If you would like Mr. Gruppo to speak at your next event, send in a request via email.
In January 2019, I had the opportunity to talk with Anthony Gruppo and when I did, I discovered a man who is unique and has a lot to teach the world about what it means to be a leader. In February, we started on a ten-month journey to construct a book to help others learn the lessons he learned throughout his career. As we peeled back the layers of his story, I got to know a man whom I respect and admire. But, is he the man in his stories or is there a disconnect between who he thinks he is, and the man others know?
Too often people tell one story about who they are and behave in a contradictory way because they construct a personal brand based on whom they want to be instead of who they are. In the wake of publishing his latest book, Pushers of the Possible, I decided to find out if Anthony C. Gruppo Sr’s personal brand matches the man he says he is. Let’s find out.
Humble Beginnings
He started life in a little backwater town in Pennsylvania, the son of blue-collar workers who gave him and his sister a wonderful life. His loving parents instilled a hard-work ethic into him through example and expectations, which has served him well throughout his career.
During our chats, he was quick to give others the credit or remind me, he is far from perfect with many flaws to overcome. In an interview with Paul Lucas of Insurance Business Magazine, Anthony described himself as, “a small-town person from a working-class family,” noting, “I am not impressed by myself – I am impressed by humanity.” Is this a true statement? I went to the internet to find out.
When I look at his LinkedIn activity, he is always congratulating others on their successes and praising them as talented leaders, regardless of their position within a company. His posts are not - look at how wonderful I am – posts. They are stories about his visits to the many Marsh Commercial’s branches to get to know the people he leads.
His posts celebrate other’s talents and give back to the community by engaging with it, both virtually and in the real world. He thanks people for the work they do and for spending time with him. All his posts are similar to this recent LinkedIn post, “Being with colleagues in Witham is a great way to end the week. A Talented group asking challenging informed and thoughtful questions. Well done and thank you for spending time with me.” His posts tell a story about a CEO who stands in the midst of the people he works with and applauds their successes, not his own.
When he arrived in London to take the helm, a young woman at Marsh Commercial, Jody Oxford, asked if she could shadow him for two days and write about the experience - “There is no ego, nor selfish motivation – at the core of every decision is the individual’s affected and the effect on our business. How will it affect them? What can I do to make it easier? Can I do it differently to create less impact?”
Her article describes him as a man who cares and is committed to helping the people he leads by being open to their opinions, ideas, and suggestions. It also tells the story about how he works harder than most, “He was ready to recharge and refocus, but having undertaken five town halls in less than 48 hours, and travelling over 300 miles, it was intense. Still, Anthony was able to give his all to every meeting, every call, every query without hesitation or lack of focus.”
He does not stop working, he gets up early works through his routine, goes to the office and works all day, then in the evening, he goes to events to make connections for the good of the company. He never stops. He would call me at a late hour, in NY or London, and I could hear the fatigue in his voice, however, he still moved forward to do what he needed to do to get the book done.
Considering his responsibilities, restructuring a large organization, visiting all 63 branches, writing a book, and being there for his friends and family, I do not think he sleeps.
While working on the project, I noticed he stays focused on what he needs to do at the time. He responded to messages and texts from me after his work day, when he had a moment to answer my questions. If he was with his family, he would get back to me afterwards, to focus on his family time. When we talked, he focused on the project with purpose, rarely straying from the task at hand, and only took a call if it was urgent.
Motivational Leader
Anthony tweets motivational and deep thoughts, which are insightful, and his followers engage with regularly. When I read his Tweets, I learn even in his struggles and disappointments, he finds the inspirational lessons to share with the world. However, does he actually keep a positive attitude no matter what?
I never heard him complain, even when the workload of writing the book added hours to his weekly responsibilities, which are already beyond most people’s weekly demands. He might have complained to a trusted friend, but not to me and not online. He ensured I felt secure in my role in the project, even when I made mistakes. He never pointed a finger, blamed me, or made me feel I was not good enough to continue with the project. He did what needed to be done and kept moving forward with me in tow.
