Stay connected with employees
Running a successful company requires getting everyone on the same page, and Schmid starts by involving employees in discussions and decisions.
“It’s just a lot of good discussion on it, and I think sometimes we discuss it too much,” he says. “But we try to, depending on what type of thing we are looking at, we look at a good situational analysis on it. What do we have to provide this product or service? Is it an investment in equipment in our plant or distribution system? Is it just learning ways to do things?
“There are always, one way or another, conversations along those lines, and it may sound easier than it is, but it just takes a lot of attention to some details to figure out what you have to give up to get that.”
To get the most input and buy-in from your employees, you have to involve them in the goal-developing process, which means inviting employees to meetings. By being in the meetings or involved in the discussion, they will become more relaxed and more willing to participate. It may not happen right away, but as they begin to catch on, they will open up.
“Sometimes, some people you do flat out need to ask,” he says. “Sometimes, you get responses, and sometimes, you don’t. Sometimes, in other sessions, we’ve broken a larger group into smaller groups and said, ‘This team come back with this answer.’ In the smaller group, it’s harder not to participate.”
You also need to venture out of your office and into employee territory to get some honest feedback, whether it’s for a specific project or just in general. Engaging employees in conversation will help them to buy in to your strategy and vision.
“(You have to) earn their respect,” Schmid says. “Make your trips into their space and have conversations and ask some questions and always ask, ‘How can I help you?’
“At least start having a situation where dialogue can flow. I know you can’t do that with everybody every day, but at least do it with your key people. And do that in a way, even if I’m wandering around and talking to production people, making sure I’m not cutting the legs out from under my VP of production by doing it. But you can still show interest in individuals and encourage thoughts to come out of them. It’s treating people like you respect them.”
If you are speaking with lower-level employees, it is important to set aside time to sit and talk with them.
“So much of it is getting to the individual on their turf — that helps a lot,” he says. “Make it a point to go to various offices and sit down and talk. You can start out talking about, ‘What’s going on?’ Or ‘Whatcha doing today? How’s this project going? How can I help?’ I can also get into other conversations about, ‘How’s your dog?’ or some other topics. Sometimes some time spent on other topics helps open up (things).
“It can get some conversations flowing, but it’s by walking around and showing respect to people, not only when you’re there, but showing respect to people all the time constantly is what helps earn some feedback from people, too.”
And that feedback can help you refine your strategies or even come up with new ideas.
“There are a lot of people that have good ideas,” he says. “They can be coming from any place. It doesn’t always mean that every good idea is jumped on right away, but good ideas can come from all sorts of different sources. The more you treat people with respect, the more they will treat you with respect back.”
You also have to set up times for departments to exchange information with each other so there is buy-in and feedback between them.
“We have quarterly reviews where we get all of our VPs and the next level of people in one room and talk about what is going on by department,” he says. “What are the big issues we’ve dealt with and what are [we] dealing with in the next quarter. That is a good way that gets people to understand a little bit about what is going on.”
Keeping people informed will also create a more unified work force.
“(It’s) trying to let individuals know what in the world is going on, so that they feel good working here,” he says. “Hopefully, they feel, ‘I can contribute to help serve that customer better. We’re solving this thing together.’”