In this episode of Servant Leader’s Library, Nicholas Paulukow sits down with Roger North, founder and former CEO of North Group Consultants. Together, they explore what it takes to lead with integrity, guide organizations through meaningful transitions, and build a culture rooted in service. Roger’s journey offers timeless lessons for leaders who want to balance business success with personal values.
Nicholas Paulukow
All right, today on Servant Leader’s Library, we have a man who knows a thing or two about building organizations that last. In fact, he literally wrote the playbook on leadership transition, because in 2025, his firm, North Group Consultants, pulled off what most businesses only dream of: a thoughtful, successful, and—dare I say—drama-free handoff of ownership and leadership. Spoiler alert, everyone: it wasn’t luck.
So our guest, Roger North, is the founder and former CEO of North Group. These days, you’ll still catch him consulting with executives, guiding organizations through change, and showing folks that leadership isn’t a title—it’s a calling. When he isn’t shaping leaders, you’ll find him shaping his golf game or sneaking away with Caroline, his wife of over 45 years.
What a blessing. Roger’s résumé reads like a master class in service—from business boards and community organizations to ministry leadership. His fingerprints are all over Lancaster and beyond.
And in case you think this is just about volunteerism, let’s not forget he was named Small Business Person of the Year by the Lancaster Chamber in 2019. So buckle up as we dive into the mind of someone who has spent 45-plus years mastering organizational development, executive leadership, and business growth, all while living out servant leadership at a very high level. Roger North, welcome to the show.
We appreciate you being here today.
We help leadership teams build more resilient IT foundations. Curious what that looks like?
Roger North
Thank you. Can I take you with me everywhere I go? Hey, anytime.
I’ll be there for you. My business development efforts are going through the roof if I haven’t seen them.
Nicholas Paulukow
I’ll record it for you.
Roger North
Very, very good. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Nicholas Paulukow
What a wonderful career. For those who don’t know you, how do you introduce yourself these days? Is it founder, consultant, grandfather, golfer?
Roger North
Yeah, well, it’s interesting because that’s changed. As you mentioned in the introduction, we completed our generational transition—the mechanical and legal parts of it—just a few months ago. So I’m a part-time consultant at the firm I founded, but that’s priority number three in my life.
And it always has been priority number three, even when I was holding a different position.
Nicholas Paulukow
Talk a little more about that. As we become business owners and creators, I can only assume—like I said to my wife when we created this business—that number one was our kids and family growing up, and then our faith was important to us.
Then the business was important, although we put in a lot of hours. Can you share what you meant by that?
Roger North
Yeah, sure. Thanks for asking. My first priority has always been to be a Jesus follower.
That’s easier said than done when we get occupied with other things. But I do believe that if we are serious about that—I was just reading a passage in the New Testament captioned “Guidelines for Right Living,” or something like that—the concepts are fairly simple.
Carrying them out in human nature is what’s difficult. So starting from there, second is being a husband, father, and now grandfather. My dad told me one sentence I’ve never forgotten.
I’ve told it to hundreds of men since then, hoping they’d grasp it because it was so meaningful to me. My dad passed away prematurely when Caroline and I were married but before we had any children. The piece of advice he gave me was: “The greatest thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”
I thought, wow—give children a sense of security; allow them to grow up in a loving, peaceful, non-argumentative, non-contentious home. It doesn’t mean we don’t have things to discuss and work out, but doing that in front of young children seems inappropriate to me. Give them a sense of security.
And if it’s real—if the love, affection, admiration, and respect the parents have for each other is real—as the children get older, they’ll be able to tell. You can’t fake it. That has been my second priority.
Then, Nicholas, I’d mention that when we started the company in 1997, I had already been in business for 16 years. I was 38. I’d seen the temptations. When I told folks we were starting a consulting business from scratch, a couple of well-meaning, fine people said, “Roger, if you’re going to start a business from scratch, you’ll have to put your whole heart and soul into it. It’s going to occupy your time and attention for quite a while.”
