Listening Post

Following the Leaders
#2 IN A 10-PART SERIES ON THE ATTRIBUTES WHICH FOSTER STRONG LEADERSHIP

After you have the vision, you have to make it fly

by Shannon Sutherland

A clock chimes the hour, which it has already done once since we began speaking, but Gail Surkan is still patiently answering questions. Refreshingly, she’s telling me what I need to know without wasting words or wandering off topic.

I try to picture what she’s wearing, because somehow it feels inappropriate to ask. In my mind, she’s lounging around in a cozy ivory coloured chenille sweater, tights and fuzzy slippers. Yes, definitely fuzzy slippers. I wonder why this particular image has popped into my head. This is the former four-term mayor of Red Deer – the founding chair and pioneering force behind the Central Alberta Economic Partnership (CAEP) and current vice-chair of the Provincial Health Council. I realize I see her in fuzzy slippers rather than a pin-striped business suit because Surkan seems so comfortable on the phone that sometimes I forget I’m conducting an interview. She sure doesn’t sound like someone who is being interviewed.

I’ve spoken with many leaders over the years and booming voices and rapid-fire responses seem to be part of the persona more often than not. Surkan, however, is different. Her tone is relaxed and casual, and she frequently pauses to gather her thoughts without unnecessary apologies. She doesn’t seem to care if she controls the conversation or not, and I have talked to enough career politicians to know this is rare. Most politicians like to talk – about their politics, their experiences, their theories, their ideologies and, of course, about themselves. Ask Surkan a question, though, and she’ll answer it in her characteristic straightforward fashion.

She’s not elusive or difficult or one of those jaded types who are interviewed-out. It finally occurs to me that Surkan is a seasoned listener, and good listeners know how to not talk. That quality is at the core of her leadership style. Sit down for a chat with Surkan and she is not merely waiting for her turn to talk. This is how she inspires trust; how she became the queen of collaborative problem-solving as Red Deer’s mayor from 1992 to 2004 and as the unrelenting CAEP crusader.

At a time when many of us in the “big cities” viewed central Alberta as a place to stop and answer the call of nature on the way from one city that mattered to the other, CAEP quietly started seducing industrialists and enticing entrepreneurs to the region, convincing them to set up shop in and around Red Deer. Convergys and NOVA Chemicals are just a couple of companies won over by CAEP’s message.

While Surkan is best known for her no nonsense political style as mayor, her accomplishments with CAEP might actually be a greater testament to her leadership. She took a group of individuals who saw each other as fierce competitors and helped turn them into a cohesive group of 42 communities collaborating to conquer those who would lure investors away from the geographic epicentre of the province. “That whole thing was essentially a trust-building exercise,” says Surkan. “And the trust had to be created by taking small steps working on small, short term projects together. You simply have to sit down in a room together and find some common ground, and then you can work from there.” That approach is likely the only one that would have worked in such a situation, according to CAEP’s manager, Andre Tremblay. “Gail never steps out and takes the bull by the horns in her leadership,” he says. “She always takes a consultative and collaborative approach. In a group setting, she always solicits everyone’s opinions, and she never leads individualistically.”

In the case of CAEP, the common ground was that all the members wanted economic gain. Unfortunately, that was also what created division. Surkan decided to show them how every community could benefit from working with their neighbours instead of competing. “We didn’t just dive right in. When we started we didn’t even have any good data to describe the economic activity in the region, so that’s where we began,” says Surkan. “We built a database together. For early adopters, it was a non-threatening activity, because it was a task with a time limit and no one was stepping on any toes. What it did do though was put people in a situation where they could work together and share resources and actually produce something of value.” What might have felt like fraternizing with the enemy eventually became a businessinspired brethren. Between 1998 and 2004, CAEP nearly doubled its membership, and Surkan was seen as a true partner rather than a bigwig from the city who couldn’t care less about the Acmes and Alixes of the region.

