Grow and then empower. When I
first worked at the firm, we
were — of necessity — more
involved in every intricacy,
every decision, every fact, every
outlay and every investment. As
you add more people, you have
to empower them, not leash
them.
You get much more creativity,
much more imagination, much
more involvement and much
more dedication from people if
they know that they, in part, create their own destiny rather
than simply acting out someone
else’s destiny.
No. 1, tell them that they are
empowered so that there’s no
mistake about it. No. 2, have a
very brief compact with them,
which essentially deals with
three things: The first is that we
will talk frequently, the second
is that I would like to be able to
talk through with them the
important decisions they are
making before those decisions
are etched in stone, and the
third is that I will not go around
them to manage their people or
their departments but will work
with them so that they can do it
well.
The response is positive, and
sometimes it’s skeptical: ‘Will
you really let me be the master
of my destiny, or are you going
to be a micromanager?’ It takes
time working together before
they believe that.
Sometimes people come to
you rather than making the small
decisions, and even though I
may know exactly what the
decision ought to be, I will tell
them, ‘That’s up to you.’ It makes
them better because, No. 1, they
get to rise or fall based on their
decisions not mine, and No. 2,
they become stronger.
They know that they get to,
within some broad limits, make
the key decisions affecting their
areas of responsibility.
Be motivated by your career. I find
this business to be a fascinating
combination of finance, of people and of emotions. If you get
money, mankind and motivation
all mixed together, it is a constantly shifting kaleidoscope,
and that is very exciting.
When you see people who
don’t love their jobs and don’t get
joy out of their jobs, they generally don’t do them well, and they
should do something else. Most
people spend more of their waking hours at their vocation, their
profession, than they will with
their families or doing anything
else, so if you aren’t exhilarated
by your work, you’re really living your life foolishly, and you
probably don’t do it well.
People do well those things
that they enjoy.
Challenge your employees. I am
excited about the business, and
to some extent, excitement is
infectious. Try to hire people
who are equally excited about
the business, and help people to
have a series of constructive
challenges that make them better and give them some successes and a reason to enjoy every
day and every hour.
That gets back to being an
involved delegator. If people see
that you’re interested in what
they’re doing, that you are
aware of what they’re doing,
that you are involved in what
they’re doing, but you aren’t
meddling unnecessarily, they
will perform better.
We all like to be on stage. We
are all actors, and we enjoy
appreciative audiences. If you
respect your boss, and that boss
is an audience for you, you will
sing longer, stronger, more on
key and put more into it.
HOW TO REACH: Sanders Morris Harris Group Inc., (713) 224-3100 or www.smhgroup.com