Loving Your Work

Most of us have heard that if you can find something you love to do, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. So true. I am going tell you about how blessed I was for most of my business career. I was in an environment where the competition was outside our company. We believed that there was plenty of room at the higher levels of the company for all of us who earned senior leadership responsibilities and who would be effective leaders and managers, earning trusting relationships with our clients, helping to grow our business, developing our people and meeting our financial goals. Also important was having a presence and serving worthy causes in the community.

We always looked to promote from within and a top priority was helping our people grow in their capabilities. As a private company, we did not have to focus on quarterly results. We knew that if our clients were satisfied, at the end of the year, our results would be just fine. How lucky were we?! We could focus on our clients, asking each what they needed and wanted from us and strive to deliver just that.

I’ll always maintain that virtually every business is a people business.

When I joined Johnson & Higgins, Dick Purnell, our Chairman, a very strong leader, had a sign prominently placed on the wall of his office that read “There is no limit to how far you can advance if you do not care about or seek credit.” That philosophy cascaded throughout the company. We all believed in the power of a team, and enthusiastically supported and helped one another. We did not believe in super stars.  We didn’t have any. We had very good people, all focused on client service and working together all around the world.

I believe creating an environment with client satisfaction, teamwork, and bringing out the best in people as the focus is very special. I will write more on this subject in the future.