Health & Medical
All aboard
How to drum up support for your vision
By Matt McClellan
Smart Business Philadelphia | April 2008
Arthur Bedrosian
President and CEO, Lannett Co. Inc.
Arthur Bedrosian compares
running Lannett Co. Inc. to guiding a wagon. The president
and CEO of the 66-year-old
generic drug manufacturer
knows where he wants to take
the wagon, but it will take a lot
longer to get there if his employees don’t want to take it in the
same direction.
When you’re choosing a particular path for a company, there
can be a lot of naysayers. But
whether his employees are responsible for pushing or
pulling, Bedrosian’s goal is to
make sure no one is just sitting
on the wagon once the vision is
agreed upon.
Bedrosian’s work to develop a
vision everyone can support
has sparked resurgence in
Lannett’s performance, as the
company posted net sales of
$82.6 million in 2007, an
increase from $64.1 million in
2006 and $44.9 million in
2005.
Smart Business spoke with
Bedrosian about how to close
the gap between halfhearted
support and enthusiastic support and why it’s worth it to
spend your precious time
explaining your vision.
Be persistent. Most people think
that just because you’re the
CEO that you can order people
around and tell them what to
do. Well, that’s true, but then
their hearts aren’t in it. Generally, if you’re dragging people to
a party, they’re not going to have
a good time. They’re not going
to be enthusiastic about it.
So the real tough part is convincing them of what your vision
really is and articulating it well
enough that they grasp what it is
you’re trying to do and are on
board.
If you do a good job there, you
tend to get the enthusiasm of all
the staff. You also get all the
staff willing to put their own
ideas forward. They’re not
afraid because they understand
where they’re going, and they
realize that you’re not going to
give them a hard time if they
don’t get it right.
Be patient. It’s very important to
get people to speak candidly
about their concerns. If they
don’t agree, I’d rather surface
that up in front than find out
that they’re being reluctantly
dragged along to the party.
Have the patience to explain
your policies to them. Where
they’re not understanding it, try
to get them to articulate it.
Try to turn that around instead
of criticizing them. You don’t
want people to be afraid to send
things to you or to take positions. The real goal is to use
those opportunities to realize
that maybe you haven’t articulated your plan well enough to
everybody because they’re not
getting it. Then, recognize those
who aren’t getting it quickly
enough so that they’re not doing
any harm by not being on board.
Drag your employees’ objections into
the light. I try to get people to talk candidly. Some people are reluctant to open their mouths and
say what’s on their mind.
They think they understand,
and suddenly, I see them being
more critical than helpful. Once
in awhile, I challenge them and
say, ‘It’s easy to say no to everything. It’s easy not to do anything; it’s easy to find fault. Tell
me what you’d do. What’s your
plan?’
You’re either going to get a
good idea or you’re going to get
hesitancy because there is no
other plan. They’ve spent all
their time finding fault with the
one that’s on the table instead
of supporting it.
Surface what they’re upset
about. What they don’t understand ultimately might be the
thing that makes them upset.
Or they might be upset because
they just don’t believe it’s achievable. In that case, maybe I
haven’t done my job articulating how we’re going to get to
that goal.
Usually, it’s a case of not
understanding the plan or not
understanding how they’re
going to overcome the challenges. So, they see the plan, but
they get bogged down in all the
challenges, and they don’t know
how that’s going to be overcome.
I try to say, ‘Bring that up to
me. Tell me what you think we
cannot do,’ because I’m not a
believer in the word can’t.’
Show your team that what you’re
asking is achievable. There’s
always a solution to everything.
Try to bring those solutions out.
Sometimes bringing out the
problems gets you to the solution. Sometimes they come to
the solution themselves by
merely talking about what
they’re concerned about.
It’s always comforting to know
that your leader understands
the problems he’s facing. He’s
not naive, and he’s not a dreamer; he really does have a vision,
and the way to have that vision
realized is to understand the pitfalls and the difficulties to get
there.
Once they understand you do
see those things, they seem to
feel more comfortable being
candid with you.
Bring people on board now or
regret it later. A leader doesn’t
have a whole lot of time to explain to everybody what he’s
doing or how he’s going to do it.
I’m not teaching a class here;
I’m running a business.
But I realize that if I don’t do
that, it’s ultimately my pain later
on because I haven’t brought
enough people on board, or I
haven’t made them converts to
the plan.
So I tell people, ‘Ask me four
times if you don’t get it.’ I won’t
criticize you for asking me four
times; I will criticize you for not
asking.
By repeating the question, I’m
going to realize I didn’t get my
point across and maybe I’ll
understand your point better.
You have to spend the time with
some of your key staffers to
help them understand where
the company is trying to go in
order to gain their real help.
HOW TO REACH: Lannett Co. Inc., (215) 333-9000 or www.lannett.com
