What I said in my interview for Most Admired CEO that won me the award

In 2017 I won the Most Admired CEO award as presented by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. It was not something that was on my radar at the time, nor anything I’d ever submit to win on my own (what kind of admired CEO is one that submits himself for such an award? “Yes I think I should win this award, mostly because of how humble I am…”) but a friend nominated me and I thought I’d go for it.

That was the year that Dragon Army was really hitting its stride as a digital experience agency (for the first few years we were a mobile game studio, then a mobile development shop), and it was the year that 48in48 really started to grow significantly (we put on four events that year: Atlanta, New York, Boston, and Minneapolis).

So there I was, being interviewed by a dozen people as to why I should be considered for this award. We were getting toward the end of the interview, and I could tell it had been a lackluster meeting for them. Perhaps I was the last to be interviewed in a long line of candidates that day, but for whatever reason the energy was a bit low and the questions seemed too and-now-this-question, and-now-this-question-y. In fact, there had been only one question that I had prepared for, and they hadn’t asked it yet.

“Ok, well that’s all we have for you, thanks for coming in,” said one of the interviewers. I thanked them and was about to get up, but then thought, you know what, they should have asked me this question. Let’s see if they’ll at least let me answer it.

“Actually,” I said. “There is one question that I was expecting you might ask, and it’s the one question I really wanted to answer. Do you mind if I ask and answer it before I leave?”

They all sort of sat up at that point, and the lead interviewer said, “Oh, sure, go ahead.” I could tell the energy in the room was starting to shift. It was the first time that they seemed to actually want to hear what I was going to say.

“Well, it occurs to me that you’d want to know why someone would want to win this award. I’m certain everyone you’re interviewing is just as busy as I am, and we all probably asked ourselves that question in order to decide if we wanted to spend the time going through the process to try to win. So the question I would like to answer is, why do you want to win this award?”

I paused for a moment to make sure I still had their attention, and they were literally leaning forward to hear what I would say next.

“My reason for wanting to win this award is so that it can help me move toward my purpose, which is to have an out-sized, positive impact on the world. You see, I’m at a point in my career and life where it’s more important to me that the things I spend time on are making the world a better place. Winning this award would help shine a light on those things, allowing me to make an even bigger impact.”

“But,” I continued. “What I most want to do is inspire other leaders to realize that they can be focused on doing good while also being a successful CEO. Too many leaders I know tell me that once they’re done working so hard to build their business, then they’ll start doing more to help make their community and the world. If I should win this award, I’m hopeful some of those leaders will change their mindset and realize that they can make an even bigger positive impact if they do good while being great leaders.”

Many of the interviewers started writing things down on their pads when I finished, which I took as a good sign. I said good-bye, thanked them for their time, and felt good that at least I made sure I said what I wanted to say to them.

A week later I was informed that I had won the award, and I like to think I used the platform to accelerate my initiatives forward. And possibly, just possibly, I changed the minds of a few leaders to start doing good sooner than they had planned.

The lesson

The big lesson here, other than making sure you have a good handle on your purpose and that you’re spending your time in the right places, is to never be afraid to shake things up during an interview. If there’s something you wish they would ask, go ahead and ask it!

For instance, I do all the final interviews for Dragon Army. We have a lengthy and difficult hiring process because bringing the right team members into our company is one of the most important things we do (culture add, not culture fit.) A candidate has to make it through the entire process before they get to me, and I’m only concerned with two things: will this person thrive in our culture, and will they help us further our purpose (Dragon Army’s purpose is to Inspire Happiness.)

If someone told me at one of those interviews that they were surprised that I didn’t ask them how they would help us fulfill our purpose, and they had a very specific way that they would help us inspire happiness, and it was the reason they applied in the first place…well, I might just hire them right there on the spot :)

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