J. Patrick “Pat” Gallagher Jr., doesn’t like meatballs. But he’s not talking about pasta-complementing Italian cuisine. He’s referring to some quirky advice his father, John P. Gallagher, used for hiring at the family-owned Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.: Avoid “magnetic meatballism.”
“He said, ‘Every meatball has a magnetic force, and they tend to attract another meatball — who then has doubled the magnetic force — who tends to attract more meatballs,’” says the third-generation Gallagher, now serving as chairman, president and CEO. “‘If you’re not careful, before you know it, you’re surrounded with meatballs.’”
Most leaders know how important it is to bring in employees who fit with the company, but it’s especially important in a business like insurance brokerage and risk consulting where people are the business — or where, as the old adage goes, the inventory rides down the elevator every night.
Because he depends on employees, the way they act is crucial. What good is filling the bus with the right people if you don’t build a culture to keep the bus grounded?
“Culture is not like a policy,” he says. “You can’t read it, you can’t touch it, can’t see it. But you can feel it, and it is the reason that people are joining the organizations they’re in — that undefined or untouchable thing that is the quality that attracts people.”
Gallagher’s culture has been successful in finding almost 10,000 employees who fit the mission of the $1.7 billion company.
“If you’re setting out on a journey with a destiny in mind, if you don’t have the right tools and you don’t have the right people, you’re not going to get there,” he says. “People make the difference, and so everything starts from the perspective of ‘Do you have the people on your team that can, in fact, carry out the mission?’”
Here’s how Gallagher gets the right people on his team to drive his company forward.