Andy Showerman is a real person. He’s our template of the perfect developable employee. Andy began sweeping floors at one our clients, and is now VP of purchasing for a major foodservice manufacturer. He still follows TEG training disciplines. Someone, or some people, at your company have this capability now. The Evans Group LLC always hopes to find one or two Andy’s to develop at any company.This employee needs to be fine tuned and developed.

I took the above from a Whitepaper that I did for a dealer that Matt has visited in Boulder, Colorado-Centex Supply, Inc.

I’m sharing this with you more in detail as we develop our company and “surround ourselves with people better than ourselves”, the key to a successful company.We always must think how our company “shows itself”; successful companies show themselves as “being ripe and ready for sale”, in good conditions, or the sale becomes the value and bottom sale.

Andy was a floor sweeper, and in charge of parts, for Domino’s Pizza in Michigan.When TEG was hired to restructure the E and S dept I spent many days arriving before the staff and “walking the giant warehouse” analyzing and taking notes. Each day Andy arrived by 6.15 a.m., when he clocked in at 7.00 a.m.

I allowed no overtime so I was more than impressed to see his coming in, and asked others later if he always did this, or if he was brown nosing. Nope, they all said, Andy comes in early and stays late he has so much to do. Many of them shook their heads at how hard he was working.

Within two weeks TEG terminated 87 employees in this far-reaching division of Domino’s, and promoted Andy.He was a rough and tumble guy and needed development and training. I became his mentor, and moved him into purchasing.

He did great for the two-year contract TEG had.

I took a contract with Stainless, Inc (now Franke) for restructuring following this, and 6 months there got a call from Andy. He wanted a job, wanted to move to Florida, wanted to be mentored more, and plan wanted more.

I flew him down to interview him. We offered him as a purchasing agent working for Nestor Ibrahim, now Sr. VP at Middleby Marshall. Nestor and Chip became Andy’s mentors, and later when Nestor became President of South Bend Andy moved with him, as the Sr. VP of Purchasing, where he remains today, happy in North Carolina, making a great buck with a great company, with stock options, and he owes it all to “stretching’.

Stretching to how I work is becoming more than you are. Building your own career.Creating your own destiny. Undoing bad behaviors and creating good behaviors.

Not all good employees will stretch. That’s fine. This simply means that employee is working to the threshold they are willing and able to. Some employees will pretend to “stretch” but you can soon see they are really just talking the talk.

I identify one to two employees wherever I am sent that I think could be Andy Showerman. I push them, offer them books to read, make sure they are doing what they are best at, reward them for extraordinary achievements, and focus on seeing if they can stretch.

Not long ago Jimmy Paul walked into Dan’s office. He looked hung-over, or drugged, or run over by a truck. I knew something bad was going to be discussed.Sure enough, Jimmy had some real financial and personal problems and had been letting them build up to the point that he hit a serious breaking point. Many would call this a “nervous breakdown”, which really means that a person is unable to function clearly, and that a situation or a mood has overtaken their behavior.

I saw in Jimmy, and still do, someone that could be Andy, and could stretch. I also saw a broken down man, hitting the bottom.As we all know, he moved back home with his folks in Lake Placid, and he and his wife are divorcing. He’s trying to rebuild his financial situation.

We’ve been trying to reach Jimmy for some time, and he’s been hard to reach.He called me last Wednesday and I offered to drive up and spend the day with him on Friday.

What happens now is what Jimmy is able to do with himself. With the decisions he has to make. We truly are what we decide.

Jimmy could become Andy, or Don Clesson, or a winning long distance runner. It’s up to him.

I went out of my way in several ways for Jimmy. I did this because I believe he has a lot to offer our team, and that it’s our company responsibility (definition: ability to respond) to do the right thing, try never to harm, and to make the company a profitable and fun place to work.

I wanted to tell the story of Andy, and of Jimmy, to open this meeting.