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Larry Matejka / Consultant and Author
Larry’s energy and passion to help people win is contagious. You will see after 5 minutes with Larry why he has such a positive influence no matter where he goes. From his book is the definition of the leadership role: any position that provides the opportunity to positively influence the lives of others in a lasting way. What ignites him is to go into a stagnant or less than productive situation and build a team to turn it around. He believes every team member is carrying around a piece of the puzzle that needs to be assembled that holds the plan of what to do. He sees the best in people and always tells them what he sees. He is an encourager.
He loves people and says that each one of us have 30% of untapped potential that is sitting dormant just waiting to come out and make an impact on our own lives and the lives of others.
Larry has been called the “turn around guy”, the “change agent” and in some cases the “bull dozer”. People say he comes on strong to make things happen but in a loving way. When getting counseled or disciplined by Larry you always come away mad at yourself, not mad at him, but kind of in an empowered way because he leaves you with tools to do things different the next time.
Larry makes light about the fact he has no college education. He says he has a 30 year Masters Degree in the People Business. He says that his credentials are “that he has no credentials”. He says it forces him to not over think things. It also forces him to keep things simple and influence other people to keep things simple. Though people may not always admit it, most people like things simple.
Larry has had the experience of turning around departments, branches, companies and even ministries. If you asked him what industry he would best like to work in, he would tell you “what does it matter”. All industries and all business are basically made up of the same elements. In the end what it’s all about is behavior change. You will never see a “performance” change until you see a “behavior” change.
Some of Larry’s strong points:
* He loves people and believes the best of them- always.
* He treats everyone with respect but does admit he struggles with the person who refuses to grow
* His ability to help leaders see their contribution to the business problems. Leaders are always the biggest problem and solution to the business.
* The ability to make things productive – “unproductive” does not work for him
* The ability to see the invisible culture that is so critical to organizational performance
* Helping leaders run their business instead of the business running the leaders
* The discipline to celebrate the smallest victory – which he says leads to bigger ones
* The ability to stay neutral, listen and get to the truth of a matter
* The ability to find and root out stinking thinking that is hurting the culture and business. The most popular being the “victim mentality”.
* The ability to help get the big picture together and let each person see how their little piece fits into it
* The ability to help people organize their thoughts around the business objective and strategies
* The ability to see how to design the business structures and systems to influence employee behavior
Some of Larry’s favorite sayings:
* The truth works
* You will never see a “performance” change until you see a “behavior” change
* Behavior doesn’t change until you receive negative consequences for negative behavior and positive consequences for positive behavior. We change when the “I have to change” or the “I want to change” get’s intense enough.
* Your decisions are only as good as the information you base them on. Truth makes the best information.
* Most people would make the same decision if they were all looking at the same information
* (to the leader) Every time you do something that someone else in the company could do, at the cost of not doing what only you could do, you are holding the company back.
* Vague generalities will kill a business - “truth” can save one.
* Us leaders are great at coming up with solutions to problems we don’t fully understand. Use 80% of your time understanding the problem and 20% coming up with a solution.
* Most people respond the same way to the same system
* Systems don’t have bad days or come in late
* Exhaust every effort to get behavior change through the design of structures and systems before you try to get it through leadership. Strong systems support good leadership but they can never replace it.
* Systems are critical to consistent quality – systems create effective employee habits
* Every business is driven from mostly vision or fear. Vision driven behaviors last and fear driven behaviors last only until the boss leaves the room.
Larry’s Experience
General Manager of a $30 million company in the automotive aftermarket
Co-owner of Alicia’s Massotherapy in Chagrin Falls, Ohio 2007-present - www.aliciasmassotherapy.com
Founder of Life Leadership Lessons LLC Consulting 2004
Author of “The Three Life Leadership Lessons” 2007 - Learn more....
President of Love INC Cuyahoga County 2005-2008
Call Larry at 440 785 5985 or email larry@the3lll.com