Seeing—and Appreciating—People for All That They Are

Executive Viewpoint

There was a time when I thought the business end of work was all that mattered, and personal relationships weren’t as important. It was immature and naïve, and I was young.

It’s been a journey since then, and I’m fortunate that I’ve had the opportunity to do some resets in my career along the way. I’ve learned how essential it is to understand people and to express compassion. I’ve learned that honesty, openness and collaboration are key to success. Today, my door at Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc. is typically open, and I encourage anyone to stop by.

I’ve been at the company now for about five years. Within about nine months of being hired as president and CEO, we were in lockdown mode due to the pandemic. It was a terrible time for a lot of people, for a lot of reasons. A lot of people died.

I won’t minimize that loss. That said, looking at that time from strictly a leadership perspective gives a different view: It was something none of us had ever encountered before. It was challenging and, in some ways, exhilarating. People in positions like mine had to rise to the opportunity. We had to figure things out. And we needed to communicate in new ways.

At that point, I was one of only a handful of people in the office. I started doing weekly videos, updating everyone on how we were doing, the number of COVID cases we were seeing, that kind of thing. It was my primary vehicle for keeping in touch with employees. But we went a step further: I’d also do one-hour video chats with six or seven employees every week, chosen by my manager of organizational development. That was about getting to know them better, learning what they did at the company, where they were from, their likes and dislikes. I got so much out of these conversations, and I believe others did, too. They loved it, and they were so much fun. They loved the engagement and the transparency, and we kept that up for a handful of months. We didn’t share those conversations with the whole company; it was just for those on the call.

After that, we kept it going, but dialed back the frequency. It morphed into an ongoing monthly financial update video, talking about the finances of the company, opportunities, major orders, shout-outs, that kind of thing. It’s typically about 30 minutes, and it’s freeform. As for the employee chats, I continue those with new employees, usually once a quarter. I don’t just ask them questions—I encourage them to ask me about anything, too. Fire away!

I’ve learned a lot through this process, and not just about our roughly 500 employees. I’ve also learned some things about myself. To be completely honest (like a lot of people, I think), it used to be all about me. My loving, understanding wife will still tell me that sometimes. But I’d like to think I’ve evolved.

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