Bernard Howroyd Interview
BERNARD HOWROYD CHARSIMATIC LEADERSHIP
BY CLAUDIA DABOUB
MGMG355 LEADERSHIP IN ORGANIZATIONS
PROFESSOR: DR. ROBERT TRODELLA
JULY 5, 2012
I had the honor of interviewing Mr. Bernard Howroyd, who has had more than forty-eight years of leadership experience in the staffing industry. The interview ended up taking much longer than I expected because I was so influenced by what he had to say, I did not want to miss anything. Bernard, who is known to his employees as Bernie, has made a career out of making the impossible come true. He has transformed himself from a poor young butcher’s apprentice into a multimillion-dollar businessman and founder of the North America’s largest, privately held full-service employment company. Bernie was born …show more content…
in a largely industrial section of England. After working as an apprentice for a local butcher, he scraped together his savings and set off on a journey around the world. To finance his travels, he often worked odd jobs—selling Bibles in Australia and combs in Brazil. "I met thousands of people from as many different cultures and I learned very quickly that no matter where people are from, no matter what language they speak, everyone needs to feel heard and respected."
Utilizing this insight, Bernie founded a small staffing firm called Howroyd-Wright Employment Agency, which he renamed and incorporated his business as AppleOne in 1968 in the state of California. Starting with meager savings, Bernie opened an office in LA’s Wilshire District and was down to his last $5.94 before the first placement check arrived. That one client was all it took to get the ball rolling on an amazing tale of growth and success. As with any business, Bernie’s company had its share of advances and setbacks, but his remarkable commitment to find, understand and fulfill the needs of another never failed him.
Recession hit and the economy came crashing down in ‘89, it dragged businesses along with it – including AppleOne and many AppleOne clients. Times were tough, but because Bernie strongly believed in his vision, “Clients for life”, he persevered, delivering services to the best of his and his company’s abilities. After the crises, Bernie and AppleOne emerged stronger, wiser and in one piece – and partly because of Bernie’s unflagging support – so did the AppleOne clients. And so it became an AppleOne commitment to always be there for clients, helping them weather even the stormiest economic climates.
“My faith in our people and company have always paid off,” says Bernie. As AppleOne grew, expanding from one branch to over 250 locations throughout North America, the company also flourished into becoming the largest privately held full-service staffing provider.”
My conversation with Bernie took a direction that I did not expect. He attributes his success to the leadership traits that he has learned over the years, and quoted many of the very ideas and theories almost verbatim from our class lectures. This was an incredible experience to witness first hand how these traits become behaviors and practices.
Throughout the course of our interview, Bernie laid out the history of his leadership experience, and pointed out how he has learned many of his characteristics from watching other people. Bernie heavily noted how leadership and management styles have made a drastic change over the last 48 years but one thing remained the same “if you have faith, and take the time to understand your people, it will always pay off”. Bernie recalled “at one point, he even refused to take a salary for two years rather than let down the growing number of people who had come to rely on him for their livelihood.”
Throughout his experience as a leader, Bernie noticed this approach being used, and vowed to build his company based on his understanding of each person’s challenges and needs. He attributes his success to this very idea.
Strong interpersonal skills are one of the most important characteristics he outlined for me.
