We recently connected with Patti O’leary and have shared our conversation below.

Patti , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you ever had an amazing boss, mentor or leader leading you? Can you us a story or anecdote that helps illustrate why this person was such a great leader and the impact they had on you or their team?

The best “boss” I ever had was my first boss in the film business, a man named Harlan who was the head of the film music division at Paramount Pictures in the early 1990’s. He was kind and and amazingly talented with an impressive resume of his own. He maintained great relationships with everyone in the industry, movie producers and movie stars, rock stars and music management and record companies. I was his Executive Assistant and we worked together for many years; he treated the entire team with respect and always wanted to promote people, encourage people to be their very best. He had a very loyal team of great music people who worked hard but were so happy to be working with him. He was my mentor in so many ways and so generous with me, allowing me to be in high level meetings with producers and film executives as well as letting me take the lead on some meetings with superstar musicians and their managers or record company executives. He trusted me and always told me how great my people and admin skills were. We worked on soundtracks for some of the biggest Paramount movies, including Titanic, Mission Impossible,Waynes World, Rugrats, and Forrest Gump. He was a joy to work for and simply the best leader. I still miss working with him (he’s now retired) but we are still in touch. A special friendship. He gave me so much confidence and taught me so much. I will always cherish those years working with him.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started in my career working as an assistant to rock band managers and then I got very lucky and landed a great job working for the head of the film music department at Paramount Pictures. I’ve worked at Paramount, Disney, Technicolor and Warner Bros (before it was Warner Discovery) in various divisions (publicity, communications, music, marketing, events, games, movie production and legal). I guess you can say that I am have an incredible history with my experience in the film studio system. It hasn’t always been an easy path, but it’s one that I know well and at this point I can’t imagine working in any other industry.

However, in my personal life, I am a Writer and a life-long Equestrian.

Writing is my personal passion and though I haven’t pursued it with with the intensity that I probably should have, when it comes down to it, writing is the thing that brings me so much joy and personal satisfaction, even if my books don’t sell. I am to this point a self-published author on Amazon, with a poetry book, a horror novella and a romantic comedy book series published up on the Amazon publishing platform and available to purchase. Although I write fiction, being a writer has helped me immensely in my day job because I feel like I’m a wordsmith. Words have a silent rhythm to them, even when you’re not writing song lyrics. I love the way certain words and phrases fit together, and how some words just stick in your memory because you love the way they sound. For instance, right now one of my favorite words is Apropos (without any reason or purpose). The other word I always come back to is dalliance and I can’t tell you why exactly; I just like the musicality of the word. I guess getting stuck on and having favorite words is just one of the quirks of being a writer.

I’ve been riding horses since I was in grade school, and have been lucky enough to own four wonderful amazing beloved horses throughout my life. Being with the horses brings me peace and provides sanctuary in the best and worst of times. Being a horsewoman has taught me so many life lessons and it is something that I will always hold on to. I cannot imagine a life without writing, or without horses.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

There are more times than I like to count that I’ve had to pivot in my career working at the film studios. Massive layoffs have been part of the business for a long time now, and I have been laid off about five times in my career. It’s never, ever easy to go through it, even if you have faith you’ll find another job or that you won’t be the one on the “layoff list” this time. Even when it’s not you getting the dreaded notice from HR, it’s really hard to watch your colleagues go through it. For those of us who need to work, who don’t earn a paycheck from our creative passions, it’s so scary to wonder “what now, what next”?

I always thought my career would be in the music industry since that’s how my career first started and I was so successful for so long; I had no choice but to pivot and confidently take on other positions in departments I had no experience in (publicity, legal, games, etc). I had to quickly learn the culture and the business within the business. I’ve done that so many times in my career, and I have to say it can be exhausting and disheartening to say the least. However, I always had to work and being offered a job, even in another department, was always a blessing and I have been so grateful to have worked with so many great people, people I never would have met had I not been laid off.

Any advice for managing a team?

Although I have never directly managed a team, I’ve worked with many managers and C-level executives that have large teams that report to them. I have to say that all the great managers and executives that I have worked with have two important qualities in common: Kindness and Faith. The best leaders are the kindest leaders, the people who don’t criticize constantly – the kind of leaders who want to prop their teams up so people can do the best work and feel good about the work they do, they prop their teams up and let them shine instead of constantly berating or making people feel like the work they do is not important, or that they are not good enough.

Faith is another quality I’ve noticed in the best leaders I’ve worked with. They have faith that the mission of the team is a strong one, that the work their people are doing is going to be great, that even if there’s a problem or crisis, the team can get through it together and everyone contributes and is recognized for all the effort they bring to the project or just the job in general. Great leaders have a lot of faith in the people who work for them, and they aren’t afraid to let their teams know it.

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattioleary

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Patti O’Leary