There are few leaders in staffing with a more stellar reputation than Janette Marx.
With 25 years in staffing leadership and ten years at the helm of Airswift, one of the largest and most respected energy staffing companies in the world, Janette has guided both her teams and clients through periods of massive transformation. From industry-shaping mergers to digitizing operations and aligning global teams amidst a life-changing pandemic, there’s no challenge she has confronted that she hasn’t ultimately surmounted.
A beloved leader by all who know her, she’s been named to SIA’s Staffing 100 list five times, has been recognized as one of Houston’s Most Admired CEOs, and is the incoming Chair of the American Staffing Association, among numerous accolades. Indeed, just listing all her awards and achievements could be a blog post of its own, and frankly one that we’d enjoy writing.
But Janette has also made it a priority in life to advance the cause of mentorship and invest in people’s professional and personal growth. She has mentored, been a mentee, and used internal alignment as the means to break records and outperform against organizational stretch goals. It turns out that focusing on seeing the best in people helps bring out their best work too.
In Episode 3 of Ref Around the Edges, “Ref Finery” (all in good pun, we promise), Vinda and Tommy sit down with Janette to talk about:
- Strategic planning: why achieving BHAGs in record time requires good old-fashioned hard work coupled with thoughtful alignment and agility
- The importance of trust: why the highest-performing leadership teams are the ones that enjoy working together
- Whole-person thinking: why looking beyond the surface of a candidate or employee is crucial to maximizing their productivity and engagement, and how mentorship, references, and assessments can help showcase long-term potential
- Embracing uncertainty: why market shifts can be accelerants to growth when you deeply understand your customers
- Leadership for the long term: which types of decisions lead to the most profitable outcomes, and the ethos and calculus behind them
Check it out here!