I thanked them, but I refused to follow that, because it would have gotten in the way of priorities one and two.
Somehow I sensed that if priorities one and two stayed in place, they’d facilitate number three. Would it slow growth, mean less money, or something like that? Maybe.
But the trade-off didn’t seem worthwhile. I probably said to a couple of close friends: that advice may be true for others, but if that’s what I have to do, I’ll go back and work for someone else. I’ve done that before; I can do it again.
So, starting the business for me meant 50 hours a week. That’s still a lot—so I’m not saying I was at every school event—but we wanted to eat dinner together as a family and have weekends together.
And that worked in our situation.
Nicholas Paulukow
Absolutely. I agree wholeheartedly—it’s kind of a match.
I realized, being in business for over 20 years, that if the measurement was a dollar figure or size, then maybe we’re not “winning.” But as our family grew, one day at the dinner table—because that was a priority—one of our children said, “Hey, we’re different.”
I asked, “What does different mean?” My son said, “My friends don’t eat together.”
I asked, “What does that mean to you?” He said, “They don’t seem very connected.” From a young kid, that hit me.
Now our children are in college or married, and what they got out of just dinner! I think they have a master’s degree in tough love and learning—even in business.
We didn’t realize how much we spoke about people and how much they apparently listen—whereas we think our teenagers don’t. What a blessing. It’s a testament to what we deem successful, I guess.
Roger North
Yeah, I think at some point almost all business people have a scoreboard—or multiple scoreboards. I’m ridiculously competitive. I’m thinking about winning all the time.
Knowing that’s part of my makeup—my God-given makeup—it was less important to become less competitive and more important to establish the right scoreboards, and then prioritize them. Of course, a business scoreboard—number of employees, revenue, profitability—can be an aphrodisiac if we’re not careful.
People ask you about it—more often than they ask, “How many times did you have dinner with your family in the last 30 days?”
Nobody asks me that. But people ask about the other things. So you’ve got to commit to your own scoreboards—especially if you’re competitive. I’m sure you are.
Nicholas Paulukow
I get in a little trouble for that sometimes.
Roger North
Yeah—then the scoreboard is really important.
Nicholas Paulukow
It’s interesting you say that. Over the years, I realized you have to make smart decisions about who you spend time with—just like we tell our children. There’s so much chaos and noise.
You talked about Jesus earlier, and I realized I don’t take enough quiet time. With four children and activities, it’s never quiet enough. So I’m apparently not listening. You reminded me of that.
It changes your being—believing in something bigger than yourself. A young man told me, “I love my job, I make really great money, and I’m a top producer—but the other top producers on my team are divorced, or twice divorced. I don’t want to be that.”
What an observation—very mature at 40.
We’re in Lancaster County—lots of generational businesses. Many times we build a business and sell it like an investment. You’ve taken a different approach to transitioning the business.
Could you tell us a little about that—especially going from being in charge and creating, to now working there? It has to be different.
Roger North
Thanks for asking—and stop me if this gets too long. When you live it, it’s easy to re-articulate, though not always perfectly accurately. The first thing for me was deciding early that it would be important to perpetuate the business beyond myself because I interpreted the mission as God-given. If it’s God-given, I can’t own it myself, and I can’t be selfish about it.
There were selfish moments. But it meant it would be difficult to maintain our mission and core values if the business were handed to someone who hadn’t lived in that environment. Early on, I verbalized that it was important.
I’m an extrovert; I’m talkative. Stating things out loud creates accountability when respected people hear you say them. So I told people early on: I will never sell this business outside of North Group.
We knew that before it was even worth anything. Then it became a process of bringing on people who had potential not only to consult well—which our team does—but to lead. One of my guys said, “We hire leaders and help them become consultants, not the other way around.”
That meant we had a good field of folks with potential to take over the firm. We started the discussion in 2015 and completed it in 2025—a ten-year process.
