Maxim Donde, LLK-International (LUKOIL), General Director
In our company an instant feedback is accepted as a standard practice. Possibly, it is my weaker side as an executive, but I never keep anything inside me. On the other hand we manage to avoid situations when a person thinks everything is ok because he is not told anything bad, but then to his great surprise he suddenly findes out he is fired.
Any problem that arises immediately becomes a subject of communication within the company, and that is our significant strength. Surely, a candid remark can hurt people, but we are engaged in business and a timely feedback often can be very useful not only for a company, but for a person as well.
I remember a very interesting story concerning this topic. We invited a person from Nizhniy Novgorod to manage our company’s dealing network. I saw him at a couple of conferences, listened to him talking, contacted him personally and finally made him a job offer. It is worth mentioning that he managed to negotiate higher than normal compensation, and we even had to change some corporate rules in relation to his position.
The time passed, but the person we hired did not show the expected results. The problem had to be solved, so I spoke openly to him: “You have to move to lower position with all due consequences or leave the company.” At that moment we had already found another person for that job, who was expected to start working in a few days.
The person we hired first faced a very hard dilemma. And he turned out to be strong enough to control his ambitions and stay in the company accepting big salary reduction. But instead of losing his heart, he began to work passionately with his new boss, and within eight months they dramatically turned around the whole department. From being a weakest part of the company before it has changed into one of our best businesses.
After that we raised that person’s salary making it even higher then it had been initially. Besides, we publicly praised him. As a result he simply blossomed. Today we regard him as a candidate for the director position because his boss also will be promoted soon. This is the way we uncovered the person’s potential so that he could achieve the stunning success.
Prepared by Ekaterina Zakomurnaya The Russian original
