After its first year of operation, Hire Dynamics LLC
was $1 million in debt and pulling in $2 million in revenue — during a recession. But
for CEO Dan Campbell — who
co-founded the firm with Jon
Neff in 2001 — a positive mental attitude helped the company
through the hard times.
“Even though it might be a soft
economy, there are always opportunities to take advantage of the
economic climate,” he says.
In hindsight, he’s glad he and
Neff started the staffing company
at such a difficult time because it
forced them to be disciplined
and eliminate risk factors. Seven
years later, Campbell still runs
Hire Dynamics the same way,
and the company has prospered, posting 2006 revenue of
$43 million and more than $50
million in 2007.
Smart Business spoke with
Campbell about how to build
loyalty among your employees
and how to make sure your
company is the one that customers think of first.
Q. What are the keys to
effective leadership?
Effective leadership is about
laying out a vision and executing it. Stay consistent to that.
One of the biggest challenges
for companies is they’re not
consistent with what they’re
trying to achieve, and it constantly changes.
That becomes difficult, especially if you have turnover with
leaders. The companies that I
have seen that have stagnated
are the ones who haven’t
stayed consistent and that keep
changing — unless change is
part of the strategy of the
leader.
Q. How do you portray
the leadership as being
consistent?
One, it’s behavior. To a certain
degree, there is consistency in
people knowing how I’m going
to respond to a certain situation.
When you are inconsistent, it’s
more difficult for people to follow you and understand where
you’re coming from.
I would start with your behavior being consistent in terms of
how you respond. Ensure that
your leadership style and the
directions and decisions
you make are consistent
with what you set up as
the foundations of the
company.
