324.5 The Afterpod | Mark Buthman, CFO emeritus, Kimberly Clark

How do you make a great hire?

Buthman: You know, I had somebody ask me what my leadership philosophy was at one time, and it boils down to working hard and being nice. And so, I have a sign in my office that says, "Work Hard and Be Nice." And it doesn't mean, necessarily, hours in the day. But I think the two elements are, you got to put forward your very best effort, your very best business performance, no matter what projects you're faced with. And it means your best effort in developing yourself and trying to improve the impact that you have on an organization in the people around you. So that's when I say "work hard" I mean bringing your very best effort and being nice is about doing the right thing.  I have many examples of that it's easy when you're accelerating someone's career through an organization, but you can be nice and tell someone that they no longer have a role to play in your organization. And bring in a perspective that you're doing things that is in the organization's best interest and always coming at things with a genuine desire to make an organization or to make people better and to bring out their best. I think the combination of those two things are things that I've always tried to live by and try to live up to over my career.