Q. What is the reasoning behind giving employees a sense of ownership?
There are a number of reasons why you need to keep employees engaged. First, from an owner’s or CEO’s perspective, it is a smart thing to do because people who are involved throughout the organization can oftentimes find the best ways of getting something done. Secondly, it also gives people a sense of ownership and inclusion if their input is valued and they feel it is valued, that you’re not just paying token lip service to it.
No. 3, it’s what customers and clients want to see. We occasionally get ideas from customers and clients that we work with. We’ll take innovation and input from whatever the source and weave that into our business. That is what will make us an evergreen business in the sense that we’re always able to improve and grow and stretch and go in different directions. You’ll be able to do that in many cases if you’re open to feedback, wherever it comes from.
In the end, ownership starts with the expectations you set. When I acquired this company, I had an opportunity to have people kind of regrounded through me setting my expectations forward. I was able to give them a vision for growth and opportunity, particularly one that is based on what they’ve done before. [It] was also a great way to construct a company culture that is more focused on the positives of the opportunities, an open-door communication style as well as one in which we can collaboratively grow this opportunity.
Q. How do you continue to engage employees over the long haul?
To get people focused on the overall direction of the company, first off, that’s going to come from the experience of you as a leader. In my background, I have been well-versed in a lot of teaming environments. It’s all about being open to an opportunity. People see that, and they resonate to that. By nature, most people are social beings, and as a part of that, there is a sense of ownership and inclusion that most owners who are successful in using a collaborative approach learned to convey somewhere along the line. That is something that people can pick up on fairly quickly in a leader. Employees will quickly see how well-tuned that leader is into getting them involved with the business.
That goes back to being a good communicator, which is rooted in some basic principles.
One, you need to be a good listener to be a good communicator. A significant portion of being a good communicator is to listen for what is being said, but it’s also watching for those unspoken words and body language and communication signals that we humans use to convey how we’re feeling or what is on our minds. A good leader is in tune to those who are around as well as the situations that people are in.
One of our advantages because of our size is I try to spend some time with the crews and have some direct involvement with them. I want to have a sense of what is going on with employees outside of the work world, because what happens outside the work environment still affects people when they come into work each day.
All of those elements are a part of being a good communicator.
We use a variety of communication methods, but all of them center on collaboration. Whether it be formal meetings or informal meetings, management by walking around, management by asking questions and queries — those are all viable communication methods, and we use them all. You can weave all of that together to form a multifaceted communications plan.
How to reach: Geneva Pipeline, (440) 466-6611 or www.genevapi.ohiolink.org