Leadership in action
September 21, 2023
By Jeff Becraft
The other week, I was contacted by Tanya Matthews. I had mentioned Tanya before in a Friday email probably about a year ago. Tanya worked with my Dad for 10 years at Glen Construction. Whenever I get a chance to talk with Tanya, she usually tells me about the lessons she learned from my Dad and how she now lives those out in her own company.
Tanya is the President and Chairman of the Board of TMG Construction Corporation – a very successful business she co-founded with her husband. TMG is the biggest spend for The World Bank globally on a woman-owned business. I have Tanya’s resume’… it would take several Friday emails to list all the achievements, awards, and honors that have been part of her career.
Why was she contacting me?… She wanted to go by and see my Dad.
My Dad is 97 now. Unfortunately, he is bedridden. He has good days and bad days as far as mental sharpness goes. And sometimes he is just plain tired and dozes off a lot. But he is the same great man. And Tanya wanted to go by and see him.
When my Mom passed away last year, Tanya and her husband, Joe, canceled their vacation so they could be at the funeral. When I spoke to her afterwards, she commented, “You should honor those who have impacted your life.”
Tanya has continued to call my Dad over the years to stay in touch with him. She continues to tell me stories of things he did at Glen Construction that influenced her… things I didn’t even know about.
The fact that Tanya has stayed in touch with Dad is greatness enough… but do you want to know why she wanted to go see my Dad that particular day? Because she was going to be in the area to go by their local offices to meet their new hires. They had hired many new people in a variety of positions and she had not met them yet.
So let me see if I understand this… the president and founder of an internationally honored company (and there are actually seven companies if I have my facts correct) is going by the various offices to personally meet the new people they had hired? That is leadership in action.
In her words, “It was heart-warming to see the tremendous skill level and educational accomplishments of these new hires. One of them helped run many of our 65 school renovation projects this summer. Another is developing additional training courses for TMG University. It was such a great day… learning of the backgrounds of these new folks.
Not only that, she took all 12 of their summer interns out to lunch and dinner before they headed back to school.
There are many things that a leader needs – but one of them is to understand that leadership is really about people… other people.
Tanya, my hat is off to you. You have your priorities straight. (Do we think that could possibly be one of the reasons she has been so successful?…) You are truly an example of leadership in action.
Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Our Place of Hope is a paradigm shift for people living with mental illness that encourages them to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. You can connect with Jeff at [email protected].
