July 10, 2025 • 30 mins
In creating a family-run company that will last 100 years, you have to have an adaptable skillset that gets evaluated quarterly. This is one of the great points that Matthew Powell, fourth-generation CEO of Century Companies, reveals on how to operate a business with a 100-year time horizon.
After starting his career in investment banking, Powell gained a unique appreciation for the power of patient capital and long-term thinking. He returned to his family's Midwest-based safety and security contracting business with a mission to "build for the next 100 years" – a perspective that shapes everything from hiring practices to leadership development.
Powell shares his company's unique approach to culture-building, starting with clear values (humble, hungry, and together) that are constantly reinforced through daily practices and meaningful recognition. What makes his approach particularly fascinating is his belief that "leadership is an inside job" – requiring leaders to heal their hearts, elevate their souls, galvanize their mindsets, and maintain physical health as prerequisites for organizational growth.
One of the most intriguing metrics Powell tracks is how many families are represented within the company. His reasoning is profound: if employees invite their family members to join, it demonstrates they truly believe in the environment they're helping create. This "family metric" serves as the ultimate net promoter score.
For any leader tired of the relentless pressure of short-term thinking, Powell offers a refreshing alternative that focuses on "being timeless rather than timely." His three pillars for building a century-spanning company – humanity, stewardship, and compounding – provide a framework for creating organizations with deeper purpose, stronger cultures, and more sustainable impact. Subscribe now to hear conversations with more innovative leaders who are reimagining the future of work.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome back for another episode of the Happy at
Work podcast with Laura Tessaand Michael.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Each week we have thoughtful conversations with
leaders, founders and authorsabout happiness at work.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Tune in each Thursday for a new conversation.
Enjoy the show.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Welcome to the Happy at Work podcast Today.
We're excited to have MatthewPowell, the CEO of Century
Companies, joining us.
Hi, matthew, thanks for beingwith us today.
Hi, we're excited to haveMatthew Powell, the CEO of
Century Companies, joining us.
Hi, Matthew, thanks for beingwith us today.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Hi Laura, it's great to be here Awesome.
So, good, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
So just get us going.
Start us off by telling usabout yourself.
Tell us about your career, howyou kind of got to where you are
and what you're doing now.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Absolutely so.
I am in a family business.
Century Companies is based inthe Midwest.
We're a safety and securitycontracting business, and I am
fourth generation Growing up.
I never had any plans of joiningthe family business, and right
after college I got intoinvestment banking and was
helping sell family businesses,and while I did that, it made me
(01:25):
appreciate that there'sdifferent time horizons to
operate businesses, and I got tospend a lot of time with
businesses that have a focus onbeing a financial instrument and
flipping within five years, andas I was doing that, it wasn't
quite fulfilling for me.
So I realized that my family wasa part of a family business,
and so I gave my grandfather aphone call and asked him if I
(01:46):
could come join the familybusiness, and he said absolutely
, I've been waiting for thiscall, get married and come on up
.
So I married my high schoolsweetheart, we got into U-Haul
and we moved to Milwaukee,wisconsin, and as I walked
through the doors of the familybusiness, I really didn't know
what I was getting myself into,but I knew I was joining an
organization that had beenaround for 100 years and that we
(02:06):
had to build for the next 100years, and so that's the time
horizon that I get to play innow and I'm finding that it's
very fruitful and look forwardto sharing more with you about
that journey and that timehorizon.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
So the world kind of works on minute by minute quote
by quote, earnings report byearnings report.
On minute by minute quote byquote, earnings report by
earnings report.
Why do you feel that having anincredibly longer term point of
view timeframe is better?
Speaker 4 (02:32):
From what I've, seen in my life.
All great things take time andI think that time is actually a
great filter and it's unlockingthat power of compounding is
something I'm really obsessedwith and Warren Buffett and
Charlie Munger talk about it alot and it's something that I'm
starting to see come to fruitionand my goal is to compound
trust and if I can do thatthrough relationships with all
(02:55):
stakeholders in a business withour customers, with our
teammates, with our vendors,with the community that we could
be the greatest force for good.
If we look at business withthat time horizon because all
great things take time and welive in a world where
everything's about being timelyWell, what if we focus on being
timeless?
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So what does that mean?
What are some of the trade-offsfocusing like that?
In practical terms, what aresome of the trade-offs that
means that you have to make orthe things that you do
differently compared to, maybe,working in a company that's much
more quarterly focused?
Speaker 4 (03:29):
that can align around our values and our vision of
having time arbitrage that wecan then make longer term plays
and we can really build peoplefor the long term, because
(03:51):
people are best when they canthink about things in decades
rather than quarters, and if youcan create a space where
there's psychological safety, itcreates discretionary effort
where people want to build withyou.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
I'm curious to hear more about your culture and how
the employees are actuallytreated.
Specifically, what do you feelyou do in your company that is
tangibly different than what'sgoing to be happening if I'm
working somewhere else, likeAmazon or McDonald's?
How many Big Macs did you make?
What do you actually do?
Speaker 4 (04:36):
That's a great question, michael.
I have had the opportunity towork in organizations where what
do you actually do?
Can come inspired, be safethroughout the day and go home
fulfilled.
Mother Teresa said that if youwant to change the world, go
home and love your family.
I can't think of a bettermission for a company than to
send people home better thanwhen they arrived and we can
change the world.
It's a bit grandiose, but that'swhat I'm aspiring to do here at
(04:57):
Century and find the long-termplayers to play that long-term
game, and some of the ways thatwe're doing that is through
building real teams, real teams.
A lot of organizations don'ttake the time, at least from my
experience, to really buildteams, and we're on this journey
.
I've been in the first chairfor about three years and we put
(05:17):
values in place, and values arebehaviors and you tolerate what
you get.
So we've had very toughsituations where the standard
has been set by people.
We've had to let go, and that'swhat makes it real is, when you
make those tough decisions,that someone might be really
good at output, but they're nota good locker room player,
they're not cohesive, and so wehave taken the time to make sure
(05:41):
we have the right people on thebus.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So I'm super interested in this.
Culture is something I talkabout a lot and study a lot and
really dig into, and I lovewhere you're going with this.
So the thing that's so hardabout this sometimes I mean
sometimes when you get thefoundation built, it's such a
clarifying construct, right,when you're super clear about
(06:05):
what you stand for and you, youknow very much, recognize the
people who are doing thosethings and then the people who
aren't, maybe you try to coursecorrect, but then you change
like they need to leave right Ifthey're not consistently being
part of what you're trying tocreate.
