Seasons Leadership Podcast
Join Debbie Collard and Susan Ireland, co-hosts and co-founders of Seasons Leadership, in making positive leadership the norm rather than the exception. On the Seasons Leadership Podcast, we will bring you practical, actionable advice you can apply now to improve your leadership - and life. Join us on Wednesdays throughout the seasons.
Selected by Feedspot as one of the Top 15 Positive Leadership Podcasts on the web.
Seasons Leadership Podcast
Leading through values and respect with Barb Wilson
Join me, Debbie Collard, for this inspirational conversation with Barb Wilson, chief financial administrative officer at Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri. Listen to Barb's journey, deeply rooted in family values, which has shaped her extensive career across both for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Discover how Barb's leadership style, honed from her early days at McDonnell Douglas/Boeing, emphasizes respect, inclusion, and community engagement. Learn about her significant role at the Girl Scouts, where she oversees a substantial budget and various departments, ensuring the mission to empower the next generation of women leaders is well-funded and effective.
Show Notes:
(5:40) We talk about values-based leadership. Barb shares an example of her core value of family. She advises leaders to think about what is really driving you so you can stay in alignment with your values.
(7:20) Barb shares a story about her unique leadership opportunity transitioning to another culture and environment in the Czech Republic. She talks about how she viewed the opportunity as “only upside” and made the most of her leadership experience.
(12:53) We talk about leadership excellence and Barb emphasizes the importance of leaders recognizing the next leaders and how she helps other leaders grow.
(15:48) Passions, favorite jobs, strategic discussions and developing a rolodex of mentors - we talk about all the things that lead to a rewarding career.
(24:50) Actionable advice – Barb leaves listeners with this: never forget where you came from, and leadership is a life-long commitment.
About Barb: Barb is the Chief Financial Administrative Officer for Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri where she is a key strategic partner and collaborator, guiding the organization's financial oversight for accounting, business services, retail, property management, capital projects, risk management, contracts, and technology functions of the organization. Prior to her current position, Wilson served as Senior Finance Director with The Boeing Company where she held a variety of progressively senior roles in finance and program management. A native of St. Louis, she has actively participated volunteering time in her community and is a very proud Girl Scout Alumna. Barb holds a B.S. degree in business administration, with a concentration in management, from Auburn University. She has also earned an M.B.A. degree, and M.A. degree in computer resources and information management from Webster University and a M.S. degree in national resource strategy from National Defense University’s Industrial College of the Armed Forces. She is a graduate of the 2007-2008 FOCUS Leadership St. Louis® program and alumni of Defense Acquisition University.
Join Debbie Collard and Susan Ireland, certified coaches and co-founders of Seasons Leadership, in making positive leadership the norm rather than the exception on Wednesdays on the Seasons Leadership Podcast. (Selected by Feedspot as one of the Top 15 Positive Leadership Podcasts on the web!)
And now you can join our community of values-based leaders on Seasons Leadership Patreon at Patreon.com/seasonsleadership. At our gold-level, unlock our exclusive Lessons in Leadership Column from our Resident Seasoned Leader David Spong, a lifetime member of the Board of the Malcom Baldrige Foundation and our Leadership Elements Series.
Welcome everybody to the Seasons Leadership Podcast, where we are committed to leaders everywhere, at all levels, who want to make progress on their leadership journey. We will bring you actionable advice to improve your leadership and life today.
Speaker 2:Thank you for joining us At Seasons Leadership. We share a vision to make excellent leadership the worldwide standard. Learn more at seasonsleLeadershipcom.
Speaker 1:Hello everybody and welcome to the Seasons Leadership Podcast. Today you have myself here, debbie Collard, as your host. My co-host, my normal co-host, susan Ireland, couldn't join us today, and so you're just going to get me and our very special guest, barb Wilson. Barb, welcome, thank you. Good to be here. It's good to have you here. So we're going to kick this off today by having Barb. You tell us a little bit about yourself, whatever you want our listeners to know about who you are and what you do Well.
