“When I grow up… I want to be a Whiteboard Magnet Mover…” - No One Ever

The Magnet Moment That Made Me Feel Like an Idiot

There’s one memory that still sticks with me.

It was a Wednesday. We were in peak season. I was running on fumes and so were my managers.

One of them a loyal, hard-working, absolute backbone of our company had already put in 60 hours that week. He runs crews. Orders Materials. Meets customers. Maintains quality. Trains new hires. He’s the guy clients trust, crews respect, and other leaders lean on.

He has a company truck.

He’s part of our profit-sharing plan.

He’s earned his PTO.

He’s earned every bit of respect we can give him.

But that morning, I asked him to do something that, looking back, felt absolutely stupid:

“Hey, can you swing by the shop to move a magnet on the board?”

He lives 15 minutes past the shop — the exact opposite direction from his first job site.

But because our system depended on magnets and markers, I needed him to physically come in, walk to a board, and move a name.

That was the process.

And the worst part?

He did it.

He didn’t complain. He didn’t push back. He just said, “Got it,” and showed up to move the magnet.

That’s when it hit me.

I was asking a high-performing, professional leader in my company to waste time and gas so he could… update a whiteboard.

Not lead.

Not solve problems.

Not train or produce or manage.

Just… move a magnet.

That wasn’t leadership.

That was laziness, on my part.

Not because I didn’t care.

But because I hadn’t built a system that respected his time the way I asked him to respect the company.

There was probably a time that he chose not to go move the magnet. He knew he was letting me down. Real question is… Was he letting me down?? or I was I letting him down??

Was it 2024? It sure looked more like 1994 in my dispatch room…

What It Said Without Saying It

When we rely on outdated tools to run modern teams, we accidentally send messages we don’t mean to send:

• “I don’t trust you to update things digitally.”

• “Your time doesn’t matter if you’re not in the building.”

• “Physical presence = real work.”

• “We haven’t figured out a better way, so just keep dealing with it.”

That’s how you lose good people.

Not because of money.

Not because of clients.

But because the system feels like it was built for someone else’s convenience — not theirs.

CrewHero Fixed That — Instantly

Now that manager starts his day from wherever he is.

He opens the app.

Checks his assignments.

Adjusts crew and truck pairings.

Approves PTO.

Leaves notes for his team.

No detour. No dry erase marker. No wasted miles.

And more importantly, no disrespect.

The system matches the responsibility we’ve asked him to carry.

Because that’s what systems should do:

They should amplify the trust you’ve already earned, not make people prove themselves with unnecessary effort.

Final Thought

If you’ve got great people — and you’re still asking them to prove it by doing dumb things like driving to move a magnet — it’s time to evolve the system.

You don’t need more meetings.

You don’t need another whiteboard.

You need to stop solving leadership problems with physical office tools.

Your best people deserve a system that works as hard — and as smart — as they do.

Respect your team — with more than just your words.