How Leaders Make Difficult Decisions

Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are very busy people. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Ialways knew I wanted to be an architect. I started my career in residential and retail work, but that wasn’t my passion. I transitioned to commercial architecture and I was incredibly lucky to have found a mentor that, by pure chance, introduced me to manufacturing and process planning. His name is Jon Zimmerman and he was a Principal at Ware Malcomb. My first project with him was a whirlwind. We won new business in Spain and he urgently needed someone fluent in both technical and conversational Spanish to travel with him for the assignment. I was suggested, and in the blink of an eye, my stars changed forever. I found myself traveling across the globe to handle a multimillion-dollar project for General Dynamics. When we arrived in Spain, it was the first time I’d set foot on the floor of an ammunition manufacturing plant — I was hooked! The smell of cutting oil, the equipment and the fast pace drew me in; and to this day, it hasn’t let go. I always feel privileged to experience, learn and be part of these spaces that most people don’t get to see. It’s like being in an episode of ‘How it’s Made’ everyday when I go to work.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I’ve been blessed throughout my career with talented, generous individuals and mentors who have given me the opportunity to grow and develop my skills. As I mentioned, I was lucky enough to work with Jon Zimmerman, who really led me to finding my career passion of manufacturing and process planning. He is the best in the business and pushed me to find that niche of expertise I’m so proud of today. He also taught me the value of profit, efficiency and accuracy in our business, something that most architectural firms don’t really know how to do.

In the current chapter of my career at H. Hendy Associates, our founder Heidi Hendy has been an incredible mentor. Heidi is very gifted and she shares her gifts generously. From the start, I could always depend on her for strong counsel, advice and steadfast support guiding and enabling my business plan. Heidi gave me complete autonomy to envision, shape and build Hendy’s Science & Technology studio and allowed me to grow and manage it as if it were my own. I’m convinced this experience is what most prepared me for the newest chapter in my career as co-CEO of Hendy.

Heidi will always remain a trusted mentor who I will turn to for counsel as I navigate the new terrain of co-CEO. Our culture is a clear reflection of Heidi and I’m incredibly grateful for her generosity in teaching me all she knows and has experienced in her 43 years of being at the helm of Hendy.

Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion. Can you share with our readers a story from your own experience about how you lead your team during uncertain or difficult times[BT3] ?

My career has taken me through two important economic hurdles: the 2008 recession and the 2020 COVID shutdowns. In 2008 I was merely a cog in the wheel of a large international firm, and so my experience was more of a follower. At that time, the firm’s approach was to cut down expenses as much as possible and unfortunately that included quite a bit of staff. For us that remained employed, our focus was to be efficient and lean and produce and diversify as much as possible in order to stay afloat and ahead of the curve. This taught me resilience, taught me the value of the bottom line but also clearly illustrated the damage that can happen to an organization once you break down its ranks.

During the 2020 COVID shutdowns, my role had transitioned to that of a leader, and so my personal goal at Hendy was to make sure that our strategies for this uncertain time focused on keeping our staff intact as much as possible while watching the firm’s profitability. We needed to protect people during difficult times because we would only succeed as an organization if we remained whole. Our responsibilities as leaders needed to include creative ways to keep people productive, the firm profitable and champion our sense of community. Thanks to diversification in our services we were able to take on different projects and share resources within the firm, while using free time for operational updates and staff training — like finally migrating to REVIT as our main software. That was a longtime goal for which we never had the time to commit until then.

The hardest part was the ‘virtual’ aspect of community. This took a few trials and errors, but in the end I believe we came out stronger, our culture survived and thrived because leadership sent a clear message that we are all in this together and together we would succeed.

Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the motivation to continue through challenges? What sustains your drive?

As humans, we are wired to be very resilient. We all have moments of weakness when we feel uncertainty and self-doubt; and in those moments we may fantasize about just walking away from it all. But those moments are fleeting and they’re very important for introspection. It’s what we choose to do with the pessimistic voices in our heads that defines a strong leader. The pressure either breaks a person, or it fuels them.

These moments fuel me. I lean into problem-solving like it’s a competitor that I won’t let win. One of my favorite books is, Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz, former Mission Control Director at NASA during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions. In the book you learn of the incredible feats accomplished by these brave pioneers, and how they bind together as a team because of each person’s passionate commitment to a shared goal.

I believe in leading with passion. Authentic passion is a powerful force, and it’s what inspires a team to believe in you and to give their all. This is where I find my joy and motivation… in sparking passion and excellence in my team, and then watching them thrill clients with superior work that keeps them coming back time after time. To quote Simon Sinek, “The joy of leadership comes from seeing others achieve more than they thought they were capable of.” This rings absolutely true for me.

Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader?

In our line of work, we sometimes face the hard choice of saying no to a client. It’s not always a straight black and white decision, and our industry has the mindset to always say yes to any project. You just don’t turn down work! However, recently I had to say no to a large-revenue project with a brand name client due to the difficult way they manage their assignments. After consulting the team that normally leads their business, it became clear that serving this client comes with too many liabilities for staff — and every time it results in lower and lower team morale. This was a case where no amount of financial ROI could outweigh the team’s mental wellness.

I chose to support my people and declined the assignment, and I don’t regret that decision at all. The benefit to the staff was that no one faced high stress and unwieldy overtime to make a project successful, and our people had bandwidth to take on new business working for clients they love. But more, we proved we live our values of being a people-first company. And that earns respect, trust, enthusiasm and evangelism from the team. And that’s how we maintain our incredible culture at Hendy.

