A Piece of Chalk and the Number 6

What one steel magnate understood about motivation that most bosses still miss

This past Wednesday on the PDL Action Call, one of our owners brought up a question that had nothing to do with revenue.

He wanted to know how to motivate his employees. How to be the kind of leader people actually want to work for. How to build a workplace where his team shows up because they genuinely want to, where they feel challenged and supported and pushed to grow.

Four owners jumped into the conversation. And what came out of it reminded me of one of my favorite leadership stories.

In the early 1900s, Charles M. Schwab was president of Bethlehem Steel. One of his mills was underperforming and nothing he tried was working. Bonuses, threats, long conversations. Nothing moved the needle.

So one afternoon, Schwab walked onto the floor as the day shift was wrapping up. He asked one question.

"How many heats did your shift pour today?"

They said six.

Schwab picked up a piece of chalk, wrote a big 6 on the floor, and walked out. He said nothing else.

That night, the night shift came in and saw the 6. They asked what it meant. Someone told them the boss had come through, asked how many heats the day crew poured, and wrote the number down.

By morning, the 6 was gone. In its place, the night shift had written 7.

The day crew saw it. By the end of their shift, they erased the 7 and chalked up 10.

Within weeks, that mill went from one of the lowest producers in the company to one of the highest.

Schwab never gave a speech. He never offered a bonus. He made performance visible and let human nature do the rest.

Here is the part of this story that matters most for service based business owners.

Schwab won by creating an environment where people felt seen, where progress was visible, and where the team itself became the motivation. He made it fun to show up and compete.

If you are a small business owner, you already know this tension. You are going up against bigger companies with bigger budgets who can throw money at hiring. You can always win on how it feels to work for you.

This is something I push hard inside Perfect Day Living. Every owner should have what I call a Staff Journey. A map of what your employees experience from the moment they walk in the door.

What happens on day one? Is it just paperwork and a quick tour? Or is it something they remember?

What about week one? Do they feel like they belong yet, or are they still figuring out who to ask for help?

What about month two? Month six? Year one? Year three and beyond?

One of the books that shaped how I think about this is The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath. The whole idea is that people remember peaks, milestones, and transitions. They remember how something made them feel way longer than they remember what they were paid.

If you set the tone from day one that your business is a place where people grow, where culture is built on real values, where someone's three year anniversary actually means something, you are building loyalty that money alone cannot buy.

Bring a cake in for someone's first day. Write a handwritten note at their 90 day mark. Celebrate a work anniversary with the whole team. Create a growth path they can see and work toward.

These things cost almost nothing and they create the kind of moments that make someone say "I love where I work."

That is your version of the chalk on the floor. You are making it visible that this team matters. That their effort is noticed. That showing up here means something.

The owner who brought this up on Wednesday could have asked about pricing. He could have asked about lead gen or closing more sales. He asked how to be a better leader for his people. And the other owners in that room spent the rest of the conversation sharing what has worked in their own businesses, trading real ideas on how to show up better for their teams.

That is what I love about the owners inside Perfect Day Living. They care about more than their own bottom line. They understand that their perfect day is connected to the people around them. When your team wins, you win. When your employees feel like they are part of something worth showing up for, everything in the business gets easier.

Your perfect day is never just yours. It expands into your employees, your family, your community.

Here is my question for you this week. If a new employee started tomorrow, would their first day feel like just another Monday? Or would it feel like the beginning of something they want to be part of?

More clarity, more money, more life.