There's so many layers to this,as you know.
There's so many things that canmake this really tricky,
(06:27):
especially if you have maybethere's an account manager who
has a particularly goodrelationship with your biggest
customer, for example, and itends up that that person there's
something about the way they'reacting that goes against the
values, right, there's thesehard decisions that you have to
make.
So I think that's where you knowthe rubber hits the road and
everybody else around can seethat, right, they can see when
(06:50):
that isn't happening, when thepeople aren't living the values,
and we have to make decisionsabout that.
So I mean that's probably thepretty most obvious kind of
version of how you can makedecisions about culture, but
there's also a lot of otherthings that are in the, I guess,
like the day-to-day practices.
You know a lot of the thingsthat we do at work that we sort
(07:11):
of take for granted of maybe howwe do budgeting or how we do
our team meeting, or the CEOdoes something the same or
different from everybody else,and so I'm just curious how have
you taken these values and Ithink I believe I believe I saw
your values on your website buthow do you take your values and
(07:32):
make them so just kind ofnatural and everywhere that
people look, you know in inmaybe ways that people wouldn't
expect?
Speaker 4 (07:41):
We try to make it a part of our daily rhythm and a
part of our language, with ourvalues are being humble, hungry
and together and we try to buildit into conversation.
Some of the ways I try to do itis starting our.
We have leadership, weeklyleadership team meetings and
starting with a values momentand just going around the
leadership table andhighlighting moments that people
(08:03):
have represented one of ourthree values.
And then we have monthly townhalls.
I don't think any company canover-communicate, so we have
lots of different vehicles forcommunication and we always
start with our values and weshare stories and moments that
are throughout the organizationand we celebrate those people
through positive reinforcementand give rewards and celebrate
(08:23):
when people are being humble andhungry and together, because
for us that creates a deep senseof belonging and I believe
we're social creatures andthat's we want belonging at the
end of the day, and that's whatwe're trying to build with our
values and highlighting it.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
I love that, and when I go into organizations to
consult, usually it's becausethere's something wrong.
That's why they ask you in there.
It's so many times it all comesdown to wow, you hired the
wrong person and now you'retrying to like make it up and
get them engaged and it's reallylike pushing the rock up the
(09:00):
hill.
So I'm curious when you'rehiring people, what's it like?
What are you looking for?
Are there any unique thingsthat you do in the interview
process that some of ourlisteners could be like oh, I
need to do a better job becauseI'm not really good at it.
Can you tell us about how you?
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
For me, and I'm focused on culture first, and
then you can teach people skills.
So for us I'm looking forstories and I'm not going to
explicitly ask people what's anexample of being humble, what's
an example of being hungry, butI'm going to try to mine for
stories where they arerepresenting our values and if
they've done their homework theymight be able to do that.
But then I'm going to reallytry to dig in to appreciate do
(09:40):
they naturally sit at thatintersection of values that
align with the century?
And I think it always comesback to the stories and the
examples that people can provide.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
What have you found in terms of people being
surprised that you want to makea long-term commitment in them?
It feels like that would besuch a pleasant surprise but
feel unusual to people Like soyou want me to stay here for a
long time.
It just seems like nowadays,right, everybody's changing jobs
all the time, and so how doesthat?
Has that been kind of anythingthat you've had to do to kind of
(10:12):
convince people that you'reserious?
No, like you really want themto be there for the long time.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
It's been.
It's been one of my favorite,my favorite parts of my job, of
being a part of something thatwe want to build, that's worth
passing on and I share withpeople.
I want to work with you fordecades.
I don't want to work with youfor months, and if we're
optimizing for relationships,then you want to be with people
for a long time because we spendso much time at work.
We spend more time at work thanwe do with our family and
friends, so we need to enjoywhere we are and feel that deep
(10:39):
sense of belonging, and Ibelieve that it helps to align
us, to be on a great team with agreat locker room, so that we
can create great work together.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Have you just to follow up on that, do you have
any stories of people thatyou've had to kind of reassure
them that you're serious aboutthe long term?
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Yeah, I think people at first are it's different,
it's countercultural to befocused on the long term Right,
but I think it's refreshing andit's word of mouth for us that
it's not coming from me butcoming from our team is most
valuable and one of the keymetrics that we measure at our
company and I'd love yourthoughts on this.
It's a little controversial.
(11:18):
We measure how many familiesare in the family business,
because if you are willing toinvite your child or your
sibling or a cousin to theorganization, that means you
deeply care for them and youthink that this is a place
worthy of them spending theirtime, and it's a key metric that
we share every month and welove celebrating as it climbs.
(11:39):
And I'd love to know yourthoughts.
I mean, nepotism has a bad rapand what do you think about that
with us building ourorganization around families and
family business?
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Laura, you want to start, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Well, first, it's sort of like the ultimate net
promoter score, right?
Like the idea of promoting thisto people who you love and care
for, that you want them to comeand work there.
That says a lot if that's thecase.
So you know, the recommendingthis place is a great place to
work to my family is like theultimate net promoter score, so
(12:15):
I think that's reallyinteresting.
I would imagine, though, thatit creates the need for a lot of
clarity around some boundariesand being really clear about
standards and expectations ofperformance.
I mean, that's needed anyway,right, we need to be really
clear about what expectationsare period.
(12:37):
So that's the next place I goto.
Is does that make thingscomplicated when your nephew is
working in the same departmentthat you're in, or something
like that?
So that's my reaction, michael.
What would you?
Speaker 3 (12:49):
I basically like it because I remember I was working
somewhere and my boss she saidto me you know we're looking for
another professor.
Do you know who would fit inhere?
And I thought it was really abrilliant way to get a good
candidate because I knew theculture, I knew my friend and I
(13:10):
would know if there was a fit.
So it really saved just a lotof time from getting people from
LinkedIn or wherever.
So I like the fact that theperson who's doing the referring
or the recommending alreadyknows the culture, already
usually pretty well know thatfamily member more than just a
stranger.
So I could see it would be goodon that end.
I was curious if you alsoexpand that to friends, because
(13:35):
my family is well, they're old,most of them are dead, so I
don't refer them.
But I have a lot of friends andthey share my value system and
I wonder if you also expand thator give it the same weight as
this is my relative versus thisis my friend, if you also add
that in there and if there's adifferent weight to it.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
We don't measure friends, but we certainly
welcome and celebrate when wehave referrals.
