Consumer Services
Consistent from the start
How to establish trust and encourage employee input
By Brooke Bates
Smart Business Detroit | December 2008
Page 1 of 2
Gary Graves
CEO, American Laser Centers
In the midst of major change,
Gary Graves has provided stability at American Laser
Centers.
Last year, Graves was
appointed CEO of the company
when two private equity firms
became majority owners.
During the personnel changes
that accompanied the transition,
Graves developed his employees’ trust by proving himself a
consistent, approachable leader.
“People that trust their leaders will tend to push hard, take
risks and put their all into the
job,” says Graves, whose company posted 2007 revenue of
about $150 million. “If they
don’t trust, they’ll be watching
the clock and wondering what
they’re going to be doing that
weekend.”
As the 1,600 employees of
the laser hair removal company
began trusting him enough to
give him their input, Graves
brought both new and inherited
talent together to strengthen the
company.
Smart Business spoke with
Graves about how to establish
trust with your employees.
Establish your stability. People
are fundamentally the same
across businesses in terms of
their dreams and aspirations,
how people want to be treated. I’ve found certain things
that work for me, and I continue to bring them along in
whatever setting I’m in.
You have to be predictable
and consistent. People don’t
want to sit around wondering,
‘How’s this guy going to react
to this or that?’ They like to
know, if this happens, this is
how people will react. Anybody
that’s ever worked for somebody that’s unpredictable or
inconsistent [can tell you] that’s
not a great situation.
It will take a little time.
There’s no speech or big town-hall meeting you have and say,
‘Well, I’m going to be consistent.’ You just have to demonstrate it through your actions
as events unfold. People see
how you react to success, people see how you react to failures, when things are down,
when things are up.
What’s worked for me is
being also emotionally balanced. If, in the downtimes,
you’re running around yelling
and panicking, the organization is probably going to panic,
as well, and not focus on the
things they need to do to
improve it. They’re just going
to focus on self-preservation.
As time unfolds, people will
see you in a variety of situations and see that you’ve been
consistent in how you deal
with the good news and the
bad news.
