R. Michael Dowe Jr. says there is one quality that both an employee and a CEO must possess to be successful — integrity.
“Lessons in integrity were taught to me at my early days at West Point and the Army, and that has carried through and also has affected the development of my own leadership skills,” he says.
Information Systems Laboratories, the science and engineering company of which Dowe is president and CEO, employs 175 and garnered $27.5 million in revenue in 2005, up from $22.1 million in 2004 and $18.7 million in 2003.
Smart Business spoke with Dowe about the benefits of a team environment and the importance of being able to delegate power.
How do you build a team environment?
You do it by delegation of authority. You teach the people, then you delegate the responsibility without micromanaging. You guide them to that level of capability.
Anyone — not just the CEO — in a management level of responsibility, each day you have to take all the matters that are before you and prioritize and address each one.
In many cases, there is no way to get to the bottom three, four or five. What you can’t get to, you have to somehow delegate to other people so the people that are looking for that result don’t feel left out.
The more of a team you have, the better the corporation is going to be. When everybody feels they are part of it, that really fosters the teamwork. And it goes all through the management.
One aspect of building a small company is employee ownership so employees participate in the growth. Learning how to delegate responsibility to your subordinates and building your subordinates is part of leadership.
Why take risks?
You have to take balanced risks. There is no way to grow a company without some kinds of risks. They are inherent in everything.
You have to make intelligent decisions, and they aren’t always the correct ones. But when you make an incorrect decision, you have to recognize it and take some action.
You look at the leadership in that particular division and you put better leadership in it. Or you fill the technical gap by getting the right employees. Or you provide marketing support or tech support if a project is in and they’re having trouble with it.
You don’t let yourself get emotionally down with the challenges. You know when you take a risk; some of them are going to be a problem. When you make a decision, you look at pluses and minuses and, also, if there are problems, how you ameliorate them.
How do you challenge employees who aren’t living up to potential?
The first thing is by pure example. If somebody is not really up to the capability, you immerse them in a group with real achievers in a very difficult project.
If they can’t cut the mustard, they’ll recognize it, and peer pressure will often lead to their resignation. On the other hand, if they have the ability and the right intentions, the peer pressure will guide them into being a good employee.
How can you keep up with change?
The level of change is, of course, dependent on sort of the Murphy’s Law event that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. The way you mitigate against those kinds of things is by building reserves.
Look at alternate approaches to projects. When there is a possibility of a major project terminating, you already have plans for the people so you don’t have to let them go. That kind of back-up planning is not just done by the CEO, it’s done at all levels. You have to have the system working through the corporation.
Why is it important to find a good balance between your personal and professional lives?
I figure the only purpose of working is for your family. To that extent, I make family my highest priority. God, country and family are the things you live for. You’ve got to be able to, at times, turn off the worries of work and turn on outside responsibilities.
If you let the burdens that you go through during the day, if you carry them around with you — and occasionally there are things that happen that you can’t get away from — you’re not going to be ale to carry on as well as a CEO.
How do you advise a CEO to handle success?
Success seems to be fleeting, and that’s unfortunate. Today’s hero can be tomorrow’s goat — memory is awfully short.
People should recognize that and recognize the deleterious effect this can have on the organization if someone is very successful and you forget that success. You have to build on the individual success and not let it be a light that comes on and goes off in your mind.
HOW TO REACH: Information Systems Laboratories, www.islinc.com