When I look at his social media posts, they are always upbeat, always positive, always motivational. There is never a time of doubt, pain, or a pessimistic outlook. He does not post about negative or controversial topics. He chooses to focus only on positive and insightful messages.
I searched the internet to see what others said about his positive outlook and found many people agree, he is inspirational, motivational, and upbeat.
Nikoleta Facey posted after her experience at Bristol life luncheon where Anthony was the keynote speaker, “It was an insight into his unique leadership and stimulating thoughts on how we should challenge ourselves delivered with great energy and enthusiasm.” Tom Webster mentioned, “Anthony Gruppo talked about Marsh Commercial and his approach to leadership, really inspirational stuff.” Jody Oxford, in her article, wrote, “Motivation is one of Anthony’s greatest strengths. He has the ability to bring out the best in people and help them to believe in themselves.” Chris Lay, CEO of Marsh UK & Ireland, said in a press release picked up by many insurance publications, “With his strong track record of delivering value to clients in our fast-growing US-based MMA business, I am excited to welcome Anthony to lead our UK commercial and consumer team. His experience and dynamism will help us strengthen and enhance our offering throughout the Jelf network,” (Jelf is now Marsh Commercial). The story I found online about Anthony describes him as a motivational, inspirational, and energetic leader.
Professional
Anthony’s personal brand is 100% professional. Except for one special piece of content when his granddaughter was a co-host for an episode of his podcast, the Roots of Leadership, there is not one post about his family or personal friendships. There is very little about his personal life online, in fact, I couldn’t find anything. All of his posts are about work, leadership, and motivation.
While working on his book, I learned he has been married for over three decades, he has two adult children, and two granddaughters. Beyond this, he kept his private life, private, and remained professional at all times. The stories he shared were about his career, servant leadership, his philosophy about becoming better, and to keep pushing ourselves to do greater things.
Even his digital image is professional, I could only find one casual photo of him online. All his posted photos are work-related with him posed, dressed to the nines in a suit with shined shoes, and a smile. His comments are well thought out and all his content is business-related, be it a blog post, his podcast, a tweet, or a Linkedin post. His personal brand is well crafted and he does not stray from it.
This does not mean there isn’t personality, the man exudes personality. He has a positive energy, a light-heartedness, and a composed image. The man I got to know during the project and the one I see online are very similar.
Servant Leadership
As a CEO and leader, he has a lot of people looking to him for direction, advice, and help. It’s part of the job, however, Anthony goes beyond most CEOs. He seeks out those he can assist. As he told Paul Lucas of Insurance Business Magazine, “I don’t manage from a spreadsheet in London, looking at financials and making a decision. I sit with people doing a job. That’s when you find out about organisational procedures. I want us to be more functional – when you listen to people and you fix that, then they really want to help you too. Now there is a groundswell of people across the country offering ideas – after one town hall I had 92 ideas submitted to me.” I know he is busy, but never too busy to be there for others when they need his help because he cares about the people he leads.
His dedication to being a servant leader is not lip service, as Jody Oxford discovered when she shadowed him and wrote about it on LinkedIn, “He isn’t afraid to push boundaries and challenge methodology and importantly, gives credit to those that deserve it. He is not here to solve every problem but to empower others to seek solutions and enhance their own personal development.” This behaviour is exemplified on both LinkedIn and Twitter in his posts and those posts he engages with.
Like a true servant leader, his ego does not come before those whom he serves.
He is cognisant of how everything he does reflects on his personal brand and is careful with the choices he makes personally and professionally, to ensure he protects the image he has crafted. Unlike most, who have a purposefully crafted brand, there is no disconnect between his behaviour and the story he tells about himself. He truly wants to do better every day and works hard to improve himself and support those around him.
Being a CEO is a tougher job than I imagined. Decisions are not made lightly, carelessly, or without a heavy heart wishing there was a different way. It isn’t easy being him, even though he makes it look effortless at times. I know the difficult decisions he is required to make weigh heavy on him because he cares and has a heightened sense of responsibility to those whom he leads.
