With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1484213
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 BCBUSINESS 63 BCBUSINESS.CA As a Thompson Rivers University stu- dent in Kamloops, Davis used to coach high school football and rugby. "When you're only a couple of years older but you're coaching 15-to-16-year-old kids, you learn a lot about how to motivate groups," he maintains. "That gave me an opportu- nity to start building some leadership skills and prove what I knew." It wasn't until he had proved his dedi- cation to his first "real" job (not counting pumping gas in the summer of Expo 86) in the banking industry that Davis was of- ficially put in charge of a team. He worked part-time as a Royal Bank teller while finishing his degree, and after he joined them full-time, he was given the responsibility of rolling out a technology program across Western Canada. He was suddenly expected to direct a team, even though his own role hadn't really changed. "I wouldn't say I went into that 100-percent confident that we were going to do a fantastic job, but I was confident that I had a good team," he says. Davis settled in just fine—a few sleepless nights did the trick. Over many years of leading teams, he's grasped the importance of being mindful about what to say and how to say it. And what hasn't changed for him is helping people understand their strengths and re- alize their potential. WHO ARE YOUR ROLE MODELS TODAY? I align with leaders who are highly empathetic with their teams while also displaying a keen customer focus. I think Bob Iger and Alan Mulally are good examples of that. HOW DO YOU HANDLE CRITICISM? I think that it is difficult for senior leaders to get unfiltered feedback, so I view any feedback, critical or not, as an opportunity to learn. WHAT BOOK OR MOVIE HAD THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON YOU? I really like Marshall Goldsmith's What Got You Here Won't Get You There. " As a leader, you need to really focus on the outcomes and you have to be less focused on some of the day-to-day specifics of how work gets done. "