Dean Thompson Shares How He Does It All

Time management and efficiency could be a mentality learned from his nearly four decades of military service or a medley of tactics he’s picked up throughout his career in community development, but likely, it’s a combination of both—plus drive, desire and discipline.

“I actually called my mom and asked her,” says Dean Thompson, Vice President and Chief Economic Development Officer of City Utilities, when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. “She said, ‘You always mentioned you’d be financially free by the time you turn 30 and own your own island.’”

“When I turned 30, she called me and said, ‘Congrats! You’re financially free, but instead of an island you got a city,’” says Thompson, who was then serving the City of Republic as City Administrator.

He admits that in college, he wouldn’t have even known what a city administrator was, but he saw opportunity after taking an entry-level position. “I was a paralegal for a while before I started working for the City of Republic,” says Thompson, who thought his next step was going to law school. “I didn’t think I’d last six months, and I was there almost 12 years.”

He led the once-small town through change and growth in the 1990s and early 2000s. And that was certainly a training ground of foundational skills—from finance to construction—for his career, but it wasn’t his first step into leadership. That started at just 17 years old when he followed his father’s and brother’s steps and enlisted in the United States Army. He admitted he didn’t think he wanted to do it, but he decided to try it out. “Most importantly, the military taught me leadership,” he says.

Evidence of that leadership comes to life throughout his office—on its walls adorned with curated frames hung gallery-style. But this art is more than decorative; it tells a story, his story, from guidon flags to signify the units he’s commanded to a wall of challenge coins and countless photos.

Thompson started his military service with four years as a Private, before continuing his service in the Army Reserves. Most recently he was promoted to Major General (Two Stars) of the Army Reserves. He serves as Commanding General for the 76th Operational Response Command, where he oversees approximately 7,600 civilian soldiers across the U.S. including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia. That responsibility is essentially a second full-time job on top of his current role with City Utilities.

“A part of life is figuring out what talent you bring,” says Thompson. “I like making a difference, and I invest my time in areas I think I can make a difference.”

That passion plays out through volunteering, organizational involvement and working in roles across the community. While Thompson has been with City Utilities since 2007, he has been “loaned out” to other city organizations, including the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and most recently, getting the structure in place for a new organization, Leaders for Ozarks Region Evolvement (LORE).

“There’s really no organization set up to reach across jurisdictional boundaries and collaborate to that level,” says Thompson, who is serving through June of this year as the Executive Director of LORE, an organization geared toward improving quality of life and attracting a skilled workforce in the Springfield area. “There’s some communities looking at it, but we need to consolidate efforts on what’s already being done to expedite and propel these areas,” he says.

His involvement with LORE is just one example of how he’s leveraging his career of learning into forward momentum. Throughout his career, Thompson has gone into more than a dozen new organizations to access and adjust their strategy. And throughout that time, there are a few common themes—tactical leadership, finance, legal and understanding risk—regardless of organization type. “When you get to the level of C-suite, a lot of the decisions on a day-to-day basis that the board or you are involved in is managing risk,” he says. “[Whether it’s] financial risk, human safety or reputational risk.”

With a resume that could be turned into a chapter book, it’s hard to believe Thompson could schedule in any time for activities beyond meetings and engagements. But it all comes down to his version of time management.

“Many people don’t take the time to analyze their time because they don’t think they have the time to analyze the time,” his tongue twists. “Once you figure out what’s priority and what’s important, you can remove the obstacles and barriers and block off the time that’s important to you.”

For Thompson, that looks like optimizing his day through a calendar that houses both professional commitments and personal ones. From habit-stacking lunch and breakfast with meetings to make best use of time to scheduling in weekly swing dancing class with his wife, it all lives on a calendar that his whole family has access to.

That level of structure has allowed Thompson the flexibility to prioritize family, whether it’s lunch with one of his four adult children, an occasional movie night to unwind or time spent whipping something up in the kitchen. “I’ve been told I’m a pretty good cook!” says Thompson, who has conquered everything from a 32-pound turducken to his kids’ favorite, at-home hibachi dinner night.

While many of the frames in his office feature his name and rank, he acknowledges these accomplishments—and even daily successes—aren’t done alone. “If you look at the different roles I’m in and the things I’ve accomplished over the years, I don’t do it alone,” says Thompson. “I don’t do it without an employer like City Utilities that works with me to be gone.” He’s built systems with people who make him better—from his wife, who manages the household and even mows the lawn while he’s traveling, to his executive assistants with City Utilities and the Army Reserves.

“You can’t be your best if you’re going to go it alone,” he says. “You have to [take the time] to create the environment where you trust your team and communicate expectations and standards.”

While his varied experience may look a little bit like a bag of Chex mix, executing projects, servant leadership and being strategically and tactically minded are allowing Thompson to leave his imprint on a community he’s had involvement in for decades.

“It’s a very eclectic journey—one I would have never mapped out,” he says.