Enriching Lives Through HVAC: Kevin Thompson on Culture, Morning Meetings, and Coaching at Cambridge Air Solutions
Manufacturing Happy Hour
Recorded at a happy-hour session during the Midwest Manufacturers Trade Show and Conference, this interview with Kevin Thompson asks how a company that is not large by headcount has built a reputation for its culture. Thompson spent years as CFO of Cambridge Air Solutions and now works as its leadership coach. His answer comes back repeatedly to two foundations: knowing why the company exists and defining how its people behave.
"We Punch Larger Than We Are"
The host opened by noting that they had been hearing more and more about Cambridge Air Solutions, which struck them as unusual for what they called a midsize name in manufacturing. Thompson clarified the company's scale. Cambridge operates across North America, but it is not large by employee count or by the usual measures. He described it as "small, smaller into middle market." The company's goal, in his words, is to "punch larger than we are."
Where "Enriching Lives" Came From
Thompson traced the company's mission to work the leadership team did about 12 years ago using Patrick Lencioni's book The Advantage. Lencioni argues that a leadership team must answer six questions before doing anything else. The first two are "why do you exist" and "how do you behave." Thompson admitted the team did not have those answers "dialed in" at the time.
The "why" they settled on puts heavy weight on enriching lives. Cambridge is a second-generation, 60-year-old family company, and Thompson said the emphasis reflects the heart of the owner and the owner's family. The full statement reads: "We exist to glorify God by enriching the quality of every life we touch."
Thompson focused on the word "enriching." To enrich something is to add to it and make it better, and he compared it to fertilizer enriching soil. The company, he said, does not exist to make HVAC equipment. It exists to enrich lives, and it happens to do that by manufacturing and distributing HVAC equipment. It could do it other ways. When employees and leaders work inside that "why," he argued, manufacturing feels different from "I make heaters every day." He added that it also makes leadership a different experience. The host joked that cooling equipment in a St. Louis summer is literal life enrichment.
The Daily Morning Meeting
According to the host, the most tangible sign of Cambridge's culture, and the one getting attention on podcasts and in the industry, is its morning meeting. Thompson said it has run without interruption for about ten years. That includes the COVID period, when the company briefly moved it online. The meeting covers all employees at all locations every day and is meant to last about 15 minutes.
Thompson called it "more of a cultural touch" than a traditional huddle. Information does get exchanged, but that is not the main purpose. A volunteer leads each meeting, and about half of employees have volunteered. This ties to one of the company's core values, courage, and to a matching "value in action" statement: "grab the mic." Standing up to lead the meeting takes courage.
The volunteer leads roughly five minutes of stretching and can talk about anything they want during that time, with any slide they choose. Thompson said people often share family pictures and hobbies. He once presented the music that got him through high school, and he said people got to know him better because of it. The point is to break down the workplace habit of not seeing each other as full people. Instead of "Kevin the CFO," colleagues could see a father of seven and grandfather of eight who enjoys woodworking and reading.
The meeting is held standing on the plant floor. Anyone not there joins online. Thompson called it his "absolute favorite part of the day" and said it is now so embedded that if leadership tried to stop it, "the employees wouldn't let us." Asked about the stretching, he said it is really a quick warm-up. Hourly employees on the floor start at 5 a.m., so by the time the meeting starts they have already worked nearly three hours.
Asked about his high school music, Thompson named three albums: the Eagles' Hotel California, Cheap Trick's Live at Budokan, and Supertramp's Breakfast in America. He added that his father died during his senior year, so there was a lot to get through then. The host mentioned recently seeing Cheap Trick play after a minor-league hockey game in Milwaukee, and Thompson recalled seeing the Doobie Brothers after an NFL game.
A Catastrophic Start and Six Months to Make It Work
Thompson was blunt that the morning meeting "started out catastrophically bad." In its early days, he said, it was horrible and he did not want to be there. It was full of blame and "all kinds of unhealthy stuff." It improved because some leaders were deeply committed to doing it well, because the company had examples from friends inside and outside the industry, and because people kept working at it. By his account, it took about six months to get it right.
