019 Melissa Smith

Can you really be a human-focused company these days and still produce significant gains on the bottom line? Melissa Smith of WEX seems to be making it happen. Let's find out more about how she does it today on Walking the Walk.

Welcome to Walking the Walk, the program for people who want to become better leaders and leaders who want to become better people. Start Walking the Walk with your host, renowned leadership speaker and author of The Sensei Leader, Jim Bouchard.

We've been talking with leaders all over the world over the last few episodes. Today we're still talking to a remarkable leader of a global company, but we're also keeping it a little closer to home. Melissa Smith was born and raised in our own state of Maine, where she earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Maine. Melissa started her career at WEX in 1997 as a senior financial analyst, and now she's the CEO. She was the MaineBiz 2012 Woman to Watch, and this year she was inducted into the Junior Achievement Hall of Fame and was named MaineBiz Business Leader of the Year. Melissa is also really active in nonprofit work, and she's the co-founder of the Executive Women's Forum, as well as the co-founder of JAMS, an all-women training club that allows women to train together in a non-competitive spirit. I'm sure we're going to get into that later. In 2017, Melissa was able to report a 23% revenue growth for WEX. Melissa, it's a blessing to have you visit with us here today on Walking the Walk.

It's great to be here, Jim. Thank you.

Oh, the thanks are all mine, please. You know, in the cutthroat world of corporate payment solutions, operations and benefits, WEC seems to be a very human-centric organization, and that's exactly the type of leadership we like to highlight here on Walking the Walk. Now, given your emphasis on programs like paid maternity leave and your management sabbatical, which really piques my interest, there's still a lot of leaders who really don't see the ROI in people-oriented programs like these. So I'd like to start things off by— oh, I'm going to presume that you have a much different take on that. How do you make the two work together?

I think at the most fundamental level, it's the people that deliver the products and interface with our customers there day to day. And while the products we have are really amazing and continue to be built upon, the first thing that I hear from a customer is the connectedness that they have with the employee at WEX. And I really think that that's become a differentiator for us. I think it was always one, but I think we built upon that over time. And it's also what I hear when I talk to employees internally. That same sense of connection that they have for one another. And the part that I think that's really remarkable, 'cause we did start here in Maine, but we're a global company, and I would get that same type of feedback regardless of what product I'm talking about and what part of the world I'm talking to a customer in. And so this part of our culture that makes people feel like they're valued and that we care, I think at the end of the day actually does have a very high return.

You know, that's something that's really interesting too because you do manage across, you know, a wide range of diverse cultures. Of course, there's always the gender differences that we have to be aware of, age differences these days, very important. And it seems like all over the world though, we're hearing more and more that leaders are saying that basically people respond better when they just know that leadership cares about them. Is that what you're finding and is that why you really you know, so focused on some of these programs, which I'd like to hear about more in detail too.

Well, I, I think I have 3 fundamental beliefs and, and that's probably one of them, that people wanna be heard. That's at a human level. They wanna be part of something that's bigger and they wanna make an impact. And if you can corral those 3 things and, and think about the fact that you create an environment where there, there's already a predisposition, I think, for goodness.

Right.

That right environment for that, I think it's really quite magical. And we live in a world now where there isn't as much of a separation between your personal life and your professional life. And I think what we're really trying to focus on is let's recognize that and have more of an integration, meaning create as much flexibility as you can for an employee, recognize the fact that they might be on their cell phone doing work at midnight. And so things like our paternal leave program is a way of making sure that people can really think about their whole life. And our sabbatical program, what I love about that, we tested that this last year, is we've really just gotten to the size of a company that we can do things like that. And you hear the stories of the people who have gone on these sabbaticals. They're doing something that they dreamed about their whole life. And the idea that we can create enough space for someone to do that, and it's not expensive. At the end of the day, it's, you know, you're giving people and select people who have been with the company for a longer period of time a month off. And that's something that we can do. And at the end of the day, they come back more charged up with what they're doing at work. And they have also a different perspective, which I think is really important.

