“What I tell my employees is to come back to me with a game plan, tell me what you would do to solve it, because you’re closer to the issue than me. Nine out of 10 times, employees solve their own problems. They understand what they have to do and end up bringing back great results.”
— Richard Miller, president and CEO, Virtua Health
“Part of building a team-oriented culture is building consensus, seeking input. Two heads are better than one; three heads are better than two. So we encourage people to seek others’ opinions because it absolutely yields better decisions, and we develop a culture where we respect each other’s
opinions. That’s the way we operate.”
— Bill Hankowsky, chairman, president and CEO, Liberty Property Trust
“It’s amazing how many people are doing some best practices that we don’t even know about. When people hear stuff from their peers at work and they get a live testimonial, it ignites them to go back and try that, it ignites their thought process to say, ‘What can I do to better please customers, to get a better spirit in my store?’ It creates such wonderful momentum.”
— Judy Spires, former president, Acme Markets Inc.
Summary
Get your employees to think like problem solvers.
Always look to build consensus on decisions.
Never underestimate your employees’ ability to generate new ideas.
