Welcome to a special episode of Transit Unplugged that we're

calling Transit Unplugged Deep Cuts.

Hi, I'm Tris Hussey editor of the podcast.

And for this special episode, we bring you, Eulois Cleckley.

Eulois is the CEO of Miami-Dade County Department of

Transportation and Public Works.

And in February of last year, he talked with Paul about leadership.

Now it just so happens that we recently had Schneider St.

Preux on the podcast.

And Schneider works for Eulois as General Superintendent of Bus Operations.

Schneider talks about Eulois' leadership.

mentorship, and how it's influenced his career trajectory

and his own leadership style.

So sit back listen in to Eulois Cleckley on leadership.

Excited to have with us today Eulois Cleckley, who is the director and

CEO of the Miami Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works.

Thank you so much for being on the program today.

Thank you, Paul.

It's always great to have a conversation with you, especially

about this topic called leadership,

tell us about that.

Why is leadership important?

You've held a number of leadership roles in our industry.

leadership is, extremely important.

One is that, strong leadership not only helps to run a efficient, effective,

and productive department, but it really helps the individuals that work for that

organization to maximize their potential.

And, what I've found in a variety of different, positions that I've held.

Is that if you have a lack of leadership within a specific department, not only

impacting that department's, ability to be sound and do what's best for,

the general public, especially from a transportation service standpoint.

But you're impacting sometimes generations of employees and

their families if you do not.

set A culture that really cultivates leadership.

And leadership really is about people and it's about the people you serve.

And it's also about the staff that works very hard for you every single day.

And so if you're not focused on making sure you're preparing and protecting

your staff, and you're leading your staff and you're setting a sound vision

for them, you're really, putting a department in a bad position to not

be as effective as what it could be.

And then for those employees that are highly talented and could go on to

do great things, you're suppressing their, their ability to do so.

I've found that, strong leaders.

Create that culture where everybody feels empowered and they come to

work energized and excited, and then they go on to do great things.

And so it's extremely important, from a general public as well as an

individual employee standpoint to make sure that a department and organization

really is led by strong leaders.

You have a few principles you like to focus on, right?

You and I were recently at the Florida Public Transportation Association

Conference and I asked you to share, I'd like you to kind of run

through those with our listeners

Yeah, absolutely, and this is, based off of my experience and what I've known, not

only seen and observed from other leaders that I respect throughout the industry,

but also what I've, had to, I would say endure and or expect for myself to make

sure that I lead my staff appropriately.

And I always start off.

This acronym called reps and, I'll talk about the first half of it

is R E P P S, and I'll talk to the r e in the P aspect of reps.

And the first, letter in this acronym, r, really, is about results.

And at the end of the day, the general public, whether you're transit or you

know, in our case on the public work side, And then transportation as a whole.

You know, your job is to make.

That you are delivering projects, programs, policies and services

that make people's lives better.

And so really at the end of the day, it's about the result, the outcome.

what are you doing to ensure that you are being progressive?

And you're showing improvement.

And a lot of times what we end up doing just naturally because of the work

on a day, on a day-to-day basis is we have to do a lot of activity and alike.

but there's a difference between just doing things.

And progression.

and really progression is about improving the current status, making

things better, whether it be the assets you're responsible for, and making

them, be in a better condition in the state of good repair, the service that

you're providing, making sure that that service, is one that's efficient and

safe for the people that you serve and that you're measuring those results.

At the end of the day, if you focus in on that first, above all, Everything

that you do should be focused on outcome and results and results oriented.

And if you do that, then not only your staff can, have a, a situation where

they're being acknowledged for the results and the positive things that are done.

Uh, that also kind of rolls up, from a leadership standpoint

where, as the department begins to build a brand that you can deliver

results is extremely important.

So, so always focus on results, number one.

Number two.

and, and the second, letter in the acronym is E that stands for expectations.

and so from.

my experience, what I've, tried to do when I started off in a, a new, leadership

role is really, spend time listening to the staff and trying to understand

where the specific organization, was in terms of its performance.

but then, after doing an evaluation setting not only.

Aspirational, but achievable vision for that specific organization

or department or division.

and.

when you set a vision, that means you set an expectation.

and for example, in now in Miami-Dade, our vision that we've

created is to be the world's best provider transportation options.

And yes, that's an aspirational goal.

