Lessons in Career Management

This is a case study of my career with emphasis on my early years from 1965 to 1975.  I am posting this for students and new grads to read and apply what they learn from this story to manage their own careers.

When I graduated from college in 1965, I realized how much I had accomplished, working my way through high school and college as a musician, taking 20 hours per semester and selectively developing the skills I would need. I graduated a semester early. I got married in August 1964 and graduated in January 1965.

I was grateful for my family heritage and good fortune. My experience as a self-supporting student was rare. I was in the right place at the right time. I paid my own tuition and had no student loans.

I had a lot of questions about how things are done in the real world. I had prepared myself for a career in Personnel in manufacturing, but knew it would take some time. I was always “accomplishment oriented” and “self-directed”. My question to companies was always what did they needed to get done.

I continued to work as a musician 6 nights a week, but I was ready to add a day job to begin my career. As time passed I adjusted my band jobs down to weekends and did this until 1975. 

My strategy for my day job was to arrive early and stay late. I avoided traffic and got a lot done. I would only work half days, that’s 12 hours. I was only in it for the accomplishments. I had theories and needed to test them.

I read the ads in the newspaper and sent my resume to those jobs I might like. I ended up taking a job with United Way of Greater St. Louis as a Campaign Director for St. Charles County and St. Louis small firms.

I got to know the leadership group in St. Louis. Many were the grandchildren of the founders of the large companies headquartered in St. Louis. We had McDonnell Douglas, Anheuser Bush, Ralston Purina, Monsanto and many others.

There were about 20 families who worked together to ensure that St. Louis would continue to be well developed for the benefit of their employees and their families. These leaders knew each other well and worked well together. Their parents and grandparents were responsible for the creation of Forest Park and the road grid as early as the 1870s. By observing this group of leaders, I understood why St. Louis had developed so well.

I worked independently and had an office in downtown St. Louis and another in St. Charles. I was able to break records in 1965 and 1966 raising 125% of goal and was offered a career path with United Way. United Way had computerized records and the volunteers I worked with ran big companies.

I didn’t want to move away from St. Louis and family, so I signed up with a “headhunter” to find me a Personnel job in town.

I saw an opportunity to absorb the St. Charles Division into the main divisions of the United Way and the St. Charles leadership agreed. I could eliminate my job.

We had bought a house in St. Charles County in 1966 in a subdivision next door to my brother and his family. I had missed my first Homeowners Association meeting and, as promised, they elected me President.

I founded the St. Charles County Council of Homeowners Associations in 1967. We had 300 subdivisions with 68,000 homes. I saw the need for citizens to interface with government. I held open meetings monthly and maintained the contact list for the 300 Presidents. I knew the Presiding Judge and we set up a back channel. He would call me to get information on issues. We also had committees. The Public Service Commission team would go to their hearings. The bylaws limited and focused our scope, there were no dues and we had a termination clause that required a vote. 

It was 1967. The headhunter sent me to interview with Kearney National, an electrical equipment manufacturer. I aced to Wonderlic test, interviewed with the Personnel Manager and got the job. On my first day the Personnel Manager took me to meet our VP Division Manager. I already knew him. He was the chairman of my small firms division for United Way. I was not a “name dropper” and hadn’t told the Personnel Manager I knew his boss.

My job at Kearney was a “generalist” job. I handled recruitment, employment, compensation, company newspaper, safety and projects. We had the Teamsters at Kearney and the Personnel Manager handled them and other things. I got to recruit electrical engineers and office staff, secure compensation surveys, write job descriptions, teach lifting and work with industrial engineering.  Hiring in the plant was done by the Teamsters and it wasn’t ideal.

We had a non-union plant in Fayetteville Arkansas and our Corporate Staff was headquartered with us in St. Louis, so I was included in corporate projects.

I was asked to join the VP Treasurer and CFO to analyze corporate benefit coverages and costs for Dyson Kissner, our holding company. We also looked at mergers and acquisitions. I recommended getting rid of the union and that led to considering a merger and moving our operations to Tucker/Atlanta GA. I liked the move, but wasn’t going to move myself. 

