Observe — then act. To be a great leader, you must first step back and assess the culture and the current state of your company
before blindly applying your own experience, says Jim Cragg, president and chief operating officer of MegaPath Inc. Having spent
his adolescence moving from country to country with his father, an executive with Pan American World Airways, Cragg speaks
with some authority. Whether in Tokyo, Munich or London, he patiently immersed himself in the culture before becoming an
active shaper of his surroundings. That approach has served him well at MegaPath, a 480-employee communications provider,
where Cragg oversaw three successful mergers while leading the company to 2006 revenue of $160 million. Smart Business
spoke with Cragg about communication styles, culture and why you have to invest in your employees.
Adapt your communication style. The definition of leadership is the ability to get people to willingly follow. We have [nearly] 500
employees, and they’re at different stages
of their careers. You have to find a leadership style that addresses that stage in their
career or that particular role that they play
in the business.
The four quads of that leadership are:
Telling. Some people do like to be told,
‘This is what you need to do,’ and, ‘This is
how you do it.’
Selling. Some people like to be sold on an
idea so that they feel more a part of the
decisions.
Participating, which is a more participative leadership style.
And then delegating. Some people have
all the get-up-and-go that they need. They
just need to be given an assignment, and
they’re off to the races.
It’s not overly transparent. To lead effectively, you have to have flexibility in how
you communicate. You have to understand
the group that you’re communicating to or
the individual. You have to allow them the
opportunities to talk and ask questions,
and you have to give them a level of comfort that they can tell you what they think.
Validate change. We communicate that
change is inevitable as we grow as a company. People have to see change as bringing a value. If you just zig and zag and zig
and zag, they don’t perceive that as value.
You have to validate on an ongoing basis.
It will be challenging at times. If we
change, and it doesn’t work, we’ll acknowledge that we made a mistake. When you do
change, if you make a mistake, that’s OK.
Keep adjusting the formula to really get
customer satisfaction to the point it needs
to be that the business grows.
Find a common theme. The culture is the
company. You have to find very common
themes in order to get a culture to change.
You can say things like, ‘You’ve got to be
profitable. You’ve got to grow revenues.’
But that is kind of nebulous. People don’t
see the financials necessarily in depth.
Our approach is to enable people to feel
like they make a difference. The way that
people can make a difference is with a cando, positive attitude about getting things
done for customers.
You definitely have to lead by example.
You have to be involved in the challenges
of just about every aspect of the business
to show that you’re willing to participate in
getting through those challenges and hurdles in order to be successful. You have to
stay engaged and close to some of the
things that are being changed.
I think the real benefit is that you get
through your projects in an agreed-upon
time frame and you accomplish goals.
Show people they’re important. People
have to feel like what they’re doing is
important in order for them to feel like
they’re participating in the success of the
business. When they’re working for a company, they want to know that they’re making a difference.
There is a lot of recognition involved.
There’s weekly recognition for jobs well
done. I always respond to the job-well-done notes. Any time a sales rep wins a
deal, I’m notified, and I acknowledge and
thank them for that.
We have employee of the month, in which
we recognize [employees] and give gift
certificates. That is acknowledged on a companywide call. We acknowledge team
performance, and we acknowledge salesperson of the month. There’s always the
opportunity to give stock options, which
we give to every employee in the company.
You have to continue to make sure that
they recognize that what they are doing is
an important piece of the business. If
everybody feels that way, the endgame is
happy customers.
Invest in your employees. If you’re asking
your employees to deal with change and
accelerate growth, you’re asking a lot of
them. You’re asking them to make a difference and work very hard. That’s their
investment in the company.
The company has a reciprocal investment that it has to put in place for the
employee. We need to show employees
that we’ll build company newsletters, and
we’ll give them good benefit plans, and we
will give them career-path opportunities
and encourage them to look at internal
postings. We’ve got a budget going into ’08
for a lot more training.
You need to make sure as executives that
you acknowledge and have a reciprocal
investment that at least matches the efforts
that your employees are putting in.
Share success stories. That’s a common
theme in our all-hands call. I will acknowledge individuals’ performances from our
customers’ view.
Since I get out and meet a lot of our customers, I touch base with them, and I get
very positive feedback on our employees. I
pass that on either through e-mails or
through acknowledgement on company
calls. We’ve got a newsletter … that will have
a large part (about) employee recognition.
The benefits really are the culture. People
want to know that they’re making a difference. They want to know that the customers like and appreciate our products.
They want to know that we are successful
as a company. And they want to know that
they are growing as a businessperson.
HOW TO REACH: MegaPath Inc., (714) 327-2000 or
www.megapath.com