17 / 76
Building a Culture of Cooperation and Shared Trust Together
continued from page 15
Ways for an owner to
self-monitor:
When making a decision relating
to your company, ask yourself, “If
I were sitting with my business
partners or the Production Manager,
CFO and Sales Manager what would
they say about my decision?”
and/or, “If I were a world-class
consultant, hired to help us with
strategy, what would I recommend?”
This approach will help you to find
greater objectivity and to avoid
looking for what you want to see
rather than what is really there.
How to gain even greater clarity:
Actually ask your business partner
and the Sales Manager, Production
Manager and CFO to tell you what
they think.
Stay connected to your employees.
Always test the assumption that
you understand what they see,
mean and believe. Letting someone
get away with flattering you or
going along with your views to gain
political favor instead of giving
you contradictory, unattractive
information when that is what they
really believe is another example of
conflict between self-interest and
company interest – on both sides of
the interaction!
As a leader in your company, it
is crucial for you to value your
employees’ true sense of how well
you understand them. Just because
you think you understand them
does not mean that they believe
you understand them. If they don’t
believe you understand them,
their motivation to perform at the
highest level will not come through.
Furthermore, they will not be
completely upfront. When you need
them to tell you about problems,
they may be reluctant to share their
views because they will suspect that
it will come back unfairly on them
or on someone else.
Most importantly, the people you
manage depend on you to make
good decisions. If they believe that
you are making decisions that
benefit you at the expense of the
welfare of the company, they may
see this as a model to be followed
and you will most likely find that
your company is rooted in a culture
based more on competing self-
interests than on a cooperative
pursuit of company goals.
If you believe you are, in fact,
working in an environment that is
rooted in competing self-interests,
look first at yourself to find where
you might be acting in a biased way
that favors your self-interest at the
expense of company interest before
identifying the conflict in others.
It is my fervent belief that we are in
an age in which the organizations
that figure out how to work openly
and cooperatively with their own
employees are the ones who will
win. Some of the net results for
such companies will be greater
speed of response, fewer mistakes,
more opportunities pursued and an
effectively higher level of motivation
all around. Working together towards
a deeper understanding of what it
really takes to move a company
culture away from competing
interests to a culture based on
cooperation and shared trust is not
easy but if you are willing to look at
yourself and address the issue with
confidence and competence, others
will follow, it will be achieved and
your company will be one of the
winners.
This article will be the first in an
ongoing page for
BoxScore
. I would
like to continue to address the issue
of Building a Company Culture
Based on Cooperation and Shared
Trust with the help of others. I will
conduct interviews and welcome
contributions from members and
associate members that can then be
posted on this page. I will reach out
to those I know who I believe have
great insight and leadership qualities
and I also hope that those of you
who I don’t know, who wish to share
your thoughts on this subject, will
do so as well.
Mark Neely has been a Management,
Sales and Negotiations Trainer
and Consultant for over 20 years.
Currently, while continuing his
independent work in these areas, he
is also Sales, Customer Service and
Design Manager at Leaman Container
in Fort Worth, Texas.
17
BOX
SCORE
AICC 2013 Spring Meeting
& Sales Leaders’
Conference
Hilton Bonnet Creek Resort
Orlando, Florida
“Dynamic Leadership: Cultivate and Develop
Leaders in Your Company”
To register, visit
aiccbox.organd click on the ‘orange’
April 24–26, 2013