For Tim Ochsenhirt, there’s
more to running a business than the bottom line.
Just a few years ago, for
example, the chairman and CEO
of Roetzel & Andress fired a
group of his best attorneys
because they weren’t contributing to the firm’s team-based
culture.
“We need people that are not
only partners, but they actually
conduct their lives like they’re a
partner,” he says.
Although he does keep his
eye on financials — the firm posted 2007 revenue of $88
million — Ochsenhirt is more
concerned with fostering relationships among his 486
employees, and he and his wife
have been traveling to each of
the firm’s 10 offices to better
understand the people who
work at them.
“My wife and I are going
around and staying at each
office for around three weeks,”
he says. “We actually live (in
each city,) and I get up and go
to work every day there.”
Smart Business spoke with
Ochsenhirt about the importance of building relationships
and how to fight through the
gossip and egotism that often
stand in their way.
Develop relationships. Humans
and the relationships between
and among humans are very
important. When people know
you better, they feel like they’re
part of the mission.
I go out to lunch with a couple
of the associates — two to three
— throughout the given month
that I’m there. Some of them I
know. Some of them I don’t
know.
I don’t sit there and talk to
them about a case or a memo
or something like that. I talk to
them about their life, their aspirations, what they would like to
do and how they’re finding the
route so far.
What my wife and I do is,
depending on how many associates there are in an office, we
invite them to the house. They
come to dinner, and I want
them to bring their guest or
their spouse or whatever the situation might be and meet my
wife at the same time.
At that time, I don’t really
expect any of us to talk about
business. We just talk about
whatever people talk about. You
learn about people.
By having a relationship and
having people know that you
care about them and you understand them and you want their
direction, it’s easier to affect
your decisions, and it’s easier to
get consensus behind your decision. It’s just more of a team
effort like that.
Eradicate gossip. Just ask everybody to keep their doors open.
There shouldn’t be all kinds of
secrets around this place.
I say this knowing that some
of these personnel issues can
obviously be confidential.
Personnel decisions are different than just talking about
somebody. If you’re talking
about them with a view toward making a decision, fine.
If your intention is to hurt feelings, you’re not allowed to talk
at all. But if your intention is just
to say something for the betterment of the firm that some people might not like, then go for it.
That takes work by everybody
in your organization. That does
not happen naturally, and it
doesn’t happen just because I
ask them to.
I might set a good example,
but everybody’s got to do it.
They just need a little encouragement to head in that direction.
