Bob Beauchamp wishes he could remember the names of each of his 5,800 employees at BMC Software Inc.
The chairman, president and CEO can do a reasonable job at retaining some of that information, but he knows some leaders who really excel at it.
“I think it’s a powerful skill that some CEOs have to be able to call people by their first name every time you see them,” he says. “But because I can’t do that, I may recall the conversation I had with them. But just let people know you care about them.”
That’s the main reason for Beauchamp’s envy of other CEOs who can recall names. He wants all of his employees to know he cares about them and wants his managers to approach leadership the same way.
Obviously, everyone has a rank in an organization, but that shouldn’t affect how much you show interest in an employee.
“If people are going to want to follow you and want to succeed for you, they have to respect you as a person first,” says Beauchamp, who has led BMC to $1.87 billion in revenue for fiscal 2009.
After all, the way you act is going to shape how everyone around you acts.
“As the leader, you are responsible to set the right culture of what is important and what will be tolerated and what won’t be tolerated and what’s expected of people that work there,” he says.
