Every once in a while you come across a speaker who captivates you and who you wish had more time to speak. One such speaker stood out at the Electricity Sector Council conference last week. Don Lowry, President and Chief Executive Officer from EPCOR spoke on a panel about ‘Moving Forward’ in an era of skilled work shortages and an aging workforce; his leadership style very much appealed to me.

I’ll explain why. Don talked a lot about people and how his company excels through its people. I’ve heard lots of CEOs make this comment but Don went on to talk about providing people with what he called “big juicy responsible jobs.” In other words really challenge your workers and they will come through for you and drive the success of your business. He talked about how the “soft” stuff can be really hard. Don suggested it was easy to go to meetings and look after capital and engineering, but making sure people where in the right job and challenged to do their best, was hard work. He talked about the biggest risk in business being the promotion of people and how if a mistake is made you need to fix it quickly. Probably the thing that struck me the most was his genuineness when he talked with pride about his people.

He told us not to run from business challenges, but rather to look at those challenges as opportunities and said we all learn more about ourselves when faced with challenges.

He suggested that we should never miss an opportunity to communicate and never assume that people know what’s going on in your head.

Don provided four key building blocks to success:

1. Get it straight - have clear, focussed and understandable goals that are inspirational.
2. Establish measurable points that tell you if you are winning or losing - where are you going, how do you get there and what will it look like when you arrive?
3. Put in place a governance structure and build an organizational structure around it. Stretch your people because they want to be challenged.
4. Get the CEO out of the way. Don’t micromanage, build winning teams and inspire people to anticipate your business’ future. Think about how technology is going to change your business.

Don said success was all about the people, communication and hiring very carefully. I expect his approach to leadership also drives success. Truly an inspirational leader!

What qualities do you think make an inspiring leader? Please join the conversation by leaving a comment with your thoughts.