Know when to take a backseat. You tend to listen more closely to colleagues that have specific knowledge or experience on the given topic being discussed. I tend to keep myself very much restrained in the marketing meetings. We recently had a marketing meeting about how to relate things to customers when they walk into our stores for the first time — why is it a healthier option than ice cream, why we make it by hand and so forth. Those points need to be crafted very creatively and in as few words as possible because people don’t want to read pages and pages.
During meetings like that, I tend to keep myself more in the role of a member of the general public. I want to let the people who have the expertise run the meeting, even though I do have some background in marketing. It goes back to the idea that you want the most specialized and trained people on your team to run the show in each given situation. You don’t want to step over or around people just because you run the company.
In all situations, you have to take a look at ideas from everyone very seriously and let the people on your leadership team debate it. The proponents of the idea try to lay down the case as to why we should try something, and the idea’s opponents lay down the case as to why this might not be the best fit right now. But in the end, you want everybody in those meetings to leave with the idea that their idea was seriously considered, that no one was slighted, that both sides had a chance to give their story and the idea was thoroughly debated.
In our case, we don’t deal with a lot of weird ideas to begin with, but we do get some different types of ideas. Someone might come to management with an idea on how to enhance the grand opening of a store, drum up some publicity, and it might be something strange or a little off the wall, and we would certainly look at that because it’s a unique marketing chance for a new store that is looking to attract attention.
How to reach: Paciugo Franchising LP, (214) 654-9501 or www.paciugo.com