After building housing for the poor, collecting clothing for the salvation army and working in a drug rehab center, colvard said he was able to empathize with employees facing crises back home. And that, he says, has made him a better manager. “My goal was to make the numbers, and in some cases that meant not looking at the individual but looking at the bottom line,” says colvard. “After that one-month stay, I immediately stared reaching out to people in a different way.”