Telecommunications

Loud and clear

By Brian Horn

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The Tope file

Pam Tope learned about the importance of feedback firsthand when she got some surprising news from her employees and colleagues: She was intimidating some of them.

It was never her intent to intimidate employees as president of the Florida region of Verizon Wireless, but standing at 6 feet 2 inches, that’s the way Tope made some people feel.

“I’m definitely direct, I’m definitely forthright, and I’m definitely passionate,” she says. “I have very specific ideas and goals on where we’re going to go as a team, and so I needed to hear that. I needed to hear I was intimidating, even though there is no way in the world that was my intention.

Before actually fixing the problem, Tope had to come to terms with the fact that some people misperceived her — something leaders at all levels face every day. But when you get that kind of feedback, you need to take it seriously, even if you don’t think it’s true.

“You may not agree with (it), you may not believe that it’s fair, you may not believe that it’s correct, but if it’s being thought or being said, none of that matters,” she says.

To fix the problem, Tope took simple steps to make herself more approachable as a regional leader of the $43.9 billion wireless telecommunications company.

“I would get side to side with the person and look at something together,” she says. “I would maybe have a report that we would sit down and look at together, and change, and modify and be very cognizant of being together on this — literally on the same side of the table on this. I’m not confronting someone; I’m not trying to intimidate them. So, that’s a real-life example that I have had that certainly was not true in my mind but absolutely real to that person.”

Here’s how Tope works to keep the lines of communication open with employees and customers so she can lead her 2,300 employees toward common goals — and eliminate misperceptions along the way.