Q. How do you keep up
with the operations?
You need a lot of good
senior partners. They
know I want to be
aware of things — that I’m
interested in what they’re
doing. I’m not trying to manage those day to day, but I
want to be kept up because
everybody knows that things
can be an issue.
They’re not all trying to just
create their own book of business, or say, ‘Well, I’ve got to do
this, and I can’t tell anybody else
about it.’ They’re working as a
firm, and they’re not being compensated to do it all by themselves. So they tend to share or
bounce things off of you.
It’s the same with the 20 partners that have all bought in to
where we are going. I am trying to see it all passed over to
them. I’m hoping there’s a full
buy-in on what we are doing.
It’s the people, and when
they’re not in competition with
themselves, they don’t mind
talking and bouncing ideas off
each other to verify what
they’re trying to do.
Q. How do you create buy-in
with your employees?
First, we try to take them
into as many meetings as we
can. It’s not just senior people
going into meetings. All the
guys here have to wear a tie
every day, which is a little
unusual. But I say, ‘You’re a
professional, and I want you
looking like a professional and
treated like one.’
I want to be able, when the
conference rooms are filled
with clients coming in, I want
the team leader to be able to
take them in there so they
hear and understand how
we’re working and dealing
with our clients.
Q. How do you measure your
employees’ potential?
You determine from that
how good their listening skills
are. What are they hearing?
When you’ve got two or three
people in the room, did they
all hear the same thing?
They’re encouraged to give
their own ideas and be a part
of it. We’re trying to see who
can take something on —
who wants to step forward
and be able to move out versus saying, ‘Everybody’s got
the same rate because you’ve
been here the same length of
time,’ or, ‘You’ve been out of
school for the same amount
of time.’
Find out who can take
responsibility and who can
lead. Who can think and who
is just occupying a seat as a
job until they figure out something else they want to do?
You start seeing those people come out. But they are
encouraged to talk within
their teams, to create ideas,
to have solutions.
HOW TO REACH: Niles Bolton Associates Inc., (404) 365-7600 or www.nilesbolton.com
