Sometimes seek outside opinion. I have competitors around the country who I’m friendly with. We don’t truly compete because they’re so far away, but you meet at trade shows.
I will occasionally pick up the phone and ask the CEO of a competitor or a company very similar to ours how they do it. Or I’ll run something by them and say, ‘This is what we’re thinking of doing. Do you think it’s a good idea or a bad idea?’
They’ll often be much better than a consultant because they live and breathe the same problems I’ve got every day and they provide good input and advice and they do it for free.
Motivate through message and metrics. I think this word is used all the time a little too flippantly but the word is communication.
You have to communicate your message because if you build a relationship with another individual, if that individual likes you, they’ll perform for you.
If you don’t have a relationship, then they won’t want to perform because they don’t know you, they have no reason to try and please the CEO.
If they like the CEO and they’re motivated by the CEO, they want to have a good relationship with the CEO.
If you can communicate with them, communication as simple as at least monthly meetings with all the employees, e-mails once a week about how well we’re doing in certain areas and other areas where we need to improve, then they feel like they’re part of the entire team. It’s all to do with communication.
We have what we call an all-hands-on-deck meeting. We get everybody together at least once a month, and we tell them where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re going hopefully. We try to keep people apprised all the time.
I send weekly e-mails out. … Not any particular day but they’re kind of pep e-mails saying, ‘Hey, if I’m looking at last year’s numbers for the first week in January, second week in January, we only did this much business. Now we’re doing this much business. Keep up the work.’
How to reach: Interstate Transport Inc., (727) 822-9999 or www.interstate-transport.com