Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger John Phair, President and CEO of Holladay Properties. We hope you enjoy John’s wisdom and perspective.
I thoroughly enjoyed Tim Lemans’ new book rEvolution and also learned a little bit about Dan Gibson, founder of Gibson and father of one of my partners.
When Tim asked me to write a guest blog on leadership I readily accepted, thinking I’ve been leading for nearly twenty years and managing for nearly twice that long, how hard could it be to write a blog about it? It was more difficult to write about it than do it.
What really matters? And I’m not talking family, home, or church but in the area of leadership skills? What matters the most?
There is an oft quoted saying, “Don’t rely on the headlines, but look at the trend lines.” If you simply looked at the front page of any newspaper, or their headlines, or listen to the lead stories on almost any of our electronic media news outlets, you would conclude the world is a mess, our city is unsafe, our cars are falling apart, and we have little sustenance being produced in our fields/farms that is edible.
Nothing could be further from the truth. There is something like 300 countries in the world and only a handful get into the headlines because they are in a war zone. Try looking for a headline suggesting “peace has broken out” in Australia or Belgium or Costa Rica!
Leading a group or company means looking past the immediate crisis, or headline, and sticking to your goals, strategy, and integrity – some call it living a corporate culture.
But beyond that, the single most important leadership skill I can identify is leading by example. By the way, I am not always so good at that.
Whether you are overseeing one person, a handful, or a large number, every one of them is going to take their daily cue from your leadership style. Your enthusiasm is going to be mirrored by your management team, just as your lack of enthusiasm will be.
One of the things I do is oversee the management of five operating hotels. It is a significant part of our business and there are around 200 employees. I get the opportunity to interact with the general managers regularly. They are spread out geographically. Over the years they have provided me with many lead by example lessons.
Every day, they must deal with a new group of customers. We get plenty of returning clients, and work hard to give them special treatment, but still at least one third of our daily census are brand new guests – every day. A great hotel manager makes all the difference! We are currently blessed with the best group we have ever had. Why? They all lead by example. They know every job in the hotel, restaurant, or conference center. They jump in and lead when there is a snafu anywhere. They coach daily. And their enthusiasm is infectious – to their staff and their guests.
Don’t ever kid yourself in believing that your employees do not notice the little things you do - or don’t do – every day. They follow your example. Your consistency in treatment of employees is critical and one of the hardest things any leader has to manage.
The period of 2007 through 2012, nearly six years at our company, were economically the toughest we have ever gone through. Our firm has been around for 63 years. But out of this most recent downturn came a discipline that has paid big dividends. How did I – we – lead by example?
- We identified our “worst” 10 issues and dealt with them every day. We gathered as a leadership team every week for updates. Everyone in the company knew we were working on them.
- We asked for sacrifice at every level.
- Consistency of effort – by people from all areas of the company.
Nobody ever bargained to be the project manager of a bad real estate development. They weren’t bad people, but circumstances put them in a bind! Once they realized there was going to be no finger pointing or penalizing, they started to look for solutions. You were expected to learn from the mistake, but had the support of the entire team – a lot of brain power – to stay at it until the project was fixed. And every solution was different, just like every new development project is different.
The discipline that came from dealing with disasters was sometimes magical. Take a problem head on and it can be fixed. It was challenging – sometimes stressful – but always exciting!
It would not have worked if our leadership team, me included, did not do their share of the difficult tasks. We did. We communicated and then we executed, fully celebrating each success. Our celebrations often were limited to erasing the problem off the Bottom 10 list. But boy, did it feel good! Several of the outcomes of working out of a failed real estate project were not very good. But nobody was fired! We were partners in success; we were partners in the downside as well - because we had to be. And our integrity stayed intact.
What’s The Risk?
As a leader you always have choices to make. It is downright difficult to focus on failed efforts when the choice to work on something creative, financially rewarding, or fun is an option. But a real leader must choose the toughest problems and help the team figure a way out. In the end it is nearly as rewarding as hitting a home run. Not in dollars but in a sense of accomplishment.
You must lead by example! It is not always possible to roll up your sleeves and be in the middle, especially as you grow and have many locations and groups to lead. But your actions, demeanor, and integrity must be out there for all to see. Every single day.
This content was written and shared by guest blogger John Phair.
Mr. Phair acquired controlling interest of Holladay Properties in 1999. He is the managing partner of approximately 75 commercial partnerships. Over a dozen of these partnerships are joint ventures with firms like the Purdue Research Foundation, the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Delaware Investors and the Mills Family. Holladay Properties is in the top five largest asset management firms of medical office space in the country. Since 1998, Mr. Phair has led the development of approximately $50 million of new construction per year, including three of the four largest mixed-use parks in Indiana.
Mr. Phair joined Holladay in 1978 after spending seven years in the mortgage-banking field in Denver, Colorado and South Bend, Indiana. He is the former chairman of Trustcorp Mortgage Company and a current board member, on the board of 1st Source Bank and investor in several small businesses.
Mr. Phair has been involved with numerous civic organizations, including the Boys & Girls Club of St. Joseph County, Family & Children's Center, WNIT Public Television, the South Bend Civic Theatre, the Alliance of Indiana (IU Kelly School of Business) Project Future and the Villages of Indiana. He is a graduate of Marquette University.
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