WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT DOUG
"Doug, you are a great coach, genuinely human and sincere in your care about ALL people. You have the ability like few others to really connect in a special way with all on my team. ”
"You are amazing! Your mentorship had a huge positive impact on me and my business--and I really enjoyed it. Directionally I am headed down a good path. Ideally, I will be able to continue to utilize the insights from your broad based business skills and coaching to help me personally and professionally. I was particularly impressed with your listening, empathy and situational intuition to connect with my executives to help/inspire them. This seems so natural and easy for you.”
"I have known Doug for almost ten years. He was introduced to me to be my mentor. His approach was to really take the time to understand problems and help us resolve them through systematic analysis of every alternate idea. He didn't dictate any specific solution but gave us the framework to work through our problems and take a decision. Doug is a very flexible person to work in any environment and provide value to the stakeholders either in the financial analysis, strategic thinking skills or in the overall planning and executing projects of any kind.”
“You clearly made a quick and strong connection with me. An unintended benefit of working with you was the connection you made with my younger members of the team. Your coaching abilities to our younger, high performing talent was a positive influence to help them see the bigger picture and their leadership responsibility to support and make it happen. Your expertise with leading businesses in multiple countries and cultures combined with your commercial acumen took our discussions in directions I could not have imagined.”
"Doug, from my experience, your people skills are off the charts. You have a natural talent for being a mentor and leader. You have a strong sense of curiosity to know more about people vs most of us in the world. Of course your business skills have been honed over the years but I feel it's your people and leadership skills are that put you in the top of the class. I think these skills would be a great fit for other CEOs working on integrating cultures across multiple platforms (or acquisitions), fast growth companies looking to keep their culture strong, and talent management programs. These types of firms would highly benefit from your experience and expertise. I wasn't really impressed with my prior career coach, but I would much rather have you sitting across the table.”
"Doug, you are one of the most committed, compassionate, and engaging people I know. You're a wise guy and your stories from all of your experiences were extremely helpful and rewarding."
"Doug you have tremendous strengths in your leadership style. Some of the strengths we experienced were: Profound insight, with a very direct and straightforward style. Good listener, people have a sense of having been understood by you. You show real concern for people, not just listening, but also genuine interest in their development. You encourage and challenge people to change, to improve, but you also point out what is not working well. Very good presentation and very personable. Very professional approach to analysis, moving from the particular to the general concepts with a high capacity to synthesize ideas, focused on finding the problem, and you encourage others to look for permanent solutions. You like stepping outside the box and innovation. You have a good sense of humor."
"My interactions with you lead me to believe that you are strategic thinker who loves to solve complex problems. You also have great coaching ability in that you can give feedback in a way that allows the listener to take in what you are saying without being defensive. These skills of coaching and strategic thinking facilitated radical changes. Another thing that I admire about you is your great sense of humor and your easy smile. You have a way of drawing people in and making them feel relaxed with you.”
"Doug, you have great business instincts and the courage to take a minority view. This serves you well in your advising work."
"You have such great insights and a caring approach. I am so grateful to have your help. All the best…,"
"You have the gifts of challenging, teaching and encouragement."
"It is abundantly clear that you have a sincere desire to help people succeed."
"You are highly effective as a public speaker. I would think you would be a great guest lecturer. You are highly qualified to speak on topics like business ethics, career management, balance of the mind/body/soul in the corporate work place, etc etc etc."
"Your strengths for me are very much articulated around: strategy, people and coaching. You inspire groups of people on any topic you get involved with.”
"You're highly knowledgeable about business--and maybe more importantly--knowledgeable about the inner workings (i.e. politics) of a large organization. On top of that, you're natural temperament and approachability seem perfectly suited for advising and coaching. That's not only based on my interactions with you, but I've also heard from former Cargill'ers that "everyone wanted to work for Doug." So clearly there is something about your personality that is worth leveraging maybe even more so than your business knowledge/competence."
"Boards of directors need people who can think strategically and make tough decisions that are in the best interest of the organization as a whole. They also need people who are articulate and can persuade others. I know you can do those things because I've seen you do it."
"When I think of you, Doug, I think super smart, willing to challenge in a positive way, aware of customer/market trends etc.—but most of all you have a passion to help others."
"My very first thoughts are a guy with a big heart and a great sense of humor. As I keep thinking, I'd say your’re very aware of how others perceive things and how your words, interactions and decisions impact others in different ways. You're a bit of a "pebble in the shoe" for upper management, questioning and/or asking the difficult questions. I think you handle groups very well but I'd say you are especially good one-on-one. You listen to others and by that I mean really listen. You have a "big picture" of things...I think your career with so much international experience and leading a global business helped to shape you in that way. I could see you sitting on the Board of Directors of business trying to make radical changes and/or trying to go international."
"In my opinion, your strengths are: creativity, leadership/charisma, passion, and risk taking. You have a powerful package of experiences to express these strengths with real world practicality."
"I like your idea of being a Business Advisor to help CEOs and individuals highlight their strengths. You love doing this. People really respond well to your coaching (I did)."
"You have incredible people skills and you're an excellent (verbal) communicator. I really admire the fact you never put yourself above anyone. I suspect most people never realize you were the President of a global business in Cargill. You obviously have solid leadership skills. Your 37 years experience in so many areas at Cargill equips you very well to share these gifts with others."
“It is incredible how creative your thoughts are. Thanks."
"You are very willing to invest in people. Your personal interaction and engagement is an essential element of the work you do. You are someone who can manage through conflicts and complex issues without losing your temper or your judgement. You are contemplative enough to listen to all the information, all people's perspectives and then tease out where the issues are."
"You can bring to bear the breadth of your commercial, organizational, operational and leadership skills to facilitate meaningful changes."
“Doug, my quick summary of working with you is: compassion, integrity, business acumen, and visionary. Helping minorities to strive in business seems to be a good fit for you and your strengths."
"Given your personality and your previous positions I feel confident that you will be a great trusted advisor. You are the best listener I know. You are values driven. You are extremely candid. You ask the un-expected question. You have a global perspective that is uncommon! It is so ingrained in who you are as to be "assumed" by you but not others."
"Doug, you are genuinely interested in people, their well being and the goodness in people . You care deeply about a higher purpose (fairness, equality, equity and inclusion). And you are dependable as a person and respected for fairness and going out of your way to be available to help others. I applaud your desire to give back and think you have tremendous skills and energy to share."
"Your skills can be adapted to many situations/organizations. Cerebral - you are a student and will be a disciplined learner if working in a sector with no background. Communication - you are well spoken and can articulate with or without a script. The style is genuine and engaging. Candor - You can be incredibly honest. That means delivering easy or difficult messages without alienating others. Leadership - you have a down to earth and effective style. Networking - you have a unique skill to meet and keep friends/colleagues. Empathetic - you have the ability to understand and share another person's feelings or situation. Financial - your finance and commercial skills would be helpful to individuals or organizations. Technology - just enough knowledge to be dangerous, with a real strong emphasis on practicality and value I think this is a good list. Any more and you might be difficult to live with."
