Cbeyond -- A True Character-driven Company

Jim Geiger. Photo by Leland Holder.

Companies often say that their employees are their most valued asset. But, few actually live those values.  I know of one exception, though -- Cbeyond, a leading Atlanta-based IT and communications services provider to small businesses.

I’ve served as a freelance writer for Cbeyond for the last year, assisting with numerous internal communications writing projects. Those assignments gave me frequent access to employees, who I interviewed on topics ranging from customer retention and call center efficiency to team building and integrity.  While the story topics varied, one thing did not: how much Cbeyonders love their company. For someone who had long ago left the corporate ranks of Fortune 500 behemoths for independence from corporate politics, I found the culture at Cbeyond inspiring.

So, when the Atlanta chapter board of the International Association of Business Communicators was looking for candidates to present on internal brand building, I could think of no better company to present. Earlier this week our chapter had the honor to hear from Cbeyond’s founder and chief executive who spoke to a packed audience.  I knew Jim Geiger was much more than a successful entrepreneur; he was someone who lives the values of his company. I have to say, his presentation did not disappoint.

 

Some facts about Cbeyond:

n      In 12 years, the company has grown from less than a dozen employees to more than 2,000.

n      Cbeyond sells voice, data, mobile and cloud services as well as website hosting, and has grown into nearly a half a billion in revenues, mostly through organic growth.

n      Today it serves 60,000 US small businesses, and one-third of customers are referred to Cbeyond by other customers.

“We have very deep relationships with each one of our customers,” says Geiger.

The company establishes feedback loops in various ways to ensure communication is strong with customers and employees. These include ongoing customer surveys and a commitment to world-class service for every customer.

In launching the company, Geiger was guided by the idea that “what we did was as important as what we did for a living.” He told seed investors that he wanted to “work with smart people I liked.” For the last 12 years, he has focused on making the internal culture at Cbeyond driven by character and engaged employees.  

Geiger frequently speaks to employees in person and through videocasts. He hosts employee lunches.  In a company of 2,000 employees, there are only two assistants. Everyone works in cubicles. No one has job titles. When employees achieve their five-year anniversary, they are invited to a party – at Geiger’s home.

“I am dedicated and try really hard to be a good communicator to our employees,” he explains. From the beginning, Cbeyond’s entrepreneurial CEO recalled, “We had a very strong culture but it just wasn’t written anywhere.”

That changed a few years ago, when the company developed Cbeyond’s Character Statements. At the presentation, Cbeyond’s employee ambassadors in the audience took turns reading each character statement:

·                       Care Relentlessly

·                       Act Graciously

·                       Lead Courageously

·                       Learn Continuously

“We don’t place blame,” says Geiger, who also has found that as employees assume positive intent in every interaction, more positive behavior occurs and with it, a better working environment.  “It’s a mindset,” he says. “It’s also okay to say, ‘I don’t know.’”

When hiring people, Geiger assumes that candidates are smart and capable, but what he really wants to know is if they will fit inside the character of the company.  “If you are a jerk I am going to fire you,” says Geiger. That’s why employees go through several interviews before being offered a position. 

“We are trying to desperately understand who you are as a person,” he says.

During the presentation, Geiger quoted Tom Cruise, who once said, “Life feeds work and work feeds life.”  He urges employees to be themselves and to share who they are personally and professionally “because in my world I can’t separate the two.”

As Cbeyond has grown to 2,000 staff, Geiger has focused on developing and training employees to ensure the company has a strong base of leaders in the future given its intent to promote from within. To guide those efforts, Geiger created a leadership model – an eight-point star that encompasses values such as creating vision, achieving results, demonstrating integrity, listening and learning, and empowering and trust.

  

“Do what you are going to say you do” is part of the fabric of the company’s culture.  As evidence of his inclusive style, Geiger invited audience members to shared ideas and feedback to him directly through e-mail.

“I’m happy to learn from you,” he told the group.

A Balloon Bouquet - Letting Go of a Lifetime of Color

This beautiful tribute to the late Cindy Gwynn, who passed away last January after an eight-year battle with breast cancer, was written by her younger sister, Marcia Coatsworth. Marcia graciously allowed me to post it here on The Writing Well. 

I am honored to be connected with Cindy and Marcia and the rest of the Coatsworth's through my husband's family. We have enjoyed many Thanksgivings together at Marcia and Cindy's dad's home. Their mother, Marian, was one of the moms featured in a memoir I penned after losing my mom to lung cancer.  If you ever have lost someone close to you, you will identify with this very personal reflection of a much-beloved and much-missed sister. Thank you, Marcia, for sharing. 

*******

In my mind’s eye there is a sea of helium balloons tied with streams of curly ribbon.   Deep in color, dancing, each taking on a life of its own, collectively named Cindy.

Randomly I pick one out of the bunch, each in turn my favorite color.

Blue, her personal favorite, the color of her eyes.  Her eyes, expressive, knowing and caring.  Ever watchful not to miss a small detail that could make a difference.  A difference perhaps only detected by her and that was what mattered.  Look deeply into the baby blues and you would find a wealth of information carefully stored to be used at the right time.  Eyes that smiled with softness when shown even the slightest gesture of kindness or unsolicited recognition.  A steely grey/blue when unfairness entered her line of sight or aggravated by events beyond her control.

