Growing As A Leader

Make no mistake about it: Tim Murch is still active within 4M. He is still working the same 10 to 12 hours a day as CEO as he was when he also had the title of president and he's still running the company's acquisitions, strategies and goals. But all of this doesn't mean Crain isn't taking on more responsibility.

Currently, Crain is still caught up a lot in the day-to-day duties. While he's no longer involved in monthly variance meetings, he does take on his fair share of the busy work. But he's also taking on more leadership duties, too. For example, Crain says he's making an effort to separate himself from the day-to-day so that he can focus on team members and elevate their performance so that they too can work beyond expectations.

Ultimately, Crain hopes to be heavily involved in both client and team engagement. Right now, Crain is spending about 30 percent of his time on this work, and that's fine. However, he hopes that he can get to the point where he is spending 80 percent of his time on this work, especially the client engagement.

Lately, Crain has been more involved with the acquisitions 4M makes, as well as its regional offices. For example, the company recently acquired business in Rhode Island. Not long after the deal was struck, Crain was on site meeting customers and he would remain there for several weeks.

He will also spend three to four days at a time with the company's regional managers and clients. All of this interaction is important and helps team members and customers to be confident in the people leading 4M.

"My personal feeling is that it's huge," says Crain. "It's the success of retention. A lot of companies have account managers that personally don't know their leadership."

Not 4M.