Stay focused
Despite your best efforts, very few leaders will accomplish everything on their checklist on a regular basis, especially when you’re managing in tough times.
“It is literally an issue of prioritizing my workload, prioritizing the strategic decisions that need to be made and then literally filling in with the day-to-day operational duties I have,” Vrabely says. “So depending on what day of the week it is and what’s coming at me over the course of the next month, you just block the time off, dig in and get it done.”
Vrabely equates the process to a juggling act consisting of beach balls, volleyballs, softballs and golf balls.
“The key is to ensure we do not let any beach balls or volleyballs hit the ground,” Vrabely says. “Occasionally in this environment, if a softball or a golf ball hits the ground, chances are it’s going to bounce back up. We just have to make sure the key aspects of the business do not deteriorate in this environment.”
You need to find ways to keep the big picture in sight during those particularly difficult times.
“The only way I rationalize in my own mind the fact that I may be eliminating positions and putting employees out on the street seeking new employment is that I still have 1,200 people that are employed and I’m still supporting 1,200 families,” Vrabely says.
You need to find ways to celebrate the small victories that your company sees and use those victories to boost employee confidence going forward.
“I probably do it more than anything through my personality and just through my face-to-face and phone communications with people within the organization,” Vrabely says. “I was walking through our corporate office, and this goes back to shortly after we made the announcement on many of the contingencies that we pulled in 2008. I had a director-level staff person within our organization pull me aside and say to me, ‘How can you be so upbeat? How come you are smiling and joking around with people?’ My response to that individual was, ‘What is the alternative? Would you prefer me to be walking through the office, with my head down, not talking to people, not being upbeat, not smiling?’
“At the end of the day, this is a very important endeavor that we are all embarking on. But it is still business, and it’s still work, and it’s still a job. We have to consistently keep it in perspective that, yes, this is the most important thing we do because it’s how we support our families. But at the end of the day, that’s what it’s really all about.”
How to reach: Huttig Building Products Inc., (800) 325-4466 or www.huttig.com
