Pat Kluver, CEO of Workskills Inc.
Introducing our brand new interview series. This series will share the personal insights of leaders within our Troublesmiths community.
Q) Introduce yourself. Who are you? Where do you work? What do you like to do/what are you passionate about?
A) My name is Pat Kluver and I am the Chief Executive Officer of Workskills Inc. My work enables me to fulfil my passion by letting me make decisions on empowering our people to do some amazing work in helping our clients realise their potential. The success we have, as a community organisation, is down to our people and the energy they have. Over the last 10 years or so, I have taken up bush walking and absolutely love getting out and about seeing the amazingly beautiful nature we have here in Tasmania. It is a great feeling getting to be at the top of a peak in Tasmania and feel on top of the world. Bush walking is a place where I can get away from it all, even an hour is enough to refocus and refresh.
Q) What was your very first job? What lessons did you learn during that time about work, and about yourself?
A) My very first job was when I was around 11 or 12 I think and that was on a milk run. Back then the truck delivered milk and bread to every house. I would get up at 5:30 am and ride my bike down the hill and meet the milkman, put the bike on the back of the truck and deliver milk all the way back to the top of the hill and then he would drop me off at school. I did that job for around 6 years and one of the big learnings was that working hard had good results. My first “real” job though was working in retail and one of my biggest learnings was that being a “boss” doesn’t work, but being a leader does. My first stint at being a second in charge saw me try and assert my authority on day one, I was quickly explained by my staff that this wasn’t the way they liked to be managed, a very quick learning curve because that was by morning tea time on day one.
Q) What advice would you give your younger self?
A) Reflecting on this question makes me feel old, because when I was young, all the older people in my life always said “School years are the best years of your life”. If I could turn back the clock, it certainly would be, to position myself better to take better advantage of opportunities as they arose. Being more focused on the future as apposed from the past is something that has come to me later in life. I do consider myself a late bloomer, I was terrible at school, mainly because of my attitude. I started at TAFE as a mature age student in my 30’s and redid everything I should have done at school. Would I change anything? Maybe a couple of things, but the future is where we are heading and that’s the only thing we can shape.
