Develop communicators
In order to effectively move information throughout your organization, you need help. That help has to come in the form of other managers who are practiced communicators.
At GSI, Rubin develops managers on the inside and hires managers from the outside. The managers help keep the vision, mission and values in front of GSI’s employees in their daily interactions.
“Any talent search in a high-growth company is going to be a combination of people that you’ve developed internally and people you have brought in from external sources,” Rubin says. “I believe that when you look for leadership in an employee, it’s not just what you learn in the interviewing process, it’s also the back-door references you find, where you can really find out about the person’s history, track record and management style.”
Once Rubin and his staff have made a management-level hire, they send the new manager to training, during which they are taught what will be expected of them as communicators.
“We have a leadership program at GSI, during which we work on things that are important to any manager’s success,” Rubin says. “We take them off-site and work on training them as top managers, as people who are going to continue to grow the company.”
Once the training sequence is finished, the learning doesn’t end. But the teacher might change. Rubin says that he and all of his experienced leaders are teachers on a daily basis, as is the case for anyone in a high-profile position. New managers will look to you for their cue. The behavior you exhibit is the behavior they’ll emulate, so if you want them to help set and reinforce the vision, mission and values for the rest of the company, that is the tone you need to set.
“First, you must lead by example,” Rubin says. “That means the example you’re setting is something you must fundamentally believe in. It has to be honest and real, and it has to continuously stay in line with your mission, vision and core values. If you set those principles, but then do things that are out of line and inconsistent with them, people are going to notice and call you out very quickly.”