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Leadership Lucky Draw: Kathy O’Leary, Stroud DC

May 15, 2024  

Kathy O’Leary is the Chief Executive of one of the greenest places in the country – Stroud in Gloucestershire. Stroud is the meeting point of the Five Valleys, and the home of Extinction Rebellion.

We dig into Kathy’s leadership secrets as she picks questions at random from our lucky draw – from how her upbringing shaped her, to what she most regrets about her CV, to what inspirational quote she would frame.

Hello, I’m Kathy O’Leary and I’m the chief executive at Stroud District Council in Gloucestershire.

Stroud itself has got five different river valleys running into it, which makes it a little bit of a flood hotspot sometimes, but it’s an incredibly beautiful area and it’s full of the most passionate people on the planet.

I’ve been sent a pack of questions. So let’s pick out the questions.

Do you have a leadership style and what is it?

I think I’d describe my leadership style as collaborative, which I think is why I’m probably the chief executive here. My council has been in no overall control since 2012 and prior to me, they had a chief executive who was probably a little bit more of the big hero leader, a bit more command and control. I think that was probably frustrating the political complexity here. So definitely when I came to the job, I really got the feeling that they were looking for somebody a little bit more collaborative, who was a good communicator.

I worked with six different group leaders, four of them were in the administration and two of them are in opposition. It means that I furiously need to communicate with all of them all the time because obviously I serve all of them and I was appointed by all group leaders as well.

That change in style at the top of the organisation has meant a real culture change in the organisation. So the culture of the organisation is now more outward facing, more collaborative, more empowered, and that I think really suits the way that we like to work.

How did your upbringing shape where you are today?

My family are a family of public servants. My parents were both in public service. My grandparents were in public service. And I think it’s been instilled in me that we are there to make a difference and we are there to do good.

The other thing I suppose I’d say about my upbringing, clearly I had a lot of encouragement from my parents and my family to pursue my interests, but I did go to a very tough comprehensive school in Essex, as you can probably tell from my accent.

If you stood out for any reason at all, whether you were clever or stupid or good at something or bad at something, you were picked on mercilessly because that kind of a school really suits a sausage machine process, doesn’t it? So I did stand out for probably all the wrong reasons, and I think that just toughened me up a bit.

Your CV: What are you most proud of and what do you most regret?

I’m probably proudest of the job I now have. I never thought I would be a chief executive. I never actually actively sought to be a chief executive until in more recent years. And so I am tremendously proud, not just because I am one, because of what I can do with it.

As chief executive, I get to influence in spaces that I never thought I would be able to get into. So for example, I’m tremendously proud that I’m the chief executive sponsor for equalities diversity and inclusion in the Southwest. And also I’m now the Solace spokesperson for the climate change and environment portfolio, which really plays to my council strengths, both of those things.

What do you most regret on your CV? I’m going to have to think about that a bit, but I think probably the thing I most regret is a couple of jobs ago, probably staying in it a bit too long. I probably knew that I should have left and I should have taken myself somewhere about two years before I actually did. And sometimes it takes you a while to realise that it will be good for you and it will be better for the team that you are with and the organisation if you just move on. Take your skills and talents somewhere else where you’re probably a better fit.

Let’s pick another one out. Oh! This is a good one for today.

What gets you through a tough working day?

Well, yeah, today’s been one of those already. One of the things that gets me through a tough working day is I have got a really, really good, strong team around me. You are only as good as the team around you, so I know that I’ve got a really trusted team at the strategic leadership team level, and I know that whatever’s going on in the organisation, if we face it together, we probably can tough it out a little bit.

I probably don’t take things too seriously, too personally, because a lot of things that are said to you or about you aren’t meant in a personal way. I am probably quite resilient, and I know that I’ve always got my family to go home to at the end of the day. And that again, is the team around you at home. You need a really strong team around you in your private life as much as you do in your working environment, and that will get you through pretty much anything.

I do know whatever tough day I’m having, there are many, many people who are having much, much tougher days than I am. And if I can make a difference to the toughness of their working day, if I can help them, that makes me feel good about my day.

If you had an inspirational quote on your wall, what would it say?

I’ve got a long background in Girl Guiding. I was a Girl Guider working with a Brownie pack for a very, very long time, and ‘Be Prepared’ is the motto of girl guiding and indeed scouting around the world.

Certainly people here would say that one of the things I say to the team most often is, it’s all in the preparation. It’s like decorating a room. It’s all in the preparation. We need to make sure that everybody’s really well prepared for whatever we are going to present to them, so that it is not a surprise to them, and everybody’s familiar with what we’re going to do and everybody’s comfortable with the decisions that we’re going to make around it.

That goes back to one of the other things I’m quite famous for saying, which is my golden rule of ‘no surprises’, which means prepare people as far as you can so that nothing is a horrible shock for them. I apply that to my leaders, and I like it when they return that favour to me.

The other one is probably Carpe Diem. You know, seize the moment, grab the moment. And that’s because you never really know what’s around the corner and you never really know what’s going to happen. And, certainly in my own family at the moment, we’ve had a couple of those Carpe Diem moments where you really can’t wait to do some of the things and say some of the things that need saying and doing because you just don’t know how much time you’ve got to do and say them.

Well, thank you very much for having me. I’ve enjoyed answering some random questions about leadership and I hope you get something from those.


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