When the host asked what others could learn from that period, Thompson described what a former leader called "the vortex": you spin it up gradually. He offered an example he expected to sound funny. One key early cultural change was the decision to clean their own building, bathrooms included. A few people came back from a visit elsewhere eager to have everyone clean bathrooms. Leadership asked them to pause and suggested another approach. The four enthusiasts would do it, the leadership team would do it with them, and others would see it and want to join. The core group grew from about eight people to 12, then 24. From there the company made small, intentional improvements, which Thompson described as "run the experiment." That kind of incremental work, he said, is what got the morning meeting to the point where people wanted to be there.
Gratitude as a Centerpiece
Gratitude has become a major part of the meeting. People grab the mic and say what they are thankful for that day. It does not have to be about work, but Thompson estimated that about 80% of the time it is thanks for a coworker and something that person did. The host mentioned keeping a gratitude journal. Thompson said the focus on gratitude has been one of Cambridge's biggest effects on him personally. He described himself as "not that guy generally," but being around people who practice gratitude changed him.
The meetings are open to outsiders, and Thompson said anyone can call and arrange to attend. Cambridge also runs formal tours, about four a year by his estimate, that people can sign up for to see the operation.
Defining Culture as "Values in Action"
Asked for a final tip on building culture, Thompson said he has almost stopped using the word "culture" because he cannot define it. His working definition is "values in action." His advice returned to Lencioni's first two questions. Know your "why," live it every day, and encourage employees to live it. He stressed that each organization's why is its own, and a company should be passionate about it and build the business around it.
The second foundation is the "how do you behave" statement, meaning core values. Cambridge's are unconditional love, care, courage, and respect. The company's culture, in his description, is the attempt to live those values out every day. He explained unconditional love as "I love you for who you are, not what you do." He paired it with the expectation that people still do what they were hired to do. Without these two foundations clear enough for everyone to rally around, he warned, everything else will probably stall at some point.
Manufacturing Ambassadors: Listening Instead of Selling
The host asked about Cambridge's "manufacturing ambassadors." Thompson explained that they sit on the revenue team. The company's primary market is warehouse distribution, but it also serves manufacturing heavily with heating, cooling, and ventilation, and that market has unique requirements. The ambassadors work full time, and their commission compensation is deliberately low because they are not really out selling. Their job is to build relationships with the manufacturing community, to "enrich" it in line with the mission, and to listen and bring back what that community needs from Cambridge's products and services.
What the Market Feels Like Right Now
Asked what feedback is coming from manufacturers, Thompson said it varies by sector. Some are hot and some are softening. He noted that his change in role means he is less connected to the markets than before. His general read was caution. He sees encouragement around onshoring, which he believes is bringing manufacturing back to North America if not specifically the U.S. Cambridge is still seeing strength in warehouse distribution. People remain cautious, though, citing the election year and the lesson of the past three or four years: you think you know what is going on, and then you wake up to something you did not see coming.
From CFO to Leadership Coach
Thompson's title is now leadership coach. He described a 35-year career across several companies, including COO, CFO, and GM roles, many at Cambridge. Over time, he said, his heart turned toward leadership development, coaching, and mentoring. About a year to a year and a half ago, he told the company he was ready to start a new season. He wanted to go part-time, figure out what "retirement" might look like, and do it in a coaching capacity. The company had already planned such a role but had not funded or staffed it, and leadership agreed he was a natural fit.
He now works part-time inside the HR team, having stepped off the leadership team. He is developing standard work and processes for leadership development and will help teach programs that already exist. He also has an outside coaching client and does some mentoring and nonprofit work. The role is new. He took a three-month sabbatical in the fall and returned in January, though he noted he had been doing this kind of work informally as CFO.
Coaching to Create Coaches
On the impact he hopes to have, Thompson said all good leadership roles aim to work yourself out of a job. His current horizon is about three years, though he said that could change. He wants the people he coaches to become comfortable as coaches themselves. He is using a specific methodology he is certified in, while acknowledging there are others. Coaching, he said, is about developing your players, so his goal is "coaching to make coaches." The host noted that working yourself out of a job has become a recurring theme on the podcast, including among engineers and manufacturing managers. Both called it a paradox: people who do it end up with more opportunity, not less.
