Provide the right direction
The last element to successful growth is
making sure to create goals for people to
work toward.
One way that Geiger and his team do this at
Cbeyond is to create a theme each year for
the company to focus on. This year the focus
is on team and developing the team.
By providing a theme for the year, it helps
him and his employees prioritize how they
spend their time.
“It’s a lens by which we’re doing things and
the activities and the allocation of scarce
resources,” Geiger says. “Does it meet the
test through this lens? It isn’t necessarily the
thing by which we decide all things. If I’m sitting here working on this and saying I have 15
other things to work on, why am I prioritizing
this versus that?”
He says that the senior leaders help choose
that theme, and they’re trying to represent
the best interest of their direct reports, which
is about the top 30 to 50 people in the company. They come together and establish the
next year’s theme during the third quarter.
“It’s really getting after what is the most
important thing, and where do I find the
greatest resonance, where’s the energy?”
Geiger says.
In addition to the theme, you also have to
help people work toward meeting the company’s goals and prioritizing those associated with your theme. One way Geiger does
this is by compensating everyone on the
same team goals.
“That avoids a lot of suboptimization like,
‘I’m going to get more credit, therefore
maybe more bonus or more money or more
shares or whatever by optimizing my goals at
the expense of yours,’” he says.
He says he focuses everybody except the
sales team on the same goals.
“We very simply define success, and we’re
careful to notice who’s pulling on what oars
at the same time with the same pressure, and
we try to be very synchronized in that way,”
he says.
Paying attention to people’s performance is
critical in determining who’s pulling on the
oars and who’s kicking back for a pleasure
cruise. Have metrics in place so you can
gauge how successful people are.
“If you can talk a good game, it doesn’t help
you if the numbers don’t show up,” Geiger
says.
“We’re not big on rhetoric. We’re kind of
from Missouri in that regard — show me.”
And as people move toward achieving the
company’s goals, it’s important that you
develop their talents and move them up in
the organization. And it goes back to making
your environment a desirable place to work.
As he looks toward Cbeyond’s future, Geiger is
well aware that promoting his people is
going to help him reach his long-term goals.
He says, “This year as we build this platform,
and I mean that with both our assets and our
employees to build this company to a billion
[dollars], it just becomes very obvious to us
that that means an investment in the people
that are here and helping them grow.”
HOW TO REACH: Cbeyond Inc., www.cbeyond.net or (678)
424-2400
