I am the Regional Manager of the CGL Exeter Office. Over the past nine years since joining CGL I have achieved Chartered Geologist with the Geological Society and Chartered Manager with the Chartered Management Institute. With the support of others at CGL I have progressed, in a relatively short time, from being an Engineer to the Regional Manager and Leader. I currently manage a team of eight ranging from recently graduated engineers to experienced Principal Engineers.
Over the past nine years at CGL I have developed the skills to become a Chartered Manager and grow into a leadership role in the Exeter Office together with contributing to the wider Senior Management Team within CGL. In this time, I have managed the leaders of the office leaving, provided continuity and support for the newly appointed regional director to now being the leader myself. This has enabled me to develop my experiences to work with a range of technical and non-technical team members and learn leadership skills as I have naturally progressed to the role in the organisation. Each change in personnel has provided me with the opportunity to develop and refine my leadership style to manage different types of people management. After making decisions, I think it is important to reflect so that I can understand how I could make better choices in the future.
As a Chartered Geologist, the technical element of my role relates to providing geotechnical and geoenvironmental support to the development of residential, commercial and energy schemes. I provide technical advice on ground conditions, foundations, earthworks, contaminated land, ground gas, remediation and more. The technical projects I work on require the coordination with staff in CGL and bringing in the relevant technical experts where appropriate. As part of my role, I also liaise with clients from the proposal to construction phase in addition to liaising with regulators including the Environment Agency, NHBC and Local Authorities. To my colleagues I provide technical leadership and act as a sounding board for ideas as well as technical and commercial decisions in relation to the schemes. Being the leader has also allowed me to develop and grow staff through technically challenging projects such that they can progress to chartered status themselves. To date, I have supported three colleagues to become Chartered Geologists, with another colleague currently awaiting the interview in the coming weeks. I have acted as an external advisor to the University of Plymouth to support them in the creation of a new BSc and MSc course which champions the environmental aspects of the geoscience sector as we work towards net zero.
I am still at a relatively early stage of my career and my experience of leadership is continuously changing as I deal with different challenges which come with the role. I consider that the experiences I have had since joining CGL will help support the future leadership challenges, which I will no doubt face.
