Some say that Jane Saale
has too much of a heart.
The co-owner, president and
CEO of Cope Plastics Inc. says
that this reputation probably
started because she treats her
390 employees with compassion. But after four years as
leader of the plastic fabricating
and distribution company, she
has learned that it’s important
to balance compassion with
empowering employees and
holding them accountable for
their actions.
“I’ve been caught on both
sides, and it’s not fun,” she
says. “If people think you’re too
soft, they’re going to take
advantage of you. And if you’re
too hard, they’re going to think,
‘What’s up with that?’ You have
to constantly watch and make
sure you don’t go overboard on
one side.”
Saale’s $93 million company
has corporate offices in
Godfrey, Ill., and 16 branch
locations.
Smart Business spoke with
Saale about her surefire way to
manage employees and turn
them into leaders.
Learn to manage any issue. This
is my famous line when it
comes to dealing with anyone:
It’s all in the approach. It could
be the ugliest thing you ever had
to do — maybe you had to reprimand somebody or you had to
tell somebody that they’re not
going to get something.
Whatever it is, do it in a way
that they understand why, and
do it professionally and compassionately instead of coming
down hard on them. If you can
do it in a way that you’re holding them accountable and
they’re making the choice, you
get tenfold better results.
Approach it in a way that makes
sense and is not threatening.
Maybe they don’t agree with it,
but you’re phrasing it in a way
that they understand the ‘whys’
behind whatever it is. In anything you do, it’s the approach
that matters — how you handle
a situation. I’ve never been a
hard-core ‘do it my way or the
highway’ kind of leader.
It’s always been my
approach to say, ‘We have a
problem here, and we need to
fix it. Do you think you could
have done it better? What did
we learn from this?’
There are so many different
little things you could say to not
make them feel bad, but they
will also understand, ‘I need to
change this. I need to improve.’
Don’t be a dictator. The alternative is to lead autocratically. I
just don’t see how you could
ever sustain an approach that’s
any different from the way
that I do it. If you threatened
people, they might listen to
you and do what they’re told,
but it’s not sustainable. You’re
never going to have a thriving,
secure business by leading in a
way of fear or intimidation.
You’re not going to get buy-in. You’re going to get silos
built, and you’re going to get
people not wanting to come to
work and people not caring
about what they do. And that’s
not good overall.
The approach is just so vital.
In anything that we do here,
employees need to understand
how we approach things, how
we get people involved and
why we get them involved.
They need to know the ‘whys’
behind some of the decisions
and the direction that we’re taking so they can get on board.
There’s a difference between
coaching and micromanaging.
You don’t need people in your
business every single day telling employees what to do
and what not to do. If you give
people expectations and the
right type of support and
direction, they should be able
to handle themselves and be
held accountable for it.
