Avoid the Ivory Tower Mentality

On staying connected to your employees

There’s a scene in the hit sitcom, “The Office,” in which Charles Miner, one of the vice presidents of the company, pays a visit to the Scranton branch. He walks in and immediately goes into the empty conference room. He closes the door, pulls out his computer and spreads out his work. He proceeds to stay in there all day, typing away, calling in employees as needed and answering their inquiries with impatience and irritation. He even spends some of his time spying on the progress of their work from behind the conference room blinds.

This is a great, albeit slightly dramatized, example of the “Ivory Tower” mentality.

The “Ivory Tower” mentality is the idea that those who are in power should remain separate from everyone else. It’s also the idea that their work is the most important. They are unapproachable and anyone in a position beneath that person should be cautious whenever they are around. The “Ivory Tower” bosses judge from afar, raining down their decisions and directives from a place of lofty superiority.

It’s the opposite of the mentality that Jon Greenwood, former executive at Huntington National Bank had when he was a vice president who oversaw 6500 staff members throughout 11 states. He remembers his time in the field, visiting each retail location, with fondness. It was his goal to make each employee feel appreciated and heard. That meant he never locked himself in an empty conference room to do his “more important work” while he was there. Instead, he spent the time that he had—working hours, lunches and even dinners—with his employees, building relationships that were the foundation of the company’s success. This is how he created a positive culture over time.

On IOL Podcast #161: “The Five-Driver Model,” he highlights three ways that he made sure that he did not have an “Ivory Tower” mentality. Here’s how he stayed connected with his employees:

By maintaining a high “say-do ratio”:

One of the most important foundations in building a positive culture over time is building people’s trust. Greenwood says that he uses the “say-do ratio” model. Lots of people say they will do things and don’t do them. He made sure the rate at which he said he would do things matched the rate at which he actually did them. This created trust between him and his employees. So much so that when hard decisions had to be made, no matter the outcome, his employees still trusted that he had their best interest in mind.

Prioritize the employees on the front lines:

Greenwood says that the front-line workers have the most important job because they are face-to-face with customers. Their work not only directly impacts revenue, but they also tend to have a pulse on what’s going well with the company and what isn’t. It’s important to make sure that these employees know the value of their work. Greenwood says he made a point of walking up to the tellers first, as soon as he entered any retail location that he was visiting. The worst thing to do is to fall into a hierarchy system in which the manager is the only one who gets face time with the VP and the front-line employees get none. That leaves them feeling insignificant and negatively impacts performance. No one is left out, not middle management, not high-level management, but the front-line employees need that special attention.

Ask and listen:

Greenwood spent most of his time in the field conducting “round table” meetings in which he would gather employees and talk with them for an hour or more about what was going well and what wasn’t. In this space, he would glean valuable information on how to make necessary changes and improvements. He was also able to “workshop” some of his ideas before they were implemented. The round table discussions gave employees a space to share what mattered to them, continuing to build that necessary trust and creating a positive working environment.

At face value, these points may seem highly doable, and they are, but over time, workload, changes in leadership, or even external stress from the markets can easily cause a leader to put his or her head down and just work hard, forgetting that engagement with employees, rubbing shoulders with them and just spending time together makes a huge difference. Job titles aside, we are all human beings looking to create connections with one another. Let us not forget that everything grows out of that fact.

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This post is based on IOL Podcast #161: “The Five-Driver Model” with Jon Greenwood. Check it out!

Author: Ashley Buenger