Have you ever written an email, text or letter, or made a Facebook post that you wish you could get back? The funny thing is you knew better before you sent it, didn’t you? I repeated this mistake recently.

It’s been twenty years since I graduated from high school. I went to a small public school with about 100 students in my grade. My class is getting together this July in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I’ve been helping the reunion planning committee. Turns out the party is getting bigger every day. So much so, that we’ve outgrown the restaurant originally selected by our committee and are moving it to a larger place.

We were required to pay $200 to the original location to reserve a meeting room. A few weeks ago, we canceled our reservation, giving them 4 ½ months of advance warning. Unfortunately the general manager of said establishment is refusing to return the deposit money unless he is able to rent the room above his bar & grille to someone else.

This didn’t sit right with me. I told the committee member who had personally fronted the money not to worry. I would straighten this out.

Establish Your Franchise

Very Honored

We got some great news last week. Gibson has been named a “2013 Best Places to Work in Indiana” company. This is a big honor for us, as it’s a reflection of our incredible team of professionals at Gibson. They are hard-working, collaborative, optimistic, fun and client-centered folks. I’m lucky to work alongside such great people.

Honestly, we weren’t sure if we would achieve this award. We have applied for it on two other occasions and were close, but unsuccessful.

On the previous failed attempts, we decided it had to do with applying for the award during the economic downturn. After all in November 2008, we had the first and only reduction in force experienced by our organization in our 80-year history. Yet… other firms obviously won during those years.

Then we told ourselves (because it appeared that more of the winning firms are headquartered in Indianapolis) that it probably had something to do with being located in northern Indiana. Except, geography is not part of the selection process.

The truth was we needed to make some subtle, but important changes. We had been a really good company (and pridefully I thought a great place to work) for a long, long time, but realized we could become better.

Core Values

As part of my series on executive level topics, I’ll be interviewing business leaders from time-to-time and including their stories in my posts. Today, I’m covering the importance of having a hiring and development process to ensure you select and retain the best people. I’ve included insights from a conversation I had with Amish Shah, President/CEO of Kem Krest, a supply chain management company based in Elkhart, Indiana.

At Gibson, Talent Wins The Game is one of our Core Values. To us that means we want our clients, our fellow colleagues, and even our communities to know that we value our people. That belief is also an internal reminder to our management that while having a great coach is important, I’ve not seen too many win without great talent. And as Amish’s story reveals, it can make or break your business.

Flowers

You couldn’t help but notice the huge bouquet of roses on her desk. “So who got you the flowers for Valentine’s Day?” I asked. She was a salesperson just like me and we had become pretty good friends since starting at the company a few years prior. “None of your business! He’s just a friend. Well, maybe more than a friend!” she replied. “You have a secret admirer, don’t you!” I exclaimed. She nodded happily but still wouldn’t say who it was.

Not long after, I was promoted to my first real management job. After being friends with a number of my fellow salespeople, I suddenly found myself in charge at age 27. On a daily basis, I was learning about behaviors and outlooks that were normal and even acceptable as an “employee” but no longer as part of the management team.

One night I ran into the co-worker mentioned above, now a direct report, and to my surprise she was with a client of hers. The secret admirer was secret no longer. In fact I knew this CFO well (I’ll call him Mark). He was very driven and looking for a different career path. He had actually expressed an interest in joining our firm in a sales role.

When I joined Gibson, the first charge I was given was to rebuild and grow our employee benefits consulting practice. It was a smaller part of the company at the time - a little over 15% of our annual revenues.

This was a movie I had seen before.

In my prior role at one of the national insurance consultants, I was responsible for employee benefits sales and service for a multi-state territory. I was in a "player-coach" role where I personally worked with clients and managed others doing the same. We consistently received recognition for not only our financial results but team work and collaboration.

So based on the same formula, it didn't take long for us to re-tool and grow the benefits practice at Gibson. Today employee benefits makes up about 35% of our company revenue.

Early In My Career
A number of years ago, I worked at a fast-paced, growth-oriented public company, many times larger than the employee-owned organization I’m a part of today. The CEO of that public company himself came from one of the largest companies in the world where he was a key lieutenant for a number of years. While the CEO helped spur on some badly needed discipline and structure, he also ushered in a major change in values and culture.

I’ll never forget one of his early gatherings with key leaders and sales talent where he stated unequivocally that our focus would be on the shareholder. He went on to say that many companies mistakenly focus on their clients or their employees. If you don’t take care of your owner, you won’t stay in business long. What good would you be for your clients and employees then?