Jeffrey Foreman is never too far from his BlackBerry. So if one of his lawyers who is working from home calls him with an urgent question in the middle of the night, he’s accessible.
Foreman, president and one of the founding partners of Maltzman Foreman PA, strives to make himself approachable. To do that, he’s torn down the ivory tower that sometimes separates employees from their leaders.
“As soon as you start isolating yourself from your employees, then you become vulnerable,” says Foreman, who guided the law firm to 2008 revenue of $6 million.
Foreman gets on the same level as his 45 employees by holding himself to the same expectations, staying accessible and interacting socially outside of the office.
Additionally, when there’s a dispute, Foreman avoids stepping in to dictate the resolution. Instead, he lets employees handle it themselves.
Through it all, he maintains an environment of open communication at the firm.
Smart Business spoke with Foreman about how to knock down the walls of hierarchy and be approachable to your employees.
Lead by example. First of all, we show them the vision and show that it’s achievable and show them our achievements. [I do this by] leading by example and never asking an employee to do something that I wouldn’t do myself. If I’m not willing to do it myself, then I shouldn’t expect others to do it. If I expect somebody to bill 2,000 hours, then I’m going to bill 2,000 hours.
So by me setting the bar, it shows that that bar can be accomplished by somebody. I’m not asking somebody to do something that’s incapable of being accomplished, and I show that by doing it myself.
I’m not going to not come into work or bill no time and expect my employees to do all the work. It makes it hard to ask them to do something and creates resentment.
So when you have a new employee, if they were to say, ‘Well, I can’t bill that many hours,’ you say, ‘Well, you can because I do it, and everybody else here does it.’
Keep the lines of communication open. I have an open-door policy. I am accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except if I’m on an airplane when I don’t have access to my phone or BlackBerry. Anybody that works with me knows that they can pretty much get me. As long as somebody’s not calling me at 2 in the morning to say hello but they’re calling me at 2 in the morning because they have a question that’s work-related, I don’t mind being woken up if I happen to be sleeping.
To have a successful firm that is essentially dealing with clients around the world, I recognize that you have to be accessible and sometimes provide answers at any hour of the day.
