Helping employees help you

Set the pace for your culture. Most people are reluctant, particularly if they’ve come from an organization where that wasn’t the culture. Culture takes time to develop; you don’t turn on a light switch and say, ‘OK, now we have a new culture.’ Over time, you open the door to communication.

I’ve done it by sometimes revealing things about myself — not necessarily terribly intimate but just admitting your own mistakes. I usually let people know that I have made a lot of mistakes and I’m not going to kill anybody for making a mistake.

[When someone makes a mistake], I might find an opportunity to talk casually and maybe mention that I did that the same thing once and this is how I went about changing it or this is what I learned from it. Making somebody feel bad doesn’t do anybody any good and doesn’t help the organization.

It’s just letting people know that you’ve got their back as much as expecting them to have your back. If they do make a mistake, you know what? We’ve made the mistake together because we’re a team, and we’re going to fix it together, and we’re going to figure out how to move on together.

It’s passing down credit. Pushing credit for successes down into the organization — and not owning credit yourself — breeds more success.

Make yourself approachable. We’re big believers in the five-minute walk around the office rule. You get as much accomplished by stopping in and asking someone how their weekend was and leaning against their doorway as you do in formal meetings.

I try to remember their kids’ names. If they don’t have kids, I try to remember their pets’ names. That’s what’s important to people. It breaks down barriers when you use people’s names as opposed to just, ‘How’s the kid?’ or something.

I just try to, without being intrusive and certainly not asking anything about anybody’s personal life, sometimes share something about my weekend, which would make somebody open up more about their weekend.

I’m actually a very private person and my nature is to be very introverted. But part of my job is to be more of an extrovert, so that’s something that I work at very diligently: to try to be open. It can be whatever we did over the weekend; it can be a restaurant that was good, anything that just breaks down barriers and makes you human.

It comes from practice. It also comes from having people around you that you trust, which I’m very fortunate to have. You put yourself out there and you force yourself to be in positions where you may not be totally comfortable. But it’s part of the learning. It’s part of challenging yourself.

How to reach: CNLBank, (561) 961-2460 or www.cnlbank.com