Now, you know what, that's such a refreshing thing to hear because, you know, obviously we do a lot of work with events like that, and it's a challenge that sometimes organizations don't want to commit that time. And, you know, however much time, you know, each organization decides, I mean, that's completely up to them. But what's interesting is that the push and pull these days, right, between the technology that can link us together, especially if your company is spread out across the globe, And there's that temptation to rely on that. And yet we found over and over again, especially in our workshops, that the real value is when people are in the same room, right? And they're able to share a lot more and a lot, on a lot deeper level if they're in the same place at the same time. Are you finding the same thing? Is that part of the value of that?

You know, I actually am surprised how you can do both. That we bring the top 150 people in the company together once a year in beautiful Maine in the summer. And we actually do find that if you, if you drift too long and you don't get that interface, yeah, that it, it just is not great. And so in order to optimize really that sense of connection when we're highly decentralized, that, that bringing together is really important to us. But at the same time, one of the things I do get surprised about is we have teams that are working on highly innovative programs that are spread out in multiple offices. Right, right. It does work, but I think you have to have some of each. If that's all you ever did and you didn't bring people together, I think it wouldn't work, but because we do focus on bringing people together periodically, I think it does work.

I couldn't agree more. I think that, that makes the technological connections, I think, a lot more efficient, a lot more effective.

Yeah, and I think it's also a learned behavior. And yeah, the company that have been doing it longer are more effective than in the parts of the company that are just starting out. So, and it's being conscious of a bunch of different things from simple ways that use technology. So, it's a learning curve.

And of course, that's an integral part. Let's take just a couple of minutes and give the kind of the overview for people who aren't familiar with WEX, 'cause it's, you know, It's a fairly diverse company within the scope that you operate in, isn't it?

Yeah, so we are a fundamental, a corporate payments company, and we process a number of different types of payments. And what we've decided many years ago is to take some deep industry, really biases, because we feel like we can create products that are unique unique by doing that. So we started out in the fleet business and we've added on to that and expanded into online travel or travel more broadly, healthcare, and then employee benefits. And so, you know, the company has 3 real core verticals that we focus on, but we play in pretty much any version of a corporate payment.

Right. And we don't want to get too hung up on technical. We just want to make sure people understand exactly what WEX is. And the size of the company is very interesting because you've had a lot of growth over the last few years, right?

We have, yeah. It was a big milestone for us in 2016 when we hit the billion-dollar mark. And this last year, we hit $1.25 billion. And so we're on a nice growth path.

Now, that's one of the challenges that a lot of leaders that listen to Walking the Walk and that we work with are facing every day. How do you personally, how did you manage that scaling? And yet still preserve all the— because I'm very impressed the more you talk about, again, the human— I don't have a better word for it— that human-centric leadership philosophy that you seem to be carrying forward. When we scale, sometimes people get, you know, find that a little more difficult. Did you find some unique challenges there as you started to grow, or were you really able just to carry your core philosophies through it?

I think you have to be much more intentional the bigger that you get, is that You know, when we were— we had one product and we were based in the United States, we could get every employee together in one room. Right. And when we do something like a manager meeting or an employee meeting, it's being broadcast through to our different offices. And I think at the end of the day, we had to really think about making sure that everyone felt like they were part of something bigger.

Yes, yes, yes.

And that's something we just have had to be more thoughtful about, mostly how we communicate, the frequency of communication, making sure that it's meaningful. And then when I hit a location, doing the similar thing but in person, where you get a chance to have— you talked about that, that real connection point of being live.

Right.

And I don't think there's anything quite like that, but I think that's important. And the second thing to me is that the bigger that we get, the more that we have to focus on speed and simplification so that the company doesn't become bureaucratic and stays fun. That's really important to me because I think—

Isn't it? Yeah.

Well, I mean, if you think about the places you've really liked working in a career, typically it's fun. And so I just think that that's something I don't want to lose as the company gets bigger, that there is that sense of lightness, if you will. People come to work and we can do that many different ways, but some of them is, you know, we'll have a theme at an event and, you know, and we'll go all in on the theme.

That does sound like fun, yeah.

Yeah, and really it's about— there's a piece of it that frankly is a little about entertainment, but also just showing the fact that it doesn't have to always be serious.

