NWA Women in Business: Cammie Scott

Age: 42

Residence: Lowell

Education: M.S., industrial engineering, University of Arkansas

Professional background: Scott has over 19 years of experience in assisting corporate clients with leadership development, human resources and employee benefits.

What are the attributes of a good leader? “They’ve got to have the ability to inspire people. If people can’t inspire others to action, they’re not really a leader. They’ve got to be credible. And then they’ve got to have a vision.”

What other female leaders do you admire and why? “Really, in all honesty, early on in my career I had a lot of male leaders. Men and women. But my mom, Sheron Harp, has been an Aflac agent for over 30 years and she has great vision and ability to see the big picture. Judith Tavano has a great strategic mind. Delores Chitwood has a get-it-done attitude.”

What do you want CK Harp & Associates to accomplish in the next year? “We work on this every year. We work on growing people professionally and personally. My philosophy is that people are a whole person. If they aren’t happy in their personal life, they aren’t going to give their all in their professional life. We try to help people grow each year.”

Have you had to deal with gender bias in your career? If so, how did you handle it? “I think everybody does. I don’t think it matters if you’re a man or a woman. I can’t say I’ve had any real horrific experiences. Most of the time the best course of action is to ignore it and go on with what you need to do. If you stay focused on the end goal, you will learn to let many things go.”

What advice would you give a younger version of yourself, just starting your career? Would you do anything differently? “Follow the old Irish proverb that says, ‘Trust God and be true to yourself.’ When you aren’t true to yourself, it breaks your core being down.”

What drives you to succeed? “One of my core values is excellence. Being the best you can be in a given situation and on a given day. If you do this, you end up with few regrets. You may learn what to do differently next time, but you will go forward knowing you did the best you could in a given situation.”

What or who has been your greatest influence in your career and why? “My family. I was blessed to have a family that stayed together and still stays together, and that has a very strong work ethic and a very entrepreneurial mindset.”

What do you do to unwind/for fun? “Sit down and take a break. I have two small children who are always busy and a full-time job. At the end of the day, I am tired.”

What motivated you to choose the field you’re in? “I got my insurance license while I was completing my degree in engineering. I had grown up helping my mom do enrollments, and I enjoyed getting out and talking with people. Right before my last semester of school, I was diagnosed with cancer. It is one thing to have knowledge of how a policy works. It is another to have first-hand experience. When I understood how important it was to know how your policy works and how few people knew this, I was inspired to help others.”

Was there ever a time when you considered doing something else? “I think we all have times when we consider doing other things. It is nice to have people come to you with opportunities and ask you to join them, but I love what I do. I am sometimes frustrated, but there is nothing else I would rather do.”

Success oftentimes comes down to “satisfied customers.” How do you go about making sure your clients, subordinates and peers are satisfied with your work/leadership/vision? “I constantly seek feedback. If someone trusts you enough to come to you with an issue, then you need to take it seriously enough to address it and get back with them about it.”

What’s one surprising or interesting fact about you? “You could call me a quick-change artist. Week before last I was in meetings in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol one day and at my children’s school cooking hot dogs the next day and working in the barn with horses the next day. I barrel race and ride horses and people I do business with are sometimes surprised by this.”