Develop your employees
Mullany calls it “executional excellence.” The word might be
made-up, but the reasoning behind it is very real.
In order for a vision to mean anything, it has to be executed effectively, which means you need employees who are compelled to follow the leader and you need to put benchmarks in place to measure
your company’s ability to achieve your vision.
“It’s about creating a weekly cadence of accountability —
what are the key performance indicators that tell us if we’re
achieving our strategic plan and our vision?” Mullany says. “But it
also helps if you can create a compelling vision, something that is
exciting and people can get behind. It will help your employees if
you can create the kind of company where there is a compelling
mission.”
Simply put, you’re not going to be able to hold employees
accountable for executing the vision without first getting them to
embrace it. For Mullany, it starts with training. Through continual
training, Mullany and his leadership team help employees develop
their skill sets, increasing their sense of purpose in the organization. Motivated employees, in turn, are better at embracing the
vision and executing on it.
“The key is working with the people you have currently,” he
says. “A key challenge for us is making sure we develop the talent to grow our business, which is something that applies to
just about any business. We’ve implemented mentoring programs where I and all of the leaders in the Northeast Division
are mentoring at least four people to groom them so they can
receive additional responsibility. We’ve implemented additional training programs, partnering with our home office and our
internal training team, which we call ‘Wal-Mart University.’
We’ve also developed new positions called ‘developmental
roles,’ where employees are really getting focused with on-thejob training, and in time, they can become a manager.”
Some people come forward and let their leadership-oriented
ambitions be known to their superiors. But in many cases, you
have to do some scouting. That’s why Mullany coaches his store
managers to keep tabs on the managerial potential of their best
and brightest people.
“Some people come forward and clearly state that they want to
be promoted, that they want to become a department manager
or assistant manager,” he says. “But we’ll ask the supervisors to
identify which people are doing an outstanding job and would
be willing to assume additional responsibilities.
“For any business to be successful, you have to make sure you
can retain good people. Your best people have embraced the
core values and know what is important to the business. That’s
why we’re looking to keep good people, grow them and promote
them.”