You’re not talking about it daily. Every quarter, we went off-site with four other shareholders I had at the time. There were challenging moments—times when they called me to account for behavior that wasn’t facilitating the direction we wanted.
Having four other guys—just as smart, in some cases smarter; just as good leaders, perhaps better—call you to account gets your attention. They got my attention more than once when my behavior didn’t match my articulation.
Nicholas Paulukow
When you go through that process, I’m sure it’s hard. You started as the sole owner, right? Initially?
Roger North
No, I had a partner, Laura Schantz—many of your listeners probably know her.
She’s a wonderful person, and I want to give her credit—I haven’t done that often enough. I probably wouldn’t have started the business without Laura. I needed her will and enthusiasm to get started. She left after five years; it was a good parting of ways.
At that point, I felt I needed partners—other shareholders—because I knew, in my early 40s, that’s a challenging time for men.
It’s about the time we think we’ve got it: “I’ve figured this out. I’m successful. I’m making a living. My name is out front.” You begin to feel your oats, and then you realize if you go down that path, it probably won’t end well.
I wanted accountability. I’ve always had other shareholders with both a missional and financial interest in the business. The first was an employee at the time, Dennis Clemmer, who bought some of Laura’s shares. He was older and more mature.
Every once in a while he’d come into my office and say, “You know, Roger, we’re not going to do that.” Something I’d dreamed up and started blathering about.
He’d just say, “We’re not going to do that.” And I’d say, “Yeah.” I’ve had numerous people respectfully and lovingly help me when I get off on my own trajectory—which I enjoy—but I know it ends up in the wrong place.
Nicholas Paulukow
Over the years, you develop businesses and ideas. To start from ground zero, you have big visions. In a leadership program, my team said, “Oh, there’s a term for you.” Not derogatory, just recognizing we’re all different with different talents.
If we use our talents in the right way, we’re impactful. I learn that every day. People see the success—the top of the iceberg—but not the trash below that gets you there.
I had mentors who’d already hit their peak. When I asked about starting from zero, they couldn’t remember those times the same way. They gave theory, not grind. Their advice was “don’t do it,” so my competitive nature said, “I’ll show them.” Dangerous.
I struggle because our business is here to serve and empower through education. You have this mission-based mentality. I told a seminar group I’d been in the fire service; the camaraderie there is unmatched. I asked, “How do we bring that into business?” He said, “You never can,” because lives aren’t on the line in business. People can leave.
How did you create a culture of serving and giving—and replicate that in your business?
Roger North
Good question. I don’t know if I agree with that gentleman’s theory—we could talk about that another time.
Quick story: I was off-site with some shareholder friends at another business. They had their values on the wall, and they were terrific. We respected the business.
On the way back from a break, I stopped and asked, “Is there any value here that wouldn’t fit in our organization?” In 15 seconds, all four said, “That one wouldn’t fit,” pointing to “We will always place the customer first.” Our philosophy from the beginning has been: we will always place the employee first.
I’m not telling others they should adopt that, but that’s our commitment. Beyond that, we’ve overtly committed to the employee’s family.
This was easier when we were five or eight people—knowing spouses and children, showing up at their basketball games, baptisms, performances; recognizing milestones; letting the family know they’re part of our family. Putting your arms around a bigger community than just the people whose names are on the paycheck has been our commitment. I’m completely confident it will continue.
They may not carry it out exactly as I did, but the ethic will remain. That’s been a big part of what emanates from the inside out.
Related story: I had the opportunity to work with an emerging leader taking over a ministry organization from a founder of nearly 40 years—a founder everyone would know. They asked me to help the successor over the next couple of years. We had a good time with that; he’s still there and the organization is doing wonderfully.
We were invited to a family birthday party, and as we were leaving, his wife said to Caroline and me, “Thank you to Roger and North Group for what you’ve done for my husband. What we never anticipated was that you would care about and become part of our family.”
