Bryant: Were you in leadership roles early on?
Bryant: What were some early lessons for you as a manager?
Martens: I learned that you have to have stable decision-making criteria so that people look at you and say, “I know you’re going to look for the same things in this type of situation every time.” You have to learn how to be very consistent and transparent. You can’t sit down with one person and say, “We’ll make it this way for you because I like you,” and then make it another way for somebody else. Because those two people will talk and word gets out that you’re really not consistent. If you don’t have a compass for true north — and you don’t stick to that — people are going to come at you from many different angles to get you to do something.
The other thing I learned is this issue of trust, and that you can’t get anywhere being a micromanager. You have to learn how to let go and let others make mistakes as long as they’re not catastrophic. The most important thing I can do is create a safe highway to operate in, and define clearly what the bumpers are — whether it’s code of conduct or how we make decisions. As long as people are within the boundaries of that highway, then let them go as fast as they can. But if they hit a bumper, pull them in and remind them what the bumper is and why it’s there.