Monitor commitment
If you’re trusting employees to break the vision down into their specific roles, their understanding of that vision is automatically being tested. But that doesn’t mean you can just assume everyone is on board. Constantly examine your employees’ commitment.
“The easiest sign you see is in employee turnover,” Danner says, adding that by the time they quit, something is very wrong. “That means they’re not buying in to the vision or that the company is not sharing the rewards of that vision with the employees.”
To try to catch commitment issues before it’s too late, Danner uses Gallup’s employee engagement surveys. They measure whether employees feel like they’re in sync with their company by asking questions like: Do you have a best friend at work? Do you understand what’s expected of you? Do you feel like your job’s important?
But you can’t sit in your office and wait for survey results or — even worse — wait for people to leave. The best way to measure whether employees are on board is to get out and talk to them. You reinforce the vision by reiterating it directly, and you give employees an opportunity to respond — at least, you should.
“First, you’ve got to smile a lot,” Danner says. “If you’re smiling then it sends the message that you’re willing to talk to somebody. As a leader, you have to pay attention to your demeanor because it’s sending a message all the time.
“Actually looking at the person when you talk to them is crucial. If you are fidgeting or looking at your BlackBerry and trying to hold a conversation, they’re not going to give you good feedback. If you are looking them in the eye and you are smiling at them and you respect them and their presence and their advice, then they’ll give you the feedback you need.”
Danner solicits and uses that feedback throughout the process, both to help him build the vision and to make sure employees stay in sync with it.
“It takes both great people and it takes the great people having a common platform to pull,” he says. “And you’re not going to achieve it without either.”
How to reach: Exterran Holdings Inc., (281) 836-7000 or www.exterran.com