When your company’s revenue grows 328 percent in one year, it would be easy to lose control, but Michael Staffaroni has skated
successfully through such a period of rapid growth. As president and CEO of Heelys Inc., which makes wheeled tennis shoes, he has
stuck to the principles that made him successful, and despite the challenges associated with extreme growth, he has made it out on
the other side, with 2006 revenue of $188 million to show for it. Smart Business spoke with Staffaroni about how sharing the big
picture with employees makes their jobs easier and how he promotes flexibility so his employees can have more balanced lives.
Promote balance. That’s a very healthy and
important thing. We have a businesslike attitude, but we also believe in a balanced
lifestyle. We don’t need people killing themselves at work.
We want people to enjoy their life, and
work is part of that. Spend time with your
family, and spend time with interests that you
have outside the office, and try to have some
balance in your life, and in the end, that’s
going to be better for everyone, including us
as an employer.
It’s amazing when you give a lot of people
that opportunity and lead by example, people
appreciate and follow along the same path. If
my son has a soccer game at 4 o’clock, and I
need to go watch it, I go watch it, and then I
go online at 8 o’clock at night when I come
home to clean up some to-dos.
We show some flexibility, and it’s amazing
how everyone rallies around that same
approach. If someone is trying to take
advantage of that flexibility, it’s amazing
how other people will come down on them;
I don’t have to.
Communicate effectively. We get together often
for lunch or coffee and muffins, and we allow
people to speak in front of the group or share
information with them.
I appreciated this when I sat in a different
seat. When people understand the big picture
and you share with them the details about the
vision we have as far as the direction we want
to take the company and how we want to get
it there, and when they understand the big
picture, it makes their job easier because they
understand in which direction we’re pulling
the wagon, and they can make smarter and
more sensible decisions to that end.
You have to get out and talk to people. It’s
easy to sit down and e-mail comes piling in
and the phone rings — it’s easy to just be
trapped in your own world. Get out and talk
to people, and you have to show some interest and compassion — not just in what
they’re doing in terms of their job but also in
their life.
That kind of communication and getting out
and talking to people one-on-one or having
these group meetings really helps people feel
like their voice is being heard, and it makes
sure everybody hears the same message.
If you polled our employees, they would say, ‘I have no hesitation about going into
Mike Staffaroni’s office and letting him know
what I think.’ That open-door policy, hear
what people are really thinking, and if you’re
not clear in your communication, you can
correct that.
Keep people calm. It’s by example. If you run
into a meeting and we’re late with some deliveries and you start pounding the table and
screaming, that can get people on edge or
turn people on each other — who did this,
why didn’t you do that?
Try to keep a sense of calm and say, ‘Look,
we understand this is a problem. Let’s talk
about the solutions — we’re not looking to
blame anyone.’ They appreciate that our
businesslike approach is serious and that
we’re trying to find a solution. Even when it’s
bad news, make sure we’re communicating
accurately and clearly what the status is.
That helps.
If you do have a performance issue, obviously there’s a better way to do it than embarrass someone in a group. Pull that person
aside, or pull that person’s manager aside,
and make sure the person knows they need
to improve, or there’s other ways to approach
the problem.
Keep people unified. As you get bigger, you
have more and more personalities working
together.
When we were a smaller, tighter group, we
all knew exactly what the other was doing
and what their respective strengths and weaknesses are, so we’ve added to middle
management additional employees over the
last couple years. You just want to make
sure that everyone from a culture and personality standpoint can fit together as nicely
as possible.
So much of it goes back to communication,
especially verbal communication. We can
talk about things, and everyone knows you
often can be more courageous behind an e-mail, but when you get together face to face
and talk through some of the problems,
there’s generally a spirit of cooperation and
you get a sense that there’s an effort to work
together to fix things.
Sometimes, you have to push people together face to face instead of he-said, she-said or
having someone write a scathing e-mail.
Delegate more. I was the first employee, so
you take on a lot of the responsibility. Most
people don’t appreciate being microman-aged, so at some point, you need to push
away and make sure that you’re giving managers and employees the space and the rope
that they need to do their job and make their
own decisions and learn from their mistakes.
Make sure you’re clear on what the responsibilities are, and make sure they understand
the big picture and the communication is
clear, and make sure they’re at least providing some regular updates initially. As you hire
someone, know that communication is more
important. Just keep letting out more and
more rope as that manager gets their legs
under them and understands the organization and how to get things done.
There’s a mutual sense of trust that’s developed in a relationship like that. As you add
more people, you just want to make sure you
have that same kind of trust, which is earned
over time.
Focus on the long term. As a start-up company
focused on profitability and expense control,
sometimes you forget that you need to grow
the business, and to grow the business, you
have to invest and spend in some key areas.
Every now and then, we have to remind
ourselves that we have to think bigger.
Sometimes, the decisions that you make help
encourage people along the same lines.
HOW TO REACH: Heelys Inc., www.heelys.com or (866) HEELING