By this, he means "take time to be kind." To achieve positive results out of the people in which he works with, Bernie "turned his organization upside down". He wanted his employees to feel like the president of the company was someone who not only cared about them and their concerns, but wanted to be someone who they could come to with any problems or ideas they have. "Seek first to understand before you try to be understood." (Howroyd) By taking time through charismatic leadership to be kind to his employees, and being empathetic toward their work and personal lives, Bernie was able to achieve above average results out of average people. The ability to "shut up and listen" is a key trait one must have to be a good leader. I asked him if he thought that by being friendly to his employees, and getting to know them personally interfered with his ability to delegate. Bernie responded by stating that if you are firm but fair, honest and straight forward with people at all times, you will in turn commandeer respect from your employees which will provide both parties the necessary tools to excel in their respective positions. One must beware, however, of being insincere, because everyone will see right through you and loose all respect. One must lead by example and be constantly and actively aware on a daily basis that everyone is watching the leaders and modeling their actions after …show more content…
yours. "People don't care what you know until they know that you care." (Howroyd)
Another key trait that Bernie noted was that leaders are the ones who are willing to "take risks and be responsible for the results". When he was in his infant stage of leadership, he enlisted for 2 years in the military, “He quickly learned that people with power either use it intelligently or abuse it” (Howroyd) Leadership is a series of conquering fears and taking on challenges regardless if you have all of the answers. Your mindset must be one of "I think I can fix that." (Howroyd) He closed the discussion on leadership traits and skills with a quote from one of his favorite authors, Zig Ziglar. "If you want to get all you can out of life, you must first help others to get all they can out of life."
I told Mr. Howroyd that he had given me some great insight as to what traits and skills were necessary to being a leader among men, but wanted to know more. For me really get an idea of how these ideas and theories can be put into practice, I needed to know how one goes about actually doing these things while being in a high workload-high stress position on a daily basis. Bernie stated that it all starts with the golden rule of treating others the way you want to be treated. Take time to stop and think about each comment that you make. People will remember the things that you say and the way they perceive you. Always make a conscious effort wear a smile on your face (even if you don't feel like it) when dealing with others. When you are in a position of authority, people will naturally fear you, and model your emotions. If you want to employees to be happy, simply act happy around them. Secondly, one must make it a point to address others by name at least twice in every conversation. This is very difficult to do however when you have over 2,500 people working on your team. For this reason one must use their resources. Bernie required his managers to know some personal details about each employee that worked in their leadership. When Bernie makes a visit to one of his offices, he would first brief himself with the manager about the employees who worked there. He would want to know who was doing well, and a little about their personal lives. He would then go to those people and praise them in front of their co-workers. A good strategy to use is to always praise in groups, and criticize in private. (Howroyd) When dealing with problematic employees, many managers unknowingly work around them for fear of having to deal with their complaints. When this occurs, the leader is actually rewarding the bad employee, and punishing the good employees by making them do the other persons work. This causes the good employees to slack off and learn to complain in order to get what they want. "If you don't like what is being done, you better check what is being rewarded." (Howroyd)
Finally, I wanted to know what his followers thought of him and if they had the same view of him as he did of himself. I conducted an in-depth interview with two members of his management team which enabled me to compare their perception of their leader vs. Bernie’s perception of himself.
As I conducted these interviews, I discovered that they were fiercely loyal to the organization, eager to drive performance and had a great respect for Bernie as their team’s leader.
They went on to share the same methodology that Bernie had share with me previously, consisting of listening, understanding and caring for their employees to achieve above average results from the staff. Their approach also consisted of involving, listening, questioning, and discussing different situations in order to create a collaborative problem-solving approach. Bernie build fellowships, and his people respected, trusted and followed
him.
Based on this information, I wanted to know how he got to the level of understanding that he has achieved as a leader. From the standpoint of a student interested in becoming a leader, how do you get from point A to Point B? Mr. Howroyd pointed out that you must take time to develop a clearly defined and concise personal mission statement. Furthermore, you must look at it each and every day and think about how you can utilize it in every situation. "You must learn to become a student of people, and be able to effectively communicate your visions and goals to others." (Howroyd) One can begin by taking initiative in their own environment may it be work, school, social groups or any other situation you have the opportunity to stand up and be a leader. Be willing to accept the fact that you will fail at times. "One who is willing to attempt leadership and fails is better than one who never tried at all." (Howroyd) Listen to what others have to say, and encourage them to provide their input. Never criticize their ideas no matter how bad they may sound to you. This will prevent others from providing feedback that is crucial to your personal development as a leader. Most of all, Bernie left me with the idea that leaders must have character and honesty. Leaders are born from the heart, not created or placed into their roles. Always act as a servant to others and listen to what they have to say. "You have to make people want to do their part in striving for the common good, but be able and willing to do it yourself." (Howroyd)
BY CLAUDIA DABOUB
MGMG355 LEADERSHIP IN ORGANIZATIONS
PROFESSOR: DR. ROBERT TRODELLA
JULY 5, 2012
I had the honor of interviewing Mr. Bernard Howroyd, who has had more than forty-eight years of leadership experience in the staffing industry. The interview ended up taking much longer than I expected because I was so influenced by what he had to say, I did not want to miss anything. Bernard, who is known to his employees as Bernie, has made a career out of making the impossible come true. He has transformed himself from a poor young butcher’s apprentice into a multimillion-dollar businessman and founder of the North America’s largest, privately held full-service employment company. Bernie was born …show more content…
in a largely industrial section of England. After working as an apprentice for a local butcher, he scraped together his savings and set off on a journey around the world. To finance his travels, he often worked odd jobs—selling Bibles in Australia and combs in Brazil. "I met thousands of people from as many different cultures and I learned very quickly that no matter where people are from, no matter what language they speak, everyone needs to feel heard and respected."