St. Louis Manufacturing: Decline, Recovery, and the Middle
Asked about the St. Louis manufacturing scene, Thompson described two phases. For about 20 years starting around 1990, there was significant decline, as the region lost large manufacturers or saw them shrink or split up operations. Since roughly 2010, he sees a solid, slow, sustained recovery across a broader set of sectors, and he mentioned biomed and healthcare services.
He argued that smaller privately held manufacturers are underestimated. He described them as companies with roughly 50 to 250 employees working out of buildings around 50,000 to 250,000 square feet, and he said Cambridge sees them in its own sales. He called them the backbone of manufacturing today. St. Louis, he said, has many family-owned, multigenerational manufacturers, and the people-centric approach is gaining steam there. Cambridge belongs to the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) and helped start a St. Louis group that he said now includes 17 to 20 manufacturers focused on building people-centric cultures.
The Role of the Missouri Association of Manufacturers
Thompson has served on the board of the Missouri Association of Manufacturers (MAM) for about six years. He said MAM has traditionally been centered in southwest Missouri and has worked intentionally to reach Kansas City, St. Louis, Jefferson City, and other parts of the state. He believes it is having some success and becoming better known. He praised Michael and the MAM team for a passion for manufacturing that "oozes out of them." He said Cambridge would be closely connected to MAM even without his board seat, because the organization aligns with the company's cultural work and shares the owner's commitment to the manufacturing community.
Final Advice: Leadership as Serving Others
For his last piece of advice, Thompson said it would probably concern "the things I do poorly." What he has learned, and did not always practice, is that leadership is about serving others. He noted that the term "servant leadership" carries a religious connotation that makes some people uncomfortable. The idea, as he put it, is that a leader's primary role is to serve people and help them grow in whatever direction they want. That requires courage and humility, which he said are hard for type-A personalities. People his age did not grow up with that expectation of leaders. He said most of his own leadership growth over a 35-year career has come in the last 10 years.
For younger listeners with 20 or 30 years ahead of them, his advice was to find a mentor or coach who embraces these concepts and values, "attach at the hip," learn, and practice the same things in their own leadership. He said he was fortunate to have such people in his life earlier and has many more now. His closing encouragement was to aspire to become one of them. The host tied that back to a theme from the day's conversations: finding the right people to connect with, at an event built for connecting manufacturing leaders in the region.
Kevin, how you doing? Good, good, how are you? I'm good. This is the first proper happy hour edition during this compilation we're doing here at the Midwest Manufacturers Trade Show and Conference. So this is, I should preface this since I do have a drink in front of you, this is what is called a moonshine margarita. I bring it up because Missouri Ridge Distilling is the company that's based here that's providing the beverages. I'm only like a couple sips in. I have to say I think moonshine margarita is the perfect way to describe it, because you can already get a sense for it after a couple sips, so I'm glad we're doing this interview early during the party.
But I want to dive right in, because I've been hearing more and more about Cambridge Air Solutions, which I think is pretty unique for what I'd say is, let's say, a more midsize name in the manufacturing world. And you can correct me on that and say no, we're huge, cuz I think you're nationwide in terms of the work you do.
We are North America, but we are not large in size in the sense of employees, or that you would traditionally think is large. I call us kind of small, smaller into middle market.
And I think that checks out to me. I think where I'm going with this is you're making a lot of good noise, big impact despite your size, which I think is very cool. We like to say we punch larger than we are. That's our attempt. Excellent way to describe it, and I think that probably ties into your mission as well. So you're in the business of enriching lives. I want you to tell me what that means, both from a literal standpoint and then from, let's say, maybe the deeper meaning behind it.
