John Graham

Q: What most notably stands out about your leadership style or what is an example of leadership success you can share with our readers?

I consider myself a servant leader. I try to put the community at the center of all my leadership decisions while also doing well for our company. I also lead by example and expect no more from our employees than what I am willing to do myself. I have always had an open-door policy and hope to foster an environment where all employees feel like they have a seat at the table for decisions made. Kindness and civility drive my leadership and decision making. A guiding principle on my leadership style can be summarized by one of Maya Angelou’s famous quotes: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Q: What impact has COVID-19 or the disruptions of the past 18 months had on you as a leader?

The COVID-19 pandemic and the market disruption over the last 18 months have made me appreciate personal relationships even more than I already did. These events also changed the way we conduct business. While the world seemed to stop during the COVID-19 pandemic and slow during the market disruption, we have not stopped or slowed down at Sunbelt. We continued to face the issues head on. We learned ways to be safe during the pandemic, and we become more efficient and flexible using technology. As someone who values pen and paper, this was a challenge to me personally; however, it has eliminated redundancy and boosted our efficiency across the company.

As we have shifted away from the pandemic and back to business as usual, we have not forgotten the tactics we used to improve efficiency while working remotely. As we look at past market disruptions and economic downturns, we see a very different Arizona from the one we have today. During past economic downturns, we were a primarily real estate and development market. We now have a much more diverse economy with presence in fields such as manufacturing, biotech and startups. Because of this diversity in our economy, I believe we are prepared to be more dynamic and resilient.

Q: What do you feel we can be doing as a business community to empower economic growth here?

We are doing great things, but we cannot rest on our laurels. As market uncertainty grows, engaging and investing in the community is important to empower economic growth. Public-private partnerships will continue to bolster a competitive economy. Among many other things, quality public education and healthcare are key to economic development, so we can continue to value and support our public K-12 education, post-secondary education and healthcare partners.

We must also continue prioritizing making our state business friendly while also cultivating diversity, acceptance and innovation. People want to move to a business-friendly state where all people feel welcomed. As we face big issues that require big solutions, such as water use, we must realize that we can get much more done when we bridge the gap between the public and private sectors.

Q: What is new and notable for your company’s near future that will impact our economy?

We will continue to deliver innovative projects such as Culdesac, the first car-free community built for humans instead of vehicles (located in the innovative municipality of Tempe). Innovation and market disruption are key to our continued success. Staying relevant means evolving the focus of our company and growing our knowledge base.

Outside of our projects, our employees will continue to spend a significant amount of time serving the community on both economic development and philanthropic efforts. While outside of our job description, our commitment to economic development and philanthropic efforts is just as important as our day-to-day work. This commitment is not only important to our company’s success, but it is important to the overall health of the community.