Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Mike Cahill, President & CEO of Physicians Health Plan of Northern Indiana. We hope you enjoy Mike’s wisdom and perspective.
One of my favorite quotes is as follows: Do you light up the room when you walk in or when you walk out?
A short story to set the stage. An extremely successful local businessman shared the so-called secret to his success. He talked about the positivity, support, belief, and 'can do' attitude his wife always brought to the table as he pushed forward building his business. Especially, when things were not going the right direction or big mistakes were made. I loved how he put it: "She does not have many cloudy days."
I started my career being someone who many times lit up the room when I walked out. I saw my role as one to lower expectations, slow the process down, limit risk taking, etc. As a trained CPA, I was supposed to be skeptical, right? I was being paid to point out what could go wrong. How many times did I say my projections were 'conservative' because we do not want to get hopes up? We have to prepare for the worst. This way no one is disappointed. There is only upside - no downside. Yeah, right.
How many dreams did I kill that would have come to fruition by following this mantra?
Much like the successful businessperson I mention above, my wife is a VERY positive person. She helped me along my journey to try and light up the room when I walked in, instead of walked out. After she talked me into taking my first real risk, instead of just pointing out what could go wrong, I started showing ways to structure transactions and deals to offset those downsides and allow things to actually happen.
The results of this change? Before I had a very solid reputation as a Corporate Controller, but now suddenly I moved up to CFO level roles. Hmm…maybe there is a lesson here! I tried to stay focused on doing this, and for the most part succeeded. As a few years went by, I decided to take a few more risks, and not just give feedback on the financial side, but get involved in more operational areas where things are not as black and white. In other words, taking on tasks to make what was in the financial projections happen.
Results? Lo and behold, I was suddenly COO along with CFO. Making things happen and taking appropriate risks, along with my core training of quantifying the downside, seemed to be playing out. In retrospect, I now realize the CEOs I worked with along the way were actually training me to be the 'light' versus the 'darkness'. I was just too dumb to know it.
So what next? I am now CEO. This journey has been the most interesting and the longest. My first opportunity came because I saw the downside of not facing our current reality. But instead of selling out and accepting the mistakes we made, I devised an action plan to learn from these mistakes and move the company forward. The Board of Directors actually bought it! Now what? Oh yeah, we should probably execute on this plan, and this is where things really began to accelerate for me.
I was very fortunate to be surrounded by a large group of very bright and skilled individuals who were positive, who supported and believed in each other, and who were willing to take appropriate risks to achieve a goal or dream. The key lesson was that things will go wrong, and sometimes very wrong, even with bright and positive people. How we react is the difference. This team always looked at the things that went wrong as learning opportunities and not reasons to throw in the towel. They did not distance themselves from what went wrong. Instead they stepped into the fray when things got ugly.
This group took a bank from the 15th percentile of performance metrics to the 85th percentile of those same metrics in four years! Suddenly, my journey sped up. If just me moving from negative to positive was a big boost, it is amazing what can happen when one surrounds themselves with similar people all going the same direction.
The title of this article relates to something said to me about 20 years apart. The first time someone called me 'Mr. Sunshine', they were being very sarcastic after I had thrown cold water on yet another idea. The last time was another sarcastic 'Mr. Sunshine', but it was delivered by the negative person in the room. In the first instance, I felt bad about the statement and was upset by it. The second time, I was kind of proud of it. I see it as my duty as CEO to do what the CEO had done for me in the past. Pay it forward, right?
What’s The Risk?
When things go wrong, most people try to distance themselves from the issue. The people I respect most jump into the fray when things go wrong to try and right the ship. Make sure to surround yourself with the latter.
Life is about making things happen, being part of a team, believing in dreams, and having the work ethic to pursue them. There will be a lot of 'cloudy days' along the journey, but having a number of skilled 'sunshine' compatriots along the way can be a whole lot of fun…and profitable…and fulfilling!
This content was written and shared by guest blogger, Mike Cahill.
Mike is the President & CEO of Physicians Health Plan of Northern Indiana (“PHP”). He had previously been CFO at PHP from 1999 through 2003. Prior to his return to PHP, Mike was the first CEO of the AWS Foundation after serving the previous decade at Tower Bank & Trust Company (NASDAQ: TOFC ) where he served as President & CEO of this organization during his last 8 years after starting as their CFO.
He is Vice Chairman of the Board at Centier Bank, a $3.9 billion, family owned Indiana based bank headquartered in Merrillville, Indiana, as well as, Lead Director at Benchmark Human Services, the $150 million in annual revenues ‘for profit’ arm of the AWS Foundation that has 3,400 employees operating in 15 states, and a Director of Wayne Pipe and Supply, headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
From a community standpoint, Mike is a board member of the AWS Foundation and its NFP operating subsidiary, Anthony Wayne Rehabilitation Center. Additionally, he is Vice President of The board for Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana, as well as on the board of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, Community Harvest Food Bank and the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne. Finally, he is both the healthcare and ambassador division chair for the United Way of Allen County’s 2017 Capital Campaign.
In addition to these outside activities, Mike serves on the advisory board of Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana (YLNI), the Miller School of Business, Finance Department at Ball State University, and Indiana and Purdue University Fort Wayne’s (IPFW) Center of Excellence in Business Analytics.
Mike has lived in Fort Wayne since 1985 and is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor’s degree in accounting. Mike became a CPA while working for Ernst & Young in Toledo, Ohio after college and before coming to Fort Wayne. He has been married for 34 years to Mary, an extremely tolerant and beautiful woman and has four children - Sean (33), Kevin (30), Tara (25), and Collin (17) plus three adorable granddaughters with a grandson due this summer.
Connect with Mike on LinkedIn and Twitter. Connect with PHP via their website, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
