Break the ice
The first step in getting to know people is finding a simple way
to break the ice to show you want to have a conversation. At
Merrill Lynch, Graham makes it a point to attend the many community events the firm supports as well as any other after-work
program going on.
“When we have recognitions for the client associates, I may
host,” he says. “I’ll always be there so that I’m seen. I don’t just
come out of an ivory tower, show up, and then disappear.”
And even though he has more than 1,000 employees, Graham
does his best to personally welcome every new staff member.
Every time his group has 10 new employees, he takes them out to
lunch for a casual conversation at a local hamburger place.
“I just want to sit down and talk about them, what they’re expecting, what we expect, how we operate,” he says.
If you’re trying to get to know your people, Graham says that
beyond hamburgers and personal appearances, you’ll need to spend a good bit of time focusing on an employee’s big picture to
start figuring out what he or she wants.
“My style is, if I sat down with you, the first thing I’m going to ask
is, ‘How can I help your business and your personal life? Boom,
let’s go from there,’” he says. “And I do include the personal life
because I think that’s very, very important.
“If I ask you about you and how I can help you, you’re going to
talk. My job, as I view it, is to be a partner to my employees to help
develop them personally and professionally to find solutions. And
I engage them as partners in that process so they’re not feeling like
there’s someone behind the curtain making all the decisions.”
It’s not the endgame, but Graham says that by making the effort
to engage employees in nonwork conversations, you’ll make up
some ground.
“I’ll be standing in the café downstairs, having a cup of coffee,
and they all talk with me,” he says. “It’s not as if they’re like, ‘Oh,
we can’t go over there.’ It disarms them in the fact that they can
have a conversation. There’s no scripting, there’s no PowerPoint.
We talk about things that usually don’t get mentioned on the balance sheet but matter to employees.”
That doesn’t mean you should create a system where employees
come to the senior leaders with every little problem. Instead, you
draw a line by showing them that senior leadership is willing to
talk about their lives and overall career path to empower them
while their managers handle the day to day.
“They do have to have an understanding and respect for protocol, they can’t go around their direct supervisor,” he says. “But, you
know what, when they have access, they don’t abuse it by any
stretch. They feel empowered that they have a relationship with
the regional managing director. They can go out into their marketplace and say, ‘I had lunch with Bob Graham.’ I’m not saying that
with an ego, by the way, I just think it’s important for people to
know that they’re part of an organization that cares and what they
say is evaluated and taken seriously.”
