On Your Mark, Get Set, Go: Michael Giles

Twenty years ago, Michael Giles wondered if his experience and education would be what employers were looking for. It was. Now Giles encourages Harbert students today to open their minds to career paths they previously thought were 'off limits.' He also suggests setting boundaries at work to make time for life at home.

Transcript

Narrator:

Welcome to the Harbert College of Business podcast with your hosts, Sarah Gascon and Currie Dyess. Today's guest is Michael Giles. Giles is a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Charlotte, North Carolina. He built his distinguished career by strengthening risk management, optimizing business processes, and expanding global initiatives. Michael is a 2003 Harbert graduate in finance.

Currie Dyess:

Michael Giles. Welcome to the show, War Eagle. We are so happy to have you here.

Michael Giles:

War Eagle. I'm happy to be here. Thank you.

Currie:

What are some of the lessons and experiences that you had here that led you down the career path that you've chosen?

Michael Giles:

Maybe when I think about my time at Auburn, I can start from the beginning. I was fortunate to have a great college roommate. I did not know my college roommate before getting to Auburn, my mom actually worked with my roommate's mom. They were at a meeting once and realized that each other's sons were going to be going to Auburn and they made the connection and that's how we ended up becoming roommates. So when I think about that, I think about the importance of networking and that sort of permeates the entire college experience that I had, and I believe that sort of helped me as I've moved forward through my career too. When I got to Auburn, I think there might've been about five or six people from my high school who were graduating from high school in 2000 and then started college at that same time.

So I didn't know a ton of people when I got there, but fortunately my college roommate, he had a good group of people that I ended up coming friends with. There was a woman who you all have interviewed before, actually lived in the same dorm as me, and we ended up developing a friend group. And so I really think that being open to new experiences, networking with people, leveraging my network has helped me or helped me then and has continued to help me in my career. When I also think about the years I spent there, I was very intentional about being involved. I wanted to make sure that I left my mark on a school that was having such a profound impact on me. So I volunteered with quite a few organizations while on campus I was an ra, I worked in the academic advisor's office in the college of business, and all of those things helped me prepare myself for corporate America. I didn't realize that at the time I was trying to be a good steward of my time and my energy. I was trying to make sure that I was looking into ways that I can gain the most out of my college. Fortunately, those same types of traits and behaviors have helped me excel here at pwc.

Sarah Gascon:

Auburn has a strong culture of community and leadership because you talked about your experiences here. How has that influence allowed you to mentor and inspire the young professionals today?

Michael Giles:

One of the things that I, while I was in college was I did a study abroad program and that helped expand my horizons more than I could have ever imagined. But one of the things that it taught me the most was just how different we all are, although we're all connected in some ways. I went and bounced around Europe, so the study abroad program I did, it was one where the teachers came with us from Auburn and they moved around the world, and I just remember thinking about how different cultures approach things like going out to dinner or moving around a city. Even when I think about the 30 or so students that went along with us on the trip and how we sort of all navigated that when I came back from that trip, I feel like I was more open-minded than ever. I gained a lot of patience as part of that process.

If you're going to be a good mentor, I think you have to start with understanding there's one thing that you need when you're mentoring someone, and that is an appreciation for what they are looking for from that mentoring relationship. So I got mentored throughout that entire process as the College of Business teachers or preparing us to go on that trip. While on that trip, I would say it was collective mentoring of us all just sort of navigating in the summer as we moved around Europe. So now when I'm called to connect with someone, particularly if they ask me to serve as that mentor, I always start with what is it that you need and want? Of course I could start with here's what I've done and here's what I think you should do and here's how you can get to a certain place. But Auburn helped me think about how much was tailored to me even at a college that had about 20 or 25,000 students at the time. I still feel like I had a very individualized educational experience and now as I mentor people, I try to do the same to them. I think about what is it that you're looking to get out of this relationship and how can I help you ultimately become what you're looking to become through our mentoring relationship.

Currie:

Mike, why don't you walk us through the beginnings of your career a little bit. Tell us how that helped develop you into the leader that you are now. You talked a minute ago about how you really try to see what somebody is trying to get out of the relationship, and that is the mark of you being a good mentor. Tell us how you arrived there.

