!["There was such a difference between how the [union] negotiators treated me and how they treated my dad. I was flabbergasted. And I used it to my advantage." --Jessica Scerri](https://zonda.go-vip.net/prosales/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2012/tmp29-2etmp-tcm71-1031104.jpg?w=600)
Meagan McCoy Jones
Vice president of field support, McCoy’s Building Supply, San Marcos, Texas
Jones, 30, is being groomed by her father, CEO and owner Brian McCoy, to eventually take over the family’s 83-yard company business. McCoy’s ranked 12th on the 2011 ProSales 100. Jones has a 2-year-old and is expecting her second child in May.
If you don’t like people you shouldn’t be in this business.
I think one of the incredible strengths we women have is as nurturers. Our people do need that nurturing, [both] our team members and our customers. We bring this to our businesses. We woman are particularly gifted in that way. As a woman, this plays to our strengths.
If you didn’t grow up as a handy person, you have to work harder to learn it. When I encounter a really knowledgeable woman in our industry, I know she worked a lot harder to acquire that knowledge.
I have noticed that in an industry where there aren’t a lot of women, and when you meet a few of them and make introductions, there tends to be a rivalry. And it’s very uncomfortable. It’s a quirky thing that I didn’t expect. What I wish is for us to get over that. It’s almost as if we have been taught that there is a finite space for us. But that’s just not true.
I can liken why I joined this to a calling. I have always been drawn to this business, and my dad has worked really hard to introduce me to other women in the business–managers and vendors. My father has also given me the freedom to do my job differently from the way he did it. It’s helpful to hear that.
My dad’s style is incredibly inclusive and very fair. So was my grandfather’s. I just want to get things done. I want to say, “We need to hit this target, let’s go hit it.” My dad probably wouldn’t do that. [He’d say] “Let’s get in a room together and work toward a solution.”
I tend to think that’s too many steps, but I think perhaps I would like to be more like him. I have a high need for accountability, both for myself and the people around me. After my son was born I missed deadlines that I would never have missed before, and that has made me more compassionate and more appropriately compassionate. Not everything is as important as everything else.
I try to work four days a week so I can be with my son three days a week. It took some convincing for me to believe that I could be effective four days a week at work. My dad encouraged me to do this. I bring my son to work with me two days a week; Gideon is 2 and he spends a lot of time with my dad. I think my dad has spent a lot more time with my son at 2 than he did with me when I was that age. I see this with my executive team, some of whom are now becoming grandparents, and [I see] the culture is changing.
I’m a realist, but a bit of a dreamer too. I think my job is to think of the next 10 and 20 and 30 and 40 years. We need some tech solutions for the next five years, but what about the decisions that set us up for 20 years?
Our industry is a curious one. We are very much into the retail yet very much a pro yard. I can’t imagine that
I would have understood that tension unless I had worked in a yard.
When I started that job [in August 2007], I was the second assistant manager, which was atypical for that store. Then the first assistant left, and I was the sole assistant and the manager left for a weeklong cruise. That week everything went wrong. There was a smoke alarm, which caused general panic. and one of our trucks got in an accident. That Thursday, on the way back home after work, I called my dad and cried like a 12-year-old girl and said, “I don’t think I can go back.” He said, “I don’t think you have a choice.” I said, “I guess you’re right.”
When I pulled up to the store early on Friday, it was still dark, and I looked up at that building and thought: You are my nemesis, but I’m going to work this out.
I started working in the business while I was still in grad school at the University of Texas to get my master’s degree for my field [rhetoric and communications]. And I noticed I started waking up earlier on the days I knew I was going to be working at McCoy’s. And I said, “Meagan, there’s your answer.” I feel blessed that I love it. I was able to sort out what I wanted to do really young.
