A good leader makes sure he is surrounded by the right people.
“Success is not achieved totally by leadership alone,”
says Gene Abbott, CEO of contracting firm Abbott and Associates. “A good
leader makes sure he is surrounded by the right people, that there are
open lines of communication in all matters, and that there is a strong
commitment by all.
“I have been a mechanical contractor for 34 years. One
of our more prominent projects was the TARP project, better known as The
Deep Tunnel, for the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago.
“The project was 300 feet below grade level, and all of
our heating and cooling equipment and material had to be lowered to that
level. It was to be installed, at an elevation of 55 feet, in an
equipment room the size of a football field.
“I received a call that we had a serious problem. The
room was equipped with a permanently installed overhead crane, which was
in the way of our scaffolding.
“After several meetings, we were able to convince the
tunnel coordinators of the necessity to build an extension platform from
the overhead crane. We then used this platform to assemble and install
our equipment above the elevation of the crane. Through leadership,
communication, and dedication, we took a critical situation and turned
it into a positive result that was appreciated by all
“Another significant project for us was the Argonne
National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois. The facility is for scientific
use and has a one-and-a-half mile circumference.
“Our contract was for $6 million. Once the project got
underway, there were interferences due to design and having available
access to move productivity.
“Through our communication, leadership, and dedication,
our team managed to take 13 sections of this facility and orchestrate
them as one typical section. This process allowed us to fabricate all
the material on a typical basis, to be aggressive, and to have the
material already in place before the facility was even roofed.
“The Argonne people were awed by our hard work and
dedication to be so far in advance of the project schedule. In fact, we
were recognized and thanked personally for our performance, not only for
our work on the project, but also for the safety that was instilled.
Argonne prepared a safety video, using our personnel’s performance and
exhibits, which was mailed to every Argonne facility in the world.”
Read 100 Real Stories of most great minds at Quotes Machine
“Through our communication, leadership, and dedication, our team managed to take 13 sections of this facility and orchestrate them as one typical section. This process allowed us to fabricate all the material on a typical basis, to be aggressive, and to have the material already in place before the facility was even roofed.
ReplyDelete