Lane Funeral Home South Crest Chapel managing partner Jason Cox studies the book "Jack Welch and the 4-E's of Leadership." The book is what helped him achieve the recent 4-E Leadership Award in Houston, Texas.Lane Funeral Home South Crest Chapel can add another award to their collection: Managing partner Jason Cox's 4-E Leadership Award.
"I was honored to receive this award," said Cox, a resident of Rock Spring. "It was unexpected and an honor. It speaks volumes for the funeral home. When you get the 'who' right, the 'what' follows and good happens. We got recognition for things we do and it was nice."
Out of 169 funeral homes under the Carriage Services umbrella, six were awarded the prestigious 4-E Leadership Award this year.
"We do things at Lane Funeral Home based on Jack Welch's book, 'The 4-E's of Leadership,'" Cox said of the book that corresponds to the award's title. "Carriage Services' CEO is Mel Payne. One of the things he asked all the managing partners to do is read, 'The 4-E's of Leadership.' The four E's are energy, energize, edge and execute."
According to Cox, managing partners use the book's leadership ideas in their individual funeral homes and in their individual communities.
"When you look at 4-E's, you want to be able to energize the people you work with," said Cox. "You have to have the energy to be able to energize. And you have to have some edge about yourself as well. Edge is tackling problems head on. And of course execute [is important too]. Every time we have meetings for staff the four E's of Leadership are brought up.
"The reason why that's important is because people are the reason we are successful or not successful," he added.
Lane Funeral Home South Crest Chapel's 21 employees work with many different families that are grieving, which makes professionalism all the more important in Cox's line of work.
"And we sit down with those families," said Cox. "We have to listen to them and we have to learn from them. And by listening and learning, we are able to provide unique services. If we don't ask the right questions to the family, they won't open up and we can't give them what they deserve."
Cox said the staff of Lane Funeral Home try to guide to families to point them in the right direction, as well as offer a shoulder to cry.
However, Cox added, the services of Lane Funeral Home go beyond the doors of the Rossville business and extend out to area residents in need.
"In our community we do things that go beyond funerals," he explained. "This lady called us up and her grandchildren were coming into town. And she said she had nothing to give them for Christmas. So, we brought her a fruit basket to hand out fruit to her grandchildren.
"Another lady called yesterday that was sick with vertigo and could not get out. She said, 'I'm sick and I'd love soup.' We got her ginger ale and creamy chicken soup. It's not just about working funerals. It's about being there for our families."