Test people out
Just like the world was watching and grading every move that the president made during his 100 days in office this year, Denegri does something similar to make sure the people he gets are going to be effective.
“In 100 days, if somebody is not really delivering and they’re not going in the direction we feel they should be going, we’re going to have a conversation,” he says.
When people come into Campero, Denegri shares his expectations.
“I try not to write seven pages to say something that I can say with one sentence, …” he says. “Things need to be simple. Focus on simplicity and execution. … Once I make sure that they have it, there’s no excuses.”
He says that in order for your people to be successful, you have to give them the authority to do their jobs to see how effective they’ll be.
“I don’t micromanage,” Denegri says. “So when I hire somebody, I’m going to delegate to him and I’m going to give him the keys and my wallet and say, ‘You drive.’”
Once he sees them doing OK with the initial drive, then he reclines his seat even more by giving them responsibility for their quarterly budget.
While they’re driving, he may tell them where to go, but he’s not going to be a backseat driver to get them there.
“They have the green light and the room to maneuver and do the things they need to do, but they know that, at the end of the day, I expect very specific things from them, and they will give them to me,” he says.
He says that everyone has evaluations, and while those are important, there are also other ways to see if someone is being effective in your organization. For example, if the franchisees come to him excited about something they implemented as a result of a suggestion from one of his people, he knows that person is positively affecting the organization.
You can also tell in how franchisees handle questions about problems.
“I go into somebody’s office and say, ‘Tell me what happened last week with sales,’ for example, just the way they structure the answer, you can tell if they have been thinking about it, if they’ve been doing research and if they care,” Denegri says. “As opposed to someone telling you, ‘We’re 12 percent up or 5 percent down,’ that’s not what I’m looking for. I’m looking for the heart and the pulse of the business. Only a person who really has their mind into this can give you that.”
For example, in the tough economy, someone may say that it’
s just a tough market, but Denegri doesn’t accept that. He wants to see someone applying critical thinking to find a better solution.
“Excuses are not good,” he says. “If somebody said, ‘I made a mistake,’ I like that. ‘You know what, I made a mistake,’ or, ‘I forgot about it.’ I can accept that. Excuses are bad. … We’re just pushing all the time to make it happen, and when somebody’s not, it will stand out. It’s easy to spot. It sticks out like a sore thumb.”
If you see that someone isn’t performing in a position that you hired him or her for, then try giving that person something else to do, but don’t keep trying.
“If somebody doesn’t really get it, we put them in a position where we don’t give them that much responsibility, and then we extend the three months to six months,” Denegri says. “If they haven’t got it by then, then it’s not going to work. We can’t afford the luxury of having someone for two years to see if they’re going to get there.”
When you face those situations, an honest conversation saves time and resources on both sides.
“It’s not only the best for us,” he says. “It’s the best for that person, too, because they deserve to know where they are and what they’re doing wrong, and people that don’t really get it that easy, many times when you have to terminate somebody, you know it’s for the best — even their best.”