Most of our positions now arefilled through referrals.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yeah, do you find, matthew?
There's sort of the obvious.
Also next question around if weare already kind of narrowing
down to people who are withinour family, does that mean we
might not be open or thinkingabout people who aren't
necessarily like us and thatmight have different
(14:25):
perspectives or backgrounds, andit maybe doesn't open us up to
new ideas or new ways ofthinking or just people who are
different from the people whoare within our family systems?
So I'm curious how you thinkabout that.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Yes, I completely see that, and that's definitely
something I need to be mindfulof is we're celebrating this
momentum with families andfamily business.
We've also done some hiringoutside of the business for
positions instead of internalpromotions and, from what I'm
seeing and experiencing, I thinkit's very healthy to bring in
people from the outside to bringfresh ideas that they've been
(15:00):
through, things that Centurymaybe hasn't been through.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Right.
It's to me like the combinationI'm working with this company
right now, where they sort ofhave something similar where
they are hiring a lot of peoplewho are really experienced.
They have tons of industryexperience and advanced degrees,
similar, where they're hiring alot of people who are really
experienced.
Like you know, they have tonsof you know, industry experience
and advanced degrees and sothey're hiring a lot of people
there, but they're alsobalancing that with people who
are maybe new to career, whodon't have as much experience,
(15:24):
and so that kind of mixed modelversus just one or the other,
you know, it seems like it's ahealthy, healthy thing to do.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
With our accountability.
Lauren, michael, I'd love toknow your thoughts on this.
Every week, we reflect on andremind ourselves at the
leadership level of our purpose,and it's different than our
purpose for the company.
So our company's purpose is tohelp build safer communities,
but then our leadership teampurpose is to be a safety-first,
values-driven company thatdelivers sustainable and
(15:55):
profitable growth, and we writethat as a team and then we have
key metrics that go with that.
So are we achieving our purpose?
And that's been really criticalfor me for being a team,
getting back to, like, thatsense of belonging when you're
on the basketball court, youknow by the scoreboard, and so
we're always trying to come backto our scoreboard.
I just would love your thoughtsthat helps.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
I think that's really great and I think this is one
of the reasons why culture hasgotten such a bad rap is that we
have put culture in this kindof place over here, where it's
an HR thing or it's the nice tohave, versus, like, putting it
really intertwined with thebusiness results we're trying to
achieve.
Right, that we need to be thisway together in order for us to
(16:35):
achieve these business results,and to me, that weaving and
making those things go hand inhand really closely is awesome.
And the leadership team pieceof this, too, like that's
another thing I tend to see isthe leadership team often isn't
aligned.
You know, they're the firstones who you can look at and say
, gosh, they're not on the samepage about what this company is
trying to achieve and how we'regoing to do it, like how the
(16:58):
culture needs to be designed inorder for that to happen.
So I'd love the focus on theleadership team.
Michael, were you going to saysomething?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yeah, I would add in.
I went to an online workshopthat was from Harvard Business
Review, one of their guestspeakers I forgot his name, but
he manages 250,000 people inIndia.
It's multiple companies underone large umbrella and he had a
metric that you might enjoy andit was basically called the
helpful index.
(17:26):
He may have called it somethingelse.
It was basically that when itcame time for you know, let's
say, your promotion or review,or hey, let's look at what
happened last week People wouldrate me and say, well, how
helpful was Michael to Matthew,how helpful was he to Laura, how
helpful was he to other people?
And I kind of get like thislittle Yelp review and I think
(17:49):
what's interesting about it isthat it brings it into the
culture that this isn't likethis extra bonus.
This is how you're supposed tobe looking for opportunities to
be helpful, and one of thedifficult things with looking
for these fuzzy things is to puta number on it with a metric,
and I just thought I'd throwthat out, that that was what
(18:09):
this person was doing, and it'sinteresting that it can create a
better culture, especially in asales department where you say,
oh, team player, work together,but all the money and the
incentives are the exactopposite.
So I'm curious if you thinksomething like that would be
useful in your organization.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
I think it would be.
I think that posture of how canI help is contagious.
When we're starting toimplement pulse surveys at our
organization, I think that wouldbe a key, a great question to
put into our quarterly pulse forour values.
So yeah, thank you for thatsuggestion.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, having your pulse surveys really align with
all of what you have been saying, right.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yes no-transcript high yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
And then I also understand that the they, they
often don't go as manygenerations as yours, as yours
is gone, right, like they endedthe second generation.
They don't, they don't keepgoing.
So I'm curious about how youthink, about what you've learned
really about family businessesand the complexity of family
(19:42):
business, I would imagine.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Yeah.
So what I've come to believe atthis moment is when we are
building for centuries, there'sthree pillars to it and for a
family to transcend generationsit's very difficult.
It requires a lot ofintentionality.
The first pillar for us atCentury is humanity, and that's
what we've been talking aboutwith culture and values and
building that belonging in thebusiness.
(20:04):
And then the second pillar ismost critical for our family
it's stewardship, that ownershipis a trap and that we're only
here for a brief moment and ourjob is to pass it on to those
who come next.
And the visual I think of forthe second pillar is ownership
is like holding your fist andclosing it, where stewardship is
opening your hand and with thatposture of how can I help?
(20:27):
So that's the second pillar.
And then the third pillar iscompounding.
It's the superpower of allowing.
If you can build humanity anddo it with stewardship, then you
can allow non-linear returns tohappen within the organization
and you can be a regenerativeforce for good in your community
.
And I'm surrounded byinvestment firms that I compete
(20:49):
with day to day and it just itfeels a little more extractive
than being regenerative in thecommunities that we serve and as
a family business that thestewardship piece.
Leadership is an inside job andwe talk in my family just
around.
We need to heal our hearts, weneed to elevate our souls, we
need to galvanize our mindsetsand we need to take care of our
physical health.
It's really that inside workthat a lot of people don't spend
(21:13):
a lot of time on, but that'swhere the growth starts for it
to come into the business.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I love that you say that and that's interesting.
The heal our hearts piece aswell.
That's like huh.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Family business is a gift wrapped in pain and you
have to be okay to.
It's gonna be painful, justlike starting a business from
scratch is painful Me joining abusiness that already is up and
running.
There's going to be pain andaccepting that it's a part of
the journey to be the bestversion of oneself.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Yeah, one of my, one of my students.
