Q. How do you find those
people who will help you carry
out the vision?
Any good leader has to get
out and about in his organization and go in and talk to individuals. People want to be
heard. If you go out and you’re
at a point where you can be
perceived as open, people will open themselves up to you.
Communication is a strong
characteristic, but the flip side
of it is you have to be able to
listen. It’s not just hearing people complain, but it’s taking
what people said and implementing it so people see the
value of their words.
I have a brown-bag lunch
once a month … where I select
15 employees and bring them in
and sit down and talk with
them. Most employees have an
idea of what is the best thing to
do. You’ll be able to see the
cheerleaders — those who are
respected by their peers come
out through those as you talk to
them.
Q. How do you become more
open and a better listener?
You have to be confident in
your ability and relationship
with employees. You have to
talk and show through leadership, especially to the employees, that as an organization, just
like a person, you’re going to
make mistakes, but you need to
be willing to have some risk in
order to have growth take place.
Allow for some safety nets if
all will not go as planned.
When implementing plan A,
make sure that plans B and C
are viable if needed. When a
mistake is made, have an open
and honest discussion with all
involved and go through the
‘what-if’ scenarios in case the
opportunity comes up again.
At the same time, you have to
have the confidence and trust
of your employees, vice versa
with leadership, as they’re
willing to come forward if
they see a potential problem
upfront so it doesn’t get buried
within the organization.
Q. What are the benefits of
having a vision in place?
There are many ways, right
ways, to get to one particular
place, there are many spokes in
the wheel, but in order to get
there as fast and efficiently as
possible and everyone intact,
you have to have one vision
that everyone buys in to.
You can have 10 different
ways to accomplish the same
thing, but you’re not going to
have those people all together
at the same time. If you want
to accomplish the goals, you
have to clearly articulate the
vision.
HOW TO REACH: FamilyLinks Inc., (412) 661-1800 or www.familylinks.org
