When describing how he communicates his vision, Keith Olsen uses the metaphor of talk, walk and then talk again. Olsen, president and CEO
of Switch & Data Facilities Co. Inc., says the constant communication of his vision leads employees to gain mindshare, which captures and
incites passion in them. Olsen also gains mindshare through encouragement and recognition of employees, leading them to be part of the
movie instead of just watching it, he says. There has to be a personal quotient, not just a corporate or business quotient, says Olsen, who led
the company — which delivers Internet exchange, co-location and interconnection solutions for businesses — to more than $110 million in
2006 revenue. Smart Business spoke with Olsen about how to get through to employees, how to encourage them and why celebrating
success is important.
Hire employees who ask questions. They are
interviewing me as much as I am interviewing them. If I know they are interviewing me, then I know I have the right
talent in front of me.
I meet someone and, if the chemistry is
right and the fit is right, I schedule
another appointment a couple of weeks
out, but it has to get better. If it doesn’t
get better, I stop the process. If it’s flat or
even, then I have a third time.
I’m interested in the depth of the questions and the thought process around
the questions.
Let’s role-play. I’m the CEO, and they
are coming to me and asking me basic
questions that are on our Web site or
they should have picked up from someone else in the organization. I’d sit there
and say, ‘Not the best use of either one of
our time.’
If they are asking great questions that
are penetrating and have great depth,
then that tells me the thought process
that is going on.
Celebrate success. If a customer writes
myself or someone in the company an e-mail or letter about the wonderful service they received from an individual, not
only do we review that at the town-hall
meetings, but also they get a letter in the
mail to their home. If they have a significant other, it is addressed to both of
them, and we have a ‘Be my guest’ pass
where they go out and enjoy whatever
they want to with that American Express
‘Be my guest’ pass.
We have season tickets to a couple of
different pro venues around here, and
we reward people with those as well as
gift certificates. If our results for a particular period are good, we say, ‘Next
Tuesday, please don’t bring your lunch
and, if you can, make plans to be here.’
It’s not only headquarters. We run 33
data centers around the U.S., and I
organize where lunch is brought into all
of those. Our salespeople go to the sites, as well. I also hire an ice cream vendor
to come in where you make your own
sundae with them. Everyone is making
their own sundae and chatting.
The senior folks don’t get jazzed up
about an ice cream cone, although once
it’s occurring, they have a lot of fun with
it. If I said, ‘Ernie, we are going to have
ice cream next Tuesday,’ it’s, ‘Yeah, OK,
Keith.’ Once Ernie is there dipping his
cone and talking with two or three other
people he doesn’t interface with all the
time, it’s different, versus the people in
my customer care department that are
just off the phone and hanging out and
saying, ‘Boy, this is a lot of fun, thanks.’ I
just created a mindshare moment. The
next time they pick up the phone, those
endorphins are improved.
Be direct but not cruel. Being frank and
deliberate doesn’t mean you have to
deliver it with a ball-peen hammer. You
can deliver it with velvet. That is what
makes it palatable, which is all tied to
mindshare.
The more intimate and connected you
are with the people, the more you know
which ones need to get it delivered which way. That’s why we use a multiplicity of mediums — CEO meetings,
town halls, breakfasts, etc., or one-on-ones and walking around.
Meet with employees in small groups. I take
five to six people once a month, multiple
levels down, across multiple organizations, and we have a pretty intimate
breakfast. The first one you hold in any
organization, there is a lot of anxiety.
Why am I here, what do they want to talk
about, and what will I have to do?
We start talking about everything from
where did they go to high school or college to some of their favorite pastimes.
All of a sudden, you have built some
common ground and the comfort level
gets there through what I would consider certainly not trivial, but certainly not
just business connections. Then, the
questions start, and they are excellent.
Encourage people to take chances. It’s OK if
we trip, but if we trip on the same thing
all the time, then there are some interventions that have to occur. It’s really
about the incremental learning, when
you are thinking about changing something significant in the business.
We aren’t going to get it right the first
time. But, we are going to have a plan
that allows us to collaborate.
If you raise the confidence and competence of your people, that creates velocity. When you create velocity, you are
actually increasing mindshare, and this
is how it feeds itself. You start with
groups of ones and twos. I do a monthly
letter, and I pick on a department about
their contributions.
There are some people who will sit outside the fence and be a peanut gallery. My
leadership team has to evaluate whether
that is inhibiting the business or not. We
try different tactics to get them in the
game. We want everyone in the movie.
HOW TO REACH: Switch & Data Facilities Co. Inc., (813) 207-7700 or www.switchanddata.com