| Bill: | Why did you go to seminary? |
| Brad: | It was my dad’s dream for me to be a pastor |
| Bill: | You went from 75¢/hr to CEO. Did you have that desire? |
| Brad: | No, not hardly. The store was not doing well, the founder asked my opinion on some leaders who had worked for me. I asked him, why not me? The nice thing about leading in a bankrupt environment is that you don’t have to wonder if you have leadership desires: you either lead or go bankrupt. |
| Bill: | What’s your theology of labor? |
| Brad: | I got straight C’s, my guidance counselor recommended I not go to college. I was not prepared to lead, but it worked. So either I was a genius, or lots of people have the opportunity [ability?] to lead |
| Bill: | Measuring employee focus? |
| Brad: | We measure employee engagement—if employees are engaged, customers will be happy. We measure this twice a year with a survey. |
| Bill: | How do you raise the engagement score? |
| Brad: | It takes someone who really cares about who they are leading. A lot of people go into leadership to be about ME. It’s about servant leadership—training people. These leaders get their joy out of seeing people grow rather than achieving things. |
| Bill: | I would think your day would mostly be about strategizing, etc. But it’s not? |
| Brad: | A lot of what I do is group therapy, “social work.” If I have a people problem, it’ll show up in the numbers. |
| Bill: | When you lead down, you are listening to the people below you, figuring out what they need and making commitments to do that. When you don’t lead up, you have your work cut off because the people above you don’t understand the importance. |
| Bill: | Time when you wanted to quit? |
| Brad: | The founder left for a year to spend time with his wife who was dying of cancer. I stepped into the CEO role. He came back, but I had commitments I’d made that I wouldn’t be able to keep unless I was CEO. |
| Bill: | How do you motivate people who are flagging? |
| Brad: | You need to believe in what you are doing. If you do, it will reinforce you and you will be re-energized. |
| Bill: | How do you motivate people without financial incentives |
| Brad: | Ooh, that’s hard. I think you need financial incentives, but they only go so far. I had one woman I tried to promote. She refused because she said there were so many unhappy endings at the top. People were getting rich, but being empty, while the people lower down didn’t have the riches, but they didn’t have the emptiness, either. |
| Bill: | Why are you a reader? |
| Brad: | I want to know why things happen. What is it about other leaders that made them great leaders? |
| Bill: | Wealth |
| Brad: | I have developed an appreciation for the rich man through the eye of the needle... It has temptations and responsibility. |
| Bill: | How do you let people know you are a Christian? |
| Brad: | I run a secular company with all faiths, and as CEO I represent that organization. I think people know I’m a Christian by my life. Sometimes I can’t think of a better way to express something than with a parable or something from the Bible. I don’t say anything directly unless I sense they have given me permission (usually by asking), because the last thing I want to do is have the difference of power influence their decision for Christ. |
| Bill: | What would you tell all these pastors? |
| Brad: | For those who didn’t take the path I took [i.e. actually became pastors], realize that our faith is being enriched through our lives in the workplace and kind of like the spread of the Christian faith in Europe, we are working in the workplace. |