Demonstrate the big picture
To get people to be leaders, you have to get them to think like leaders. And that means educating them on how the puzzle pieces of the company fit together on a global level.
At West Pharmaceutical Services, which had $1.06 billion in 2009 sales, including $293 million in the fourth quarter, Morel puts the big picture in perspective by focusing employees on the end mission of a pharmaceutical company: producing drugs and medicines that help the end consumer.
“At some point, you, your family, your relatives or friends, will have used on them the products that we make,” Morel says. “So you want them to ask themselves if they would be comfortable administering this drug to a friend or family member, knowing that you made the packaging component that our customer uses to put it into the marketplace. You really want each individual to think from the personal aspect of how your product is going to be used ultimately. It does two things: It keeps everyone focused on their work, and it gives everyone a sense of pride that the work they’re doing is making a difference.”
You need to drill down as far as possible with your big-picture message. You can’t assume that there is a point in the organizational hierarchy where thinking like a manager is no longer relevant. The employees on the bottom rungs of your company are the people who likely have the most contact with your customers, and it is critical that they understand and reflect your company’s mission and values to the people who purchase your products.
“It can become quite easy for employees to become disassociated from the use of the products they make,” Morel says. “What you have to do is constantly remind them that what we produce goes into critical applications, whether it’s a component for a cardiologist or a drug packaging system that includes an antibiotic or a vaccine or a treatment for a cancer patient. At the end of the day, the work they do has a direct impact on someone’s life when it is consumed in the marketplace.
“That extends to all parts of the business, so we spend a lot of time reminding folks that whether they’re on the operations side of the business or the accounting side, every action they take has an impact on someone’s life.”
To reinforce the wide-angle message to employees, Morel gets out of his office at corporate headquarters and hits the road. He tries to get to all of West’s factories at least several times a year, and spends his visits interacting with employees on a personal level, promoting his vision for the company and doing a lot of listening.
“You give them a chance to ask questions, but more importantly, have a series of messages that are clear and consistent, so that everybody understands where we’re going,” he says. “When you deliver the messages, you try and relay back to them some local anecdotes that you’ve heard from the management team and employees at various locations. You want to tell stories that show how their job is one of the building blocks for the overall strategy of the organization. For us, it varies widely depending on the region we’re in. But all of those building blocks are very consistent in terms of supporting the strategy.”
