When Brigitte Peleman-Vantieghem brought
her family’s company from Belgium to the U.S. in
1998, she was sure the company’s Unibind brand binding, laminating and presentation products would find a niche in
America.
“It’s very important to see the
sky as the limit,” she says.
“Don’t panic or be afraid.”
Peleman Industries Inc. has
prospered in the U.S. and worldwide, as well.
The U.S. operation has grown
to 80 employees, and Peleman’s
products are available in 110
countries.
Smart Business spoke with
Peleman-Vantieghem about how
to build a great team and why
you need to be consistent.
Q. What are the keys to
effective leadership?
It comes down to knowing
your weaknesses. Then surround yourself with the best
people you can find in your
field. Make sure that they are
the best in that, in your
weakness.
For example, if you do not do
very well in procedures, especially in writing the procedures,
make sure you have a very high-profile person who is very, very
good with procedures.
That is how I try to surround
myself with people who are
absolutely much better than I
am in any weakness that I have.
Q. How do you find good
people for your management
team?
I have incredible HR recruiters.
First, they always want to make
sure they fit. It’s easy to find
people with the right resume.
But they must fit in the culture
of the company.
We’re a family-owned company, and we really act as a company. So it’s not always purely
business, and it’s not always
purely rational. The HR people,
they know this. Yes, a resume is
very important. But then, once
you start asking questions in the
interview, it is usually 40 to 60
percent.
And with any person put in
our organization, I always make
sure that, before they start, I
explain the strategy and
mission and make sure
they understand the values of this company.
So that is how we make
sure I find the right people
for the executive team.
Even if (the new employee) is three levels down
from you, the executive,
make sure before they
start they understand the
mission, vision and values.
The values are very
important because, over
the years, I’ve found you
fire a person for who he
really is, for which values
he carries. He can be the
best, can have X amount
of master’s degrees, he
can be the best person
there is in that field. But if he
doesn’t respect your values, it
doesn’t work in the long term.
Q. How do you determine
if a candidate will fit in your
culture?
We would ask him open questions. ‘What is the ideal company you would work for?’ We ask
about the relationship they
would like to have with their
peers. ‘If you make a decision, is
it purely rational? If you fire
someone, is it purely rational?’
You really want to know how
he sees relationships within a
company and not only with
employees but also with suppliers. For example, if he always
answers, ‘I will always take
rationality,’ what if a person
doesn’t show up in a company?
We had this happen a couple
times recently. One of the managers says, ‘You can’t just show
up at 12 o’clock.’ We couldn’t
find the person. My guide has
always been there must be
something tremendous. You
can’t just let people go; you have to leave them at least three
days. Some manager says, ‘He’s
new; he shouldn’t be doing
things like this.’ Well, you hired
him; is he capable of doing it?
Actually, his father just died.
You understand this person is
very rational. I’m trying to say, ‘I
understand you’re rationale, but
we’re family. Let’s make sure we
understand the reasons behind
it.’ On Monday, he called us back
and explained about his father,
and we said, ‘OK, no problem.’
