The title of CEO didn’t have the right ring for Jerry Sheppard. Instead, his business card reads head visionary honcho for The Epitec Group, a technology services and work force management firm that he founded in 1978.
Likewise, his wife Josie isn’t just the president but the head coach. And that’s how they see themselves: as interactive coaches for their 380 employees, more so than executives locked in an ivory tower.
When it comes to Sheppard’s most important task as a leader — setting a vision, as his title implies — well, that’s a collaborative process, too. He encourages employees to contribute to the ongoing discussion of what could make Epitec stronger and keep growing it past 2009 revenue of about $31 million.
“We embrace entrepreneurs,” Sheppard says. “They take ownership in the process they’re responsible for. And I think that is what has propelled our growth.”
Smart Business spoke to Sheppard about making your vision a collaborative discussion with employees.
Develop a vision. I think the keys to being a good leader are being open, maintaining an entrepreneurial spirit, having a vision that’s clear and that people can follow, that people understand. [It’s] being able to set a vision that is of yourself, not a catchy phrase that’s the phrase of the day [or] that you might think clients want to hear but really what your business is all about.
I was told years ago that once you learn why you do what you do, you’ll be better at doing it. So being a good leader is being able to articulate that to the staff.
Once you understand why you do what you do, you’re better at doing it. We are customer-driven. The customer drives our business. Ask yourself the question, ‘Why am I in business?’ and for us, it’s to service the customer. Once we can find a need to build for our customer, you then want to be a valued resource to the customer.
‘What is our mission?’ You ask yourself that question. Our mission is to be a valued resource to our clients. What does that mean? I’ll take it a step further. I say that you have a choice of being a resource to your client or a vendor. Vendors are replaceable; resources are not. So our mission is to be a valued resource to our customer because our business is customer-driven to build a company that’s profitable and that’s committed to growth.
By accomplishing that mission, then your vision becomes clear. Our vision is to be a premier staffing organization that people want to work for and clients want to do business with.
Establishing that vision, it’s almost the second step of your mission. Now that you have a mission, what would you look like once you accomplish that mission? What does that company look like if they can accomplish all the things that they set out as a mission?