At a Glance
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Phil La Duke, Principle Consultant at Environmental Resources Management (ERM)
Thought Leader Q&A
Thinkers360 Q&A’s profile prominent members of the Thinkers360 community who embody the power of ideas in their work. In this edition, we speak with Phil La Duke, Principle Consultant at Environmental Resources Management (ERM).
Thinkers360: Tell us a bit about your background
PL: I have been a business executive and coach on and off for 20 years. I earned my degree in Adult Education from the University of Michigan-Dearborn have founded three companies, each of which I took to the point where it ceased to be fun and moved on. I have always had this frenetic energy which drove me as a youth to write for the local weekly newspaper (circulation around 18) it only paid $6 a story so I knew I would never make a living on it, but I never quite lost that love of writing. Years later an employer forced me into writing a blog about worker safety that became so popular (largely among safety journalists) that it led me to other writing opportunities for international magazines, the whole while I was still working full time (which means about 50 hours a week). My speaking, writing, and consulting has taken me all over the world. I just finished the second of my two books “Lone Gunman: Rewriting the Handbook On Violence Workplace Violence Prevention” By Marriah Publishing.
Thinkers360: What are your current responsibilities and what’s a typical day look like?
PL: I am a Global Business Consultant specializing in culture change, focused primarily on major transformations of safety culture, but I do a lot of other things relative to safety. The firm for which I work uses a Seller/Doer model which means I have goals relative to sales and providing services to customers that I must meet. Typical day? Wow! In this line of work there is no such thing. I could be in my home office on the phone interviewing a Vice President of Safety In Singapore one day, to helping to teach coaching skills to supervisors in a mine the next, and on a movie scout or production the next day, or teaching safety to Oil & Gas workers the final day. The job never gets old, and while the hours are long hotel time gives me time to write—which I do exclusively on my own time. My weekends are full of writing, blogging, and generally looking for life’s next great adventure.
Thinkers360: What’s the favorite part of your current role?
PL: Diversity and autonomy. As long as I have work to do and I do it I am okay. And the work is extraordinary. I work with top professionals who are the absolute best at what they do and I get to go to exciting places and work on really challenging and yet rewarding jobs.
Thinkers360: How do you utilize Thinkers360?
PL: Interestingly enough, I joined Thinkers360 with no more expectation than to keep track of my publications and mentions in other magazines. But their algorithm tracks and rates my true influence in the business world and it has provided me great exposure. Thinkers is like having this team behind me who helps advocate for me. Plus it always looks better if someone else is promoting my work than if I am doing it myself.
Thinkers360: What’s your main advice for upcoming thought leaders?
PL: You can’t effect change by telling people to do what they have always been doing, and you can’t be a thought leader if you are afraid to say unpopular things. Being a thought leader means that you will open yourself up to mockery, and may even lose a customer or two. If that scares you, then don’t be a thought leader. The very act of being a thought leader is to guide people into thinking about things in a different way. You have to find and develop a voice that compels people to think about their most cherished beliefs and values and to question them. It’s a great way to get famous, but a terrible way to make friends.
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