Interviewee Name: China Gorman, CEO
Company Name: CMG Group
Website: http://chinagorman.com
Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
China Gorman: I think of myself as a business leader. I’ve spent the last 30 years of my career in the human capital management space, mostly as a leader of consulting services businesses at the local, regional, national and global levels that provide services to organizations so that they are operated more effectively as it relates to their people management strategy and behaviours. So I run businesses that support HR in helping their businesses be more effective.
Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?
China Gorman: I try always to be China Gorman, not sometimes I’m China Gorman the public speaker, sometimes I’m China Gorman the blogger, sometimes I’m China Gorman the consultant, sometimes I’m China Gorman President and CEO, sometimes I’m China Gorman the Chair of the Board. I decide to be China Gorman and integrate all those roles into my life because I don’t have a set of values for being the Chairman of the Board for the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning and a different set of values as a public speaker and a different set of values as a consultant. My values are my values and so my behaviour should be my behaviour. I think that’s how you integrate it all in. You’ll always be you and not A, B, C, that kind of thing.
Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it?
China Gorman: I love to travel. I consider myself a citizen of the world – travelling whether it’s in the US or around the world. I love to travel with my husband; he’s the best travel buddy ever. I read a lot, both in business and fiction. And I’m a huge theatre buff so whenever I’m travelling if there is live theatre then I’m ‘all over that’.
Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?
China Gorman:
- Always act with integrity.
- Always assume the best about people and their motives and behaviours.
- Always be true to yourself and always be yourself.
- Be a student of the game which means never stop learning.
- Always bring a solution. Don’t criticize or complain unless you have a solution. Always be part of the solution and not part of the problem.
Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?
China Gorman: I ask a lot of people a lot of questions. I don’t by any means presume in any role that I play that I’ve got all the answers or a lot of the answers. I’m always going to assume that everybody is smarter than I am. I ask a lot of questions and try to empower others to work on their big ideas and their suggestions. It’s “If this were happening to you, what would you do about it?” Or, “You know we’re challenged with this particular issue, how would you solve it, where would you go, how would you do it?” It’s a way to engage colleagues and it’s a way to add to your databank all the time.
Avil Beckford: What’s your favourite quotation and why?
China Gorman: My favourite quotation is by Mary Baker Eddy and it is, “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings.” And it’s my favourite because it always reminds me of the blessings that are all around us and the need for us to see and acknowledge them.
Avil Beckford: How do you define success? And in your opinion what’s the formula for success?
China Gorman: The definition for success is being a positive impact in whatever situation you find yourself in – a personal situation, a business situation, whatever. It is about leaving things better than you found them, whether it’s a relationship, a branch office, a business, a market. And you do that with a lot of selflessness, it’s not who is right, what’s right, and you have to work hard, be reliable and have people understand who you stand for and only operate from a place of integrity.
Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?
China Gorman: I think it’s always assuming a positive outcome. So with the Dallas experience I shared earlier, I could have turned around in two weeks after I understood the impact and import of the situation and run away from there screaming. But I took it as an opportunity to learn, to bring healing, to engage the team on a much more positive path forward. It was being able to see everything as an opportunity for growth – personal growth, business growth, knowledge growth, market growth. It’s being able to see things as positive opportunities, and then being willing to move forward into them.
For a few years, in one of the organizations that I was in, we moved for opportunities in the organization many times. I don’t know if you remember the commercial from years and years ago where three little boys – brothers – at breakfast, and the mom puts down a new kind of cereal and the two older boys think, “Ick that looks gross,” and then they look at each other and say, “I know, let’s get Mikey to try it, he’ll eat anything.” So for a while, I was the Mikey – this operation needs to be turned around, “let’s get China, she’ll go anywhere.”
My family situation was such that we could take those kinds of opportunities because of my husband’s career he was pretty portable, we didn’t have children so we didn’t have those kinds of issues to deal with that would make frequent geographic moves a terrible challenge. So seeing things as opportunities and being able to take them on for a positive outcome for everybody, I think is what it took for me to move forward as rapidly as I did in terms of responsibility and authority, particularly at some of the early ages that I did.
Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?
China Gorman: For someone who is just starting out today I would encourage them that nothing is beneath you. Every job is an opportunity to learn – to learn from your boss, to learn from your organization, to learn some skills from a professional development perspective. So the big one is every opportunity is a good opportunity. As I work and mentor young people who are in college, here are the things that I generally tell them:
- Establish a reputation for effectiveness regardless of the job that you are in. Be the go-to person. The organization knows that if they give you something it will be done and it will be done well.