Again, that's really refreshing to hear too. I remember I was challenged one time. I was presenting to a group of CEOs. I think the smallest company in the room was somewhere around 5,000. I think the guy who challenged me, he stood up because I said, you know, remember, you lead people. That's the most important thing. We have to preserve these connections. And we know, you know, there's miles of research. People want to feel that connection, particularly that they know they can go to a direct supervisor, right, and have a personal connection there. Well, he said, you know, Jim, it's difficult. I've got 10,000 people. I, you know, I can't get to everybody. I said, well, yep, I concede that point, but can you embed that type of culture, right? So that everyone feels that at least the direct reports and the supervisors have in management, right? They have a direct contact. They have somewhat of a personal relationship. But how do you balance this again, especially as you're scaling? Because I'm very interested in that. How do you, how do you personally manage that balance between not being able to see every single face, uh, you know, every single year, but being able to walk into a room, like you said, go and visit some of the different locations and have people really know who you are?

Well, I think that there's an element about it not just being about me. It's this idea that, you know, my door's open. I get emails all the time from employees across the company, and I'll make sure that I respond back to them.

So you're one of the open door people.

I'm one of the open door people, which, you know, frankly, sometimes that's hard because you can get captive in your office by being—

open door.

But at the end of the day, one of the things that's really important to me is the culture that people have an ability to say what is on their mind. And I can be in a meeting and I'll have someone, you know, a few levels deep in the organization doing the kind of the finger pointing, let me tell you about what I think. Right, right, right. And I'll kind of have to breathe, you know, because it's really what I want. I may not like it at the moment, but it's really what I want.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's what, you know, that's what we talk about here is this, you know, desires to create an environment that people, you know, if you've got something to say, I don't want it to be said in the background. I'd rather actually bring it forward. And I do think that the bigger that we get, the harder it is to get connected with, you know, like the negative aspects, you know, because we're doing really well. But I also want to make sure that we're focusing on the things that we need to improve on. And so that becomes cultural. And also just making sure that as other people hit office locations, that they're connecting to the employees at WEX. Our management team here is fantastic, and they do a really good job of creating that sense of connectedness on their own. And then the last thing I'd say, I'll take some— So one of the things that I think one of the finest parts of the culture of WAX, which has been true in as long as I've been here, we had always had this atmosphere of it's about whoever's the best athlete. And it shows up in our Great Places to Work score around inclusiveness. This idea that it doesn't matter who you are, gender, sexual orientation, you know, race, it is a highly inclusiv culture, and it was our highest score across all of the stats we had. And I think, you know, that inherently is a goodness quality to build on too. And I think that you see that if you were to look at, you know, look at having a female CEO, you know, at the top of the business. And I think that that contributes too.

You know, you hit on a couple of really interesting points there. First of all, that idea that, you know, communication has to flow bottom up and top down. And especially, you know, it's when things are good, you very often hear a lot of good news coming up right from the front lines, but when something isn't going right or something needs to be addressed, that's when sometimes the communication breaks down, but it sounds like you're encouraging that, that you want to hear, for instance, you know, the incidents of sexual harassment that have been coming up, you know, recently, and you hear so many times, "Well, I didn't know." People don't want to bring the bad news up, right? You seem to encourage that a lot. Not that there's much, don't get me wrong.

When you're running a business that's growing, there's always going to be challenges, right? That's just inherently going to be true, and those things change over time. So yeah, I think of it as bad news doesn't age well, and so you get it out.

It's better to face that monster outside the closet, isn't it?

It is. And I think, like I said earlier, it gets harder to do that the bigger that we get. One of the things that I'll do on a periodic basis is do small group meetings within the employee base. And I'll do, you know, like a series of meetings in pretty rapid succession. And I'll talk about, I talk about the strategy of the company, the goals of the company, and what it's going to feel like. When we hit goals. But really, for me, it's about getting feedback from the group. And people are really quite candid. And what I look for are themes. Because you might have a comment from one individual, which is interesting, but it's not indicative of how—

Right.

You know, a theme. And if you find themes in there, that's something that you're digging into and trying to learn more about.

