My early career moves were from mowing yards to bagging groceries to driving a tractor to pump gas to pouring concrete. Looking back, I learned the most from pouring concrete.
I was the only one in my family of five kids to go on to postsecondary education directly out of high school. While I thought about college, knowing that I had to pay my way, I decided to attend a two-year Vo-Tech school to be an Electronic Tech. Of the jobs I had to that point, fixing cars was the one that paid well, and I enjoyed the most, so I could see myself as a TV Repairman.
I left Macksville for Salina Area Vo-Tech. It was a great move on my part. I loved learning the theories of electronics and found that I was very good at breaking a problem down and repairing radios and TVs. Good enough, I won the Kansas Vocational Industrial Clubs of America (VICA) in electronics and competed at the National level both years.
I moved to Dallas from Kansas after graduating from Vo-Tech because of my Uncle Ron, my dad's younger brother. Uncle Ron took an interest in me. He told me that I had too much potential to stay in Kansas. Uncle Ron was someone to listen to. He came from the same background as me and wanted to reach the C-level executive suite. I always thought it important to listen closely to his advice. Just as important was not to let him down.
Soon I was a Field Service Rep traveling the Southwest fixing electronic medical diagnostic equipment in hospitals. I loved the work of problem resolution and customer interaction and was good at both.
Complete rebuild and carburetor kit. Started on the third pull. Mike Kephart
Diagnosing and resolving problems with the customer and the instrument is a skill that serves you well throughout your career. How often will someone diagnose the symptom and not get to the actual problem? An example you often see in sales is the problem of a lack of first meetings. The diagnosis will often be that Reps aren't making enough calls. The real problem many times is in the message. Either the company is providing an ineffective message, or the Reps aren’t communicating the message well. Either way, increasing the number of dials doesn't necessarily lead to more meetings.
Abbott Labs hired me, and we moved to Tulsa. I learned the importance of goal setting and planning, along with working on the plan. I planned to become the National Field Service Rep of the Year for Abbott Labs. I learned the hard way that not only is it important to build and work on the plan but also to make changes to the plan as new challenges are presented. While I was very disappointed when I didn't win the first year, I made the necessary changes to the plan and achieved my goal in the second year. This opened the door to several promotions and relocations for my family.
A few years later, I felt ready for the Field Service Manager's position, Abbott announced a new rule. You had to have a college degree to become a Manager. Time to change the plan; I started night school and earned my degree in Business Administration. I enjoy learning new things. The great part was the Minor in Leadership Studies. I believe that if you are born with leadership skills, you then have to spend your life developing those skills, and that is what I continue to do.
Abbott sent me to Atlanta as the Field Service Manager. The Atlanta District had a Manager who had been there a while, so Leadership chose me as I had demonstrated strong leadership skills and was action-oriented to make changes. The Atlanta Team needed to be held accountable. While I didn't know it then, my leadership style was like the "broken window theory." I took care of the small stuff, which set the stage for fixing the significant issues. Top performers improved and flourished, while underperformers either accepted their plan to improve or left. Some had to be shown the door. The Atlanta District turned around and became a top-performing District.
What life lessons did I learn from pouring concrete in the hot Kansas sun? That hard work in those harsh conditions gave me focus beyond anything else to study hard, as studying hard was nothing compared to pouring concrete.