"The Best Advice I Ever Got"

By David Basler

“Become a volunteer. It will make you a better leader.”

George Aguel, senior vice president of Disney Parks and Resorts

Today, CSR is on the lips of business leaders worldwide, but the most successful learned the importance of volunteerism way before it was cool.

For executives such as George Aguel, volunteering is more than helping a community, it elevates his employees as they make a difference, builds his company’s brand image and improves his own personal leadership skills.

“I was advised by many great mentors very early in my career about the importance of volunteerism—it’s such a good thing for so many reasons. It expands your thinking and your horizons and awareness of a multitude of issues and environments you may operate in professionally and also that of many other businesses you come in contact with.”

Proving the power and the value of meetings that has become our industry’s battle cry is at the very heart of the learning involved in this type of volunteer effort.

“The power of working with others—whether it’s giving food to the homeless, building homes or helping an industry organization come up with new ideas around a boardroom table—is a great opportunity to really collaborate with different views. It develops you as a leader, and you’re stronger for having the benefits of those gained insights. So from that standpoint alone, it has enormous benefits to you and your business. You’re going to be a better leader in your place of business. Period.”

Aguel strongly believes that companies today must believe in the power of people doing good.

Companies such as Disney are increasingly seeing the value in allowing their employees to take paid time off to work in their communities as well.

“When our cast members go out into the community, you can see the pride they have in helping the community and wearing their ‘Disney Volunteer’ T-shirts with the Mickey ears on them—you know, it’s a real source of pride for all of us and an incredible statement about our company.”

Disney has had an employee volunteerism program for more than 20 years and earlier this year decided to encourage the public to share in the experience with its “Give a Day, Get a Day” program, which offers a free one-day admission for every day spent volunteering.

“There’s nothing earth shaking or new about volunteering, but it should be the backbone of every company business model today. When you have employees who are as passionate about giving their time like I am, it’s great to be a part of a company that supports that effort. That’s been my blessing my entire career.

“If you’re personally not taking time to volunteer or you’re not encouraging your employees to volunteer, then change. When you talk about such things as benchmarking, you begin to understand that you can’t develop your business in isolation without the benefits of having the great insights you get from the relationships you build from working along side other volunteers coming from so many other organizations. It’s a formula for success.”

“You’re greatest asset is being open to the learning experience.”

Christine Cunningham, director of sales of the Williams Inn

A veteran in the hotel business, Christine Cunningham is always in search of the next great learning opportunity—largely because of a piece of advice she got from a mentor early in her career.

Cunningham “grew up” in the hotel business at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. It was during her almost 11 years there that Director of Sales Pam Lollias told her “your greatest asset is being open to the learning experience.”

“She helped me mature and learn in the industry—the things to do and not to do and how to be successful. Even in negative situations, you learn something positive from the experience. Every experience is a learning experience.”

Cunningham, now a director of sales herself, passes along the same advice she received more than 15 years ago.

“Whether it’s serving on a board, or getting your CMP or on-the-job training, continuing your education is so key to everything in your personal and professional lives. You have to continually be learning and educating yourself in things to grow, keep your mind open and be successful. You can learn from every situation and from every person you come in contact with—especially if their way of thinking is different than yours.”

“To believe in myself and trust that I have the ability to do anything I set my mind to.”

Michelle Johnson, co-owner and chief gathering officer of c3

A phone call less than three years ago changed Michelle Johnson’s life, when a friend simply asked why she wasn’t in business for herself. The call reminded Johnson of some advice from her mother.

“She always used to tell me to believe in myself and trust that I have the ability to do anything I set my mind to.”

She took the advice of her Windy City friend and struck up conversations with two people—now her business partners.

“I actually get goose bumps thinking about it. But it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t believed in myself in the first place. It was something my mother had told me since I was a child, but you know, you’re a kid and you don’t get it until you need to get it. It wasn’t on my checklist when I was 18, but it was on my checklist at 40.

“To believe in myself enough to know that even though I may make a mistake, it’s the growth opportunity that comes out of that that’s the most important thing.”

“Deliver what you promise.”

Hattie Hill, CEO of Hattie Hill Enterprises Inc.

Whether it be a business opportunity, feedback from a speaking engagement or work for a client, Hattie Hill is always evaluating something.

