Action Based Leadership: Bridging the Gap Between Employee's & Success

Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Scott Douglas Clary.

Scott, I love that you have found ways to constantly branch out and learn new skills. You are the CEO & Founder of roioverload.com, host of the Sales vs Marketing podcast, a contributor at Forbes, and the list goes on.

If I were to ask your family how they would describe you, what would they say?

Hmm...that is a great question. I was born in Toronto, Ontario Canada where my father worked for the government and my mother worked at the university. My mother loved working in labs and had a background in Science so she assisted graduate student's working on their thesis. I would say my family would probably call me a little crazy and super ambitious for breaking with tradition and striking out on my own. It was almost unheard of in my family for someone to go in to private industries and there I was running a consulting firm at that. I know that they would say they respect what I have done but wished I hadn't had to struggle as much starting out.

What would you say was your biggest challenge having your own Consulting Firm?

I didn't know what to look for in the right partner. I had two partners but they were in different stages in their career and life than I was. The business was a hobby for them and for me it was my livelihood. The other challenge was being able to work 40 hours a week as an outsourced Executive and then having to run down those leads and gain new clients outside of those 40 hour weeks in order to keep the business growing. I quickly learned that I didn't want to be spread that thin trying to build someone else's business and not having enough time for my own. I wanted to focus on only building one business.

What would you say was your biggest challenge as a new leader?

There tend to be many challenges as a new leader but the one that really stood out to me was Impostor Syndrome. Every time I encountered a situation that didn't meet my preconceived notion, I would question myself and struggle with if I was really made for the position or had the skills for it. I think everyone goes through this as a new leader. What you have to remember is that no one has all the answers, no one has it all figured out, and there is always something new to learn as things are changing constantly. You just have to change your mindset and be open to constantly increasing your knowledge and evolving your techniques.

How would you describe your leadership style?

I would describe it as Action Based Management. I feel that you are the most effective, authentic, and transparent as a leader this way. Action Based Management allows you the privilege to map out activities to employee KPI's and help them understand that the path you've laid out for them, truly has their best interests in mind. This can be achieved by keeping the following at the forefront of your approach:

1. Being a servant leader. Understanding that once you're put in a position of power or leadership, your goal is to serve the people on your team, remove obstacles, provide support, and allow them to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively.
2. Adopt a coaching strategy. Understand how to effectively mentor and coach reps who may be straying off the road, in order to bring them into line, not to reprimand the individual but to help them be the best they can be. This is done through guidance, lessons, insights, and mentorship. A true coaching strategy extends far beyond pipeline review and should be done in a cadence and style that allows the best possible communication with your team.
3. Stay relevant. Although you aren't in the trenches everyday, knowing what conversations, industry nuances, customer objections, and roadblocks your team has is important to having relevant & meaningful coaching sessions.
4. Extreme ownership. A concept borrowed from Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, who wrote a book by the same name. Extreme ownership is simply the principle that you own everything, all the losses, faults, and shortcomings of your team and their performance, while ensuring that they receive the credit for their achievements.

Who or what has had the biggest impact on your leadership style?

There have been countless mentors and leaders I’ve had over my life which i’m massively grateful for. To say it was just one person would be doing everyone who’s had an impact on me a massive disservice. I would like to focus on two people who have had the biggest impact on me as a person, which has allowed me to continue to learn and grow as a professional and leader.

The first person who had and still has a massive impact on me, was my mother. She taught me the ability to truly care about others, and show unconditional love through communication, transparency, and honesty. I’ve never seen someone with the ability to connect with others like her and I take that into every interaction I engage in. The ability to connect on an authentic and personal level is the secret ingredient to everything from coaching an employee to closing a deal with a client. I couldn't thank her enough for instilling this in me at a young age.

The second person that has had a massive impact on me is my beautiful better half, who has stuck with me through ups and down, and has always had an incredibly unwavering positive view on life. Her outlook and support has given me the strength to push through and grow in both my personal and professional career. With her help, I have seen that truly anything is possible - as corny as it sounds, if you believe in your ability to achieve it.

What do you think is the trait most needed in leaders today?

Self-awareness and patience. Too many leaders are just thrown into roles just because they’re the “best” in their department and aren’t armed with proper leadership or management training. This makes it extremely difficult to manage effectively and truly “lead people”, which should be the main objective of a leader. Through self-awareness and patience, they can learn most traits required to be effective leaders, focus on their own short-comings, and excel in their new role. This will assist in building trust, being authentic, creating strong long-term relationships with their team, and eventually leading to a more effective and productive business unit.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Patience is the single biggest asset you can have as an entrepreneur or professional. We lose the concept of time due to our always on, always connected, go go go society. There is amazing value in understanding that everything we take on is a marathon, not a sprint. Although we should always set goals and strive to achieve them it always seem like we want our long-term goals to be delivered immediately and short-term day to day we push off until tomorrow, next week, next month. Let’s flip that on it’s head, understand that it takes time to achieve substantial change in your career but do not put off items that need to be done. If we took this approach to life we’d be happier and more successful all around.

What do you consider your biggest accomplishment thus far?

In a job interview I would say: giving a great presentation at work, beating sales targets, training for and completing a marathon, closing the largest enterprise client, and organizing a successful charity event. Outside of that, my greatest accomplishment to date manifests itself in micro events of thanks, praise, or validation that I’ve had a positive impact on a client, peer, or mentee. I take great pride in the work I deliver and the ability to share the knowledge I have gained by mentoring several individuals within my company and on LinkedIn. Being able to help others succeed or seeing the positive results from the advise I have given them, are the little wins that let me know I am doing something right. It completely makes it all worth it.

Where do you go from here?

I will always enjoy the ability to work with emerging technologies and bring them to market. I’ve always enjoyed implementing new and innovative strategies, as well as, modernizing businesses and revenue centers in particular. The realization of my accomplishments in an organization is my true driver and what brings me the most fulfilment in my career. As I mature in my career, although I still have much more to learn and accomplish, I hope to be fortunate enough to help guide my peers through their own professional and personal journeys. This may come about through teaching or mentoring because this is what gives me great satisfaction in my career, even now. I just hope to be able to do it on a grander scale.

If someone wanted to reach out to you, how would you prefer to be contacted?

Please email me at [email protected] for Keynote Speaking, interviews, podcasts or any other requests. You can also connect with me on any social media platform using @sdouglasclary.

Thank you so much for letting me pick your brain on leadership, Scott.

It was my pleasure. Thank you for having me, Cristina.