Business Services
Setting the stage
How to lead by example
By Brian Horn
Smart Business Cincinnati | April 2008
Chuck Frank
President and CEO, AHS Inc.
Chuck Frank said it’s vital
that you lead by example
and that employees must see that you’re willing and able to do the work yourself.
“You have to ask yourself, if
you are going to ask others to
do it, would you do it yourself,
and would you be able to do it
to the best of your and the
company’s abilities?” says the
president and CEO of AHS, a
$34 million full-service provider
of materials handling solutions
with nearly 50 employees.
And he says the things that
you ask your employees to do
must be realistically achievable, and you must be there to
support them.
Smart Business spoke with
Frank about how to deal with
the challenges of leading by
example and how to do so
without stepping over the line.
Q. Is there a system to
leading by example?
There is a process you have
to go through. You have to
understand what you are asking of others and put yourself
in a situation and determine
how it’s going to affect others.
Is it going to be in their comfort zone or out of their comfort zone? Do we have the
resources, the ability, the skill
set? There’s a lot of thought
and preparation that goes into
any task or initiative that we
put out for ourselves or for
our associates.
There’s a lot of thought, a
lot of prework. A lot of,
‘How’s this going to affect us
12, 18 months, three years
down the road? How is it
going to affect my personal
and professional goals?’
I put a tremendous amount of thought into making sure that
what’s being asked is realistic.
Q. Has leading by example
ever backfired by setting
unrealistic expectations?
Only in the fact that I think
people can accomplish an
awful lot, and sometimes, I
think people can accomplish
maybe more than they think
they can accomplish. If I put
myself into that situation and
say, ‘You know, it seems reasonable to me. It seems like
something I can do; it
seems like something I
can achieve.’
Perhaps I don’t take
into consideration the
individual that’s being
asked. Maybe they are a
little different than me.
Maybe it’s kind of something that is a passion of
mine but not a passion
of theirs.
As I’ve progressed in
life, I’ve come to the realization that obviously
not everyone has the
same goals and same
drive that I do. As the
owner of the business,
you’ve got to factor in
human nature.
Q. How does setting
the example help the company?
People realize and understand that if they are being
asked to do something
because of the process that we
do follow, that they don’t have
to ask the traditional questions
of, ‘Would you do it?’ Or
they’re not behind the scenes
or talking to other associates
saying, ‘They keep asking me
to do these things, and yet
they don’t do them.’
They understand that if they are having an issue with it, if
they have a client situation
that is going to be difficult, I’ll
be glad to sit there, I’ll be glad
to go do it, I’ll be glad to do it
myself. So I just continually
say, ‘I’ll be there for you, I’ll
support you, I will do it, and
it’s the right decision.’
Q. Have you ever stepped over
the line between leading by
example and micromanaging?
I’m very cautious about that.
We have others we have >empowered to be in a position, and it happens probably
less and less because, again,
earlier in my career, I probably would have done it more
often.
But the realization is, you
can’t empower people, ask
them to do something, and
they go about doing it their
way and, if you disagree, you
go to their direct reports and
say, ‘Hey, I know you said to
do it this way, but this is the
way we’re going to do it.’ You
lose credibility with your
leadership team. You lose the
confidence in them having
confidence in yourself.
Has it happened? Yes. But
again, it’s a conscious decision to make sure that every
day I am thinking about making sure I’m not doing that.
Q. What are your tips for a
leader looking to be a role
model to his or her employees?
You have to ask, ‘What are
we asking; what is the task at
hand?’ I’m a big believer in
that you have to have a goal.
You have to have the expected outcome, and then you
have to have short-term goals
to get to your long-term
goals.
You have to have action steps
to accomplish your goals. It
has to be date-sensitive, then
you just have to make sure
it’s moral, ethical, it’s done
with integrity, and it’s for the
betterment of the organization and, ultimately, the betterment of our clients. If you
ask those questions and you
listen and you explain and
you have a plan, it works.
What’s most important is to
hold yourself accountable. If
you say you are going to do
something, do it. If you are
going to set a date, meet the
date.
HOW TO REACH: AHS Inc., (513) 351-6500 or www.ahs1.com
