAA hockey at an elite level in Canada. As many Canadians know, there is a “feeder system” to make it to the NHL.  Someone must be at a certain level at 16, 18 and so on to have a very real chance of making it to the professional level. Have you ever heard of an athlete playing at the AAA level, going back to house league and then making it to the NHL? Me neither! The business world works in a similar way. The best jobs are attained from a “feeder system” as well and SWP is the AAA summer job for students. There is simply no point in playing house league if you want to make it to the big time! Take your professional goals seriously and get on the express train with Student Works Painting!

How does the 'Tyranny of Or' affect your Decisions?

I use the concept of the “Tyranny of Or” to engage with my team and assist them is seeing that their thoughts can be limiting. I think that it is common for people to believe that there are only two options. For instance, people commonly think “I can do well in school or I can participate in extracurricular activities”; “I can work hard at my job or I can be a successful parent.” These are fictional stories and fall under the “tyranny of or”. It is far more true to believe that we can do well in school and participate in extracurriculars. There is no reason that we cannot play a successful role in our society, have a family, pursue our hobbies, (or whatever) and do all of these things with passion. By living in the “tyranny of or” we cut off what is possible and limit our ability to enjoy the fullness of our lives.  

      We recently returned from a trip to Mexico with our top performing Operators.  I found myself surprised at how many of them were on the Dean's List in their programs. Typically ten per cent of students are on the Dean’s List in undergraduate programs in Canada. When I asked our team, I was amazed to find that 43% of our Operators were on the Dean’s List at their institution! 

      Many times when students are considering our program, they hesitate because of their concerns about school. ("THE TYRANNY OF OR!") The thought is that they can do well in school or do something else. Our  performers are some of the best in the business and typically spent more than fifteen hours per week into their business around challenging academic programs dramatically outperformed the average student.  Their focus, hard work and time management skills that are honed and taught at Student Works are the key to their success.  Don't let this weak mindset keep you from achieving your goals.

Relationships Are Everything

Relationships are Everything

Great leaders are clear about their values and our number one value is "Relationships are Everything".   Relationships are the foundation of our lives, our families, our businesses and our nations.  Ask a dying person, someone who is grieving a loss of a loved one or the birth of a new child what is most important?  We know that relationships are the glue, the passion, the love in life.   We all have limited assets; in a business anyone can enter and compete with us.  Relationships are the cement of a business, a family and a community.  In fact, relationships are in my opinion, the most important asset that we have!  Whether the relationship we have with our creator, our parents, friends or other loved ones – relationships are everything!

Time and commitment are the most important keys to building great relationships.  First, taking the time to care to share your lives with your family, friends and associates - your challenges and victories - both personal and private are critical to developing a strong relationship with most personality types.  Second, keeping your commitments is a critical component of cementing a relationship.  Making sure that we honor our relationships is a critical long term best practice.

One key strategy that we use to ensure that we follow this commandment is the use of weekly scheduled meetings and regular follow up with our teams.  Leadership and relationships are connected directly – we cannot lead powerfully without great relationships.  Positive change best happens in a relationship sharing feedback and results and striving for positive progress.  We establish this habit with  Student Works and we hope our leaders maintain this habit for their careers.

I also believe that a key part of developing relationships is sharing your life with people.  Being authentic with your team, sharing your wins, your struggles and your life with people draw them closer.  When people are closer we can more powerfully impact them.  We must also spend time with people, break bread together, socialize, roll up our sleeves and work with them to develop our relationships.

               We have just returned from our top performers trip in the Mayan Riviera, Mexico.  It is truly inspiring to see the wonderful relationships created and developed during our stay.  We spent time at meals, at fun activities, golf, visiting ruins, fun activities, shopping and night clubs.  The vast majority of our trip members are returning and I know an enormous reason for our Operators returning is because of the great relationship that they have established.  It feels awesome to have great people to work hard with, share best practices and encourage each other to strive for greatness!

Summer of 2011

Summer of 2011

     We are just completing our season and it has been our best season in five years.  Although our number of Operators was lower by 8% compared with last season the number of customers pleased jumped by 12%.   We were led by an outstanding group of over performing students.  We classify the super performers by doing over $100,000 in volume and we had 14% of our organization as 'super performers'.

     Why might that be? Why did we have so many more high performers than in the past?  What creates great and dynamic performance?

     Certainly, we had great raw materials, a fantastically gifted and hard working group of people who really wanted to excel at an extraordinary level!  However, we have had this for many years - a great group of students.  I think largely the reason great accomplishments get created is due to focus!   What we focus on with intensity, passion, thoughtfulness and consistency creates change.  This summer, as an organization, we really put more attention than ever on our highest performers.

      We held regular conference calls with the top performing group to share best practices, challenges, opportunities and how people were getting great results and how they were solving problems.  We had extra one on one coaching calls to individualize our strategic plans.  We had many many challenges and contests to really motivate and inspire our top performers.  We made the group exclusive and they developed a camaraderie across the division to encourage each others performance. Of course, all of this was above and beyond the 100 or so hours of coaching and training an Operator receives with us.

      We are off to Mexico this coming week as we send all rookie Operators who produce $75,000 and Veterans who produce $85,000 to a week the Mayan Riviera, Mexico.  One full day we will be spending just with the $100k Club at XPLOR, (a fantastic all day, caving, zip lining and activity park) and then we will celebrate at a 5 Star Restaurant that evening.  It will be a great experience for a very deserving group!

     Certainly, we will be continuing this focus on this ongoing initiative this coming season and will try to make more steps to improve.  I believe we should always be looking to improve and grow.  If we do not and are not growing, we must be falling behind.  I know I like to spend my time with high performers and we are attractive to high performers because we always want to get better.  There is no such thing as having a perfect job, season or career.  We focus on progress - always making progress.  The great thing about a focus on progress is that we can always make progress even during challenging times. 

     So my for my musings..

     What we focus on with passion and commitment creates results
     Focus on progress not on perfection
     Some tips to create dynamic high performers

All the best
Chris
Head Coach
Student Works Painting