Keep talking
In an open culture, the way employees go about accomplishing the task is usually left to their discretion. But the end result is what you’re looking for, and in order to achieve success, it needs to be measured.
“Regardless of what the position is, there should be objectives attached to that position that you can manage in a quantifiable way,” Gentile says. “If you measure something, people will undoubtedly work toward achieving that measurement or exceeding it.”
The key is that your employees know how they are being measured.
“Too many times, we don’t lay out the expectations clearly and that’s where we get into situations that become very uncomfortable,” Gentile says. “We may put people in positions where their skill sets aren’t suited for it and expect them to perform. I had an old boss that said, ‘You can’t put a 20-watt bulb in and expect 40 watts to come out of it.’ It just won’t happen.”
Conduct regularly scheduled reviews so that employees know when to expect to sit down with you, but don’t be afraid to have some impromptu meetings, too.
“Midyear reviews are also critical,” Gentile says. “But that doesn’t mean you don’t have discussions throughout the course of the year regarding perfor
mance as it pertains to meeting objectives.”
You shouldn’t just focus on the same time every year to review people nor should you do it in the same manner.
“You have to use various methods,” Gentile says. “The umbrella to the success of implementing any of those methods is instilling trust and belief and sincerity. It sounds kind of esoteric, but people don’t become robots when they walk into the front door of the office. They are the same people they are when they leave the office.”
It’s even OK once in awhile to ask employees what you can do for them.
Gentile spends a lot of time on the road traveling to IS Group locations across the country.
“I’ve walked in their shoes and spent time in their businesses and listened to them and asked them, ‘What do you expect from your cooperative IS Group?” Gentile says. “What do we do right? What do we do wrong? What do you need to compete every day against these 800-pound gorillas?’”
When he first started at the company, it truly helped set a tone that he wanted to be approachable.
“That helped set the tone with our membership that they had someone who was really coming into that job with the right attitude,” Gentile says.