That has to start internally. I can’t ask my employees to take on that commitment—to do after-hours things, to be at memorial services and major events—if we aren’t doing it for them. That’s a big part of the cohesion we’ve built. I didn’t want that to be just my job or the leader’s job, though I needed to set an example; it becomes everyone’s job, and things come back around.
We just had an employee lose his 91-year-old father. We knew where he was headed for eternity, but we also knew our friend had a very close relationship with his father. I don’t know how many from North Group showed up to support him—in various ways, certainly at visitation and memorial service. We don’t have to tell people to do that.
Nicholas Paulukow
They choose to do that themselves. They take time to know everyone at a deeper level. I was criticized once—“you’re getting into their personal life.” I said, “I’m just asking questions—being human.” They were more concerned about HR ramifications than simply being human. I can get overly passionate about that.
Roger North
Most human resource challenges—or risks, and HR is largely risk management—will be minimized if you have genuine care and relationships with your people. You also have to choose people for your organization.
We use a phrase—a bit Christian-y: when we hire employees, we are not going to evangelize them; we are going to disciple them. That means we’re only hiring people whose lives already show indications they’ll thrive in our culture.
Does that make sense?
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah, it does.
Roger North
We’re not taking someone who’s never been exposed to this behavior—who hasn’t shown evidence of caring, serving, putting themselves out for others, putting ego aside. We’ll help them grow in that when they’re around others with the same attitude.
Nicholas Paulukow
We had that realization years ago. We asked why we were upset in certain circumstances. We wrote some words down and said, “Wait, these are our core values.”
Roger North
This is how we operate.
Nicholas Paulukow
Each time a core value was minimized or at risk, it made us upset. The day we shifted to that, we realized everyone is great, but maybe we aren’t on the same page. One core value we have is “We Before Me.”
Roger North
And it has a definition.
Nicholas Paulukow
It helps us understand the greater good—not just the individual. Where we want to be competitive, are we lifting teammates up?
When we hired someone, they said, “I didn’t believe what everyone said, because I’ve been through so many interviews where they tell me how it’s going to be. But you actually live it.” That stunned me. During onboarding, people experience a culture they haven’t seen before.
Roger North
That’s terrific.
Nicholas Paulukow
Although we screw it up sometimes—human beings—give yourself grace. But it’s similar to what you said: serving people and being kind and loving in a world where, at times, I felt like the only person standing. Everything negative was bombarding me because people didn’t like that you were being kind. They said, “You’re destroying things by helping people like that. We’re not going to make money.” Competitors said that.
Roger North
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
If I stand alone, it’s lonely. We shouldn’t do things just for money. That was eye-opening to navigate individually. It gets lonely.
You talked about your career. Was there a time you shifted from authoritative leadership to servant leadership? Or was it always part of your beginning? Any change or learning moment?
Roger North
Sure. For me it was more an evolution than waking up one day realizing I was headed the wrong direction.
We have a saying—nothing new under the sun—but I say: the best way to lead an organization is to push decisions down to the lowest level of competence.
There are decisions you or I could make more quickly, but they should be made at a different level. Otherwise things flow back to you; you get overly busy; people become dependent; and most importantly, the people below you don’t get to feel the same respect or make the same mistakes you made to get there.
So, pushing decision-making down the organization has been a theme—in our company and with clients. But don’t get me wrong: I like authority.
Another saying: I’m about getting as much authority as I can and using as little of it as possible. You’re given authority because people see you as competent—don’t use it unless you have to. Allow others to grow under their gifts, and don’t get upset when they make a mistake—often it’s just that they did something different than you would have in a gray situation. If black-and-white issues are coming to me, that’s a mistake to begin with—why are they coming to me?
So, often it’s just someone going a different direction than you would. I’ve learned—especially in the last four-and-a-half years as my friend Jerry Murray, our president (a terrific leader), has made decisions different from mine. I didn’t always do well with that.
