At Capital, we have a relationship-driven business full of individuals who work really hard and play really hard. We also happen to be in an industry that I personally find exciting – if we were selling encyclopedias, I probably wouldn’t have come here in the first place. But what sets us apart from our competitors is that instead of a traditional command-and-control environment, we have something special. Everything here is de-centralized. We value our long-term relationships with our customers so we want the person closest to the customer to be able to make their own decisions. That’s why we give all our people the freedom to decide how they want to do things and in turn, they appreciate that autonomy as well as the responsibility that comes with it. They have the opportunity to grow in their careers and to me, there is nothing better than the experience of watching people grow.
I love working with people so I enjoy the collaborative nature of our work environment. I think I would probably go crazy working alone. When it comes to leadership, I like working with other people as opposed to having to make decisions for other people. I think it’s important to lead from the front while staying flexible and adaptable. My role is about being a part of setting a direction or coloring in a vision. I don’t consider myself to be a manager since I’m not a disciplinarian by nature and traditional management can feel a lot like herding cats. Of course, management is part of what we do as leaders, but we do it together as opposed to just having one person do that.
As a leadership team, we encourage our people to develop themselves. That’s something that is unusual in our industry, but we want Capital to be a rewarding place for them to work – and we also want everyone to have fun. It comes back to our focus on promoting and sustaining autonomous business units with local decision-making.