Oh no, I hear you perfectly because oftentimes too, and especially these days, especially where there's acute issues that people often, or leaders often respond, well, it's not that they respond too quickly, but sometimes too intensely, right, to an issue that may be very, very isolated and should be handled on a different scale, no?

Yeah, I think that that's the, well, I think that the thing that you have to be conscious of if you're trying to create an open environment is not to chase too many rabbits down a hole because you can get—

There's lots of rabbits.

Right, right. You can just get overwhelmed with feedback. And so you have to really create some focus around the things that are really going to matter and what's going to make a difference.

You've been talking obviously a lot, and we really enjoy this type of spirit here where you're talking about your service, what you're doing for the people that you serve as a leader. We'd like to pay as much focus to the, you know, to the needs of the leaders themselves. And you've got a pretty interesting, you know, background too. And you have a family and you're the CEO of a fast-growing and very good size and even what's going to even be a bigger company as you go forward. How are you balancing that? How are you balancing the family life and the demands that it takes to run a company that's scaling at this kind of, this type of rate?

I always say that people should ask my husband that question.

That's how you get a more candid answer. Skype him right in, we'll get both sides.

Yeah, so you know that I have 3 children and I have 1-year-old twins and I have a 3-year-old and so our life is busy and it works because we work together in partnership and we're highly supportive of one another. And we have really great support structure with our family and highly involved parents, meaning my mother and his parents. And so it really, you know, they talk about it taking a village. I think with us it's like a village and a half to make it work. Right.

Yeah.

Yeah. But it does. And our kids feel loved and they, you know, and I think there's a benefit of the fact that they are relying just on us, that they have all these other people that are part of their life that at the end of the day I think is making it richer. But it's, you know, it's a busy period in our life.

Those ages especially, right?

Yeah, yeah. We kind of squeaked it in in the end here and we're feeling lucky that we were able to have a family and so we're figuring it out day by day.

You see, that's one of the challenges that this often comes up in workshop where leaders will say, you know, I have to prioritize business. That's understandable. Of course, we all have to do that from time to time. But I keep challenging people to look in the mirror and ask themselves, why are you doing what you're doing? How important is it that you balance, that you're working, even though you're passionate about your work, that you're working to create a life, not necessarily just living to work, which can be a condition if we let that get away from us, right? How important is it to you that you're taking care of yourself and growing as a person as well as a leader?

Well, you need to have energy. And that's part of, you know, when I think about taking care of myself in terms of my obligation in my role, and probably in my obligation at home too, there's an element of that you have to feed yourself in order to make sure that you can actually nurture others. Right, right.

How valuable are you to other people if you're a wreck, right?

Right, right. And I think there's a balance. I said before I've got a busy life, and so everything comes down to how to manage my time. And I think about it as— you use the word balance, and I actually think that balance is one of those things that's rarely perfect at any given week.

No, amen, amen. Too many people look at— this is one of the great gifts of bringing this philosophy out of a martial arts world into a business world is we, as martial artists, we never looked at balance as a static state. You know what I mean? It's a dynamic state and we're always out of balance and trying to come back and then enjoying this moment.

Yeah, and I think that's just the way life is. And so there are times, there are periods of time where, you know, one part is out of balance and another part is out of balance. I used to be a huge runner. You know, I ran marathons and did triathlons and, well, I'm in a phase of my life where I run, but I'm not gonna, not at the same, you know, not in the same intensity that I have had in the past. You know, that's a period of my life. It will pass. And so I guess I think of it as, you know, I'm trying to make sure that each of these parts of their life, and they all are, you know, frankly, they all are intertwined in some way. It's not like there's my work life that's totally separate from my personal life, right, that's my physical life. You know, they all kind of connect, but, um, but I do think that the interconnectedness means you actually do have to pay attention to each of them and you can't focus on just one.