I criticized some of those early—probably in the first 18 months of our leadership transition. We had a, excuse the term, a come-to-Jesus. Quick story:
About 18 months into our transition—Jerry became president in early 2020, so this was probably late 2022—we had a difference of opinion over something very small. Not worth detailing.
I voiced that difference with more volume than necessary. We went into our one-on-one—which is key for a departing leader and arriving leader: meet regularly and have it out.
Jerry is one of the calmest, most reasonable, kindest people I know—and he threw up all over me.
Nicholas Paulukow
Oh no.
Roger North
About halfway in, I realized: darn it, he’s right.
Nicholas Paulukow
He was churning on that for a while, sounds like.
Roger North
He’s smarter than I am to begin with. God gave me a moment: if Jerry is this fired up, there has to be a reason—he isn’t the type to raise his voice unless he’s thought it out. I had put 93 octane in his tank. That courage to elevate under that circumstance was a gift to our relationship. I left thinking, “I’ve been getting in his way—on gray-area things.”
He wanted to go one direction; I would have gone another. Three of the four years since he became president have been the three best in our history. The proof is in his leadership.
Nicholas Paulukow
As Lencioni says, be humble.
Roger North
Yeah—and that doesn’t come easily.
Nicholas Paulukow
It does. It can be hard when you’re passionate.
Roger North
Look, I was the Small Business Person of the Year—I must be all that and a bag of chips.
It’s ridiculous how you think about yourself until your wife tells you to take out the trash and you realize you should be unloading the dishwasher.
Unloading the dishwasher is a key to marriage.
Nicholas Paulukow
I have dish duty right now. I don’t know if I love it.
When the kids are home, they test my patience on how good a dish man I am. At home we learned the same—everybody had a chore to hold each other accountable. That’s good. You’ve worked with a lot of leaders.
What’s the biggest misconception about leadership—or servant leadership—you see?
Roger North
Great question—really making me think. I’ll identify two, though we could add six or eight more.
First: that technical competence carries the day. Once you get to senior leadership—whether it’s a 12-person or 12,000-person organization—technical competence becomes less important. Too many people are promoted because of technical competence. As you go higher, technical skill still matters—you can’t ignore it or be an idiot—but it’s not the main thing.
Second: since the beginning of North Group, we’ve used the phrase “being comes before doing.”
The misconception is that leadership is mostly about getting things done. You absolutely have to execute—how else do you deliver for clients?
But every human being has a genuine-meter. We eventually figure out whether the people in our life are for us—whether words and actions line up.
People’s response to leaders who are partially there—or not there—yields less productivity, which should show up in the numbers. If they can’t commit to the idea that their leaders are actually for them—F-O-R—you get less. When you commit to being for people—this starts in the family—their response changes.
In business, the biggest misconception is that leadership is about execution. It is—but productivity depends on whether people believe leaders are sincere about the mission, values, and the way individuals are treated. People will stick around and give their best for leaders who are sold out for their success.
Most businesses’ difference in success is in that 95–98% range. Most people will give 95%. Leaders who get 98% because people know they’re for them—that’s the long-term difference.
Short-term, you can squeeze more, make extra money, push over budget, take more of people’s personal time. Long-term, if you’re committed to the long term, it comes down to whether people believe you’re genuine about their success.
Nicholas Paulukow
That’s probably hard for some—individual contributors now overseeing people, what we call LMA: lead, manage, and hold accountable. The journey can be hard: moving from contributing to coaching, leaving individualism for the greater good.
How do the most successful people navigate that? Is it inherent—believing in people beyond themselves—or learned?
Roger North
Yes.
Yes and yes. It’s both. It helps if people moving into leadership have experienced it—gifted by someone else: a parent, teacher, coach, or former boss who demonstrated it. They can think back: why was I willing to go from 95 to 98 for that person?
