Human Resources
Knocking down walls
How to create a culture that motivates and excites your people
By Mike Cottrill
Smart Business | November 2008
Page 1 of 2
John Tomsich
president, NESCO Resource
John Tomsich has an advantage over you.
Tomsich, president of NESCO
Resource, spends every day
considering new ways to get in
better graces with his 200 full-time employees to create a
bond with them at his staffing
solutions firm.
“I do think today that the only
competitive advantage that
businesses have left is the quality of the people and how they
feel when they get up in the
morning and they go into the office,” Tomsich says. “How do
they feel about the company?
Are they excited? Are they motivated? Do they love where
they’re at? So you have to
spend that time focusing on
those issues, making the environment people work in great.”
In so doing, he has built a
company culture where his
employees don’t see his title as
much as they see his efforts.
And therein lies the company’s
advantage, as employees feel
enthused to perform.
Smart Business spoke with
Tomsich about how to hire to fit
that culture you’ve built and
how breaking down barriers can
turn a B-plus employee into an
A performer.
Get out and break down barriers. I’m surprised that ‘president’
— the title — that sometimes
people have a certain expectation of what you’re going to be
like and how they’re supposed
to talk to you. And that’s why
you have to get face to face
with people to break down
those barriers.
Even in this world where
that word ‘virtual’ is used so
many times, I believe people
want face-to-face visibility
from their leadership. To my
VPs and my leadership, that’s
what I tell them: Be visible
leaders. You can’t manage
from behind a desk; you can’t
manage through e-mail.
I spend time asking people
about their lives and their families and then trying to make
the connection. I have two
kids — we talk about their
kids and what age they are.
You make little, simple, personal connections to make
yourself a real person.
Listen more than you talk.
Some people think that, as
president, you have to have all
the answers. And I think it’s
OK to say to your people,
‘Listen, I don’t know how to
solve this problem; what do
you think?’ Then they see you
as a real person, and that you
really care about them as an
individual. Plus, then you can
get so much information.
It doesn’t happen overnight,
but, if you can parade the success stories [of those who do
speak up], it really does start to
have an effect, where people
are, say, C-plus performers,
they’re pushing to be a B. Or the
B-plus are pushing to be an A.
Think about ways you can personalize things. It’s the little things
you do today. Writing notes to
your employees — we write to every employee on their
anniversary of being with the
company, thanking them for
their dedication.
Their birthday, we write them
a handwritten note. In an electronic world, it stands out
when you take the time to
write somebody a handwritten
note. And that doesn’t cost you
anything, and you’d be surprised how appreciative people
are when they get that handwritten note from me saying,
‘Thanks, you did a good job.’
And it’s maybe kind of old-fashioned, but I think it works.