Speaker 3:Thank you for that question, Debbie, and I guess, just starting, I just want to say who I am. I'm, let's see, the proud mother of an eight-year-old daughter, but also I am the oldest of three siblings of a mom and dad who had the hindsight to make sure that, as a leader, that a lot of my upbringing was the foundation of my values that I have as a leader. So one of the things that's very important to me is treating people respectfully, you know, making sure that I think about inclusion and just sharing and listening and talking with people. I think those values that I grew up with, those core values, have carried me through my career. And my career is going on close to 30 years now and it's been a blending of for-profit organizations as well as nonprofit. And I will say that for the for-profit experience, working for a major aerospace company was one of the best opportunities I've had.
Speaker 3:But in my second career now, working for Girl Scouts in a nonprofit area, it gives me a chance to give back and that's one of the things as part of my upbringing that was very important for me is to make sure that whatever you do at whatever level that you're in your career, that you give back.
Speaker 3:So, as far as my background and experience, obviously I had a very successful career nine to. Obviously I had a very successful career nine to five, but I had a very successful I'll say career in nonprofits and giving back over the years, whether it was for the St Louis Zoo that's here in St Louis or some of our local tech colleges. I also was on the Urban Sprouts Child Development Center, which was one that was near and dear to me, because I think all the things that I've done over the course of my career have always had some key component of our youth, because I think our youth are important in terms of the shaping and the grooming. So if you look at my resume and my bio, you always see something that ties back to the community. So that's a little bit about me professionally and a little bit personally as we start our conversation.
Speaker 1:Okay, great, and I see that lovely Girl Scout pin on your lapel there, tell us a little bit about what you're currently doing.
Speaker 3:Well, currently I am the Chief Financial Administrator Officer at Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri and for me, as this is my second career, it was almost like coming home.
Speaker 3:I am a former Girl Scout, I'm a Girl Scout alum, my daughter is a Girl Scout, so it's very exciting for me to be able to see my daughter grow up in the Girl Scout as part of seeing things that I saw many years ago. It's instilling in these young women, young girls that would become women, those things that we want them to be women of courage and character and confidence. So currently, right now, I manage, I want to say, a budget, annual budget of about 14 or 15 million dollars. I've got a team that encompasses the accounting and finance, but also I have responsibility for our gift shop. So that's hence you see, the lovely pin that I have out of the gift shop. But I also have responsibility for the facilities and risk management, as well as also making sure that the internal staff as part of the business services get taken care of. So lots of things to do at Girl Scouts. Every day is an adventure, but I'm having fun.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's amazing. That's good. It sounds like from the brief history that you gave us, that you've been in leadership roles from a very young age.
Speaker 3:Yes, I have, and that's one of the things that you know. When I was growing up, I had the opportunity, while I was in high school, to go to a program that was at McDonnell Douglas called Developing Engineering Students, and I think that was my first brush at just really understanding leadership at a very young age. And then, obviously, you know, as you matriculate through high school and in college, I did internships but you know, I don't think I ever really thought about leadership in the way that it's evolved for me. But again, I have purposefully made sure that you know, no matter how much I've progressed through whether it was you know the corporate, you know structure, or either any of the nonprofits that I've dealt with is just, you know, from a leadership standpoint, just being the person that you know steps in and just does what needs to get done and help people.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and it seems like you mentioned earlier your values and your parents helped instill this set of values in you from a young age, you and your siblings, and we at Seasons Leadership. As you know, we believe very strongly in values-based leadership, and could you give me an example of when your values came in? I know there's many, but give me one example of when your values came into play for you as a leader.
