Stay focused
When things are going well and everyone is busy, you’ll probably be spending a lot of time with your employees. It’s important to work to build strong working relationships without letting things get too personal.
“I’ve seen it happen too many times where people get too close and then something happens in the business environment which requires one person to have to take a certain action and it becomes very difficult,” Alfonso says. “We work very long hours, and when I get home from a trip, I want to go home and see my family and my kids. I don’t want to continue the party. There’s a time and a place for everything and you need to know when to cut it off.”
This type of work-life balance is an important element when you’re trying to be a leader who is engaged with your people and a part of the team.
“I don’t allow what’s being handled from the business side and the tactical side of the organization to become personal,” Alfonso says. “This is all business and all about getting things done. For those who work with me and around me on a regular basis, there’s no fooling around. We’ve got one task in mind and that’s to make sure we get things done for the company. It’s not about me or anyone else. It’s about the organization. People know that I take that seriously.”
It’s all about setting boundaries and sticking to them.
“It’s hard when you work with people as closely as we do and we travel as much as we do to not get to know the people that are around you and to not get to know who their spouses are and who their children are and where they live and the things they like,” Alfonso says. “So it’s not black and white. But I maintain an appropriate level of separation.”
It’s not the extracurricular activities that get the business moving if you have the right plan in place. It’s a commitment to the plan and a strong effort to bring employees along for the ride.
“We’d love to be able to do those things, but we’re generally too busy to do that type of entertaining or level of personal touch,” Alfonso says. “It’s by working with them. If I go visit one of our organizations, and let’s say that particular organization has 50 or 60 employees within that building, I will go visit everybody.
“I will literally go and say hello to everyone and talk with them. I have that personal relationship with our staff at all levels. We’re interacting at meetings. We are involved. We’re engaged owners. It’s not like we take a hands-off approach, cross our fingers and hope for the best. We really are involved in what our companies are doing. That goes to our management team and their management teams and it kind of rolls downhill.”
How to reach: Empire Investment Holdings LLC, (305) 403-1111 or www.empireih.com
