Glen Jackson, Maryville Retreat Talent ShowJackson Spalding has enjoyed a good run lately. We were named to the AJC’s Top Work Places in Atlanta and then the Holmes Report named us Best Small Agency to work for. (If you want to find out for yourself, we have nine jobs posted right now — send me your resume).

Needless to say there’s been some self-reflection on why we’re such a good place to work. The easy answers are healthy, realistic billable goals and a true focus on work-life balance. But there are a lot of intangibles.

One of those intangibles is the Glen factor. I found this nugget in my email from April 2008 and had to share it today:

To: Jackson Spalding
Subject: A little lesson about selling

Something I thought about today that I wanted to put down in writing about selling:

Instead of selling to people, connect with people.  There is a big difference between the two.

Just a little thought for us to remember.

This is typical of Glen. He finds a connection to everyone he meets. That connection starts as an small ember and he feeds it until it’s a raging fire.

Glen connected with me in 2005 on a walk from Colony Square to One Atlantic Center. Since then I’ve left journalism and learned a new career, largely at his insistence. Glen provided a work place that encouraged me to find my own talents at my own pace. He provided a work place that allowed me to be comfortable as an openly gay man at a time when I personally struggled with the possibility. Glen pointed me to Midtown Atlanta Rotary, which started a chain reaction of life-transforming community service. Midtown Atlanta Rotary expanded to Pure Water for the World, then to AID Atlanta and most recently to Leadership Atlanta.

My life wouldn’t be the same without my connection to Glen and the advice he’s provided for the past five years. Take that single connection and multiply it by everyone at Jackson Spalding and you’ll know why we are the Best Small Agency to work for.