Speaker 3:Well, I think, my values when I think about the things that drive me, and one of the things I always talk about with my team is that, you know, it's God first, then family, then career. So for me, those values you know when I think about, you know, just around family, for instance. You know one of my core values I have to learn how to say no values. I have to learn how to say no. You know, sometimes it's very hard to say no when you're in conflict with having to have to do something. That's personal, but then it's something work related. So I just, you know that core value for me. I won't sacrifice not being there for my family and I sometimes have to give people a hard no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is actually a skill that many of the leaders that we do coaching with struggle with on being able to say no, and so that's a very helpful tip for them that, if you think about coaching, what's really driving you and those values, that that can enable you saying no because you are in alignment with your own values.
Speaker 3:On that, yes yes, exactly, exactly, sometimes but you have to do it absolutely.
Speaker 1:You do um. I've known you for a lot of years we've known each other for a lot of years. And um, there was one story you told me a really long time ago. I don't even know if you'll remember it. But you got an opportunity, and if I screwed this up, apologies in advance. You got an opportunity to go live in Europe for a while.
Speaker 3:I did, I did.
Speaker 1:Tell our audience a little bit about that, because I'm sure many people want to know what that was like as a leader, transitioning to a different culture and environment and such.
Speaker 3:Well, I go back. I'll start the story by saying that throughout the course of my career I've had people like you, people that were mentors to me, were advocates for me, and when the opportunity came up for the Czech Republic, I was at a point in my career where I was wanting to do something outside of St Louis and I went to my boss at the time and he said well, I've got an opportunity in Wichita, I've got one in San Antonio, but I want you to really think about this one that's in the Czech Republic. I'm thinking why in the heck would I want to go to the Czech Republic? But I went ahead and interviewed for the job and I did great in the interview and the offer was made to me and as I was deliberating, trying to make the decision on if I was going to go or not, because it was my understanding that the person that had the job before me went and then, for family reasons, that particular person was unable to take the assignment. So I asked one of my mentors and this person said in the southern twang that I just have come to love. She said well, you can't make it any worse, because I knew that the business that we had there. It was a joint venture and the, the financials were not good and, like I said, my mentor and advocate and now friend says well, again, you can't make it any worse. So I went and for me, the opportunity to be, as part of a joint venture, living in a foreign country, not speaking the language. But I have been a person who's always believed that you're constantly wanting to learn something new and this one was a true stretch for me, with the added component of not being able to speak the language, for me, with the added component of not being able to speak the language. So I went, my boss at the time told me to pack light because again we were in a joint venture with a company that you know. Again, the relationship wasn't really good and the financial books so the I mean it was.
Speaker 3:It was one of those situations again where it was all upside. You know my contributions to that leadership team. Anything that I did, it was going to be an improvement. But you know my contributions to that leadership team. Anything that I did, it was going to be an improvement. But you know, being the only female, obviously I was the only African-American that was there in a culture that was brand new, that wasn't used to seeing someone that looked like me in a leadership role. I found the people to be very open, very welcoming, and that goes back to kind of those core values in terms of inclusion and feeling that sense of belonging where you are. And I will say that I had been there maybe, maybe six months because I went over there, you know, I'd gotten someone to teach me the language, I was starting to learn some of the things there and then, all of a sudden, we got the phone call that you know we were pulling out. Of a sudden we got the phone call that you know we were pulling out.
Speaker 3:So for me, you know, at that time, being a senior leader for the company and then having to sit in negotiations with very high people in the government because you know, the company was, you know, state owned so again being able to experience things that I wouldn't normally had had to do that I was the one who had to get people out of leases. I was sitting there with had to do that. I was the one who had to get people out of leases. I was sitting there with lawyers. So it was one of those one-off career assignments that, again, I always looked for the you know the tough assignments to do.
Speaker 3:But, again, the benefit that I got professionally and personally and I think the only thing I can remember today in terms of the Czech language is dogradín, which is you're greeting when you meet someone because I had just gotten into the point where I was learning the language and then had to stop.
