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.
| Sean O'Regan - Listen and Observe |
Bluteau DeVenney and Company (BDCO): What did you do to move to a leadership role?Sean O'Regan (SO): It was never a given that I would be CEO. My father wasn't in the new car business until I was in high school, so I grew up working at a gas station, pumping gas and selling cars from his used car lot across the street. After university, I worked full time in sales; starting as a sales person and eventually becoming a general manager for O’Regan’s. I also worked for a large dealership in Quebec as an assistant sales manager. All of which allowed me to gain insight into how other people did this job successfully. I was in the car industry for about 25 years before I moved into a CEO role. (BDCO): What is one thing that developing professionals need to do more of?(SO): Listen and observe. When you are first starting out and only managing a few people, it is very easy to make decisions and then act on those decisions. However, when you are managing a larger organization you really have to listen to the good people that you have hopefully surrounded yourself with, in order to determine what is going to work best for the group as a whole and the most effective way to produce overall results. This way you will develop a plan that has a lot more buy in and will ultimately be more successful, rather than try to push a plan that people haven't been a part of developing. (BDCO): What about doing less of?(SO): Don't be afraid to look for ideas from other industries that may technically be working with a different product but, at the end of the day, are involved in similar operations. Also, you have to be careful not to micro-manage. You have to trust people to do their jobs and allow them to develop. Of course, you still have to monitor from a high-level, but if you micro-manage neither your employees nor your business will ever grow. (BDCO): What experience helped you the most in your career and why?(SO): I learned very early that if you want something you have to work for it. Things are very rarely just given to you, but if you are given the opportunity to work for them, make the most of it. I was fortunate in that I always had that opportunity to work, even at a young age. (BDCO): What was the greatest challenge moving your career forward?(SO): I'm not sure that there is any one challenge that stands out. I made sure to pick a career that I enjoyed and something that I felt I had the ability to succeed in. As a result, I didn't feel that there were any big challenges. I was prepared for what was coming and I had the confidence that with the right approach and a lot of work I was ready for whatever lay ahead. (BDCO): What is the greatest strength of your approach to leadership?(SO): I believe in helping people develop. I try to do this by working with people to set achievable goals for the organization, as well as helping people set their own individual goals as well. I like to break things into very understandable measurements so that we can easily review our goals and measure our progress. (BDCO): What has been the biggest surprise you have had since attaining a senior leadership role?(SO): I am always surprised when I am asked to do an interview or share my opinion on a particular issue, but as far as running the business goes, change is constant. I try to expect the unexpected to minimize the big surprises. (BDCO): What is the greatest benefit to you in attaining a senior leadership role?(SO): You have more control over the agenda of the organization. You have more of an ability to direct the resources to ensure that the goals you have set can be attained. (BDCO): What is the next achievement you want in your leadership career?(SO): I want to find someone that can do my job better than I can. Succession planning, if done well, takes time. We have over 700 employees, which means that 700 families depend on the future of our organization. That is a huge responsibility, one that cannot be taken lightly. (BDCO): What is your greatest opportunity/goal for providing value for your organization?(SO): I am very comfortable with change. I believe in knowing your history to understand what you have done in the past and how it has or has not worked. However, I am not so committed to the way things have been done in the past that I neglect looking for better ways to do things. I try to be very open-minded and change oriented. Some processes that worked very well for us a few years ago may not work for us today. It may have nothing to do with execution, but more related to our evolving environment. My job is to try to see these changes coming and work hard to make sure we stay ahead of them. (BDCO): What added support or capability would help you the most in delivering on your goals?(SO): The ability to find the right people for the job. We are a training organization, so we don't have to wait for a person who is already trained to come along; we train them ourselves. That being said, we are still challenged with finding the right people to put through that training process. Figuring out a way to ensure we train the right people for the right jobs would definitely help strengthen our organization.
Think about where you are now in your career and what you can take from Sean’s observations. We would love to hear your comments about what are your key takeaways from our conversation with Sean. Tell us your progress – we want you to succeed. ______________________________________________________________
O'Regan's is a family owned business serving Nova Scotians since 1915. Now a third generation automotive group, O’Regan’s is committed to excellent customer service through New and Used Car Sales, Leasing, Service, Auto Body Repair, Parts and Automotive Detailing Service. You can find out more about O'Regan's at www.oregans.ca. |
