Q. How do you ensure your team is following up?
You’ve got to be hands-on. There’s a fine line between hands-on and micromanaging. I am very big on the philosophy of teach, support, empower and hold accountable. Teach your folks what to do, give them all the support in the world, train them. You’re there for them. You help them, then you empower them.
Most companies and most managers do not empower their people. In other words, you’re holding somebody responsible for cooking dinner, but you don’t allow them to buy the groceries.
Around here, you empower people. You let people buy their own groceries if you’re going to hold them accountable for dinner. Most organizations will teach and support. But they fall down on empowering and holding accountable. They fail to empower their employees and they don’t hold them accountable to the level that needs done.
Q. How can a CEO do a better job of empowering employees and holding them accountable?
You give them authority. Give them the ability to make decisions. Now that doesn’t mean you walk away from them, close your eyes and come back two months later.
I was in corporate America for years, and it just blew me away, the lack of authority people had in an organization. You had people at the director and VP level, paid lots of money, but they don’t have the authority to make decisions. All that does is slow everything down underneath them.
Governing is about making choices. The second you make a choice on something, there will be some people who are happy with it and some people who are not happy with it. However, if you have been consistent in your decisions, the people who don’t like the decision may not like it, but if you are always consistent and you treat them fairly, they may not like your decision but they will respect it.
Q. How do you know if an employee is ready for more responsibility?
Monitor their actions. Observe how they conduct themselves, how they behave in certain situations and how they react in certain situations. Ask them questions in meetings like, ‘What would you do? How would you handle this?’ A lot of empowering is showing confidence in them.
Some people have never been given decision-making power, so they have no confidence in making decisions. You have to tell them, ‘This is your decision. What are you going to do?’
Then, they make the decision. If it turns out OK, it gives them confidence.
