A leader’s first lesson: respect

Before Randy Nelson, 53, co-founded and ran two big companies (Orion International and NSTAR Global Services), he spent six years in the U.S. Navy, including serving as an officer on a nuclear submarine.

He’s now an entrepreneur and coach in Clayton, N.C., and author of The Second Decision. He advises entrepreneurs in areas such as evaluating risk and advancing from startup phase to growing the organization.

EL: What’s the biggest business lesson you learned from your Navy career?

Nelson: I was young and had 20 to 25 people working for me. The first lesson I learned was as an officer, I had a title. But you still have to earn the respect of your people. You have to understand that they’re great people who also need to respect you. You can’t just bark orders.

EL: How did you earn their respect?  

Nelson: You have to have the support of the people inside your division. There’s a great quote, “The job of a leader is to grow your company and care about your people.” I wanted them to know I cared about their success.

EL: Did you manage employees and Naval recruits the same way?

Nelson: In the military, the officers and the enlisted are separate. Leading businesses, I was accessible to anybody and open about our company. I truly believe I’m no better than anyone else.

EL: Can you give an example of how you ensured you were accessible?

Nelson: On a quarterly basis, I’d ask each of our employees: What should we start doing? What should we stop doing? What should we keep doing? It’s called “Start/Stop/Keep.” Everybody has a voice in the organization.

EL: You met with each employee?

Nelson: I had them email their answers to me. Then I’d go through their emails with all of them in a meeting. I didn’t implement all of their ideas, but I’d go through each one and explain our response. I got a lot of feedback.

EL: What was your response rate?

Nelson: Between 50% and 75% of our employees responded every quarter; I’d chastise them if there weren’t enough ideas. We had a high-accountability culture. People understood it was not a free ride.

EL: Can you describe how you held people accountable?

Nelson: Over my first five years as an entrepreneur, I put systems in place to hold people accountable, including myself. We set up goals aligned from top to bottom. It’s laid out in Verne Harnish’s book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. We’d create a one-page plan that included the organization’s core values and mission, a one-year plan with your key initiatives, quarterly goals and individual goals.

EL: What’s your favorite way to motivate employees?

Nelson: It’s amazing when you call somebody by their first name. Employees look at you in a different light. It’s all part of showing that you care about people. I’m also a big fan of Good to Great by Jim Collins. I got that book for everybody in the organization, and we’d read it as a company, chapter by chapter, every quarter. We’d discuss each chapter, and we set quarterly goals associated with the book.