Gosh, I just want to hold on tight to all of the beautiful balloons.  Keep them in my sight to enjoy all by myself.  Yet at the same time what a glorious sight to see all of them take off in a gentle breeze making their way into the limitless sky, representing never ending life.  Set free from the grasp of human life to rejoice in a place without pain, fear, heartache and sin.  A place where each color has its own reward and leaves behind its own memory.  A long life-short lived, serving an awesome God, finding the perfect resting place, well deserved.

Black the darkest of all the balloons, unwelcomed.  The balloon that hangs the lowest because it is so heavy representing Cindy’s darkest thoughts sometimes shared with me.  The regret of leaving her son and the shock of leaving so suddenly looms.  Finding numerous copies of “Gone From My Sight-The Dying Experience” and” My Friend, I Care-The Grief Experience,” both by Barbara Karnes.  In an adjoining envelope countless sayings, poems and thoughts of life and death copied at some time or passed on from someone who knew of her struggle.  The heaviest balloon takes flight the quickest because Cindy’s work and worry here on earth are done.

9/27/11   I wrote the above shortly after Cindy’s passing.  I stopped writing because of the pain it caused me.  I put on my “to do list” to finish “My Balloon Bouquet” when I was ready.  I look back at the grammatical errors hi-lighted in annoying colors and ignore because it is how I speak and write “Mississippianease.”  Look that one up in the dictionary….let me know what you find.  Here is my attempt to finish the arrangement on a beautiful running day that reminds me of her.  As I let the rest of the balloons go, here are my thoughts.  I can’t help but notice the difference in the thoughts.

PICTURE THIS:

Pink -- a tenderness presented at times in a prickly package because that is how she chose to show her emotions.  A softness easier seen on her face rather than in a hug from an older sister to a younger one, knowing, caring and accepting.

Yellow -- the carefree, fleeting times of youth, health, learning and enjoying simple things.  An unburdened time of discovery, growth and anticipation of “what’s next” shared like co-conspirators.  It is a happy color associated with my sister because of the joy she brought to my life.

And then there is Green -- calming, life giving and one of mama’s favorite colors.  The color of money that held less value to Cindy than time on earth with the one she loved.

White -- the color of angels with gold dust on their wings.  Cindy, my angel, forever watching over me.  She still hovers over me while sleeping, running and my daily attempt to get it right.  

Purple -- vibrant, strong, a stand out in any crowd as Cindy was. She didn’t demand respect but received it because of how she lived her life and the friend that she chose to be.

Orange -- somehow an unnoticed contributor to a group, unsung but ever present; wow, that was my sister.  She brightened up a group just by being there, didn’t expect to be noticed but was.

Silver -- as in there is a silver lining.  I have come to believe that in my sister’s death that there is a silver lining.

She stayed with me long enough to kick me in the behind enough to say, “I can do it,” whatever that looks like.  That was her job, you know!  I miss her like crazy but I rest in knowing she is where I hope to be one day.

With that I say goodbye to my old thoughts of colors and look to a renewed colored vision of the future.  “Colors of Life”…a chapter or book….. yet unwritten.

A Day of Remembrance

A view of the Twin Towers nine days before September 11th.
Photo by Anne Wainscott

Like everyone in my generation, I remember exactly where I was when the planes hit the Twin Towers 10 years ago today. I was at home preparing for my work day when my phone rang. It was a good friend who worked at NYU, urging me to turn on CNN. My sister and I watched in disbelief with the rest of the nation as the reality of what was happening in New York, the Pentagon and in the skies above a patch of Pennsylvania farmland came into shocking focus. We learned as a nation that we are vulnerable to attack.

My friend Rebecca and I at the 2001 US Open.

Nine days earlier I was in NYC for the US Open with a good friend from Mississippi. I remember how beautiful the sky was and how much fun it was to be visiting the Big Apple -- a place I had come to know well while living in New Jersey.

On Sept. 2nd, my friends and I took the ferry to New York from New Jersey, and walked through the massive lobby of both the North and South towers to find where to stand in line to go to the top. As a group, we decided it was too beautiful a day to wait in line for two hours. Instead, we headed to Central Park. Who knew that was the last time we'd ever have a chance to see Windows of the World or to glimpse New York City's skyline from the Towers? In retrospect, I am glad I didn't go up as I would have relived the horror of the trapped people in those offices until my dying day.

A lot has happened to our country and to our view of the world in the decade since 9/11. We have seen many more Americans pay the ultimate sacrifice in the fight against terrorism. We have seen the mastermind of 9/11 brought to final justice. At the same time, the events on that Tuesday morning were a wake-up call that we cannot escape from. We will never look at air travel the same way as we did before 9/11. We are more cautious and more watchful. But the essence of our country is intact -- the American spirit -- to live our life -- and to ensure our children can live their lives -- in liberty and freedom.

