Get feedback
Once Achten understood his people, he
needed to work on forming the vision.
Getting feedback from employees played a
large role in creating that vision.
“A big part of my leadership style is I’m
inclusive — I want ideas,” he says.
“Ultimately, I’ll make decisions, but we’re better as an organization
when our best people are sharing ideas and we’re getting input
from all parts of the organization.”
Achten formed groups from the four subsets of employees in his
organization — the leadership team, financial advisers, client associates and operations staff — to get direct feedback on the vision.
The boards are voluntary, and Achten asked for board member
nominations from employees. He looked for people with a positive
attitude who had an influence on the company culture — people
who collaborated with others, placed an emphasis on the client
experience and were determined to improve the business.
Before jumping into work, Achten provided a direction for the
groups to head during the meetings. He wanted the discussions to
deal with what the organization could do to make the client and
employee experience better.
“I emphasized the importance of, No. 1, being collaborative and,
No. 2, working within the context of our overall mission,” Achten
says.
He met with these groups quarterly to get feedback on the vision,
and he still meets with them to get the pulse of the organization. He
says these groups are able to help with identifying and solving issues
that might stand in the way of fulfilling the vision.
Employees know who their representatives are and are encouraged to go to them with questions or feedback.
“If they have suggestions on how we could do things better, they
funnel it through that group,” he says.
While feedback was abundant, Achten needed to remember that
it was his responsibility to make the ultimate decision.
“At the end of the day, the decisions are mine, but I make better
decisions as a whole when I get more feedback,” he says. “The
quality of decisions … it’s crazy not to listen to everybody through
the organization when you’re making decisions. More input is better.”
Getting feedback from your employees, along with taking time to
get to know them, allows you to form the vision together as a team,
which creates more buy-in.
“If you come in and try to instill your vision without any input,
then you’re just not going to get the buy-in,” Achten says. “There
are innovative ideas inside of every organization, and those ideas,
if harvested, will make the client experience better and will ultimately drive revenue. It is hard to get buy-in from employees if
they are not fully heard first.”
