Leadership Questions
Dirk Perrin, Cedar Bayou Plant Manager
2026-05-14
As I’ve been asking people different leadership questions, they kept mentioning how Dirk was a great leader. I knew that I’d have to ask him some questions while I’m still at Cedar and get to understand how he leads an organization. I set up a meeting on his calendar to sit down in his office and chat.
Dirk,
I wanted to put some time on your calendar to pick your brain about leadership and how you approach the responsibility of being Plant Manager.
If this time doesn’t work, please let me know and I’ll reschedule.
Here’s some of the ones I’ve got on my list, but I’d rather have a flowing conversation and go with the conversation
When you are in a meeting or seeking input from your team (as a leader), what has been the best way to get honesty/candor from your team?
How do you approach “chairing” or leading a meeting when you are the highest-level individual in the room?
How do you recover a failing culture?
How do you lead someone who doesn’t want to follow/be a part of the team?
Was there a time you messed up and felt like you’d failed? How did you bounce back?
How would you define your leadership style, and how has it evolved?
What makes a “good leader”?
Who/where do you go to when you need direction & advice?
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-—start of convo
A great start for these conversations is to get to know their career so I started with “tell me about where you’ve worked before this role”. He began his career at the Pasadena plant, working up to maintenance manger then goes to Sweeny. Eventually moved to Cedar as Plant Manager. Along the way, he never really “looked” for that next role. Almost every next spot was one that the people above him recommended he do.
I asked about the K resin incident and he was actually covering the unit at that time early in his career. He didn’t know better but still showed up to work the next day and helped the dayshift operator with closing valves, “I put on a bunker suit and pitched in”. He did talk about how the operations team had slowly moved responsibility away from the front line owners.
I wanted to know how he managed the diverse personality types that are under him (all the managers are different and so I’m sure there’s some “creative conflict”). His response was he tries to start with trust, putting himself in their shoes and trying to understand where they are coming from.
##I didn’t really “get” anything from this. It was a good answer but didn’t really address my concern. And it was the question I was most curious about because dealing with conflict, especially the people below you, would be so useful to know.
When I followed up with how to get feedback from a room when you’re the head honcho, he talked about first being engaged and listening during the meeting. Show that you are wanting to listen. Then he’ll hold his opinion and feedback until others have had the chance to speak, that way he doesn’t sway them. He’ll also ask someone who’s quieter their thought if he sees they want to interject but aren’t stepping up.
Dirk did mention how the way he thinks about his role is to help the people below him succeed. This is mainly done through constantly focusing on simplifying everything (he even says a sign that says “Simplify” above his desk). More isn’t always better, and as a company grows and exists there just become more and more red tape and pointless boxes to check. He also focuses on giving clear direction. Often times if he asks for something, people will think they need to create a 20page write-up, but really he just wants to know that specific answer. So he has learned to tailor the question down to the exact question and answer to keep folks from wasting time. Finally he mentioned having high expectations. These are “stretch goals” and he mentioned how he doesn’t believe in crazy out there goals because sometimes that can demotivate a group if they see halfway through the year they will come up short they’ll stop caring.
##That definitely a fair point, but the counter is if they aren’t ambition enough you never grow and improve. It’s knowing the team and finding that balance.
I wanted to know about ‘critical goals’ or how he ensures he gets the right/proper information from the team. He talked about how for most stuff if it’s going well, he’s happy and doesn’t see the need to get involved. It’s when he’s getting more involved you start to see what he’s wanting done. (And hopefully it gets fixed quickly).
I asked about if he could fix something that he hasn’t been able to so far in the role (since being the plant manager means you have a ton of authority to direct how the entire site should operate). His main gripe was the drawing away of manufacturing folks to do ‘non-manufacturing work’ like reporting back to corporate and whatnot. This just reiterates his belief in simplify and if something isn’t directly helping us work better, stop. He had a great line about this which was “the best way to avoid this is don’t get to stupid. Before it even starts”. But if it’s already happening, recognize and correct. This meeting has 20 people too many, this meeting can be an email, this form can have less signatures. SIMPLIFY. He’s all about efficiency.
end of convo————
Honestly? I think I botched the discussion (interview). I was likely too nervous to really delve into the answers and distill some core insights. I don’t think I got what I was hoping for, I was wanting some enlightening approaches to dealing with situations.