Many of Bobby Gosser Jr.’s adages could have been bumper stickers. Then again, life, reduced to its simplest elements, doesn’t take a lot of words to describe.
Not everyone is good at the same things. Have patience. Be honest. Value your integrity. Let people do their jobs.
There were more, all of which seemed to move the crowd of several hundred at last week’s Chamber’s Business Expo breakfast.
Gosser, head of Baldwin and Shell Construction Co., was the keynote speaker. Gosser said he wasn’t used to being the head speaker, having served in volunteer positions where he was the one looking for such people to provide insight.
But he did a fine job, and his performance dovetailed with part of his message, which was to look for opportunities to do public speaking because it pushes you to take on and complete a task that most (all?) people loathe. Such an exercise, he said, creates a different skill set by forcing you to communicate with people in different ways.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Gosser, as is the case with many executives, worked his way up from a job as project estimator to various management positions and finally to top dog. He said he had had both bullies and mentors along the way. Many of those listening have no doubt had the same experiences across the years, dealing with an insecure, rude and selfish boss as well as the one you never want to be without.
Gosser recounted an episode when the bully boss stopped by his desk, picked up a special measuring ruler Gosser had gotten, noted that it was different from everyone else’s and rapped it on the corner of his metal desk, putting a dent in the ruler.
“I never forgot that,” Gosser said, seeming to revel in the memory. “But today, the bully is gone and I’m here!”
The mentor, on the other hand, took an additional chance on Gosser when, after Gosser estimated the cost of a building, discovered he had left off the concrete for one of the floors. The oversight amounted to a $30,000 mistake. Gosser said he thought he was toast, but the good boss said they were going to learn from the error and move on. Gosser said that forever changed his outlook and, by extension, his life.
As a boss, he says he likes to take a step back and listen, speaking only after everyone else in the room has expressed their opinions. If he speaks first, he said, other people in the room might never express their different opinions, leaving the best alternative to a problem unspoken.
There was also the advice to do something better today than you did yesterday. The room was filled to the brim with bosses, managers, rank-and-file employees and everyone of them could take that one to heart. It’s not that everyone would succeed in doing that, but just keeping it in the back of one’s mind would be a start.