Peterman Brothers of Indianapolis is big on enabling employees to do their best work. Chad Peterman, president and CEO, has even written a book about it — The Empowerment Project: Grow Your People, Grow Your Business. It was released in April.
Peterman says the concept became very clear to him when he and his brother took over their father’s business.
“My brother and I came from outside the industry at an early age,” he says. “We had to trust others who knew how to do the trade work. Empowerment of our people became a core belief for us.”
The attitude mushroomed thereafter.
“As we saw it work, we leaned into it more and more, empowering others to come up with new ideas and to implement them,” Peterman says.
Some of the guidelines for empowerment that Peterman espouses in the book include giving employees authority, training them thoroughly and consistently, and emphasizing that mistakes made are opportunities for growth.
Thus empowered — that is, given incentive to take ownership of their performance — employees become more partners than order-takers and begin to prioritize looking after customers. The upshot is that the company grows on the strength of customer satisfaction.
Peterman also authored an earlier book, You Can’t Stop the Growth — How to Build a Culture that Takes Care of Your Customers. Both books reflect his personal experiences in his company.
“In each book, I incorporate stories from the business, tell of some of the accomplishments of our people and accolades earned by them,” Peterman says. “As we get bigger, there will be fewer opportunities for interaction with them. The books are a way for them to understand what we as a company are about and what we believe.”
Read more about Peterman Brothers in the September 2024 issue of Cleaner magazine.
