A CEO I Can Admire

Anyone who runs a business, large or small, understands the pressure of keeping your business moving forward. As they say, “it is lonely at the top”. For a CEO, everyone is a critic and every move you make is questioned. Where revenue and profits are king, it is natural for a CEO to squeeze every employee and resource for all the productivity they can get. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe CEO’s are bad, but their number one fiscal responsibility is to bring in the all- mighty dollar.

So to my surprise last week I had a CEO turn this mindset completely on its head. Yes, he discussed his company’s future and how they were going to attain revenue goals, but a session with his Human Resources manager got my attention. They were discussing a program in place for employees called “passion pay”. This program enables any employee, regardless of job title or length of service, to take a paid week off from work and spend it serving their favorite charity. What I truly admire, is that the expense of offering this to his employee’s, didn’t outweigh his passion to give back to the community. For me this is a CEO who gets it.

For anyone who will listen, I have stated that my goal in life is to see my company prosper and be rewarding financially for me, so that I can take the money I earn and use it to help those in need. I believe that if I am blessed with the skill to make money, then that’s for a reason. It’s not to buy exotic cars or a G6, it’s about helping others. I haven’t always felt this way, but I do now and I happen to like that feeling. I applaud and admire this CEO, and I hope many others, myself included, will follow his lead.