When Cameron Haughey
visits the sales floor or
stops at the desk of one of his employees at ICC Floors,
he does it with a purpose. But
that purpose is not to ask a
string of questions or search
for something that is being
done wrong.
“I never want them to feel
like I’m poking in on them,”
Haughey says. “If they feel
like someone is looking over
their shoulder all the time,
they are going to lose confidence in themselves. When
you’re going to be in their
face and all worried about
what they are doing, they are
going to pick up on that and
start second-guessing their
own decisions.”
Haughey, the co-owner, co-founder and president of ICC
Floors, has watched the flooring provider’s business grow
from its inception in 1998 to
$13.5 million in sales for 2007,
with 31 full-time employees.
Haughey says he and his
partner, co-owner and co-founder Nathan Roberts,
work to maintain a culture
where employees can work
autonomously.
And by setting a clear tone in
their interview process,
Haughey says employees have
a good idea of what their job
entails when they are hired.
Smart Business spoke with
Haughey about how to stay in
touch with your employees
without badgering them.
Q. How do you show
leadership?
You sometimes want to put
your fingers in everything
and micromanage everything.
Until you can step back and hire great people and trust
them to do their job, you’re
going to be stuck in the mud.
Give them enough to run
with. It’s OK for them to
make a mistake. Those are
the times when they grow as
managers more than they
have ever grown otherwise.
We’re very accessible. We’ll
just stop in to talk to them
for five minutes. Or they will
come up to see us. It gives
them a comfortable atmosphere to talk about something that’s bothering them.
Ask them questions. If they’re a personality
type that’s not going to
lay everything out there
and I want to know
something, I might ask
a leading-type question
that lets them take control and feel in control
of that job.
I get the information I
want to know without
trying to beat it out of
them. Let them feel in
control.
Q. How do you find
those people?
If they are full of it in
the interview, then they
are going to be full of it
with customers and full of it
with their co-workers. You’re
going to get more of the same
when they come on. I love
the guys and gals that are
more honest.
They say, ‘I’ve never done
this, but I can do this and
here’s why.’ I love people that
come in and sell themselves.
We’ll start the first part of
the interview with telling
them our story with enthusiasm. They can see that we
really love what we do. If
they think, ‘Wow, this sounds like something I want to be a
part of, and I’m excited about
it,’ that starts coming out. If it
doesn’t, that’s OK, too, but this
may not be the right spot for
them.
Q. How do you welcome
new employees?
I love to see what people
can do really early. Let
them go.
‘Go out and do something
new. What can come out of
your brain that didn’t come out of mine? Show me
something. What can you
bring to the table that is
new and creative?’
A lot of that creativity
comes when you don’t just
rope them in.
Q. How can you get the best
from your employees?
As owners, sometimes you
think, ‘I’ve got to get out
there, especially out in the
field, so customers can see
me.’ That’s just the smallest
part of it. The customers
mainly are going to see your
people.
For your people to have
that kind of feeling to know
that they are appreciated,
they want to know that
you’ve seen them in action.
They love the fact that you
saw it.
Not just to monitor and
make sure they are doing the
kind of quality you want to
see done but, ultimately,
probably the best thing is
they get the recognition that
you saw their work. It means
a lot.
Q. How do you help
employees continue to grow?
I don’t want anybody,
really all the way down to
the guys sweeping the floor
at the end of the day in the
back, not wanting to do
better.
It’s personality. It’s a lot of
just who you are. We’re positive, and we’ve got confidence in people. When you
are putting that off and you
honestly believe that, you
get that in return. The more
positive you are, people just
react to it.
HOW TO REACH: ICC Floors, (317) 813-0931 or www.iccfloors.com