Aaron J. Crowley

Owner, Crowley’s Granite Concepts

It seems odd that one can feel alone in a small house with a wife and five kids, but it can happen.

This weekend, I made a decision that negatively affected certain members of my family and it was not the, “We have to cancel cable and stop eating out for the next two months” type of disappointment.  

It was real and justified disappointment, and made worse because I waited until the last minute to deal with the issue and make the decision.

It reminded me of those difficult days during the Great Recession and the multiple layoffs I carried out…when everyone was upset with me, my decisions were having negative impacts on real people, and it was far from clear that I was even making the right decisions.

With no one talking to me in the aftermath of this most recent decision, I had plenty of time to replay those memories over and over in my head which got me thinking about what it means to lead people, whether it be a family or a fab shop, and what character traits make people in leadership positions great leaders.

First, great leaders value the people they lead more than the objective they’ve committed to achieve, which is to say that employees in a company, personnel in a department, or helpers on an install crew are not a means to an end for the boss’s career advancement or personal ambitions.  They are human beings with inherent value, not mere resources to be managed like a budget, information or inventory.

Furthermore, because they understand that each person in their care is unique and possesses natural talents, they aligned them with work that requires such gifts and consistently achieve optimum results. 

Second, great leaders go out of their way to boost their team’s moral, remind them of their potential, and recall to them previous victories and successes.  Such inspirations are essential in victory and more so in the aftermath of a defeat or missed objective.  

Great leaders recognize that criticism, threats, and browbeating have no place on a high-performance team. Those are the tactics of petty tyrants, venting their frustration when their personal ambitions have been delayed by a failure of the team.

Third, great leaders communicate with their teams in two ways: outbound and inbound.

The outbound communication a great leader uses is the vision or the objective the team is pursuing. In addition to the big picture, the plans and incremental stages along the way necessary to arrive at the final destination are made available to the team and referred to regularly.

The inbound communication is the toughest part, and great leaders not only invite it in the form of suggestions, opinions, and yes, even criticism, they receive it with the purpose of factoring the team’s first-hand observations and feedback into the plan so it is more likely to succeed.  

It is said that “it’s lonely at the top,” and there is definitely some truth in that saying.

But for the CEOs, department supervisors, and crew leaders making difficult decisions on a regular basis, those that have a track record valuing, encouraging, and communicating regularly with their teams, it is a feeling rarely felt.

Aaron Crowley is an inventor of stone industry products like the Bullet Proof™ Apron, and owner of Crowley’s Granite Concepts.