Leadership Lessons Learned

I grew up in a town small in population yet large in landmass in Northern New York on the Canadian border.  My maternal grandparents came directly from Ireland and my paternal grandparents had French Canadian roots and my father grew up engaged in their lumber company that logged and had their own sawmill.  Many lumberjacks working long hours in rough weather conditions for the company were descendants from our neighbor to the nord.  We were sort of in each other’s business so to speak.

My first 8-track tape (look that up kids!) growing up was Bachman-Turner Overdrive II.  Most knew this great Canadian band simply as BTO.  That tape included two early great songs by them; Let it Ride, and Takin’ Care of Business, with the 2^nd becoming somewhat of an anthem for many on both sides of our border.  Over the years many of my American logging friends partnered with Canadian firms who operated many of the lumber yards.  At one other early career point, I helped operate a concrete batch plan for SD Ireland Concrete where we mixed our stone and sand aggregates with cement from Canadian producers that we trucked from nightly so we could serve our construction partners with concrete used for houses, hotels, bridges over interstate highways and many other vital aspects of our infrastructure here in our great Etats Unis.  Great partners all simply Takin’ Care of Business.

My fondness for my northern neighbors perhaps was entrenched in others things early on in life.  They not only had poutine, they also provided two of the three TV stations we received in our town, CJOH and CBC.  CBC providing our every Saturday night must see of Hockey Night In Canada!  Where we watched teams play for the love of the game and always respect professionalism and opponents with a handshake at game end, no matter the severity of the battle.  Canada provided us with a young Bobby Orr to my beloved Boston Bruins and in doing so provided me with my #4 that I wore in any sport that would allow it.  An unbelievable offensive force as many do focus on, but also probably one of the best defensemen defensively to ever play the game.  Btw, in case any readers are questioning my allegiance to America and thinking it might be time for me to move, please know that in sports where I couldn’t wear #4, I wore #12, in honor of Roger Staubach, the Heisman Award winning QB of the US Naval Academy who honored his commitment to serve four years following the Academy prior to becoming the Super Bowl winning leader of the Dallas Cowboys.  That commitment to country and service was meaningful to me based on family history in the military and WWII especially.

I was blessed with many trips in the early ‘70s to a field called Jarry Park, the first home of the Montreal Expos.  Listening to the great rock stations CHOM 97.7 or CHEZ 106.1 on the way up of course.  We could actually go down to almost the top of the dugout back then and players even of the star power of Rusty Staub, Maury Wills, Gary Carter, Warren Cromartie, Ellis Valentine, Steve Rogers, Larry Parrish, and Andre Dawson would come over to autograph a ball or a cap.  America’s pastime on full display based in our neighbor to the north.  Btw, the great Willie Mays played his last game with the San Francisco Giants in Jarry Park, and then a little over a year later played his last regular season game of his career there for the NY Mets.  Also, of note, from a partnership perspective, you may not know that the Montreal Expos are now named the Washington Nationals, residing in our great Capital.

I love my country.  I truly do.  The USA is the greatest place on earth.  I love what we have historically stood for in terms of fighting for freedom.  Freedom for ourselves, freedom for others.  I love that we have made it our business to help others and especially to standup for underdogs, something we ourselves once were.  I believe in us.  I believe in what we can be, should be, and will be.  Both things can be true however, as I also have deep respect and admiration for our partners, especially on neighbors to the north.  In part because of my upbringing.  In part because of my business relations over time.  In part because of the great Canadians I have called peers or teammates in many businesses over my career.  In part because of this: 

I was on an airplane on September 11^th, 2001.  I landed in O’Hare safely that morning.  Despite the horrors of it all and for so many, I also experienced incredible humanity and thoughtfulness by individuals and businesses that stays with me.  People rallied around one another and for one another.  On September 12^th when it became obvious that air traffic was going to stay on hold for a bit, I drove back from Chicago to Vermont.  I passed into Canada that day and drove King’s Highway 401.  Having spent a good part of the previous 24 hours tracking down our traveling employees, doing what we could to help our NYC based hospitals maintain systems, and working with our great teams across the country to assist and console any we could, I hadn’t really taken time to process all that much of what had taken place.  Then racing across 401, my journey became complicated by tears flowing most of that distance.  They were brought on and held almost constant by seeing almost every single business I could see and many private residences as well across my trip across Canada, flying American Flags at half-staff that very next morning.  You may or may not know that a stretch of 401 later became named the “Highway of Heroes” btw, where Canadian soldiers who died in Canada’s effort supporting the United States after the terror attacks of 9-11 were respectfully driven from the airbase to their final resting place.  I truly believe if I would have known on that drive about what was going on up in Gander in Newfoundland, Canada right about then with that incredible small town rallying so significantly and selflessly to take care of all the rerouted passengers from the US and elsewhere, I probably wouldn’t have been able to keep driving.  I felt pride in our people and all that so many gave, especially the first responders.  I felt pride in our partnerships and support we were receiving.  Our people and our partners helped me process survivor guilt.  It made me feel like the world was more united than divided.  It showed that despite never forgetting and always honoring those we lost and supporting those who experienced personal loss, that we could and would persevere.

The photo included depicts a picture from a family trip to Banff, Canada in 2016.  It is the quite beautiful Lake Moraine in the background.  The beauty and the solitude remind me of not only an unbelievable trip spent with my family hiking and exploring, but also of the incredible and vast beauty and serenity in the world.  Our physical world has it in it, our humanity has it in us, and we must act in good faith, intention and action to do what we can to support each other across our own great country, the United States of America, but at the same time we can also support our allies, and in sync with this posting, our great friends and neighbors to the north, Canada.  So, if you need anything that I can ever help with, please ask.  In the meantime, I hope to keep Takin’ Care of Business, Every Day, Taking Care of Business, Every Way.  Here’s to bountiful and boundary less business and prosperous partnerships.  Toasting you all everywhere with both a Guinness and a snub nose Labatt Bleu today. It’s all of our business to take care of.

#itmatters #mission #partnership