From the other side of the world, I watched him, and others, tell his story and discovered an extremely capable man. Surprisingly, in his latest book, he admits he has confidence cracks and will turn to those whom he trusts to bandage him up and help him get back into the game. It is hard for me to believe a man so accomplished, intelligent, and self-assured has confidence cracks. It is easy to assume he has all the answers to life because of his confidence, his experience, and his values.
He constantly asks others for their opinions and listens to their thoughts to gather the data he needs to make decisions. He does not speak without knowing all the facts and looks at problems from different points of view to find the best course of action. He can be an effective leader because he believes in others to help him succeed and does not believe he is a one-man show.
I am fortunate he believed in me and my ability to help him with his book, Pushers of the Possible.
As happy as I am to see the book on my shelf, with my logo on the spine, I am sad this project is over. He made a big impression on me, helped me to believe in myself, and gave my business a new direction. The APeeling magazine would not exist if it was not for him, because I came up with the idea of the magazine to promote our project and give back to him by promoting his personal brand to the marketplace. Now, I am able to provide MarketAPeel clients with a product to get their stories in front of global and hyper-local audiences.
It is his belief in me as a writer and publisher, which gave me the confidence to take a step towards my Possible.
2022- Anthony Gruppo has retired from the Insurance Industry. He is available for interviews and speaking engagements. Please send your requests to us at MarketAPeel.
Transcript of the BrandAPeel Podcast Interview between Shannon Peel and Anthony Gruppo
The 100th Episode and my 100 episodes in 100 days challenge.
There are very few leaders in this world that I really admire and this gentleman is one of them. I feel honoured to have Anthony Gruppo on the BrandAPeel podcast today.
If you are interested in how you can achieve success at work, how to have a better outlook on your life and career and business and this is the episode for you so keep on listening as I chat with Anthony Gruppo, former CEO of Marsh Commercial UK, regional CEO of Marsh and McLennan, Northeast and Southwest.
He started his career as a construction worker then a repo man before he made his way to the top of the corporate ladder in the insurance industry.
Anthony, thank you so much for joining us today on BrandAPeel. I've got one question for you.
What do you want to be known for?
1:11 Anthony
Such a great question because you get involved in reinvention. When I think about conventional retirement, I don't think that way. I think about reinvention and how to help communities. From a career standpoint, I was blessed to work with so many people from around the world. We were able to achieve certain goals and aspirations in our careers and now, hopefully I can help people less fortunate with the Gruppo Family Foundation.
1:52 Shannon Peel
So you're going into charity, and you're giving back in retirement.
Retirement of a CEO
1:58 Anthony
Yeah, it's a new world. I've been very blessed in my life in my career, now to form a foundation. It'll be the Gruppo Family Foundation, a donor advised fund able to look at charities all over America and internationally. We will be able to fund it and help people because you know, Shannon, and you know it's very well from your from your work, there are a lot of small organisations where $1000, $5,000 means a great deal to them. If we can spread it out amongst a lot of different organisations, hopefully we can be of some help.
2:50 Shannon Peel
There's a whole generation of leaders who are retiring and I saw a graph yesterday that showed a number of these Americans had retired recently causing the retirement rate to skyrocket during the pandemic. But now a lot of them are coming back to work.
What does it take to retire successfully?
When you go from being someone like yourself, who was an International CEO of a major corporation, where you were go, go, go, go, go all the time, and then all of a sudden, your time is yours.
How can you successfully transition into retirement?
3:33 Anthony
I did not feel transition at all.
What you do is not who you are. And there are a lot of people who have a hard time leaving that because their identity is wound up in it.
I always tried to be diverse. An author, a speaker, certainly as a CEO and other pursuits, and most recently, as you know, because you were so instrumental in helping me publish my first book of poetry.
