Page 189 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Communications

company, had gone through five CEO’s in a short time, and were
disillusioned. And as the new leader of this group, I faced the
challenge of creating energy and optimism that the business
needed to succeed. So I traveled all over the country during the
first six months of that job, doing town hall meetings, giving
straightforward answers to any and all questions, and helping
people feel good about what they were doing. This experience
taught me leadership lessons that apply to any business, and I
still use them today. With a company of Pfizer’s size, there’s no
one-size-fits-all approach to building a sense of community and
creating a shared vision throughout all our global locations. To
achieve this, I try to talk face to face with as many people as
possible. I travel a lot, and we have some pretty frank discus-
sions about our future together. I believe it’s just as important
to acknowledge the reality of our challenges as it is to be opti-
mistic about the potential of our opportunities. Open commu-
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nications play a big part at any company in creating the right
culture to succeed.”

The Power of Good Information
Later in my career, as I became a director of operations for the
corporation, I learned the importance of communication in a
number of ways. In that position, I was second-in-command to
the regional vice president, and that role proved to be a real
learning experience in the realm of communications, as many
times I saw the need to interpret the “what and why” to con-
fused franchisees—and they looked to me for interpretation.
I devoted a lot of time with staff and operators, explaining
what we were doing, as they would tend to try and get me to
come in between them on an issue with the regional manager. It
required that I was knowledgeable about everything that went
on, making effective communication mandatory. Still, it allowed