Ask employers what kind of person they'd like to hire, and
you'll hear some familiar phrases: "A go-getter."
"A self-starter." "Someone who can take the ball and
run with it." Now you've hired an employee that fits the
bill, and things aren't going so smoothly. What's the
problem?
Steve Seiden thinks he knows. Seiden is CEO and director of
marketing at Acquired Data Solutions Inc., an 11-employee
engineering contracting firm in Alexandria, Virginia. He recalls
hiring one ambitious, confident and independent-minded employee.
"He wanted to figure out [the job] on his own," Seiden,
34, says. So Seiden let him do his own thing, thinking he could
handle it.
As time went on, however, Seiden noticed that the employee
wasn't working out. The independent thinker set his own
deadlines and used valuable time researching project manuals rather
than bouncing problems off co-workers for quick answers.
Seiden's $1 million company was billing projects by the hour,
and the employee's independence was becoming a bane to repeat
business--the lifeblood of any start-up. Eventually, Seiden began
to micromanage the employee. "It was a bad decision,"
Seiden says. "It was difficult for him to understand."
The relationship was over within a few months.
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Had Seiden made a mistake? "[Independent thinkers] need to
feel they're in charge of what they do, when they do it and how
they do it," says Barbara Moses, president of BBM Human
Resource Consultants Inc. in Toronto and author of The Good News
About Careers: How You'll Be Working in the Next Decade
(Jossey-Bass), which contains information about various employee
work styles. "The worst thing you can do is try to control
them."
Results Are in
So how do you manage and motivate an employee who is working for
you but needs to control his or her job? Focus on the ends and not
the means. "Give these people macrostructure, not
microstructure," Moses says. Talk about the milestones you
want to reach, but let the employee decide how to get there. Other
gestures, such as allowing employees to decide on the pace for
reporting and planning sessions, also help make them feel
empowered.
The control issue is often daunting for entrepreneurs. Daniel
Miller, 41, has started two companies and now runs a third called
BizTank LLC, a Sarasota, Florida, strategic planning firm that
works with start-ups. He remembers employing an independent
salesperson when he started his first company in the 1990s. "I
was threatened by him doing his own thing," he says. "It
took several months for us to reach a balance."
Miller should have sat down with the employee right off to
discuss roles and expectations and how often they would
communicate. Once they finally did, the work went more smoothly.
"To do this all upfront is challenging," he says.
"But if you [do], everyone knows how much control and
flexibility they have. Within structure, there's
freedom."
When creating that structure, assign small amounts of
responsibility and increase them quickly as employees prove they
can handle it, says Jana Matthews, president and CEO of Boulder
Quantum Ventures in Boulder, Colorado, and co-author of Leading
at the Speed of Growth: Over 500 Entrepreneurs Reveal the Secrets
of Successful Leadership and Sustained Growth (Hungry Minds).
Make sure workers understand they're a part of a team, not
desperados riding the entrepreneurial range. Matthews suggests
praising them for their independence and rewarding them for their
sense of teamwork when they keep everyone in the loop.
What's Your
Motivation?
Your independent employee will force you to confront your own
delegation style, so know where you fall on the scale. Your level
of delegation may be the simple "just keep me in the
loop" or you may want daily progress reports. You may need to
change your style to avoid conflicts and work more effectively with
an independent worker.
And don't be skimpy with feedback. Just like everyone else,
independent employees want to know how they're doing. Seiden
has learned to ease them into the job to see how they develop
relationships before letting them spread their wings. Then he takes
a hands-off approach, checking in once a week and staying focused
on results. "It's how you create the checks and balances
that let you understand how they're performing," says
Seiden. But once you get it, managing your independent go-getter
may be one of your most satisfying management experiences.
Chris Penttila is a freelance journalist in the Chapel Hill,
North Carolina, area. Contact her at chris@sitting-duck.com.
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Originally published in the June 2002 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine