When Dan Neyer turned his attention toward a greener vision for his company, he knew a solo approach wouldn’t get him far. Even though he says a vision starts inside the leader, employees are vital to achieving it.
“Ask your employees and get input from them,” says Neyer, founder and president of commercial real estate and development firm Neyer Properties Inc. “Because ultimately, the ability to have a vision that comes to reality is not one person. It’s really a collective body.”
The key is to get input and secure a shared goal, which Neyer does this through individual conversations with his 20 employees. This personal attention continues through the vision’s fulfillment as he helps employees tie their goals to the corporate outlook, leading the company to 2008 revenue of $50 million.
Smart Business spoke with Neyer about how to get your employees’ input to gain their buy-in and achieve success.
Get employee input on the vision. What we have done in the past is we have involved every employee in the process. We’ve had a couple half-day exercises where we go through what we’ve accomplished to date, the typical SWOT analysis — the strengths, the weaknesses, opportunities, threats — where we see where we’re going. But then have an open discussion, which helps get the buy-in because they’re part of the vision instead of being told what the vision is.
We collectively come up with a vision that everyone can endorse and support, and it’s a vision further than most people want to accept initially. The goal is to convince them that we need to go beyond our own perceived limitations to achieve a greater vision than they could see themselves.
I can do that by myself, but effectively, I need buy-in from everybody around me because if you don’t buy in, it’s not going to happen.
