“Be transparent to create a fantastic work culture” with Zaheer Dodhia

Be transparent. There is nothing scarier than being kept in the dark. Likewise, nothing appeal to them more than your call for their help. It’s human nature to respond to distress call. If your company needs employees to pitch in, then you’ll have to be clear what is expected, what is required for the company to work, and what your company can do for them. Define roles, responsibilities, and more importantly what they will get out of it.

As a part of my series about how leaders can create a “fantastic work culture”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Zaheer Dodhia is a serial entrepreneur who has more than twenty years of experience under his belt in branding for small business. A first generation Pakistani immigrant, Dodhia believes in inculcating learning and exploring new ideas among employees in his organization and beyond, like he does himself. He has a positive and gung-ho attitude towards life and work. His aim is to help small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs to spearhead their enterprises successfully through creative branding, one logo at a time.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Survival.

Born in a country with a population of 60 million at the time, all I could think of while growing up was how to survive — from poverty, illiteracy, and obscurity. When you are cornered like that, you tend to develop creative approaches to deal with what life throws at you.

I was a middle child of an average income family, destined to be nobody among five brothers and sisters. But I didn’t want to become a “nobody”.

Fighting against adversaries became second nature. Charging ahead and getting my opinion heard was my everyday aim. I was determined not to become invisible but didn’t know how to. I had an inkling of an idea that I didn’t want to enter the 9-to-5 rat race.

What really turned things around was when I joined business school. It opened up my mind to the possibilities and my potential to beat the odds.

I realized that what I really wanted was to become my own boss, and the only way to do that was to start a business. I didn’t have the capital so I had to find a business model that required less startup cost. Someone suggested to go online. Farfetched but worth a shot!

Now this was way back in the 1990s in Pakistan when even having internet connection was expensive, let alone having an office with staff members. I had no IT background, no idea what the online world was like; just a business education and my sense of survival.

Yet, I poured my meager savings — earned from doing odd jobs, pocket money and borrowed some from my rich classmates — into my first startup. It was a website traffic analytics tool, my first “software”, and I never looked back.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

My first employee was a web developer who created the software. My second employee was a content writer, who’s now my wife.

Of course I didn’t know that at the time. Years later, I realized that sticking together through thick and thin is not only a great recipe for marriage but for work as well.

Leadership doesn’t mean being THE boss; it’s the ability to motivate your team members to stick with your company’s vision, the promise of shared success, and willingness to grow together.

Are you working on any exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?

In fact, yes. LogoDesign.net is my new baby. It’s a DIY logo software that allows users to create logos on the go and download instantly.

The tool is intuitive, professional like a graphic design software but much easier to use. It has many exciting features like gradient, drop shadows, opacity etc. that you’d love to play with to create unique logo designs.

The best thing about this tool is that startup owners like bloggers, webmasters, solopreneurs and even work-at-home moms can afford to have a professional logo design for their enterprise.

I’m experimenting with branding like stationery and marketing materials right now. It’s in beta stage but you can check it out.

The idea is to provide complete branding solution for startups and small businesses at affordable pricing and make it accessible. I’ve been there so I know how it feels to have a faceless business.

Ok, lets jump to the main part of our interview. According to this study cited in Forbes, more than half of the US workforce is unhappy. Why do you think that number is so high?

I think overall, the US workforce is unhappy because everything is scaled for mass production, unfortunately that includes employees. A large organization scaled for mass production will have multiple layers of commands (team leads, managers, directors etc.), which make it difficult to tackle a growing dynamic workforce.

Moreover, a workforce’s perception of satisfaction and happiness depend on leadership, culture within the organization, national work culture, and policies etc. While it’s easy to pin-point who’s unhappy and who’s not, it’s much more difficult to build a happy workforce.

A work culture comes from inside out, and then outside in. Meaning, it starts with a small social unit operating with others within the same organization to create a cohesive whole work environment. All these social units of course form from people who’ve learned how to behave, interact and work together from their previous jobs, workplace and/or social-economic backgrounds.

So, I would say the high percentage of unhappy workforce comes from national policy makers as well as leaders in organizations. They’re the ones who shape attitude towards work, productivity goals and social interaction behaviors. That’s why we see there are some organizations which achieve high happiness level (Keller Williams Realty for example) while others low (The Fresh Market).

Based on your experience or research, how do you think an unhappy workforce will impact a) company productivity b) company profitability c) and employee health and wellbeing?

Drastic I would say.

An unhappy workforce will not be motivated to work, period. For them going “to work” is synonymous with going “to while away the hours”. So instead of 8 man-hours to do a job, you’ll get only, say 2–3 hours maximum, of work done. You’ll have to hire more people to do work because you need to achieve your targets and goals.

Hiring people means increasing costs which will eat away your profitability. And if targets, deadlines and goals are not met, you’ll be losing out on sales, which will again impact your profitability.

When organizational leaders see their bottom-line undermined, the first thing that they think of is cutting costs, especially cutting down on resources, which they shouldn’t have hired in the first place.

Then there is the firing and layoffs, which have a deeper psychological impact on employees than leaders realize. Employees feel insecure, scared, and mistrust management, especially their immediate reporting managers who have to do the actual cutting down. That’s why you see in the Forbes article that employees distrust their managers the most.

