Dennis Goodhue has a great vacation planned for next year, and is looking forward to coming back to his shop with dramatic photos and amazing memories.
Goodhue, owner of Diamond G Repair in Montrose, CO, says he can’t wait to start making his reservations – and he’ll get started just as soon as his employees tell him where he’s going.
“In 2016, we hit a certain sales goal,” Goodhue recalls. “We were all very excited and proud but then, for the next several years, we just seem to plateau. We weren’t growing anymore. So, I put it out there during one of our weekly meetings: ‘Come on guys, if we can increase, if we can improve our efficiency and start meeting our goals, we’ll all go to Hawaii.’ You can imagine the looks they gave me. ‘Yeah, yeah, right. Whatever.’”
Challenges like that aren’t easily forgotten, however. Goodhue tracks his shop’s numbers and puts them out there for everyone to see. “I track everything and they see it every week; how much we do, what the monthly is and where we are for the year. Late in 2020, when it looked like we were going to meet the goals for the year, they started asking, ‘Hey, were you serious?’ The goal for that year was a million-five in sales, and they did a million six two eight. I was very serious.”
2021 was another successful year for Diamond G, culminating in another scrapbook-filling trip to Hawaii. Goodhue’s team is already well aware of the shop’s 2023 goal and he says the added pressure of not only meeting the numbers but planning the trip is working out to be a tremendous incentive.
“I pay for an employee and a significant other,” he says. “If they want to take their families along, we can accommodate that, but they cover those expenses themselves.”
Teamwork obviously helps the goal get met, but it also helps the trip get planned. Goodhue says the democratic process of planning the destination and the itinerary ensures that all participants are satisfied. “We have families with young kids, with teenagers of different ages and interests – we’ll still go to Hawaii if that’s what they want, but we all have to have the right understanding. The team will figure it out. They’re all in this together.”
“The team sets goals together and they reach them together” – Dennis Goodhue, owner Diamond G Repair in Montrose, CO.
Goodhue says even if they don’t want to participate in the trip, employees aren’t left out. Sometimes, travel isn’t possible or interesting. “Still, just because you don’t want to go to Hawaii, I have to be fair – you still contributed to the success of the team.”
In addition to the year-end extravagana, Goodhue’s team has regular goals for which they’re rewarded. He’s quick to point out that nothing is guaranteed – they have to earn it. But they set goals together and they reach them together. The camaraderie builds more than a workplace – it builds a family.
Goodhue says offering incentives of such size might seem to be madness, but he sees it differently. He’s reminded daily, that he needs his team to succeed so HE can succeed.
“My name and my wife’s name may be on it, but every person on this team is the business. And, if the business succeeds, we all do.”
