As a professional soccer player in
Germany, Andreas Roell learned the
importance of teamwork and how each player can use his skills to help the
team succeed. Today, Roell uses those lessons to create a team environment among
his 36 employees at Geary Interactive, an
online marketing agency. Roell’s vision for
pushing employees to succeed has helped
the $11.6 million company grow revenue
303 percent in the past four years.
Smart Business spoke with the company’s
president and CEO about how to develop a
team that lives the corporate values.
Q: How do you create corporate values?
Clearly identify and establish those on
Day One. Once you start bringing
employees in, you want them to represent you and the company in the best
way possible.
Create a setting where you identify
what’s needed to fulfill the client’s
needs, manufacture your product or
create your service. Think about your
culture. Put single words together, create a list of attributes, refine them, and
put them into groups.
Narrow it down to five key words
and define them. How do we think as
a company? How do we behave? Also
define what the consequences are for
any violation against those values.
Q: How do you communicate values
and culture to employees?
Use them in any form of communication. Make them visible and repeat
them. It’s important not to just hand them
out on a piece of paper and say, ‘These are
our values,’ but that they are repeated and
discussed.
If an employee is having a hard time with
the values, you need to identify that early
and face right into it versus letting the individual just hang in there. If the values are
strong, the person almost becomes an outsider because he cannot fulfill the values.
Address where there is a deviation of the
values and provide a path of how that person can get back on.
If, after a period of time and discussion, it
becomes clear that there is not an opportunity because the personality might not fit into those values, you need to cut that person loose as quickly as possible.
Q: How does a leader model the values and
culture?
Live them yourself. You cannot be a
leader that creates them and then has your
own set of rules. Hold yourself accountable to those values, and if you violate
them, publicly announce that and deal with
any type of consequences.
Face reality and understand that a
company is only as good as the entire
staff versus the individual. There are elements that a single leader cannot fulfill,
and the long-term success of the company is driven by teams.
Focus on the business and not yourself. Get an understanding that the company is the overriding principle versus
your own career or benefit. Have a servant attitude instead of dominant. Think
about how you can support the high
goals for people instead of pulling them
along the way.
Q: How do you nurture and empower
employees who help the values thrive?
Recognition. Make it clear for everybody
the people who are living the values and
going beyond. Make it publicly known, not
just to that individual but to the entire company. Make a big deal about it. Celebrate
winnings.
Make them aware in communication
channels, such as newsletters or company
meetings. Create an environment where
others are enticed to identify those who are
living the values, like a referral program. When you start building this
culture versus where the leader is the
only one recognizing employees,
everyone starts to recognize others.
Q: How do you prepare for change in
your business?
Understand that everything is fluid
and dynamic, so what you have put in
place initially will not be what you end
up with. Do not focus on your exit
strategy.
Focus on building a business like it
would run for two or three generations
after you, and your strategy will come
automatically. Have longer-term goals in
place. Make decisions on how the company is progressing over the long term.
Every day is not the same. There are a
lot of dynamics that will happen, so you
need to be understanding and build meaningful relationships with everyone. Trust is
a piece that you build over time. Prove it
by being on time to meetings, providing
resources and fulfilling promises. You then
have staff members who will do anything
and everything for you and the company.
Provide a sense of reality behind
progress. It’s inevitable, and people have to
live with it. Set an environment where people understand that change will happen, be
it positive or negative, so they are prepared
at all times.
Put it into their setting and make employees aware of the benefits of the change,
even if it’s bad. Empower them and make
them understand that they have choices to
make and can move forward.
HOW TO REACH: Geary Interactive, (619) 239-5953 or
www.gearyi.com