I pray for everyone who lost a loved one on 9/11 and to those who continue to serve our country, whether as soldiers or as first responders. This is a day for us to pay tribute to those who lost their lives, to be thankful for our communities and our families,  and to renew our sense of unity and commitment to our country. God Bless America!

My DragonCon Wrap-up: A Genre Writer's Dream

I am finally taking a breath after the long Labor Day weekend and work week to share some thoughts from this year’s DragonCon.  For the second year, I braved the crowds of avatars, wookies, Klingons and Death Eaters at one of the country’s largest sci-fi conventions to hear from some of the best genre writers in young adult and fantasy. Here’s just a few of the folks who made an impression this year.

Carrie Fisher

"I was never that great of an actor."

Carrie shared – with self-deprecating wit – what it was really like playing the iconic Princess Leia (“it was cool being the only girl”), being engaged to Dan Akroyd and her at-times strained working relationship with director George Lucas, who she later collaborated with as a co-writer on “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.”

In her bestselling memoir and one-woman show, Wishful Drinking, Fisher said, "George Lucas ruined my life." Her disgust with her Star Wars costumes (including having to wrap her breasts) are well documented, with her least-favorite being the infamous metal bikini in Return of the Jedi. "When I laid down, the metal bikini stayed up, so Boba Fett could see all the way to Florida."

Fisher played off the energy of the standing-room only crowd of fans, who heard her talk candidly about her struggle with bipolar disorder. Many fans thanked her for her openness, sharing that they, too, struggled with the condition.

Sherrilyn Kenyon
“I can’t write when it’s quiet – absolute silence makes me insane.”

So says the Dark-Hunter series author, speaking on a New York Times bestselling author tell all panel, fresh from signing a movie and TV series deal earlier this summer (look out, True Blood fans). The prolific author has made the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list 16 times in the last three years. She told fans during the  panel that she writes about 100 pages a day.   

Kenyon says things were always chaotic growing up as a middle child with eight brothers. That’s not changed now that she has three active sons. She told fans how her 16-year-old son has decided to start writing, telling her, "Mom, writing is hard." Her one guilty pleasure? Helping her boys find ways to kill off their Dungeon and Dragon characters. 

She says making the the New York Times Bestseller List doesn’t change your life overnight. She had to work all types of jobs on her way to literary fame and found herself homeless with an infant even after writing six bestsellers.  

In chatting with the author as she signed my copy of her newest book, Retribution, I asked her about the cable TV deal for her Dark-Hunter Series. No news yet on the lucky network that will take on the book series; however, fans can rest easy knowing that Kenyon will have a say on the adaptation since she will be a producer.

Charlaine Harris

“The most important message is tolerance.”

That’s what the author hopes readers get when they read her Sookie Stackhouse novels, which are the inspiration for HBO’s True Blood series.  She deliberately writes about characters with different sexual orientations for this reason. 

During the True Blood Q and A she said how glad she is that fellow southerner Alan Ball got the job directing True Blood.  “It’s like they took my book and gave it steroids,” she says of the HBO adaptation. 

Later, during the New York Times Bestselling author panel, Harris opened up about her addiction to Facebook (“it’s a terrible use of a writer’s time”) and her daily routine as a writer, saying she writes every day and doesn’t clean her house anymore but still does her family’s laundry.  Her guilty pleasure? Watching Project Runway. 

She takes her writing deadlines seriously (“getting paid is a huge inspiration to me”) and recalls being late once – after her mother died. 

You can access the full video of DragonCon's first True Blood panel here. 

Michael Stackpole

“Think bigger than one story.”

Aaron Alston and Michael Stackpole.

That was Stackpole’s advice to writers during one of the more popular sessions in his hourly Writer Workshop delivered over 14 hours with fellow New York Times bestselling author Aaron Allston. (Stackpole has said in a recent blog post that he and Aaron are returning in 2012 – this is GREAT news to writers who want to further their craft).

The session I attended, “Writing Careers in the Post-paper Era,” gave attendees an update on the growing E-book market for novelists, noting that the battle between traditional and digital publishers is not about sales, but about “control and access to audiences.” Stackpole urged people to write in packages that are friendly to consumers – instead of a 120,000-word novel, think in terms of three smaller 50,000-word novels. Instead of focusing on a single story, think about developing “a property” where you can tell more than one story in that world. “Series sell.  They breed loyalty – we always come back to them,” he says.  I will write more about Stackpole’s presentation in a future blog post.

Aaron Allston

“Die adjective, die!”

Allston – not unlike Ernest Hemingway – sees little value in adjectives or adverbs for serious writers, calling them “insulating layers,” that do anything but give the reader a sense of the experience being described. The phrase used to describe this practice is “purple prose.” He urges writers on their first editing pass to “look at every adjective and adverb and strike most of them out.”  

Allston shared other advice during his workshop session -- from the role of pacing to balancing exposition with dialogue to tell a story memorably. He advises writers to match the length of description to what their character sees. 

He also says that you can fill in descriptive passages later after the first draft is crafted.  “Backfill motivation, description and foreshadowing. Vastly limit adjectives and adverbs. Participles are not good. Use active verbs. Keep it simple. Keep it short. I am for transparency – don’t be too stylized."