Engage your team
Once Gingo has a better understanding of the bigger picture, he jots down bullet points and takes them to his team for input.
You generally don’t want a large group. That’s why Gingo sits down with only his direct reports.
“If you have somebody, even in a short period of time, that you begin to believe you have some trust with, you might even see them before that meeting and say, ‘Here is what I’m thinking. What do you think about that?’”
Either way, sit down with your direct reports and present your ideas in a written format. Writing your points not only makes them clearer but will provoke more of a response.
“There’s more reaction if I have words on a page than just talking, because your message sometimes doesn’t get across,” Gingo says. “You have your bullet points up, and you say, ‘Here’s the five points. Here is what I’m thinking about.’ Then you get reaction.”
One of Gingo’s mantras, which he learned from a former chairman at Goodyear, comes into play when he’s asking for feedback.
“The first time I came into meet with him he said, ‘Joe, it’s your opinion versus my opinion. We’re going to make a deal. My opinion will usually win,’” Gingo says. “He used the word usually. ‘But your facts versus my opinion, your facts will always win.’”
The facts have to be put on the table. Even though you’ve put in time and research to understand where you think the company should be headed, you need to listen to your direct reports and be willing to admit when your proposed direction might need to be shifted.
“It’s really important when you’re having a conversation about these little bullets, you let them know, ‘Tell me I’m wrong,’” Gingo says. “‘It’s OK. If you tell me I’m wrong and you have the facts that show me I’m wrong, then I’m going to accept the facts.’”
At the same time, you need to be considerate about your employees own ideas and opinions.
“You can’t shoot the messenger,” Gingo says. “Let’s say you’re in this meeting and somebody says something that is totally wrong, you know it’s wrong. Well, if you want to keep the meeting open and communication to go on, don’t shoot them down. You don’t show them how dumb he or she was.
“You try to diffuse it without embarrassing them because everybody around that room is listening. What is very key for me is when I think somebody is just totally off-base, I do not display it at all. Somehow say, ‘Well, that’s a good thought, but have you thought about this?’ You can in essence diffuse their own argument by the questions you ask them.”
When you’re having a serious meeting to strategize about the company’s future, you need to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to speak to the bullet points you presented. And not only that they have the opportunity, but they take advantage of it.
“No matter what the group is, certain people are going to say something,” Gingo says. “What you have to worry about are the ones who don’t say anything. Literally, you don’t leave that room until everybody has had a chance for input. If somebody says, ‘Yeah, everything is OK,’ then you challenge that but not in a negative way. You say, ‘What do you like? Did I miss something? Is that part good?’”
By listening to the reactions, you should be able to gauge whether or not you’re on the right track. If you get push back from a lot of your sources, you probably want to rethink the direction you plan on heading.
The main point is you need to be open and respect other’s ideas.
Gingo knew when he arrived some of his plants were running at less than 50 percent capacity. While A. Schulman was doing decent business, it was taking it at a loss. Someone in manufacturing presented him a program — a program based on facts — that would shut eight plans. It made sense. They shut them.
Two years after Gingo took over, the company’s U.S. operations turned around by nearly $18 million and was breaking even. The company’s revenue for fiscal 2010 was $1.59 billion.
His experience combined with his time spent with employees trying to understand the company contributed to that accomplishment.
“You have to get out,” Gingo says. “You have to have your pulse on your company and what’s going on good and what’s going on bad. That’s awfully hard from a CEO position because, for one thing, you have a lot on your agenda, so you just have to find time to do it. But truthfully, one of the most boring things to me is having to sit all day in my office.”
