Focus on the big picture
Vincent says every business leader
should have one overarching goal when
it comes to building a culture and core
values: If you left your company tomorrow, it would stay on the course you set.
Human nature is often slanted toward
small-picture thinking. People are concerned with the job on the desk in front
of them, how their direct bosses are
treating them and how their direct
reports are performing. But in order to
have a big-picture company, you need to
have people who realize that a company
and its culture are greater than the sum
of their parts.
“None of us are so important that the
company couldn’t go on without us if we
left one day,” Vincent says. “That’s why
you have to cement it in everybody’s
minds and hearts, this idea of a company
being greater than the sum of the parts.
Once that is solidified, then whoever is
at the top could leave tomorrow for
whatever reason, and the people in the
company are going to continue to live
those values because it became a part of
them.”
You must eradicate small-picture arguments before they can escalate. Vincent
says disagreements largely develop within a company because someone isn’t
practicing the company’s values. When
that happens, there are usually only two
potential solutions.
“That’s one of the challenges leadership has in any organization, you have
personality conflicts or legitimate different points of view,” he says. “We see that
played out every day in politics.
Ultimately, it comes down to living the
values that you’re talking about, because
when you get into those disputes, it
often results from someone not practicing those values. You have to get in the
middle of it and get them to work together, or sometimes, someone has to go.
“Our attitude at Swift is, we’re not
going to tell you that you have to live
these values. But we’re going to tell you
that if you don’t want to live these values, you should probably find another
place to work. That doesn’t mean that
you go fire somebody, but you make it
clear that if you’re going to work here,
we expect you to live these values.
“You want people to know that if we all
share this vision, this mission and we all
live these values, we will be a much higher-performing company, and that’s what
we’re trying to accomplish.”
HOW TO REACH: Swift Energy, www.swiftenergy.com
