About David Scruggs and Scruggs Leadership, LLC
 

I created Scruggs Leadership, LLC after 30 years of leadership and organizational consulting in both the private and non-profit sectors.   Some of the most frequent questions I receive are listed here:

What do you do?

By definition, I’m an Organizational Development consultant.   I’ve spent my career helping individual leaders and whole organizations craft a new future for themselves by adapting to change and removing barriers to improved performance.

My family and friends have never understood what an OD consultant is.  When asked, they describe me as a:

  • Leadership Instructor
  • Personal trainer / coach for executives
  • Facilitator of problem-solving meetings
  • Conflict mediator
  • Team builder
  • Strategic Planner 
  • Motivational speaker
  • An “insultant”  ( per my then 8 year old daughter)

 

Why Scruggs Leadership, LLC?

In 2015, I opened an office in Winston-Salem, NC as Scruggs Leadership to focus primarily on the two things I’m most gifted at, and enjoy:

Executive Coaching – I’ve coached hundreds of executives in my career, though its been a smaller part of my practice.  In Scruggs Leadership, it is my primary focus.  As a coach, I’ve helped save careers, rebuilt unworkable executive relationships,  and helped many launch into significantly larger scopes of responsibility. More recently, I’ve helped successful corporate leaders adapt to the surprisingly different world of non-profit leadership.    

Non-Profit development – I’ve been a misfit in the corporate world since getting my MBA in the early 80’s. Fortunately, the corporate world needs occasional agitation that a misfit provides. Throughout my career, the engagements I’ve had with those committed to social change have been most gratifying. Through Scruggs Leadership, this focus represents my desire to give back to the broader community.    I’m inspired by working closely with those who are so committed to make a difference in the lives of others.  

 

What’s your educational background?

Consultants love to tout degrees.  I have a BA in Psychology from Eckerd College, and an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill in the mid 80’s.  But that really just helped orient me to the “business of helping people”.  

My consulting career has been spent serving some of the best companies in their industries:  Macy’s, Abbvie Pharmaceutical, M&T Bank, Wells Fargo (formerly First Union Corp), Hanesbrands, and Reynolds American to name a few.  I’ve learned a lot from each one, and hopefully left my mark as well. 

I’ve been mentored by some of the smartest Leadership development professionals in the country including Merwyn Hayes, founder of the Hayes Group International, Jim Farr, founding technical director of the Center for Creative Leadership and Farr Associates, and Robert Goldberg, my partner of 16 years and founder of Organization Insight.  I am an amalgam of all I’ve learned from them and these clients.

 

What are your roots?

My small town roots sink deeply.  I grew up minutes from the banks of the Mississippi River in a small town in Arkansas.  Dad spent his entire career as a CEO,  growing a small county-owned hospital into the largest employer in Crittenden County. Mom was a school teacher, and the descendant of many generations of Presbyterian ministers and missionaries.  A servant’s heart beats loudly in my chest.

An avid and enthusiastic athlete as a boy, my junior high football coach captured my athletic essence eloquently:   “He may be small, but at least he’s slow”.  I learned that the secret of my success would never be physical prowess.  Instead, I learned how to lead by facilitating.  I became an Eagle Scout, found I had a gift for drama, and a mind for math. I didn’t know it then, but I was being shaped early for a career as a leadership consultant.

 

What else differentiates you?

Scruggs Leadership, LLC allows me to capitalize on skills I’ve spent a lifetime honing, both professionally and personally.

An avid photographer, I’m known for the inspirational audio visual presentations I’ve created for signature events for clients, family, and church.  Scruggs Leadership now provides a forum to help non-profits tell their story through short, professionally crafted videos.

A gifted story teller, I was a national semi-finalist in Toastmaster’s World Championship of Public Speaking. Through Scruggs Leadership, I entertain and promote a non-profits mission as an emcee at galas, and a licensed auctioneer for benefit auctions.