Can you blame them?

Can you share 5 things that managers and executives should be doing to improve their company work culture? Can you give a personal story or example for each?

Like I mentioned earlier, work culture come from inside-out and outside-in. If you are a concerned manager who wants to make a change, then you’ll have to change from within first. You can start with these:

Talk to your employees. It’s simple as that. Just have a talk with them, letting them know that you are approachable for anything that they need to say. From their insecurities to their dislike of the work they do or something as stupid as the bathroom door doesn’t lock properly. It shows that you care about them, human to human.

For example, my company has a backend office in Pakistan while I operate out of the U.S. There is a great divide in time zone, culture, and leadership. I make it a habit that whenever I visit, I meet up with every single employee, instead of just the usual department heads.

Work the grapevine. You’ll be surprised how much you can glean from the grapevine. And you’ll be even more surprised, men gossip more than women. So, the next time you want to know the company vibes, just plug in via a trusted source.

Demonstrate you mean it. It’s all good to talk and listen but you’ll also need to take action. When your team members come to talk to you, don’t ignore them. Take time out, listen and take action. Follow up on the situation, and ask if you have allayed their concerns.

For example, once an employee came up and told me there was no prayer space for female employees. Now you must understand that religion is of high importance in Pakistan, and female low priority. Moreover, males and females don’t interact that freely. So I had to balance the two without disturbing the male population. By merely creating a common room where females can pray, interact, and have lunch in private, kind of met their prayers, so to speak.

Introduce something new. For change to happen, you need to introduce the change first. There are plenty of “firsts” for every company. Take your pick.

You can create a culture of happiness with fun activities. Or, you could change a policy that was a pain point for everyone but you were just following it because it was created by HR. The point is to make a change and stick to it. Give cause for employees and everyone else to commit to the change, and thereby have a common goal to achieve.

Be transparent. There is nothing scarier than being kept in the dark. Likewise, nothing appeal to them more than your call for their help. It’s human nature to respond to distress call. If your company needs employees to pitch in, then you’ll have to be clear what is expected, what is required for the company to work, and what your company can do for them. Define roles, responsibilities, and more importantly what they will get out of it.

For example anyone in my company will testify to the fact that I’m honest to the extent of brutality. But I make sure that they understand I can’t do this without their participation. In return, they’ll get what they have been promised.

It’s very nice to suggest ideas, but it seems like we have to “change the culture regarding work culture”. What can we do as a society to make a broader change in the US workforce’s work culture?

Change the policy to change attitude towards work.

In a country where employees are distrustful towards bosses, scared to take vacation time, and generally unhappy with work, the stakeholders should be concerned and take action.

I would suggest changing the policy to encourage corporate leaders to make changes in their organizations. These policies should aim at supporting and empowering employees. We can learn from the Nordic countries which are considered some of the top happiest countries of the world.

Once leaders are comfortable with supporting their employees without incurring losses, they’d be more willing to make changes within their organizations. For example, having national funding to include daycare for women; medical benefits for dental and mental health; cutting work hours to facilitate work-life balance etc.

How would you describe your leadership or management style? Can you give us a few examples?

I would like to think myself as a democratic leader, not sure though. Regardless of the label, I like to share my decisions, by allowing my teams to help me learn, evaluate and make informed decisions. It’s easier that way because they’re the experts in their domains.

So, if I need to change a sales process, I would consult the Sales Head of Department, then talk to the salespersons to get the practical and theoretical feel of the situation. Making decisions this way also encourages employees to have a say in the change process, thereby making them the change agent. It’s easier to introduce change when employees are more receptive towards it.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I would credit my wife, Hala, in this. She’s worked just as hard to build this company as I have. And to be honest, I’ve learned quite a few things in leadership and employee management from her.

Since she’s been with me from ground zero, she knows the organization inside out. Sometime when I tend towards old school decision making, she’s the one who guides me to think differently, and as a result indirectly brought about changes in the company, in terms of fair treatment, supportiveness, and empathy.

If it hadn’t been for her, I would have made quite a few regrettable mistakes.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Success is subjective.

What I consider success may not be perceived the same by others. I don’t like to brag but in small ways I have tried to be a generous and reasonable leader.

Whenever, a person needs a personal favor with a job, I try my best to accommodate.

When there is a need for financial support, I provide it without question.

When there is call for flexibility in work timings, I allow it.

When someone shoots an idea for a startup, I support and fund it.

That’s the reason why you’d see I’m associated with so many projects. I like to think I’m bringing goodness to the world one project at a time.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Keeping your cool at the workplace is almost impossible when your company is growing every day. You have to make critical decisions every moment with clients, prospects, vendors, consultants, employees, and freelancers. Of course I’m bound to lose it but there is one quote that I always think of when this happens before I take a deep breath and count to ten: “If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?” (Rumi).

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Change often starts at the micro level, and the best place to start is at home.

I’m not aiming for anything high but my belief is this: if I could ensure that every employee is mentally satisfied, learning at work, and eager to experiment with a project I’m willing to support it; then I’ve done something right.

After all, if I’ve some part in helping them develop a unique sustainable idea and channel it to their network, then think how many people will get exposed to so many great ideas?

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you continued success!