Leadership Questions
Cathy Gill, Pasadena Plant Manager
2026-07-09
Cathy recently shifted from Cedar Bayou Operations Manager - Plastics over to Plant Manager at Pasadena. I’ve never worked with her, but she’s been highly recommended by a few different folks so I wanted to get something on her calendar. We were able to get 30-minute call to go over some of these topics.
Good morning Cathy,
This summer, I’m trying to interview different leaders about how they think about/show leadership and what lessons I can gleam.
I’d love to set up a call with you and discuss your career/what you’ve learned.
Here’s a list of some questions I’ve thought about but we can go wherever you want
What’s something you wish you knew early in your career?
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Is there a favorite failure you’re willing to share?
What’s something that’s underestimated by others that you think is important?
What has been the hardest “leadership skill” for you to develop in yourself? How did you go about it?
Who do you look to as a great leader (inside or outside of the company)? What about them do you admire/want to imitate? Is there a mentor you really grew under?
How do you create the environment that people in the room have the courage to speak “truth to power”?
Also, how do you approach collecting and interpreting team feedback when some individuals are more vocal than others?
If this time doesn’t work for you, please let me know and I’ll reschedule.
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-—start of convo
CATHY GILL
!!What’s something you wish you knew early in your career?
Cathy started manufacturing but then took role in research/technology. She spent over 17 years in R&T and only recently got back to the manufacturing side of the business. At the time, the R&T work schedule aligned with outside life (kids, family). But her journey has taught her that there's many pathways to get where you want, there's not one path.
!!How has R&T shifted her view now back at manufacturing?
Her background help established a broader mindset in her. When CPChem first merged, all the sites still had their old cultures for years when the R&T group had to merge early. It also taught her how to deal with personal conflict. Early in her career she had to call 20-30yr experience people into meetings for behavior issues.
She oversaw managing the budget for the R&T group and get exposure to what senior LT expects and wants. Another was getting to lead the Global process engineering group was a great spot to get exposure to business/research/manufacturing.
!!Who do you look to as a great leader (inside or outside of the company)? What about them do you admire/want to imitate? Is there a mentor you really grew under?
One person she mentioned was Scott Sharpe, he’s the one who asked (aka told) her to go be the Improvement manager at Pasadena. He’s always very clear with expectations and doesn’t like to be BSed. He was extremely good at seeing if someone was dancing in answering a question.
##You need to be willing to be honest and say, "I don't know that, but I will get back with you"
Tying a mentor with the failure question; early in her career, she made a mistake on a project. Cathy was devastated and had to tell the unit superintendent. But she didn't get berated, instead the superintendent’s approach was "how are we gonna fix this?"
##help people acknowledge when there's been a mistake and focus on what are we gonna learn from that
Cathy also shared some of her “rules” she sets out when she first meets her team.
- Own when there's been a mistake. I'm not gonna berate you, let's make a path forward
- Communicate early and often. Don't wait for when things fall apart.
##If things fix themselves, great. If not, you don't surprise folks.
- Valuing the perspective of everyone in the room. Some people are more dominate in a room, but everyone is expected to speak and contribute.
This got us on the sidetrack of how to pull softer-spoken folks into a discussion, both in the meeting itself and through coaching in 1on1s, plus how to manage more overbearing individuals. For more dominate folks, you do this through coaching. Make them aware of how that comes across in group setting and are "collapsing conversation". If a softer speaker, you need to understand what's behind that. And communicate to them that “what you have to say has value to the room”.
##One thing Cathy mentioned was at the beginning of a meeting, discuss it’s tone and how important it is to have diverse perspectives.
!!how to communicate effectively?
As you go higher, you gotta to translate strategy to the organization. “What needs to happen & why”, to help them understand the bigger picture. Cathy started doing town halls at Pasadena. It’s a way of giving employees the "bigger picture". It’s also the questions you ask, like when sitting on GRTs. How to ask questions to shape the discussion without giving an answer.
##“if this was your checkbook, how would you spend the money?”
!!What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love?
Cathy talked about using running and walking as stress relief. She’s an avid baker. Back when she was the Pasadena improvement manager, she would set milestones and bring in baked goods (like cinnamon rolls).
!!What’s something that’s underestimated by others that you think is important?
We had meetings right after the discussion, so I had to end it early, but Cathy wanted to answer this question. She said that perseverance and resilience are underestimated attributes.
end of convo————