Utilizing this insight, Bernie founded a small staffing firm called Howroyd-Wright Employment Agency, which he renamed and incorporated his business as AppleOne in 1968 in the state of California. Starting with meager savings, Bernie opened an office in LA’s Wilshire District and was down to his last $5.94 before the first placement check arrived. That one client was all it took to get the ball rolling on an amazing tale of growth and success. As with any business, Bernie’s company had its share of advances and setbacks, but his remarkable commitment to find, understand and fulfill the needs of another never failed him.
Recession hit and the economy came crashing down in ‘89, it dragged businesses along with it – including AppleOne and many AppleOne clients. Times were tough, but because Bernie strongly believed in his vision, “Clients for life”, he persevered, delivering services to the best of his and his company’s abilities. After the crises, Bernie and AppleOne emerged stronger, wiser and in one piece – and partly because of Bernie’s unflagging support – so did the AppleOne clients. And so it became an AppleOne commitment to always be there for clients, helping them weather even the stormiest economic climates.
“My faith in our people and company have always paid off,” says Bernie. As AppleOne grew, expanding from one branch to over 250 locations throughout North America, the company also flourished into becoming the largest privately held full-service staffing provider.”
My conversation with Bernie took a direction that I did not expect. He attributes his success to the leadership traits that he has learned over the years, and quoted many of the very ideas and theories almost verbatim from our class lectures. This was an incredible experience to witness first hand how these traits become behaviors and practices.
Throughout the course of our interview, Bernie laid out the history of his leadership experience, and pointed out how he has learned many of his characteristics from watching other people. Bernie heavily noted how leadership and management styles have made a drastic change over the last 48 years but one thing remained the same “if you have faith, and take the time to understand your people, it will always pay off”. Bernie recalled “at one point, he even refused to take a salary for two years rather than let down the growing number of people who had come to rely on him for their livelihood.”
Throughout his experience as a leader, Bernie noticed this approach being used, and vowed to build his company based on his understanding of each person’s challenges and needs. He attributes his success to this very idea.
Strong interpersonal skills are one of the most important characteristics he outlined for me.
By this, he means "take time to be kind." To achieve positive results out of the people in which he works with, Bernie "turned his organization upside down". He wanted his employees to feel like the president of the company was someone who not only cared about them and their concerns, but wanted to be someone who they could come to with any problems or ideas they have. "Seek first to understand before you try to be understood." (Howroyd) By taking time through charismatic leadership to be kind to his employees, and being empathetic toward their work and personal lives, Bernie was able to achieve above average results out of average people. The ability to "shut up and listen" is a key trait one must have to be a good leader. I asked him if he thought that by being friendly to his employees, and getting to know them personally interfered with his ability to delegate. Bernie responded by stating that if you are firm but fair, honest and straight forward with people at all times, you will in turn commandeer respect from your employees which will provide both parties the necessary tools to excel in their respective positions. One must beware, however, of being insincere, because everyone will see right through you and loose all respect. One must lead by example and be constantly and actively aware on a daily basis that everyone is watching the leaders and modeling their actions after …show more content…
yours. "People don't care what you know until they know that you care." (Howroyd)
Another key trait that Bernie noted was that leaders are the ones who are willing to "take risks and be responsible for the results". When he was in his infant stage of leadership, he enlisted for 2 years in the military, “He quickly learned that people with power either use it intelligently or abuse it” (Howroyd) Leadership is a series of conquering fears and taking on challenges regardless if you have all of the answers. Your mindset must be one of "I think I can fix that." (Howroyd) He closed the discussion on leadership traits and skills with a quote from one of his favorite authors, Zig Ziglar. "If you want to get all you can out of life, you must first help others to get all they can out of life."