Speaker 3:But in terms of being able to see Europe and all that it has to offer, it was one of the best experiences that I had. And then from that, since I was the senior finance person that was there, I couldn't leave. So the folks the engineers were leaving, the folks from supplier management were leaving, and I couldn't leave because, like literally, I was the last one to leave to turn out the lights and shut the door. But I will say that because of the fact that throughout my career I've always had very strong mentors, that I cultivated relationships that I would that advocated for me so that when I had to repeat patriate, repatriate back to the United States, I had four vice presidents that had advocated for me and had put my resume in front of our CEO of our military division at the time and I had an opportunity to be interviewed and then subsequently become the chief of staff for our CEO and president of our defense business back, oh gosh, what was that? Almost 20 years ago?
Speaker 1:Gosh, I said we know each other for a long time.
Speaker 3:Exactly. Oh my gosh, that was yeah about 20 years ago.
Speaker 1:Well, and I happen to know who that mentor is that you're talking about too Also another great example of leadership.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So that's a great story. Great story, and it sounds like you learned a lot from that experience.
Speaker 3:I did, I did, I did.
Speaker 1:And it just goes to show you you never know what opportunities you're going to get handed as a leader, and it's about getting the best out of those. Yes, you know, our vision at Seasons Leadership is to make excellent leadership the worldwide standard, and I'd like to ask what way do you think, give us one example of a way that you think you contribute to leadership excellence?
Speaker 3:One of the ways I think I contribute is I've always prided myself in being someone that can recognize talent and potential. And one of the things I can think back, I had an employee that really did not see herself in a leadership role. And I think as leaders, you know, we're constantly looking for who's the next? Who's the next Debbie, who's the next Barbara, and one of the things I think sometimes we as people don't really see what people see in yourself. And so this particular employee, you know she was, you know, an employee at the time. We were as contracts group, but she had the best rapport with customers, she had the best rapport with the team, but didn't see herself in a leadership role on the team. So it was, you know, being strategic in my development of her. Obviously, you know, wanting to make sure that she had, you know, all of the. You know the requisite training understood. You know things that the, you know the requisite training understood. You know things that need to be done from a team standpoint.
Speaker 3:But when I got to a point where I felt very comfortable that she knew exactly what she was doing in terms of engaging with the customer, engaging with the team, I would somehow say, well, I've got a meeting, I've got a conflict.
Speaker 3:Can you handle this meeting for me? And I think, probably after the third or fourth or fifth time of her understanding and realizing that you know that she was actually, I think it's important as leaders that leaders recognize leaders and that you have to do the grooming and making sure that they're ready to lead those. You know performance development. You know discussions every year. You know you always focus on the task at hand, but then I think I always spend more time talking about what do you want to be when you grow up and how do I help you get there. But, like I said, for me it's just recognizing raw talent and, like I said and that for me was one of the one of the most, I'll say, things I'll never forget in terms of her really understanding when the light bulb went off on her head as why I was doing what she was what I was doing and she embraced it. She went through that door and she never stopped.
Speaker 1:That's lovely. That's lovely, yeah. As leaders, recognizing and then further developing that potential in individuals, that is our role to create other leaders, to support the people that are under us. Okay, let's switch gears a little bit. What are you passionate about right now?
Speaker 3:What am I passionate about right now? I think what I'm passionate about right now obviously you could hear the people piece of me, because I'm a very I don't want to say hands-on, but I care about the people that I work with and I'm very passionate about helping people as well, as I think I'm passionate about the mission. So if I think about the mission of Girl Scouts, if I think about the current CEO of Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri, the passion for the girls and helping set the stage for the next generation of women leaders, so I'm very passionate about, from a CFO or chief financial administrative officer standpoint, and making sure that from a funding standpoint, you know, just from a compliance standpoint, that everything is done right, it's meticulous, that enables the programming so that we can, that we can grow and develop these girls. So right now, currently, I guess my passion is all about the girls and, like I said, as a CFO, just making sure that we've got funds available to harness and do things with these girls that are going to be our future leaders.