No, that makes a lot of sense. And in your spare time, right, in your spare time, let's see, the Executive Women's Forum and She Jams. I want to hear more about that because we actually, it's It's a really neat intersection. We've been working with several really remarkable women leaders here in the Caribbean and in Africa, of all places. And very interesting, this movement, you know, to support women. It's expanding exponentially, the number of women that are in high-level business positions. So it's really, I think, a really good move for, you know, to create initiatives like that where you can come together because, you know, we can talk, there's a lot of commonality obviously, but there are some issues that are unique to women, right, and that they can get together and support one another that way, or you can, I should say that. I'm just saying because, you know, I'm not a woman. I don't, as far as I know this week, okay. So yeah, tell me more about Executive Women's Forum and SheJams and what, you know, what you're doing there in your spare time, we'll say again.

So one of the things I realized, you know, a number of years ago is that women need networks. And I think the part that makes it different for them is because if you get into an executive environment, you're typically one of a few. And in the Executive Women's Forum, there was a few friends and I started that locally. And really our intent was to find other people that were having common experiences and to normalize those things. And so it really, what we talk about when we get together are, you know, what each person gets up and has a chance to speak to the group periodically if they want. And we rotate speakers off within the group and we're just sharing our own experiences and some of them are personal, some of them are professional. But I think at the at the end of the day, that the opening where everyone goes around and talks about big life changes is a mechanism that levels it. So you might feel like I'm going through something that's huge in my life. But if you can hear someone else talk about something similar, it's kind of a calming experience where you feel like, okay, I'm not the only one.

No, right? It puts it in perspective, doesn't it? And it's hard not to know because we hear a lot of CEOs and business leaders talk about that isolation at the top. And so when you divide it by gender as well, I mean, it makes it even more acute.

Yeah, I just remember the first time that I met with that group and we were all, you know, at that point we all had BlackBerrys, we were running to lunch with a mental list of everything on our mind and our BlackBerrys flying around and you're like, "I found..." You're dating yourself now. And so it's been a really good thing. It's an organic thing, it's a small group and it's great because It's a group of people that have connected over a number of years now. And so it's good. And then She Jams came out of one of my friends started the Tri for a Cure, which is a local-based triathlon that is there to create research money for cancer research.

More stuff you're doing because you didn't have enough to do.

Yeah, well, when I first started, when I first just started getting involved with the Tri for Cure. I was, I was doing triathlons at the time. And when my friend said she wanted to start this thing, actually, that's how I met her. I'm like, that, you know, as a company, we're all in because you're trying to do something that I think is really interesting and different. And over the years, they've raised more than $10 million for cancer research from that one event, which I think is amazing. And then, you know, as a result of that first year of the Tri for Cure, My friend used to send me emails from women who had gone through the triathlon, and they would say things about, I found a part of myself by getting back into the game, by doing something I didn't think I could do. I felt self-confidence. And what we decided at the end of that first year is that we were going to start this club, and the club was intended for anyone. It didn't matter your physical condition, your age. What your body looked like. It was really a way for people to come together and support each other about being healthy.

Oh yeah, yeah.

And it's, it's been another thing that's just amazing. And the thing that always surprises me about it is you've got women in their 20s and women in their 60s, and, and the, you know, they learn from each other. And you've got super athletes and you've got people who are coming off a couch and that are just learning how to start to run again. And so it's addition, you know, these things for me are really about building community and it's creating a network for women so that they have a support structure either in their professional lives or in their health life, which I care about as well. And so they've been going for a while. And frankly, I would, when they first started many years ago, I was highly involved, you know, as time has gone on, I've, I've less involved and more supportive and cheering them on in the sidelines.

Well, I'll tell you, I would love to connect you with some of the other groups that we've met. I think there's a lot of intersections and just a lot of power, and you keep hitting the keyword networking, right? Expanding that, getting good minds together. I mean, that's what it's all about.

Yeah, most people want to be, like, feel like they're part of something, you know, and that's what I like about the groups is they, and then you make friends that you would never have made, and And they last in years and years and years.

Oh no, absolutely. And there's where we circle back to the value of technology, that we can do this. We can expand networks all over the world with people that— one of the big thrills in my life is always when we meet somebody who we've connected with on LinkedIn or one of these other platforms, right? And we've had a relationship, a genuine relationship for a few years, and then all of a sudden it seems you get to meet somebody face to face, and that's always such a thrill.

