Human Resources
Know your surroundings
How to understand and empower employees
By Brian Horn
Smart Business Philadelphia | April 2008
Rich Milgram
Founder and CEO, Beyond.com Inc.
To lead his more than
60 full- and part-time
employees effectively, Rich Milgram first needs to
understand them.
That means understanding
their personalities and then
adapting his management
style based on those qualities,
says the CEO and founder of
Beyond.com Inc., a network
of online niche career communities that posted more than
$8 million in 2006 revenue.
“Some people need more
time and a hands-on approach;
other people need hands-off,
less time with you,” Milgram
says. “You need to understand
the people you are working
with, understand their personality, understand what best
motivates them.”
Smart Business spoke with
Milgram about how to get the
most out of your employees
and how to show them you
trust them.
Q. As a leader, how can you
show employees that you trust
them?
You have to be willing to let
them fail — not that you want
them to fail. In general, as a
leader and manager, most people’s personalities, especially in
the management role, is one of
taking control and taking over.
There is a point that is
appropriate, but you have to
go beyond your normal desire
to take over and let them
expand. Let the individual
expand their own mind and
their own boundaries. If you
are always taking control, they
are never going to be able to
grow and expand and work
for your company that much
better.
So, you have to be willing to
understand what may happen
as the result of you giving
them more control, and then
guide them along the way but
not take over.
Q. Is letting go hard to do?
We have this running joke
that I have separation disorder. Which is basically, I am
having trouble letting go of
certain aspects of the job.
As long as I realize that and
as long as I am willing to share
that with them, it sort of puts
me on the same level
with them. When you
are coming into a new
job, it’s change. Change
to anybody is a little bit
scary. Me telling them
that, ‘This is change for
me as much as it is for
you,’ brings us on the
same level and allows
our relationship to evolve
that much more.
You need that in order
to grow effectively and
run a good team. You
need to be a person. Let
them know you are
human, and let them
know that not every
answer is going to be
the right answer that I
have. But it’s certainly
going to be well thought
out, and it’s certainly going to
be planned, and it’s certainly
going to be appropriate for
our business.
But do I know the end
result? No, because I can’t
predict the future. I can
measure and analyze and try
and assure that result, but I
can’t predict that result with
100 percent certainty. So, I
can’t expect more of them
than I expect of myself in
that fashion.
Q. Do you think you would
have been less successful in a
working environment where
there wasn’t as much joking
around?
There’s no question. With all
of our technology and the fact
that we are a technology company, we are in a people business — matching up job seekers and employers. We are
technology run by people, and
that technology does not operate unless these people are
happy and working effectively
and efficiently.
I personally believe that if
you can give people an environment, which is not just
work but as a place they can
say they have friends, as a
place where they can feel
comfortable, then they are
going to be much more productive.
I was talking to one of our
employees, who’s been here
about three years, on the
train the other day. She said
it gives her parents such
comfort that they know she
doesn’t have a boss beating
on her and expecting things
she doesn’t expect of herself.
To have a place where she
can go and have a good work
environment and not come
home every day feeling like
she was treated poorly gave
them as much of a comfort
as it did her.
Q. What are benefits of your
management style compared
to a boss who is beating down
employees?
The productivity level of an
individual that is happy in
their job and feels like they
are doing it for the company
because they want to do it
for the company and doing
for themselves at the same
time — you are going to be
more successful as an organization. The organization is
the sum of the parts. The
sum of the parts is mainly
the people. You can add
technology in and you can
add other things in as those
sum of the parts, but a large
part of that sum is people. If
your people aren’t productive, you’re not going to be
as successful.
HOW TO REACH: Beyond.com Inc., (610) 878-2800 or www.beyond.com
