Bob Wells - Sherwin-Williams
Thirlby Co. Leader to Learn From: February 2024
February 14, 2024
In 2019, Bob retired from Sherwin-Williams after 22 years of service to the company. As the senior vice president of corporate communications and public affairs, Bob provided strategic direction and daily oversight for three corporate functions, including investor relations, government relations, and media relations.
During his time at Sherwin-Williams, Bob was able to observe what contributed and detracted from talent retention and high performing businesses. “The goal of any high-performance organization is to hire good people and keep them,” Bob explained. “The reason I stayed at Sherwin-Williams as long as I did is because it is a truly enlightened organization. It is a world class company from the standpoint of how they treat their employees and how they engage and challenge them.”
Outside of his work, Bob has given selflessly to countless community organizations, serving on the boards of Rebuilding Together, Akron Children’s Hospital and MetroHealth Foundation, and Boy Scouts of America. “Over time, you’ll get a lot more satisfaction from helping others than helping yourself,” Bob shared. “It’s the others you help to lift up along the way that will give you real gratification.”
Read on to learn about Bob’s journey into investor relations, the importance of empathy, and what he calls the “Seven Deadly Sins” of low-functioning organizations.
OUR INTERVIEW WITH BOB
The bulk of your career has been in the communications field - what inspired you to pursue that path?
I I started my career selling clothing in a local men’s store. I realized early on that good marketing and salesmanship is mostly good communication - providing all the information customers need to make sound purchase decisions, then positively reinforcing their decision after the sale. After about four years in retail, I enrolled in MBA school with a marketing track. My faculty advisor was a finance professor who convinced me to add finance as a second track - I’m so glad I did. Little did I know at the time how important finance would be to my career well down the road.
After graduate school, I naturally migrated towards marketing and communications, working for RCA Consumer Electronics as a product and sales trainer, then Michelin Tire Corporation as a Manager of Marketing Communications for Michelin Passenger and Light Truck Tires Group. The first 17 years of my career consisted mostly of marketing communications roles. I joined Sherwin-Williams in 1998 as Vice President of Marketing Communications, then in 2002 transitioned to corporate communications, which included investor relations, government relations and media relations. These three “relations” fields require pretty unique skill sets, and I have to credit my supervisor–Sherwin-Williams’ CEO at the time–who recognized those capabilities in me long before I saw them in myself.
Investor relations was the discipline I enjoyed the most, and I leaned heavily on my finance education. My predecessor told me that what he loved most about the IR role was working with really smart people every day. That is a huge understatement.
You were at Sherwin-Williams for 22 years. What do you attribute to your long tenure there?
Not getting fired [laughs]. The honest answer is that it’s a two-way street. The goal of any high-performance organization is to hire good people and keep them. Hiring good people is a challenge because recognizing talent isn’t always easy. Retaining talent is even harder. As a good employee builds a track record and reputation, there’s a lot of competition for those people.
The reason I stayed at Sherwin-Williams as long as I did is because it is a truly enlightened organization. It is a world class company from the standpoint of how they treat their employees and how they engage and challenge them. Also, they get spouses involved. My wife, Kim, knows the entire management team and their spouses.
Throughout your career, you had countless opportunities to learn about leadership and successful businesses. I’d love to hear what your biggest insights were.
At one point, I actually began recording my observations on leadership taken from my interactions with various companies, and I compiled what I call the “Seven Deadly Sins” - traits common to many low-functioning organizations. They include poor communication, low employee engagement, high stress, lack of collaboration, inconsistent or nonexistent recognition, the empathy void, and the organizational orphanage - the latter being a lack of employee connection to the organization due to a lack of both formal and informal mentoring.
Of the seven, the one I’ve seen most often is poor communication. Team members need to know and understand the overall mission of the organization and how their role contributes to that mission. Those who feel they are being kept in the dark struggle to find purpose in their work, which leads to low job satisfaction and low commitment. Many organizations do a poor job communicating because they operate on what they perceive to be a “need to know” basis. In my experience, it’s better to err on the side of too much information rather than not enough.
Earlier this year, you shared with me about your retirement, and navigating mixed emotions surrounding the transition. What has been the hardest part for you?
It’s cliche to say I miss the people, but that absolutely is number one. I recently attended a retirement luncheon for Sherwin-Williams’ CEO who worked for the company for 40 years. There must have been 120 people in attendance from across the country, most of whom I hadn’t seen in four years. It was wonderful to see them but it was also melancholy - I realized that many of them I will likely never see again.
