Some of you have heard a lot about our company officer ——— and are unsure what his role is. Here’s the deal: other than being extraordinary (which is a characteristic and not a role), he is a professional and personal mentor to me. He has vast experience in leading and mentoring. He offers a fabulous mix of bedside manner and discipline that has served me and our company well. He also “gets” both of the businesses we run, Abrige and C-Secure Systems, and continuously networks to uncover market needs and generate leads.

Here’s our “wow” for this week: “WOW!”, for not only introducing us into the market… I give a resounding thank you for helping me to become a better leader and to keep our company aligned with its vision without falling out of line with our strong values.

Why is this “wow!”? The company leadership sets the tone and direction for all. As we grow and become visible it can be so appealing to try and do everything and to say “yes” to other leaders and so-called experts that, if listening to intuition, this intuition (a gut feeling that “knows” our values and purpose) is screaming “no.”

He has stuck with me through the “yes”s that I never should have said and helped me maneuver as gracefully as possible out and make the best of a commitment made, all the while making sure the learning is clear. It has not been until recently that I truly am confident holding all people accountable for ensuring their actions match their words, and for those actions to be aligned with my values set for Abrige and C-Secure. He is a huge part of this learning and strength.

Why is it important? I mentioned in a “Wow!” email a couple weeks back that we had two themes: one for the front line, “Visibility!” and the other for the support lines, “Stability!” There is one other I didn’t tell you and it is for my internal work. It is “No more schmucks!” This internal theme encompasses not only the people that intend to manipulate me to their agenda without any concept of a win for us, but also those people that I respect (then, and many still now) that are not truly considering what we need to win. This latter category of well-meaning yet misguided people may work but never deliver, don’t listen because they are sure they are experts so can never really align with our company’s strategy, do not “get” our need for s-p-e-e-d since they focus only on the journey and not the goal, and/or who hold themselves up as an expert but charge for learning, incomplete work, work that doesn’t meet scope, lists and reports that are likely available online or are not current in their expertise. He not only is a person directly matched up with the my values and those of our company, he also delivers so much value to us and to all those around him because it is simply how he operates. He is the kind of person I strive to be.

Congrats!
—Lori
P.S.S. Welcome to those who are seeing our weekly “Wow!” for the first time!