Marilyn G. Conroy, Executive Vice President Sales &  Marketing North America of Riviera River Cruises, Top 10 Admired Leaders of 2024

Greg McCully
Managing Partner
2Six Advisors


Marilyn G. Conroy, Executive Vice President Sales &  Marketing North America of Riviera River Cruises

Adhere to the client's cultural background

Q1. Could you provide a comprehensive summary of the organization’s endeavors and explain the differentiators that differentiate your company from its competitors?

2Six Advisors is a full-service safety consultancy. We don’t do “check the box” safety; we make sure that our values align with those of our clients. We understand our clients' needs and cultures and develop custom solutions that fit.

Q2. What experiences have shaped your identity?

All of my experiences shaped who I am today. As I get older, I’ve gotten better at self-reflecting and evaluating the way I handle situations. None of us are perfect, but we can be better if we take each experience and learn from it. When things don’t go as planned, I know God has a better plan. He has “rocked my boat” several times, but it has always forced me out of my current complacency and into growth. The other important thing I’ve learned is that we need to pause every once in a while and enjoy how far we’ve come. I’m very goal-oriented, but with that mentality, often when the goal is met, we look for the next goal instead of celebrating the win.

Q3. What changes did you make to the company’s vision as your business strategy evolved?

In general, our vision has always been the same. We add to the world by helping employees go home safe at the end of the day. An employee should never fear injury while striving to support their family. A supervisor should never have to call someone’s loved one to tell them they’ve been injured at work or, worse yet, they will never be coming home. I would say the only change we’ve made to our business strategy is that, at the beginning, we thought everyone was our customer. We’ve since begun to “interview” our potential clients to make sure our values align.

Q4. How do you maintain the company’s core values through growth cycles?

It is very important to us that we do not become a company that just sends warm bodies to clients. We have to always go back to our core values. We achieve this through smart growth and, primarily, smart hiring. We need to employ individuals whose personalities align with the 2SIX values. Character is the number one thing we look for. We can teach skills, but we must ensure that we are sending individuals who care about our clients. I’m trying to find a vetting process that will find out if people open doors for others, return their shopping carts, or pick up a piece of trash instead of stepping over it—generally doing the right thing when they think no one is watching.

Q5. Can you share with us how you make your hobbies and interests productive?

I am a competitive bodybuilder. I personally believe that bodybuilding has played a significant role in shaping my core values, or perhaps these values are the reason I love bodybuilding so much. With bodybuilding, you only get out of it if you put in the effort. It is a lifestyle. I do the things every day, whether I feel like it or not, because you can’t achieve the greater goal only by doing the things when you feel like it. Bodybuilding is the culmination of doing the little things every day. Weighing every piece of food, following the meal plan, packing meals to travel, and of course getting the workouts in. The mental fortitude it takes to do this sport is like no other.

Q6. Can you describe your leadership philosophy and practice?

My leadership philosophy is built on care, trust, and respect. I care about my team on a personal level, and I hope they succeed in all aspects of their lives. With that, I encourage a work-life balance. My team works from home when they aren’t at client sites. They have a flexible schedule. I always say that there's a bucket of time you owe the company. How you fill the bucket is up to you. That means, as long as we don't have any client obligations, I'm completely fine with them working a flexible schedule. If your child has a daytime school event, attend! As far as trust goes, I need the team to trust me, and I trust the team. Neither of us should trust each other blindly, but we do what we say we’re going to do, and I hope they know I have their backs. One of my favorite quotes is “There’s never a wrong time to do the right thing, and there’s never a right time to do the wrong thing.”

I respect my whole team. As I mentioned earlier, I self-reflect often. With that, I know what my strengths are and what my weaknesses are. I think of my team as puzzle pieces. We’re all different, but we compliment each other. Each team member is better than me at different things. I rely on them. I learn from them, and hopefully they learn from me.

Q7. How can you competently steer the organization toward goal setting while ensuring harmonization and integration of goals at all levels—organization, department, sub-team, and individual?

Our core values are our foundation. We build upon that. There are company goals, and each employee has their own set of goals. Employee goals are aligned with company goals, as well as personal development goals. Every month, employees assess the progress of their goals, and they collaborate with their supervisors to review them semi-annually. The goal review is an opportunity for employees to track and brag about the things they’ve accomplished. Some consider the review process to be a 360-degree review. We review each employee's performance, and the employees in turn evaluate the performance of their supervisor. Employees also have the opportunity to review the company. “What can we do to be a better place to work?”

Q8. What does it mean for an organization as a whole to develop a strong sense of collaboration?

As I mentioned earlier, we are each a puzzle piece. It is imperative that we collaborate and understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We can bring other team members into projects where their expertise can be useful. We can also invite people to participate in projects that would allow them to work on a new skill. We also collaborate at the company level, keeping each employee informed about the company's direction. They have a voice in steering the direction of the company.

Q9. What method do you use to stay informed about your competitors’ strategies and tactics, and how do you envision an approach to outperform their performance?

In terms of the work we do, I don't spend too much time looking at our competitors. Maybe this is another strategy I've adapted from bodybuilding, but our primary focus is on improving ourselves every day. Understanding our clients, understanding the industries we work in, and maybe most importantly, understanding the people at our client facilities that do the work every day.

As far as advertising, we do try to understand what is or isn’t working for them and adjust accordingly. With that said, many of our clients come from referrals, which, to me, speaks to the quality of work we do.

Q10. Can you provide additional information about upcoming initiatives, projects, or solutions that will add value to your customers in the near future?

We’re able to perform a lot of our work remotely, so we can service the whole United States. We also provide on-site services. Recently, we assisted a client during an OSHA-enforced shutdown due to imminent danger. We were brought in during the shutdown, and now they have a proactive safety culture and are working through solutions side by side with OSHA.

Our newest offering includes a membership where a client can sign up and receive full access to our team through a message board, a safety university course, and safety training each month. The Safety University Course caters to the individual responsible for company safety. It is a new lesson each month on how to elevate your safety program. The safety training will be a monthly virtual training for the company’s workforce. The company provides training for both the 1910 General Industry and the 1926 Construction requirements.


Company

2Six Advisors

Management

Greg McCully
Managing Partner
2Six Advisors

Description

Take a proactive approach to your workplace health and safety preparedness with professional health and safety consulting from 2Six Advisors. We partner with companies around the country, in any industry to identify and manage unique risks through customized services.


Admired Leaders Magazine