Certainly Embrace Home Loans' growth through its history has been significant. But maybe more impressive than the growth has been our impact.
Embrace has been recognized 18 times as a Best Place To Work – the last 11 consecutive years by Providence Business News and seven times by Fortune magazine. And therein has been my greatest lesson learned – "Our profession is what we do, but not who we are."
We built a company based on a set of values. Some of these values speak to how we treat others, how we invest in others, how we care for others. What I am most proud of is that we have had the discipline to uphold those – despite successes and setbacks – over the years.
We have great opportunity to affect not only our employees' economics, but also their experiences … and those experiences impact them more than just professionally.
It's a great privilege to lead others, and our values call for us to be good stewards of that responsibility. Engaged employees develop competency, confidence, creativity, character – all life skills they take with them beyond the job. And that has been another lesson for me – "Leadership is not a position, but a purpose."
Our passion is to prove that "a strategy that is good for people, is good for business" – not because of mandate, but because of mission – and if that's the story told of Embrace, then that's what I will be most proud of. •