Rank Group CEO: “I Don’t Think You Can Ever Over-Communicate With Your Employees.”

Henry Birch, CEO of Rank Group, has just been recognised as one of the Highest Rated CEOs in the UK. In fact, he came in at #14, one place above Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. Given his lofty position as one of the most highly-regarded business leaders in the UK according to employees, we spoke to him about what leadership means to him and why he is inspired by the people he works with. Glassdoor: What was your first job? My first full time job was working as a researcher for David Steel in the House of Commons.  Before that I had the normal working in a shop/building site/waiter type jobs as a teenager and student. Glassdoor: What is your typical morning routine? It varies a lot from day to day.  On an ideal day I get a glimpse of my kids in the morning but I am also away from home a fair amount.  I am naturally more of a night owl than an early bird, but l have got used to early starts over the years. Glassdoor: What does “leadership” mean to you? To me it means uniting people behind a common goal or vision and giving them both purpose and support. Glassdoor: What do you do to foster employee trust and engagement? I think it is a never ending process.  At the heart of it is communication.  If you’re doing it well, I don’t think you can over-communicate with your employees.  We spent a lot of time and effort implementing a new set of corporate values last year in tandem with a clear mission and vision.  These alone obviously don’t give you employee engagement and trust, but they can provide a focus and a rallying call to start the process of greater engagement. Glassdoor: Good leadership is not just one person - How do you work w/ your leaders and management teams to make sure employees have great leadership here? Again, it is an ongoing process and we are far from perfect.  We use regular employee engagement surveys, which we make sure we act upon – either in terms of picking up themes we need to address or to identify managers and leaders who are falling short.  But beyond that, we try to talk about our people – both collectively and as individuals - as a management team on a regular basis. Glassdoor: It’s clear you inspire many of your own employees - who inspires you? It sounds like a bit of a cliché but I am inspired by the people I work with, particularly when I see careers developing or, at a more basic level, when people enjoy their work and are engaged.  I am not really one for having business heroes although I’ve worked for some great and inspiring people throughout my career. Glassdoor: What type of people do you like to hire and why? I am not sure there is a certain “type” that I try to hire and indeed I think any organisation needs diversity on a number of levels, but I like people who, at a fundamental level, like other people and are empathetic.  I also think a good sense of humour never goes amiss. Glassdoor: If you weren’t a CEO, what would you be (in terms of a job or career)? A journalist or a social worker.

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Does Henry sound like the kind of leader you would like to work for? Why not check out jobs at Rank Group?