If a company is to maintain
growth during an extended
period of time, Ken Meador says that it must have strong
leadership that stretches
beyond the leadership team.
It is for that reason that
TWR Lighting Inc. gets
employees at all levels involved in interviewing new job
prospects, says its president.
“It educates people about
how to interview,” Meador
says. “Eventually, they are
going to grow up and take
over positions, and they need
to go through this process for
professional reasons. It also
gives them a sense of ownership. They know that they are
empowered and that their
opinion means something.”
Meador says that if you’re
going to give your people the
authority to make decisions,
you have to respect the choices
they make, even if you don’t
always agree.
By letting his company —
which provides specialized
hazard lighting and aviation
obstruction lighting products
and services — grow as a
team, Meador has helped lead
TWR from 2004 revenue of
$9.4 million to 2006 revenue of
$13.9 million with 52 employees.
Smart Business spoke with
Meador about how to bang
your drum to create a healthy
corporate culture.
Q. How can a CEO develop
and maintain a healthy culture?
It’s a relentless drumbeat.
Through my own actions, I try
to demonstrate daily the initiatives we set up as a company.
Culture for me is how do
people live and react and work
with one another in an environment that has a common sense of purpose?
How you create that culture
comes down to beating a
steady drum, creating openness and having candor. I’m
not afraid to discuss problems
with my employees any more
than I’m glad to give them the
good news.
It keeps everybody on a level
playing field here. The guy that
is in my foundry is as much
aware of what the business is
doing and how he is a part of
that as my VP of marketing
and sales and my CFO.
Everybody gets a fair shake,
and everybody has a better understanding of their
part in the company’s
growth and the potential
that exists for them.
Q. How do you keep
everybody tuned in?
I am a huge proponent
of face-to-face communication. I manage a lot by
walking around. There
are those that call me
Mr. Ken out back, but
they call me by my first
name. That familiarity
helps level the playing
field.
We have a front of the
house and a back of the
house. The only thing
that delineates those two is a
wall. I talk to as many employees on a daily basis as I can.
Some of it could be as simple as
what they thought about the last
ballgame or how the family is
doing.
Anything that will help build
camaraderie and an openness
so that they know my door is
always open for them and,
even as president, they can
come talk directly to me if
they so desire.
Q. How do you put your words
into action?
I’m a firm believer in explaining to people what my expectation is. How they do that and
how they utilize their resources
with other people to achieve
that expectation, that’s part of
learning and becoming more
self-reliant. That’s part of
empowering them.
When I don’t tell them how to
do that, I’m allowing them to
work at their own pace and to
really think outside the box on
their own. That’s what creates
really influential employees who learn from their mistakes
and move on.
If I continually tell them how
I want that done, the myopia
in this company would drive
itself into such a small little
hole that it would all come
back into my office. That’s not
my deal.
I don’t tell people here how
to do their business. I don’t tell
the VP of marketing how to do
his business any more than I
tell the guy in foundry operations how to do his.
I’ve got 40 years of foundry
experience out there among
three people. They know a far
lot more about how to run a
foundry than I do.
Q. How do you serve as a
role model for your culture?
It’s setting the example by
being here early in the mornings — most of the time, being
the first car in the parking lot;
many times, being one of the
last cars out of the parking lot.
Showing up on Saturdays if it’s
nothing more than to bring in
doughnuts.
They may not understand
what I do up here; they may not
understand what all my capacities are and my responsibilities.
It’s being part of the company
and showing up and suiting up
and not being afraid to get my
hands dirty if necessary.
If somebody needs to move
boxes and they are there by
themselves, then I’ll go out
and help them move a box. I
can’t just sit back and say, ‘I’ll
go find somebody to help
you.’ That doesn’t work. That
doesn’t prove anything to
him. That does not show that
individual that I’m on the
same team.
HOW TO REACH: TWR Lighting Inc., (713) 973-6905 or www.twrlighting.com