Bald Governance: Collin Pullar of the SCSA

The Boardroom 180 Podcast

In this episode, host Munir Haque interviews Collin Pullar, President of the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association, in-demand speaker, contributor to Canadian business magazines, and host of The Bald Leadership podcast. The SCSA provides construction, safety training, advisory and auditing services for over 10,000 companies, and when combined with the whole of his career, this gives Collin insight into labor, economic development, government and public relations, and business leadership. Collin and Munir talk about governance, leadership, and learning from mistakes.

Collin Pullar states first and foremost that he enjoys governance for a variety of reasons and that enjoyment informs how he works to bring moments of levity into boards he’s involved with. He describes what the board of the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association looked like before his arrival and how it has changed in functionality and grown in diversity through the years. In every board balance is important and Collin explains how every member will ideally bring multiple skill sets to the table so less experienced members can develop alongside more experienced ones.

Munir delves into succession planning with Collin, the importance of the chair position, and Collin details key factors to consider in board strategizing. The importance of leadership and its crossover into governance is something Collin emphasizes as he discusses various boards and the Chamber of Commerce he has served on. He also highlights how dedication and development in sports excellence relate to leadership, drawn from his experiences in powerlifting. Collin’s vast experience, engaging conversational style, and keen insight make this episode an important listen for anyone in governance or, indeed, any facet of business leadership.

About Collin Pullar:

Collin Pullar has served as President of the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association since May of 2014; providing construction safety training, advisory, and auditing services to some 10,000+ companies in the Saskatchewan construction sector. The SCSA employs 50 advisory, training, administrative and corporate staff in key operational bases in Saskatoon and Regina. SCSA has received a number of awards such as the Paragon Award for Business Excellence for Marketing and Promotional Achievement, the Saskatchewan Better Business Bureau’s Torch Award for Ethics due to its work in ethical leadership, in 2019 named one of Saskatchewan’s Top Employers and received international recognition being named Construction Safety Experts of the Year. His leadership includes experiences in labour and economic development, government/public relations and business leadership.

Collin is an in-demand speaker for a range of business audiences. As a lifelong advocate for drug-free sports, Collin brings successful training and team philosophies to the business environment in his presentations. Collin is a regular contributor to Canadian business magazines including the Journal of Commerce, and Industry West Magazine. He is also co-host of the Bald Leadership Podcast alongside co-host Kavis Reed.

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Contact Munir Haque | ActionEdge Executive Development:

• Website: AEEDNow.com
• Linkedin: Action Edge Executive Development Inc.
  
  

Contact Collin Pullar:

• Website: SCSAonline.ca
• Podcast: Bald Leadership
• Collin Pullar on LinkedIn
• Bald Leadership on LinkedIn
• Twitter/X
  
  

Podcast Production:

• Recording: PushySix Studios
• Production Assistance: Astronomic Audio
  
  

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Transcript

Collin Pullar: [00:00:01] If you’re familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Index, there’s 16 main personality preference types. 85% of the people who are in executive leadership, of which that’s usually the pool that gets pulled into the board, come from just those four types. The challenge is that you can get caught in the group think that we spoke about earlier. Right from the cognitive level, from the personality level, it can be important to look at that. Boards can, over time, begin to think about things like this. What’s the strengths that people bring?

Munir Haque: [00:00:36] Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Boardroom 180 Podcast. I'm your host, Munir Haque, an executive coach and senior board strategist. I have partnered with Action Edge Executive Development to lead their governance and political acumen division. In each episode, we meet with governance leaders and step into their boardrooms, where decisions shape the world around us.

Munir Haque: [00:00:56] Today's guest is Mr. Collin Pullar. For the past decade, Collin has been the president of the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association. It's an organization providing construction, safety training, advisory and auditing services for over 10,000 companies in the Saskatchewan construction sector. Under his leadership, the SCSA has operations in Saskatoon and Regina and received numerous awards. With expertise in labor, economic development, government and public relations, and business leadership, Collin is an in-demand speaker for a wide range of business audiences. Collin is a regular contributor to Canadian business magazines, including the Journal of Commerce and Industry West Magazine, and is the host of the Bald Leadership Podcast. We're very excited to have him today on the podcast, hopefully pick his brain and have a bit of fun doing it. Hi, Collin.

Collin Pullar: [00:01:43] Hello, thanks for having me.

Munir Haque: [00:01:45] Thanks for being on the show. Our listening audience probably doesn't know this, but they will now. I'm officially designating this 'the lost episode'. We recorded it once before and we had some technical difficulties, but Collin has graciously accepted the offer to try to reenact that first podcast.

Collin Pullar: [00:02:04] We can call that the practice episode, how about we call it that.

Munir Haque: [00:02:08] It is a bit of a warm up, because it was the first interview that I did. I had reached out to Collin to do that because Collin and I have known each other for years, and I know that, as I mentioned in his intro, that he's been on a podcast. He understands how they work, and I thought I could get some tips and tricks from him. When I was doing a bit of background research on him to get ready for this podcast, I came across a picture of you. I think it was, of all places, it was on IMDb. International movie database. It's a picture of you from, I can tell that you're topless and all you have on, essentially, is a bow tie, and you're kind of dressed like a bit of a Chippendale there.

Collin Pullar: [00:02:53] I think I had cufflinks, I think I had cuffs on.

Munir Haque: [00:02:58] That's your modesty showing through. Where did that come from?

Collin Pullar: [00:03:04] That's funny. That was pretty well 20 years ago, Munir. There was a wonderful show called Corner Gas, it was just in its infancy at the time. A Canadian comedy show. I didn't know much about it. I was reached out to and said, hey, would you be interested in, first, being an extra? Then they said, hey, we've got th...