Keep the momentum going
Your initial efforts can go a long way toward stabilizing your company after a period of cutbacks and upheaval. But once the situation has stabilized, you can’t allow yourself to become too comfortable. Your culture is still reliant on your employees’ willingness to carry it forward, so you must continue to strengthen their confidence in the company.
Hershberger continues to walk the halls and conduct meetings with employees at PGT Industries. His aim is to keep the dialogue of the past few years alive, in order to continue to solicit input on where the company is headed.
“You don’t do one-on-one communication just because you decided to do it today,” he says. “It’s a process that you have to believe in strongly, and you make it a point to listen to those employees who are vocal. Sometimes, they’re going to be negative and vocal, but you still make it a point to listen to those people. In public meetings and in private, you walk the floors, you seek them out. What you’re really doing is sending a message that I, as the leader, am going to listen to everyone who talks. I’m going to make it easy for you to talk to me. And those aren’t the kind of relationships you develop overnight. It’s something you have to cultivate over time.”
Keeping your culture strong is one of the most effective ways a company can weather adversity. But the behavior that helps strengthen and sustain a culture needs to remain a constant, whether the economic sky is fair or ominous.
“The best bulletproofing advice I can give is don’t let your culture change,” Hershberger says. “If things aren’t going well, it doesn’t mean you spend less time talking to people, walking the floors or less time caring. You have to do the same things when times are good as you do when times are difficult. Open communication is the way you build a high trust level within an organization.”
How to reach: PGT Industries Inc., (800) 282-6019 or
www.pgtindustries.com