Can I hold on to something from that and take it into how I lead? That helps. Also, having someone—or a group—guiding you and holding you to three words we use: welfare, accountability, development.
Are they interested in my personal well-being (work and the factors that affect how we show up)? Second, accountability: we establish clear agreements about what you’re accountable for and how I’ll interact when you meet or exceed it—and, more difficult, how I’ll interact when you fall short.
Nicholas Paulukow
That’s the hard one.
Roger North
Right. And third: development. You have a responsibility to help develop that person.
Many young leaders struggle: “I’m 30 and responsible for a 50-year-old technical person. How do I develop them?” First, you need permission—which comes through caring about them as a person (welfare) and practicing mutual accountability (respect). Then you have the opportunity to have conversations about how they can grow. You may not have the answers, but you can ask the questions.
Nicholas Paulukow
One thing resonating is curiosity. If you’re not curious enough to ask questions or to know anything about someone, how can you change anything? That’s how you’re phrasing it.
Roger North
Thank you. Like most good businesses, we have a secret sauce for people who’ll eventually join our team. I won’t give the whole recipe, but one thing is relentless curiosity.
Relentless curiosity about the world, how things work, and—especially—about other people. Pursue that and you become less selfish, because your mind and heart fill with questions about the world around you and the person in front of you. Telling your story and opinion becomes less important; you have an opportunity to learn—which makes you smarter if you’re willing to listen. Relentless curiosity is a great gift to develop as a leader.
For young leaders: develop relentless curiosity about the world and the vicissitudes of human nature. Every person is a little different.
Going back to Jerry: when he came after me in that meeting, I’d never seen that before—and maybe not since. I’m glad he didn’t do it to me again. But because it was different, it made me really pay attention. He didn’t need to get far into his critique for me to realize I needed to listen.
Nicholas Paulukow
He’s right.
Roger North
I already knew he cared about me and my welfare. We had an accountability relationship. He was actually developing me in that moment—helping me understand that my behavior wasn’t the direction I wanted to go.
Nicholas Paulukow
One key thing you said: trust. When you trust and respect someone, it might hurt more, but you’re willing to listen—even if you respond emotionally at first.
I’m curious about curiosity. I don’t see as much interest in it—maybe it’s gathered differently now, more online or on social media. I don’t see a lot of questions—people seem to tell. Even in peer groups, they ask, “Why so many questions?”
Well, how can I conclude anything if I don’t know how you feel? It’s amazing that curiosity is part of your culture; you learn a lot. The times I put my foot in my mouth were when I wasn’t curious enough to ask—I made a wrong assumption. It’s never-ending.
Roger North
Curiosity allows us to overcome wrong or slightly flawed assumptions. Keep asking questions and you might find that a long-held theory has a crack in it—or shatters.
I just went through that last week in a personal situation. I had developed a theory about why something was happening. It wasn’t just a crack—it shattered.
Nicholas Paulukow
I was completely wrong. But I learned from it.
My oldest son held me accountable and said, “I know it’s coming from love, but here’s my perception. I don’t want it to go to this level.” Very mature for being in his 20s. I was fuming inside, but it was humbling—and I want to improve. He followed up with, “I see that you’re making change.” I said, “Are you my father now?”
Humbling. We all want to know where we can improve. Maybe our initial response is different, but yes—that’s amazing. You’ve built a lot of leaders.
What are the top three things essential to a great leader? You’ve mentioned some already.
Roger North
We could go many directions, but I’ll go here—and we’ll leave integrity and genuineness as “permission to play.” Over my career, the most helpful things have been: asking good questions, listening intently to the responses, and occasionally commenting on whether those responses fit together.
Nicholas Paulukow
True that. Does that make sense?
Roger North
Yeah, that’s well said. I was a sales manager in a former life. I went to a sales seminar; the speaker was manipulative and self-focused, but he taught a questioning process that made so much sense I decided to master it.
