When Jerry Phillips returned from
a recent trip to Europe, he was
anxious to get back to work. It
was the first time he had taken more
than a week off since he graduated from
college, and the president of Phillips
Partnership PC was expecting quite the
briefing upon his return.
However, when he returned to his $15
million, 100-employee architecture and
engineering firm, he was pleasantly
shocked to discover he had nothing
to do. All the empowering that
Phillips, a self-described “delegator,”
had done with his staff had paid off.
Smart Business spoke with
Phillips about how to tell if your
employees are cups or plates and
where to put them in the dishwasher.
Q: How involved should a CEO be in
day-to-day operations?
I’ve got a ‘dishwasher theory.’ I
was thinking about it one day
when I was loading the dishwasher at the house. There were a
bunch of cups in the bottom rack,
and I had a bunch of plates. What
I had to do was take the cups out
of the bottom rack, and put the
plates in the bottom rack because
that was the only place they’d fit.
Now, I thought of this with
regards to my company. Some
individuals are plates, and some
individuals are cups. A cup can
go anywhere in the dishwasher.
Me, as the leader, I can do just
about any job in the company. I
could answer the phones, I could
run the mail, I could do just about every
job.
But does it make sense for me to do
them? Even though I can do them, and I
can do them very well, I need to hire someone to do that.
My receptionist is very good at what
she does, but that’s about all she can do.
That’s what I hired her to do; she’s very
good at that task. As for the day to day, I
can do it, but it doesn’t make sense. I’m
going to stick to what I do best. I’m going
to put myself in the organization where
it makes the most sense.
It’s best for the organization if the
leader is not involved in day to day. Turn
that over to the staff. It shows you trust
them to do it.
I just got back from Europe. When I
came back to the company, I looked
around, took an hour to get updated, and
I realized I had nothing to do. I had a big
smile on my face; everything was running real smooth.
My plate’s clear, so I can practice my
vision. I can think about where I want
the company to go. That’s what I do best,
and that’s what I need to be doing.
Q: How do you come up with a vision for
the company?
If you take road classes, the first thing
they tell you is if you’re ever in a situation where you lose control of your car,
have your eyes look to a safe spot. What
people tend to do is focus on the danger
— another car, a cliff, a telephone pole.
But if you’re in that situation where
you’re losing control and you focus on
the telephone pole, it could be the only
telephone pole in the middle of a cornfield, and you will hit it. You will invariably steer the car toward the danger.
They want you to look for a safe spot,
an open area between the telephone
pole and a tree. The car goes where you
look. The hands follow the eyes.
It’s the same thing with my business. I
look to where I want the company to go. It’s always that safe
spot between the trees and the
telephone poles and all the danger. I steer the company where
I’m looking, and I’m always
looking ahead. I’m looking at a
larger company with improved
margins and bigger projects and
more opportunities for the staff.
Now, I don’t lose sight of the
dangers and the pitfalls, but I
don’t focus on those. Because if
you focus on the dangers and pitfalls, that’s where you’re going to
take your company.
Q: How do you attract good
employees?
I hear a lot of people talking
about how hard it is to find good
employees. I kind of like it that
way because if the market was
flooded with good employees,
then I’d have a lot more competition. You can really focus on
recruiting particular individuals
and strategically build your organization.
At the end of the day, I generate
money by selling people’s time. So I
have to make sure I have the right people who are going to execute the work
and grow professionally and personally
with the organization. It’s those individuals who help perpetuate and grow the
company even more because they come
on board and do a good job, and clients
like them. Then we get more work — it
starts that cycle.
HOW TO REACH: Phillips Partnership PC, (770) 394-1616 or
www.phillipspart.com