I believe in and practice servant leadership. I hire leaders with strong communication skills, a desire to grow, and who show a dedication to their respective teams. My primary role as a leader is to ensure open communication regarding vision, goals and priorities, present opportunities to gain skills and experience, and remove obstacles that are preventing members of my team from doing their best work.

As CEO at Allen Press, I had the opportunity to lead a team of five VPs. Having a group of high-performing, experienced individuals helped me grow as a manager as my focus shifted from daily management to developing and articulating a company vision, building consensus and consistency company-wide, and working with and through executives to realize short- and long-term goals.

While at Borders Group, Inc. (Borders Books and Music), I was a facilitator at the Development Center. Each Development Center was a week-long event with representatives from the corporate office, HR, and store general managers. “High potential” Assistant Managers were invited to participate in the program, which consisted of seminars on leadership, HR practices, operations, and interpersonal communications. My primary role was to conduct role-playing sessions covering a variety of topics. After each session, I would present each participant with feedback on their performance and make recommendations for their future development. I and other facilitators would also make recommendations on their degree of readiness to step into a General Manager role.

At Allen Press, I managed a team of sales executives for Scholarly Services as well as the VP of Sales (who led the commercial print sales team). Each of my team members were new to sales roles, so we had an opportunity to develop the skills required to develop a book of business and the retention of existing clients. At its core, I believe that sales is a customer service position.

During my tenure at Borders as a General Manager, seven of my assistants were promoted to manage their own locations.

At Allen Press, I led a cross-departmental committee which created a new performance evaluation form and review guide. The purpose of the new materials and process was to better promote a dialogue about performance, job satisfaction, and opportunities for growth whereas the previous performance evaluation centered on a numerical score. Employee satisfaction with the new performance review process was reported by 82% of employees.