If Tony Panzica gives you a job, he trusts you to do it, so he won’t be coming around to check up on you every few minutes.
Instead of worrying about checking on every detail of what his employees are doing, the president and CEO of Panzica
Construction Co. trusts that the systems built into the construction management and general contracting company will tell him
when people aren’t performing. Instead, he spends his time finding new ways to push the $135 million company forward. By
freeing up his schedule to allot more time to visit job sites and talk with employees and clients, he’s learned how to keep growth
consistent while also keeping his 150 employees happy. Smart Business spoke with Panzica about why it’s important to put
people first and how a few hors d’oeuvres can get employees to open up.
Make employees priority No. 1. We are very
concerned about people and what
makes them happy and what makes their
families happy. If you don’t have happy
employees, they can’t produce, so I’m
very concerned about their allocation of
time. I try to force them to go home at a
reasonable time to spend time with their
children, so that the next day they can
come back fresh, and they’re ready to go
again.
Every leader ought to have the ability
to empathize with people and see things
through others’ eyes. If you are not able
to empathize with them, you can’t understand what their problems are, and you
can’t work with them to grow.
I try to be very flexible with employees;
if they find they have to be with their
families or take care of a personal issue,
I let them take the time. Employees are
your most important resource, so you
motivate them by trying to make them
understand that you understand their
needs and are sensitive to their needs.
From when they first begin, I usually
step in their office or ask them to come
to lunch, so that I get a chance to get to
know them a little better. I reinforce the
concept that I’m here to talk about any
issue that they have, and I’d rather know
about it before than after. If you reinforce that kind of message enough, they
usually accept it pretty well.
Trust your staff members enough not to baby-sit
them. Once someone is hired, I trust them
to do what they do. They say, ‘Well, how
will you know if I’m doing my job?’
It doesn’t take long for a client or
another leader to tell me that something
has gone wrong. I don’t have to sit there
and baby-sit you, and, if I do, I shouldn’t
have hired you in the first place.
What’s very important is that most
employees will say, ‘A job is a job, and
it’s not what I’d choose to do all the time,
but since I have to do it, I want something that makes me feel fulfilled as a
person.’ You can fulfill people’s needs by
empowering them and letting them take charge of their own destiny, rather than
interfering with their day-to-day operations.
There are many companies that get
overinvolved in the day-to-day operations, and they interfere too much. I
don’t need to interfere with you because
you’re here to do a job, and if you’re not
able to do it, it will show.
Get more information during interviews with job
candidates. I ask open-ended questions
that lead them to tell me a little bit more
about themselves without me probing.
I’ll ask them questions about what their
interests are, and people usually open
up.
They don’t usually just say golf, they’ll
say, ‘My son plays baseball, and we like
to do this or that,’ and then you can usually find out a little bit more about them.
Take staff meetings off-site for better feedback.
We go to a local restaurant and just sit
down and order hors d’oeuvres and
maybe a beer or something at the end of the day. We just open up and allow them
to tell me what issues are bothering
them about projects, and what I’ve found
is, getting them away from the office
atmosphere, when the projects are completed and they don’t have to run someplace, they’re usually pretty open, and
they tell me things.
And many times, after that meeting is
over, I will find that one or two of them
will want to stay on a little bit longer and
say, ‘You know, I’m really having a problem with this superintendent,’ or, ‘These
resources weren’t available.’ That’s how
I find out things; if I can get them out of
the atmosphere that they work in day to
day, they’re usually a little bit more open.
Be where clients can see you. The biggest
challenge in the major growth side is trying to get people to accept your capabilities. As you grow, it’s hard to get
(clients) to trust you to move on to more
difficult and more involved projects
because many people say, ‘You haven’t
done this before, so I don’t want to give
you the chance to do it here and learn.’
The only way you are going to be able
to do that is persistence. As a leader, you
have to show clients quality and that
your performance is of the utmost capability.
I’m on every job we have at least once
a week. That’s helpful because the field
employees don’t really get a chance to
see management very much at most
places, so when they see somebody that
actually cares enough to be there once a
week, and when clients see that, they
say, ‘This is a pretty interested leader;
he’s actually here checking things out
himself.’
That’s where the personal touch with
every client is very important. They
know that if they see me on the job every
week, there’s a relationship, and they
can pick up the phone and call me to
resolve a problem.
HOW TO REACH: Panzica Construction Co., (440) 442-4300 or
www.panzica.com
