Let employees know that it’s OK to challenge you. It’s always difficult for the CEO and the founder of the company to truly be sort of one of a group of peers, so you really do have to work on it.
I have lunches with two or three of our new employees after they’ve been here a few weeks. The purpose of that lunch isn’t to talk about mission, it’s not to talk about our business, it’s to talk about each other, where they grew up, where I grew up. It really is an attempt to let them see, in so many ways, I’m just like them. I try to make it clear that I can be approached that way, as well.
Some of it is based on what happens in team meetings. Particularly the folks that have been with me for the better part of those 20 years, they’ve known us when we were smaller and much easier to deal with, and they will argue with me.
What we have to make sure is that anyone who is observing that recognizes that arguing with David is not a career-limiting move.
You have to walk the walk. What I think about all the time, and I do mean all the time, is, how are my actions encouraging? How are my actions, my approach, my body language welcoming people’s opinions? And just as important, what is it that I might be doing? How am I responding in ways that might be shutting that down? If I’m overly critical, if I’m overly sharp at a particular instance, how many people in that room has that now made worry? It’s something, particularly with the leadership team here, we talk about. It’s not the elephant in the room.
Know when to give in to employees’ ideas. There are certain areas, and this comes in areas of strategy, for instance, where I’ve said, ‘I would be much more comfortable letting go if the feedback I get uses the right words.’ In other words, if I hear that strategy being played back in discussions about what we’re doing and how we need to think of our products from other people, that tells me that our overall guide for our business has been metabolized, that the organization gets it.
It’s really this notion of, ‘Let’s have a conversation where I hear back from you how our vision, how our strategy plays into the decisions you’re making and things of that nature. The more I hear that, the more comfortable I am stepping even further back.
How to reach: MEDecision Inc., (610) 540-0202 or www.medecision.com
