Hullabalog is pleased to welcome David Saxe ‘04. David graduated with a degree in marketing and went on to pursue a Master of Arts in Media and Communications from Dallas Theological Seminary. He began his career at an  interactive marketing agency in Houston, TX before opening the doors to ELL, a creative agency in Houston. David has found his career calling managing creative projects and accounts but says he’s still unsure if he’s an entrepreneur who happens to be in advertising or an ad man who happens to be an entrepreneur. He’s fine either way. David also has a wife, Allyson (McElroy) Saxe ‘06 and two children – his son, Micah, is two years old and runs around the house complete with Aggie jersey and Hutch football helmet yelling, “Jerrod number 1 scores touchdowns! Von number 40 gets tackles!” ♦

Enjoy his post and please share your comments.

My dad, class of ‘75, is a quiet guy, so it shouldn’t surprise me that the most important thing he ever taught me is all of three words. It’s simple, but so many of us fail at it miserably – personally as well as professionally. He ran a successful business for over 20 years. I remember him saying it when I was 8 years old and running around his office. I vividly remember one of his employees coming into his office asking for something (what it was I have no idea). My dad stopped what he was doing and made the employee feel like the center of the universe. Young and prideful about my dad being the boss, I asked my dad after the employee had left why he didn’t “act more like the boss.” To me, a boss was strong, loud and was in the position he was because people were afraid of him.
Dad’s response: Treat people well.
Typical 8-year-old response: why?
Dad: Just treat people well.

It may seem as though I’m following in his footsteps, but we couldn’t be more different. He’s a financial, analytical mind that forces the Best Buy sales guy to give him at least 100 reasons why that TV is priced $50 higher than the one next to it. I’m a dreamer who often acts impulsively. I fall in love with creative ideas (sometimes bad ones), and it’s tough to talk me out of them. But in my developing career, those three words are behind every action and decision I make. Now I’ll be the first to admit that this approach is synchronous with my personality. I’m awful with conflict – even healthy conflict. But I’m just as susceptible as anyone to developing the mindset that I’ve earned my position and therefore, those below me on the hierarchy will be treated as such. Here’s the deal: as Malcolm Gladwell put it in (paraphrased) his brilliant book, Outliers, we are all subjects of our environment. If you’re in a position of authority, believe me, you’ve caught some breaks, and those around you shouldn’t be treated as anything less than your equal just because they didn’t catch the same breaks you did.

Let’s look at this in some specific contexts:

Employee Relationships
I understand that leaders have come and gone – successful ones – that ruled with an iron fist. I wouldn’t suggest that you can’t win with that approach. However, I believe that Gen Y and Millennials are not as receptive to this approach as Baby Boomers and Gen X. If you’re running a business or in a management position, no doubt you’ve made this observation – unfortunately, most of the associations are negative. I don’t take this cynical stance, but no matter how you spin it, we’re a different generation. We think we should enjoy our jobs. We search for our passion. We talk about things like work environment and culture and believe that if our employers provide a good environment, we’ll produce better results. Earn their respect through leading by example and treating them well. Most young talent will leave if they’re scared of you.

Business Development
When I left my old agency, bridges easily could’ve been burnt. Feelings were hurt. Some people were downright mad. But we treated everyone well on our way out the door. We were respectful and maintained relationships with some folks that could even be perceived as competitors. This isn’t a ‘keep your enemies closer’ type of thing. This is a ‘just treat people well’ kind of thing because you never know when they’re going to become a client. I hate to put this kind of rationale behind it because it’s my personal belief that people deserve to be treated well even if they will never be able to offer you anything, but this is just a fact. I have a meeting this week with a former co-worker who is now representing a potentially monster client for us. This is a meeting I never would’ve been able to get if I didn’t treat people well – even when they weren’t real happy with me.

Competitor Relationships
I know all of the reasons why protecting your relationships with competitors doesn’t make sense. But I believe the reasons for protecting those relationships are stronger. Sure, I’ll take some business from you and you may take some from me, but our industry is a subculture. Everyone knows everyone, and the ones who choose not to plug into the community hit a very low ceiling. It’s important to me that our competitors respect us and we respect them. I’ve referred work to competitors that may provide a particular service better than we do. That may sound like bad strategy, but in a culture as small as ours, it’s important that we’re well thought of, trusted and we have a reputation for treating people well. Again, competitors of yesterday become clients tomorrow – all the time.

Treat people well. It’s simple and may even seem to some a bit idealistic. You should treat people well just because – but I hope you see the business reasons behind doing so as well. Sometimes it may even be painful, sacrificing short-term cash for a, hopeful, long-term gain. This principle is guiding my business, and I hope to hold fast enough to that commitment that I never make a decision that contradicts it.
Thanks, Dad.

Want to see more from David?  Please visit his blog at davidsaxe.wordpress.com or follow him on twitter at @davidsaxe.  You can also contact him at david@ellcreative.com.

Want to share your professional experiences and business expertise with other Aggies?  Hullabalog welcomes and relies on guest bloggers.  Drop me a note at msnyder91@hullabalog.com if you’d like to contribute some content. Once or frequently, it’s up to you.

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