You have to as soon as you're in the CEO position, you have to be thinking about your replacement. I was very lucky to have such a great team in the United Kingdom to make that transition because otherwise, you become that position, that title and dam up a river of opportunity for others. And, and of course, you know, hopefully we still have the energy and the speed. But, you know, look, I'm going to be 68 years old. If not now, when? When is enough?
Honestly, I transitioned to beach bum in about 10 minutes
4:57 Shannon Peel
But you didn't stay idle because you've got this whole family foundation going on, and I know that you've been doing some other work with coaching and being on boards. So you are busy.
Difference Between Busy and Productive
5:10 Anthony
Yeah, it's easy to be busy. It's very hard to be productive.
Most people are busy. You see them on social media and other environments. We’ve even made it difficult for children to just be children with the expectations that are put upon them, and the same thing happens to adults.
I would say to you that we have such a diversity of talent inside of our humanity inside our fabric, that you can do so many different things, you don't have to be bottled up so that that way it never feels like it's a transition.
It always feels like a threshold.
5:53 Shannon Peel
Well, you've gone from one position, to another position, to another position. Like you were saying before, if someone you know stays in a position and wants to hold on to it they become, like you said, a dam. They get in the way of opportunities for others and they also lose out on new opportunities. Your willingness to move to new options, new opportunities, and make way for somebody else.
You have so much more of a story and so many more experiences - adventures. You can compete in one company and say okay, I'm the president or I'm the CEO and I'm not moving because this is my identity, my position, but you really had an interesting career.
6:41 Anthony
Yes, I've been very blessed. I have so many places I’ve been and I've been blessed to work internationally. You meet amazing people. It's always that thing that is always true. Ordinary people do the most extraordinary things.
There's no leader who can cover it all. No man or woman can achieve their individual goals, if not for the fabric of others, sitting there with them.
I was always really blessed for over 45 years.
What happened Shannon, you've said it very well, is that when you think about that new opportunity, people say well how are you going to do this? Keep your mind sharp? It's not hard.
I put a team around me.
They helped me form the Gruppo LLC to help with the media work, coaching, and project work or things that come up. The jobs here and there.
Then of course, build a foundation. I didn’t know anything about foundations. I go to the meeting with the foundation leaders, legal team, and everyone. I'm a student.
I want to create such an energy.
I don't know how to build a foundation, but they do and now it's exciting. I've never done this before.
The enterprise of reinvention is the fountain of youth.
Unfortunately, you and I've talked about this, in fact you've written about this in some of your blogs and other pieces. If nobody wants your job, eventually you don't either. There's a lot of people out there who get set in their ways and they're not bringing the same energy and innovation. Then they wonder why why people aren't excited.
8:39 Shannon Peel
Well, I hear a lot I've been talking to a lot of people about the job market and how it's changing and why a lot of the like ageism has come down to it's not anymore. The X Gen are being pushed out because they want young blood, but is that because we get too comfortable in our positions and we stop learning? We start thinking oh, we don't have to do this conferences we've done that. We paid our dues.
Ageism of Gen X in the Labour Market
9:16 Anthony
It's a personal decision.
I know 80 year old leaders who have more energy than 12 - 18 year olds.
But I do see people get beat down by the tradition and the process and the brutality. The bureaucracy, the brutality of it. Eventually people acquiesce and given sometimes it takes that growth mindset, that bit of entrepreneurial spirit.
You know, I don't see a CEO as Chief Executive Officer. I see a CEO as someone who can coach themselves and others be entrepreneurial in their thinking and act like an owner. Therefore everyone can be a CEO regardless of their title.
You see people chase titles. I never chased the title. I chased the challenge and the title found me. I never thought like oh, I can't wait to have a corner office of senior vice president. What? I was better off in my car moving around?
Whether you're 18 or you're 80, don't box yourself into a traditional way of thinking.
Leading Remote Teams and Remote Work
Shannon Peel 10:43
Yeah, because this is a real time of change in transition. In the labour market due to remote working and some people not being able to manage them because they don't trust others. Or they don't know how to communicate to remote staff.