“I get up somewhere between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. every day and whether I am being paid or not, whatever I am doing, volunteer or for a client, I always stop and ask, ‘Are we doing everything the best that we possibly can?’ I always evaluate everything I do that way.”

She has her mother to thank for her meticulous self-critiques.

“My mom would always say, ‘When you commit to someone you do the best—deliver what you promise.’ It resonates with me every single day. If you make a promise, a commitment to something, you always deliver because it’s a reflection of you.”

“Change is better than improvement.”

Remy Cregut, general manager of Montreux Music & Convention Centre

In the late 1990s, Remy Cregut was in charge of meeting and incentive events at Disneyland Paris. Disney’s second park outside the U.S. was still in its infancy, and change was always in the air.

“Everybody can improve. Change needs to be creative and much more determined. It’s only with change that you really reach the highest targets.”

A piece of advice that Cregut hasn’t forgotten since the late 1990s came from Philippe Bourguignon, then president of Euro Disney.

“Rather than simply improving on the way things are now, think more innovatively and change directions if need be.”

Cregut is now the general manager at the Montreux Music & Convention Centre in Switzerland.

“As a venue manager this [change] is what we do. Just because 10 companies have done the same kind of event the same way in the same place, we shouldn’t consider that the best way to do it. Our role, I think, is sometimes to say to those companies, ‘We should try another way, because I know you want to reach different objectives and I think this way would be better.’ In the event industry, you must really be able to think differently every day. Experience is good, but there are a lot of people out there with experience—there are not a lot of people with creativity.”

“Nobody says it has to be forever.”

Anne Hallinan, CMP, owner of MarroneHallinan Event Management

It’s never a good thing to be a one-trick pony, and looking back on her career, Anne Hallinan knows exactly when her career broadened.

“I was working for the Oregon Convention Center in 1994 when I was approached to take a job with Conferon in St. Louis. I liked where I was and didn’t have any interest in moving, but Teri Tonioli, who offered me the job, said, ‘Anne, listen, you come work for me for two years and I guarantee you will learn more than you’ve learned to this point. And if you don’t like it at that time, go home, nobody says it has to be forever.”

That’s when the light bulb went on for Hallinan.

“I took the job, and I didn’t stay forever—it ended up being about a year and a half, but honestly what I did learn in that time I’ve been able to use over and over again, and without that experience I wouldn’t have been able to open my own company. It gave me the experience I needed to be on both sides of the meeting planning fence. I was able to work nationally in different cities and learn about a lot of different properties and hotel contracts (which I knew nothing about)—I learned basically how to be a meeting planner. I just thought it was going to be a job—I didn’t think it was possibly going to be life changing.”

“Don’t forget what you already know.”

Michael Massari, vice president of Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah’s Entertainment

It’s easy to get caught up in the moment and forget to take care of the details. We’ve all been there.

As he was leaving his job at The Venetian in Las Vegas in the mid 1990s for a new position at Rio Las Vegas, Mike Massari was handed a great piece of advice from his boss Michael French and it resonated.

“He said to me, ‘Mike, you’re going to do a great job. But I want you to keep one thing in mind. Don’t forget what you already know.’ And I think this is so appropriate in today’s environment, because I see so many people trying to score 100 points on one play, trying to throw the bomb, you know, whatever you want to call it, and they just forget to do the things that are the basics that they already know how to do well. They forget to answer the phones, they forget to call customers and they forget to ask questions, because they’re so worried about trying to do the next, coolest, best thing.”

Massari likes telling this story to colleagues and especially to his newest employees at Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah’s Entertainment, where he now works.

“When my bosses ask what I’m doing differently, I am honest and say, ‘I am doing nothing differently.’ The fact of the matter is, I am doing less stuff than I did last year, but the stuff I am still doing is the most critical and I’m going to be the best in the world at it.”

That’s a hard story to tell your boss sometimes.

“Everybody always wants to say, ‘Oh we’ve got this new idea and that new idea, but sometimes you have to hunker down and say you know what got me here were these four things, and I’m going to be the best at them and I’m not going to mess with all that other stuff. It’s nothing but a distraction.” One+

DAVID BASLER is editor in chief of One+.