Leadership assessments from peers and bosses tell me that I’m good at building relationships. That’s what it’s all about—right? After all, a company is, at its core, an organization of people. And how do people productively work together? By building positive relationships. More importantly, for those of us in the service industry, relationships with customers and employees often timesequate to profit and growth. The term that is often used now is “engagement.” Are my customers engaged? are my employees engaged? am I engaged?
As a leader, I approach my career with fervor. I believe anything you spend most of your life doing should be done with heart and passion. My own success is largely due to the great teams I’ve built over the years and the people I have spent time with, as a coach or mentor. I take my job as a leader seriously and commit to provide honest feedback to help others succeed. My proudest accomplishments involve the success of others who have listened to my advice, and either changed destructive behavior, and/or removed career obstacles within their control. Many of these individuals are now future leaders of our company.
Aside from building positive relationships and approaching things with heart and passion, my success can be attributed to a great work ethic and a continuous pursuit toward results. Blame it on my engineering degree, or blame it on my hard working roots, but I haven’t found a problem I don’t want to solve. In business, a leader is faced with problems every day, and finding a way to solve them is paramount to success. Ensuring execution and solving problems are two skills future leaders need to hone and perfect throughout their career.
My advice to anyone reading this essay is to ask yourself, are you engaged in your career and your work? Are you building positive relationships and approaching your career with heart and passion? Are you working hard and relentlessly pursuing results? If the answer is yes, then pay it forward. Pass on that passion to somebody who can’t say yes and watch what happens.