Yeah, absolutely. So it originates in work we did as a leadership team probably like 12 years ago, and it's out of The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni, where he says you answer six questions, you've got to answer these first before you do anything else. And the first two of the questions are: why do you exist, and how do you behave? And so we didn't have that dialed in well. So in our why we exist statement, what we ended up with was this very strong emphasis on enriching lives. It was our owner's desire. We're a second-generation, 60-year-old family company, and that's his heart, it's his family's heart, and so that's where it originates.
So we exist to glorify God by enriching the quality of every life we touch, and we really do focus on the enriching. And so for us, enriching, if you think about what enriching is, you take something and you add something to it to make it better, right? Fertilizer for soil would be enriching the soil. And so our goal actually is, if you think about our why statement, we don't exist to make HVAC equipment. We exist to enrich lives. We happen to enrich lives by making, distributing HVAC equipment. We could do it other ways. And so when our employees are inside that why, when all of us are inside that why, it's a different manufacturing life than, oh yeah, I make heaters every day.
Yeah, and I mean I tell you, as a leader, it's a different leadership life. I mean, when you're making cooling equipment and you're based in St. Louis, that's a life enricher. I've had to deal with those summers. Well, every time I visit back during the summer as well, I still feel it. So no, I appreciate the deeper meaning and the literal meaning behind it.
And I think the biggest buzz I hear about Cambridge Air Solutions is around the culture that you have there, and one of the most tangible ways that I think characterizes your unique culture, that I've heard about on podcasts, I've started to hear more chatter about in the industry, is your morning meetings. Tell us about your morning meetings, cuz, well, I'm not going to say any more on that. I want to hear from you, and then I'll go into maybe other questions I have.
Yeah, so the morning meeting's been going on now without interruption, including when we did a quick pivot during COVID to remote for a little while, for like 11 years I think, or 10, maybe not quite that long, 10. It is a daily touch, all employees, all locations. It's intended to last about 15 minutes. I call it more of a cultural touch. It's not the huddle like most people would think, where you're transferring a whole bunch of information. It has that in it, but it's really, it's led by a volunteer. So about half of our employees volunteer.
One of our core values is courage, and a value in action statement for us is grab the mic. So for somebody to grab that mic and lead a morning meeting takes courage, so that's one of our values. And so that volunteer gets up and they lead us for about five minutes in stretching, and they can talk about anything they want to talk about during that five minutes. They can make any slide they want to make. So we get a lot of family pictures, we get a lot of what do I do for hobbies. It's everything under the sun. I did one on music where I said all my favorite music that got me through high school. That's a great topic. Yeah, and people got to know me better.
So the whole concept is, and then we do a whole lot of information trading, but the whole concept is we break down those barriers where at work we don't see each other as humans. And so you might see me as Kevin the CFO, when I was a CFO, instead of Kevin as the person who's a father of seven children and the grandfather of eight grandchildren, and likes to do woodworking and read, and it breaks those down, right? And so it's something that's just totally organic for us right now. If we tried to stop, the employees wouldn't let us. Sure. They wouldn't let us.
It started out catastrophically bad. I will just tell you that when we first did it, it was horrible. I didn't want to be there. It was blame, it was all kinds of unhealthy stuff, and we just kept working at it, working at it. We had some leaders who were super committed to doing it well. We had examples of other people doing it well, friends in the industry and in different industries, and it took about six months before we dialed it in. And we hold it on the plant floor, standing up. Everybody's out there. If you're not out there, you're online. And it's my favorite part of the day. Absolute favorite part of the day.
So a couple questions. You mentioned there's stretching going on as well. Is it like kind of like a warm-up for the day? Yeah, stretch would be a stretch. It's more quick warm-up stuff. Our employees go to work, our hourly guys on the floor go to work at 5:00, so they've already been at work for almost three hours. They're warmed up. Yeah, yeah.
Well, my next question obviously has to be, what are the top three albums, bands, or like songs that got you through high school then? You can't go there and not expect that question. Yeah, so I'm going to go albums. I'm going to go Eagles, Hotel California; Supertramp live at Budokan, or Cheap Trick Live at Budokan; and probably Supertramp, Breakfast in America. Those would be my three top that got me through kind of that. And it was, my dad died when I was a senior, so there was stuff to get through when I was in high school, so yeah, those are big for me.