Speaker 3:Because, yeah, I look. I, like I said, I'm very fortunate that I have a CEO who sets the direction, and that pay and that passion that she has is just contagious. It's absolutely contagious.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is maybe an off the wall one. And we all talked about what you're passionate about now. But this is just a Debbie curiosity question. But what was your favorite job you ever had in your whole career.
Speaker 3:Well, if I can ask that question, I have two, okay, and I set these two roles probably of the same, equal footing as my favorite assignments, and I think the one that I had was when I first met you. I had was when I first met you and being the chief of staff, being at that high of a level within the organization, I got the opportunity to see leaders at their finest and I got the opportunity to see leaders that weren't acting as best they could. So for me it was close to two years of being the fly on the wall, being able to sit in the room and be a part of strategic discussions. And for me, again, that opportunity was one that I never envisioned myself being in. But it was that particular role where I met leaders like you and I further developed, I'll say, my Rolodex of mentors that I had. Obviously I had mentors and advocates before, but I think from that job it just kind of expanded, but again learning a lot. And then for me it was understanding that while I was doing my job, you know, heads down, doing the best that I could do, you know, not realizing that everyone that was on that leadership team was looking at. You know my work ethic, you know me getting things done such that when I came out of that job I didn't really have to look hard because I had people fighting over me. And I think that's one thing that people always forget about is that it's not about that. You know that next job is about doing the job that you have and those rewards and that upward mobility, for other things will happen, and to me, I guess to me, it was just I was just doing my job.
Speaker 3:I was trying to stay two steps ahead of my boss at that time. And you know, obviously there were. You know there were great days. You know, being down in Florida seeing, you know, rockets launch up into the air, and I mean I got to see so, so much of the business, because having grown up in St Louis, it was I was very limited to what I saw in terms of the defense business, but you know, just traveling all over and being a second, you know, being that fly on the wall, it was absolutely amazing and, like I said, I got to meet people like you. So first job was that job as chief of staff. The second job I think I put on equal footing was when I dovetailed into a program management role. So when I had to come out of that chief of staff role, I was planning to go back to finance. I grew up in finance. That was something that I knew and at that time my boss said to me why are you going back into finance? You know that, try something new. So again, all this great advice I'm getting from former bosses and mentors, that again caused me to be put in.
Speaker 3:An favorite opportunity was when I was the program manager and director for the T-45 program. It was a program that we were at the end of the life cycle. We were making the airplanes here in St Louis. It gave me a chance to be able to engage with the union folks where I hadn't done before actually walking the shop floor and getting to know the men and women putting those aircraft and producing them. But I will say that that particular opportunity gave me a chance to be in Texas, sitting, you know, engaging with the customer. And we were at a community event and I was sitting having lunch and I didn't realize I was sitting next to the air boss of the Blue Angels. So I'm just having a conversation, just talking to him, telling him what I do, and all this, all this, you know, just engaging conversation with the customer, unbeknownst to me. He mentioned the fact that you know we take people like you up in our VIP flights and all that good stuff. And I'm thinking, yeah, yeah, all right, okay. But he was a man of his word and within about six weeks I was down in Pensacola in the backseat flying with the Blue Angels.
Speaker 3:So of my two favorite jobs, like I said, it was the chief of staff role and that program management job. But I will say that the program management opportunity gave me a chance to really engage with the customer and understanding their needs. So again, it's kind of twofold, with respect, that that program management job is very customer facing and then being the chief of staff to the president and CEO, also very customer facing, engaging with the customer. It really opens your eyes in terms of the products and services that you provide those customers and you get feedback real time about you know the wants and what's wrong. And again, as I was coming up in the ranks and contracts, I was so far removed from that customer that, like I said, those two jobs have probably been my most favorite because, again, of just the opportunities that were afforded, but also they were both really hard jobs and I had to work my behind off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and those are the opportunities where you learn the most.
Speaker 3:right, because, out of necessity. Out of necessity, yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, how cool is that that you got to fly with the Blue Angels.
