Bob Dagostino says it’s
important to let employees know you care. And while that may be hard to do in
a growing company, he says it’s
important to take the time to get
to know people.
The founder and president of
Dagostino Electronic Services
Inc. also tries to instill the values of love, dignity and respect
in his 85 employees. Many may
be afraid to use those words in
the workplace, but spreading
those values creates a team that
is proud of its work and of the
company for which it works.
“If everyone treats everybody
like that, the world gets a lot
easier to work in,” Dagostino
says.
These values have helped
Dagostino grow his company —
which designs, sells, installs and
maintains communications systems for voice, data and video
networks — to 2006 revenue of
$20 million.
Smart Business spoke with
Dagostino about how to align
values and vision among employees and how to become a better
listener.
Q. How do you make sure
employees are living your
company’s values?
If you don’t talk about it, it’s
not going to happen. Talk about
it and have an open discussion
of what these values mean to
you. When people step over
boundaries, get them to accept
that this is the way you wish to
be treated. Put yourself in the
other person’s shoes.
If anyone is not making decisions or interacting with anyone
in a way that does not live up to
these values, then they shouldn’t
be part of the organization.
Q. How do you let employees
know you care?
Know your people. If you’re
trying to reward someone,
something that you enjoy to do
after hours might not be the
same that the employee enjoys.
If I give them a ticket to a baseball game, yet they don’t like
baseball, what are they going to
get out of it? You’ve got to know
what they do and enjoy, and try
to align with that.
Talk to and communicate with
them. Work closely with them
and care about the things
that are on their mind,
not only with work but
their personal life. It’s not
to be probing but to get a
sense of wellness.
Q. How do you make
sure you’re hearing what
people are saying?
It starts off with
patience. Have meetings
with key personnel on a
regular basis and have
nothing disrupt those
meetings. Plan an agenda
so that key topics are
addressed. Those meetings are your opportunity
to communicate with
management to make
sure you look at the issues, plan
and solve the problems together.
Q. What are the benefits of
being a good listener?
You are able to learn when
you listen. You learn the needs
of customers and management.
If you don’t know a problem,
you can’t solve it.
To be a good listener, you’re
able to hear the problems that
others are challenged with and
try to take the proper action to
resolve those hurdles.
Q. How do you craft a strong
vision for your company?
It’s a simple message that everyone can remember. Not something that’s hanging on a wall
that you try to impress someone
with, but just a simple statement, a vision that everybody
knows and can remember. …
It boils down to communication. Sit with the stakeholders
who will be involved in that
vision; try to paint the big picture and exchange ideas.
Every vision breaks down into tasks to accomplish it. Every task
needs to be assigned to someone and measured, and then you
need a maestro on top who’s
orchestrating the whole thing.
When the vision comes
together, every stakeholder has
a strong sense of involvement
and accomplishment.
Q. How do you determine the
core values of your employees?
Core value alignment. Don’t
tell them your core values, but
ask probing questions that will
get them to talk about things
that they’ve experienced. Ask
them about a situation in their
business experience that challenged their integrity, and get
them to talk about it.
You will be able to determine
their core values based upon
questions you ask them. If you
told someone, ‘Here are the
three core values of our company;does that align with you?’
they’d be crazy not to nod their
head and say yes.
Q. How do you make sure
employees are aligned with
your vision and that you are
living it each day?
By their actions. Just look at
their actions and ask yourself,
‘Does this truly align with the
vision that we have here, and is
it going to be healthy for the
company?’
Execute what you’re preaching. Get feedback from others,
unsolicited feedback as to what
others see as your core values
and what you’re thought of as a
leader. Separate the person
from the issue, and don’t attack
the individual giving you feedback.
HOW TO REACH: Dagostino Electronic Services Inc., (800) 864-4166,
(412) 306-7307 or www.descomm.com