Developing leaders in HVAC, plumbing, and distribution

Leadership development in a trade business begins with giving people clear responsibility, support, and room to make decisions. Technical experience matters, but leading a team also requires listening, setting expectations, coaching, and following through. Those habits need practice in the work itself.

This guide applies ideas from Hugh Hornsby's conversations with Eric Himes, Mark Hunter, Jason Sullivan, and Randy Chaffee. It is a starting point for a team discussion, not a description of a packaged training program.

Where is the business still dependent on the owner?

In the Jason Sullivan episode, Hugh raises a familiar problem: the founder makes every decision and the systems live in that person's head. Adding software does not automatically resolve that dependence.

List the decisions that repeatedly come back to the owner. Choose one recurring decision that a team lead could learn to handle. Document the information needed, the boundaries of their authority, and the situations that require escalation. Review the first few decisions together rather than taking the responsibility back at the first difficulty.

What should a development conversation cover?

Eric Himes describes an approach that connects personal development with organizational goals. His broader point is that people are more than the output they produce. Leaders need to understand what their team members want to become, as well as what the business needs from them.

Use a regular conversation to ask what is going well, where someone is stuck, and which responsibility they want to grow into. Agree on one concrete practice before the next meeting. It might be leading a morning handoff, resolving a customer issue, or teaching a process to another colleague.

How do you keep experience from walking out the door?

Mark Hunter discusses the gap between retiring experience and the next generation of technicians. Treat knowledge transfer as part of the job, rather than something to address when a departure is announced.

Pair an experienced colleague with someone learning the work. Capture the reasoning behind a decision, not just the steps. Ask what warning signs an experienced person notices and when they stop to get help. Keep technical and safety procedures under the supervision of the people qualified to approve them.

Who is getting the chance to lead?

Randy Chaffee's conversation highlights mentoring women and people from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the trades. Look at who gets invited into development opportunities, customer meetings, and visible responsibilities. Potential is easy to miss when opportunities only go to people who resemble the current leadership team.

A four-week starting exercise

• Week one: identify one recurring decision to delegate and agree on its boundaries.
• Week two: let the emerging leader handle it with an experienced colleague available for support.
• Week three: discuss what happened, what they learned, and what needs to be documented.
• Week four: review whether responsibility has actually moved, then choose the next practice.

Measure the change in the work: clearer handoffs, fewer repeated escalations, and decisions made with sound reasoning. Do not judge the whole effort by one month's revenue.

Choose one person whose potential you have noticed. Give them a specific opportunity and the support to grow into it.