Just call Paul Franks afield general.
As president and CEO of Sports Construction Group LLC,which does sports field installations for teams including theCleveland Indians and Browns,Franks has become morequarterback than boss as hiscompany has nearly tripled itsrevenue from 2004 to 2007.
“Everybody’s role is a key tothe success; it’s just like a football team,” Franks says. “It’snot one person that’s outthere; it’s a team. You just haveto all work together and doyour assignments.”
Smart Business spoke withFranks about how he handsoff the ball to his 100 employees at SCG and then truststhem to get the job done.
Q. What is the key trait tomanaging a growing company?
You have to allow people todo their jobs and not micro-manage. Along those samelines would probably be learnfrom your mistakes, and don’tbe afraid to make mistakesbecause you certainly don’tmake them twice.
You’ve got to trust people, andthen that goes with the secondthing, where I said learn fromyour mistakes. No one is perfect, but everybody tries hard,and if you’ve got people that tryhard and demonstrate that theycare, demonstrate that they’refocused on quality and demonstrate that they want to succeedand have a potential to moveup in the organization, that’s animportant part of it.
No one is perfect. I make mistakes, everybody in our company makes mistakes. It’s how youlearn from that mistake and solve the problem. And don’t tryto solve the problem as an individual; you solve it as a team.
Q. How do you create a culture where employees feel theyhave the autonomy to makemistakes and then move on?
That’s a culture that evolves;that’s not an immediate reaction. That evolves over timewhen people become awarethat they aren’t going to getchewed out.
Sure, people can make mistakes that you can’t tolerate, but if you’re trying and you make a mistake and you see the efforts to try to correct it, that’sdifferent.
