Bullish on culture

Set the tone

Employees turn a culture from a concept into something tangible, but in order for them to live it, the people at the top need to communicate the vision for the company.

“If you don’t, from the beginning, set the tone by what you say and do, how would you expect anyone else to do the same?” he says.

Bowman begins the process at the beginning of each year by rallying all Merrill Lynch employees under his umbrella around a set of three or four annual goals that are aimed at promoting the company’s overarching objectives of increasing market share and serving all of their clients’ financial planning needs.

Though Bowman oversees the Philadelphia market, he also is the highest-ranking director in Merrill Lynch’s five Pennsylvania markets — which also includes the Philadelphia suburbs, Allentown, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. Each area has its own director, but the buck stops at Bowman’s desk. When Merrill Lynch’s five Pennsylvania directors meet, Bowman is the main coordinator and the one who gives the ultimate thumbs up or thumbs down on decisions if a consensus can’t be reached — though, Bowman says, consensus is the norm at the senior management level.

“It starts with a vision of the market, then it gets down to working with the folks who run each of the five different markets in the state, find the things to focus on, and then it’s up to me to communicate that to all levels of employees on a very consistent basis,” he says.

“For this year, the four things we’re working on are a huge retirement opportunity that’s out in the market. Another is what we call ‘one firm,’ which is all parts of the firm working together to make sure that we’re focused on the same things and the right things. The third is diversity, and the last thing is taking care of the client. We do this every year, we get together, all five directors in the state, and we pull in all the demographic and business data that we put together, and we figure out where the lever points are for the organization to grow the business.”

From the managerial level, Bowman and the other regional directors in Pennsylvania take the vision and annual goals back to their markets and communicate them to the financial advisers and support staff.

“We divide the responsibility to each of the five leaders in the region, and tell each one that this is your responsibility to drive this throughout the whole state,” he says.

Once the ideas are initially communicated, it’s then a matter of keeping the vision and core values of the company in front of employees so the ideas take root for the long term.

Bowman says that as a leader, you should remember that your people want to be informed. If they feel engaged and involved in the company, they’ll begin internalizing your messages, which will give them the basic foundation for helping to build and perpetuate your cultural principles.

“People want to know,” Bowman says .“They want to work for greater organizations; they want to work around great people. They like to know when people are doing well, they revel in the accomplishments of themselves and others, and at the end of the day, when you’re in a competitive business like this, people want to do better than others but not at the expense of others. They’re all just working to do better.”

Communication also has to be a two-way street, which means avenues for feedback are also necessary. Bowman believes in the often-referenced idea of the open-door policy, but he says that’s not enough. Once you’ve communicated the values and principles you want your employees to embrace and use as guidelines for operating the business, you need to step out of your office frequently, making yourself visible and accessible.

Bowman visits each of Merrill Lynch’s 28 statewide offices twice a year to reinforce the overarching messages and goals of the firm, receive feedback and recognize high performers. When he can’t be there in person, he has regular contact with the managers running the locations to keep his finger on the pulse of the business.

“My door is rarely closed; it’s just not how I work,” he says. “I’m on the road a lot; I see my position as one where I’m hereto communicate both upward and downward to as many people as possible. If there is something happening at the firm, be it strategic or tactical, I need to communicate that in the most effective way possible to everybody else in the state. When I hear things from other people in the state, I know my job in leadership is to make sure everyone at that level knows those things so we can make this a better place to work.”