He was the CEO of the largest,his family business.
They're the largest red wineproducers in Portugal and the
family business, I think, isabout 800 years old.
Wow, amazing, wow.
And he talks about, you know,yeah, the gift wrapped in pains.
He has a lot to say about thatand they have a ton of structure
(22:09):
and just because you're borninto the family, you're not
guaranteed to get a job at thecompany and they have some of
these almost like anti-nepotismrules in there.
And I'm curious how do youhandle the family culture?
Is it we assume you're going tocome into the family business
(22:29):
or is it you can make thatchoice freely, without guilt?
When you come in, are youtreated like everybody else or
do you get a leg up?
How do you actually onboardrelatives into the family
business and how are theytreated versus people who aren't
related?
Speaker 4 (22:43):
From my experience my grandfather did it in such a
great way for me there was neverany pressure and I actually was
the one who made that phonecall to come join the family
business and at this point I'mthe only family member in the
business and I'm going to take avery similar approach with my
kids and future family membersis they have to express interest
(23:03):
and they also have to go workoutside the family business.
You have to go add value in themarketplace and then come to
the table and it's going to be abusiness case.
We have to treat the businesslike a business or else there
will be entropy and it just itwouldn't.
It won't thrive if we're notbringing people in from a
business perspective.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Right.
So it's smart to get thatoutside, get that outside
experience right, Get some otherperspective.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
And, from my experience, a lot of family
businesses don't have boards andI think taking that extra step
of putting governance in placeis so important to transcend
generations.
It can be fine when you have amajority owner and maybe
children, but once you getmulti-generational businesses,
you need a third party to helpmediate and get through the
tough challenges of ownershipsuccessions and driving the
(23:53):
business and making capitaldecisions.
Is it going to the shareholdersor is it going into the
business?
It's good to have the expertsat the table.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
So completely when you're thinking about so.
Have you had a board in placefor a while?
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Yes, I've been very fortunate.
My grandfather had a board inplace before I ever joined the
business, and it's people that Ican lean on for a deeper
understanding.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
That's awesome, so good.
Yes, so the pieces you weretalking about around heal our
hearts and that almost felt likea bit of a strategy, or like
almost like an HR strategy orpeople strategy, right, some of
the things that you were talkingabout.
Yeah, can you say some moreabout that?
Speaker 4 (24:31):
I was certainly certainly companies only grow to
the capacity of their leaders.
That's, from my experience,what I'm seeing.
So I'm always mindful that Ineed to become better for
tomorrow, for the company to bebetter tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Right, right.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
And so I look at it.
I have a personal practicewhere I am working on those four
empires healing my heart,because in a family business, if
you haven't healed your heart,I'm still working on it.
It's leaking energy so that youcan't bring your best self if
you have resentment in yourheart or if you have envy.
So I'm constantly being mindfulso that I can come to the table
(25:06):
healthy and then the mindsetit's seeing everything as a
growth opportunity and theobstacle is the way.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, the looking inside piece and saying this
kind of starts with you, as theCEO, have work to do and that
you're working on yourself andthat you're looking inside, to
me that sounds that sends suchan amazing message with in
culture, the culture space.
I'm always surprised at howhesitant or resistant
(25:41):
organizations are to do thatwork and I get that like healing
your heart.
Might not be the way they feellike they need to do it, but
whatever it is, that's the workthat we need to do.
They want somebody to come inand give them a magic bullet and
just like say just do the thing, the exact same thing that
Netflix did, or do what you knowwhatever latest culture book
(26:03):
there is that's out there.
They're really resistant toroll up their sleeves and look
and and look, you know, and saythis is, this is what's going on
.
I was on a call a couple ofweeks ago.
This woman I was, my mind wasblown in a big company that you
would all recognize, in a verysenior role.
She was basically saying I'mtired of all these complainers.
I'm tired.
(26:23):
Why don't people just get theirwork done?
You know, on and on, and on,and on and on, and it was so
apparent to me that it's likehello, you're the problem right,
like, look in the mirror,you're talking to all these
outside people to maybe help youand I can tell you what the
answer is.
Right now you need to do thework Right, and so, I love, I
feel like there's so muchintegrity excuse me, integrity
(26:46):
in the.
I need to work on myself, youknow.
Piece.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
I couldn't agree more and I always I try to look at
complaining as passion and thatif people are complaining and
they're verbalizing it, thatmeans that they actually care
about what's going on in theorganization.
So let's reframe that andreposition it to be helpful, and
what I have seen is that bybeing vulnerable and opening up
(27:11):
and like, hey, I've got thingsto work on that, then that
allows it.
There's permission for all ofus to get a little bit better
for tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Completely, and you are, they see, oh, you're a
human being.
You don't say that you have itall figured out, that you know
what you know.
Everything is in your world isall wrapped up with the bow.
You know we're all just tryingto learn and grow and get better
and figure ourselves out.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Yeah, I have a dream that at Century, that it's a
place for transformation and Ithink you have to permit there
has to be vulnerability for itto go from a transactional
culture to a transformationalculture so that all of us can
get there, love it.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
I'm just going to squeeze in one last question
before we wrap up today.
It's the tension between I lovethis long-term vision.
We're here for a century, andthen we have Gen Z, who's coming
and is in the workplace, andtheir tenure, even though the
data isn't super long, is theshortest of any generation that
(28:10):
we know.
You wanted them to be a partand they've just never had any
experience with something that'slong term.
Their entire experience hasbeen very short.
How do you handle that?
How do you persuade them that,hey, this might be something
that you'd like.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Yeah, the way I'm approaching it right now and I
still have a lot to learn aboutit is that we are a patient
company, but we're also hurrying.
We're trying to evolve quickly.
When you're here in 2025, we'regoing to be a patient company,
but we're also hurrying.
We're trying to evolve quickly.
When you're here in 2025, we'regoing to be a different company
in 2028.
And we have skills matrix inplace throughout our
organization.
We have our HR department that'sdoing a phenomenal job because
(28:49):
we want, on a quarterly basis,for people to understand where
they need to go for the nextquarter.
We're not measuring in quarters, we're not on a short time
horizon, but I appreciate thenext generation wants the
feedback and we need to givethat to the team and let them
know how.
The metaphor we use at Centuryis building with brick and we
talk about how are you going tolay brick this quarter and where
(29:10):
you want to grow.
So this is how you can laybrick better and this is how
your compensation can continueto go up and to the right work
better and this is how yourcompensation can continue to go
up and to the right.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
That's awesome, so good.
