Yesterday: I am half way through a 90-minute presentation to a senior leadership team when the CEO makes a dash for the door. I was just getting to a really interesting part, and I’m about to make fun of his head of HR, when he bolts. But wait. Only a minute passes and the CEO is back. He reaches up to the stage with a bottle of water. He’d noticed that I was getting parched, prattling on and on, and so he’d dashed to the lobby to find me a drink. Seriously.
I’ve been doing this for a long time. Let’s count the number of times this has happened … um, never.
That’s the kind of guy Bobby Kutteh is.
In Good to Great, Jim Collins talked about the Level 5 leader. He said leaders of the best companies are humble. Bobby Kutteh is indeed humble; he’s sincere, he’s a servant to his people, and he’s loved. Yep, loved. Just about everyone who was in the audience that day would walk through fire for this guy.
As background, Bobby is CEO of Crothall Services. With 30,000 employees, it’s one of the largest and fastest growing companies you’ve probably never heard of. Crothall cleans hospitals and offices, maintains facilities, transports patients, processes linens, and so on. It’s not sexy stuff, but every five years they double in size. At less than 20 years old, they have annual revenue in excess of a billion dollars. Bobby and his team left “good” behind a long time ago and are certainly in the “great” realm.
What’s the point? It’s in how Bobby manages. Before I spoke, Bobby talked for 45 minutes to kick off the meeting. He addressed the audience without notes and with just a lavaliere microphone, pacing back and forth, outlining the strategy for the future, cracking jokes, thanking his leaders, and subtly asking everyone to walk just a little taller. For instance, he told the managers that they needed to take even better care of their employees. “People will always remember how you make them feel,” he said. “A little stroke of kindness to your employees can go a long way.” And when he was done, every one of the 230 leaders jumped to their feet and gave him a standing ovation. It was a fantastic moment.
So how does Bobby engender such loyalty? It’s not by his brilliance (though he is very smart). When I spoke with VP Bart Kaericher, he said it’s something simpler, “It’s because Bobby knows all of us individually. He knows if you have a kid just starting junior high. He knows if you are going through a tough time. He cares. It’s not an act. It’s who he is.”
Humility. I’m hearing more CEO’s mention this as a core leadership attribute they are seeking in themselves and their fellow executives. It seems the beatitude has application in the work world too: the meek truly shall inherit the earth.
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