Where your customers go, you need to follow, or someone else will be doing business with them, says Tim Seifert, president of
Seifert Cos. His company provides engineering, design and programming services to manufacturers, some of which have spread
their operations across the nation and the globe. In response, Seifert has opened a division in Tennessee to better service
customers that have opened divisions in that state, and 10 of Seifert’s 120 employees work in Nashville, funneling work back to
the company’s headquarters in Massillon. Smart Business spoke with Seifert about how to find employees who can finish the job.
Fix the problem, then ensure it doesn’t happen again. Once we do solve a problem, we like to have an after-action meeting where we discuss
why we had the problem in the first place.
I don’t want to get too hung up on the problem while we’re trying to solve it, but once we’re through with it, we talk about why we had
the problem and what we can do to prevent it from happening again.
If we have a situation, we need to take corrective steps to fix it once we’re back on track.
As you are solving the problem, there’s a lot of action, a lot of activity going on, and that’s what you need to be focused on. That’s not the time
to focus on who, what, where and why.
Keep your eye out for good ideas. Companies come to us every day for ideas on how to make projects more productive, administration more
productive, and a lot of times that means updating the technology.
Sometimes we’re working on a project for a specific client to streamline their operations and we’ll see an interesting process or idea, and we’ll
say, ‘We can use this for our own business.’
Or we’ll create something that works for us that could help other companies, too. Then we can consider it for a customer, if we tweaked
it slightly to fit their needs.
Find employees who can be closers. Most people look great on their own resume. On the initial interview, I’m looking for people that listen
attentively, look you straight in the eye and directly answer your questions. Don’t venture off on subject matter not relative to the question.
I’m also looking for good closers. Many people start out with fire but can never quite finish a project. I’m always looking for people
who can finish a project with the same passion as they start.
Delegate. A good leader needs to be very aware of all things happening in the day-to-day operations. He can’t possibly manage all of these
tasks, but he needs to be ready to provide necessary action when required.
He needs to know the capabilities of his staff, assign the tasks to the appropriate person and have confidence that the task will be completed in a timely manner.
I don’t think I would consider myself a micromanager. We have very capable managers responsible for each segment of our business.
It’s my job to make sure each of these managers are achieving their yearly goals and representing the company in a professional and
productive manner.
Delegation is very important. If I delegate something to the wrong person, it’s not going to get done the best way for the company, so it’s
up to me to delegate the right task to the right individual.
Create a decision-making balance. It’s up to me as president of the company to listen to the managers. We will take a collective vote among the
five managers. But at the end of the day, it comes down to me making the decision on what we implement and what we don’t implement.
Also, we talk about creating a balance for team members to be part of the solution. We get a lot more accomplished when the employees
are part of the solution.
Leaders should find a balance between being open to ideas from others and focusing on what you believe is best for the company. By creating this balance, you allow your team members to be part of the solution.
Empower your employees. I empower my employees by valuing and implementing their ideas that will help make the company more efficient. Some of our best motivators are the yearly goals that we set for all employees.
Setting goals for every employee can make a great difference. It gives you something to shoot for every day, week and month.
Motivation also occurs when the goal is actually met and the incentive is given. It unifies employees and gives them a feeling of accomplishment, like they did something worthwhile today.
We’ve got a business model that automatically tracks our project deficiencies. It’s the main tool we use to measure our goals. I always
say, ‘We can’t improve what we don’t measure.’
If we measure project efficiencies through our business model, that gives us the basis to say, ‘Here’s what we did last year. Let’s do at
least this, but try to do better.’
HOW TO REACH: Seifert Cos., (330) 833-2700 or www.seifert.com
