The Secret to Upper Management Success

This post is dedicated to long-time client and friend Tom Davis. He is the vice president of Pioneer Title Agency, a family owned business (and my actual title agency!) with about 75 branches across Arizona.
While he filled our team in on upcoming expansion plans and exciting new hiring coups, we got to talking about the responsibilities of management, and more specifically, upper management and mentoring.
During our chat, which also included an extensive discussion about his days “canal skiing” (hint: it involved being a teenage boy, water skies and a truck with a rope) in West Phoenix, Davis said something that really resonated with me.
He answered this question:

What is the secret to upper management success?

“The second you start working in upper management, all of the big dreams you want to achieve, goals you want to accomplish, and accolades want bestowed at your feet take a back seat to the dreams, goals and hope of accolades of every member of your team,” says Davis. “If for any period of time, you become focused back on the ‘you’ stuff, you must readjust quickly or will ultimately fail.”
I just loved that. Certainly, it isn’t the only ingredient to success, but one worth thinking about as we all move through our careers.
For those paying close attention to our blog, you will also note this post is a bit of a follow-up to Scott’s earlier post this week, coincidentally titled “What Is The Secret to Success?”.