Ed Cloues is a former mergers and acquisitions lawyer surrounded by engineers, and he knows something about giving employees a say on things they’re well versed in.
“My goal would be to be surrounded by several people that are more capable than I am because the stronger the group is that you have around you — that I have around me, and the stronger the group my managers have around them — the more successful they’re going to be,” says Cloues, chairman and CEO of K-Tron International Inc., a provider of bulk solids material handling equipment and systems.
Cloues attributes his company’s revenue growth — from $71.8 million in 2001 to $243 million in 2008 — to the differing views of his employees and their ability to run with delegated responsibilities.
To empower employees, you have to set expectations by telling them you trust them, showing you trust their decisions and keeping an eye on their performance while steering clear of micromanaging.
Smart Business spoke with Cloues about how to empower employees to harness their abilities to grow your company.
Tell employees that you trust them. Once you get the right people in the right positions, then empower them to go do their jobs and basically stay out of their way. Hope that they’re right more than they’re wrong and that they make more good decisions than bad decisions.
But recognize that if you were doing that job — if I had these different jobs — I’d be less qualified for many of them than the people I have in them and would have no reason to think that I would do a better job on those tasks than they do.
We keep score on how people are doing, but we tell them, ‘This is your job. This is yours to do; somebody else isn’t going to be doing it for you. We’re putting you in a position because we think you’re a good fit for this job, we trust you to do it right. You’ll make mistakes; we understand that. That’s how you learn.’