Michael Giles:

When I was in undergrad, I interned through this program called Inroads. So inroads offered multiple internships while in college and upon graduation. The goal was that you would go and work for your company, so the company where you had interned while you were in college during all those summers. So I started my career at Protective Life Insurance in Birmingham, Alabama. They actually paid my scholarship to the College of business. I was the protective scholar. I interned in financial and actuary reporting. I spent some time in human resources and I spent some time in the investments group. So upon graduating from Auburn with my finance degree in 2003, I was ready to go and work in the corporate investments group, but the Sarbanes Oxley Act had just been passed, and that was something that required public companies to comply with it. By 2005, if I have my years correct, the company called me up, called me up and said, Hey, Mike, instead of going to corporate investments, will you come into internal audit? I said, sure, and hung up the phone and thought, I wonder what internal audit is.

So maybe just sort of a learning point for folks who are listening there is to be open, be open to whatever journeys might come your way. So I went into internal audit and loved it. Now I had to do a whole lot of homework. I had to understand what is controls documentation, what are risks and how do they impact organizations? I had to learn a whole lot about that act, which as a finance student, I didn't get as much exposure to as the accountant students would've gotten at that time. But I will say that openness to learn and that openness and willingness to follow a path that's presented as opposed to the one that I was probably fixated on going down. Fast forward a couple of years, many of the people who had worked in that internal audit department with me already had public accounting experience or professional services firm experience, and so I thought that if I'm ever going to move up at the pace that they did that I should probably go and model my career after theirs.

And so I looked for opportunities in the public accounting services space and I ended up here at pwc. Now that was 20 years ago and I have enjoyed a very rich full career. I'm now a partner at our firm, and so again, I'll just say those early years of being willing to be open-minded, not afraid of a challenge, not afraid of something simply because it's not the exact same thing that I've studied and prepared for, but recognizing that I can sort of go back into my toolbox, if you will, of skills and experiences and apply that to what's coming ahead. I believe that was really one of the things that helped me advance my career to the degree that I have.

Sarah:

Much of your work involves helping senior management address risks, controls and business process optimization. Can you share a few examples of complex client challenges you've helped solve and what you learned from those experiences?

Michael Giles:

Often our clients come to us with related matters as I'm speaking specifically to the group that I work in, but many times they come to us or help with compliance related matters. Sometimes they want to avoid a situation, meaning they want us to share what others are experiencing in the industry so that they don't misstep often. They may want us to help them do things more efficiently, so cheaper, faster, better. Sometimes they may want to leverage technology as they execute the tasks at hand. Lots of things that come to mind that have been challenging, but I actually really like the challenging situations. I think that gives us a chance to flex our muscles as professionals. It gives us a chance to really showcase what we can do. I've had situations where the clients have requested things and the deadlines have been tight. They were really hopeful that we could help them achieve a certain strategic goal.

We've had to pull in specialists from around our firm to answer those questions. I guess maybe one reason why I think that's a bit difficult to answer is because like I said, I really like the challenges, and so I think that if we take a step back from any challenge and we say, Hey, what can I do about this right now? It helps us navigate that with a lot more comfort. Many times we get a question that maybe we haven't heard exactly the way it's being asked, but often if you take a step back and think about things you've done in the past, you may say, Hey, this is very much like something that I've done before, or if you reach out to others in the organization, and that's the beauty of an organization like ours. With it being as large and far reaching as it is, you can often find individuals who have done that thing themselves and you can go and help that client achieve their goals.

What I find that most people are seeking is reassurance. And so if we can help our clients as they come to us, and when I say clients, client could be customer, could be stakeholder, could be someone that you work with, could be classmate. If you're able to help someone understand that together, you all will work through the challenge. You generally come out on the other side of it the way that both parties want to. And so the first thing I try to do or I do encounter a challenge is develop an understanding of what it is that we're trying to solve. Find out if there's anybody else I need to sort of pull into the tent with me to help solve the problem. And then I try to go back with some creative solutions on how to address whatever problem that they have. And then you take it one step at a time, taking things one step at a time, allow you to navigate what can be viewed as a high pressure or fast paced environment and that you would expect

Currie:

You were named on Charlotte's 40, under 40, right?

Michael Giles:

I was.

Currie:

All right, man. You got to tell us how that happened.

Michael Giles:

Well, I don't think I tried to do anything. I really love giving back to the community. I'm a very big believer of hard work. I was raised by two really hardworking people, my mom and dad. I saw them pour their time and energy into the things that were important to them. I was encouraged to understand my feelings and vocalize them, but I was not encouraged to sort of lean into excuses. And I was also encouraged to try to make a difference for those things that were meaningful to me. That's sort of the way that I approached my life, my career. I mentioned after I left the insurance company in Birmingham, I moved to pwc while I moved to Charlotte to work for pwc in 2005, I got involved in the community right away. I'm a member of our National Association of Black Accountants, so the NAPA chapter here in Charlotte.