Well, matthew, our time is upalready in our conversation.
Thank you so much for joiningus today and for sharing what
you're doing, and I just reallyappreciate this longer term view
right, this differentperspective on what work can be.
So thank you so much forjoining us.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Thank you for allowing me to share.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Thank you Laura, thank you Michael, thank you,
thank you.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode.
If you'd like to hear futureepisodes, be sure to subscribe
to the Happy at Work podcast andleave us a review with your
thoughts.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Are you interested in speaking on a future episode or
want to collaborate with us?
Let us know.
You can send us an email atadmin at happyatworkpodcastcom.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
And lastly, follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter for even
more happiness.
See you soon.
Welcome back for another episode of the Happy at
Work podcast with Laura Tessaand Michael.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Each week we have thoughtful conversations with
leaders, founders and authorsabout happiness at work.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Tune in each Thursday for a new conversation.
Enjoy the show.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Welcome to the Happy at Work podcast Today.
We're excited to have MatthewPowell, the CEO of Century
Companies, joining us.
Hi, matthew, thanks for beingwith us today.
Hi, we're excited to haveMatthew Powell, the CEO of
Century Companies, joining us.
Hi, Matthew, thanks for beingwith us today.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Hi Laura, it's great to be here Awesome.
So, good, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
So just get us going.
Start us off by telling usabout yourself.
Tell us about your career, howyou kind of got to where you are
and what you're doing now.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Absolutely so.
I am in a family business.
Century Companies is based inthe Midwest.
We're a safety and securitycontracting business, and I am
fourth generation Growing up.
I never had any plans of joiningthe family business, and right
after college I got intoinvestment banking and was
helping sell family businesses,and while I did that, it made me
(01:25):
appreciate that there'sdifferent time horizons to
operate businesses, and I got tospend a lot of time with
businesses that have a focus onbeing a financial instrument and
flipping within five years, andas I was doing that, it wasn't
quite fulfilling for me.
So I realized that my family wasa part of a family business,
and so I gave my grandfather aphone call and asked him if I
(01:46):
could come join the familybusiness, and he said absolutely
, I've been waiting for thiscall, get married and come on up
.
So I married my high schoolsweetheart, we got into U-Haul
and we moved to Milwaukee,wisconsin, and as I walked
through the doors of the familybusiness, I really didn't know
what I was getting myself into,but I knew I was joining an
organization that had beenaround for 100 years and that we
(02:06):
had to build for the next 100years, and so that's the time
horizon that I get to play innow and I'm finding that it's
very fruitful and look forwardto sharing more with you about
that journey and that timehorizon.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
So the world kind of works on minute by minute quote
by quote, earnings report byearnings report.
On minute by minute quote byquote, earnings report by
earnings report.
Why do you feel that having anincredibly longer term point of
view timeframe is better?
Speaker 4 (02:32):
From what I've, seen in my life.
All great things take time andI think that time is actually a
great filter and it's unlockingthat power of compounding is
something I'm really obsessedwith and Warren Buffett and
Charlie Munger talk about it alot and it's something that I'm
starting to see come to fruitionand my goal is to compound
trust and if I can do thatthrough relationships with all
(02:55):
stakeholders in a business withour customers, with our
teammates, with our vendors,with the community that we could
be the greatest force for good.
If we look at business withthat time horizon because all
great things take time and welive in a world where
everything's about being timelyWell, what if we focus on being
timeless?
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So what does that mean?
What are some of the trade-offsfocusing like that?
In practical terms, what aresome of the trade-offs that
means that you have to make orthe things that you do
differently compared to, maybe,working in a company that's much
more quarterly focused?
Speaker 4 (03:29):
that can align around our values and our vision of
having time arbitrage that wecan then make longer term plays
and we can really build peoplefor the long term, because
(03:51):
people are best when they canthink about things in decades
rather than quarters, and if youcan create a space where
there's psychological safety, itcreates discretionary effort
where people want to build withyou.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
I'm curious to hear more about your culture and how
the employees are actuallytreated.
Specifically, what do you feelyou do in your company that is
tangibly different than what'sgoing to be happening if I'm
working somewhere else, likeAmazon or McDonald's?
How many Big Macs did you make?
What do you actually do?
Speaker 4 (04:36):
That's a great question, michael.
I have had the opportunity towork in organizations where what
do you actually do?
Can come inspired, be safethroughout the day and go home
fulfilled.
Mother Teresa said that if youwant to change the world, go
home and love your family.
I can't think of a bettermission for a company than to
send people home better thanwhen they arrived and we can
change the world.
It's a bit grandiose, but that'swhat I'm aspiring to do here at
(04:57):
Century and find the long-termplayers to play that long-term
game, and some of the ways thatwe're doing that is through
building real teams, real teams.
A lot of organizations don'ttake the time, at least from my
experience, to really buildteams, and we're on this journey
.
I've been in the first chairfor about three years and we put
(05:17):
values in place, and values arebehaviors and you tolerate what
you get.
So we've had very toughsituations where the standard
has been set by people.
We've had to let go, and that'swhat makes it real is, when you
make those tough decisions,that someone might be really
good at output, but they're nota good locker room player,
they're not cohesive, and so wehave taken the time to make sure
(05:41):
we have the right people on thebus.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So I'm super interested in this.
Culture is something I talkabout a lot and study a lot and
really dig into, and I lovewhere you're going with this.
So the thing that's so hardabout this sometimes I mean
sometimes when you get thefoundation built, it's such a
clarifying construct, right,when you're super clear about
(06:05):
what you stand for and you, youknow very much, recognize the
people who are doing thosethings and then the people who
aren't, maybe you try to coursecorrect, but then you change
like they need to leave right Ifthey're not consistently being
part of what you're trying tocreate.
There's so many layers to this,as you know.
There's so many things that canmake this really tricky,
(06:27):
especially if you have maybethere's an account manager who
has a particularly goodrelationship with your biggest
customer, for example, and itends up that that person there's
something about the way they'reacting that goes against the
values, right, there's thesehard decisions that you have to
make.
So I think that's where you knowthe rubber hits the road and
everybody else around can seethat, right, they can see when
(06:50):
that isn't happening, when thepeople aren't living the values,
and we have to make decisionsabout that.
So I mean that's probably thepretty most obvious kind of
version of how you can makedecisions about culture, but
there's also a lot of otherthings that are in the, I guess,
like the day-to-day practices.
