Visioning Culture for Success 101 (the Artful Dance of Teaming Intelligence)

CORNER OFFICE

Here’s My Vision, and Here’s Yours. Let’s Make It Work.

By ADAM BRYANT

Published: June 1, 2013

This interview with Jenna Fagnan, president of Tequila Avión, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.

Earl Wilson/The New York Times

Jenna Fagnan, president of Tequila Avión, says managers shouldn’t be too prescriptive. “People may not do things the way I want them to,” she says, “but you have to step back and realize that people achieve things in different ways."

Q. What were some early lessons for you?

A. When I was younger, we lived for many years in a little Eskimo village in Alaska. My father was a rural doctor for the Indian Health Service. He would fly from village to village, and my mother, brother and me would sometimes go with him. We would land in a village, and all the little kids would gather around. While he was treating people, the kids would take us and we’d go play. I learned to connect with people early on.

Q. How did your parents influence you?

A. My father really trusted people and believed in humankind. That’s something that’s stuck with me, and it’s also the way I try to manage people. My mother was always a teacher, wherever in the world we were living — in Oregon or Alaska or Africa. We had this whale vertebra in our house, and if I had something to present at school the next day, my mother would make me stand on top of this big bone and recite it. She would say, “Just speak your piece, and make me feel some emotion.” It really helped in life because you learn how to connect with your audience and be more articulate speaking in public.

Q. Any managers you’ve had who influenced you?

A. One of them had this belief in people — that you can do more than you think you can. To me, that’s so powerful. If you believe in someone, even more than they believe in themselves, they will do anything to succeed. They will do everything they can not to let you down.

Q. How would you describe your leadership style today?

A. My approach is to give people a lot of autonomy. You have to know your vision, share your vision with people and make sure they’re crystal clear about it and buy into it. But even more important than that is to make sure they know what it is they specifically have to do make that vision happen. I think managers too often talk about their vision but everyone else in the business doesn’t know what it means for them individually. What should they be getting up and doing every day? And how important is what you do to that overall vision?

As a younger manager, I was too prescriptive. I told people exactly what I wanted them to do. That really just doesn’t work. People may not do things the way I want them to, but you have to step back and realize that people achieve things in different ways. So I try to take a step back and say: “Here’s what we’re going for. Just go and do it.” If I do that, more times than not the person will do much more than I expected, or they’ll figure out a much better way to get it done.

Q. Other mentors who had a big impact?

A. The boss who hired me at LVMH was a great mentor. You could go into his office early in the morning and just have a conversation. I had no idea what I was doing, but I would show up early and sit down and say, “O.K., here’s the challenge I’m having.” He would always ask, “So what do you think you should do?” And that’s something I always try to remind myself to do with others, to always ask that question before I say, “Here’s what I think you should do.”

He’s also the one who taught me the importance of not only having a vision, but also making sure that every single employee knows what they should be doing. We would all sit down, every single employee, and write that on paper once a year — here my boss’s vision, here’s my vision; here’s my boss’s goal, and here’s my goal, and here are all the things I need to achieve this year to make that happen.

Q. How do you hire?

A. It’s a huge challenge, especially for a start-up. You try to understand if the person has the passion and the energy. And if they’re coming from corporate America, can they really make that jump to a start-up? It’s a large jump, and not everyone can make it. One of the things I look for is, do they love what they do now? I believe in hiring people who just really enjoy what they’re doing.

That may sound sort of counterintuitive, because they have to want to leave for a reason. But I think it’s so much about attitude. If they love what they’re doing, then they can really spread it to everyone around them, inside and outside the company.

One good question I ask is, “What did you do the summer of your sophomore college year?” I find the answers really interesting. Did they travel? Maybe they rolled up their sleeves and worked. You learn what their value systems were early on.

Q. And what were you doing that summer?

A. I organized a tennis tournament called World Team Tennis with all these famous athletes. I learned a lot. And in the evenings, I was managing a restaurant.

Q. Other questions you ask?

A. What do you do when you fail? People who are successful fail a lot. So I will ask, “Tell me an example of something that you thought was a great idea and why it didn’t work.” The idea doesn’t make a difference. But what did they learn about why they failed? If you have someone who’s failed and thought about why they failed, then that’s going to be a really strong employee for you.

Q. Are there certain behaviors you have a particularly low tolerance for?

A. It’s a huge pet peeve for me when people start speaking and it takes them a while to get to the point. So now I draw a triangle for my team and point to the top, and I’ll say, “Give me the main point up here, and if I want the rest, I’ll ask.” I just can’t sit there and listen without knowing what you’re trying to tell me.

Q. What advice would you give to graduating business-school students?

A. I would tell them to take a job not based on the title or even what they’re going to do. Take it because of the people you’re going to work for. It was great advice for me, and has helped guide my career. I learned so much more just because of the people.