Master might be too strong, but I believe I did—so much so I don’t have to think about it. The ability to ask questions that take people a step beyond where they’d normally go in their thinking. If trust is created inside that interest, they might share something they couldn’t draw out previously. That’s an honor—like Moses at the burning bush.
Every once in a while, with someone you’ve known for 90 minutes, they lean forward and say, “I’m going to share something I’ve hardly shared with anyone else.”
Nicholas Paulukow
It’s the connection.
Roger North
That’s holy ground. There’s an integrity commitment there—the person has sensed your genuineness. That’s the being.
The doing is you’ve asked enough good questions to help them think about something and verbalize something helpful—because they’re in an environment that lets them know themselves better and evaluate how to move forward. Maybe you play a role—or maybe you just listen as they figure it out in front of you. Then just—shut up and listen.
Nicholas Paulukow
It reminds me of the difference between selfless and selfish. If I’m selfless—really trying to help them—then I shouldn’t be thinking about me and my result. I get in trouble with that sometimes—everything is about helping, but really, you want to help them get to their own conclusion too, right?
Roger North
It’s much better for people to get there on their own. I have an ego and professional will; I’d like someone to go away saying, “Roger was really helpful—gave me a great insight.” But what lasts more is when they believe they got there on their own—because we created the environment. Then they own it—and aren’t dependent on me for the next insight.
They can grow over the next 30 days before they see me again. So get rid of that ego that wants them leaving thinking, “Wasn’t Nicholas terrific? Wasn’t Roger terrific?”
I don’t want them thinking about me. I want them thinking, “God’s building something in me that will help my journey, marriage, parenthood, vocation, service to the community.” I don’t want them thinking about me along the way.
Nicholas Paulukow
Just like those who helped me along the way.
Roger North
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
We read so many leadership books. Earlier I talked about centering, and I realized there’s one book that gives me all the answers.
When I read the Bible more closely, it felt like every problem I had that morning was answered there. If you live that life—you’ll mess up every day, we’re not perfect—but I heard a talk about the lasting impact of a pastor. Everyone in the room had been impacted by him without realizing it. One thing I’m not good at, that he was, is patience.
He’d plant a seed and then be patient. I’m learning that. He said it took one gentleman three years to show up; when he did, the pastor said, “Welcome. I’m glad you’re finally here.”
Imagine that impact. To your point, he didn’t want the praise. Learning how that’s done is amazing.
Tell us some lessons you learned from starting a business.
Roger North
Patience—which has never come easily to me; it doesn’t to most entrepreneurs, Americans, or men.
When Laura and I started from scratch, we had a little seed money, but not much. We committed to staying in touch with people and believing that consistent planting and watering would eventually pay the next month’s rent and salaries. The first couple of years were challenging.
I have a gift that bothers some people: I’m not sentimental. I spend very little time looking back. Ask me what I did last week—I’ll struggle. Ask me what’s on my docket next week—I can tell you.
Why? Because starting a business with no form—“leadership consultants” (a term that barely existed in the late 1990s)—we knew we could go back to former occupations. Sales, insurance—our education. We could fall back.
But I decided not to spend time thinking about that. I needed all my vocational energy to make this work. Rather than thinking about fallback positions, put all your energy into the commitment.
I have no idea if North Group could have worked anywhere else. Maybe. The key was we’d already been part of this community for 16 years—engaged in service, building friendships. People had some regard for us.
When we started, we called those people and said, “Would you give us 60–90 minutes to tell you about this concept?” A large majority said yes. Eventually a few became clients, and they told others.
For us, it was one employee and one client at a time. Follow through. If you see someone and say, “We ought to get together,” then actually do it. If you don’t intend to, just say, “It’s nice to see you.”
If I’m going to take responsibility, I own it. Particularly in central Pennsylvania, where people value follow-through and hard work—that works. I wasn’t 100%, but I’ve worked hard at it: before you say, “Let’s get together,” make sure you’re committed, have capacity, and the will—then say it, hold yourself accountable, and follow through.