And not only did I get involved, but I wanted to have a leadership role. I joined a group called me Ed that wanted to make a difference school system here in Charlotte. I wanted to just make this city my own and just help people living in our city have the kind of lives that we were all aspiring to. So I was very, very active in the community. I still am, I remember the Urban League. I do some work for the Center for Digital Equity here in Charlotte. I mean, there's a long, long list of organizations that the United Way, a long long list of organizations that I've been a part of in some form or fashion. And again, I always did those things because they were important to me and I agreed with the causes that they represented. I've always been very big on how can we help people be the best version of themselves that they aspire to be?

And going back to the mentoring question that you asked, what is it that folks want to get out of their life or their lived experiences of their time here in Charlotte? And so by simply pouring myself into that equally as much as I poured myself into my work, and I do the same thing with my family as well, I think those are some of the things that help the group of people who ultimately made the recommendations identify me. I didn't know that I was up for it. I got a call or an email saying congratulations. It was really just recognition of some things that I had done up to that time. I will say for the listeners, I was 32 when I got that. So I moved to Charlotte at 22 and I was 32 when I received that honor. And I only mentioned that because it's important for the listeners to know there's never sort of a time limit or a view of something being too soon to achieve. If you set your mind to doing the things that are important to you and making a difference in the world, that impact will be seen. And so that was one of the things I was very proud of up to that point in my life.

Currie:

But you had already been in the workforce a difference in whatever you do. You also said at the beginning of the conversation that you wanted to leave a mark on Auburn. You won the award at 32. So where do those things come from, that sense of urgency and that internal drive? Is that just something that you were born with?

Michael Giles:

I don't know. So you're right. I graduated from college at 20, so I was only at Auburn for three years, and so I worked for two years at Protective Life, and then I moved to Charlotte in 2005. I was 22 at the time. I have always been a big believer in maximizing my time. We only have so much of it or so little of it, however you want to phrase it. And I believe that one should not waste time, particularly when they have a goal. And I encourage people to do this all the time, be very much intentional about what you want. If you ask people what they want, oftentimes they don't know the answer. And so I am very big in understanding the importance of knowing. I'm also very big on articulating what you want. I believe that if you put things in the universe that they will often come to you.

I also believe that by vocalizing what you want and need people in a position to help you can help you realize it. Most people in the world, I view or I believe want to help. And so if you are aware of what you want and if you can articulate what you want, then you will likely have the things that fall into place to help you get there. So you are correct. I did graduate college quickly compared to some or some might say. And then when I entered the work, I was very intentional about maximizing my time, fully leveraging all the things that were being presented to me. So I was willing to do the work. I was willing to understand in many cases, what is the fastest path to get to what I want while combining the need for a full understanding, developing an area, area of specialty or expertise, and then ultimately being able to yield the kind of results that I wanted. So I don't know if it's something I was born with or always had, but I did understand that if you are strategic and we can also be strategic while having fun, I mentioned that earlier, that life should be enjoyed. But if you are strategic about your decisions, the things that you allow to enter your life and the things that you're willing to put out and invest your time to, then I believe that you can have those results that you want to and you can have them rather quickly.

Sarah:

Can you tell our audience how you're able to balance both your community impact your family and your professional life?

Michael Giles:

Maybe a bit about me personally. So I am married, my wife Sharonda, and I have three children, a daughter who is 11, her name is Aria, and we have a set of twin sons, chase and Grayson. My wife and I both work, and as I mentioned, I'm very active in the community. I serve on a couple of boards even now, and then I'll partner at the professional services firm. One of the things that I try to do is prioritize the things that matter the most to me. Some people might say, well, is this more important than that? And I think that you can have a bucket of priorities. When I think about my career and what it involves for me, it's very important that my children see a father who works, who contributes to society, who strengths his faith. So I don't necessarily allow myself to feel any guilt if I have to miss a game or two from time to time, or if I'm running a little bit late to a recital or something like that.

