Company Blog
Getting to Know You
by Adam Zack — November 3, 2021
It’s a very ancient saying,But a true and honest thought
That if you become a teacher
By your pupils you’ll be taughtAs a teacher I’ve been learning
You’ll forgive me if I boast
And I’ve now become an expert
On the subject I like mostGetting to know youGetting to know you
Getting to know all about you
Getting to like you
Getting to hope you like me– Rogers & Hammerstein from the movie The King and I. Sung by Julie AndrewsI don’t think enough can be said about the most su...read more
Motivating the Motivator
by Adam Zack — October 27, 2021
It’s hard to be a leader. I have a list right in front of me that I look at most days with 10 reasons why it’s hard to be a leader. (If anyone wants to see it, just shoot me an email azack@dwgreen.com). As a leader, we are constantly working to inspire, teach and motivate our team. It’s a never-ending job that has got increasingly more difficult, challenging and stressful over the past couple of years. Good leaders do it naturally, and the feeling of pride and accomplishment as you observe your team members thriving is the reward. But as the chief motivator, what happens when you let stress and frustration into your picture? How do you motivate yourself? I think it’s incredibly difficult once you’ve lost your motivation to get it back. I think that sometimes it’s cyclical, and the pressure is short lived, soon replaced by that great feeling you get when your team spiritually lifts you up by actually practicing the motivational techniques you’ve shown them over the years. The only one who can motivate you is you, and maybe sometimes we are a bit ha...read moreExtra times 7
by Adam Zack — October 20, 2021
You know how good it makes you feel when unexpectedly and without prompting, someone you care about and respect hits you with some words of praise or appreciation? Something other than “You’re doing a great job.” or “Thanks for taking care of business.” Or “Thank you for cooking dinner.” Something that is both personal and insightful. It can be a compliment, observation or comment on an insight that is truly personal. It catches people off guard, lets them know you care and literally makes their day. And it doesn’t have to be work related. It can be something toward your spouse, your mom, your sister or one of your kids. It happened to me recently and I decided I needed to do it more, and regularly. First, I thought I’d set myself a goal of 15 times per week. Then I set 10. Now I have revised it again to just 7. That’s one time per day. Or it could be 3 times one day, and 4 the rest of the week. The key is that it has to be meaningful to others. Unexpected, deserved and sincere. It can be a gesture, a phone call, a written note, an email or a text. The goal is to stagger them with kindness and insight that only someone who is truly observant and can know and say. ...read moreHype Expectations vs Reality
by Adam Zack — October 13, 2021
When I was 17 my best friend Bob and I heard a lot about this new movie that had come out called Chariots of Fire. It was supposedly action packed, fast paced, critically acclaimed and a great sports story. All things that were right in our wheelhouse. We went on a Friday to the theater at the mall to see it, our expectations very high. Also, at 17 we thought we knew a lot, but like pretty much all 17 year olds, we didn’t know squat. So we get to the theater, popcorn and Cokes in hand, and the movie starts. First, it is very British. And in our limited world exposure, that meant boring. Second, track and field is boring, especially to 17 year olds. And third, it was long and slooowwwwwww. We left thinking it was the worst film we had ever seen and how our high expectations had not been even close to being fulfilled. We generate high expectations for our customers when we plan exciting and interesting promotions and ramp up to them with spot on marketing, word of mouth and thorou...read moreAttitude
by Adam Zack — October 6, 2021
It’s a beautiful day, don’t let it get away – U2I never really thought that a good day, or a bad day, had more to do with my attitude going into the day than with what my interactions with the day’s people and challenges brought. I was always the constant in the equation, and the actions of the people and situations I dealt with largely determined whether I’d have a great day or crappy day, right? I didn’t put enough stock in my attitude going into the day. I didn’t fully realize that if my day started with optimism, appreciation and energy that the rest of the day was likely to follow. Even more impactful was that as a leader the people around me were keyed to my attitude and followed suit. This was all brought into focus with an article on attitude shared with me recently. Thanks Linda for seeing how this could help me, and in turn help others.ATTITUDEAttitude is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failur...read moreYouthful Enthusiasm
by Adam Zack — September 29, 2021
When I was in my early 20’s my good friend Karen and I would go out late at night and play the Purse Game. You know, where you tie a piece of fishing line to an old purse and throw it out into the road and wait for someone to drive by, see it and stop. Just before they got out of the car to look for it we’d yank the line and pull it to where we were hiding by the side of the road. We just thought it was the funniest thing ever to see these people get out of their car and look for this purse that they swear they’d seen. One night, in fact the last night we ever played it, we hauled the bag in and waited. This man has a flashlight and comes over to where we are hiding, shines his light on us and says something like “Aren’t you a little old to be playing the Purse Game?” We were totally embarrassed and thought, “You know, maybe he’s right.”
Everywhere we go around San Diego, California it seems we are surrounded by youth. Millennial families with little kids that scream with delight every time their feet touch a wave. Gen-X kids on skateboards in the parking lots while they smoke cigarettes. High schoo...
read moreTraining
by Adam Zack — September 22, 2021
I have been having weekly leadership meetings with a Leadership Coach to be a better team leader – (No, you’re never too old to learn). The Coach is a customer and has worked with one of the finest grocery organizations in the country in terms of team culture. Yesterday, the subject of training came up and I realized that the grocery industry, with some exceptions of course, is notoriously horrible at a thorough training program. Especially in today’s market where finding employees is very challenging, the old way of just throwing them in the job and letting them figure it out has become more commonplace. It’s kind of the “any warm body is better than nobody” approach. So when John, the coach, posed the question of asking employees “Could you do this job or task if your life depended on it?” It made me realize that many, if not most, new grocery employees (say in their first 6 months of employment) would probably say no. I mean, those are pretty high stakes – your life or knowing produce codes. Death or knowing how to properly slice prosciutto. The electric chair or telling a customer the proper way to broil salmon. Of course it’s never going to c...
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