Jeffrey S. Ford did not relish the decision to implement a pay freeze at Columbus/Worthington Air and eliminate bonuses for all management staff. But his ability to convince employees that these moves were indeed painful to make would go a long way toward determining how much support he could expect from employees in the future.
“If it doesn’t start at the top and they don’t see it affecting me first, they are going to have a problem with it,” says the president of the 46-employee HVAC service provider. “So any decision I make, I make sure that I’m involved, first and foremost, if it has a detrimental effect.”
It can be quite challenging to strike the right balance between empathy for your people and the strength to make the tough decisions to keep your business going. Ford says it really comes down to the simple concept of honesty. Despite the challenging economy, Columbus/Worthington Air reached $7.8 million in 2008 revenue.
Smart Business spoke with Ford about how to build a level of trust between you and your employees.
Q. What’s the key to making tough moves?
Make sure every one of your team members is involved in the entire process. You don’t want to keep anything from them. You want to lay it on the line each and every day so that they will trust you are doing only what is necessary to keep the business going on the right path.
If you don’t keep them informed, they’ll lose focus and you’ll have a mess on your hands. They’ll wonder what’s next and what is it they are not telling us and that will do nothing but lead to poor productivity and an unhealthy work environment.
You’re going to make some bad judgments, but you have to make the call. Sometimes they have to be an impromptu call, but you have to feel like it’s in the best interest of the entire organization and that includes all the team members.
You’re not always going to make great decisions. As long as you communicate what your objectives are and what you’re trying to have happen and then go back and explain it to them and say, ‘This didn’t work, we had to go this route.’ If you don’t explain the change you have to make, they are going to throw doubt your way.
If you’re honest and forthright with everything you are trying to do, you’re never going to have to backtrack. I learned that many years ago from my boss, Frank Pronesti. No one will ever doubt your word if you’re honest with them.
Not once can you think about a negative outcome — always a positive outcome. That doesn’t mean that everything is going to go great. But if you have a positive outlook, I can pretty much guarantee something positive is going to happen.
