When wildfires struck
Southern California late last year, many families left
their homes and headed for
shelters, hotels or other
locations where they sought
safety. But Continuous
Computing employees who
were evacuated brought their
families to the office until the
flames were extinguished,
says Mike Dagenais.
While the situation gave the
company an easy opportunity to
help employees, its president
and CEO says it shouldn’t take
a crisis to deliver care and
compassion to your employees.
Instead, you need to
demonstrate to employees
every day that you appreciate
and recognize their value to the
company. By engaging in
regular communication with his
300 employees during both
good times and in bad,
Dagenais has created a culture
of cooperation at the integrated
systems and service provider.
Smart Business spoke with
Dagenais about how to find
people who can have fun and
work hard at the same time.
Assess your talent base. Bring in
people that add a different
dimension than what the current team brings. I look for
industry-relevant expertise,
but I usually look for a skill
above and beyond what the
current team has — somebody
that can bring in a new perspective, new ideas and new
ways of doing things.
I always look for that kind of
attitude. Do they have this
eagerness to sparkle and get
engaged?
Listen to the approach that
people give you and the confidence they have [during interviews]. I always bring in the rest
of my leadership team to interview individuals. Everybody
approaches an interview differently. How do they respond?
How do they feel about the way
people responded to specific
questions?
Look for energy. Start with what
their greatest success was and
what was their greatest challenge. How did they turn the
challenge into an opportunity?
How do people formulate their
responses? What energy did
they put into their response?
How tangible was the challenge? … Look at the passion
they bring to the response, the
eye contact they give you, the
excitement they create. How
engaged are they?
I look for people that are different than what I’ve got here. I
don’t want to create a homogenous organization. People come
from different perspectives and
have different approaches and
different styles.
Technical strength is important, but what other soft skills
do they bring to the table? How
comfortable are they challenging
the status quo? Are they going to
look to take leadership roles?
Conduct multiple interviews. They
may be intimidated by one individual or others, but if the individual seems to be intimidated
or nervous with everybody, then
clearly the individual can’t come
out of their own. You really
want people to be able to speak
up and feel confident in their
ability to make a difference.
Talk about your vision. The organization has to be focused on the
strategy and vision. It can’t be a
complicated message. It has to
be something that gets to the
point. Everybody in the organization and the management
team clearly has to believe.
It’s repeated communication
and consistency of message, but
also, at the same time, honesty
with how we’re doing with
respect to the organization.
Always allow for questions. They
have to understand what they
are being asked to do. They
must know that their objectives
mean something and play into
the corporate objectives.
You need everybody on board.
If for any reason we haven’t
articulated it appropriately,
questions come out and force us
to refine the message, make it
crisper and make sure it is really
focused on the objectives.
Have fun. We work hard, but
every now and then, you have
to have some fun. We had a
Halloween party. People
brought in their costumes. We
have a small gym at the office.
It’s hard to convince people to
have fun. You’re trying to create an environment. The leadership
team, the people that influence
the company, they have to feel
that this is fun. If their energy is
brought to the table the way
they bring their energies to
work, if they bring it to some of
these social things, it actually
creates an environment where
people say, ‘Hey, this is a fun
place to work.’
Encourage input. Never ask anybody what the problem is. Ask
what the solution is. I want people thinking of action. I want
people to feel as if they own the
problem.
I do not want anybody in my
organization to say, ‘I don’t
know what happened,’ or, ‘It’s
not my fault, it’s somebody
else’s fault,’ or, ‘I hope it will
resolve itself.’
Make sure you listen. Let (people)
talk, and never shoot the messenger. They have something to
say, and they are willing to come
and say it. Once you’ve listened
to them, what are their recommendations to make it work?
Collect recommendations and
a lot of opinions. As a result of
the collection of feedback, start
to formulate where you think
the direction needs to be and
how you put this all together.
Have open dialogue with the
organization. ‘Do I hear you correctly? This is what I’m hearing,
and this is what I see individually as the leader. This is how I’d
like to shape it.’
After that, it’s time to focus
and decide.
HOW TO REACH: Continuous Computing, (858) 882-8800 or www.ccpu.com