Build trust with employees
Earlier in his career, Rotman worked for Pizza Hut, and before he even began his vice presidential responsibilities, he was sent out to the restaurants for four months to learn the true company business. One week he’d work as a dough master, another as the pizza cutter, another as store manager and another as a waiter, just to name a few.
So on one busy night, he was charged with assigning the pizzas to the correct trays and boxes as they came out of the oven. It seemed like an easy task, but as he looked around at the 20 pizzas piling up around him, Rotman quickly became quite overwhelmed, not knowing what to do with all of them.
“On a Friday night, coming from three different conveyors, I was like Lucille Ball trying to determine which pizza goes in each box because they were coming faster than I was doing that,” he says.
Suddenly, like an angel sent from above, a large man came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Sir, I don’t think you can handle this,” he said to Rotman. “I can do it.”
He stepped aside, and within five minutes, the man had 20 pizzas on the right trays and in the correct boxes. Rotman realized in that moment that he had no idea how difficult some people’s jobs are but that he needed to know to be an effective leader.
“Since that day, that’s my experience in any job,” he says. “You need to understand what everyone is doing, what they’re doing and how to do it better, so you can talk the right language with them. I think that people, if they believe you don’t understand what they’re talking about, they don’t talk because they believe it’s a waste of time. If they believe that you are one of them, then that openness and frank conversation starts making more sense, and you get the best out of them.”
So at Regus, he’s also done every job in the structure so he can relate with all of his people around the world. This has also allowed him to foster more trus
t in other ways with employees. Whenever he visits a city, he has small meetings with the sales managers and center managers in that area.
“We sit down in a room and talk about how we’re doing with the business and what are the issues they’re facing and what recommendations do they have for things that we need to change or do different,” Rotman says. “It’s putting them in the room and breaking the ice and having a candid conversation about what’s going on.”
For example, if he’s in Manhattan, he has 20 locations there, so he’ll get all of the managers for all of those locations together for two hours at one location. Taking this group approach is more effective than having individual meetings.
“Having groups is a lot better than one to one because once one person breaks the ice and is talking, the others continue doing the same things, and that’s where you get the most from people,” he says.
People will do this because he understands them, so you can’t skip knowing their jobs and just hold meetings.
“They know that it’s OK sharing your problem and there’s nothing wrong, and also sharing opportunities,” Rotman says. “Some people do great things and have great ideas that help drive the business better, and we want to hear those ideas because they are good and we can go expand those in other places around the world.”
It may be difficult at first to get people to share, but once you start the process, they’ll begin to buy in to it if you follow up.
“When you listen to them and they see things are being changed based on their comments, then that trust starts working more and more and more,” Rotman says. “To build trust is a two-way road.”
