Dorrier Underwood

Spend time with anyone from Dorrier Underwood and you're sure to hear the word integrity come up quickly. We believe integrity is  central  to empowered, inspiring leadership and are constantly on the lookout for where it might be missing, whether individually or collectively, so we can true ourselves up. Dorrier Underwood president Doug McVadon recently had the opportunity to talk about it on The Sage Advice podcast with Ed Kless. Listen in for an inspiring 10-minute conversation about the link between integrity and success:

Forwarding the Action means empowering others to succinctly address the matter at hand so the next thing can happen. Fundamentally, forwarding the action often means knowing when to shut up. That is a “big ask” of the average human being! I was going over a Vision document with Gary and Nancy, so they could critique it, add to it, and help me take it to the next draft. When they suggested I take out a part or say it a different way, I reflexively began explaining why I did it that way to begin with. “Well, what I had been thinking was...” “I know, I just thought when I wrote this that...”          I forgot that the purpose of the conversation was not to uncover my motives for writing it the way I did. It was nearly impossible for me to simply shut up about that, and get clear on the new suggestion or addition. How much more useful to ask more about their suggestions than to defend what I had already writ...

Doug McVadon (speaker, R) and Mike Watson speaking on Succession Planning at the American Institute for Architects Young Architects Forum in Charlotte, NC on October 12, 2016. Straight-talk about succession planning and leadership transition was on the docket at the American Institute for Architects (AIA) Young Architects Forum event last week in Charlotte, NC and the room was packed. Associates in their 20s and 30s as well as more tenured firm principals were keen to know: What does it take to be “picked” as a possible owner of a firm? And how do current leaders lead that process well, for the people involved and the long term health of the company? It’s not just a topic relegated to architecture. Healthy organizations across industries and around the world know that succession doesn’t happen accidentally, at least not succession that ensures the strongest future. For two hours, Michael Watson (principal, Watson Tate Savory architecture) and Doug McVadon (p...

We talk  a lot about the definition of integrity, practices for integrity and restoring integrity. One thing became clear for me this week: integrity is nothing more than workability. It doesn’t have to exist in any specialized language. We all know whether something works, or not--a conversation, a meeting, a paragraph--and we all know when, instead, it falls flat, misses the mark, fails to communicate. Fred said he would call me, and we had scheduled the call for 5pm, weeks in advance.  It was in our calendars. I turned down two other requests from people: “Sorry, I have a call right at five.” It was to be an important conversation, so I was trying to get clear in my own mind what I wanted to discuss, what I would listen for in his voice, what I might ask about, or ask to hear more about. What would Nancy and Jane ask me later that I would regret not finding out? My day was organized around this last business appointment, which might take me until 6 pm....

Encouragement, that’s what I get from my dog every morning. Go ahead and get up, I can hardly wait, she says with her tongue. She has a way of licking my chin; cheek and ear that makes me feel devoured but not threatened. And then she usually slips in that deft little bite on the top of my ear, too gentle to properly be called a bite, more of a love nip that she slips in while I am busy doing my combination laugh-cringe-try-to-get-away move. It is an oral assault she mounts against my face, and finally I have to grab her head and push it gently away. Go ahead and get up, it’ll be great , her eager eyes say. The root of encouragement is courage. The courage to face the day. Why do I need that? And from a canine! Not even of my species and she somehow counteracts this dreadful weight of knowledge that wakes me up and makes me discouraged. It takes my courage away just to wake up into a world where cartoonists get assassinated for their political views and I know I am going to die with...

"I think I finally got it, McVadon," he said on his typical early morning call to me during what he calls "windshield time." What's that? "Getting it to come out of THEIR mouths, by shutting mine for long enough!" It had been a long time coming, this moving of Adam's understanding of the concept, which came quickly, into being able to produce the phenomenon in reality. It had sounded simple enough, something like "shut up for longer, don't overwhelm them with your facts and spreadsheets and irrefutable logic, and listen and ask strategic questions based on what you hear." But nothing was simple in the six-person partner group of the newly-merged accounting firm. Each person was easily threatened and vying to show their value, so their strengths frequently showed up in the extreme, and became their weaknesses. In Adam's case, his ability to synthesize a lot of material into a cogent argument supporting a clearly stated propo...

I expect the interruption. I need the interruption. I talk until it comes.  If it doesn’t, I will talk past my point, way past, until the listener is distracted and nervous about interrupting me. And still I talk, thinking it’s THEIR responsibility to speak up and drop that whole polite façade and be direct with me. I don’t take straight talk as offensive, and you would know why if you spent a few hours with my mother.  If you spent time with Mom and me, you would see how unerringly direct she is with me. Put that down! (Not, “please don’t mess with that.”) Douglas, come here and help me with this. (Not, “do you have a minute?”) I know better than to think that that style really works, but I still don't really get it when people complain that I interrupted. I usually think, duh, how else does anyone get to talk? I think of conversations like a game, running through a field, avoiding rocks and stumps, figuring things out along the way, racing to get...

I got goosebumps watching Adam Scott fulfill the hopes of a sporting nation (Australia) by winning the Masters, the world's most prestigious golf tournament, as the rain fell and the light faded across north Georgia this evening. I'm not a golfer, nor do I watch golf tournaments as a matter of course. I'm a student of performance, and a fan of performance art, the art of performing under pressure, in the spotlight, like Bruce or Tiger or P!nk or LeBron or Steven Strasburg. Didn't really know this 32-year old Aussie, but was reminded of his epic failure at last year's British Open, when he let a four-shot lead get away with only four holes to play... he had played hot and cold in this round, but at the end was in the lead going to the 18th hole! But I was really struck by the greatness of his foe, Angel Cabrera of Argentina, touchingly caddied by his son, sharing amazing moments with him. He is a grandfather in his 40's and he was matching this strong tall...