Yeah, well, it is, it's a gift. I mean, I think that a lot of the technology we have now does change the way that we live and work. And I feel like that's—

It sounds to me like you've got, and I'm making a bit of a presumption, but you want to leave the world a nicer place for your children. Is that a fair thing to say?

Yeah, I want to leave the world a nicer place. Having it for my children is probably the explanation point on the end, but I felt like that before I had children.

Excellent. But how— I'm asking a very personal question. What would you like your children to do when they, you know, reach an age where they can make these decisions? How would you like— what legacy from you personally would you like them to carry forward as leaders? If you would like them to be, although we can, we can argue that philosophically, right?

Yeah. I, well, I want them to be happy, you know, that's it. But at the end of the day, what I would, I want them to take risks in life. I think that's really important that you, that you're willing to put yourself out there, that you're willing to take some risks. You're willing to, you know, be willing to fail, brush yourself off, move back up again. And, and so I, I care a lot that they try new things, that they get exposed to all kinds of different environments and that they learn to, you know, to conquer their fear because everyone's scared. But I want them to do things that make them scared, and not in the physical sense, but more in the, I guess, more in the emotional sense.

Yeah, what growth is there without that, right?

Yeah, well, I think that they, for me, that the things that have scared me the most have generally been the best things I've done in my life.

That was going to be one of my wrap-up questions. I don't pre-program too many questions because I just like to, you know, have a nice conversation. But so, so what are these things that you're, you're most afraid of, and how are they going to help you grow in the, in the next, uh, to the next level that you want to take it to? Because I'm sure you're not satisfied at any status quo position, right?

Yeah, I always get, you know, it's funny, I probably get scared about that, about, um, staying static, getting so busy that you forget to evolve. Um, it— I, I'm one of the people in life who like change, and I want to make sure that that continues to be a theme in my life. And so I, I get nervous around the idea that it— that I get complacent. And so, um, so that's something that I think a lot about, is how to make sure that I continue to evolve as a, as a human being, because I think that's an important example to everybody. Um, I, I worry about time, you know, the things that my fear in life is that the, the people in my life, um, I want to make sure the people who matter know that they matter. And that's something that I worry about, but making sure that there's enough time that that's, that that's true with some level of consistency because I, you know, I travel a lot, so I kind of tend to move in and out of people's lives.

Well, I'll tell you, I trust my guts with people a lot of the time, and I don't think, for what it's worth, in my opinion, I don't think complacency is really going to be a problem for you.

I was just talking to a friend of mine who was teasing me about something to that effect, but thank you. There you go.

And I am somewhat of an expert in that area, at least combating it, so I think that you can take that to the bank. Well, Melissa, Thank you so much. I could talk to you all day. I hope we can call on you once in a while to share your ideas and thoughts with us.

Yeah, that sounds great. Thanks, Jim.

Wonderful. And it's nice to talk to a neighbor, for God's sake.

How amazing is it that we get to live in this beautiful place?

Yeah, well, not so much today. We were just talking to some places where the sun was out and the temperature was warm. But that's okay. Would you like to share any information about how people can get in touch with the Women's Executive Forum or SheJams? Is that something that's open or would—

SheJams is open. There's a website.

Okay.

Go to shejams.com. And the Women's Executive Forum is, then they would connect to me. And that is something that there's a committee of people that talk about who should be invited based on, you know, some criteria, loose criteria I'd say that we have.

Excellent. So just connect with Melissa Smith at WEX if you're interested in learning more about that. That's fair to say?

Yes.

Okay. Well, thanks again. Thanks so much for your time and hope we have you back again.

Great. Thank you so much. Goodbye.

Thanks for listening to Walking the Walk. Please share this episode. We encourage you to download and share the program with both experienced and aspiring leaders in your network. We also encourage you to suggest guests for future episodes. Complete information at walkingthewalkpodcast.com. Jim Bouchard is in high demand presenting keynotes and workshops for conference, corporate, and community audiences all over the world. To book Jim for your next event, meeting, or retreat, visit thatblackbeltguy.com. Or call Alexandra Armstrong at 207-751-4317.