DREAM TEAM LEADERSHIP SERIES
Reaching the highest potential and leaving behind a legacy with National Director of Sales at TELUS, David Dorey
David Dorey, National Director of Sales at TELUS
David Dorey is a 20-year veteran in the Canadian IT industry, currently serving as a National Director of Sales at TELUS and leading a team of about 20 folks coast-to-coast across Canada responsible for the overall performance of TELUS’ indirect channel business. Over the course of his career, David has held a number of leadership positions including many years at Dell and Konica Minolta. We sat down with David to get his take on what it means to be a dream team leader.
What does it take to be a great leader?
The number one thing is caring, you really need to care about your people and their development. Number two is authenticity. Being a leader to your staff is similar to being a parent to your kids, in that they don’t really need you to have all the answers – they just want you to be honest and considerate and give them a push when they need it. Number 3 is personal development. To be a great leader, you always need to be learning so that your people are always learning – the speed of the pack is the speed of the leader. I think what holds a good leader back from being a great leader is insecurity and low self-esteem. A great leader supports others and helps them succeed. For example, my wife is an ICU nurse and while going through an intense training program, she had 2 instructors. One who was supportive and challenged her learning. The other was mean and condescending, and this insecurity and need to be right affected their ability to lead and teach the team.
Do you have a “secret sauce” to creating a successful team?
I always try to hire people smarter than me. Even when I’m hiring someone for a junior role and this is only their first or second job, I can tell when people know what they know really well. The second thing is hiring the right people comes down to using the right tools. I feel like there was something missing in my life until I found The Predictive Index® delivered by Predictive Success about 8 years ago. When you are hiring external, you really don’t know anything about the person coming in and it makes it really difficult to hire the right people with the right behaviours. That’s where Predictive Success has helped me tremendously, it gives me back time going through applicants and helps me hire the right people for the job, the first time around.
What does a dream team mean to you?
A dream team has to deliver, they have to wow you, every week or every month and overdeliver on targets. For me, I think that a dream team means everyone is coming to work, they want to come to work, they want to have a great boss, they want to have fun, and they want to make a good living. The number one reason that people quit their job is because of their boss, and the number one reason that people stay at their job is because of their boss, so I think that a dream team having effective leaders who get along, trust and understand their people is important. A dream team is greater than the sum of its parts. If you lose someone, it doesn’t fall apart. Everyone has the opportunity to be a good leader, even if you don’t have direct reports, you have the ability to be a good leader wherever that may be.
Do you have any advice for other leaders?
One of the biggest flaws of leaders that I meet in the corporate world is that they need to be right all the time. Open your mind to being wrong 3-5 times a day and then see if you’re further ahead in a year from now. Spend the most time with your best people. Focus on leaving behind a legacy. One of my bosses back in the day was Andy Theophylactou and he had a great reputation. I bought him lunch one day and I asked him about his goals and he said it was simple, he said “always leave behind a legacy.” Every team he left behind was a legacy, whoever replaced him was inheriting a gem, and I think that’s really important. The last thing that I want to say is a quote that I heard 20 years ago, and it still sticks with me today and that is from Zig Ziglar who said “help everyone get what they want in life and you will get everything you want in life” so when I work with people I try to remind myself of that and focus hard on that.
