Jim Kolar has learned that no matter how approachable he considers himself to be as a leader, there is probably someone out there who doesn’t see it the same way.
The managing partner of the Chicago market for PwC US strives to be quite intentional in the way he opens up to his employees, demonstrating that he’s a real person with real challenges in his life just like anyone else.
“You have to assume at certain levels that you are unapproachable until you make yourself approachable,” says Kolar, who assumed his current position in June 2013. “Little things like getting on an elevator. A person who has only been with us for a year or two isn’t likely to say hello to me if they know I’m at a partner level or above.
“So I should be the one who says hello and engages with people. Even if you don’t know or remember their name or what they do, it’s a familiarity you start to drive. You have to make yourself not only approachable, but accessible.”
Kolar’s willingness to engage with the 3,000 people who report to him in the Chicago market has proven to be important as the accounting firm transitions to become more of a professional services firm. He needs his people to understand the change, but he also need clients, both current and future to understand the services the firm can offer.
“We have to be more intentional not only with our delivery in the market, but with our messaging in the market,” Kolar says. “That’s the challenge facing us now. It’s a difficult problem. Many businesses are expanding their capabilities and their relevance. Their brand is expanding in terms of what they do. But is that brand keeping up with their capabilities?”
Help people find their place
When you’re delivering a message to employees about how you want your company to change the way it operates, understand that you’ll probably have to explain it more than once. This is especially true if it’s a complicated change that you’re implementing.
But it can still be tough for people to grasp an idea that may be perfectly clear in your own mind.
“There was a great quote I heard from a CEO a while back about strategy and communication,” Kolar says. “She said that just when you get tired of talking about it, they are just starting to get it. You have to continually talk internally about your strategy, what you’re doing and the capabilities you have. You have to start with an internal understanding and get everybody to work as one firm, rather than think, ‘This is just my area of expertise.’”
Communication must be more than just you standing in front of all your employees and offering your state of the company. You need multiple leaders at various levels in the organization to be part of the dialogue.
“It’s helping people to understand how they find their place in the strategy and how they find their ability to contribute,” Kolar says. “It’s also making sure they understand that their contributions are valued. They have an opportunity to enhance your brand, have it remain the same or diminish it because your brand is built individual by individual, experience by experience, beyond just what you say as the leader.”
Too often, leaders will give a grand speech that paints the picture for how the overall company will benefit from the changes you are about to embark on. But if your people don’t know where they fit into the mix to achieve these ambitious goals, it’s going to be hard for them to make a valuable contribution.
“Teams are better at breaking it down for themselves in terms of how they are going to behave, how they are going to interact, how they are going to work with the client and the kind of value they want to deliver,” Kolar says.
“That’s what I would characterize as customization within that strategy framework. It helps them find their place and their relevance for each other and feel a real part of the team and the strategy rather than just a delivery person. It has to be broken down in a manner that is understandable and identifiable at anybody’s level.”
This is where approachability and accessibility can play a big part. If people perceive you as being someone they can talk to, they’ll feel more comfortable coming to you and saying, “I’m really excited about what we’re doing, but I’m not clear about where I fit into the picture.”
“People have issues that they want to talk to you about and those are important to them,” Kolar says. “You need to listen. You’ll develop familiarity and people will get more comfortable with you. We’re all the same. We’re all people. Share some personal stories. Everybody has problems on any given day and you have to recognize that.”
