Leading with purpose

Generation of family ownership:

Fifth. I started in my family's firm, McKissack & McKissack, at age 12 in 1973. In 1991, while still working for our family firm, I incorporated the McKissack Group in New York City. In 2000 I acquired the family company, then named McKissack & McKissack Architects and Engineers Inc., as sole owner, and soon after closed the Nashville, Tenn., and Alabama offices. That move made me fifth-generation owner.

Company revenues:

$45 million.

Number of employees:

142.

First job at this company:

Learning how to draft with a Leroy lettering kit, a tool for copying or drawing a plan, such as an architectural drawing. It was a way to learn the business.

Most memorable thing I learned from my father:

Make sure you foster relationships because they are an opportunity to reach the next level of growth. Opportunities come through other people.

Most memorable thing I learned from my mother:

My mother, Leatrice McKissack, stepped in as CEO after my father suffered a massive stroke. I was working at my second job after college, as an estimator at Turner Construction, when she called my boss and said I would be leaving that day. Then she called me and said the same thing. She needed help, so I became director of business development and started commuting from New York to Nashville.

She was excellent at business development. She taught me how to get over the fear of talking to strangers when trying to sell people on the company. Her key advice to me was, “Wear business issues and problems like a loose garment so that it does not get to you spiritually.”

Best thing about this job:

Meeting people.

One of our greatest successes:

Building the School of Science, Health and Technology, and also the School of Business/Student Support Services Building at Medgar Evers College.

A quote from our mission statement:

Building to bring change.

Best advice I ever got:

Revenue kills and profit thrills.

On my desk:

A plaque with the words, “Nothing's impossible with God.”

One of my greatest accomplishments:

I'm buying the one remaining building built by African Americans (my grandfather and his brother) in Nashville in 1924, the Morris Memorial Building. The building also held McKissack & McKissack offices.

We trace the beginning of the business to a former slave on my father's side who took his slave owner's name, McKissack. His son became a master carpenter, and his grandson, my grandfather, formalized the construction firm name in 1905.

Advice for other family business leaders:

We all need to understand the value of having a family business and make sure that when it's on your watch, you are building it and protecting it and being innovative. You want to make it the best it can be because there is a blessing in being able to pass it on to the next generation.

On a day off…

I golf.

Philanthropic causes our family supports:

The ACE Mentor Program, a not-for-profit organization that helps prepare high school students for careers in design and construction; and mental illness, such as the Northside Center in Harlem for pre-K children and families. I also tithe to my church, Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Book I think every family business leader should read:


The One Thing

by Gary Keller, about how to prioritize.

I realized I had emerged from the previous generation's shadow when …

I gave my first speech to a group of engineers at Epcot Center in Orlando in 1986.

Succession plans:

I'm working on one daughter in her late 20s. She started in the business recently, and I'm hoping to get her more entrenched.

Words I live by

: There's a phrase I say to myself before giving a speech: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable unto you.”

— As told to Patricia Olsen