You'll appreciate this. I just saw Cheap Trick a week and a half ago actually. You'll get a kick out of this. The minor league hockey team in Milwaukee has concerts on the ice, like maybe four or five times throughout the season, after the game, and these artists are no slouch. And you're literally just paying for the price of a hockey ticket and you get a free concert. So got to see a minor league hockey game, which is great because they're a little scrappier, they're in the minor league, so there's always some action, and then Cheap Trick comes out and plays a full hour-long concert after that. I saw Doobie Brothers like that at an NFL game, after NFL. Cool. Very cool.
My next question then, because I want to learn from you a bit, and I think our audience will want to learn from you a bit too: when you're going through something that's a bit of a cultural transformation, like getting the morning meeting to stick, you mentioned you didn't want to be there, like at that time, what did you have, like, tell, what were those six months like? What did it take to get something like that to stick, that everyone else can learn from for their businesses as well?
Yeah, that's a great question. I think one of our old leaders who's no longer with us called it the vortex. So you kind of spin up the vortex. So what we started with was actually, this is going to sound really funny to your audience, one of the things that we started with that was a key cultural change was that we decided to clean our own building and clean our own bathrooms. And so we had some people excited. They came back from a visit and they said, we're going to clean the bathrooms, everybody's going to clean the bathrooms. We said, well, time out, time out. How about you clean, you know, the four of you do it, we do it with you as a leadership team, and then everybody will see us do it and they'll want to join.
And so we got a core group of people passionate, maybe eight people, and then it became 12, and then it became 24, and then we started just making intentional small changes, just little small improvements that we would, we say, run the experiment. Yeah. And that's why I said about 6 months of that got us to the point where it was like, yeah, I think, you know, people started wanting to be there. They saw it.
We do gratitude. Gratitude is a huge part of the morning meeting. Like, people just grab the mic and say what are you grateful for that day. It can be anything, it doesn't have to be work related, but 80% of it's thankful for a coworker and something they did right. Oh, that's great. I mean, I'm a gratitude journal guy as well. There you go. Gratitude journal, great way to start the day. Probably one of the biggest impacts on me personally with Cambridge has been the focus on gratitude in the time that I've been there, just learning that as a person, just being surrounded by people that do, like you do, they gratitude journal, and I'm not that guy generally, so yeah.
Oh, it's very cool that an activity like that, that you said started 12 years ago, I may be a little long because I've lost track of time, but it's 8 to 10 at least. It's a long time. It's been going on for a while. And other people can attend that, right? Like, I think, all the time? Like, open invitation. Anybody, just call us, we'll get you in. And we do tours too that are actually formal, you can sign up for. I think we do four of those a year or something, where you can see our operation.
So we're going to switch gears here in a second, but what is your final tip for the leaders out there about creating the culture they want in their company? I know it's kind of a vague question. It's okay, it's a hard one. And I've gotten to the point, I was sharing with somebody recently, that I've almost gotten to the point where I don't use the word culture because I can't define it. But yeah, so I define culture as values in action.
And so my answer would be those first two Lencioni questions out of The Advantage. Know your why, live it every day, encourage your employees to live it every day. Your why is your why, it's not ours. You know, they're all different, right? But know it and be passionate about it and build your business around it. And then the how do you behave statement, which is what are your core values. For us, they're unconditional love, care, courage, and respect, and you have to live those out every day. And so that's our culture, is us attempting to live those values out every single day. Showing unconditional love for one another, which is simply, I love you for who you are, not what you do, but I do expect you to do what you're hired to do, right? That's care, courage, and respect.
Yeah, and so I think know those two things. Just know they're the foundation of everything else. Everything else will probably stall at some point if you don't have those two things dialed in that everybody can rally around as a team.
Well, I think great conversation. I love this kind of fresh approach in the manufacturing industry in a lot of ways. Culture, values in action, makes a lot of sense. Another area I want to ask you about is you have manufacturing ambassadors as well, correct? What does a manufacturing ambassador do?
