Leading by Example

Here on The Interview Room, we focus on practical advice for job seekers and hiring managers. In most cases, that advice involves thinking about the process and decisions ahead. However, in this season of reflections and resolutions, I’ve been thinking about my own career path – a path I wouldn’t have walked had it not been for the support and encouragement of our founder and CEO, Ted Chaloner.

If you’ve worked in communications for any length of time, you probably know Ted by reputation, for his work with Chaloner in Boston, and now in New York. Over the past 35 years, he has offered advice and provided top-level service to hundreds of client companies. He’s reached out to jobseekers, and taken the time to counsel college students through his work at Emerson College.

Of course, Ted shares with his staff his knowledge of the placement industry, but more than that, he inspires us daily with his thoughtfulness and creativity. Just last week he surprised Bobbie Carlton, Founder of Mass Innovation Nights with a gift he’d organized – a t-shirt blanket! Ted spent months soliciting t-shirts from the companies who have presented at Mass Inno over the past four years, and he worked with one of those companies, Project Repat, to create a one-of-a-kind thank-you from the community. (By all accounts, Bobbie, a PR professional, was speechless!)

Doing good comes naturally to Ted, and he’s made volunteering and philanthropy an important part of our company philosophy. Many years ago, he formed a small nonprofit organization, The Good Ideas Fund, which works in local communities to support good ideas by individuals. He was active on the board of Drop in & Decorate: Cookies for Donation, organizing cookie decorating events in Boston pairing Chaloner and the Boston Ballet, to benefit a local domestic violence shelter.  Ted remains involved with his alma mater, Grace Church School in New York City, where his granddaughters now attend school.

I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for Ted’s willingness to listen with an unbiased and open ear, along with his thoughtful and never demanding advice.  All of us at Chaloner appreciate the large and small things he does for us, whether hosting soup lunches on Mondays, supporting our crazy redecorating schemes, welcoming our canine friends in the office, or giving us advice that lasts a lifetime.

I don’t say it often enough, so I hope you’ll forgive me taking a page in The Interview Room to say it today:

Thank you, Ted.

Chaloner

Chaloner, founded in 1979 as Chaloner Associates, is a national executive search firm that focuses on recruiting mid- to senior-level communications, public relations, marketing and investor relations professionals.