You know a lot of the thingsthat we do at work that we sort
(07:11):
of take for granted of maybe howwe do budgeting or how we do
our team meeting, or the CEOdoes something the same or
different from everybody else,and so I'm just curious how have
you taken these values and Ithink I believe I believe I saw
your values on your website buthow do you take your values and
(07:32):
make them so just kind ofnatural and everywhere that
people look, you know in inmaybe ways that people wouldn't
expect?
Speaker 4 (07:41):
We try to make it a part of our daily rhythm and a
part of our language, with ourvalues are being humble, hungry
and together and we try to buildit into conversation.
Some of the ways I try to do itis starting our.
We have leadership, weeklyleadership team meetings and
starting with a values momentand just going around the
leadership table andhighlighting moments that people
(08:03):
have represented one of ourthree values.
And then we have monthly townhalls.
I don't think any company canover-communicate, so we have
lots of different vehicles forcommunication and we always
start with our values and weshare stories and moments that
are throughout the organizationand we celebrate those people
through positive reinforcementand give rewards and celebrate
(08:23):
when people are being humble andhungry and together, because
for us that creates a deep senseof belonging and I believe
we're social creatures andthat's we want belonging at the
end of the day, and that's whatwe're trying to build with our
values and highlighting it.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
I love that, and when I go into organizations to
consult, usually it's becausethere's something wrong.
That's why they ask you in there.
It's so many times it all comesdown to wow, you hired the
wrong person and now you'retrying to like make it up and
get them engaged and it's reallylike pushing the rock up the
(09:00):
hill.
So I'm curious when you'rehiring people, what's it like?
What are you looking for?
Are there any unique thingsthat you do in the interview
process that some of ourlisteners could be like oh, I
need to do a better job becauseI'm not really good at it.
Can you tell us about how you?
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
For me, and I'm focused on culture first, and
then you can teach people skills.
So for us I'm looking forstories and I'm not going to
explicitly ask people what's anexample of being humble, what's
an example of being hungry, butI'm going to try to mine for
stories where they arerepresenting our values and if
they've done their homework theymight be able to do that.
But then I'm going to reallytry to dig in to appreciate do
(09:40):
they naturally sit at thatintersection of values that
align with the century?
And I think it always comesback to the stories and the
examples that people can provide.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
What have you found in terms of people being
surprised that you want to makea long-term commitment in them?
It feels like that would besuch a pleasant surprise but
feel unusual to people Like soyou want me to stay here for a
long time.
It just seems like nowadays,right, everybody's changing jobs
all the time, and so how doesthat?
Has that been kind of anythingthat you've had to do to kind of
(10:12):
convince people that you'reserious?
No, like you really want themto be there for the long time.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
It's been.
It's been one of my favorite,my favorite parts of my job, of
being a part of something thatwe want to build, that's worth
passing on and I share withpeople.
I want to work with you fordecades.
I don't want to work with youfor months, and if we're
optimizing for relationships,then you want to be with people
for a long time because we spendso much time at work.
We spend more time at work thanwe do with our family and
friends, so we need to enjoywhere we are and feel that deep
(10:39):
sense of belonging, and Ibelieve that it helps to align
us, to be on a great team with agreat locker room, so that we
can create great work together.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Have you just to follow up on that, do you have
any stories of people thatyou've had to kind of reassure
them that you're serious aboutthe long term?
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Yeah, I think people at first are it's different,
it's countercultural to befocused on the long term Right,
but I think it's refreshing andit's word of mouth for us that
it's not coming from me butcoming from our team is most
valuable and one of the keymetrics that we measure at our
company and I'd love yourthoughts on this.
It's a little controversial.
(11:18):
We measure how many familiesare in the family business,
because if you are willing toinvite your child or your
sibling or a cousin to theorganization, that means you
deeply care for them and youthink that this is a place
worthy of them spending theirtime, and it's a key metric that
we share every month and welove celebrating as it climbs.
(11:39):
And I'd love to know yourthoughts.
I mean, nepotism has a bad rapand what do you think about that
with us building ourorganization around families and
family business?
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Laura, you want to start, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Well, first, it's sort of like the ultimate net
promoter score, right?
Like the idea of promoting thisto people who you love and care
for, that you want them to comeand work there.
That says a lot if that's thecase.
So you know, the recommendingthis place is a great place to
work to my family is like theultimate net promoter score, so
(12:15):
I think that's reallyinteresting.
I would imagine, though, thatit creates the need for a lot of
clarity around some boundariesand being really clear about
standards and expectations ofperformance.
I mean, that's needed anyway,right, we need to be really
clear about what expectationsare period.
(12:37):
So that's the next place I goto.
Is does that make thingscomplicated when your nephew is
working in the same departmentthat you're in, or something
like that?
So that's my reaction, michael.
What would you?
Speaker 3 (12:49):
I basically like it because I remember I was working
somewhere and my boss she saidto me you know we're looking for
another professor.
Do you know who would fit inhere?
And I thought it was really abrilliant way to get a good
candidate because I knew theculture, I knew my friend and I
(13:10):
would know if there was a fit.
So it really saved just a lotof time from getting people from
LinkedIn or wherever.
So I like the fact that theperson who's doing the referring
or the recommending alreadyknows the culture, already
usually pretty well know thatfamily member more than just a
stranger.
So I could see it would be goodon that end.
I was curious if you alsoexpand that to friends, because
(13:35):
my family is well, they're old,most of them are dead, so I
don't refer them.
But I have a lot of friends andthey share my value system and
I wonder if you also expand thator give it the same weight as
this is my relative versus thisis my friend, if you also add
that in there and if there's adifferent weight to it.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
We don't measure friends, but we certainly
welcome and celebrate when wehave referrals.
Most of our positions now arefilled through referrals.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yeah, do you find, matthew?
There's sort of the obvious.
Also next question around if weare already kind of narrowing
down to people who are withinour family, does that mean we
might not be open or thinkingabout people who aren't
necessarily like us and thatmight have different
(14:25):
perspectives or backgrounds, andit maybe doesn't open us up to
new ideas or new ways ofthinking or just people who are
different from the people whoare within our family systems?
So I'm curious how you thinkabout that.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Yes, I completely see that, and that's definitely
something I need to be mindfulof is we're celebrating this
momentum with families andfamily business.
