Larry A. Cress treats his
employees as part of his family. He values what they do
for New Tech Engineering LP,
an engineering consulting firm,
and rewards and recognizes
those who help the company
reach its goals.
The founder, president and
CEO also stresses the importance of a work-life-family balance to his 80 employees. If
employees want to attend a
child’s baseball game or a
school event, Cress lets them leave early; in return, they figure out a way to still get their
work finished. He also makes
sure employees use their vacation time because time away
makes them more valuable to
the company.
Making employees feel valued
in their roles and rewarding
them for their efforts makes
them more loyal, Cress says,
and also helps the company
grow. This has helped New
Tech grow from 2006 revenue
of $75 million to 2007 revenue
of $115 million.
Smart Business spoke with
Cress about how to listen, trust
and value your employees.
Don’t interrupt a conversation. Listening comes with maturity.
When somebody’s trying to
present something to you, don’t
jump in their conversation, but
let them finish their sentence.
Ideas that come from people
instead of being given to people are things they will buy in
to. If they’re trying to give you
an idea, don’t jump in and just
walk all over their idea.
Instead, let them say, ‘I think
this, this and this,’ and you say,
‘That is a great idea; we ought
to go forward with that.’
Let them come up with the
concepts, praise them, follow
through that they did a good
job, and then move forward on
that concept.
Trust your employees. You know
employees are going to make
mistakes, and it’s about how
you handle them. If you reply
harshly, you’re going to demo-tivate them.
When somebody realizes that
didn’t make sense, don’t jump
in and say, ‘That’s the stupidest
thing I ever heard of; why did
you say that?’ If you give somebody that negative response,
it’s possible they will never step
up and give you another
answer or go out on a limb.
If you give them a response
like, ‘Let’s look at that and see
where that concept would lead
us. Here are the problems with
it; have you thought about this
problem or that problem?’
Give them opportunities to
think through their suggestions and solve their own critiques themselves.
If you don’t trust an employee,
you need to look for somebody
else. How are you going to let
them get out in front of you and
do things for your company? If
you don’t trust their work, business and management ethics, then you’re wasting your time
and their time, and they need
to go down the road. If you
can’t trust them, that is going to
lead to micromanaging and
them becoming drones. It
comes back to your hiring
practices. If you don’t trust
your employees, then you need
to look at your hiring practices.
Employees buy in to concepts
if you trust them. They will
work harder to try and guarantee the success of one of their
ideas more than they will for an
idea that you laid onto them
that they don’t think will work.
Recognize employees for a job
well done. You would be shocked
at how walking down the hall,
patting somebody on the back
and saying, ‘I heard you made a
sale yesterday,’ or, ‘You did a
great job in solving that problem,’ motivates people.
Just simple feedback from
the top level raises enthusiasm
phenomenally. They know that
if the president of the company has noticed something and
cares enough to say, ‘Hey, I
noticed you did this,’ or, ‘I
appreciate the job you do,’ it’s
important.
We also thank their spouses
for the sacrifices they make
every day in allowing them to
come and work for us —
because they bring their work
home. If that spouse is not supportive at the house, they’re not
going to be happy with their
job, and if they’re not happy
with their job, eventually
they’re going to leave it. So it
takes support on many levels.
Don’t micromanage. If you try to
micromanage, you will literally
turn your growth in the other
direction. You might prevent
failures, but you’re also going
to prevent employees from
thinking openly and trying concepts that might have worked.
If everything comes from
your mind instead of a group
of minds, you’re weakened significantly. You’re going to
repress thoughts because
everything they do is going to
be reactions of what you’re
telling them to do instead of
your own thought process.
Create a balance and treat employees like family. If you treat people like family, their loyalty to
you will be unsurpassed.
When you have loyal people,
you don’t have to worry about
shenanigans because you’ve got loyal people looking over
those people’s shoulders all
the time.
Your employees truly believe
that you care about them and
are going to respond at times
when the going gets tough,
and they know they’ve got to
rearrange their schedule to get
something done because it’s
crunch time, but when it’s not
crunch time, their families are
able to enjoy them at home.
A happy employee has to be
happy not only at the office but
at home, and if they’re not happy
in either place, they’re not going
to be a happy. Happy employees
generate great work environments and typically are loyal
and dedicated employees.
HOW TO REACH: New Tech Engineering LP, (281) 951-4330 or www.newtecheng.com