- Be a great team player and be more interested in the collective success, opposed to I did it, we did it.
- Be a lifelong learner and learn your business inside and out, whether you’re flipping burgers, folding shirts in a retail establishment or you’re an intern doing research, or you’re in your first job out of college, or just getting your foot in the door, know the business of the organization, know how it makes money, how it innovates, how it fits in the competitive world. Because of the worldwide web, all of this data is available for every business. If you’re shy and don’t want to ask people questions you just go online. But know your business and know your organization and its place in the competitive marketplace.
Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?
China Gorman: There are five and the questions are the same for all of them and it would be, “How did you continue to persevere against the difficult odds that you face as a leader?” The leadership question is, “How is it that you never quit, you continued to persevere?” The five people are:
- Abraham Lincoln
- George Washington
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Mother Teresa
- Martin Luther King
Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?
China Gorman: On a fundamental personal level I have to say it’s the Bible because it’s the foundation of my values and my religious commitment and my religious life. But if you set that aside it’s even more difficult because my favourite book is the book I’m reading at any one time. Lately I’ve been reading about tribal leadership. I’ve been reading a great book called Re-engaged, but the one that moves with me from office to office, from organization to organization, is called The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition
by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner. It’s a leadership primer. It talks about exemplary leadership, credibility and finding your voice, inspiring your vision, the very basics of how to be a leader.
Avil Beckford: You are one of the 10 finalists on the reality show, So, How Would You Spend Your Time? Each finalist is placed on separate deserted islands for two years. You have a basic hut on the island and all the tools for survival; you just have to be imaginative and inventive when using them. You are allowed to take five books, one movie and one music CD, and whatever else you take has to fit in one suitcase and a travel on case. What would you take with you and how would you spend the two years? T he prize is worth your while and at this stage in the game there really aren’t any losers among the 10 finalists, since each are guaranteed at least $2 million?
China Gorman:
Five Books
- The Bible
- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
- My own journal, a really big book because I would be writing in it every day.
- Jane Austen novel
- Large picture book of the history of painting so I’d have representation of amazing art.
I’m not somebody who watches movies over and over again, I’d rather read the book over and over again. I’d bring a CD of one of the Broadway production of Les Miserables, not a movie but a stage presentation. If I’m by myself for two years I want upbeat music, and I think I’d bring the Greatest Hits of the Manhattan Transfer.
For the two years I would work to maintain and improve my physical condition. I would be swimming, running, exercising, I would sing a lot to get my voice in shape, I would spend a lot of time in prayer and it would be cool to read the Bible straight through a couple of time.
Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?
China Gorman: What people can do when they come together, and I was reminded of this just the other day. I was speaking at a conference in San Antonio and one of the other speakers used a video clip of a flash mob scene I think in Belgium in a big train station where all of a sudden the people milling around started dancing as Julie Andrews was singing “Do-Re-Mi” and person by person, the entire place started dancing together to this incredible music in this incredible place.
Click here if you cannot view the YouTube video “DANCE TRAIN STATION BELGIUM do-re-mi The Sound of Music – Julie Andrews”.
That kind of teamwork, creativity, application of will, these were people from all walks of life – young, old, professionals, students – that kind of coming together. It wasn’t spontaneous, of course they rehearsed it, but somebody thought of that, somebody engaged all of those people, with all of these different backgrounds to come together to do this creative, beautiful thing and that just makes me weep, and it’s not sadness, it’s awe, appreciation, inspiration.
It’s just like the first time I went to see Les Miserables on Broadway, and I’d heard the music, and yet as soon as the overture started I started “leaking” and through that whole production the amazing ability of man to come together in an inspired way to produce a thing of such beauty and inspiration is what excites me and partly why I love the theatre. When I think about Les Mis as an example, the costume, the singing, the acting, the stage, the orchestra, the whole vision, and the story all coming together, for me is so powerful a reminder of what’s good, what’s possible of what’s brilliant of the collective inspiration of man. That excites and inspires me.
Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?
China Gorman: I spend time with people I think are smarter than I am which would be just about everybody. I listen and ask questions, try to get to know the real them in a real authentic kind of way.
Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for?
China Gorman: I would want to be as smart as Solomon and ask for wisdom.
Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..
China Gorman: I’m happy when I feel like I’m living up to my potential and making the situation around me better.