My personal definition of leadership has really evolved over the past 14 years, during my tenure as CEO. And I think a good starting point is to talk about some of the things that leadership is not. It is not an abstract concept, it is not strictly philosophical, and it is not something that is just reserved for top management. Leadership, to me, is alive, it's real, it's vibrant. And it's personal. In our organization, we view every individual, regardless of where they are in the company, as a leader.

And the reason we do that is because we recognize that every individual has a unique set of experiences that can help our organization grow. And it was based upon that philosophy that we developed our concept of leadership around three pretty simple principles.

The first one is learning, because that is really the essence of organizational growth. The second one is teaching, because every individual in the organization has gifts and talents that they can share, both personally and professionally, to support the growth of the organization. And then finally sharing, because that's what ties together the process of learning and teaching and makes it real.

And what we have found is the more that we're able to do that and the more successful we are, the more we are actually nourishing the ideals inside of the company.

There's an example that I like to use. Our main business is natural gas distribution, which means that we keep people warm in the winter. And if you take an example where it's January and it's cold outside, and you go to turn your heat on and it doesn't go on, and you call the company, who is the last person that you want to see showing up at the door?

That answer is easy: it's me, the CEO, the so called leader of the company. And at that moment the woman or the man who is out representing the company, solving the problem for the customer, that person is the leader of the company.

Because what I have learned is that the power of the organization is really driven by the power of the individual. And the success of any organization is really a function of how well we're able to capture those unique talents, experiences, and gifts for the better of the company as a whole. That, to me, is the essence of leadership.