It is part of being a human. And quite frankly, I think that shows my children that you sometimes have to communicate to people, Hey, in order to do this thing here, I may have to spend some time doing that thing there. And so hopefully when they get older, they'll understand that they should give themselves a little bit of grace by trying to navigate all the facets of our life that we have to navigate in order to have a full life. So one of the things that I do is try to prioritize. I also give myself grace. And in giving myself grace, it allows me to ask if a meeting can be moved or rescheduled. It allows me to say no to a volunteer event. From time to time. It can be a worthwhile cause that I really want to participate in, but I need to take a step back and think, all right, what do I need to do now in this moment in order to move forward or advance the things that are important to me?

So I will say that prioritizing and then giving grace are the things that allow me to do the things that I want to do. I also know myself. I know where I get my energy from. I know what I need to do in order to sort of bounce back. I think that if we take care of ourselves physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, that us to have the bandwidth and the space to do the things that we need to do. I recently started doing yoga. I actually have some friends who live here in Charlotte who opened a yoga studio not too long ago, and I've been doing some classes there with them. And one of the things that they recently shared that life is about balancing efforts with ease. And it's interesting. I see a lot about how we should grind, grind, grind, go, go, go, achieve, achieve, achieve.

And that effort and ease really struck with me because we don't often see enough emphasis on giving ourselves the space and time to rejuvenate. And as I mentioned, I'm very big on your emotional wellbeing, your physical wellbeing, your spiritual wellbeing. Those are just some of the ways that I think it helps me to stay recharged or get recharged when necessary in order to do the things that are important to me. There's an adage that you cannot pour from an empty cup, and so you definitely have to pour into yourself or fill yourself back up if you're going to do the work that many of us want to do.

Currie:

Your outlook on how to balance all of those things, have you faced any kind of big complex challenges that have made that perspective hard? You kind of question whether that's the right path.

Michael Giles:

I'll say life is real. And so I definitely encounter situations that may take me off of the planned course. I had in my mind, foot of wakes up on Sunday and I can already tell you what's going to happen through Saturday. So in my mind, there is a plan that should be adhered to, but it's about remaining flexible. Earlier when we were talking Curry, you mentioned how did I sort of get into what I was doing? And I talked about how I was supposed to be in corporate investments, I ended up in internal audit, and now look at where I am. So that view of this is how things must go is probably problematic. I think it's good to have an idea of what the goal is, what the objective is. You need that so that as things come your way, they don't distract you from the goal, but you do have to have a level of flexibility.

I will tell you one thing that my wife and I have navigated is I mentioned our twin sons, chase and Grayson. They are on the autism spectrum. And so that's just an aspect of life that we simply must navigate. And I mentioned that so that the listeners know that as we come up with these plans of how wonderful our careers are going to be, and they will be wonderful, but sometimes life adds a little bit of extra spice, I'll say to the dish, and you just simply need to navigate it. I don't think anybody says when they're expecting the child or children that I want this one to have this thing that they need to navigate physically or mentally or emotionally. But if you're presented with something, you simply deal with it. Example I always give is if my wife had given birth to a future star athlete, think of some of our greatest athletes.

For example, if Charles Barkley had been my son, cam Newton had been my son, we would have gone and we would've done drills. We would've been up early every morning doing the things that you have to do when you're raising an athlete. We would've been making sure they eat the way they need to eat when you're helping an athlete train. We would've done all the things that are necessary to help that person thrive. And so I don't see it any different with our sons Chase and Grayson. We simply do all the things that are necessary to help our children thrive. And so yeah, I do think challenges come our way, but again, it goes back to my view of taking a step back, thinking about what's in our control, thinking about what are the first couple of steps that we can take to advance whatever it is we're trying to advance and just going forward with that.

Sarah:

So what advice do you have for our students and our listeners now? You talked a little bit about networking, you talked about balancing. It seems a little challenging right now, I think for some undergraduate students coming out of the university and trying to find jobs and work and just navigating the space that they're in right now. What advice do you have for them?

Michael Giles:

First piece of advice I always give is to allow yourself to relax, breathe, and have some fun. That is so important. You have to be able to look back on your day and think about something that you did that was for you. That could be taking a walk, that could be resting for a few minutes, that could be watching a show, reading a book, whatever it is. So I always tell people to have fun. I was actually at a recruiting event. I, I'm the recruiting champion for a local college here near Charlotte. I think I was talking to a sophomore and at the recruiting, seemed so worried just about the future. And she asked me for some advice and the first piece of advice I gave her was to relax. And maybe that's horrible advice, but I do think that people should relax. The other thing I think is that people should feel comfortable living a life that's intentional.

