Key characteristics of successful managers.

I remember the occasion well. I was in St. Louis last summer for SUR/FIN, standing at the huge windows on the second floor of the America's Center overlooking Washington Avenue. A colleague, who had traveled 400 miles from his surface finishing facility to take in the show, was lamenting the problems he was facing in assembling an effective management team. "Matt," he said, "things just aren't the way they used to be. The last few years I've had a heck of a time finding good managers. If good people are the key to success in finishing, I'm in big trouble." He was only one of at least a dozen finishing facility operators who have voiced the difficulty they have had in finding managers with the attitudes and skills needed to succeed in surface finishing.

So what's driving the challenge? The answer is this. While many of the characteristics that would enable an individual to succeed in our industry are identical to those necessary for success in any other, there are some attributes that make the finishing industry unique. In my view, a manager's success in finishing is directly proportional to the degree to which his or her personality is a fit for the unique characteristics of the industry. Consequently, in addition to the standard traits one must possess in order to succeed in any management position, a finishing company's recruiting process must place an emphasis on identifying the following personalities:

Aggressive and Action Oriented. People unfamiliar with finishing are blown away by the speed at which we move. About two years ago I had a conversation with someone new to the industry. He had just been hired to head up a job-shop powder coating operation. He explained to me that his solution to managing capacity in his shop would be to demand 12-week projections from his customers so that he could prepare his daily production schedule that far ahead. I wished him luck, knowing what anyone who has spent any time in our industry already knows. Most customers can't tell you what they'll be sending in three days, much less three months. The phenomenally quick turns we must provide necessitate a unique management style.

I asked Dr. Jonathan Dehlinger, president of the business psychology firm Vernon Roche Hodgson, Inc., what attributes are characteristic of managers likely to be effective in the finishing industry. "Such a position typically appeals to action-oriented individuals," Dehlinger responded. "Finishers need to focus their recruiting efforts on candidates who exhibit a high degree of aggression in seeking results."