I also miss Wall Street, as odd as that may sound. I made a lot of friends in my 18 years working with the investment community. The popular stereotype of Wall Street investors being greedy, devious and cutthroat couldn't be further from the truth. The vast majority of the people I worked with were ethical, intelligent and compassionate people. The TV series “Billions” is good entertainment, but about as realistic as The Walking Dead.
What I don’t miss is the travel. I retired in 2019 at 62, and in 2018 I traveled about 40 weeks.
Switching to our seven leadership questions, how would you define confidence?
Walking into a crowded room and seeking out the people you don’t know. There is a natural human tendency to believe that other people are skeptical of you, but it’s usually not true. Typically, 90 percent of the people in that crowded room will spend most of their time mingling in small groups of people they already know, but it’s the 10 percent you watch going from group to group who are really expanding their networks. Just the practice of introducing yourself to people you don’t know can make a strong positive impression.
There’s an old saying: “One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” If you are uncomfortable networking, know that the ‘new lands’ you’ll discover in the process are worth the risk. The rewards are high, even if it makes you uncomfortable.
What is your mission or purpose in life?
To be completely honest, it has evolved over time. Like many people, my purpose was very work focused at the start of my career, then when Kim and I started a family, it was to be the world’s best dad–and so on. Today I’m focused on helping others. I realized that I have been blessed and put in a position where I have the ability to make a difference in a lot of people’s lives. In recent years I’ve had this feeling that there is something more that I need to be doing to help others. Thus far, retirement has been about exploring that feeling.
What is your greatest superpower as a leader?
Communication. The ability to translate complex information and concepts into simple terms, often with the use of analogy and metaphor, to help people not only understand my message, but embrace its meaning. Maybe I should have said “persuasion.”
What do you think is the most important skill a leader must have to successfully manage people?
Empathy. It’s fundamental to the character of all great leaders, and not something you can just do when the cameras are rolling.
What is something that might surprise people about you?
I have introverted tendencies. I am not an introvert with people I know well. But in a crowd of strangers it takes a lot of effort to work the room.
What advice would you have for someone who is struggling or feeling stuck right now in their life or career?
As basic as this sounds, make a change. Change something. Freud defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. The only way to actually get a different outcome is to make a change in your life. It doesn't necessarily mean you need to change jobs - in fact, that’s often not the problem. More often the type of change required is a change in your relationship with your supervisor or work colleagues, or the way you approach your work, or what you do outside of work. The good news is that the feeling of progress–of getting out of the rut–is usually instantaneous.
What is one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?
I think it would be, don’t settle. Think bigger at the outset. Set your sights higher and don’t lower them. It’s okay to establish mile markers along the way, but keep the finish line well out ahead.
Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Over time, you’ll get a lot more satisfaction from helping others than helping yourself. For people who are driven to accomplish big things, it’s natural to focus on one’s own progress, often to the exclusion of others. But it’s the others you help to lift up along the way that will give you real gratification.
Our recently-retired CEO, John Morikis, would always say: “There are 60 thousand Sherwin-Williams families who rely on decisions I make,” and that really stuck with me. As leaders, we have a responsibility to consider how our decisions will affect others–our customers, our employees and their families and the communities in which we live and work.
About Bob
In 1998, Bob Wells joined Sherwin-Williams as the Vice President, Marketing Communications. In June 2002, he was appointed Vice President, Corporate Planning and Communications. In July 2005, he was appointed to Vice President; and in February 2009, he was appointed Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs. In this capacity, Bob oversaw the Company’s investor relations, media relations and government affairs functions. Bob was ranked among Institutional Investor Magazine’s All-America Executive Team: Best IR Professionals five years. IR Magazine recognized Sherwin-Williams Investor Relations team as Best in the Materials Sector in 2015, 2016 and 2018, and among its Global Top 50 in 2016. After an illustrious 22 year career with Sherwin-Williams, Bob retired in 2019.
Bob holds a BA in Political Science and English from Iowa Wesleyan College, and an MBA from Indiana University. He has lectured on marketing and brand management at Indiana University, The University of Wisconsin and Grand Valley State University in Michigan. He serves on the Board of Directors of Akron Children’s Hospital and MetroHealth Foundation in the greater Cleveland area. He is a member of the National Public Affairs Steering Committee (NPASC) of the National Association of Manufacturers. Bob previously served on the Board of Directors of Rebuilding Together and is past president of the Greater Cleveland Council of Boy Scouts of America and serves on its National Council.
About This Feature
Leaders to Learn From is a standing feature in The Thirlby Company’s monthly newsletter that recognizes outstanding leaders in our community who demonstrate our company’s core values. You can learn about our other honorees here, or subscribe to our newsletter to receive this feature and more inspiring content in the future.
