Killian Hemmy is a former US Marine and FBI Special Agent. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of ATSG Corporation, which he also grew from a “small DC contracting firm to a global corporation,” earning more than $20 million in revenue and employing around 150 employees. His experience in a variety of different fields has given him special insights into “global affairs, business administration, and risk management.” Through his expansive vision, he defines “sustainable growth strategies” to push corporate expansion for multiple years.
Among his many achievements, Killian Hemmy has “increased revenue for ATSG Corporation by over 50% YoY in 2020 and sustained steady growth;” “won $100M contract to launch new business presence in 5 Central American countries;” and “developed comprehensive crisis management plan for InterContinental Hotels.”
As the CEO of ATSG, Killian Hemmy has also grew its revenue by 31% from the previous year, and then improved on that by growing revenue by 52% in the following year. He has done this in his first year as CEO, by the way. He credits this accomplishment to his “leadership in strategic planning, relationship building, resource management, and compliance.”
Killian Hemmy also excels at “building consensus between diverse teams from different backgrounds.” His previous experiences have allowed him to work in different countries on four continents, which has given him the required “flexibility and patience” to cross cultural gaps and transcend preconceptions.
Check out more interviews with multifaceted executives here.
Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Killian Hemmy: Absolutely! I have a bit of a different background than most others working in leadership positions in my industry and across others. I spent nearly 20 years working in the U.S. Government as a Marine Officer and an FBI Special Agent. Although my journey to where I am now isn’t the typical path that most of my contemporaries took, I am extremely grateful for the attributes and qualities I have developed along the way — particularly when it comes to leading people.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?
Killian Hemmy: Over the course of my career (or careers depending on how you look at it!) I have encountered many difficult times. Leading people during times of war is particularly difficult. There are the obvious perils that come to mind but there are also countless intangibles that matter to your people that will absolutely determine whether you succeed or fail in your mission. A few examples — how do you keep the momentum going in the face of adversity and build resilience in your people, your processes, and your organization? During the years that I spent working in hostile and unfavorable places, I learned quite quickly that if you lost momentum when faced with setbacks, obstacles, or failures, the likelihood of succeeding was almost always zero.
This is absolutely as true in business as it was for other parts of my career.
It is your job as a leader to help people understand their own “why” for what they are doing. If people can remember their “why” for what they are doing, no matter how difficult (or mundane) the task, they will be able to get it done. The only way for you, as a leader, to help people understand their why is to practice empathy and engender open communication not just between you and those junior to you but amongst everyone in the organization.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
Killian Hemmy: When I first started at ATSG I made the mistake of holding an all hands meeting where I, and other leadership in the company and in subsidiary companies, made all sorts of prophetic proclamations about what was surely going to happen to our companies in the coming year and the exorbitant growth we expected. Mind you, I did all of this while still being new enough that I wasn’t 100% certain where the nearest bathroom to my office was or how to get to the lunchroom! We work in a very fickle industry where clients can change their needs and contracts can be awarded or modified as often as the wind shifts. Immediately following this meeting and through no fault of our own (client priorities shifted, and the federal government shut down for a long period of time) we experienced a massive contraction in our revenue and staggered for nearly half a year.
The lesson learned is one that I was actually taught when I first went into the military. “Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.” It is always good to have a healthy sense of optimism flowing through your people. However, you need to balance that with an equal dose of planning for disaster. When you plan for disaster you help blunt the pain and are able to respond more deftly and effectively when it does happen.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you please share your “Five Things You Need To Know To Delegate Effectively and Be Completely Satisfied With the Results?” Please share a story or an example for each.
Killian Hemmy: 1) Create defined roles and responsibilities for your leaders:
- This is a lesson that pays dividends when it is put into practice. I currently have five of my employees running our branch offices throughout Central America. They are bestowed with nearly limitless authority and are responsible for the employment and wellbeing of nearly 100 employees amongst all of their offices. Even before the pandemic I was never able to visit the offices as often as I would have liked. However, they have a very clear understanding of what they are supposed to do in terms of employee management, what their obligations are to our clients, and what their limits are before they have to engage corporate. These clear definitions were put in place from the beginning, modified as necessary over time, and reviewed for improvement on an ongoing basis. Without these defined roles and responsibilities managing our branch offices would have been exceedingly difficult during this pandemic.
2) Maintain quarterly counseling and annual performance reviews that accurately reflect efforts:
- This should be a desirable thing for all employees but is a necessity for anyone to whom you delegate. You have to be able to qualify and quantify their work product and their efforts. I’ve had employees in the past whom, for a variety of unacceptable excuses, I did not engage in meaningful reviews of their performance in a timely fashion. When some of them stumbled or failed in meeting their work goals it became a herculean task to get them back on track because we had to go through and review their entire work history to figure out where the wheels came off the track and then fix it. And for those who did not falter, a lack of meaningful feedback was equally damaging to the organization because it prevented us from making their efforts even more impactful to our mission.
3) Engender two-way trust:
- As I stated earlier, the trust factor is absolutely critical in being able to appropriately and effectively delegate. We as people yearn to be trusted and most people want to experience autonomy in their efforts. As leaders, we want to be able to delegate with the confidence that our trust is appropriately placed. Earlier in my career I worked for a manager, not a leader, who would give great lip service to the concept of delegated authority. However, in practice this individual would far too often “parachute” into situations before I had the opportunity to actually do my job and try and “fix” things. Inevitably this would cause issues because our approaches to solutions were different and when two solutions to the same problem were being exercised at the same time it tended to exacerbate the initial problem. The final outcome of this type of management (not leadership) was that I felt as though this individual didn’t trust me despite my exemplary record of performance. When this person made empty statements about trusting me but didn’t back it up with actions that were synonymous it made me doubt and not trust anything ever said in the future.
4) Clearly communicate intentions and desired outcomes:
- One of the things I learned in the military was “commander’s intent.” The commander’s intent is the desired outcome that is communicated to and understood by all members of the team. With a clear commander’s intent, even if your team encounters obstacles, loses communication with one another, or has to act swiftly without the time to seek approval in order to preserve momentum, they will know how to pivot or adjust their actions in order to accomplish the fundamental goal.
5) Take care of your people’s needs and they will take care of your work needs:
- Again — an old adage adapted from military usage but equally appropriate for the business world. Everyone’s life is different, and each person has a unique set of needs. This is especially relevant at this moment in our history. Take the time to figure out what your people need (Flexible work schedule so they can homeschool their kids? Full remote work because they have a high-risk family member?), what they are working for (Health insurance for their family? A steppingstone to a job in management? Extra money to pay for their children’s school?), and what they need to do their job as well as they can possibly do it. Then — make it your job to help them as much as you possibly can to meet those needs. Those efforts will not be unnoticed and their loyalty to you and the mission of your organization will be unparalleled.
Jerome Knyszewski: One of the obstacles to proper delegating is the oft quoted cliche “If you want something done right do it yourself.” Is this saying true? Is it false? Is there a way to reconcile it with the importance of delegating?
Killian Hemmy: I personally do not believe in this saying. Quite paradoxically, I think this saying comes from a place of a deep-seated lack of confidence in one’s own abilities as a leader. If you are an effective leader, or willing to work to become one, you will have confidence that you have: a) picked the right person to do the job, b) trained them in order to succeed at that job, and c) held them accountable for whether or not they succeed in that position. When you have these things in place the job will be done right.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Killian Hemmy: I’m on LinkedIn and on Twitter at @killianhemmy. I am also writing a book entitled “Reflections on Resilience” and have a podcast by the same name coming soon!
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
