If you scrolled through my contacts, the last thing you should expect to see is the cell phone number of my employer. However, for the 8500 Quicken Loans’ employees, having CEO Bill Emerson nested among the names of family and friends would be a little more common.
In many organizations, there often exists a growing anonymity as you climb the hierarchical ladder. Although this might be the easiest way of operating, it is doubtfully the most effective. From experience, I can say that the managers that I have been most motivated to work for were the same managers that made an effort to know me personally. While I may not have had their cell numbers, simply being able to put a name, face, and personality to the person that I was working for provided inclination for me to work harder and stay with the company.
Giving his number to employees is not Bill’s way of inviting his employees to afternoon brunch, but his way of shaping an organizational culture where the CEO isn’t some faceless figure, but an actual person that his employees can relate to. And by doing so, Bill might just be differentiating his company enough to entice people to work for him. As we say in Organizational Behaviour, “cool employers attract cool employees.”
To read more on Bill click here.
Image: Bill Emerson – Image from businessweek.com (http://images.businessweek.com/cms/2012-10-22/1019_billemerson_630x420.jpg)