Mark A. Carr admits he can be lazy. However, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“Lazy people are very good delegators,” says the founder, chairman, president and CEO of Christian Brothers Automotive Corp., an automotive repair business.
But with that delegation, he expects his employees to be accountable at the company, which posted more than $60 million in 2008 revenue.
If employees ask him a question that they should be able to answer on their own, he tells them to figure it out themselves.
“But, when they come with a legitimate question, ‘OK, I’ve got this thing here, and I’m not sure if I should go this way or this way. What do you think?’ I love those questions,” he says.
In addition to asking questions or seeking advice, he also loves when employees ask him for a chance to try something different, which is a way he identifies sharp workers.
Smart Business spoke with Carr about how to delegate to employees.
Delegate. You evaluate the company and you see the sharp ones and you say, ‘OK, you are the head of this department, and this is your responsibility to run this. My door is open. Every time you have a question, rather than try to solve it on your own, come in, talk to me, and let’s solve it together.’ Eventually, they stop coming in. My son works for me, and I got into a tussle with him. I said, ‘Donnie, why don’t you come to your father and ask him how to solve a problem?’
He said, like I’ve had other employees say, ‘Well, I want to do it on my own to prove to you that I can do it.’ I said, ‘I invented the wheel, why would you want to invent it again, make the wheel a bicycle and run down the road with it?’
So, that’s my philosophy. I’m very open and I compliment my guys for asking questions, rather than trying to solve it on their own. No. 1, it takes twice as long and you run the risk of making a mistake.
Get a feel for employees. My real estate guy, you couldn’t offend him if you took a stick to his head. But, you have other employees that are very sensitive. Again, that’s a read. You have to treat everyone different in those regards.
I use the rule where if I have to discipline them, I compliment them first on the things that they need complimenting on. I hit them with the things that they need to fix, and at the end, I tell them how much I appreciate them.