Q. How do you create
an environment to foster
open dialogue?
It depends upon the
individual. Some individuals are already
there. The others take
some time. You may
have to meet with
them one on one to
give them some assurances that you value their
opinion, and you have to
reinforce in the meeting,
‘Well, that’s a good idea. I
appreciate that insight.’ So,
they feel comfortable
enough.
You have to set the expectation. I set the expectation
in my meetings that I don’t
hire you just to tell me what
I want to hear. I hire you for
your expertise, and I need to
hear it. If somebody is being
quiet, then I will call them
out and say, ‘What is your
idea on this? What are you
thinking?’
No one person has all the
good ideas. So, you have to
open it up so you get the best
of all ideas. Your decision is
going to be no better than all
of the input that you have,
whether that is from your
own research or from other
people’s research or other
people’s opinions. So, the
other opinions that you have,
the more input you have, the
[greater the] likelihood it will
be a better decision.
One of the things I do is I
ask people, ‘Well, what’s
good about this idea? What
causes you concern about
this idea?’ which, hopefully,
are enough open-ended questions to get them to have a
dialogue with you on their
thoughts.
Then, for those people who
may be reluctant to be in disagreement, let’s say you have
five managers, and four of
them are in agreement and
the fifth one isn’t. That person may feel like being quiet.
Then, you need to bring
them on the side and talk
with them and say, ‘I
noticed you are quiet. What
are your concerns? Just do
it one on one.
Q. How do you ensure that
managers are buying in to the
direction of the company and
effectively spreading that
message to employees?
I usually do it through a
series of meetings. I will
meet with the people that
report directly to me. Many
times, I’ll meet with the
supervisors. I have a supervisors’ luncheon when I meet
with them and talk with
them, independent of the
manager.
If I have a difficulty, like it
becomes clear one manager
isn’t talking to their people
because their people are not
in the know, then I go first to
the manager and say, ‘I don’t
understand. Your people
don’t seem to be understanding where we are heading
and why, and it doesn’t seem
like they know. Have you
shared that with them?’
Then sometimes, you just
have to replace that manager if they are not going to
take it down into the organization.
HOW TO REACH: Custom Manufacturing & Engineering Inc.,
(727) 547-9799 or www.custom-mfg-eng.com
