Posted: July 16, 2010

Karen Lansing's team at Cox Business isn't in the office. They're over at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton taking advantage of free IMAX tickets and lunch. About seven employees were treated to the event.

"We do it during working hours so they can spend the afternoon doing something fun," Lansing said.

Lansing is director of sales operations at Business Services for Cox Communications, a company division in Chesapeake. She has worked for Cox Communications for 15 years and said that support from leadership has made her job one of the best.

"I have always been treated with great respect," Lansing said. "We've always gotten great recognition. The stability of the company itself is definitely something that makes it a great factor. With the economic challenges of today, we still have goals that are very clear."

Nearly 40 people report to Lansing, who works cross-functionally with various departments in the company.

Cox Business started in Hampton Roads in 1993. The Crossways Boulevard office in Chesapeake has 96 full-time local employees and the Cox Business division has 17 locations that serve the Hampton Roads area, as well as 17 other localities across the United States. Michael Braham, vice president of Cox Business, has been with the company almost five years, and explained the management style among employees.

"We really tend to use a servant leadership style, where we lead and motivate our people and remove obstacles from their success," Braham said, "so they can meet and exceed their goals."

Braham said that some employees have weekly book clubs where they spend their lunch hour discussing the books as a team.

Cox employees are offered a year-long leadership development program by their supervisors, which includes in-class and web-based education.

As for volunteer efforts in the community, the company devoted nearly 600 hours in 2009 to community work.

Lansing said that the work community at Cox promotes an atmosphere of trust that encourages workers to give back to their company.

"We're empowered - we have a lot of flexibility to make decisions," Lansing said. "There's a lot of trust afforded to us." nib

- Danielle Walker