My 2 years at Kearney was a real-world, crash course in business with a very impressive group of executives. Our VP Treasurer called everybody “sir and mam” and was a role-model for showing respect for all.  I adopted this practice because of his example.

It was later in 1968. When we announced the closing, our Advertising Manager called me to say he had a friend at Monsanto and they needed someone in Compensation for the Textile Division. I interviewed at Monsanto and got the job at the headquarters.

Monsanto was the premier employer in St. Louis. The reputation of their Personnel staff was impressive. Their VP of Personnel was Bob Bara, the founder of ASPA (that later became SHRM). The staff was exceptional.

The Textile Division was the largest division in Monsanto. We had Nylon plants in Pensacola Florida with 6000 employees and in Greenwood SC with 3000 employees and an Acrylan plant in Decatur Alabama with 3000 employees. We had plants overseas and offices and labs everywhere. We were union-free and worked to remain union-free.

My job was to review union and non-union wage rates, interface with the corporate compensation group and keep us ahead of OCAW and the other unions. I also approved changes, transfers, pay raises, job evaluations and additions to the job set. I ultimately consolidated the job set into the Monsanto corporate job evaluation system. I also got to weigh in on all other business issues that arose.

I was offered a career path that involved promotional transfers to the locations that required moving several times and eventually returning to the headquarters. I was offered a promotion to the New York Sales office housed in the Empire State Building with a 30% increase in pay. I lived in Queens when I was in grade school. I was one of them.

I turned it down, because I was ready to run a campaign to defeat unions in NLRB elections and there was no place in Monsanto where I could do that.  I had read that the unions were attempting to organize universities. I saw an ad in the newspaper and sent a resume to Washington University.

Leaving Monsanto was my first experience with a sense of loss. It had been a rare privilege to work with the best company in town with the best staff on the planet.

In 1971, I joined Washington University Medical School in St. Louis. I was interviewed and hired by Dr. Bill Danforth, Vice Chancellor of Medical Affairs. His brother was a US Senator and his family founded Ralston Purina. He chose Academic Medicine. He headed the Danforth Foundation and was part of the active leadership in St. Louis.

My job was to establish the Personnel function for the Medical Campus, ensure HEW compliance, computerize records and automate processes. I did the system design for Personnel records and handed them over to programmers. We used a team to develop affirmative action. CUPA provided compensation surveys. Policies had been written, but needed to keep up with additional regulations.

We had 7,000 employees at the Medical Campus working in the 4 hospitals on the site. The Medical School Faculty served as house staff for the hospitals and most of the faculty saw patients and did medical research and employed technicians to do the lab work. It was a profit center.

I was asked to join the Chairman of Preventive Medicine to co-author a grant request to NIH for cage washers and AALAS certification training for our staff of 90 Black Animal Caretakers. Certified AALAS Technicians from Purina would serve as trainers. It was a basic improvement grant with affirmative action results.  We got the $20,000 grant. I was then notified that I had been elected to serve as Education Chair for the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) and had to deliver a paper at their convention.

The Medical School faculty learned that I was a musician and I found out that most of them were also musicians. I got to know them well.

I received a letter from the NLRB later in 1971 announcing that 30% of the employees in the Housekeeping Department of Washington University Medical School had petitioned for an election with the Service Employees Union. I ordered an LM-2 Report and secured a copy of one of their contracts and they paid less than we did. We met to discuss what to do. I reported what I had and was asked what I thought the employees should do.  I said they should not join a union, annually. The lawyers smiled.  I was told to meet with the employees.

In my first meeting, I introduced myself and told them what the mechanics and timeline of the election would be. I told them this would divide them, but to keep it civil.

In later meetings I told them how wage rates were really determined by salary surveys and how the income tax rates held high rates down and the US labor laws moved rates up.

