by Mark Friedman https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/staff/mark-friedman
Monday, May 1, 2023 12:00 am 2 min read
*Eight women in leadership positions across Arkansas from banking to
utilities shared their leadership advice and biggest management regrets
with Arkansas Business for our Women in Business issue. They also talked
about dealing with their own imposter syndrome, the best leadership advice
they received and more. Click here for more
https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/144318/lessons-learned-women-in-business-offer-leadership-advice.*
TINA GABBARD
Arkansas Market Vice President
Cox Communications of Atlanta, Springdale
Tina Gabbard oversees all business operations and units for Cox
Communications in Arkansas and was named its Arkansas market vice
president about
two years ago. To understand her role she spent time with “every business
unit in every department … in their leadership meetings, their frontline
meetings, and … with our customers, learning more about what our customers
need and how our employees are serving those needs,” she said.
In addition to active listening, Gabbard believes “it’s absolutely pivotal
to adopt a fierce discipline for the ‘ask, don’t tell’ mentality, where
teams and leaders are trusted to learn and make mistakes in a safe and
teaching environment.
“A culture of trust and empowerment is pivotal to employee satisfaction and
a company’s long term growth,” she said.
One of her missteps as a leader came early in her career when she didn’t
follow that path.
“There were far more times when I was far more direct, and I flipped it to
‘don’t ask, just tell’ and get it done, because I was busy,” Gabbard said.
“And what I know now is that once you master the art of listening to what
people need and meet their leadership needs … it can change the course of
their life as well as their contribution to your organization.”