Leadersh*t: How to Cut the Crap and Lead in the Modern Workplace

By Derrick Clough

"Hi, I’m Derrick Clough, and I wrote this book about leadership because so many people get it wrong. You’ll do less, accomplish more, and your people will thank you for it. Cut down the meetings. Quit measuring everyone to death. Don’t try to implement every great idea you have. Sound crazy? Yeah, but it works."

Derrick Clough grew up on a horse ranch near Vancouver, and never gave up his cowboy boots, even as an executive with one of North America's biggest banks, where he earned a reputation as a maverick and a straight-shooter. He rose quickly through the ranks, recognized as a gifted people leader who could tackle challenges head-on and deliver outstanding results.

In this book, Derrick shares his people-focused leadership approach in the insightful and entertaining way his people have come to know and love. With colourful examples from sports, history and Hollywood, you’ll learn practical ways to win the hearts and minds of your staff, and achieve your business goals.

In short, easy-to-read chapters, Derrick shares what he's learned over 15 years in an executive leadership role, responsible for a multi-billion-dollar book of business and 200 to 300 staff. Topics include:

- Why you don’t need 100% buy-in from your people to get things done
- The right way to deliver tough messages, and exit people if needed
- Addressing mental health issues in the workplace
- How to make the best of a crisis
- Managing Millennials

Never heard of a ‘sh*t sandwich’ or ‘sh*t twinkie?’ You will. This isn’t a scholarly tome by someone who’s never run a business. Leadersh*t is a straight-talking, practical guide that will help you deliver results, and earn the trust and respect of the people you lead.

Caution: Contains salty language.

PRAISE FOR LEADERSH*T BY DERRICK CLOUGH

“Refreshing straight talk is what Derrick delivers in this book! He offers perspectives ... exemplifying the ‘been there, lived that’ experience.” – Bruce Kirke, Manager, Spartan Controls

“This book is brilliant. Exactly what I needed when I was trying to be a leader. As a CEO for more than 39 years, it offers insight into people management that took me 15 years in TEC to come close. Thank you, Derrick, for putting it so bluntly.” – Rob Sutton, Former CEO, RAS Industries

"Derrick writes like he lives, with honesty, integrity and wit. This book is a testament to Derrick’s abilities to teach leaders to be strong and confident while fostering a positive and productive environment." – Debbie Brandt, Area Manager, TD Bank

"You will be enlightened by the simple wisdoms, learn from the inside stories, and thoroughly enjoy some true Derrickisms, like my personal favourite, 'You can't make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t.'" – David Fotia, Branch Manager, TD Bank

ABOUT DERRICK CLOUGH

Derrick Clough grew up on a horse ranch near Vancouver, Canada. He earned a Master’s degree while helping to manage the farm, and worked as a journalist for a few years. Then he joined TD Bank as a teller in the Yukon.

Within ten years, Derrick was an executive with the Bank, responsible for a multi-billion-dollar book of business and 200 to 300 staff at any given point. After a long and fulfilling career, he retired in 2019.

Derrick now runs a hobby farm near Carstairs, Alberta, with his wife, son, dog and two horses. He spends his time gardening, building, reading, cooking, and coaching clients from the comfort of home.

Leadership is still his superpower.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Red Barn Books
• Release date: Nov 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781989915004

Book preview

If you’re like me and hate reading introductions to books, don’t bother reading this one. But, if you’re also like me in wanting to know just a bit about the book and author you’re about to read, carry on.

As the title indicates, this book is about leadership. The style of leadership espoused in it is of the simple, no-nonsense, straight-up variety that many leaders somehow aspire to but few actually implement, let alone get right or embody.

The book’s lessons are based upon my 25 years of experience in leading people, mainly while I was an executive at TD Bank, where I led hundreds of employees and oversaw an eleven-figure book of business. Along the way, I received a lot of formal and informal recognition for my work as a leader, both internally and externally, which I’m most certain wouldn’t have come my way were it not for my leadership style, which the following pages capture and convey.

The book’s thesis is this: To be successful in the work or business world, you need to treat people – customers, staff, whomever – as individuals, pure and simple. To do so properly, you can’t simply adhere to some formula set out by some Ivy League scholar who’s never run a business. Systems, patterns, processes, routines, they’re all good – tough to run a business in the modern world without them. But what really matters, in my view, is empathy, sincerity, and plain ass common sense.

Yes, the views I express in the chapters that follow contain some salty language, but this is part and parcel to another key ingredient of the leadership brand I peddle – authenticity.

Well, at least my kind, I should say.

Further on my writing style, I write short chapters – most are just a few pages. I write this way because I like to, but also because business leaders are busy and often don’t budget much time for reading. With this book, you don’t have to set aside much time to get through a chapter and come away feeling like you’ve accomplished a little something.

Anyway, I think this is all you need to know for now about the book. As for me:

I was raised on a Thoroughbred horse ranch, just outside of White Rock, British Columbia, Canada. As a kid, I worked weekends on the ranch, as well as Christmas holidays, spring breaks, summers and the like.

I learned a lot about horses, but also about people. In fact, the only thing that came and went more than horses at Salishan Meadows was people – staff, prospective yearling buyers, broodmare owners, neighbours, friends, you name it. Grand Central, we used to call it.

