Executive Officer, Leggett Platt
Search every verified J. Dolloff interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a September 2020 interview, J. Dolloff, then President and COO of Leggett & Platt, discussed the importance of flexibility and openness to unexpected career experiences. Dolloff stated that accumulating diverse experiences over time can develop unique skill sets that bring value later in a career. He noted that technology has enabled greater access to data, reduced manual work, and improved communication, which he said has increased speed and brought the company closer to employees, customers, suppliers, and consumers. Dolloff also acknowledged a cost to these changes, citing the challenge of balancing work and personal life in a 24/7 environment. Dolloff emphasized the growing importance of agility and openness in response to rapidly changing markets and social norms. He advocated for a leadership posture focused on enabling and supporting teams rather than controlling decision-making, and stressed the difficulty of finding good talent, saying that attracting, retaining, and growing with employees is critical. Dolloff described mentoring as creating an environment of trust and mutual respect, and noted that automation helps address a global talent shortage by allowing people to focus on higher-value tasks. He added that accelerating AI activity will likely lead to the development of new skill sets and processes needed to adapt to and leverage that learning.
“I think one that's really served me well is to be flexible and open to new experiences and especially if they're unexpected.”
“When you think about like the ability to access data is so much greater, so much less manual, the ability to conform that data into whatever format that you want, and to do it yourself, right?”
“All of that, in my career, has resulted in really increased speed across a whole bunch of different activities, as well as bringing us closer to our employees, to our customers, to our suppliers and ultimately to consumers.”
“I think it also comes with a cost that we're learning to balance between the advantages of being able to do that, but manage both your work life and your personal life 24/7.”
“Markets change faster than ever, social norms are changing, and I think that sort of attitude and the ability to be open to those things, to recognize them and then to adjust your approach going forward is just going to be incredibly important and continue to become more so.”
“I think it's also increasingly important to have a posture that is about enabling and supporting your teams, as opposed to controlling decision-making, and then I think really valuing talent.”
“It's very difficult to find good talent these days. So being able to have the skill set to attract them, to retain them, and then importantly to be able to grow with them on your own.”
“We see an ongoing shortage of talent and labor around the world. And so automation, at least, helps us allow people to focus on the highest-value tasks, whether that's on the shop floor or increasingly in the office.”
“I think also as AI activity accelerates, I think it will result in development of new skill sets and new processes necessary to adapt and take advantage of that learning.”
Mitch Dolloff, President and COO of Leggett & Platt, discusses the importance of agility and openness, why talent management ...
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