Believe in what you are communicating. Be true to yourself. That is the primary thing to remember. Be true to the vision. If your vision is not something you believe in, your employees will know. It’s really important that you live the vision every day, that it’s something that you are working toward every day. Your employees need to know that the vision is something to which you are committed, and they need to know that you are not just making a halfhearted attempt to achieve it.
Being true to your vision means that every day, you’re trying to get a little bit closer to your goal. Goals are not met all at once — certainly not big company goals. Our goal is to make $250 million in e-commerce in the next five years, and we know we’re not going to get there next year. But one of the pieces was bringing in an e-commerce manager. So, one day, you come in and say that you need to take this step, you size up how you’re going to take that step, what resources you need, and make that step happen. You put that piece of the puzzle in place. It’s really just keeping the goals of the company in mind over the long haul and tackling them step by step.
Foster unity. You set the vision and point toward it, and get everyone in the company understanding that we’re all working together toward the same purpose. For example, I talk to every training class as they come through, try to give them a little bit of the vision, try to get them to understand that we should be on the same page. The company is here to prosper, every person is here to prosper and we should be able to put those two things together. If those things aren’t going hand in hand, if the company goals aren’t meeting your goals, you need to find out where that is going wrong and see if you can reconcile that and get that corrected.
Everybody needs a sense of purpose. You can say in our organization that we take phone calls to sell a certain product but what does that mean? You’re selling five TVs, so what does that mean? You get a bonus if you sell 10 TVs in a month, but what does that mean in the larger picture? That extra $20 bonus for selling those 10 TVs means the company could go public in five years. You’re working for the profitability of the company, and that’s the mindset you need to instill in your people.
How to reach: National Programming Service LLC (DBA AllAmericanDirect.com), (800) 249-1063 or www.allamericandirect.com