Key Learnings From a Leader

We continue with our posts related to the vibrant conversations and comments shared last May at our Annual Luncheon. Carlton Highsmith was the recipient of the 2014 Filer Award given to an individual or individuals who are leaders in promoting private action for the public good. We thought you would enjoy his remarks and his referenced article on the top lessons he has learned as a business leader.
As always, we welcome your comments.

Carlton Highsmith 2014 John H. Filer Award Recipient
Award acceptance remarks from the Council’s Annual Luncheon – May 2, 2014
What Inspires You?
“What inspires you?” was a symbolic question The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven asked last year as part of their highly effective marketing campaign. My answer is that – I am inspired by the passion, the dedication and the optimism that both Will and Karen show as they work tirelessly to make life better for so many of the less fortunate in our community. Thank you both, Will and Karen, for your unwavering commitment and spirit.
I have a newfound appreciation for the challenges and difficulties encountered by those in the philanthropic and not-for-profit world. I wish someone had pulled me aside five(5) years ago and prepared me for some of the difficult lessons I’ve had to learn the hard way. Yours is a world of too few resources, chasing too many challenges. Too many difficult choices to make, from far too many worthwhile causes. I mistakenly thought the drivers of success in the “not-for-profit sector” were going to be easier than and similar to the for-profit sector, from which I come. But I’ve found that some are dramatically different, such as capital flows. The private sector has a very efficient mechanism for allocating capital – it gets allocated to the initiatives with the highest return on investment. This is not always true in the not-for-profit world. Despite such differences, I am still amazed at the number of success drivers that are essentially the same between the two worlds. Let me briefly explain just a few.
Top 3 Key Learnings
Several years ago, a national entrepreneurship magazine called and asked me to write an article for them. They asked that I try to capture for their readers – who were mostly aspiring entrepreneurs – solid and actionable advice they could use as they went about trying to grow their businesses. I was thrilled and delighted to be asked, so I decided I would spend a considerable amount of time thinking about and writing the article. I locked myself up in my office, got a couple of easels, and set about working on the article for several days. To ensure I captured as many key learnings as possible, I used a simple process. I created five columns at the top of each easel. The first column was the year, the next was major events that happened that year, the next was actions I took in response to these major events, the next was results of my actions, and the final column was key learnings or key take-a-ways from those actions. I completed the table for each of the 30+ years I had run my business, and – when I was done – the walls of my office were covered with large sheets of paper that captured a fascinating history of notes and key lessons from every year I had been in business.
I then went about circling key words, key phrases, or key observations that seemed to recur the most. I ranked these key terms, and they became my Top 10 Key Learnings for Growing a Successful Business. I decided I would write my article around this Top 10 list and present them much as David Letterman does his Top 10 list. The article was published in 2009 and, since I haven’t heard from Letterman’s lawyers, I presume I didn’t infringe too much on his copyrights. I will present my top three (3) here today – because I only have three (3) minutes, and also because I don’t want to push my luck that Letterman won’t come after me, even though he has announced his retirement. These are lessons from my former for-profit world, but I believe they are crucial to the philanthropic and non-profit world as well.
Key learning #3
You must have a vision for what you want to achieve and have the courage, the tenacity and the willingness to pursue that vision with all of the expertise, innovation and resources you can muster.
Key Learning #2
You must embrace the highest standards of excellence, understanding that your integrity – delivering on what you promise – will become one of the most important drivers of your continued success.
Key Learning #1
You must recognize the importance of relationships – developing and nurturing sustainable relationships built on mutual trust, mutual respect, and mutual self-interest.
So, really, what I discovered in that days-long giant Post-It note exercise in my office is what all of you who work in the not-for- profit world already know – philanthropy is personal. People support the initiatives they care about. To gain that support, you have to clearly articulate your vision, and pursue it with all of the innovative vigor that you can. And, most importantly, deliver on what you promise.
Again, I’d like to thank the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy for this honor. I have such a high level of respect and admiration for the work you all do. It is tremendously important work that touches the lives of so many people in so many different ways – whether the homeless in search of a place to sleep or their next meal, or an unemployed mother or father looking for a jobs/skills training program so that they can become employable again and can provide for their families. Whether a gifted student who benefits from the resources you provide to their schools, or an elderly couple that benefits from the services provided by their local senior center. Each step you take and every success you realize is vitally important to making life better for so many people. I wish you all continued success.
Carlton L. Highsmith, founded, and was President and CEO of The Specialized Packaging Group based in Hamden, Connecticut. He grew his company to become one of North America’s largest independent paperboard packaging manufacturers. He merged his company with PaperWorks Industries in 2009 to form the third largest integrated recycled paperboard manufacturing company in North America, and assumed the role of Vice Chairman of the Board until his retirement in 2009.
Mr. Highsmith is a Director at First Niagara Financial Group, where he serves as Chair of the Governance Committee. He is also Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of Quinnipiac University, Chairman of the Board of the Connecticut Center for Arts & Technology, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Center for Arts and Technology and Chairman of I Have a Dream, New Haven. He serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston New England Advisory Council and is a member of the Yale New Haven Hospital Board of Trustees, where he serves on the Finance and Budget Committee.
He lives in Middlebury, Connecticut with his wife, Letamarie. They have two adult daughters, Alexis Highsmith Smith, Deputy Director of New Haven Legal Services and Jennifer Highsmith Brooks, Director of Special Educational Services at Elm City Preparatory School in New Haven. And one grandson-Carlton!
The John H. Filer Award was established by the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy’s Board of Directors in 1997 to honor the memory of an individual who inspired his peers in Hartford’s business community by example and urged the nation’s business leaders to accept the responsibility of corporate citizenship. The Filer Award is given to an individual or individuals who are leaders in promoting private action for the public good.

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