One business lesson that Steven Bock has learned to live by is you are only as good as the team you’ve put together to help you lead.
Bock, the co-owner, president and CEO of Rotobrush International LLC, seeks up-and-coming businesspeople who don’t just perform their daily tasks but do so with a team-oriented mindset that helps bolster the culture that Bock has cultivated at Rotobrush.
It’s an approach that has helped Bock grow the indoor air quality solutions provider to 60 employees and eight figures in annual revenue — though the company does not publish specific revenue numbers.
“What I believe is that if a team buys in to the vision and goals, they’ll be more motivated and work harder to accomplish the goals,” Bock says. “I also operate as a mentor, a teacher and motivator. I encourage my team. I give them the tools and support that they need to succeed.”
Smart Business spoke with Bock about how you can hire and develop leaders in your company.
Find the right people. If you find the right person, you work with them to develop their skill sets. Finding the right person is a subject that gets into a number of areas. Some of it is personality-driven, that they’ll fit culturally into the organization. You need team players, people who are open, supportive and respectful of their co-workers. Conversely, if someone is very smart and talented but a poor team player, that is someone you probably wouldn’t want to have in the organization.
No. 2 is looking specifically at experience. I look much harder at not what someone has done but where they’ve been. You can have some nice names on your resume and very narrow experience or take credit for a lot of things that you really weren’t a very integral part of. By contrast, you can have great experience, accomplished a lot of things and added responsibility. You really find all that out through discussion. In the interview process, have a very engaged discussion and get specific about what a person’s experience has been.
The third part is what a person’s goals are, what they want to accomplish, where they want to be down the road. In a company like ours, there is a premium on people who are very ambitious for themselves and for their careers, who are willing to take on responsibility and make things happen and get things done. In other organizations, you might be able to get away with being a more passive player; in a smaller company, you need everyone to be engaged and be a player on the team.