Have some willingness to reach out and grab what you want to sort of move with a sense of urgency and go for what they ultimately want. If you spend your time doing things that matter the most to you, then you will look back on your day or on your week or on your month and have some satisfaction with that. So it's about aligning your energy and your efforts with the things that matter to you. And sometimes you may have to be unapologetic about doing that. I can recall times in college where I had to miss a party or two because I needed to study. I can recall times in college where I may have not studied because I needed to go relax and enjoy myself. Again, life is about the appropriate balance, and when you look back and when you've done the things that you need to do in order to yield the results that you want, you will have the outcome that you want and you'll be satisfied with it. You can ask anybody who trains for anything and Vice Sarah, you can ask anybody who thing that you do have to put forth effort, but you also have to give yourself some time to rest and recover. And I would just recommend that people do have fun, but they also live with a bit of intentionality as well.

Sarah:

Mike, how do you integrate the Auburn Creed into your daily life?

Michael Giles:

I anticipated you all asking me about the creed. So I did a little bit of research. So as you probably know, it's written by George Petri and I didn't know a whole lot about him, but he actually, I believe I'm not mistaken, he was from Montgomery, Alabama. He went to college in Virginia, came down to Auburn and really helped establish Auburn football. And so I think one, his story is a great one in terms of how can we take the things that we are learning or experiencing in whatever part of the world where we find ourselves and take it to who may need it. So had George not had the idea to sort of replicate sports as he saw them happening in the part of the country where he was living down at Auburn, then I don't know if we would've had the rich tradition we had as quickly as we started to have them.

I understand that our first game was against Georgia, who we beat by the way. So that's definitely a plus. He coached the team and then he went on to focus on teaching, which I think we also talked about today, the importance of prioritizing our time and thinking about what matters to us the most at that moment. Again, I mentioned how we should give ourselves grace, and sometimes you may sign up for all the right things, but you might realize that you need to sort of shift gears a bit in order to do what really matters to you at the moment. So those are just a few things about the actual author of the Creed that I think stood out to me. But then I think about some of the words in the creed. They talk about a practical world, how hard work and education really gives us a leg up in life.

And I definitely believe in the importance of hard work. I mentioned examples I got from my family as it relates to that, always been big proponents of education, and I don't think we should ever stop learning. It talks about honesty and truthfulness, and those are some things that come to mind when I think about character. And if we're people of strong character, I think that'll take us really far in life, particularly as we face challenges and the listeners, particularly the students, they'll come face-to-face with things that are difficult decisions. But if we always go back to our character and if we're interested in being of strong character that I think it carries us through those times that may be challenging about sound mind, sound, body, sound, spirit. I talked about how in order to keep ourselves renewed and rejuvenated in order to do all the things that are necessary in our lives, that we have to do those things too.

It goes on to talk about the importance of human touch and cultivating sympathy and just understanding the world. Again, we live in a global society, a global economy, and there's so much around us that is impacted by decisions that happen on a global or national and sometimes city, state, and local level. But having that understanding of what's going on with humanity helps us make better decisions for ourselves, for our family, and for those around us. And then it goes on to talk about how I believe in Auburn and I love it. I think we have to believe in the school. I think I have to believe in the people that graduated from the school. I think I have to believe in ourselves, and I think as we tell ourselves, we believe in ourselves, sometimes you have to say it before you truly feel it and believe it.

But the more that we say it, the more that I think we're able to do something as profound as George did and have a lasting impact and change the world. I am willing to bet when George brought football to Auburn, he had an idea of something that would be pretty cool or pretty awesome or whatever the terminology was people used at that time, and he did his one little part. And look at us now. And so if there's something that folks could take away, if we just do our one little part, I think it pays dividends.

Sarah:

Mike, it's been a pleasure speaking with you today. How can our audience keep up with your journey and even connect with you?

Michael Giles:

I would be more than happy for them to find me on LinkedIn. If anyone wants to email me, they can do so. My email address is michael dot e.Giles@pwc.com. M-I-C-H-A-E-L dot EG ls@peter.com. I'd be more than happy for anybody to reach out and chat with me. LinkedIn or email would be the best ways for anybody to get in touch with

Currie:

Michael Giles, thank you so much for your time. It has been such a pleasure talking to you. War Eagle.

Michael Giles:

War Eagle. Been all mine.

Narrator:

Harbert, Inspiring Business.