Colleen Burgers

As a consultant, Colleen convinces a profit-driven industry to spend money on environmental obligations to ensure that they do not leave a legacy of pollution for future generations. Colleen believes that managing is about telling people what they should do and when, while leading means to share the enthusiasm and excitement of scientific discovery and allow others to forge their own path. She is also a firm believer that there are no fundamental differences in any person’s ability for understanding, there is merely a requirement for patience and good teaching. Colleen’s approach to training her colleagues is to empower them with knowledge, not just to conduct a task by learning the steps, but to understand the rationale behind vitally important field sampling methods so that the pride and ownership of a task performed well can be shared by the entire team. She strongly believes that the best leaders are the people who are able to show the most kindness and patience, not necessarily the ones who make all the right decisions. There are no stupid people, only stupid acronyms.