Lead by example
Employees from different backgrounds might have converging interpretations of intangible values like integrity and respect. Instead of attempting to communicate definitions of traits that can be hard to define, Mechler relies on action to illustrate what values really mean.
“If I’m respectful as a leader in the company to our employees, people see that. They understand that,” he says. “If I know their first name, if I know something about their families, if I talk to them as an individual, not as a boss and a subordinate, that means a lot. That’s respect. It’s not something that you can say and get; it’s something you have to do.”
You have to consciously build relationships and show respect from your position if you expect employees to follow suit.
“We have to live what we preach,” Mechler says. “So if we preach it and don’t live it, it’s not going to go anywhere. We have to be that stellar example for our employees as a leader in the company. That’s where it starts.”
One way to exhibit that respect is interacting with employees on a personal — rather than strictly business-related — level.
Mechler makes an effort to personally wish employees happy birthday, to write notes inserted in their paychecks, to take each of them out to lunch and to invite rotating trios into his office weekly to share coffee and chat about the company.
“My primary focus day-to-day is taking care of our people,” Mechler says on the company’s website. “Leadership for me means being present, being a good listener and being a servant leader.”
That means meeting employees where they’re at, getting out of your office to walk their projects and interact on their turf.
“You can’t sit in the corner office,” Mechler says. “You’ve got to walk around. You’ve got to visit with people.”
Beyond that, your corporate efforts should be an extension of those personal interactions. In other words, respect employees through company policies as well as one-on-one attention.
If an employee is involved in a certain charity, for example, SpawMaxwell will consider supporting it with donations of time or financial contribution. This shows that the company cares about employees’ personal interests enough to devote corporate resources.
Another way to show organization-sanctioned care is to respect employees’ vacation time.
SpawMaxwell, for example, prepares for heavy vacation seasons like summer and end-of-the-year holidays by pouring in extra resources to cover jobs so employees can take time off.
“We have superintendents, obviously, that need to take vacation,” Mechler says. “Respecting that individual and family time, … we always try to have a reserve of superintendents that are sitting on the bench (so) we can fill those positions on those projects so those guys can take their vacations when they want to take them.
“Therefore, we add money to our
overhead, but we’ve got to live by what we say. We’ve even had several of their project managers and/or several of the officers of the company that have sat in on projects for a day or two because the right person wasn’t there to man that project, just to give that superintendent a break.”
