Canadian HR Reporter

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014 CANADIAN HR REPORTER & STRATEGIC CAPABILITY NETWORK Credit: Andrey Yurlov (Shutterstock) Joey St-Aubin is very good at a lot of things — public speaking, play- ing hockey, entrepreneurship and leadership, just to name a few. But one surprising knowledge gap was revealed when he appeared on the TV show Undercover Boss Canada. St-Aubin — president and CEO of Canlan Ice Sports Canada — can't actually drive a Zamboni. A lifelong competitive hockey player and veteran of the ice rink and recreational facilities indus- try, St-Aubin still laughs about the Zamboni incident. But his focus has always been on the bigger pic- ture — the overarching strategy behind making Canlan not just successful but one of the greats. "At Canlan, we're very proud of our facilities — the experience is important to us. We have about $110 million worth of assets… but we spend $7 million a year in (capital expenses) and repairs and maintenance, so you can imagine how much attention goes into maintaining these buildings in state-of-the-art form, and also keeping them safe and in good repair for our customers," said St-Aubin at a Strategic Capability Network event in Toronto. "We have over 10 million cus- tomer visits per year, so it's im- portant that we walk the talk when it comes to looking after our facilities." And St-Aubin certainly walks the talk when it comes to leader- ship. at skill — and many oth- ers — were honed through a life- time of discipline, hard work and practice. As early as Grade 4, when St- Aubin was introduced to public speaking at school, his parents were adamant he participate. "My dad was my co-writer, my mom was my choreographer, and they locked me in a room — didn't give me any food until I learned that speech off by heart," he said. "It helped me break through be- cause I became the winner of my class, the winner of my school, and the regional champion in public speaking in Grades 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. And it really allowed me to become confident in who I am, and it translated to the sport of hockey, it translated to who I was as a person." Overcoming an obstacle or fear such as public speaking can build a lot of confidence — and that's something St-Aubin tries to apply to the workplace. During managers' conferences, he makes everyone give a quick update on how things are going in their op- erations and then, at the end, they must give a brief overview of how they think the conference went. "In the past, I've actually had general managers call in sick on conferences because they knew I was going to do that. But you know what? You're at a point in your career where you've got to be able to break through," he said. "When you have a magic recipe — which my parents set up for me — I took that recipe and I repli- cated it. And when my kids got to Grade 4, guess what I did?" Learning leadership St-Aubin has had a number of in- fluential bosses — and very differ- ent leadership styles — through- out his hockey career. Having played for the Ontario Hockey League, the University of Ottawa and for Team Canada against the Russians in Quebec, St-Aubin's career taught him invaluable skills that translate seamlessly to the boardroom. "One of the things that I'm able to draw from my hockey career is a very unique parallel between hockey and the business world," he said. "ere's a culture in the dress- ing room, there's a culture off the ice with the parents, there are little factions that emerge over time — you get the cliques that happen, just like silos that form in our business places from time to time. ere's strategy, there's tac- tics, there's structure, there's dis- cipline, there's networking, there's collaboration, competition. So everything that you would see in sport, you can really parallel that to the workplace." A few years back, St-Aubin read an article that really resonated with him about a professional athlete comparing sports to the business world. "He said, 'You know what? When I stepped into the board- room, I had already fought most of the battles that I'm seeing — and there's nothing that I can't over- come because I've already been there.'" at's perhaps why after start- ing as a general manager at Can- lan, St-Aubin rose through the ranks quite quickly. Creating an experience Canlan is the largest private sec- tor-owned-and-operated multi- sport recreational facility in the country, he said. "We're the North American leader in the ownership and op- erations of multipurpose rec- reational and entertainment facilities. We're the number one programming brand in the rec- reational facilities industry," said St-Aubin. "We have a cradle-to-grave ap- proach: We want to be sure that we're able to cater to the newbies, the two- to four-year-olds that are learning to skate, all the way up to the seniors." And everything they do is based around their vision. "'A high-performance industry leader passionately committed to providing high-quality customer experiences every time' — that's our vision," he said. "I was tasked to write that. When I became the president in 2009, I said the first thing I want to do is I want to re- visit our vision, I want to revisit our mission, I want to revisit our strat- egy, and everything underneath. "is really is our guiding light — this is who we want to be when we grow up. And everything we do from that point forward relates to this. Everything trickles down from our vision." e key words in that vision statement are "exceptional cus- tomer experiences every time," said St-Aubin. "If we could all deliver excep- tional customer experiences every time, regardless of what business we're in, our businesses would all flourish," he said. "So when an employee says, 'What should I be doing?' or 'What's my job?' or 'Where are we headed?' if it's not clear to you, just go back to the vision and read those words. Do whatever it takes to make sure that that customer has an excep- tional experience every time." And what exactly makes an ex- ceptional customer experience is constantly changing, he said. "Now, because we're living in a world of technology, the custom- er experiences are not only when they walk through the door, but it's online," he said. "Your websites have to be clean and fresh and updated, and easy to navigate… so now we've got this whole online customer expe- rience that we have to deal with. And not only that, we have to be innovative in the way that we differentiate ourselves from the competition." It's all about how you play the game Leadership lessons from a hockey star turned CEO BY LIZ BERNIER

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