As one of 12 children in his
family, Dennis Schoemehl learned early on the importance
of compromising, listening and
multitasking.
Those sibling survival skills
became second nature to him
growing up, and they continue to serve him today as a
leader and a role model for his
120 employees.
The president and CEO of
Logistics Management
Solutions LLC formed his company in 1996 from a transportation logistics division at
Monsanto. More than a decade
later, the third-party logistics
provider posted 2007 revenue
of $94 million.
Smart Business spoke with
Schoemehl about how he leads
LMS’ work force using a delicate balance of understanding,
communication, fearlessness
and motivation.
Be thoughtful. You can’t just
look at people as a number.
People are people, and everybody pretty much has the
same wants and needs.
If you’re going to get the most
out of people, you’ve got to
look at the world through their
eyes. If one of their kids has a
concert at 11:30, you want to
give them the flexibility to get
off to go see that. Things like
that are very important if
you’re going to get trust and
enthusiasm out of them.
If you understand what their
needs are, then they’re going to
be understanding about what
your needs are, especially if you
communicate your needs.
Open up your books. Even though
we’re a privately owned company, we still share numbers with
employees. Then, we look, in
return, to an open-door policy. If
people need help with anything,
they know they can always
come in. If somebody gets into a
bind and needs a couple hundred bucks, we set up a program that helps them get
through the short times.
If somebody comes in and
has a question and I take the
time to answer it sincerely and
help them work it out, that
spreads word-of-mouth. When
the next guy comes in with a
question, everybody says, ‘You
ought to go talk to Denny
about that. He’ll have the
answer for you.’ It’s the personal side and the business side.
Our two assets are our technology and our people. Technology usually doesn’t come
knocking, saying, ‘I have an
idea where we can think outside of the box,’ where people
do. As long as we foster an
environment that encourages
creative thinking, that’s what
we’re looking for.