Nicholas Paulukow
It hurts worse otherwise—it feels like a veiled invite.
Roger North
You wonder whether the person even likes you.
Nicholas Paulukow
As we wrap up, you do a lot of volunteering. For leaders who say, “I’m too busy to give back,” what’s your response?
Roger North
It depends on how well I know the person, but I might use a term you and I won’t repeat here and say that’s not correct. If you’re going to extract from a person, community, or relationship, you have to put something into it.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right—you have to give some.
Roger North
If I’m going to make money or gain clients from the community around me, don’t I have to put something in first?
When I went to work for Murray Insurance in 1989, I had a mentor, Joe May (rest in peace). Within a month he said, “Roger, find a cause or causes in this community you want to serve. Go volunteer. If that’s during the day, that’s fine. This is a community organization and you’re a leader here; I want you involved.”
He got me into Leadership Lancaster. I graduated 34 years ago. That launched my community service career, gave me a beautiful education in what makes Lancaster County such a great community—its civic endeavors. Joe supported that.
Laura and I took that into business. It’s an ethic of our business now. One of my favorite scriptures, Hebrews 10:24: “Let us spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”
How do we do that? By giving of ourselves. Everyone at North Group understands it goes beyond the company. Part of their responsibility is to put something into this community—give first before expecting anything in return.
A later-in-life lesson: stop looking for reciprocity.
Nicholas Paulukow
Absolutely. Some give to get—that’s not the recipe for success.
Roger North
Adam Grant wrote Give and Take—be a giver. You’ll eventually get it back, but don’t expect it. Don’t count it.
Nicholas Paulukow
There’s another one, The Go-Giver.
Roger North
Also amazing.
Nicholas Paulukow
Finally, as we wrap: you’re doing a little consulting, volunteering, golfing—what brings you the most joy these days?
Roger North
I’m on a journey to continue developing my character by learning to sit. I’ve never been good at sitting with God.
I heard a story about a priest who noticed an older gentleman sitting in the pew every morning, stock still—for two hours. The priest introduced himself and asked what he was doing. The man said, “I just come here to smile at God and appreciate Him smiling back at me.”
If I would even give five or ten minutes—not two hours—to that each day, to realize God’s love and plan for humanity, and for me, then if doing that every morning would allow me to be a little more giving and selfless, good things would happen.
So I’m learning to sit, to take better care of my soul, spending more time thinking about what I can do for other people—things not in the limelight. I’ve gotten way too much credit for boardroom time. Find someone who can’t get out and needs their weeds pulled.
My love language is words of affirmation—I’m constantly courting praise—so I’m developing character. I’m appreciating the season of life God has given me to become a better husband, father, grandfather, community leader, and servant.
That sounds high and mighty—everyone listening is doing that on some level, I’m sure. But I have a little less “doing” on my schedule now, so I want to plug in more “being.” And I’m trying to get my handicap down—it’s not going all that well.
Nicholas Paulukow
Hey, practice makes perfect, right?
Roger North
Bad practice makes bad results.
Nicholas Paulukow
Oh goodness. But we’re having fun. Thank you, Roger.
Well folks, that’s a wrap with Roger North—proof that you can transition a company, a career, and maybe even your golf swing with grace. From boardrooms to beach chairs, Roger’s shown us that servant leadership isn’t just a strategy—it’s a lifestyle.
If you take nothing else away from today, remember: build people, not just businesses. And if that fails, at least book a tee time at Hilton Head.
Roger, thanks for sharing your wisdom. To our listeners: go out there and lead like you’ve got six grandkids watching—because if that doesn’t keep you accountable, nothing will. Until next time, this has been the Servant Leader’s Library.
I’m Nicholas Paulukow reminding you: serve first, lead always—and keep it cheeky enough to stay human. All right. Thank you, everybody.
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