Don’t undermine managers
The employees at Stewart are given a very clear message when it comes to the company’s open-door policy.
“We encourage everybody to follow their report in management, but we also encourage our management to say to somebody under them, ‘If you disagree with my decision, I encourage you to appeal above me.’ So, that message gets out.”
Morris and his team obviously want people to come to them if they feel it necessary.
But, be careful. While that kind of an environment is effective and essential, it can create problems.
“That’s the kind of openness you have to have, yet you don’t want to manage around your leadership,” he says.
If an employee leapfrogs a manager and comes to you with an issue, get the manager involved, especially if something is going to be changed. You want to keep the manager in the loop so he or she isn’t blindsided.
“We (get) them involved,” he says. “If you are going to change some decision, then I think it’s important to go through the decision process with that manager and make sure you both are understanding the same facts.
“You go through how you analyze it, get the feedback of that manager on it, and you’re basically looking to get the buy-in of that manager as well as use it as a training opportunity. So if a situation came up again, perhaps that person has a little more insight into the decision process.”
Because the open-door policy is so strongly communicated to all employees, it keeps managers on their toes, which keeps the number of people coming to see Morris down.
“They don’t come in that often,” he says. “I think that is the magic of it in the organization. If people know that is available, I think your management all the way down the line is saying, ‘I really don’t want that call coming, so I am going to
do that job and I am really going to pay attention to what this person is saying.’
“It’s not that you aren’t getting any calls from an area. Getting some calls is good and it helps maybe to do things better in the company or plan some things better. But, if you are always getting bellyaches from an area, you know you’ve got a problem. You’re going to get those anyway. They are going to surface up through the organization.”
Just because you get a call from a disgruntled employee, don’t automatically assume the manager is wrong.
Part of forming a trusting and open-door environment is delegating and getting out of the way. Yes, you want employees to feel free to come to you if something isn’t right in their department. But, if you’ve delegated authority and responsibility to a manager, they may be doing something differently than you would, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be just as effective.
“Remember, what’s important is the end result and not the road to get there,” he says. “I can actually say Dallas is due north of Houston on a compass, but if I take a compass without reading the road signs, I’m going to wind up in a dead end somewhere in a cow pasture because I took the most northerly turn.”
Whether you use the scenic route or the interstate, you wind up in the same place, and that is what’s important.
If the manager is doing something wrong and not reaching the goal, you need to coach him or her instead of just taking the job back.
“If you sign the job out, don’t take it back,” he says. “If you’ve assigned the job out and you want the person to get to the goal, then let’s coach and mentor that person if they are having trouble getting there.
“Either you do that or you waste a lot of time and money and effort and potentially harm the reputation of that employee.”
Don’t just tell the manager what to do. Get him or her to participate in the process.
“In a time-constraint society, it’s a whole lot easier just to tell somebody, ‘Do this,’ especially if you’ve done it 50 times, and you know exactly what to tell them,” he says. “However, just like rearing your own children, if you tell them to do something they’re less likely to do it than if they learn why to do it.”
Those same managers will be able to learn faster if they feel more comfortable coming to you and asking for help, instead of never seeking advice.
It also makes a difference when you bring in new employees.
“We have had people who have come to our company from competitors and they say, ‘We never met the CEO of the company. We never were able to talk to them. They were very elusive. This is incredible.’ It takes very little time.”
How to reach: Stewart Information Services Corp., (800) 783-9278 or www.stewart.com
