AN INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN BILL OF
WESTMINSTER ASSOCIATES
Westminster Associates is a global leadership development
consultancy, founded 16 years ago and led by Wirral’s
Paul Thompson. Here we talk to Kevin Bill, who heads up
Westminster Associates in North America, about his career, life,
and what it's like to live in The City by the Bay, San Francisco.
Tell us about yourself.
I was born in Fargo, North Dakota where I lived for the first few
years of my life, wrapped in woollen sweaters and huddled near
the heating vent. If you've ever seen the movie "Fargo" you've
got a pretty good idea of the climate there. We moved to Sioux
Falls, South Dakota when I was five. It's a couple hundred miles
south and a few degrees warmer, but the difference between
North Dakota and South Dakota is shades of grey, both literally
and figuratively. Chilly weather aside, it was a good childhood of
excellent schools, strong values, and family all around, and the
older I get the more I cherish all I learned and became there.
When I turned 18 I knew it was time to leave the nest, and so off
to university I went, eventually ending up in New York City. I
spent my twenties in Manhattan, loving every minute of it, before
I sort of accidentally moved to San Francisco, by which I mean I
came to San Francisco as a short-term assignment for my job and
never went back. Someone once said "Live in New York City once,
but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California
once, but leave before it makes you soft." I've ticked the first part of
that sentence off my to-do list, but I can't bring myself to tick the
second. San Francisco has proved impossible to leave.
Prior to founding Westminster Associates, what did you do?
I spent many years working for investment banks as the Director
of the bank's regional offices across the US (not including the
mothership in New York City, as that is an entity unto itself). It
was excellent experience not only from a practical, hands-on
perspective, but also from the perspective of learning how really
extraordinary companies nurture and support their employees.
They all share the values of teamwork, trust, and respect, and they
hold one another accountable for maintaining those values.
It goes back to what I mentioned about the values I learned in
childhood. Some things you learn because you're told to. How
to hold your fork. How to do basic multiplication. Those things
are transactional. Other things you learn by example. What is
your work ethic? How do you treat other people? Those things
are transformational at the most fundamental level. We learn by
example without even realizing, and that's fascinating to me since
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we do it as children as well as adults. We're transformed by other's
examples without even realizing it. I keep coming back to this idea,
especially in today's topsy-turvy, up-is-down, black-is-white world.
How did you meet your business partner Paul Thompson?
Paul was in San Francisco for client work. His client brought him
to a happy hour mixer that I was attending. Paul and I got talking,
and I was fascinated by the work he did. I invited him to a barbecue
my neighbours were throwing the next day, and we talked more.
We kept in touch and talked frequently. Fast forward a few years
and Paul and I incorporated in North America with Westminster
Associates North America, the partner company to Paul's UK-
based Westminster Associates Ltd. The response to the US launch
has been terrific, as we're now able to take care of our local clients
in both locations as well as our global clients who have a presence
in the UK and the US.
In a nutshell, what does Westminster Associates do?
The foundation of what we do is help people develop into the best
version of themselves. We then build on that foundation to help
those same people build the best teams and develop into the best
and most authentic leaders they can be. The five adjectives that
our clients told us define Westminster Associates are authentic,
professional, respectful, supportive, and trustworthy, and we strive
to bring all of those to everything we do. We know that within
every organization there are great people, and within some, there
are great leaders. We develop great people and great leaders. This is
what we do. Every day.
To motivate and lead people successfully, what skills do you need
to have?
Effective leaders need to be authentic in what they say and do,
and allow their people to be the same. The best motivation comes
from within, intrinsically and honestly. Nobody can force it on
you. Great leaders create an environment that fosters that intrinsic
motivation. The key, though, is to remember that different people
are motivated by different things. For example, some people are
motivated by achievement, so they'll be motivated by achieving
goals, bringing about change, and being empowered to chart a
company's future. For others it's about how they interact with
others, so things like having a positive influence over others,
creating strong working relationships, or having the choice between
working in groups or on their own will be strong motivators. And
for others it's about enjoyment, so they'll be motivated by feelings of
security, structure, and recognition for their achievements.