Leadership Lessons from My Dad

As far back as I can remember, my dad was the boss. But if you saw him interacting with his employees, you would never have guessed it. Or at least, you would realize that my dad's authority with his people did not come from the hierarchy, or because he asserted his authority over them.

My dad's authority with his people came from the way he treated them. He genuinely cared for them. He knew them, their spouses, their kids. He cared for them beyond their utility to his business. And he treated them with a great deal of respect. He loved nothing more than joking around and laughing with his employees. The typical butt of his jokes? Himself.

And while he never said it this way, my dad had a gift for building great teams. He knew how to find the right people—not just for the role, but for the culture. He understood that how you treat people affects how they show up. And he understood something I didn’t fully appreciate until I became a business owner myself: if you surround yourself with the right people, everything gets easier. The team becomes the engine. That lesson—about the power of people—has shaped how I lead today.

I learned so many things from my dad. I want to share some of that with you. This article will focus on hiring the right people. I recently finished the book 10x is Easier than 2x, by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy. The book covers a number of topics, one of which is the power of hiring the right people. This was something I learned a great deal about from my dad.

One of his core beliefs was this: If you hire A players, you don't have to put pressure on them. A players put pressure on themselves.

My dad managed hundreds—and maybe more than a thousand—people over the course of his career. He did this at his own accounting firm for decades before moving into a second career as the CFO of a large medical practice.

What he understood—and what I try to apply in my own work—is that great people don’t need to be constantly pushed. They don’t need micromanagement. They want to excel, and they set high standards for themselves. The right hire doesn’t wait for someone to tell them what to do—they find ways to make things better, take ownership, and stay hungry.

That brings me to the second lesson my dad taught me: Some people rent their jobs, and others own them.

It’s one of those phrases that sounds simple, but the older I get, the more I realize how deeply true it is. When someone rents their job, they show up, do the minimum, and punch out. They don’t see the bigger picture. They don’t invest in the outcome. They’re tenants. But when someone owns their job? They take responsibility. They see the mission. They notice the details. They fix what’s broken and take pride in the work.

You can feel the difference immediately. Owners walk in the room with questions, ideas, solutions. Renters walk in and ask what needs to get done—just enough to get through the day.

And here’s the magic: A players are almost always owners. When you hire the right people, the kind who take pride in their work, you don’t have to constantly check on them or pressure them to perform. They already do. Their standards are often higher than yours.

I’ve had the great pleasure of working with many, many A players over the course of my career as a business owner. And I wish I could tell you there’s a foolproof formula for identifying them in the hiring process—but it’s not that simple. Spotting an A player on a resume or even in an interview isn’t easy. But there are a few things that help.

Behavioral interviewing is a big one. Instead of asking, “Are you resourceful?” ask, “Tell me about a time when you used your resourcefulness to solve a difficult problem at work.” It’s a subtle shift, but it changes everything. You’re not asking them to tell you who they are—you’re asking them to show you who they’ve been.

Another tool that helps? Personality assessments like the DISC profile or Myers-Briggs. These tests don’t make the decision for you, but they give you insight into how someone communicates, processes information, and approaches challenges. And more recently, I’ve been leveraging AI tools I’ve developed to help evaluate candidates using their resumes, interview responses, and personality test results together. It’s like putting on a pair of glasses that helps you see a little more clearly who might thrive in your culture—and who might just be a good interviewer.

So what’s the takeaway? If you want to scale your business or your impact, don’t just hire to fill a role—hire people who see the work as theirs. People who take ownership, apply internal pressure, and lift others as they go.

That’s what my dad did. That’s what I aim to do. And if we all took a page from his playbook, our teams—and maybe even our lives—would look a little different.

Thanks, Dad.