The Butler Project

On Monday we featured John, who spent his career in corporate America and now runs his own company. These excerpts showcase how integrity, networking, and surrounding yourself with the right people are so important to your success.

Mark: What is the one attribute you feel is crucial to your success?

John: I’d have to say integrity. Integrity takes a lot of different forms. If you’re working hard when the boss isn’t watching…if you say something is going to get done then it will be done. There’s no room for excuses, it’s all about results. I found that by becoming known as a person of integrity, being an honest person, it just has so many different tentacles.

People will be more open with you. they won’t have their guard up as much because they won’t feel like you’re trying to stab them in the back, that you’re trying to take their job, that you’re trying to do something to self-promote. You just get a lot of leeway and a lot of freedom. With that leeway and that freedom you’re given the opportunity to really shine and that’s what you have to do.

So I’d have to say the one word would be integrity because integrity is power. I work a lot with vendors, vendor management, and supply management. When you tell somebody like a supplier or a customer that it’s going to happen, it just has to happen. And then when you say something people just check it off as it’s done. You don’t need to have a boss following you up, and what follows out of that is a lot of additional responsibility, opportunities and projects.

Mark: Is there anything else you would share with me about getting ahead?

John: After I read [your] email it caused me to think a little bit, and there are a couple of other things that we haven’t touched that I think are really important.

[First], the importance of networking. Networking expresses itself in a lot of different ways. Look in your career for mentors…people that are a little bit ahead of you in their careers that can kind of take you and they can point you and open doors for you.

I’m kind of past that now but I used to do it quite a bit. [Let's say] you’re looking somebody to hire, you call somebody that’s credible. They help you here, and then you help them. [Maybe] you’re looking for work or if you’re looking for suppliers or manufacturers. That’s where your network comes in. A network in a big corporation is so important because that’s where you get opportunities to move your career.

The last thing I’d say that we haven’t talked about is the importance of surrounding yourself with good people. It’s a real skill to be able to recognize talent and skill and in others. You have to look beyond hiring people just because you like them.

If you’re a a white 40 year-old male and that’s the people you hire…you’re pretty vanilla - you really lose out. I have a good friend, a partner; he’s not college educated. He’s very bright, and he’s extremely business savvy; he just has an innate business sense.

He’s made millions and millions and the way he’s done it is through the people he hires. He hires the best in every field. People that have their Harvard MBAs…that kind of thing. That has been his leverage.

You have to be confident in yourself and not be threatened by that. I have seen in corporations and corporate America…people get threatened by people below them and so they will hire down so they feel safe and secure that somebody won’t come and take their job.

What I learned was quite the opposite in my career. My approach was “I’m going to hire the very best and if they push me then we’ll all win.”

I honestly believe that if you hire the best not only do you come out better but the organization raises up and everybody gets opportunity. I have seen in corporations and some cultures where the incentive is to hire down so you look good. In time you don’t win, because in time you can’t do it all. As you move up the ladder and the responsibilities get big enough, you’ve got to have people you can trust underneath you.

If you’ve established a pattern of hiring down…you’ll mentally implode, and that’s just the way I’ve seen it so many times.