Form a dialogue
The first 30 days of Salfity’s tenure focused mainly on listening. In order to form a vision for the future of Audatex, Salfity needed to find out how customers and employees viewed the company, what type of potential they saw in the business and the markets it served and what possible pitfalls awaited the company if its leaders made a wrong turn.
“For the first 30 days, I just wanted to listen to everyone,” Salfity says. “I wanted to listen to customers and employees, and listen to them without judging. One thing I believe about leadership is that leaders aren’t successful if they just get people to follow them. Leaders have to get people to join them. When our troops join us in the mission, and it becomes their mission, as well, it then becomes all about execution. There is no questioning of the strategy because everyone in the company joined you in forming the strategy.”
When you’re attempting to open a dialogue with employees and key customers, you can take advantage of all the communication tools at your disposal. But in order to set the tone for open, frank and honest communication, nothing beats taking advantage of the opportunities you have to get out in the field.
It’s exactly what Salfity did as he embarked on his initial information gathering and sharing plan. Communicating face to face builds trust and respect like no other medium, and the trust and respect factors were critical to Salfity in his first months on the job.
“My communication was really centered on earning the respect of employees but also around trying to understand the challenges of the company,” he says. “You listen. You do a lot of round tables, which I did at almost every site I visited. I met with our top 10 customers by revenue. It’s really about getting some initial credibility, earning their trust, focusing the employee base, and getting to know the customers and what they have to say about the company, about the industry and about the pain points that they have to deal with.”
Over the course of his initial tours through Audatex’s locations, Salfity learned that employees and customers at each location wanted to know exactly how the new company director would strengthen the foundation and lend a sense of stability to the business.
In short, customers and employees always want to know why they should have confidence in you and your ability to lead the company.
“Communication is a bit more than repetition on the same ideas,” Salfity says. “You have to show them something else. What I’ve found is there are a number of customer executives that put my name into a Google search in advance of meeting me. They wanted to know more about me and my accomplishments. What I really had to do was demonstrate that I’ve had a long, stable career with achievements and demonstrated accomplishments in areas relevant to them. I had to show them that while I came from a different industry, it really mirrored the industry I was coming in to.
“Once you’re able to show your customers that you understand their pain points, it’s a much easier conversation where everyone in the room begins to understand what you’re trying to achieve. That’s what starts to build the credibility you’re seeking.”
As you are touring from location to location, you should keep your questions consistent. You do need to tailor your messages to a given audience, but you should also come around to asking every employee the same general questions about their areas of concern and ideas for where to take the business next. In much the same way that a scientific experiment has a control subject, that approach will give you an across-the-board feel for the next steps you need to take in your go-forward plan.
“When you bring your staff together, you should really ask the same three questions of everyone,” Salfity says. “You can only compare answers when you ask the same, exact questions of everyone and get a sense of how they feel on a given topic.”
