Q. Once you’ve got
employees in place, what is
the next step?
The next step is making sure
they are all on the same page
as the goals of the company. If
you can do that and get them
to buy in, you’re on your way
to being able to accomplish
that.
A lot of times you ask somebody, ‘What’s the vision of the
company; what’s the mission
statement?’ And you’ll get
eight different answers. So you have to start with what you
are in business for. Is it to
make profits; is it to take care
of the customers? You have to
all be on the same page, or you have eight different people going in different ways.
Q. How do you keep everyone
on the same page?
One way we do it is communicating often. You can start
with a goal in mind, but if you
don’t keep going back and
checking where you’re at and
making sure you still have the
same vision — things haven’t
changed — people start to go
off-plan.
In a great football team,
you can only run so many
plays without a huddle. We
try to have short meetings
often [to] make sure we’ve
got the same strategy. You
can plan the whole week for
a team, and then they come
out and throw a new quarterback at you.
So you can have these elaborate plans, but once you get in
the field, things change.
Q. How do you adapt to
change?
As a leader, you always
want people to follow, but
sometimes you can let them
lead, as well. You don’t want
to pull. If you have to pull
too often, you’re going to get
tired, and they’re going to
get tired because they’re
going to be resisting it.
If you have the right team
around you, they’re going to
want to do it. You tell them,
‘This is the goal; this is the
way we’re going to get
there.’
All you should do as a
leader is tweaks. If you have
to do more than that, you’re
not really a leader. You’re
just gestapo.
HOW TO REACH: LOGOS Communications Inc., (440) 871-0777 or www.logosinc.com
