Recently, Quiet Professionals’ CEO Andrew Wilson sat down with Brittinay Lenhart of the Work Culture Consultant podcast for a chat about the Quiet Professionals work culture and Mr. Wilson’s vision for the QP future.
Ms. Lenhart is an Air Force veteran now living in Las Vegas, Nevada. Before starting her consulting business & podcast, she worked as a F-35 Propulsion Manager at Pratt & Whitney. She has a Six Sigma Green Belt and is a Certified Project Director from the Institute of Project Management.
Mr. Wilson described himself as having entered the military early, in his teens, retiring as a Sergeant Major out of the U.S. Special Operations Command, but also as a serial entrepreneur at heart.
The QP culture, he said, emulates the culture of a special mission unit that he once worked for, at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. The culture there was unique, even for the military. Shortly after his arrival, he had to have a photo taken in full dress uniform for the Department of the Army (DA) and return to the range for training—time that he didn’t have.
He arrived at the S1 Shop to have his photo taken, dressed in the clothing he was wearing for training, that is, shorts and a t-shirt. A man in uniform greeted him by name, asked how his wife and kids were doing, and told him that his dress uniform was ready and that they’d fixed a missing ribbon while they were at it.
Mr. Wilson said he walked out of the shop a few minutes later and went right back out on the range. It really made an impression on him, the first moment of many in a daunting, yet rewarding, environment.
With Quiet Professionals, he wanted to create a similar environment, where people could move into spaces they felt good in, where they loved what they did, and where their strengths and talents were used. He says that when leaders put their people in positions where they can do the things they excel at, their people are going to find it rewarding and find success. When a whole organization functions like that, it can be very powerful.
Mr. Wilson also discussed the difficulties—in other words, the opportunities—that an organization finds as it grows, both organically and by acquiring new businesses.
The core of growth comes from inspiring and leading the people below you to be able to do your job. There is no one more successful in business than the person that can train their own replacement, because it allows the person to move on to the next thing.
He says that the quality of leadership doesn’t depend on how many reports you have.
“When you want someone do to something for you, if you are truly inspirational, they’re going to do that for you inherently. And the reason for that is because you’re inspiring them. They want to be like you, to find the same success that you have found. People can feel your energy, feel your happiness, feel your success, feel that you’re having fun. That’s the atmosphere you want to create. When you can create that, you inspire people. Making people feel great, that’s what true leadership is. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether anyone reports to you or not.”
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For more of this great discussion, you can hear the rest of the interview here: https://anchor.fm/workcultureconsultant/episodes/CEO-Andy-Wilson-from-Quiet-Professionals-e10o7rl.
And find out more about Brittany Lenhart and the Work Culture Consultant podcast here: https://linktr.ee/workcultureconsultant.
Want to find out more about our work culture? Check out our Careers page here: https://quietprofessionalsllc.com/careers.
