Q. How do you handle
it when an employee has
a bad idea?
One is, obviously, I ask
a lot of questions about
why they have that opinion. Two, I ask them if
they considered all
these other alternatives
and, hopefully, give
them some more input
that they might now
have some more data points.
Hopefully, when we leave
that session, we have an agreement. Now, there are cases
when they say, ‘Jeff, I still disagree.’ That’s where I have to
say, ‘Well, I definitely don’t
want to strip out your passion
because I really believe that you add a lot of value here,
but this is a case where I have
to make the hard call. I have
to make the decision, and this
is the way we are going.’
Then, I ask them to make
sure they support that decision
going forward knowing that
they definitely have concerns
about it. So, we really spend a
lot of time flushing those
things out in debates, whether
it’s be behind closed doors,
but, in some cases, it happens
in a group setting. I do not
believe in a dictatorship.
Q. Does it get hard trying to
listen to everyone’s opinion?
It does, but here’s another
thing that I think a lot of executives tend to forget: If
you don’t do a good round
table, you could argue that by
the time you facilitate a
round table, and let’s say it’s
one or two hours, that that’s a
waste of time because you
already know what the
answer is. You can make the
call in 15 minutes.
My argument is that the viral
effect by you doing that is
going to cost you much more
than two hours. It’s going to
cost you days or weeks
because all these little one-onone conversations will spin
out of control and will create
more problems. So, I’d rather
hit the issue head on in a
meeting, and it may be uncomfortable, but let’s argue the
point out and come up with a
reasonable compromise and
invest that two hours, versus
days and months of viral messaging under the underground
of the employees.
Q. What is a key to getting
people to believe in you?
Be visible on the floor and
talk to everybody, whether it
be a front-line, junior-level
employee or an employee
that’s been here since day one.
I just went out to lunch with
an employee, front-line, that …
started less than six weeks
ago because I value her opinion. She comes from a different perspective, she’s young,
she’s had a limited career,
eight years, but she’s learned
stuff through that path that I
had not seen or I had not
learned. When you reach out
your hand, they’ll give you
feedback. They’re just scared
to, and you have got to
remove that fear.
HOW TO REACH: Cadence Network Inc., (866) 223-3623 or www.cadencenet.com
