It’s About Leading People

What advice would you give then other leaders or aspiring leaders about sharing and creating a team playbook that they can all use together?

I think oftentimes, when I think about becoming a supervisor, and I've done this quite a bit, and it's about leading people. You don't manage people, you lead them. But when you become a supervisor, which many of us are coming very young ages, we tend to not value perspectives from -- we think from a hierarchical perspective. What I say is, in any organization, you can learn from everyone. So have your ears and mind open to everybody in the organization. One of the things that I value myself on is I treat everybody in the organization the same. That is an important aspect. You give them the respect and dignity to all, doesn't matter what my position is. And I know sometimes because I am the CEO, there's this level of, I wouldn't say fear, but there's this level of respect that people have that they don't want to approach you. I try to knock that down. I want people to feel comfortable coming in my office regardless of where they are. So what I do all the time in most of my endeavors, I said, if my door is open, don't be afraid to knock on, don't be afraid.

That's great. Yeah, because sometimes when you're the head of the organization, people don't want to waste your time or they feel intimidated for whatever reasons. And so it's great that you have that open door policy.

Absolutely. And they recognize sometimes I can't give them the time and attention, but I want them to know that I'm listening, even when in the elevator, walking down the hall, you know, doing that walk the hall kind of a deal and talking to folks, that is an important aspect. I want people to know, while I may be the CEO, I'm still Kevin Washington, I'm a human being just like you.