When one of Mark Stephens’ 250 employees thinks they might want to take a job somewhere else, he hopes that person will come and talk to him about it.
It may seem crazy, but it’s not uncommon at financial services firm Ernst & Young LLP. As the managing partner of the San Diego office, Stephens has built relationships with his people where they trust him and value his input.
For example, one employee actually resigned and took another job, but Stephens still took time to talk to that person. After speaking, the individual realized that he or she was reacting to something temporary, decided to stay, and today, that employee runs one of the company’s offices.
“Everything comes down to communication,” he says. “If you can just be open and honest with everybody you talk to, what you’re going to find is that you’re going to have the right people attracted to you, and that you’ll be able to retain those people as long as you remain open with them.”
Smart Business spoke with Stephens about how to build a strong team.
Recognize the importance of people. One of the biggest challenges will always be, one way or another, leading people. It has to do with attracting the right people to your organization, retaining the right people and developing those people. In all different kinds of economies, it’s still important. When economies are extremely competitive, you have to practice the same people disciplines that you have to as you do right now in a down economy. Right now, it’s a little bit of a market where there aren’t a lot of jobs available. From that standpoint, you’re able to retain people a little easier than the competitive market, but we have to really watch what we’re doing right now because if someone strays from the people disciplines they have in a competitive market, what they’re going to find is when things get better, they may not have the same sense of loyalty and commitment and they may find themselves without the people they’d really like to retain if they stray from that.
Hire communicators and thinkers. You need people who do like to have interchanges with others, and communications are a big part of it. One of the reasons is I believe any kind of disagreement or different point of view that comes up is usually some form of communication element that was really missing in the way the people were relating to each other. So when I’m looking at people, I’m looking at how well they communicate. I’m also looking at how well they listen, so you can kind of judge whether or not they’d be open to the kind of instruction they want.
While I’m also looking for someone who would be like a sponge when it comes to absorbing information and have the right kind of intellect to do that, I also want to ask if I’m attracting the kind of people that would also express their opinion, when they have ideas, in a healthy fashion.
I’m from an era that when you started with a company, you paid your dues and you slowly moved forward. One of the things I found with today’s people is they really want to make a difference a little bit quicker. So one of the things I’m looking for when I’m talking to people on the campuses is the people who would be a good healthy influence by bringing catalytic ideas to our firm from whatever their point of view is in order to have new ideas come in. I want to be open to new ideas from them.
… Decades ago it was OK to just tell people, ‘You’ll learn eventually; just do what you’re told.’ Now, people are impatient, and if you don’t keep them challenged, you’ll lose them because there isn’t this same sense of loyalty when people worked for the same company because the job was always there forever. This generational group has seen their parents be laid off, and they don’t have the same sense of loyalty. So, as a result, you do need to make sure that you keep them challenged and keep their work meaningful to retain them.
