Communicate effectively
No matter what values you want your employees to embrace
— be it community service or anything else — the impetus has
to start at the top with clear, concise messages.
“I’m pretty black-and-white when it comes to communication,”
he says. “You have to be honest and open with as much as you can
share. My communication, oftentimes, is managing by walking
around. I try to walk around and get kind of a pulse of what people are thinking. It’s about giving of my own time and being accessible to listen.”
Boyle says your business will reflect your attitude toward communication. If you are honest, straightforward and frequent in your
communication, your employees will likely act the same toward
the people with whom they do business.
You also can’t be afraid to be frank. When challenged, meet tough
questions head-on instead of dancing around them. Even if your
employees don’t like what you have to say sometimes, Boyle says,
they need to know that you’re willing to tell them the unvarnished
truth, good or bad.
“You have to be prepared to get some challenging questions, and
you can’t take them personally,” he says. “That can be difficult sometimes. I try to go into a challenging situation and anticipate what
some of the curveball questions might be. The other thing you have
to do is be patient and kind of digest the question, maybe ask a follow-up question or maybe get a little more information before you
answer the question.
“Try to understand that, in most cases, people don’t mean it personally. They’re passionate about something, and it might possibly
come across as more of a type of personal attack. But in reality, it’s
their passion, so I always try to take a deep breath before I answer
a difficult question. I find I can calm myself down, and I don’t fire
as many barbs back that way.”