Teaming With Ideas

Darryl Stickel has studied the data, and concluded that trust is created in the one who trusts, not in someone else's trustworthiness. Learn how to build trust in your team by beginning with yourself.

The World Health Organization, ISO, even the UN agree: psychological safety begins with you, not your manager. Learn how to self actualize your own psychological safety and how self-compassion, mindfulness and acceptance of what you can and can't control are the tools to achieve it.

Quincy Troupe learned early on that staying curious and trusting others will bring their best to work resolves conflicts and contrasting political agendas resiliently. Listen or read his interview here.

Andrew Fox has a lot to say about his style of leadership, having courage at work to lead and collaborate, and how to deal with jerks - both as teammates and bosses.

Mutuality with Gary Clarke

With over 30 years of business experience Gary is an authentic value driven business leader with global and domestic CPG experience. He was fortunate enough to build a 20-year career with MARS right through from entry sales level to General management. He is well known for his ability to coach mentor and lead teams that deliver sustainable long-term outcomes. With this experience and passion, Gary has now founded 360Resolve a company that is driven by the belief that business and leaders have a huge role to play as we look to build more sustainable businesses through better human social and environmental practices.

Gary, did you get a degree in business at some point?

No, I actually didn’t; that’s what makes it quite unique. I left school at fifteen and started a trade. So I joined the FMCG industry at the age of thirty. So I’ve done a lot of different things before actually joining Mars, which makes it quite unique.

What trade were you trained in?

I climbed power poles, electrical poles. And I started about the age of fifteen. 

That’s dangerous stuff, that’s risky!

It can be, yes, and that’s why I decided that I’d be better off selling things rather than climbing power poles. 

From climbing poles to leading teams

One of the things that’s interesting about you and your bio is that you chose to go from being a productive member of society to being a consultant. I’m just curious to know - how did you land on that?

It goes back just a little bit. In the last role that I had at Mars, I was fortunate enough to join an executive education program at Oxford called the Economics of Mutuality, and it explores the idea of businesses’ role in society and environmental practice and how you can build sustainable businesses moving forward. And that fascinated me and really hooked me in. I spent a lot of time working with the team, I went through the program, I went back as a guest presenter, and I’ve continued to stay in touch with them. At the end of my time at Mars, I was sort of - as we all do - wondering what I was going to do with my time, and I’m quite altruistic so I wanted to give back. I felt that I could play a role in helping business leaders prepare for the future, because I think the future is a lot different than the past that I grew up in.

My business has three areas. It’s a coaching business, it does some business consulting, but it also does thought leadership, and the thought leadership area is where I bring the Economics of Mutuality program forward through a partnership with them and other business units. It’s sort of uncharted waters. We’re all looking at the condition of the planet and we’re looking at how things are operating; we know we need to change, and I think business can play a significant role in that, so I’m here to help.

If  you Google Economics of Mutuality you’ll find a compelling area of social science and economics that was pioneered by our former employer, Mars Inc.

Early Teams leadership lessons

You’ve been a member of teams from your days climbing power poles, right on through your years with Mars. When did you lead your first team?

I’ve always led teams. I was lucky to be good enough at sport to be the captain, if you like. I always had a really strong appreciation for the value of players on a field, and I think when you’re young you don’t really understand the concept of teamwork other than to lead by example - what I was always taught. If you did your best, you would hope that everybody else would follow along. That concept was probably my first ever go at line management when I got into leading a business team. I thought, “I need to get involved and show everybody how it’s done, and then I’m sure they’ll follow.” It didn’t quite work that way. 

What kind of team was it? What function? 

I was working for Mars in the Petcare business. We had a team of territory managers. My idea of being a great line manager was to get in the trenches and do the work alongside the teams, which is one element. Boy, was I about to learn that there is a lot more to managing a business team than just showing them how to do things. 

What I would do was replicate the behaviors that I wanted them to carry out, but what I was missing was that they actually wanted to know that I knew they could do the job themselves. So I was, very early, taught the lesson of, “it’s not your job to come out here and do my job for me, your job is to come out and help me do my job really well.” It sort of changed my mind quite quickly. I got the concept of being able to coach and mentor and support, and get off the field, if you like - if you want to use that analogy - get off the field, be outside and watch people and help them when they need the support. That was a really good experience for me and I’m glad I got that experience fairly young in my career at Mars.

“DRIVING” A TEAM VS LEADING ONE

Within that experience, Gary, was there one of those tough “aha” moments, when either someone sat you down and had some straight talk with you, or you just had a sudden realization that you’d put your foot in it?

I think I started to understand quite quickly that I was getting a reputation as being a driver, and that didn’t sit that well with me. “Here he comes again, he’s gonna come out and drive me.” I didn’t really enjoy that, and I heard it through the team. The team was starting to give me feedback - “This isn’t how we want to be managed, this isn’t how we want to be led.” I was lucky enough to be able to (a.) have a team that was giving me feedback, which I think is a really important thing, and then (b.) having the maturity to be able to respond to it.

Memorable leader and their lessons

It was fairly collegial, it sounds like. Do you recall a leader you worked with early on who was either a positive or a negative role model for you?

Absolutely. It was my first field manager that I worked for in Western Australia, and she very quickly invested heavily into my development. I couldn’t believe it, actually. I mean, I’d been in the business world for fifteen years, and done it all pretty much by myself; I’d worked for small businesses, or worked for myself. And then to have somebody who’s (a.) interested in you, and (b.) prepared to put resources behind you and help you grow - I was shocked, to be honest, and couldn’t believe it was actually happening. And I’m ever thankful and grateful, because what she did was set me on a path which really did tie well into my whole career because development is important. It does make a difference, and it can really transform you - the person - and your business environment. She was an amazing line manager for giving me the confidence to grow, just by clearly taking an interest in me and investing in me. I couldn’t believe it was happening. 

She was a very firm believer in - there’s classrooms, and then there’s learning from others, and then there’s learning on the job. So she would constantly stretch me. I can recall I used to get quite angry because she’d just give me more tasks, more tasks, more tasks. But that was her way of finding out where my capacity was. At the time it didn’t feel like that. 

The lesson you learned was about “don’t be a driver,” but it sounds like she was driving you pretty hard, Gary. Towards your development, but she was driving you. 

I think she was, but not in the way that I probably was doing it to the team that I was experiencing, because I was probably going down this perfectionist trait as well. I wanted things to be done exactly right, all the time, in time, on full, no room for error. So it was a different type of driving, whereas she was driving me to find my potential. It’s a different feeling. 

Leading By Example

I want to talk about that “leading by example” thing you talked about earlier, because that’s a very common phrase. Where is it right to lead by example, or is it ever?

I prefer to call it “setting the tone” rather than “leading by example.” I think when you’re talking behaviors - the way you want the business to run or the teams to run - then I think it is the role of the leader to set the tone of the business. But what I was confusing it with was that hands-on, right down

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