Education
Cohesion through communication
How to unify employees by sharing information
By John Nank
Smart Business St. Louis | March 2008
Bill Taylor
Chairman and CEO, Taylor-Morley Inc.
You will never find success
with a house divided, says Bill Taylor, chairman and CEO of
Taylor-Morley Inc.
Approximately seven years
ago, the home builder’s work
force was ruled by cliques:
salespeople in the field, management in the Chesterfield
corporate office, carpenters on
the worksite and so on. Each
was separated by sputtering channels of communication
and the festering antagonism of
exclusion.
Faced with such division,
Taylor brought his employees
together the only way he knew
how — by sharing any and all
information that he could. Promoting an open-book policy on
financials and strategic goals
not only fosters a sense of
inclusion, he says, it also
instills trust and ownership
among staff members. Today,
Taylor-Morley’s employees work
as an aligned unit, boosting the
company’s 2006 revenue to
approximately $80 million.
Smart Business spoke with
Taylor about how to facilitate
cohesion at your company
through communication with
your employees.
Don’t be afraid to let employees
read the books. We have brown-bag seminars where we invite
all of our company team members to a breakfast where we
talk about current events and
the vision of the company. The
leaders of the company will discuss pertinent issues that have
to do with where we are financially, meeting our goals, our
budgets and also talk about current events in the industry.
We have an open-book policy
where people know where we
are as it relates to our goals in
terms of revenue and profitability and on and on and on. That
goes a long, long way to instill
confidence and trust amongst
your team.
The benefits are people are
going to learn. Where you’re
able to communicate with people, they’re not just wedged in
their four-walled office or their
little cubicle. They’re learning;
they’re growing.
Share information with everyone.
At one time, we didn’t have that
open-book policy. Six or seven
years ago, we felt that there were
too many little cliques going on.
We felt that the only way to
really break down those barriers was to make sure that we
communicated to everybody
any and all information.
We have our salespeople in
those brown bags, we have our
field people, we have our carpenters, we have our office people, we have our customer service people, our financial people;
everybody participates.
It has really, really helped
tremendously just by virtue of
how people are willing to help
one another. We don’t have the
kinds of cliques that we had at
one time from one department
to another. It really breaks down
that barrier.
You’ve got the best shot at dealing with outside conditions when
you’ve got people all pulling together and understand what the
goals and objectives are, and
that they know that they can
count on their fellow team members to be there to help and assist
toward reaching those goals.
Make yourself accessible. There
is not a substitute for timely and
proper communication.
People know that I have an
open-door policy. I’m constantly
around and engaging people
and wanting to get feedback. ...
By having an open-door policy
and always being accessible,
that gives the individual person
the mindset that you’re just not
talking all the time, you’re listening, and you’re available to them.
Maintain an air of sincerity. You
can say whatever you want, but
if people feel that you’re condescending, they’re not going to be
able to trust you.
That’s the most important thing.
They have to know beyond a
shadow of a doubt that when you
say something to them, you’re
sincere, and that they can trust
that the feedback and communication that you have is important and it means something.
You’re not able to build that
kind of a culture overnight. It
takes time.
I’ve built my career around,
‘My word is my bond.’ People
can, without a doubt, trust me.
When I say something, I’m going
to do something. ...
It’s pretty simple stuff, but
leaders’ egos get in the way a lot
of times. The most successful
leaders are those that don’t have
the large egos and care more
about the individual and the
company. If they genuinely care
about their success, then along
with that will come the success
of the company.
Let employees know where they stand.
People want feedback. People
want to know how they’re doing
against their goals and objectives.
Everybody in the company is
reviewed every 90 days, and
they have an opportunity to
have their direct report go over
what their goals and objectives
are in terms of their particular
job and get feedback. That’s
extremely important to raise the vitality of our people.
It’s really all about communication. ...
That’s helped to grow our
company in terms of the quality
of people.
The quarterly review process
is a fabulous tool and one that
gets very, very high marks from
our team members.
Previous to that, people would
wander around saying, ‘I don’t
know whether I’m doing the
right job,’ or, ‘I don’t know
what so-and-so thinks.’ This
leaves no doubts in the manager and the staff position of
where they stand.
Associate Editor Patrick
Mayock contributed to this
story.
HOW TO REACH: Taylor-Morley Inc., (888) 297-3155 or www.taylormorley.com
