Knowing all the ins and outs
of your business can give you a big advantage in gaining
the respect of your employees,
says Frank A. Walker.
Walker has been working at
Walker Ford Co. Inc. since he
was in high school, starting in
the body shop and working his
way up through the ranks. And
he says that experience of
learning different aspects of the
business is a key to being a
more effective leader.
“I think on-the-job training is
more important than anything,
any books you could read about
the business,” says Walker, vice
president and general manager
of the car dealership, which
posted 2007 revenue of more
than $70 million. “You have to
really be involved in the business.”
Yet, even though he’s familiar
with every aspect of his business, he can’t do it all himself,
and he has to delegate and trust
those around him to continue
his success.
Smart Business spoke with
Walker about how to share
responsibilities and take the
blame and how to surround
yourself with good people.
Delegate. You’d better be able
to delegate. That’s why you
need good people. My dad
taught me one thing. He said
you can be the best manager
in the world, the best owner,
(but) you better surround
yourself with good people —
it makes you look better. If
you surround yourself with
bad people, it makes you
look worse.
Some things you can’t delegate. Then, there are others
that you can delegate. When
I can delegate, I do delegate.
It’s a chain of command. It
runs down from myself to
Mary, my controller, and
then with the department
heads.
The best thing is to let
them run their department.
That’s what they’re here for.
If you don’t trust them or
you don’t think that they can
run their department, then
they shouldn’t be working at
the company. So, it’s a lot of
trust involved.
If you hand something off
to somebody else and they
don’t get it done for you,
then you’ve got to re-evaluate that person — what you
are going to give him from
now on in that aspect. But,
you better be comfortable
giving it to somebody.
Now, if I hand off something to somebody and they
drop the ball, I always say,
‘You put this one on the front
burner.’ That means, ‘That’s
important; get it done.’
I constantly follow up,
though. I don’t wait. I’m kind
of like a hyper person. I run
fast. This is a high-speed
business. It changes every
day.
So, basically when you
have somebody that you
hand off to and he drops the
ball, I have them come into
my office and shut the door
and tell him why I’m disappointed and let’s not let it
happen again.
We all make mistakes. But,
my motto here is, ‘Let’s not
make the same mistake
twice.’ It’s better to have
that employee behind closed
doors because it demeans
that person in front of other
employees, and it’s very
embarrassing.