We've also done some hiringoutside of the business for
positions instead of internalpromotions and, from what I'm
seeing and experiencing, I thinkit's very healthy to bring in
people from the outside to bringfresh ideas that they've been
(15:00):
through, things that Centurymaybe hasn't been through.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Right.
It's to me like the combinationI'm working with this company
right now, where they sort ofhave something similar where
they are hiring a lot of peoplewho are really experienced.
They have tons of industryexperience and advanced degrees,
similar, where they're hiring alot of people who are really
experienced.
Like you know, they have tonsof you know, industry experience
and advanced degrees and sothey're hiring a lot of people
there, but they're alsobalancing that with people who
are maybe new to career, whodon't have as much experience,
(15:24):
and so that kind of mixed modelversus just one or the other,
you know, it seems like it's ahealthy, healthy thing to do.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
With our accountability.
Lauren, michael, I'd love toknow your thoughts on this.
Every week, we reflect on andremind ourselves at the
leadership level of our purpose,and it's different than our
purpose for the company.
So our company's purpose is tohelp build safer communities,
but then our leadership teampurpose is to be a safety-first,
values-driven company thatdelivers sustainable and
(15:55):
profitable growth, and we writethat as a team and then we have
key metrics that go with that.
So are we achieving our purpose?
And that's been really criticalfor me for being a team,
getting back to, like, thatsense of belonging when you're
on the basketball court, youknow by the scoreboard, and so
we're always trying to come backto our scoreboard.
I just would love your thoughtsthat helps.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
I think that's really great and I think this is one
of the reasons why culture hasgotten such a bad rap is that we
have put culture in this kindof place over here, where it's
an HR thing or it's the nice tohave, versus, like, putting it
really intertwined with thebusiness results we're trying to
achieve.
Right, that we need to be thisway together in order for us to
(16:35):
achieve these business results,and to me, that weaving and
making those things go hand inhand really closely is awesome.
And the leadership team pieceof this, too, like that's
another thing I tend to see isthe leadership team often isn't
aligned.
You know, they're the firstones who you can look at and say
, gosh, they're not on the samepage about what this company is
trying to achieve and how we'regoing to do it, like how the
(16:58):
culture needs to be designed inorder for that to happen.
So I'd love the focus on theleadership team.
Michael, were you going to saysomething?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yeah, I would add in.
I went to an online workshopthat was from Harvard Business
Review, one of their guestspeakers I forgot his name, but
he manages 250,000 people inIndia.
It's multiple companies underone large umbrella and he had a
metric that you might enjoy andit was basically called the
helpful index.
(17:26):
He may have called it somethingelse.
It was basically that when itcame time for you know, let's
say, your promotion or review,or hey, let's look at what
happened last week People wouldrate me and say, well, how
helpful was Michael to Matthew,how helpful was he to Laura, how
helpful was he to other people?
And I kind of get like thislittle Yelp review and I think
(17:49):
what's interesting about it isthat it brings it into the
culture that this isn't likethis extra bonus.
This is how you're supposed tobe looking for opportunities to
be helpful, and one of thedifficult things with looking
for these fuzzy things is to puta number on it with a metric,
and I just thought I'd throwthat out, that that was what
(18:09):
this person was doing, and it'sinteresting that it can create a
better culture, especially in asales department where you say,
oh, team player, work together,but all the money and the
incentives are the exactopposite.
So I'm curious if you thinksomething like that would be
useful in your organization.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
I think it would be.
I think that posture of how canI help is contagious.
When we're starting toimplement pulse surveys at our
organization, I think that wouldbe a key, a great question to
put into our quarterly pulse forour values.
So yeah, thank you for thatsuggestion.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, having your pulse surveys really align with
all of what you have been saying, right.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yes no-transcript high yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
And then I also understand that the they, they
often don't go as manygenerations as yours, as yours
is gone, right, like they endedthe second generation.
They don't, they don't keepgoing.
So I'm curious about how youthink, about what you've learned
really about family businessesand the complexity of family
(19:42):
business, I would imagine.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Yeah.
So what I've come to believe atthis moment is when we are
building for centuries, there'sthree pillars to it and for a
family to transcend generationsit's very difficult.
It requires a lot ofintentionality.
The first pillar for us atCentury is humanity, and that's
what we've been talking aboutwith culture and values and
building that belonging in thebusiness.
(20:04):
And then the second pillar ismost critical for our family
it's stewardship, that ownershipis a trap and that we're only
here for a brief moment and ourjob is to pass it on to those
who come next.
And the visual I think of forthe second pillar is ownership
is like holding your fist andclosing it, where stewardship is
opening your hand and with thatposture of how can I help?
(20:27):
So that's the second pillar.
And then the third pillar iscompounding.
It's the superpower of allowing.
If you can build humanity anddo it with stewardship, then you
can allow non-linear returns tohappen within the organization
and you can be a regenerativeforce for good in your community
.
And I'm surrounded byinvestment firms that I compete
(20:49):
with day to day and it just itfeels a little more extractive
than being regenerative in thecommunities that we serve and as
a family business that thestewardship piece.
Leadership is an inside job andwe talk in my family just
around.
We need to heal our hearts, weneed to elevate our souls, we
need to galvanize our mindsetsand we need to take care of our
physical health.
It's really that inside workthat a lot of people don't spend
(21:13):
a lot of time on, but that'swhere the growth starts for it
to come into the business.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I love that you say that and that's interesting.
The heal our hearts piece aswell.
That's like huh.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Family business is a gift wrapped in pain and you
have to be okay to.
It's gonna be painful, justlike starting a business from
scratch is painful Me joining abusiness that already is up and
running.
There's going to be pain andaccepting that it's a part of
the journey to be the bestversion of oneself.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Yeah, one of my, one of my students.
He was the CEO of the largest,his family business.
They're the largest red wineproducers in Portugal and the
family business, I think, isabout 800 years old.
Wow, amazing, wow.
And he talks about, you know,yeah, the gift wrapped in pains.
He has a lot to say about thatand they have a ton of structure
(22:09):
and just because you're borninto the family, you're not
guaranteed to get a job at thecompany and they have some of
these almost like anti-nepotismrules in there.
And I'm curious how do youhandle the family culture?
Is it we assume you're going tocome into the family business
(22:29):
or is it you can make thatchoice freely, without guilt?
When you come in, are youtreated like everybody else or
do you get a leg up?
How do you actually onboardrelatives into the family
business and how are theytreated versus people who aren't
related?
