Sandra Harbrecht
Title: President, CEO and owner, Paul Werth Associates Address: 10 N. High St., Suite 300
About: Full-service strategic communications firm helping businesses and organizations in a variety of sectors develop and maintain positive reputations and relationships with their key customers and stakeholders.
Founded: 1963
In position: since 1983 Previous: Elementary and special-education teacher Website: paulwerth.com board, have just been wonderful mentors. They’ve been steady; they’ve been encouraging and supportive. They’ve pushed me, they’ve asked tough questions. An advisory board is just a wonderful way to tap into the wisdom of others.
Q: What do you look for in advisory board members?
A: We’ve really looked at what are the skills sets that we would like to have to complement our organization as it sets a strategic direction. I’ve also found that rapport is also very important; having people who I feel are really on my side and really want me to be successful and want our company to be successful. That commitment, that energy and enthusiasm for what we’re trying to do has just been so valuable; people who are willing to spend the time to get to know your business and to think about you and your business outside of the meeting times. Those advisory board members who will pick up the phone and call you when they have an idea are just invaluable.
Q: What was the best advice you received early in your career?
A: When I started working in our business, my father was just an icon in the community. He was so successful as a leader that I thought I had to be like him. Of course, there weren’t very many women running businesses, and it was very intimidating, I just thought, ‘How am I going to follow in his footsteps?’ And my dad said, ‘Don’t try to be me; be yourself.’ That was very liberating for him to give me permission to figure out my own way and my own style and my own voice and my own way of showing up.
Q: When did you first think of yourself as a leader?
A: (It was) when I realized I was solely responsible for the revenues and the profits of the company. That is such a, for me anyway, a very sobering moment.
All of a sudden, it wasn’t my dad’s responsibility, it wasn’t anybody else’s. It was mine. That really was a focusing moment and still is.