But when the lockdown came, you were able to transition a whole organisation to remote work. How did you do so well?
11:09 Anthony
Yeah, 3000 colleagues, 60 different locations in four different countries Scotland, Wales, England, and Northern Ireland.
There was a time as a younger professional when I had it wrong. When I thought that the only people you could trust were the ones that have as much to lose as you did when things went wrong.
That was a mistake. That was youth. That was ego. I had it wrong.
I learned to rebuild myself around the kind of leader who trusted people and it took a great deal of communication. For example, I put a private line in my flat in London for colleagues to call me evenings or weekends to talk about anything they wanted to talk about.
We called it the CEO cares line and it lit up like a Christmas tree. It was amazing. I was able to learn and ascertain from the people, who were making this work. That was on lockdown. We had one of our best two years during the pandemic period because we realised that if you trust people to get the job, they’ll do the job.
Why would we have someone spend two hours transporting to an office. It’s unproductive time when they could start on their own clock?
Remote work means a lot to women in the workplace.
It's tragic that a woman in the height of her career has to quit her job because to care for an ageing parent. And sadly, men will gladly write a cheque instead. So men have to realise that we're all in this together and many women are looking after our families.
But when you work in hybrid environment she or he doesn't have to do that. We can we can help them. The same thing with single moms and dads who by the time they get home from work, it's so late that all they have time to do is read a bedtime story to their babies.
Women in the Workforce and Remote Work
13:25 Shannon Peel
I know because I owed a daycare. When I was running the daycare, I'd have kids dropped off at 6:30 in the morning and picked up at 6:30 at night. They were going off to one activity or another and some had homework, and then they had to be in bed because it would be back from my house the next morning. I was with their children more than the parents were.
And the thing is, I live in Canada. So when I got the kids they were one, and they'd already had a whole year with their mom and dad. So when I hear stories of people in the States, Women in the states having to go back to work after three weeks, four weeks, six weeks. It boggles my mind. And have to pump in between meetings. That's just humiliating.
How much more productive would an office be? Not in small offices, but the big offices. The states has a lot of big corporations. Why can they not put a daycare somewhere in the building for their employees?
14:28 Anthony
Yeah, so we there are reasons why that sometimes becomes difficult.
A lot of it is around the safety and liability issues. I remember going back as far as the 80s and 90s. When we looked at the concept and it was we had a whole safety issue.
The kids of estranged parents with a restraining order, and all the kinds of things. The office environment for those types of people aren't equipped. When you put a daycare in, that company becomes extremely liable for those issues. So it became a little bit problematic. It can be done. But it was a little difficult.
Now with a hybrid environment. We can figure it out. We figured it out. Right. We did it for two years.
Leaders Need to Trust Their People
You alluded to it earlier that you said it's about trusting that sometimes people feel that the leaders or managers say they need to see the people, well I know a lot of leaders who don't even say hello to people when they walk past, let alone how you think you're going to lead them. You have to choose to be a communicator, care about people, be really interested. Make sure that middle line and other line leaders are paying attention to people and how their performance goes.
An underachiever is going to beat you anywhere. If they're gonna cheat, they're gonna beat you in the office or they can beat you at home because they're underachievers they're just there for a pay cheque. So you've got to be able to make sure that you address those issues, whether it's hybrid or not, but I think what different people can see now that they are leaving their jobs because they don't want to go back to the office five days a week? I think we can figure this out because we did
16:11 Shannon Peel
Yeah, it will be interesting to see what happens in the next five years and how things things will change. But at least you get to be in the retirement world don't have to deal with the problem.
The fact that you were so open to people calling you and anyone from anyone out there. And as you were saying it was great. It covered four countries 3000 People 60 offices, because it wasn't just a one small little business you are leading.
16:49 Anthony
People have the same issues right. When you have that homogeneity and you can listen to people, you start to see the common thread and you go to solve the issue.