So a manufacturing ambassador is inside our revenue team, and so we serve a lot of, obviously, communities in the business world. Our primary is warehouse distribution, but we also serve the manufacturing space heavily for heating, cooling, and ventilation, and so it's a unique space with unique requirements. And so for us, what we decided to do is we're going to have these people that are full-time. They're not like, the commission comp isn't real high, because we know they're actually not out selling. They're out building relationship with the manufacturing community. They're actually out there to enrich the manufacturing community, and listen, and bring back for us what does that community need when it comes to our products and services specifically.
What type of feedback then are you hearing from the manufacturing world right now? It's difficult. I mean, it depends on the sector. You know, some are hot and going great, and some are slowing down and getting a little bit softer. And I'm not as connected now because, you know, I've changed roles, we talked about it a little bit, and so I'm not as deeply connected as I was to the markets. But I would say overall, if I may generalize, I would just say there's kind of caution. There's encouragement about onshoring and stuff that's going on in the world that seems to be bringing manufacturing back to at least North America, if not the US. We're seeing good movement in that area. We're still seeing strength in the warehouse distribution market. But you know, people are still cautious. It's an election year. You know, there's a lot going on. And we've all experienced in the last three or four years, you think you know what's going on, and you like wake up one morning and you're like, I didn't see that one, curve, I didn't see that one coming.
Yeah, I like that you have a team of folks that are out there that are meant to be listening to what's going on. Yeah, for sure, for sure. And you mentioned your new role. We talked about it off camera and off the mic, but I do want to ask you about it. So you correct me if I'm wrong, you used to be the CFO, and now your focus is on like a mentorship role within the organization. How do you define your role today, as if you're having a drink with someone, right?
So my title is leadership coach. I have 35 years with several companies, including Cambridge, in COO and CFO, GM roles. And especially at Cambridge, and with all the work we've done, my heart has turned so much toward leadership development and coaching and mentoring that I finally, a year ago, about a year and a half ago, I went and said, hey, I think I'm ready to start transitioning into a new season. I want to do this part-time, kind of figure out what that whole quote-unquote retirement thing looks like, and I would love to do that in a coaching capacity, because I think we need it. We've been planning on it and hadn't funded or staffed it. And they were like, yeah, who better to do it? Like, you know us pretty well.
Yeah, so I'm actually in a part-time capacity now as a leadership coach. So I'm inside our HR team now, off our leadership team, and I'm helping develop our standard work and our process around leadership development. We already have some in place, so I'll be like instructing with that. And then I do a little outside coaching as well. I have an outside client relationship, and I do a little bit of mentoring and some work in the nonprofit world. But my heart's in coaching and mentoring. I just love it. I just love it.
And how long have you been in this role now? This role, not very long. I took a three-month sabbatical in the fall and I came back in January. Okay, so this is brand new. It's pretty new. I mean, I've been doing it in my other role, you know, in my other
capacity as CFO and the leader there, but officially in that capacity with that business card, what impact then do you expect or hope that this role accomplishes?
Yeah, that's a great question. The goal is actually, I think all good leadership roles are to work yourself out of a job. And so my goal in the next three years, which is kind of my seasonal perspective right now, it could change, is the people that I get involved with coaching, I want them to be comfortable becoming coaches. And I'm using a specific methodology that I certified in. There's others, but the one I'm using that I'm bringing in, I want them to be able to do the very same thing and be comfortable as coaches. And coaches' development is developing your players, right? And so coaching to make coaches is my hope.
It's become a theme on the podcast lately about talking about working yourself out of a job.
Oh, has it really?
Yeah, it's been like, and it's not just in terms of a leadership context. Everybody should do it. Especially engineers have been talking about that too, or manufacturing managers. It's a total paradox, because if you do it, you don't actually work yourself out, you have more opportunity. It's just a weird paradox.
It is, but I think it's a powerful thing when you're able to have the confidence, you mentioned, we were talking about that earlier, to adopt that type of mentality.