Speaker 3:Yes, and it's on videotape that it gets reviewed at every family event. But I did not pass out and I did not puke and it was about there you go.
Speaker 1:That's success. Then I think I might have done both. But they're amazing. They have a special on television right now that recently came out. If you want to check that out, then you can go. Yeah, I did that. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:Because, you know, they had already given me my you know briefing before I got in the plane in terms of how we were going to take off. And I'm thinking, yeah, we're just going to go like this. And then I hear all the squawking once we start taking off and I didn't know that he had radioed up to the tower that he was going to do a biking takeoff. So we went like this and it went straight up and my head hit back.
Speaker 3:That must have been a rush in more ways than one it was, but I will say that I've got like a small clip of that ride that I always share with my new teams.
Speaker 3:When I'm introducing myself, you talk about your background all the time, but I will tell you that whether it's a new staff that I have introduced myself to, you know, you talk about your background all the time, but I will tell you that whether it's a new staff that I have introduced myself to, or either out in the community because I do again, a lot of the things I do in the community have something to do with the youth. As a matter of fact, I'm going to be speaking next Friday for some middle schoolers. It's giving people a little bit more insight about me. But as far as the youth, you know that short, you know two or three minute clip of the 50 minute ride. It again. It garners so many questions and you know, and with, especially with our young folks, in terms of the, the possibility of you know, in terms of you know set your, set your aims high. You can be whatever you want to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very inspiring to them, it must be. They're probably so excited to even be in the same space with you, rockstar, rockstar. Okay, so as we're coming up to the end of our conversation today, I want to ask you we promise our listeners actionable advice that they can use to improve their own leadership journey and lives. What actionable advice do you have that you would like listeners to know or to think about?
Speaker 3:One of the things for me and it may be very simplistic, but for me it has been kind of one of the things that has always driven me is that never forget where you came from in terms of the decisions that you make, in terms of how you carry yourself, because, again, once you accept that leadership badge, you're in it for life. It's a commitment, it's a lifelong commitment. Once you get into leadership, you're in it for life. It's a commitment, it's a lifelong commitment once you get into leadership. And I think sometimes as leaders, we forget what it's like down at that working level.
Speaker 3:And for me, some decisions that have to be made may not be popular, but before some decisions are made, I always think about if I was a level one or a level two, or if I was a mid-level manager, or if I was a senior manager, how would I feel?
Speaker 3:And I think that's one thing in terms of you know actionable things to take away with. You know thinking about where you came from. And the other thing I think that's important to remember is that you know is transparency and being as transparent as you can, within limitations, with your staff, because I will say that where I am at Girl Scouts new role for me but again a team that has been very appreciative of me coming in and just being myself and being transparent, because the leadership that was there before it was a different leadership style. So again I always say that you know my leadership style is different than the folks that were there before and I know that again the team has been very receptive and appreciative to me being just me. So, tips and tricks never forget where you came from and just being open and honest and transparent as you can.
Speaker 1:Lovely. Those are very actionable pieces of advice and we really appreciate it. Well, any last thoughts that you'd like our listeners to hear before we close today.
Speaker 3:No, I just want to say, debbie, I thank you and Susan for the invitation and I appreciate your patience with me getting this new role at Girl Scouts in terms of scheduling. But again, it's always a pleasure talking with you and I always learn so much speaking with you. And, like I said, we've dated our relationship. I guess it has been 20 years I've known you.
Speaker 1:We must've met in the crib.
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, thank you so much, barbara Wilson, for being our special guest today on the Season's Leadership Podcast, and to all the listeners out there, stay tuned for another exciting episode coming up. Have a great day. Thank you, listeners, for joining us today. We hope that you were inspired by this conversation.
Speaker 2:And we invite you to join our community on Patreon See the link below. There you will find more resources to help you on your leadership journey.
Speaker 1:Make sure to join us next time for more conversation about leadership excellence.
