Inphonic
Listen to people and make them feel like part of a team.
“One of the most powerful leadership techniques that I’ve learned over the course of my career is to listen to people and make them feel like part of a team. Far too often, companies make employees feel like a cog in a larger machine and do not use the wealth of experience and knowledge they have under their own roof to develop innovative new business techniques and ideas.
“Early in building InPhonic, it was such a small team that it was important to solicit ideas and feedback from the entire staff in order to strengthen the business and identify new opportunities. This also helped to build an open culture of shared ideas and ownership in which everyone was welcome to participate.
“It led to some early innovations in the business model and the development of a strong corporate culture that empowered people to participate. One-on-one face time with employees and the ability to listen gives me feedback and perspective on the company that I otherwise would not see day to day from the office of the CEO.
“As a busy executive, it is difficult sometimes to make time for everyone. One of the ways that I do this is by holding a meeting every week with a different group within the company. This scheduled time gives me a chance to sit down and talk with employees and go through some things that are going on specific to their groups and get some valuable feedback on different initiatives or challenges. It is also an opportunity to brainstorm new ideas for different parts of the organization that I no longer manage directly, as we’ve grown into a larger company. This time helps everyone to feel like their voices are heard and gives me an opportunity to keep in touch with the employees on a regular basis.
“Reserving face time with employees is important, but just as critical is honing your listening skills to make the most of those increasingly precious opportunities. The key to effective listening is ensuring that when you speak with someone, that person has your total focus. This means being careful not to look at e-mail, pagers, and other devices. In fact, it often makes sense to speak with someone in a conference room or someplace outside your office to avoid these typical distractions.
“Another invaluable leadership tool is mentorship—from top to bottom-throughout an organization. Not only do effective leaders mentor their key people, but they also continue to learn from their mentors, no matter how successful they’ve been. I’ve been able to draw immeasurably from the experience of John Sculley, who in addition to being InPhonic’s first outside investor, a board member, and now vice chairman of the company, has been extremely generous with his time and has mentored me in every sense of the term. His experiences in business, as well as in life, have given me invaluable perspective.
“I suggest creating a formal mentoring program within the company that allows managers to meet one-on-one from time to time with higher level executives to bounce ideas off them and get advice. This does not have to be an executive that the manager works with on a regular basis. In fact, it’s probably better if it’s not, because that person can then provide more objective advice.
“If yours is a smaller company and there is a shortage of senior executives, managers should take it upon themselves to establish a relationship with someone in their local business community that can advise them on general business manners. This knowledge from an established business practitioner can be invaluable to a manager.”