PESA Advisory Board Member Edward Bayhi, Vice President, Petroleum & Industrial Pumps, Gardner Denver, shared his thoughts and insights on proactively preventing “fires” in the workplace versus mitigating them, during a leadership forum hosted by the Emerging Executives Committee on October 24.
Bayhi discussed the difference between being busy and being productive. He shared resources for spending time on important and non-urgent work in order to be proactive and prevent having to be reactionary. He compared combating problems in the industry to firefighting and advised attendees to “stop fighting fires” altogether, using prevention as the first line of defense.
When he began at Gardner Denver, Bayhi served as Director of Operations under Larry Kerr, then Vice President of Petroleum and Industrial Pumps. Along with Kerr, they developed a three-pointed focus for Gardner Denver’s culture: serve one another, innovate and teamwork.
Bayhi said as part of that three-pointed approach, individuals should strive to make each other better regardless of position and find ways to make today better than it was yesterday. Major emphasis was put on teamwork, where Bayhi expressed that at Gardener Denver, “If you can’t work as a team, you can’t work here.”
Bayhi, while expressing the importance of always learning, also developed a program with an accompanying worksheet as a tool to keep leaders and industry players on a learning path. Described as a review, planning and reflection process, Bayhi’s “Five goals and accountability program” focuses on simplifying and clarifying to achieve higher productivity.
The program enables someone to identify where they are today and where they want to go in order to clarify goals and achieve speed. To aid in the clarification process, the worksheet outlines five quarterly goals, five monthly goals and finally five weekly goals.
[su_quote cite=”Edward Bayhi, Gardner Denver”]“As a leader, it all starts with you. You set the tone, don’t ever forget that.”[/su_quote]
BAYHI LEADERSHIP LESSONS
- Stop fighting fires, prevent them.
- Be proactive. What are you doing today to make it better in the future?
- If you need to change your goals, that is OK. This is a learning process. Don’t ever stop learning.
- The clearer you make your goals and objectives, the more speed you will achieve. With clarity comes speed.
- Always book time with yourself for reflection.
“A good leader, or anyone for that matter, can always find a way to do things better,” he said. “Every day has potential for improvement on yesterday.”
Leadership forums allow Member Company high performers to interact with industry executives through open dialogue structured around a targeted theme. Check the PESA event listings to see when the next forum is scheduled.