The driving force behind Salishan was my Dad – still one of the greatest people leaders I’ve ever known. He taught me so much. Even though he was tough on me and gave me more than what I thought was my fair share of ‘shit jobs,’ I could see that he was a great businessman, and that what made him great was his ability to work with and through people. And, lead by example.

We had some success, to be sure, raising horses that went on to win both locally and across the continent. But it was a tough business to make a consistent living at. As for me, all I ever wanted to do was run the farm. But that wasn’t in the plans – my Dad wanted me to be a veterinarian. Or lawyer, maybe. Anyway, somebody who had both an education and made money.

While working on the farm, I did a BA at the University of British Columbia, and then my MA in Political Science. Once I was done my education, I thought I could be a journalist, which I tried. I wrote for some publications on public affairs, others on horse racing. I also hosted a public affairs talk show on the local community channel for a couple of years, despite my ‘radio face.’

Along the way, I played the ponies, spending countless hours at the track, making a hundred bucks one night, losing fifty the next. And I syndicated racehorses, buying yearlings from my Dad and selling shares to those who wanted to be able to say they owned a racehorse but couldn’t afford to own a whole one, or weren’t ready to.

I toiled at that for a couple of years, then accepted an invitation from an uncle to visit him in the Yukon, and together we’d do some hunting and fishing. Despite falling in a river while fishing in Alaska and losing feeling in my nose for the better part of two years due to frostbite while hunting Caribou north of Dawson City, I was sold. Went home to collect what meagre belongings I had – mostly books, some artwork – and moved to Whitehorse.

Once I landed there for good I started looking for work, and found a job as a teller at TD Bank. I reckoned I’d stay there a bit, use the job to pay the bills and then get hired on by one of the local papers as a writer. Or maybe with the government or one of the First Nations or something – government and First Nations being the biggest employers up there.

To make a long story short, I fell in love with the Bank – yes, a bank – and never left. While in Whitehorse I did all the jobs one can do at a branch aside from Branch Manager, and then took my first Branch Manager job in Terrace, BC. From there I managed a couple of pretty big branches in Greater Vancouver, and then found myself appointed District Vice President, in charge of New Brunswick.

I did that job for a couple of years, and then spent two years, also as a DVP, in Southwestern Ontario, based out of Windsor. The Prairies beckoned to my farming roots, and I found myself covering Northern Alberta for the Bank. Then Central. Then South and Central Alberta altogether.

In 2019, I decided to retire, at least from the Bank, albeit reluctantly. I loved the Bank, the freedom afforded to not only learn about what makes people tick but apply what I’ve learned. So many enlightened leaders I’ve met and worked for along the way. So many fantastic memories.

Now, I read, write, and tend to my small farm, located just outside Carstairs, Alberta. I’m married to a loving wife, and the father of a cool kid, about six-years-old as of press time.

Aside from my father – I call him Pop – whom I talk about above, my formative influences are many. My mother helped me build my self-esteem. My step-mom helped make me tough. My first step-dad helped hone my sense of humor, and my second, my perspective on business. My sister, meanwhile, has shown me the power of constant, unwavering love, come what may.

I’ve had a good life, enriched by the people closest to me in ways I can’t convey. There’s a piece of all of them in each of the chapters that come next.

With that, I’ll get at it.

- 1 -

Leadership: Hope and Belief

What is leadership, anyway? Why do people decide to follow one person over another?

The history books say it has a lot to do with timing. Right place, right time, right person with the right message. Like Sir Winston Churchill (We’ll fight them on the beaches…), or Donald Trump (MAGA), perhaps. Or Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama (Yes we can!), for that matter.

I think the history books have it right, at least in a round-about way – so long as people have hope, they’ll follow.

Remember the movie Enemy at the Gates? The Russians are losing ground by the hour to the Nazis during the battle for Stalingrad during World War Two. A new leader comes in – Nikita Khrushchev. He calls a meeting of local generals, asks them why their troops are all shitting their pants, and what needs to be done.

A scared, dumb general, thinking that a tough, brutal approach is what the boss wants to hear, says that they should shoot all the officers and set an example. Khrushchev grunts, says it’s been tried.

Eventually, another pipes up and says, Give them hope.

At that, Khrushchev takes note, listens, wants to know more.

Yes, I’m a bit of a military history buff. I believe there’s a lot we can learn from it.

The main thing I’ve learned, and fundamentally believe, is that if the people we’re leading can see and feel hope in us and through us as leaders, they’ll come along with us.

Think about it. Why do governments get voted out of office? It’s because somebody else comes along with a vision of hope that things will be better if they’re chosen.

Election campaigns since forever have been based on it. Hope gets votes.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating that as leaders we should be trying to assemble just any kind of hope-based message, one based on selfish motives, just so we can win, get what we want as leaders. No, while there are a lot of leaders out there, past and present, who’ve peddled insincere messages of hope and been very successful at it, I’m not suggesting that or anything like it – if I’m peddling anything in these pages, it sure ain’t Machiavelli.

Ultimately, the people we lead will judge our sincerity. In the meantime, we need to nail the hope piece or go home.

Another key ingredient is belief. Belief in the cause, for starters, and then belief in the chances of success.

Going back to military history, if you really think about it, wars are won by the sides that have the most hope, and believe in the cause the strongest.

Strategy, firepower, size of armies, technology, etc., these all play a role. But in a one versus the other kind of situation, hope and belief win every time.

I could cite lots of examples, but one will suffice for now – the Vietnam War. Bottom line, the United States had all the