SUCCESS SPARKS FOR LINDSEY AFTER JOINING CLARKSON EVANS

By Ian Mean

You don’t have to have early career ambitions to succeed in business

For someone who wasn’t particularly ambitious when she was younger, Lindsey Young is enjoying a remarkably successful career.

Despite that lack of early ambition, Lindsey, 42, is now Chief Operating Officer at Clarkson Evans, the UK’s largest electrical contractor serving the new build housing industry.

Based at Staverton, the company employs around 850 staff across the country, and in a typical year it wires more than 24,000 new homes achieving an annual turnover of around £60 million.

Lindsey went to Birmingham University to study for a degree in commerce. Her parents were proud of her, but she is modest: “That’s not what my family did.”

Boyfriend Mike (now her husband), got a job in Cheltenham and she moved with him and found a job at Clarkson Evans.

“I was 23 when I joined, and I didn’t think about what I was going to do with my career. I was more interested in getting married, having kids — the traditional family role.”

She is disarmingly honest about her family background in Birmingham.

“Mum worked as a barmaid and in care. I even remember accompanying her on a paper round which she did as a bit of a part-time job to keep the money coming in.

“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life, but I didn’t want to struggle for money like my parents.”

Was there a Damascus moment in your working journey to start becoming ambitious?

“I don’t think there was a moment that told me suddenly, ‘I feel ambitious’.

“But when I joined Clarkson Evans on September 24, 2001, I felt early on I was being appreciated for what I was doing.

“The company employed many people who knew a lot about construction and electrical installation but fewer who could write a decent letter and use communications .

“It wasn’t long before Steve Evans (now chairman) himself would start running emails past me and say: ‘What do you think of this before I send it out?’”

Did you ever think you would have such a senior role?

“Not really”, she says. “It’s only been in recent times that I think I am actually important.

“I think that people get respect because they have earned it. It’s nothing to do with the title. You have to behave in a way that encourages people to respect and follow you.

“That’s my management style. It is not to demand somebody does something – that is not me at all. I win people over, hopefully, and get people to decide they want to do the right thing.”

What is your leadership philosophy?

“I think it is really important to be authentic but being a leader to me is also partly about being a good actor.

“You have got to play the part – from the moment you are choosing what to wear in the morning, you are thinking about the image you are trying to project.

“I always think you should dress for the role above the one you have.”

Do you consciously pick out people who could be future leaders?

“You can’t help doing that. To me, one of the most satisfying things is to talent spot someone and support their progression. You can see where you once were and this is a really nice feeling.”

What do you believe you add to the balance of the board?

“Maybe I am a bit of a mother hen with some of them.

“I encourage empathy so where they might see things from a certain point of view, I always come from the standpoint of the person on the receiving end.”

Do you consider yourself an ambitious leader?

“My CV just says Clarkson Evans on it and I just want to continue to take the business wherever it can go.

“I would like to get to the point where I would retire here, although I don’t know whether I will, to look back over the business and think it did well because I was a big part of it.”

Lindsey is a determined lady. She says she saw the company needed a chief operating officer and she was not just the HR and training director.

So, she suggested it to chairman, Steve Evans and he readily agreed.

Steve said: “Lindsey is a great example of someone who has made the very most of the career opportunities we have to offer.

“She joined us from university as an admin assistant, and within 10 years had worked her way up to board level. As the company’s chief operating officer, Lindsey is very much the glue that holds the company together.

“She’s professional, confident, full of ideas, a great communicator and the person other directors turn to when in need of some sensible, levelheaded advice.”