I told them that the reason for union elections often had to do with how their supervisors treated them.  Just then, one of them said “You got that right”. I immediately understood and thanked him for speaking out. I had met their supervisor and their department manager and I knew how demanding our Medical Faculty could be about keeping the facility “sanitary”. 

I met with their supervisor and manager and told the supervisor that he had been disrespectful to his employees and had to show an immediate change. A few days later, when I had my next employee meeting they were all relaxed and smiling. They thanked me for straightening out their supervisor and said he was a “new man”. That didn’t mean that he was less demanding, but he was more respectful.

I knew I had this won, but I also wanted them to meet the Medical School Business Manager, because he would surely be on the management bargaining committee if the union won. He was also the perfect mentor to help the employees in the housekeeping crew succeed as a team.  He was a smart, crusty, likeable two-fisted manager who loved people and he was a hit. I let him finish up the meetings and the voting date was set.  We won 80% to 20%. I became a legend.

Shortly thereafter, I got a visit from the Affirmative Action Director of the University. The Personnel Director on the main campus was leaving to join Baxter and now Chancellor Danforth wanted to offer the job to me. I made him a counteroffer he couldn’t refuse.  I thought Mary Weiss, the then Assistant Director of Personnel for 20 years should get the job. I would take a redesigned Assistant Director slot and handle the labor unions on the main campus, compensation and finish the automation projects. Danforth agreed and I moved to the main campus in 1972.

I quickly became familiar with main campus processes and could see an opportunity to create a set of job descriptions that could offer advancement based on skills. I also continued on the automation projects and co-managed the department. 

In 1973 I was approached by the VP Finance of a woman’s college at one of my Homeowners Association meeting in St. Charles. He asked if Washington U would be interested in renting some of his classrooms to offer graduate courses in education and nursing. I brought this up in a Council of Deans meeting and we did it.  This is how synergy between community and business happens.

In 1974 I was in contract negotiations with the unions on the main campus and Nixon’s 5.5% wage growth cap was imposed.  I went to the law library to read the law and set up the compliance formulas.  I took these to the Vice Chancellor General Council.  He had a contact in government and we called him.  He confirmed that I got it right and wanted a copy. The union didn’t do any homework on this and lost credibility with the members, so they petitioned to decertify. That marked the beginning of the end of unions at Washington U.

I had completed my automation projects, had written all the job descriptions for the job set and had installed the upgraded compensation system and I was done. My friends were calling me to reenter manufacturing in the private sector.

Mary Weiss was set to retire in 1975 and I was approached to replace her.  I suggested that they consider Gloria White, a Black female Affirmative Action Director who had just completed a law degree and had 20 years with the university.  I told them I was always just a visitor from the private sector who came in to do some heavy lifting and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.   

I had redesigned my old job to address future needs and picked my replacement from the automation team. I was honored by the parade of Vice Chancellors who thanked me for what I had done on both campuses.

I had joined one of the best jazz trios in town in 1971 and played weekends. We had added 2 girl singers to do 5 part jazz vocals. It was the zenith of my music career. Our fans recorded our band jobs live and I have the CDs.

In 1975, I was ready to begin a new chapter and return to manufacturing. So, I read ads and sent resumes. We had 6 kids by then, ages 2 to 10.  I would end up moving to Kansas in 1975 to lead the personnel function for Schwan Foods and Rickel Manufacturing and move to Atlanta to lead the personnel function for Hayes Microcomputer Products and Electromagnetic Sciences.  Then in 1993, I would establish my own private consulting practice in Atlanta.

My goal was to have a career as a Personnel Director in manufacturing and then open my own consulting practice. This required that I learn everything consultants know. I would identify what I could accomplish at each company, would learn with each company and what companies would need for me to get done. When I completed what I joined these companies to do, I would move on.

This is what “turnaround” managers do. We are change agents. Companies hired me because of what I knew. Later, in my consulting practice, customers also hired me for what I knew. I served 45 client customers and all were referred to me. I never made a sales call. I had my office at home and went to client companies when I needed to. I had no employees. I worked and billed 60 hours per week and charged half of what large consulting companies charged.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader