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Over the past five years, as iContact and Virante have grown, I've learned a lot about managing people. A business amounts to little without the people behind it. The two most important things I look for when hiring are initiative and work ethic. I cannot overestimate the importance to the eventual success of your business of bringing on good people. But once you have hired these good people, how do you manage them?
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I certainly admit that I have much left to learn about leadership and
management, but here are a few tips that might be helpful:
1. Have a vision and communicate it.
Make sure you clearly communicate your
vision for the company. No one follows a leader who cannot communicate the
way in which the company will succeed. The future of all your employees is
tied closely to the success of your company. Make sure they believe in your
company, what it stands for, and its products and services, and make sure
they know that the hard work they are putting in now will payoff.
2. Show
respect.
Treat people, including your customers, suppliers, partners, and
employees, with respect at all times.
3. Share your success.
Make sure your
employees share in the success of your company. As the company is able,
provide additional benefits such as health care and dental coverage, a stock
options plan, and a 401(k) plan. As your employees' skills and abilities
grow, reward them with fair compensation. Finally, consider incentivizing
your top employees and managers with ownership in the company. Few things
can make a person work harder than a piece of the action.
4. Don't be too
serious.
Make the business environment fun at times. While being
professional and taking things seriously is important, nothing can beat the
effects of a companywide midnight round of bowling after you reach an
important milestone, a lunchtime pizza party once a month, or a spontaneous
Nerf-dart duel.
5. Work with your employees.
Make sure the employees see you
there and working with them. No one likes to work hard for someone who
doesn't work hard him -- or herself. Especially early on, be the first to
arrive and the last to leave whenever possible.
6. Keep your door open.
Whether
or not you have your own office yet, keep your "door" open. Make sure your
employees and managers know that you are approachable at any time about any
problem they are having.
7. Listen.
You have built a great team and are paying
top dollar for it. Hold meetings with your management team at least every
other week. Also have frequent informal ad hoc discussions with your
partners, managers, and employees. Get their feedback, discuss the business
and its strategy, and inquire every so often if there is anything that is
frustrating them that you can help with. A few weeks ago I had a quick
spur-of-the-moment meeting with the lead developer for iContact. After
inquiring whether he had any job frustrations, it came out that he felt he
was working in an environment in which he became distracted too often. We
quickly devised a solution whereby he would work at home four hours a day
until we could move into a larger office where the development team could
work in a separate room, away from the distraction of the sales and support
team. This small change has doubled the developer's productivity.
8. Build
relationships.
Without understanding at least the basics of what is
occurring in an employee's out-of-office life, it can be hard to connect
with the person on a professional level. One tactic I've used successfully
to get to know each employee personally is to take the person and his or her
significant other to dinner the first evening of their employment. It serves
as a way to celebrate the occasion as well as learn a little bit about the
employee that would not come out in interviews or through reading a resume.
9. Commend more than you criticize.
Too many business owners (and I have been
guilty of this as well) speak to an employee only when he or she has done
something wrong or something that has negatively affected the company. While
constructive criticism and appropriate guidance have their place, if you
seem to only condemn and never praise, your employees will quickly either
dislike you or show apathy toward their jobs. Continual properly placed
praises can be as powerful in getting quality results from employees as a
large pay raise. Many people thrive on peer and superior recognition just as
much as on money. Instituting an employee-of-the-month award and a quarterly
performance review can be extremely valuable to your company.
10. Consciously
build a culture.
At iContact, we truly are a family. In fact, we call
ourselves the iContact Family. When someone is moving into a new house or
needs a ride home from the airport, we're there to help. We believe in
building people up, not tearing people down. We put people first and have
respect for the individual. We believe that we should work hard and be
innovative, yet maintain a balance in our lives. We believe in not letting
balls drop, and that we're all working together on the same mission. We have
foosball and Ping-Pong tables in our office, free sodas, Bagel Monday, and
monthly birthday celebrations and Outstanding Performance Award ceremonies.
We have a young, dynamic, fun, and innovative culture. It exists because we
have consciously built it.
As a manager and business owner, you are charged
with an immense responsibility. You control the activity and purpose that
your employees dedicate half of their waking hours to. Make your company's
purpose meaningful, communicate your vision, respect and praise your
employees, and share your success. If you can succeed in building a team of
highly motivated and happy employees who take initiative, have a bias toward
action, respect you, and truly care for the business, you will have done
much of the work toward building a strong and fast-growing organization.
The following is an excerpt from the book
Zero to One Million
by Ryan P. Allis
Published by McGraw Hill;
December 2007;
$16.95; 978-0-07-149666-7
Author Ryan P. Allis is CEO of iContact Corp., a venture-backed marketing
and online communications firm that has grown from nothing to over $10
million in annual sales and 80 employees. He is also the Chairman of the web
marketing firm Virante, Inc. For more information on Ryan Allis and Zero to
One Million, visit www.zeromillion.com
June 2008
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