“Increasingly, leaders are needed to deal with multi-stakeholder groups and the skills required to do that are very different from those needed in a top-down organization based on authority,” says Surkan. “No one will even be willing to consider collaboration if you can’t find some common ground, because you can’t build consensus without it.” Surkan says she’s “not one to focus on gender,” but she adds that her femininity might have predisposed her to lead with unity rather than undue influence. “I think we (women) are socialized to be more consensual, and in the past we didn’t have the power, so we needed consensus to move ahead,” she says. “Many men are also capable of leading this way, but I think you see more of an attraction to it for women.”

Oprah would probably call her a “people pleaser,” and Surkan wouldn’t see that as a derisive descriptor. You may not be able to please all of the people all of the time, but Surkan pleases more than most, even in unlikely situations. When it came time to tackle tobacco, for instance, Surkan knew after listening to everyone’s agendas that she’d have to handle the issue with the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Job to make peace among taxpayers. “I learned that you have to be patient when affecting permanent change,” Surkan says about Red Deer’s smoking bylaw debate. “It’s tempting to lean on leaders to make changes quickly, but sometimes people must move through change at a slower pace and you have to accept that. You have to look at everyone involved and understand who will be impacted and how they see their future. It’s transformational change.” There would be no ramming through anti-smoking bylaws, in this Marlboro-Man district. “Ultimately, the community wanted to work towards healthier environments,” says Surkan, “but the city was prepared to take a graduated approach to this after hearing the concerns of everyone involved.”

“She was very skilled at reading the mood or pulse of the community and recognized that with smoking it would require a couple of smaller steps rather than one large one,” recounts city manager Norbert Van Wyk. “The initial bylaw restricted smoking in public places where minors were present. The proposed bylaw, which is out for consultation now, would ban smoking in all public places regardless of age.”

While many community leaders quickly tire of public consultations – which sound nice in theory but often end up as public tongue lashing sessions for politicians – Surkan always made listening a priority. Today, she says, it’s a necessity for survival in both political and corporate arenas. Leaders must listen, learn and then they must sell their solutions. “We have lived through the post-war paramilitary form of business, which worked in a relatively closed economy and predictable environment,” says Surkan. “Now that we’re in a very unpredictable environment in a global economy, however, people are requiring business leaders to express a vision people can understand and align with.” In other words, don’t tell me what you want me to do; tell me why you want me to do it, and then tell me why I should want to do it. “This comes back to finding common ground again,” says Surkan. “I know I keep saying that, but it’s worth repeating. You can’t lead people who are going off in different directions.”

She says you also cannot lead people who don’t believe in your leadership. “First and foremost, a leader must be trusted, and the only way to earn trust its to be honest, fair, transparent and equitable,” says Surkan. “Demonstrate that behaviour every day on an ongoing basis with everyone you touch: employees, employers, constituents, family and friends.” To truly understand how seriously Surkan takes this trust stuff, one only has to look to her mentor – Mother Theresa. There’s nothing quite like setting the standard for morality up to sainthood.

Van Wyk calls Surkan “a beacon of principled leadership in Red Deer,” and it’s not hard to find other people to say great things about her abilities. Stand on the corner of Gaetz Avenue and Ross Street downtown, throw a stick and you’ll probably hit someone with something nice to say about Surkan. For Surkan, that means mission accomplished. “I just want to be remembered as a decent human being,” she says.

And I just know that somewhere in her closet, amid the practical pumps and power suits, lurks a pair of fuzzy slippers. Now that’s a leader I can trust.

The Big Picture is a regular column which voices broad corporate and economic issues through extended dialogue with prominent academic and business leaders. In 2005, we present “Following the Leaders,” a 10-part series on leadership attributes.

In conjunction with this series, we are pleased to announce the ICAA/Alberta Venture Leadership Prize, honouring the best research paper on the topic of business leadership written by a student enrolled in a post-secondary education institution in Alberta in 2005/2006. This $5,000 cash bursary is provided by Alberta Venture and the Chartered Accountants of Alberta.

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