April 2004
Are You a Builder or a Destroyer? By Jim Paluch

Lawn & Garden Retailer Training Challenge

As a railroad crew labored in the blazing August heat, an engine pulled up with a fancy caboose all decked out with company colors and stopped a short distance from the crew. A man in a sharp pinstripe suit stepped out of the caboose and yelled toward the crew, “John. John Hayes. Is that you?”

To the laborers’ surprise, John yells back, “Yeah Tom, it’s me. Good to see you.”

“Well, come on in and visit for a while,” Tom yells back.

John laid down his shovel, wiped the sweat from his forehead and walked to the caboose. The man in the pinstripes gave him a big handshake as they disappeared into the caboose. After a short time, John came out, picked up his shovel and took his place on the crew.

Everyone stopped working and stared. Someone finally spoke up. “John, wasn’t that Tom Miller, the president of the railroad?” “Yep,” came his lonesome reply.

“Well, John, how do you know Tom Miller?”

“We both started working for the railroad on exactly the same day over 20 years ago.”

The man couldn’t help but ask the obvious question. “If you both started on the same day, how come Tom Miller became president of the railroad and you’re out here in the hot sun laying ties?”

John stopped working, leaned forward on his shovel and with a look that seemed to play back the past 20 years said, “20 years ago Tom went to work for the railroad; I went to work for $1.20 an hour.”

The success secret

In that old story is the secret to career success. I see examples of both types of individuals mentioned above in every organization I have worked with over the past 15 years. There is the individual that comes to work wanting the best for his family and future and displaying a sincere interest in helping the company grow and succeed — a builder. And there is the individual who has one thing in mind: getting the most amount of money for the smallest amount of effort. He doesn’t care what happens to the company; he will just find another job someplace else if this one doesn’t work — a destroyer.

Destroyers. If you listen to a destroyer talk, you will hear a similar word, or at least a form of the word, from all of them: “hate.”

They hate:

  • Management. For all the “stupid” things they do and all the money they make.
  • Customers. For all the demands they make and the complaining they do.
  • Money. The paycheck is so little, and there is never enough to pay the bills.
  • Other employees. They get all the easy jobs and “kiss up” to management.
  • Family. Their spouse said something or their child did something.

If you listen to destroyers long enough, it becomes evident that they hate themselves the most. If all destroyers changed the way they feel about themselves, they would become builders.

Builders. Builders do what’s important. There are five general activities that put builders on the road to success:

  • Continue to learn. They read, go to seminars, attend company training, think creatively and are open to the opinions of others.
  • Appreciate people. Realizing that every great thing happens through people, builders focus on learning to work with and understand people. • Have great attitudes. It takes constant effort, but builders focus on things like exercise, eliminating bad habits, being around positive people and having fun.
  • Set goals. They take the time to have clearly defined and written goals, even if they may not reach them.
  • Don’t quit. Builders understand obstacles. In fact, they even welcome them. Learning to persist is what takes them to higher levels and more responsibility in their organization.

Building builders

One of the favorite sessions in the Training Challenge is the topic of builders and destroyers. As companies focus on their people, individuals begin to recognize choices that lead to their own personal and professional growth, as well as the company and those around them.

One company was determined to continue the builder campaign and capitalize on the current momentum. It developed a committee made up of one person from each area of the company and challenged them to develop a program that would integrate the builder/ destroyer session into the culture of the company. The committee had “carte blanche.” It decided to kick off the plan on March 31, in conjunction with the company’s annual “Tailgate Party” where baseball’s opening day was celebrated with stadium food and Cincinnati Reds attire. Prior to the event, the committee displayed posters such as “Builder at Work” or “Builder Hard Hat Area” to pique curiosity.

Before munching down on hot dogs, pretzels and Cracker Jacks, the committee passed out hard hats to everyone and explained that they were all working in a Builder Zone. Every time someone is caught displaying the attributes of a builder, they will receive a star to put on their hard hat, which must be displayed in the individual’s work area so everyone can see who is taking actions as a builder. Each Monday, the person with the greatest number of stickers receives a dollar, and their name is put into a monthly drawing for the Builder Of The Month Award, four Reds tickets. There will also be monthly team lunches awarded if everyone in a unit has received builder stars and a big six-month drawing for outstanding builders. To avoid the question of discretion in the distribution of the stars, members of the awarding committee will constantly rotate.

Individuals choose the attitude they will have each day, and building builders is a choice that organizations can make as well. With everything to gain and nothing to lose, get creative and build your builders today!



Jim Paluch

Jim Paluch is a speaker, author and president of JP Horizons, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio, which is the creator of the Lawn & Garden Retailer Training Challenge. To learn more about the Training Challenge, or consulting services available through JP Horizons, visit www.jphorizons.com or call (877) JPH-JAMS.