GROW THE CULTURE

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Tom Gegax, Gegax Management, TrackID=JGBIO01&LinkTo='twww_gegax_about.htm'&WCU=

“Learn how to nurture an environment where happy employees realize healthy profits.”

Fair or not, your relationships with people under your watch set the tone for the entire organization. My dad and his World War II Army buddies told me, “There were some leaders we’d gladly follow out of a foxhole into battle. But there were others we wanted to shoot in the back.” It's no different in the corporate foxholes. The commander in chief can make every day feel like a slice of heaven or a glimpse of hell. Break my 21 laws of cultural leadership and your culture surveys will be graded D for dreadful. Renounce your seat-of-the-pants ways and be an A+ leader. I'll show you how in my No-Nonsense Business Success Program. Here are a few tips.

Be authentic
Regrettably, employees view bosses through a distorted lens; they see execs as subhuman and devoid of feelings. It gives employees an excuse to downplay their boss’ good side and exaggerate his bad. Then, when job frustration hits critical mass, they can feel justified in checking out emotionally. Unfair as it is, too many business owners perpetuate the stereotype. Let go of the notion that signs of emotion or fallibility are unprofessional. My relationships with employees grew healthier when I started admitting mistakes, revealing more of the real me, and being more caring.

Beware your impact
I still remember the huge crush I had on Linda Harness in high school. No clue was too minor to crack the case on whether she liked me, or, you know, liked me. Did she smile? Was she looking over my shoulder when we talked? Like it or not, that's how your employees think of bosses (minus the romantic part, I hope). It's not fair, and it may even be a bit odd, but that’s reality—one wrong look from the boss can ruin someone's day. It’s a fault line to keep an eye on, but there are limits to your vigilance. One time I forgot to bring my eyeglasses to a sales meeting. The next day, I learned that a young sales associate was smarting because he had nodded and smiled at me from across the room and I failed to respond. I called him right away and joked that without my glasses I could only make out blurry outlines of people. He laughed and accepted my apology. And I never forgot my glasses again.

Snoop like Columbo
An enlightened executive roots out the truth like a gumshoe. If key details are missing, you can’t make the right choice, solve the big problem, or launch the stinger strategy. When employees told me things were fine, I dug deeper: “Anything I can help you with? ” “If you ran things, what would you do differently? ” Sooner or later, the answers spilled out. “When Tom hit the field, we'd do everything in our power to make sure the stores were firing on all cylinders,” said Jim Pascale, our first Iowa regional manager. Before one of my visits, Jim asked all his store personnel—over and over—the questions I typically asked. “Sure enough,” Jim recalled, “Tom ended up asking the same questions I had. But he got new 20 answers!”

Be relentless
Employees instinctively withhold bad news from the boss. Some try to protect underperforming colleagues, or hide embarrassing details. Other times, the truth remains elusive because no one’s connected the dots between the problem and root cause. I methodically drill like a west Texas derrick to the core of problems. Beware, though. I sometimes hit nerves instead of veins. “There were times,” recalled Wayne Shimer, head of retail operations, “when I wanted to reach out and say, 'Stop!' But, ultimately, Tom was right, because everything was out on the table all the time. And I don’t care what anybody says, that’s a healthy culture to work in.”

Practice the accordion
The best decisions emerge from a process that's neither exclusively top-down (leader calling the shots) nor bottom-up (rank-and-file referendum). It’s gotta be a collaborative effort I call "the accordion." You can argue that top-down decisions are smarter because upper management commands a broader view of economic, cultural, and mission-related factors. Yet, management is too often out to lunch on the down-and-dirty details, if only because employees hate delivering bad news. The remedy: raw intel, gathered from as many sources as possible. I'd tell people, “If something needs to be said, don't minimize it or dramatize it. Just flat out say it.”

In too many organizations, input from employees is either ignored or discounted. The rationale is predictable—Hey, if my employees were smarter than me, I'd be reporting to them. Perhaps a common military axiom will shed some light: “Battle plans never survive contact with the enemy.” Without a constant feedback loop from the front, plans hatched by the top can be comically naïve or fatally flawed. That’s why Wayne Shimer’s store inspections started in the service bays. Why did he talk to the guys with grease under their fingernails first? In high school, Wayne had worked construction for a family friend named Mel. Every morning, Mel pulled up in his station wagon and headed straight for the welders. One day Wayne asked him why he spoke to the foreman last. “Wayne,” Mel said, “after talking to the guys, I knew if the walls were going up at the right pace, I knew if the sand was being delivered, and I knew if the cement guy had been by. So by the time I got to the foreman he couldn't snow me.”

Respond rapidly
Back in the day, whenever a subordinate asked me to do something—review a draft, powwow over a big issue—my reflex was the same: Hey, I’ll get back to you when I feel like it, pal. I’m the one who calls the shots around here. Inevitably, deadlines came and went and I got mad. I'd ask people where their reports were, and they’d explain that they were still waiting for info from me. It took awhile, but the message finally sank in. First, these were things I had asked them to do. Second, it’s intimidating to ask the boss for something more than once. Last, the faster I got things back to people, the faster things got done. Man, I thought, whenever somebody needs something from me from now on, I’ll hit the ball back into their court ASAP. It was as if I had rolled a huge boulder out of the road to allow traffic to pass. I, of course, had been the boulder.

Congratulate publicly
Wayne Shimer, a 16-year colleague, never complained, never got defensive—he just rolled up his sleeves and blasted away. To Wayne, a job well done was its own reward. In 1992, a grueling but rewarding year, I started handing out a Most Valuable Player Award at our annual convention. It gained instant Oscar-like stature in our little tire universe. I had been riding Wayne hard all year, but we had made a good profit, and I bestowed the inaugural award on him. "Out of the blue," Wayne recalled, "in front of 500 people, Tom calls me up and gives me this award. I couldn’t even talk afterwards I was so emotional.”

Wayne may have been surprised by his reaction, but I wasn't. People crave recognition, not only for results but also for their ideas. Applaud their efforts (literally when possible) every chance you get—in team meetings, informal settings, group e-mails, and newsletters. When Scott McPhee, our retail operations chief, suggested we create a “head of automotive services," I never let him forget it. Years later, I was bragging about Scott's RBI (Really Big Idea) to anybody who worked with him. “You're the man, Scott!” I'd say, turning to the others. “Do you know how much money this guy made for us? ” Sure, people may turn beet red when you pour on the praise, but don’t be fooled for a second. They can’t get enough of it.

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