Appreciation: The Great Energy Booster
“When people are feeling good about themselves, they begin to feel good about others as well.” ― Jack Stack, The Great Game of Business: The Only Sensible Way to Run a Company
Why break people down when you can build them up and achieve better results? The energy of a business is palpable upon entering the building. People are either high energy or low. They are either looking for ways to be helpful or averting eye contact. Unfortunately, more often than not eye aversion is the reaction to a new person entering their work-space. Is that what you want your customers, investors, lenders or friends to feel when they walk into your office?
In all my years investing in companies or helping them raise capital for growth, I have found that the easiest way to determine the quality of the leader is to walk the floor and notice how the employees react. This realization began by observing a great culture of teamwork as a kid.
My brother and I were very lucky as kids. Our father was a consultant and gave us the gift of being able to tour many of the businesses he worked with. We had the chance to a wide variety of them including the largest CAT dealership in Florida, a small sticker manufacturing facility, a massive musical instrument retailing operation, and a concrete pipe manufacturing plant. However, it was walking the floor of the Discount Auto Parts distribution facility with the then CEO, Peter Fountain, that has been engrained in my mind to this day as a benchmark for cultures of engagement. At the time, Discount Auto Parts was a public company with hundreds of stores spread across the Southeast. Dad, who was on the board at the time, arranged for us to have a tour of the plant and spend time with the CEO.
The distribution center was the biggest warehouse I had ever seen. There were automated packaging lines, stocked shelves multiple stories high, and hundreds of people buzzing around everywhere on forklifts, or working on the lines sorting and boxing inventory. It was a hornet’s nest of perfectly choreographed activity. However, what impressed me most? Everyone was smiling! At least in my young teenage mind they were. As we walked around the floor, Peter said “Hello” to every employee we encountered, BY NAME! The CEO of this large public company would ask a woman boxing up spark plugs, “how was your vacation last week?” Her face would explode with joy from his remembering. The place was alive with happy team members engaged in their work.
I didn’t know it then, but that distribution facility would become the weather vane for how I judge the quality of a company’s leadership team. As I began my career in investment banking and private equity, I quickly realized how incredibly rare it is to find a place like Discount Auto Parts. Too many companies that I’ve visited since have elicited an ambiance as though someone had walked around before I arrived telling, them to avert their eyes — as though the devil was coming. I’ve also come to observe as an investor that one of the greatest triggers for improving effectiveness and increasing profitability is creating a work environment like Discount Auto Parts did.
It takes work to recognize and show people that you appreciate them. But it creates an environment of enthusiastic employees eager to do their best, and a foundation for you to build more effective teams. The Father of American Psychology, William James, famously wrote, “The deepest principle of human nature is a craving to be appreciated.” Appreciation and recognition go a long way in changing your culture from low to high energy. Take the time to show your employees that they matter, then watch the energy levels rise in your workplace.
Enjoy the Journey!