Speaker 4 (22:43):
From my experience my grandfather did it in such a
great way for me there was neverany pressure and I actually was
the one who made that phonecall to come join the family
business and at this point I'mthe only family member in the
business and I'm going to take avery similar approach with my
kids and future family membersis they have to express interest
(23:03):
and they also have to go workoutside the family business.
You have to go add value in themarketplace and then come to
the table and it's going to be abusiness case.
We have to treat the businesslike a business or else there
will be entropy and it just itwouldn't.
It won't thrive if we're notbringing people in from a
business perspective.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Right.
So it's smart to get thatoutside, get that outside
experience right, Get some otherperspective.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
And, from my experience, a lot of family
businesses don't have boards andI think taking that extra step
of putting governance in placeis so important to transcend
generations.
It can be fine when you have amajority owner and maybe
children, but once you getmulti-generational businesses,
you need a third party to helpmediate and get through the
tough challenges of ownershipsuccessions and driving the
(23:53):
business and making capitaldecisions.
Is it going to the shareholdersor is it going into the
business?
It's good to have the expertsat the table.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
So completely when you're thinking about so.
Have you had a board in placefor a while?
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Yes, I've been very fortunate.
My grandfather had a board inplace before I ever joined the
business, and it's people that Ican lean on for a deeper
understanding.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
That's awesome, so good.
Yes, so the pieces you weretalking about around heal our
hearts and that almost felt likea bit of a strategy, or like
almost like an HR strategy orpeople strategy, right, some of
the things that you were talkingabout.
Yeah, can you say some moreabout that?
Speaker 4 (24:31):
I was certainly certainly companies only grow to
the capacity of their leaders.
That's, from my experience,what I'm seeing.
So I'm always mindful that Ineed to become better for
tomorrow, for the company to bebetter tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Right, right.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
And so I look at it.
I have a personal practicewhere I am working on those four
empires healing my heart,because in a family business, if
you haven't healed your heart,I'm still working on it.
It's leaking energy so that youcan't bring your best self if
you have resentment in yourheart or if you have envy.
So I'm constantly being mindfulso that I can come to the table
(25:06):
healthy and then the mindsetit's seeing everything as a
growth opportunity and theobstacle is the way.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, the looking inside piece and saying this
kind of starts with you, as theCEO, have work to do and that
you're working on yourself andthat you're looking inside, to
me that sounds that sends suchan amazing message with in
culture, the culture space.
I'm always surprised at howhesitant or resistant
(25:41):
organizations are to do thatwork and I get that like healing
your heart.
Might not be the way they feellike they need to do it, but
whatever it is, that's the workthat we need to do.
They want somebody to come inand give them a magic bullet and
just like say just do the thing, the exact same thing that
Netflix did, or do what you knowwhatever latest culture book
(26:03):
there is that's out there.
They're really resistant toroll up their sleeves and look
and and look, you know, and saythis is, this is what's going on
.
I was on a call a couple ofweeks ago.
This woman I was, my mind wasblown in a big company that you
would all recognize, in a verysenior role.
She was basically saying I'mtired of all these complainers.
I'm tired.
(26:23):
Why don't people just get theirwork done?
You know, on and on, and on,and on and on, and it was so
apparent to me that it's likehello, you're the problem right,
like, look in the mirror,you're talking to all these
outside people to maybe help youand I can tell you what the
answer is.
Right now you need to do thework Right, and so, I love, I
feel like there's so muchintegrity excuse me, integrity
(26:46):
in the.
I need to work on myself, youknow.
Piece.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
I couldn't agree more and I always I try to look at
complaining as passion and thatif people are complaining and
they're verbalizing it, thatmeans that they actually care
about what's going on in theorganization.
So let's reframe that andreposition it to be helpful, and
what I have seen is that bybeing vulnerable and opening up
(27:11):
and like, hey, I've got thingsto work on that, then that
allows it.
There's permission for all ofus to get a little bit better
for tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Completely, and you are, they see, oh, you're a
human being.
You don't say that you have itall figured out, that you know
what you know.
Everything is in your world isall wrapped up with the bow.
You know we're all just tryingto learn and grow and get better
and figure ourselves out.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Yeah, I have a dream that at Century, that it's a
place for transformation and Ithink you have to permit there
has to be vulnerability for itto go from a transactional
culture to a transformationalculture so that all of us can
get there, love it.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
I'm just going to squeeze in one last question
before we wrap up today.
It's the tension between I lovethis long-term vision.
We're here for a century, andthen we have Gen Z, who's coming
and is in the workplace, andtheir tenure, even though the
data isn't super long, is theshortest of any generation that
(28:10):
we know.
You wanted them to be a partand they've just never had any
experience with something that'slong term.
Their entire experience hasbeen very short.
How do you handle that?
How do you persuade them that,hey, this might be something
that you'd like.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Yeah, the way I'm approaching it right now and I
still have a lot to learn aboutit is that we are a patient
company, but we're also hurrying.
We're trying to evolve quickly.
When you're here in 2025, we'regoing to be a patient company,
but we're also hurrying.
We're trying to evolve quickly.
When you're here in 2025, we'regoing to be a different company
in 2028.
And we have skills matrix inplace throughout our
organization.
We have our HR department that'sdoing a phenomenal job because
(28:49):
we want, on a quarterly basis,for people to understand where
they need to go for the nextquarter.
We're not measuring in quarters, we're not on a short time
horizon, but I appreciate thenext generation wants the
feedback and we need to givethat to the team and let them
know how.
The metaphor we use at Centuryis building with brick and we
talk about how are you going tolay brick this quarter and where
(29:10):
you want to grow.
So this is how you can laybrick better and this is how
your compensation can continueto go up and to the right work
better and this is how yourcompensation can continue to go
up and to the right.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
That's awesome, so good.
Well, matthew, our time is upalready in our conversation.
Thank you so much for joiningus today and for sharing what
you're doing, and I just reallyappreciate this longer term view
right, this differentperspective on what work can be.
So thank you so much forjoining us.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Thank you for allowing me to share.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Thank you Laura, thank you Michael, thank you,
thank you.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode.
If you'd like to hear futureepisodes, be sure to subscribe
to the Happy at Work podcast andleave us a review with your
thoughts.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Are you interested in speaking on a future episode or
want to collaborate with us?
Let us know.
You can send us an email atadmin at happyatworkpodcastcom.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
And lastly, follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter for even
more happiness.
See you soon.
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