Local Leader Spotlight – Carly O’Brien
By Patricia Kopec
At Intrigue, we believe in empowering leaders and strengthening communities — that’s why we have decided to spotlight a ‘Local Leader’ each month!
Our Local Leaders are individuals who have shown both professional leadership and leadership within the community.
We are proud to live and work in communities with many amazing people who exemplify these qualities!
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Carly O’Brien is a member of the Intrigue sales team, a leadership facilitator for Intrigue clients, and an active member of the community.
Watch the ‘IM in a Car’ segment below to see Carly being interviewed by Intrigue co-founder Rob Murray — it’s all about leadership and failing forward.
Where do you come from and what have you been up to these days?
I joined Intrigue in September and prior to that I had my own business. When I was 29, I purchased a franchise and operated that for several years, and worked with organizational leaders to basically make money and have fun. I love helping people make money and have fun, so I had a really good time. Prior to that, I taught high school for five years which is why I think there is such a great alignment with Intrigue and with myself. At that time, I really figured out my purpose and my mission — I know at Intrigue we talk about that and how important it is to feel aligned with why you do things. When you can understand, on a really deep gut level, why you do what you do, it makes the tough stuff and the awkward days become less memorable. It allows you to say yes to what’s important and say no to what’s not fundamentally important.
I’d love for you to explain the idea of dining rooms through board rooms; as a teacher you kind of made that idea come to life. Where does it come from and what does it mean to you?
Before I went into teaching, after my teaching degree I went into an internship in Toronto for a large company called Chief Global and figured out that businesses would actually invest in helping their workplaces, and the people inside of their workplaces, be more productive and results-focused — but also to do things that help them have a good time at work.
I realized that in the corporate environment, you can do teaching and it has such a large impact when done with integrity and done well. I did that internship and then I went on to teach for five years, where I loved the students and loved teaching. In my last year I was trying to decide where my career path would go because two of my top five strengths are learner and input. With that I have a need to be learning things on a regular basis. So doing grade nine as a teacher 35 times wasn’t really going to be my thing.
As I was looking at career paths, I took the role of Vice Principal for grade nines, which meant myself and 300 thirteen-year-olds would spend the day together. I would spend time helping students understand the value of education and the importance of being in the classroom when the class is happening, as well as being in the right frame of mind. Over time I would end up not just talking to the students, but speaking with the families. What I would see is a pattern developing that the families I would often be working with…we would be on a team helping this young person get their education.
As a Vice Principal, you’re often spending your time with 10% of the population because 90% of the kids are in class doing what needs to be done and being great kids. Then there are others who have some big items they’re struggling with and big issues they’re trying to figure out.
What I learned with the families is not only was it causing the family stress to have the teenager in the home trying to figure out what to do, but the family was often under stress for two reasons. The adults in the home often worked in a workplace that was toxic, where there was real difficulty, or, they were self-employed or in a small business of some sort. There’s often a struggle that small business owners experience in getting enough money for what you do. So making money and having fun weren’t happening in workplaces which was affecting the home. So, we would spend from eight in the morning until sometimes one o’clock to get the student to focus on school.
So, there I am thinking, I can’t teach grade nine, or grade twelve, or any of the grades 35 times as a normal teaching career would. I have an insatiable need to learn new things. I had already had a business previously, so I took about eight months and looked at different items, and then I landed upon this idea of working with workplaces and helping them in areas of organization development, leadership sales training, and basically communications inside the workplace.
From there I found a Canadian company that I joined for about eight years, worked with that team to build up a client list, and was able to go every day to help people inside workplaces make money and have fun. The reason I did that, was dining rooms to board rooms, whenever you start a business there are hard days. This was 2007, I ran that until I decided to leave that organization in 2014
So, I made it through 2007 and 2008 with lots of help. You don’t do anything as an individual really. When I’m working in a boardroom of some sort, maybe doing strategic planning, leadership development, or helping them recognize the mindset of a sales professional as opposed to a sales person they don’t want to be. Helping them recognize the value of communication and the platinum rule of understanding where the other person is coming from before you start speaking, or before sharing your ideas. This is so that you respect your time and theirs.
Every day, ideally, the people that I’m working with, there’s a kid behind them that’s a neighbour’s kid, a niece or nephew, maybe they coach little league, they do something else that hopefully the things we talk about helps them put more energy back into their communities.
When it comes to keeping yourself on track, what kind of things do you say to keep moving one step in front of the other on a day-in day-out basis?
I think as an individual, momentum forward is my default setting, so if I’m not moving forward something feels weird. That’s a part of how I’m wired. I think in the day-to-day, the calendar is really important. The people that you surround yourself with, and being part of the Intrigue team and the clients we work with, we’re part of getting better. Empowering leaders to strengthen communities.There’s something we’re moving towards, so it’s sort of being involved in this great tidal wave of progress and moving towards something. So I let it do it’s work.
Last week around the office there was a lot of talk about failing forward and progress, not perfection. What’s your take on that?
I think the idea of a true leader, or anyone who is self-leading or leading an organization, the idea of being vulnerable too. If you haven’t done it before, you’re not going to do it perfectly. You can strive for excellence and you can strive for perfection, but you’re going to need to try things you’ve never done before. You’re going to need to be okay with the fact that you might fall down and people will see it.
True leadership now is not about standing and saying all of these perfect things so that people will follow. It’s very much about being really who you are because people are watching. As a leader you have more influence in being who you actually are and recognizing perfection has not and will not be attained. People will see that, regardless of what stage you’re at or where people think you are, we are all moving, growing, shaping, and changing everyday. So, if you’ve accepted that, it makes it a whole lot easier.
You’re doing a facilitation tomorrow at our event. Can you give us a quick little heads-up as to what you’ll be doing?
We’ve got a lineup of five speakers. Myself and Sue Nash will do some sort of facilitation activity. My goal, within the fifteen minutes allotted, will be to have the hundred-plus people reflect on what we’ve talked about and then share among each other and get to know other people in the room. I’ll use a little activity called Snowball, where I’ll ask everyone in the room to write something on a piece of paper and then crumple it and chuck it as far as they can. Then hopefully they’ll end up chatting with someone about what they found on a piece of paper and how it might inspire them to take the next step in their lead-yourself journey.
