Patrick Henry likes to see people smile,
especially when they are sitting in
front of his desk with the hope of getting a job at Patrick Henry Creative
Promotions Inc.
That’s because the founder, president
and CEO of the food and beverage marketing agency believes that positive
employees who are confident in
their work help breed a positive
culture at his company.
“Whether it’s criticism or it’s correcting them on something, I
always put a positive twist to it,”
Henry says. “The more critical you
are of an employee, the more
turned off they get. Most of the
time, that’s when they go out and
start interviewing somewhere
else.”
Henry has used this philosophy
to lead his 31-employee company to 2006 sales of $14 million.
Smart Business spoke with
Henry about how being
knocked down a notch or two
really makes you appreciate the
good days.
Q: How do you empower
employees?
If anything goes haywire with
a client or if anything happens
that is not in the best interest of
us or if we have anybody upset
with us, I am the first one to
pick up the phone and call
them and tell them we will
make it right. We will do the right thing,
and I will back the employee 110 percent
— good or bad.
They know if they are doing the right
thing, we’re behind them 100 percent. They
know if they make a mistake, we’re still
behind them 100 percent. It gives them a
much more confident level in their working ability.
It’s very easy to criticize. I know being
the president and CEO of this company,
anything I say, they will take to the bank.
I’m very careful what I say to them. When
you criticize somebody, you do it behind
the doors, one on one. When you praise
them, I firmly believe you do it front of the
whole group.
Q: How do you encourage constructive
criticism?
I eat lunch with them every day. I eat
lunch in the office, and we’ll eat lunch
together. You get to a comfortable level. It’s
not a trust factor; I trust everybody in this
company.
It’s a level that you get to with people —
people that you know are going to do what
is in the best interest of the company and
not themselves or someone else. If you just
say yes because you think that’s the right
answer and the easy answer, then you’re
not doing anyone any good. I’m my biggest
critic. I tell them, ‘If I’m not doing what’s
right for the company, if you don’t think
this is a good decision, you need to tell me.’
Q: How do you deal with failure?
Failure makes you a better person, no
matter what you do. I played sports when
I was a kid. In sports, you fail a lot. I struck
out a bunch of times in baseball and
dropped a lot of passes and missed a lot of
basketball shots.
You might miss 10 shots at basketball, but
you’ll remember the best shot you made
that day. When it comes to failure, there is
nothing wrong with that. It makes a better
person. I’ve always told everybody, you’ve
got to fail a few times. You have to be
knocked down a notch or two to
really appreciate the good days.
Q: Why are performance reviews
important?
At our employee outing, we
asked people, ‘What would you
like to do to improve the company?’ It was overwhelming how
everyone wanted a review and
wanted to know where they stood.
We are now doing quarterly
reviews. When we did them for the
first time, we found that everybody
was so appreciative. At the same
time, we lost a couple people
because their reviews were not
good, and they were definitely
offended by their reviews. They
thought they had done a great job.
Overall, they had done a good job.
Some people will take a review
and run with it and do a better job
performing for you and take it as
positive criticism. And you’ve got
people that are thin-skinned and
can’t accept criticism. As much as
you don’t want to lose them, you’re
going to be better off.
Q: What is the key to a healthy client
relationship?
The first thing we said the day before we
left on the Fourth of July was, ‘Will you e-mail or call at least 10 of your clients and
wish them a happy Fourth?’ Don’t even talk
work. Don’t bring one thing up about work.
I always preach here, ‘Don’t just call the
client for work.’ Call the client every once
in awhile and say, ‘Hey, how are you
doing?’ It just builds great relationships. It’s
not all about work.
HOW TO REACH: Patrick Henry Creative Promotions Inc., (281)
983-5500 or www.phcp.com