I told Mr. Howroyd that he had given me some great insight as to what traits and skills were necessary to being a leader among men, but wanted to know more. For me really get an idea of how these ideas and theories can be put into practice, I needed to know how one goes about actually doing these things while being in a high workload-high stress position on a daily basis. Bernie stated that it all starts with the golden rule of treating others the way you want to be treated. Take time to stop and think about each comment that you make. People will remember the things that you say and the way they perceive you. Always make a conscious effort wear a smile on your face (even if you don't feel like it) when dealing with others. When you are in a position of authority, people will naturally fear you, and model your emotions. If you want to employees to be happy, simply act happy around them. Secondly, one must make it a point to address others by name at least twice in every conversation. This is very difficult to do however when you have over 2,500 people working on your team. For this reason one must use their resources. Bernie required his managers to know some personal details about each employee that worked in their leadership. When Bernie makes a visit to one of his offices, he would first brief himself with the manager about the employees who worked there. He would want to know who was doing well, and a little about their personal lives. He would then go to those people and praise them in front of their co-workers. A good strategy to use is to always praise in groups, and criticize in private. (Howroyd) When dealing with problematic employees, many managers unknowingly work around them for fear of having to deal with their complaints. When this occurs, the leader is actually rewarding the bad employee, and punishing the good employees by making them do the other persons work. This causes the good employees to slack off and learn to complain in order to get what they want. "If you don't like what is being done, you better check what is being rewarded." (Howroyd)
Finally, I wanted to know what his followers thought of him and if they had the same view of him as he did of himself. I conducted an in-depth interview with two members of his management team which enabled me to compare their perception of their leader vs. Bernie’s perception of himself.
As I conducted these interviews, I discovered that they were fiercely loyal to the organization, eager to drive performance and had a great respect for Bernie as their team’s leader.
They went on to share the same methodology that Bernie had share with me previously, consisting of listening, understanding and caring for their employees to achieve above average results from the staff. Their approach also consisted of involving, listening, questioning, and discussing different situations in order to create a collaborative problem-solving approach. Bernie build fellowships, and his people respected, trusted and followed
him.
Based on this information, I wanted to know how he got to the level of understanding that he has achieved as a leader. From the standpoint of a student interested in becoming a leader, how do you get from point A to Point B? Mr. Howroyd pointed out that you must take time to develop a clearly defined and concise personal mission statement. Furthermore, you must look at it each and every day and think about how you can utilize it in every situation. "You must learn to become a student of people, and be able to effectively communicate your visions and goals to others." (Howroyd) One can begin by taking initiative in their own environment may it be work, school, social groups or any other situation you have the opportunity to stand up and be a leader. Be willing to accept the fact that you will fail at times. "One who is willing to attempt leadership and fails is better than one who never tried at all." (Howroyd) Listen to what others have to say, and encourage them to provide their input. Never criticize their ideas no matter how bad they may sound to you. This will prevent others from providing feedback that is crucial to your personal development as a leader. Most of all, Bernie left me with the idea that leaders must have character and honesty. Leaders are born from the heart, not created or placed into their roles. Always act as a servant to others and listen to what they have to say. "You have to make people want to do their part in striving for the common good, but be able and willing to do it yourself." (Howroyd)