If you know Garyvee, you may be asking yourself how could an employment law blog rely upon advice from someone who has not only admitted, but takes pride in, the fact that he checked out of school in the third grade, does not read books, and uses language that makes most standup comedian’s performances seem tame?  However, to underestimate Gary is a huge mistake, and he brings a refreshing and realistic view of the workplace as it exists in 2016, that many companies could learn some important lessons from.

Gary is an entrepreneur who has a noted career in growing his family wine business from $3M to a $60M business in five years.  After that, he started Vayner Media, a digital marketing company, that now employees over 600 employees.  His is also an angel investor and venture capitalist.  I’ve recently listened to the audio version of his new book, The #AskGaryVee Book, twice in the last couple of weeks.  In listening to the book, I realized that his perspective on the workplace is the modern perspective that I’ve often advocated for on this blog.

For today’s Friday’s Five, here are five lessons from The #AskGaryVee Show (Gary’s Youtube channel) that employers must understand:

1)      Where are the best place to hire employees these days?

Search key terms on twitter search and do the homework.  Do the work.  Search terms about the items the employee would be doing, going to the person’s home page, and then email them asking if they are looking for a job.  It takes time, but you have to put in the work.

 

2)      How do you handle “Eeyore” employees?  The one that always sound like they’re whining and pessimistic.

Fire them.  Energy is very important, and dragging down the team is bad.  Not having the smarts is better than being a downer on the team.  It is pretty easy to see who is enthusiastic about their work.  Also, it is incredible how a small group of employees can affect the company.  Managers have to be careful not to confuse this with being an introvert.  Being introverted is something that needs to be recognized, and not looked down upon.  Moping is different than being quiet and introverted, and being introverted is not necessarily a bad quality to have.

 

3)      On your team, is it better to have employees that specialize in one thing or someone who can wear multiple hats?

Both work, but Gary is a fan of a jack of all trades.  He hates when people use the excuse that they are great at one thing to stop from getting better at another thing.

 

4)      Would you support Vayner employees writing their own books and curating their own content streams/personal brands?

Yes.  You cannot say you want to build around the employees, and then suppress them.  Leaders have to believe so much in themselves that they are not afraid to help employees grow.

 

5)      As a guy who loves hustle and people, what is the “unforgivable sin” one of your employees could make?

Gary is not worried about people’s work ethic.  While hustle may be the leader’s skill, and being able to work long hours, it does not have to be the skill of employees.  The only sin is to not figuring out a way to play nice with the boys and girls they work with.  Being disrespectful or being selfish is completely unacceptable, as is creating conflict.