At a previous career, Joe Williams was on his way out the door for the weekend, and as he passed his boss’s door, the boss told
Williams that he needed to see him first thing Monday morning. Williams, now president and CEO of $68 million Kimmins
Contracting Corp., asked if they could talk immediately, but the boss said no. Williams went home and was in a lousy mood all
weekend, only to come in on Monday to talk to a boss who couldn’t even remember why he wanted to talk. The lesson stuck: If
there is an issue, don’t leave it hanging over your employees’ heads; deal with it immediately. Smart Business spoke with
Williams about how to get honest feedback from employees.
Build trust. I just completed sitting down
with most of the salaried staff and just
ran through six questions. One was some
personal things. I wanted to know what
their goals are going to be, both personally and in business. I asked them if they
liked working here, what they liked and
disliked working with us, and what they
wanted to do. What new things do you
want to try? Where would you like to be
in this organization in a year or two or
three?
I was looking for what they were looking for to be challenged. I asked them
about compensation and whether or not
they thought we were fair. I asked them
what they liked and disliked about our
benefit programs. This is the first time
I’ve done this.
Do I think I got totally honest answers?
No. On a scale of one to 10, I got a seven.
But, if I do this every year and put out,
‘In my conversations, these are the five
things I came up with that people told
me they disliked. Here is what we are
doing about them,’ then they can look
and say, ‘I don’t have to like the fact that
he didn’t agree with me, but at least he
listened to me, thought about it and gave
me an answer.’
As I get into years two and three, I
think those people will be way more
honest.
People develop trust in you. I didn’t
talk to the people who directly reported
to me. I talked to everyone below them
and some were two levels below them.
My hope is that, over a couple of years of
doing these conversations, I can build a
level of trust that if something is eating
at them, they are going to tell me.
Be open to ideas. I’d have a staff meeting
and wanted to do a brainstorming session on a project. I was running our
garbage company at the time. I had two
guys in the group that every time someone would try to put an idea on the table,
they would look up and say, ‘Tried it,
doesn’t work and forget it.’ Literally,
every time someone put an idea on the
table.
One day, I came in with a box of sugar
packets. I put 10 sugar packets in front
of the five or seven people at the table. I
said, ‘We are going to have a brainstorming session, and by the way, I want no
negative comments. No matter what anyone says or how stupid the idea is, we
are going to hash out whatever it is. In
the event that you are negative, I want
everyone at the table to throw one packet of sugar at whomever it is that makes
a negative comment.’
By the end of the meeting, those two
guys had a box of sugar packets in their
lap. But, they got my point. After that,
our brainstorming sessions were better.
A lot of the things we tried that, in the
past didn’t work, this time worked.
So, looking at something you did in the
past that didn’t work doesn’t mean the
next time around it will be unsuccessful.
Be upfront without disrespecting employees. If
you are treating the people with respect
and dealing with what the issue is and
keeping it from being personal, you can’t
be too direct. If a guy screws up, you
deal with it, and let’s move on.
I’m sure everyone has had bosses that
were just screamers, and the world ended every time you did something
wrong, and it became really personal to
you that he was screaming at you. Where
if whatever it was you screwed up on, it
was, ‘How do we fix it, and how do we
not have it happen again?’ you wouldn’t
have cared how direct he was because
he wasn’t focused on the fact you
screwed up. He was focused on where
do we go from here.
If someone is incapable of doing the
task and consistently screws up, then
you replace him. But, you still don’t have
to change the means by which you deal
with the person.
Don’t quit. Everyone has bad days. But, I
can do my best to never let anyone in my
place ever see me down, no matter how
bad the situation is. Do I accomplish
that? Absolutely not.
Winston Churchill said, ‘Never give up.’
It doesn’t matter how bad something is.
If you aren’t going to give up on it, you
have a passion and attitude about getting
it done and winning. Winning might be
losing a million dollars because I was
going to lose two if I didn’t do a good job.
Even though it’s a negative, it doesn’t
mean you still don’t have to finish.
Passion is your love for what you are
doing, but attitude is a different thing. In
my mind, your attitude is how you
approach those problems; being focused.
Passion is going at it. Attitude is your
approach to winning. They say success is
1 percent talent and 99 percent attitude. It
absolutely is. If you believe you are going
to win, you are going to win more times
than you will lose.
No matter how bad it is or what it is,
never give up.
It’s going to beat you down, and you
are going to go home at night exhausted
some days because it took every ounce
of energy you had to be focused on not
giving up. There’s no question it will
wear you out.
HOW TO REACH: Kimmins Contracting Corp., (813) 248-3878
or www.kimmins.com
