In this podcast, Kevin Hancock speaks to The Grow Maine Show host Marty Grohman about his journey to finding the new employee-centric business model at Hancock Lumber. By dispersing the power of leadership to everyone in the company, Kevin found that employee engagement and job satisfaction are heightened to a new level. Employees are encouraged to find solutions to the problems they identify as important and given a safe space to solve them. This level of trust and respect between managers and employees has created a unique work culture. The company has thrived because of it, but Kevin notes that any and all communities are able to foster this type of relationship.
Click here to listen to the full podcast.
Here are a few highlights from the podcast (click here for the full transcription):
- But long story short, with my voice difficulty, I really ended up seeing, getting forced into initially, and then embracing an opportunity to essentially let everybody speak for the company and got really excited about this idea of, well, why can’t everybody lead? (5:26-5:50)
- So I guess what I may say in summary is that I think the key is trying to create a culture at work where it’s safe for people to actually say what they think, including difficult times when we’re looking at a situation that didn’t go great. (14:29-14:55)
- So, that’s one thing I’ve really learned across my career is that you can be really good within your own organization, but there are going to be forces that come to play or to bear that are bigger than you are, and you have got to be agile and change responsive and financially strong in order to constantly be readjusting and reinventing your business. (39:55-40:38)
