{"id":31226,"date":"2023-10-10T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/stoneage-inc-ceo-launches-the-ownership-mindset\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:36:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:36:52","slug":"stoneage-inc-ceo-launches-the-ownership-mindset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/stoneage-inc-ceo-launches-the-ownership-mindset\/","title":{"rendered":"StoneAge Inc. CEO launches \u2018The Ownership Mindset\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kerry
Kerry Siggins, CEO of StoneAge Inc., high-fives Lee Sheek, a machinist at StoneAge, in November 2019 at the company\u2019s manufacturing location in Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For StoneAge Inc. Chief Executive Officer Kerry Siggins, her path to success wasn\u2019t a direct line.<\/p>\n

Like many, building a career in her 20s was difficult, but before taking on the role of CEO of StoneAge, she admits she hit rock bottom.<\/p>\n

In her upcoming book, \u201cThe Ownership Mindset: A Handbook for Transforming Your Life and Leadership,\u201d she details her experiences of feeling lost in her 20s and how the desire to be seen as an achiever drove her down a dark path.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been dealing with substance abuse issues. I was a high functioning addict,\u201d she said of her time living in Austin, Texas during her 20s.<\/p>\n

In her book, Siggin dives deep into her past usage of cocaine in her 20s, saying she was \u201cdoing more cocaine than a 230-pound man,\u201d which eventually led to an overdose in 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201cI overdosed. By myself, on the floor of my apartment. I nursed myself through the overdose; there was no way I was calling for help. I couldn\u2019t allow anyone to see me in this state. My ego couldn\u2019t handle it,\u201d she said in the book.<\/p>\n

She talks about how her high achiever personality, need for recognition and issues with family members drove her to a point where she craved recognition. This resulted in a need to be seen as worthy throughout her adolescence, creating negative situations for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very self centered, mostly because I was miserable and had self esteem issues and things like that. When I came to Durango to heal\u2014to turn my life around, I made a commitment to myself that I was going to stop putting myself first,\u201d Siggins said.<\/p>\n

But through these hardships, she realized how being honest about oneself can help people be a leader in the workplace or in life in general.<\/p>\n

She then turned her life around and took over StoneAge, a company dedicated to manufactures high-pressure waterblast tools, only a year later. Siggins had never managed a company before, and it gave her the opportunity to consult with employees and troubleshoot concerns.<\/p>\n

This forced her to get out of her own way and remove her ego from decision making. During this experience, she was able to identify three different types of leadership: managerial, visionary and strategic.<\/p>\n

She defines visionary leadership as a person who has the ideas and vision, but they don\u2019t have the discipline and the structure to put a plan into place to execute, whereas a managerial leader doesn\u2019t have the vision, but can execute the plan really well. A strategic leader can combine both of those qualities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the visionary leader, and I\u2019ve been accused of chasing shiny objects, which I hate,\u201d Siggins said. \u201cBut I had to be able to translate this big vision that I had for the company and for our industry into actionable plan that the team could consistently execute over and over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

This forced her to change her leadership style in order to improve her planning skills. She said for some in her situation, that can mean hiring people with those planning skills to better the company.<\/p>\n

Siggins was recently in the running for Colorado CEO of the year for her work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means that we\u2019re doing the right thing as a company. People don\u2019t win those awards, if they haven\u2019t built a strong team,\u201d Siggins said of the awards.<\/p>\n

She said the most important takeaways from the book are that if people want to lead, they need to be vulnerable and transparent in order to develop self-awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to look at yourself and say, here are my strengths. And here are my weaknesses, here are the things that I like about myself, and here are the things that I need to work on,\u201d Siggins said.<\/p>\n

Siggins said the second takeaway is that people need to \u201cdig deep.\u201d She admitted there were several times over the last 17 years that she thought she wasn\u2019t cut out to be a CEO. However, she continued to persevere and not listen to the proverbial devil on her shoulder telling her to give up.<\/p>\n

She also said the last takeaway people should gain from the book is to make an impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re willing to put yourself out there, you dig deep and then you do the work, this is how you can impact your team, your company, your community, your industry. That\u2019s really what this is all about,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

One of the concepts Siggins discusses in her upcoming book is the difference between a \u201cpaycheck player\u201d and a \u201chigh performer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Siggins defines a paycheck player as someone who simply cares about what they are paid and nothing else. But a high performer is someone who takes pride in the company they work for and values their team.<\/p>\n

\u201cA paycheck player can be a good performer in a company as well. I don\u2019t want to say a person who is just focused on their own career can\u2019t be a high performer,\u201d Siggins said. \u201cBut when you are doing your job for more than a paycheck and the value that you bring to your customers and how you are engaged with your team and how you feel trusted by the company, it really creates a whole different mindset within you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book will officially launch on Oct. 17, with an official announcement preceding it on Oct. 16 at Seasons of Durango.<\/p>\n

tbrown@durangoherald.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Siggins discusses personal obstacles faced in new book promoting leadership<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,950,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-durango","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81366,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31226\/revisions\/81366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31226"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}