What process or toolset can a leader use to make a choice between two difficult paths?

As a leader you always have to remember and go back to your core values of why you do what you do. Integrity, respect and success are your roadmap. When presented with a choice, when a decision needs to be made, I always go back to my ‘why’ and to the values that delineate it. The path to move forward must be cemented in that.

Do you have a mentor or someone you can turn to for support and advice? How does this help? When can a mentor be helpful? When is this not helpful?

Absolutely! Like I said earlier, I have been lucky to have found different mentors at different times throughout my career. I believe a mentor’s advice or take on different situations is invaluable to help one’s view on things. Sometimes is just a sounding board of ideas, oftentimes is more of a broader take on issues or feedback based on their experience having dealt with similar situations. We tend to get myopic when dealing with our own problems for a period of time. A mentor can help see you in a different way.

I personally tend to seek advice when I am not considering all outcomes, or when a decision requires insight that I don’t have based on my own experience. As a co-CEO, that doesn’t change and I know that reaching out to peers and mentors in my new role will continue to help me develop as a leader.

What would you say is the most critical role of a leader when faced with a difficult decision?

When faced with a difficult decision, a leader’s most critical role is to drive the resolution process. No decision is made in a vacuum, and a good leader takes the responsibility of gathering input, insights and data from the right people to inform the best answer. Good leaders take on the risk for the group. They lead from the front and carve the path forward. Personally, I tend to apply the Lean Six Sigma approach to tough decision-making. I gather the data, analyze the possible outcomes and weigh the consequences. I also always ask myself if what I’m doing aligns with what we are trying to achieve as a firm, or if I’m being reactionary. This litmus test greatly helps me form a clear picture of the issue and allows me to make a rational decision.

Do you ever look back at your decisions and wish you had done things differently? How can a leader remain positive and motivated despite past mistakes?

It’s human nature to second guess and ponder on the ‘what if’ scenarios. For me personally I like to eliminate that upfront by analyzing the situation, running through different scenarios and then making a final decision. Are there times when I have looked back and said, boy I wish…? Sure. When that happens I think you have to make it a learning tool and see how you can make a better assessment next time and how you can correct the situation moving forward. A leader is always growing, always learning and has to remain open to a continuous influx of new experiences to enrich your own path.

What is the best way to boost morale when the future seems uncertain? What can a leader do to inspire, motivate and engage their team during uncertain times?

Optimism is a great source of inspiration. If a leader is optimistic about the final outcome, the driving force will be positive. A good leader will inspire confidence, and she will provide a path forward by listening to staff, moving obstacles out of the way and supporting them through to success.

Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen other businesses or leaders make when faced with a hard decision? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?

Indecision: a leader’s role is to assess the situation and make a decision in a timely manner to correct or drive an outcome. Oftentimes, poor leaders wait too long to make a decision.

Inaction: leaders need to be ready to make a decision actionable and move forward with a timeline to do so.

Clarity: a leader’s responsibility is to be clear and concise in their direction in order to make it meaningful.

Humility: a leader must always remain humble and human. Big egos don’t make for good leaders.

Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a leader should do when making difficult decisions? Please share a story or an example for each.

1. Listen: Leaders must listen and be open to understanding and assessing the situation from an unbiased standpoint. Discovery is key. I cannot tell you how many times listening to different versions of the same issue has uncovered what really needs to be addressed. For example, we once had a situation with a staff member where projects were not being run properly. After a few conversations, I learned that it wasn’t their error or the client’s; it was the project manager’s. We were able to successfully and constructively resolve the situation because we found the true source of the issue.
2. Analyze: Model out various scenarios and respective outcomes plus their repercussions. In the example above, if we hadn’t found the true source of the issue, it would have resulted in requesting a change order for the client and that would have caused them great frustration. Instead of being faced with damage control, we were able to focus on excellence control internally — we dissected where the process broke down, optimized it and trained the team on the improved protocol. We also had to examine what the repercussions would be if we were unable to correct the issue and the actions continued.
3. Act: A leader must be decisive in a timely manner. The scenario discussed above resulted in us making the impossibly difficult decision to let the project manager go after repeated attempts to correct the situation. The accountability was not there. And, as leaders it’s our responsibility to the entire staff to ensure we’re optimum stewards of our resources. It’s also our responsibility to move obstacles out of the way, allowing everyone to thrive and deliver superior work to the client.
4. Be clear: This one is really important. Vague or inconsistent direction will only confuse and frustrate your staff. Always be clear on your intentions and follow through with clear direction and actionable next steps. In this example, right after we let go of the project manager, we communicated transparently with the staff and provided them the opportunity to discuss concerns directly with us.
5. Be and stay accountable: Remember, a leader is always responsible for decisions and implications. It starts and stops with you. Once we let our project manager go, it was a member of the leadership team who jumped into the weeds and steered the project from there out. We also saw through transition-related pain points with the client and teammates who had directly reported to this person.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

From one of my mentors, ‘Be comfortable being uncomfortable.’ Meaning, be ok with being out of your comfort zone, this is how you grow, learn, fail and recover. Words to live by in my opinion.

How can our readers further follow your work?

Your readers can connect with or follow me on LinkedIn. They can also visit the Hendy website hhendy.com and be on the lookout for more articles and publications.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.

Thank you for the amazing opportunity!