If you’re used to doing things a certain way at your business, Cory Bertisch has been there, too.
The co-founder, president and CEO of My Gym Enterprises has helped to grow the franchisor of children’s fitness centers from a start-up franchising concept to a company that generated more than $10 million in 2008 corporate revenue.
Along the way, My Gym has gained a number of corporate employees and franchisees. All of them need the freedom to do their jobs with minimal interference from management, but they also still need to embody the My Gym values each day.
Employees need structure, but they also need to be empowered to take their own sense of ownership in the company. It’s a balancing act that requires top management to control without being controlling.
“The biggest thing about creating an emotional sense of ownership within an organization is giving people the power, responsibility and the recognition in big doses,” Bertisch says.
Smart Business spoke with Bertisch about how you can find the right balance when relating to your employees.
Put a structure in place. There is a balance between space and accountability, so we run a very structured review system. Our lines of communication are three- or fourfold. We have what we call goal-review conferences on a semimonthly basis. A subordinate will meet with a division leader to discuss if the work is purposeful and how they feel about what they’re doing, with a little coaching.
How do you build that fine line? You have to stick to your reviews and conferences so that you can give feedback. But as a leader, you also have to resist doing the work for them. You have to acknowledge that there is more than one right way to do something. As a leader and possibly an expert in what the subordinate is doing, you have to balance the having them do it quickly and right, how you would do it, with allowing them to figure things out for themselves and taking that sense of pride and ownership in the project.
So there is a balance between checking in and having a structured system where you can coach effectively and assigning responsibility.
I’m a very controlling person, and I think that when you’re building a good-sized company, you have to have a vision and be in control. The only way I feel comfortable letting others have control is by having great people. Identify, hire and train great people to manage great people.
So the first answer is you have to surround yourself with the right people. Then you need to have the structured system in place in the company for communication. I am directly responsible to maintain a certain atmosphere, a certain parity and fairness with people working in our company. That is something that provides me with great comfort. There is a multipronged system of communication within the company that keeps people on task and on goal.