Four Tips for Great Leadership

In the past three and a half years, Saratoga Roofing & Construction of Oklahoma City has grown from $6.5 million in annual revenue and four employees to a company earning $50 million with 265 employees. To what do we attribute this phenomenal growth? Great leadership.

It has been said: “A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader. A great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.” Being a great leader takes commitment, confidence and clarity. The old-school method of employing scare tactics—“If you don’t do what I tell you to do, then there’s the door!”—doesn’t cut it anymore in today’s business world. Besides, if you still subscribe to the “It’s my way or the highway” way of thinking, you’re going to alienate everyone who works in your company or organization and nothing will be accomplished. During my career, I have experienced owners and/or leaders who used authoritarian leadership and, in my opinion, they will not make it during the next decade.

Denver Green, Saratoga Roofing & Construction’s president, shares four reasons why Saratoga will continue to be a successful company during the next decade:

1) We continuously work to set a clear direction for our teams. Clarity will always lead to desired results. If you aren’t clear about where you’re going, do you think your team will be? As a leader, my role is to be the visionary who paints the picture for them to follow. If our leaders aren’t clear about the necessary steps our staff needs to accomplish goal, then a lot of time is going to be wasted running around in circles. Our consultant, Masterthink, ensures every company executive has a clear goal with action plans tied to dates and people who are accountable for executing the goal. If needed, we draw a roadmap on paper outlining the full process, starting with the objective and detailing what each person is responsible to complete. The better your directions are, the easier it will be to meet the goal.

2) I work hard to make sure my actions match my intentions and visions. As the leader, I always need to know what I envision being the final outcome of the project/task we’re asking our employees to execute. Do you want to “wow” a client with an exceptional product presentation? Can you see the final project completed? What does it look like to you? Are you excited about this task? The level of my commitment and enthusiasm needs to come across loud and clear to our team. If I’m “ho hum” about the outcome, then guess what? That’s the attitude that will be adopted by members of my team. Some of us are “big picture” thinkers. We forget about all the details that lead to the big picture, but as the leader of Saratoga, I can’t allow myself to let those last-minute details slide. If I do, then the final outcome will definitely not be to our liking.

3) Creating a cohesive team has been a real key to our success but also a big challenge. I must have confidence in my team and their abilities. Knowing who fits in where on our team is crucial to creating success. We know it is critical to assign the “right” people to the “right” tasks. If one of our employees doesn’t like dispatching but loves to work on data entry, then we assign him or her that job. Knowing the strengths of each member of our team is crucial in achieving a successful end result. Forcing someone to take on duties he or she absolutely hates creates resentment, and resentment slows down the entire project or leads to poor performance. Our company utilizes the online assessment tool StrengthsFinder as a means to understand
the strengths of our employees so we can maximize their abilities and strengths to the fullest extent.

4) Work smarter, not harder. I know we have heard this phrase a million times, but it bears repeating. Learning to delegate the workload to the right person will lift some of the weight of turning in a top-notch end result off your own shoulders. My role is to be the visionary—not the micro-manager. I model what it means to be a leader and a follower and, in turn, I take great pride in inspiring and creating great leaders for the future.

As a member of the Saratoga Roofing & Construction team, I can truly say this is the “Saratoga Difference”.