We're going to finish on a little bit of a lighter note. I want to ask you, and I've been asking everyone this, what characterizes the manufacturing scene, manufacturing community in the respective cities where you're based, in the broader Missouri community, Midwest community? Tell us what the manufacturing scene is like in St. Louis, Missouri.
You know, it's interesting. It's changed a lot. I would say if you go back to like 1990, probably the 20 years or so after 1990, pretty significant decline. We lost a lot of large manufacturers, or larger manufacturers that declined in size or split operations up. And so a large decline in that 20 years. And I think since really since 2010, there's been a pretty solid, slow, sustained recovery, and I think you're seeing it in a broader set of sectors: biomed, healthcare services. I think we underestimate the smaller privately held, 50 to 250 employees. They're a big part of the manufacturing world. We see that in what we sell, you know, the 50 to 250,000 square foot buildings with 50 to 200, 300 employees. I think they're the backbone of manufacturing now. You're seeing more and more of that, I believe, in St. Louis. St. Louis is a big community for family-owned, multi-generation manufacturing companies, and this people-centric approach is really, really gaining steam. We're part of AME, Association for Manufacturing Excellence, and we helped start a group in St. Louis that I think has 17 or 20 manufacturers in it now that are about building out people-centric cultures.
What role has the Missouri Association of Manufacturers played as well in that?
You know, it's interesting. They've been fully supportive and integrating. One of the things MAM is doing is broadening its reach. It's traditionally been kind of a Southwest Missouri, and so I think I've been on the board for six years now, and so one of the things we've been very intentional about is reaching into Kansas City, reaching into St. Louis, reaching into Jeff City, you know, the other parts of the state that aren't just Southwest. I think we're having some success. I think we're getting better well known. Michael and his leadership and his team, it's just remarkable. They have such a love and a passion for manufacturing, it just oozes out of them. You just want to be around them and you want them to be part of whatever you're doing. And so we're deeply connected with MAM, not only through my board membership, but whether I was on the board or not, we would be deeply connected because they're so aligned with the cultural pieces that we're doing, and they're so aligned with, you know, our owner's heart for the manufacturing community, which is deep and real, and they share that.
Last question I have is, since we've been talking a lot about mentorship, leadership, and Manufacturing Happy Hour, one of the most common ways I'd describe it is that it's a leadership podcast disguised as a manufacturing podcast. So what would be your final piece of leadership advice for the audience out there?
Oh my goodness.
I've asked you some very unfair, broad questions today. Or maybe a piece of leadership advice we haven't gotten to cover.
It would probably be along the lines of the things I do poorly. You know, I think for me, what I've learned, and I haven't always been this way as a leader, what I've learned is leadership is actually about serving others. And you know, there's a term for it, servant leadership, that has kind of a religious connotation to it some people aren't comfortable with, but it's the concept of: my primary role as a leader is to serve you and to help you grow, whether that's as a leader or whatever growth you want that to be. I think that's it. And that means courage, humility, you know, all the things that are hard for us that are type A personalities. And I think we grew up, especially people my age, we grew up where that wasn't the expectation of a leader. And so I've really learned that most of my leadership growth, honestly, in a 35-year career, has been in the last 10 years, honestly.
Interesting. So what advice would you give to, let's say, the younger part of our audience that has that 20, 30 years left in their career, to maybe embrace that earlier on?
Find the mentor or the coach that embraces those concepts and those values and attach at the hip. Yeah, and just learn, just learn, and then practice in your leadership doing the very same thing. I was fortunate to have some of those people in my life, and certainly have a ton of them now, and just aspire to be one of them.
Well, I think that's a very appropriate way to end it, because that's been kind of a common theme throughout some of these conversations today, about finding the right people to connect with. I think very appropriate, being at an event like this hosted by a group like the Missouri Association of Manufacturers that are clearly doing a lot to connect the leaders in the manufacturing space in this region. So hey Kevin, I just want to thank you for joining on today's show.
Thank you, thank you. Really appreciate the time. Appreciate what you're doing to support it all.
Yeah, thank you for sharing your story.
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