Photo Credit: Christopher T. Gregory/The New York Times
Adam Bryant conducts interviews of senior-level executives that appear in his “Corner Office” column each week in the SundayBusiness section of The New York Times. Here are a few insights provided during an interview of Jarrod Moses, founder of United Entertainment Group, a marketing agency, who says traveling with his colleagues by bus builds trust and candor, and stirs creativity.
Bryant: Tell me about some of your early work experiences.
Moses: My mother, Susan Moses, has been working in the Philadelphia community as a stage actress for 45 years. When I was 12, my father died, so I was somewhat of a latchkey kid. When I was hanging out with my mother, she’d eventually find things for me to do, so I became a ticket manager and a front-door manager at whatever theater she was working in at the time. She was constantly working. I loved the world of entertainment, and it was kind of a second family for me, and I felt very comfortable with a lot of the theater people. Growing up in my house, there were always these actors around, and I really got to understand people. It was a big life lesson.
Bryant: Tell me about your approach to leading people and managing people.
Moses: I take it personally when someone isn’t happy or excited in their job. If they’re not, I want to know why. I will pull somebody aside and talk to them about what’s going on in their life. People have to know I’m there to support them no matter what they need, personally or professionally. A lot of my time is devoted to those conversations. But what I hope they get out of it is that they feel that they want to go the extra mile. You have to be among the players all the time. The captain of the team doesn’t have to be the star. He can be the sixth man on the bench, but he has to be the one who excites people and gets them enthused about showing up every day.
Somebody also told me something about the conversations you have with your staff: sugar-coating only causes cavities. So let’s not have an hourlong conversation if only two minutes of it are important. A performance review should be a daily evaluation or a weekly evaluation. If you wait, people tend to be a little bit on edge. I like to be candid, and I want them to tell me what’s going on.
Bryant: Let’s talk about culture. What’s unusual about your company?
Moses: One of the first things we bought was a tour bus. We use it instead of flying. We take it at least 25 times a year to different meetings throughout the country. There’s an amazing culture that develops on the bus. You learn so much about one another, and you develop this candor and trust that you don’t get in the office. The creative juices just flow, and they flow 24 hours. They could come from a joke; they could come because someone is just overtired. You never know.
The point is that there’s no barrier to entry for the idea. People are wearing T-shirts and shorts. No one is the C.E.O. on the bus. It’s like a band. There’s a magic to it.
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Adam Bryant, deputy national editor of The New York Times, oversees coverage of education issues, military affairs, law, and works with reporters in many of the Times’ domestic bureaus. He also conducts interviews with CEOs and other leaders for Corner Office, a weekly feature in the SundayBusiness section and on nytimes.com that he started in March 2009. In his book, The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed, (Times Books), he analyzes the broader lessons that emerge from his interviews with more than 70 leaders. To read an excerpt, please click here. To contact him, please click here.