Technology
Shooting stars
How Mark Evans creates an environment at Confluence where people can succeed
By Brian Horn
Smart Business Pittsburgh | March 2007
When Mark Evans looks for employees, he wants people
who are willing to lace up their shoes and get on the court
with Michael Jordan, “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird in the prime of their careers. While some would not even step foot on
the court, Mark Evans wants employees who are ready to show
their stuff.
“There are certain people in the world that, when they went to
play a game of pick-up basketball and it turned out the other guys
standing on the court were Olympic basketball players, there are
some people who would love that, and there are some people who
would hate that,” says Evans, CEO and president Confluence, a
data management solutions company that employs more than 100
people. “We try to find the people who would love that and like to
play a very hard game and have no problem learning.”
Smart Business spoke with Evans about how to find the right
people for the job and empower them to achieve their goals.
Q: What does a leader need to do to be successful?
First, a CEO needs to know him or herself. To understand yourself puts you in a position to be a good leader. Once you understand yourself, you are in a position to craft a style that is consistent with your company’s mission and the personalities of the people in your organization.
You have to know your strengths and weaknesses. I view an
organization like an organism. You have a goal and you are trying
to get toward a goal, a well-designed organization and well-designed management team. You’re working with people whose
strengths complement your weaknesses, and your weaknesses
may complement their strengths.
If you know yourself and [your] organization’s mission and staff,
then they’re empowered to function well because they are working as a team toward a mission. People have to know what they do
for a living, and they need to be able to do it.
Being able to design an organization and team that everyone
knows where you are trying to go and they are part in it is a very
strong way to lead.
Q: How do you empower employees?
It starts with mission, and everyone needs to understand what
the company does. A CEO spends a lot of time reiterating that message.
Second, the CEO’s job is to constantly articulate how we do what
we do and execute that mission. Ultimately, a leader’s job is to
define the boundaries in which the entire company functions.
My job is to make sure everyone understands what we are trying
to achieve and the boundaries which we have to function to
achieve that. Then everyone feels perfectly free because they
know the boundaries and the goal to execute against that, and not
penalizing people for taking the responsibility and risks involved in
executing within those boundaries.
Q: How do you use the interview process to find the right people
for the job?
Our goal during the interview process is as much to have the
potential employee know us as it is for them to reveal themselves to us.
When we interview people, we try to hear their stories. Not
just the facts of their careers, but the way they view themselves and the responsibilities they’ve taken for their careers.
If someone hasn’t taken responsibility for their career and
their lives, you can’t believe they are going to take responsibility for their roles within the organization here.
I believe the story is a very powerful way of understanding not
only what people did, but why they did it. You’d be surprised
how many people, when you actually listen to their stories, will
represent themselves as either being masters of their own fate in
an organization or victims of an organization. We tend to like
people who feel they always had a choice in an organization.
When you listen to people talk about their careers and question them about the decisions they made and why they made
them, it can very quickly illustrate the difference between people who are future leaders and people who aren’t.
Q: What are some pitfalls to avoid in business?
I don’t believe in the cult of the personality. It’s tremendously
misleading to believe, as a leader, you are the reason the organization is doing great or not doing great.
When you begin to believe, as a leader, you are the center of this
solar system and everyone else is orbiting around you, I believe
you’ve missed the point. Being the leader and at the top of an
organization that is succeeding, it can be a challenge to keep that
in perspective and not allow an organization to get political or be
CEO-focused.
HOW TO REACH: Confluence, (412) 802-8632 or www.confluence.com
