Success Labs Leadership Profile: An Interview with Gloria West

Gloria West has more than 15 years of experience in supply chain, people and human resources management. During her 11 years at Intel Corporation, Gloria worked with factory, corporate and supply chain partners spanning multiple levels of global management and was a recognized expert people manager who maintained high employee morale and effectiveness.

Later, in her role as the first human resource manager for Tony's Seafood and Louisiana Fish Fry Products, she developed the HR department, instituted team and organizational development, facilitated and improved the performance review and compensation process and consolidated benefits administration.

Read on to learn more about Gloria’s approach to leadership and developing better leaders in this leadership profile.

What's your leadership philosophy?

Leadership is demonstrated in the absence of the leader. Prepare the people who work for you and with you to keep things going, handle problems and make decisions when you are not there to do it or to give recommendations or guidance. When they succeed in your absence, or even if they fail in your absence, if they have felt brave enough – excited even – by having to do it by themselves, then you have demonstrated true leadership.

Which business leader(s) do you look up to and why?

I look up to business leaders who look beyond paper credentials and pay attention to potential. These leaders often invest time, energy and money in employee training and development. They seek out people who are quick to learn and have the courage to try new things and exceed expectations and they put them in positions to do so. Leaders who encourage and reward risk-taking and creativity, even when ideas fail or decisions turn out to be the wrong ones. They take the blame but give the credit.

What's the hardest leadership lesson you ever had to learn?

Find a way to say what needs to be said when nobody wants to hear it. Keep trying different ways, even ways that may be uncomfortable, until it is heard.

What's the most common weakness you see in leaders and how do you help them improve on it?

Giving effective constructive feedback to the people they lead. To improve on it, leaders must first understand why it’s important and be clear about expectations for behavior and results. They must also embrace, philosophically, that the purpose of constructive feedback is to help people get better. Leaders need to acknowledge the difficulty or awkwardness of feedback and have those difficult conversations. Don’t let the fact that you have let something slide in the past get in the way of addressing it now. Be specific and objective. Be factual and get to the point. Describe what success looks like. Do whatever you can to help the receiver maintain dignity. Be a role model for receiving feedback, ask for feedback and be specific with open-ended questions to help your followers give you feedback.

Describe a client whose leadership growth has especially impressed you?

I coached a department manager who needed to work on developing his Interpersonal Savvy. He was effective at getting results, but had received feedback that he was unapproachable. He recognized that he came across as awkward to others and knew that he struggled with making connections with people. He was eager to make a change but didn’t know how. Through coaching and emphasis on his development plan action steps, he disciplined himself to go out of his comfort zone and do the things necessary to build rapport with people. What impressed me was how much he embraced the concepts, and even took it a step further and started noticing the behaviors of other people. It gave him an appreciation of the skills and efforts of others, as well as additional insight into how he could modify his own behavior.

Success Labs is a full-service, strategic organizational and leadership development company located in Baton Rouge, La. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.