One of my close friends is the CEO and founder of Kathy Freeman Company. Kathy has a reputation for being an extremely talented and successful executive recruiter in the business of financial services.
Since I have been interviewing senior executives about their business perspective over the last 45 days, I thought Kathy would be an excellent source.
During a discussion today she gave me insight into something that is sorely lacking at so many firms.
Simply the notion that people matter.
Or maybe it is not so simple.
She observes, and I agree, that in an environment where employees have seen their coworkers laid off, their retirement plans crushed, and the equity positions they have in the firms that they have served reduced to pennies on the dollar these folks need to hear that they are appreciated.
In the swirl of leaders defending their most recent earnings statement, their falling share prices, or the latest media barrage, are they forgetting to show their employees some love?
Leaders today need to tell the folks that are still at the firm, and responsible for the mission ahead:
- How the firm is positioned today
- Why the cuts were made
- Why they (as a survivor of the cuts) are still here
- What their role will be in the future of the company
- How and why they matter
These messages can be communicated through:
- Townhall meetings
- Offline dinners
- Bagel breakfasts
- Small department lunches
- Teleconference with remote employees
Leaders should not be lulled into thinking that handing out the latest company press release and accompanying note from the Office of the Chairman constitutes communication.
In this environment, when people are emotionally charged, frightened, and suspicious the best thing a leader can do is go out of their way to get up close and personal.
And tell people why and how they matter.
3 thoughts on “Show Your Employees Some Love”
Rob,
Thanks for the mention. I thought your readers might be interested in a real life implementation of this concept that “people/employees matter.” This is a colleague of mine, Andy Besheer from Broadridge – Clearly he brings a great sense of humor to his leadership style!
Kathy:
Yes we are of like minds on this subject – what a great blog post – communication and recognition are critically important, especially in this environment. We’ve just created an “Ask Andy” box in the office out in SF so that when I’m out there I can do town hall updates and also answer their questions without them feeling the pressure of having to stand up and ask on the spot…will see how well it works next week!
Also created a new award – comes with a lunch party for the entire team – called the “flying gas can” this evolved out of a project where I needed to have a demonstration built onto a laptop to take to a conference. They stripped everything else off the laptop so that they could load a server application onto it and I started calling it the flying gas can after the scenes in various old movies where they strip out a plane so that all it does is carry gas so that someone can fly far enough to see where the Japanese task force (or whoever) is coming from. The team latched on to this and started calling the initiative Project FGC. Afterwards, I went and got a Jerry can and glued some posterboard wings on it and decorated it and awarded it to the team “for selflessly extending themselves for the wealth management initiative.” It will be given in the future for similar above and beyond acts by people or teams. This has really resonated with folks.
Communication is the foundation of all trust in the organization and only organizations with a high degree of internal trust can succeed over the long term. Recognition reinforces trust and encourages individual and team initiative within the construct of goals of the overall enterprise. And of course, doing it in a fun way…well that makes it so much better for all concerned!
Best, Andy
@Kathy,
What I like the most is that Andy combines the ‘people matter’ necessity with a high MQ sensibility. What employee wouldn’t remember getting a Flying Gas Can Award!!
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