Inside The Edge
About
The Executive Chair
The one question you always want to ask a successful person in a senior leadership role is “How did you get there?” In developing your own career, you learn more from hearing what worked – and didn’t work – from senior leaders and hearing their wisdom than from any other source.
We are embarking on a series of interviews with leaders who exemplify success for us. In their words are insights that can give you direction for moving your own career forward.
To read a summary, written by Michael DeVenney, of the past 12 interviews this year - click here.
| Doug Clarke - Trust Your People |
Bluteau DeVenney and Company (BDCO): What did you do to move to a leadership role?Doug Clarke (DC) In a way I have been in a leadership role for most of my career. When I finished high school, I started out washing pots and pans in a hospital, and then moved on to work in a bank. At that point I decided to go back to school and get my degree. Once I had my degree I became a Chartered Accountant (CA) and started working with a CA firm. Almost every position I had from that point on was a leadership position, so I would have to say that getting my CA was really a turning point for me. (BDCO): What is one thing that developing professionals need to do more of?(DC): They have to depend on their staff. If you do a good job of hiring, you can then let people go and do their job. If you put the time in to finding the right people your life will be a whole lot easier. (BDCO): What about doing less of?(DC): They need to focus less on the short term. Focusing on the things that provide short term results are often the things that stress people out and generally do not provide any real value to the organization in the long run. (BDCO): What experience helped you the most in your career and why?(DC): I worked for a bank as a teller when I was in my late teens. I always tell my staff that I was the best teller the bank ever had because I made every single mistake you could possibly imagine. My manager, who was one of the few female managers at the bank at the time, spent hours teaching me where I went wrong and how to correct my mistakes. I learned a lot from her. I learned how to treat my staff. I leave them alone to do their job, and if they make a mistake I am here to help them fix it. The other experience that really helped me is playing team sports all of my life. In that environment you learn very quickly that you're only one small part of the team, and getting a title really doesn't mean anything if you're not part of that team. One of the most important people in our organization is our receptionist, because she is the first face people see when they walk through our door. (BDCO): What was the greatest challenge moving your career forward?(DC): I don't know if you would call it a challenge, but trying to decide what I wanted to do personally, and what value I could add, was very difficult. Moving from the financial side, where I was really comfortable, to the strategic planning side was probably my toughest decision. (BDCO): What is the greatest strength of your approach to leadership?(DC): Respecting and trusting our staff. My belief is that each member of our staff is just as good or better at their job than I am at mine, so there is no sense in me trying to do it all myself. I feel the job of a CEO involves setting the direction and then letting people do their job. If they get into trouble, I am always here to help them through it. (BDCO): What has been the biggest surprise you have had since attaining a senior leadership role?(DC): I am always surprised by the number of people in leadership roles that can't make decisions. I always considered business to be more of an art than a science. You have to really think about your game plan and follow through on it, but a lot of people try to get it 100 percent right, and therefore don't make any decisions at all. (BDCO): What is the greatest benefit to you in attaining a senior leadership role?(DC): The relationships that I have been able to make along the way. I've always joke that sometimes when I am invited to an event they are inviting the "CEO", not Doug Clarke, and I know that's not going to happen when I retire. This has been an amazing opportunity to meet so many great people while in this role. (BDCO): What is the next achievement you want in your leadership career?(DC): Right now I am putting that on hold. I have grandchildren that I plan on spending a lot of time with. If I decide to get back into the business world I'll look at my options then, but I don't have any plans at this time. (BDCO): What is the biggest challenge you face in achieving results in your work?(DC): One challenge would be, as I mentioned preciously, getting people to make decisions that enable us to move ahead on different initiatives. Some of the decisions that affect this organization are made by other people, and sometimes getting them to make a decision on a reasonable time frame is difficult. The second challenge is trying to create an environment where there is equity and remuneration for all of the different positions across the province. Creating a level playing field is very difficult. (BDCO): What is your greatest opportunity/goal for providing value for your organization?(DC): I think we've taken the organization from a negotiating body to an organization that is really involved in the community. We are very passionate about health promotion. We spend approximately 25 percent of our budget on community events and health promotion. I think people now see Doctors Nova Scotia as good corporate citizen in the community, which has enabled us to get involved in many areas we probably wouldn't have been involved in if we were just negotiating contracts for doctors. Continuing to build on that image would probably be the greatest value I can add. (BDCO): What added support or capability would help you most in delivering on your goals?(DC): A long term plan from government would be really helpful. A lot of the work we do is in connection with the government, so if they had a clearer direction for where they were going in health care, I think we would be able to provide much more support. Most of the things we end up doing now with government are short-term related, which don't really fix any of the problems that people really want solved, such as access to health care. Think about where you are now in your career and what you can take from Doug's observations. We would love to hear your comments about what are your key takeaways from our conversation with Doug. Tell us your progress – we want you to succeed. ______________________________________________________________
Doctors Nova Scotia is the professional association representing all physicians in the province. It also has the honour of being the oldest medical association in Canada. With over 3,500 members in total, Doctors Nova Scotia's membership includes practicing physicians, retired physicians, medical students and residents. You can find out more about Doctors Nova Scotia at www.doctorsns.com.
|