That's a very lofty goal, but I truly believe that we can get there.

your mission and the goals and the tactics need to align with

trying to meet that vision?

So that's an expectation where, one, the staff needs to understand that

we are here to h be high performing, individuals, divisions, and departments.

But also everybody else that's involved in helping us to meet that

vision needs to step up and meet those high level performance expectations.

And so when you're trying to be the best in a world's best, you should

expect the best out of every single individual that's working for you.

So, So one, setting that high expectation, and then it generates a

great vision and it generates a lot of interest in making sure people come

in every day and figure out a way to meet that vision that you set and that

expectation to meet the world's best.

So you should ask yourself, you know, my response to a customer today, a road

transit, if I'm a bus operator, did I.

That type level of expectation that to make sure that that individual knows

that we're one of the world's best providers of transportation options.

it just trickles and, and goes throughout the entirety of the department.

And so always set expectations and don't be afraid to, to reach

far because you never know.

The individuals that within the department, their ambition.

And if you set a very lofty goal, you'll be surprised that they'll

end up most times meeting that goal.

and and the last thing I'll just mention is, the, the p so it's

r e p, and the, that, that first p in reps is, is about people.

And I've mentioned.

People throughout, our conversation today, but people come really in

two forms in terms of what you need to focus in on a leader.

One is focus on the people you're here to serve, the customer, the general public.

again, making sure that you're providing, those types of, services and programs

that make, and projects that make sense for them and you're listening to them,

but also making sure that before you start talking about delivering any of

those projects, programs and services, you need to focus on leading your

staff And, and if you are not figuring out ways to protect and position.

And provide the proper amount of training, support, and empowerment to your staff.

You're not maximizing your job as a leader.

So it always starts off with your staff first.

And sometimes that's very difficult, especially in public

sector life, when, a lot of times it's focused on the individual.

but, always challenge ourselves to figure out ways that we first focus

on the staff and, and the question I always ask all of my leaders.

Is who have you identified on your team that is ready to take

your job when you go elsewhere?

And who and how are you preparing that individual to take your job and do

it better than perhaps what you did.

And if you're not focusing, in that aspect, if you're not building that

culture, then you're again, suppressing somebody's ambition, to, to do great

things within, their specific job division department or in the industry.

And so I'm very much focused on making sure.

I empower the staff, that I act as a coach and I'm put people in the right

position to maximize their potential.

And at the end of the day, if, if they are doing their best, the department

will do their best and then we'll ultimately end up in a situation where,

the general public and the people that we serve are really getting the department

that's meeting all of their needs.

So those, that's, that's the first half of reps, our ep.

And, and at some point in time, Paul, we, we can come back and

talk about, the second P and the S.

Those are really good, really good thoughts.

Eulois in, in our positions in public transit or government,

or wherever we're at.

Would you tell me, one, one follow up question is who defines what results

you should be going for in your.

book

So, I'm very much focused on making sure that we look at data.

So a lot of times we, again, we do things or we're just active and we

show numbers in terms of production.

Right.

Like a gerbil or a hamster and a wheel spinning around.

Right.

Oh, I did a hundred reps today.

Yeah.

If you didn't get

It didn't get anywhere.

Right.

and, and sometimes again, if you don't set the expectation, you didn't know where you

were gonna go in the first place, right?

Yes.

Yes.

That's good.

So, one aspect that what we're focusing on in the department, every place

I've been is, is one we wanna be.

A organization that is data driven and you turn data and numbers into information

to help you make sound decisions.

And so that's one.

And the second that data is helping you to track your performance.

so you wanna be in a position where you're tracking everything as much

as you can, and then you have the supportive, technology or systems

to help you, track that performance.

so, one data extremely important to set the baseline and then, , you, you perform

some analytics that actually set a goal or a target, and you do that for as much as

you can within an entirety the department.

that should lead into, well, here's how we set our, our specific goals

and, and expectations moving forward.

Thank you Eulois Cleckley for sharing some leadership principles with

our listeners around the world.

Thank you very much, Paul.

Appreciate it.

And, until next time, I hope everybody has a great day and, enjoys this podcast.

Thank you for listening to this special episode of Transit Unplugged Deep Cuts

with our guests Eulois Cleckely from an interview recorded in February, 2023.

Don't forget to swing by transit unplugged.com.

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