George Adams Jr. admits
that he is an introvert, and he worries that his employees
may sometimes view him as
standoffish.
So he makes every effort to
smile a lot, talk to employees,
congratulate them on their
successes and ask them open-ended questions about the
challenges they face at Electric
Supply Inc., an electrical construction, utility and voice data
company that posted 2007 revenue of about $130 million.
He says that even for an introvert, conversations get easier
once you get the other person
talking.
Adams, president and CEO of
the 130-employee company,
also connects with employees
by writing a monthly article in
the company newsletter about
what is going on in the business and the opportunities and
challenges it faces, and he
thanks people for a job well
done.
Smart Business spoke with
Adams about how to show
employees they are appreciated
and how to empower your staff.
Give credit to your employees. When things are going really
well, it’s a lot more fun. I guess
it would be easy to try and
claim too much responsibility.
I heard one of our managers
talking to someone the other
day, and it was a great quote.
We’re tied in a lot of ways to
construction, so we’ve seen a
significant slowdown. Our vice
president of sales was laughing and saying, ‘Well, a year
ago, I sure felt a lot smarter
than I do today.’ It’s like, ‘Yeah,
we all did.’
So this slowdown has been
fairly humbling. The thing that
probably rubs me the wrong
way would be someone not
giving proper credit to their
team, to just showing token
appreciation when, a lot of
times, it’s all about the team.
We try to acknowledge
(employees) publicly. Sometimes, it’s privately, maybe
with a check or gift certificate.
This is something that I struggle with that I am wondering,
‘Am I getting the words right?
Does the sincerity show
through?’
But, I remember reading
years ago that an effective
manager can get more out of a
pat on the back than an ineffective manager can with a
$100 bill. Of course, when I
read that 25 years ago, $100
was worth more than it is now.
But I think you have to be sincere with whatever you do,
and it needs to be clear that
you are.
I’m looking at continuity and
succession. I want our organization to be strong long after
I’ve stepped aside. So we want
to groom people to be our
future leaders or to even lead
right now. Even if they may
not have a title, they may not
be in a management position, they can still lead by example,
and they can have a very positive impact on their peers. A
lot of them have a positive
impact on me.
Empower employees. My dad
founded our business, and he
was the type that pretty much
handled everything. When I
was on board full time and we
were talking about me making
a career, as I watched him, I
realized I wasn’t going to be
able to do what he did.
It was pretty intimidating for
me. He could go from being
extremely detailed to the big
picture. He handled so many different tasks here. Then, one day,
I read about empowerment, and
that was the light turning on for
me, reading about empowering
the work force.
All of a sudden, I started
thinking, ‘This might be a lot
of fun.’
It’s important not to be too
hands-off — people have to be
held accountable. But, I think
it’s a way to make an organization so much more effective,
whether you have two people
or however many thousand.
Granted, not everyone is going
to become energized, but most
people will appreciate the
additional responsibility, and
really, the best decisions in
most instances come from the
front line or closer to whatever
challenge it is that you face.
There are a lot of days I feel
like we slip up and don’t do it,
but certainly, trying to establish boundaries to work within —
just reminding them to use
their best judgment; if they
make a decision that perhaps
you wish they hadn’t made,
coaching them. Simple things.
When there’s an expensive
mistake, I think you need to
bite your tongue a bit and
coach people. No one wants to
make mistakes, and we all feel
bad when we do. But when
someone has made a mistake,
the leader, the manager, needs
to help them rebound. Their
ego is pretty low at that point.
You want to remind them of
all the great things they’ve done
and to get back on their feet
and get back on their game.
Lead with integrity. It’s important
if you miscommunicate something, you apologize. You bring it up and say, ‘Look, this is
what I thought was going to
happen, and I said what I said,
and I was incorrect. I apologize for this,’ be it something
you said or something you forgot to do. I think it’s important
to try to be aware of those
instances where you let people
down and then apologize. Talk
to them about it.
Sometimes people take
things differently. My wife is
always pointing out, ‘George,
this is what you meant, but
this is what you said,’ and
she’s generally right. I have to
kind of work at it to be aware
because I can be thinking I
said what I intended to say,
and I didn’t.
HOW TO REACH: Electric Supply Inc., (813) 872-1894 or www.electricsupplyinc.com