Feb 5, 2019
Brad Sawatzke is the CEO of Energy Northwest. Something funny
about Brad is that he has been blessed
with many things in life and being a Minnesota Vikings fan is not
one of them! Prior to his current
position he worked at Montecello nuclear power plant for 30 years
and was going to retire. He was
recruited to his current position and since his kids were grown, he
thought it would be a great part of
the country for him and his wife to live. In your career, be open.
He was going to continue his path in
operations in his earlier career when a colleague pulled him aside
and said, you really need to broaden
your experience base if you want to be a plant manager one day. He
took that advice and switched from
operations to maintenance and it was the best decision he ever made
career wise.
When hiring the team that will surround him, Brad looks at
attitude, and what are their thoughts on
leadership? How do they treat their people? With encouragement,
there is lasting results. He looks for
people that are willing to give feedback and “coaching up.” He
surrounds himself with people who are
very good with details because that is a weakness for him. He looks
for people who come to him and
say, Look, there is a problem, here is what I think about it, and
here is a potential solution.
When he has this amazing team surrounding him, he does luncheons
for recognition, but what he has
learned is that a simple thank-you goes a long way. People can tell
when you are sincerely appreciative
of something they did. There are 2 ways to get people to follow
you: you can force/intimidate them, or
you can care about your team--and they will go the extra mile. He
actually learned a lot about leadership
when he was a janitor at the nuclear plant. There were managers
that acted as though he was a bother
and others who actually took an interest in asking him about his
weekend, wife, and his life. The person
that was the nicest to him was promoted and when Brad became plant
manager, that gentleman send
him a card congratulating him. He believes there is a direct
correlation between success and how you
treat people.
He does a lot of traveling and he uses that time to dream, plan,
strategize.
As a CEO he organizes his time by being a one-minute manager. He
strongly believes in not over-thinking
things. He focuses on his most time-significant situations or
pushes some of the decision-making down
through his team. He doesn’t have to weigh in on every
decision.
His energy is derived from his wife and his family. They are his
greatest supporters. He enjoys historical
leadership in particular: Lincoln, Churchill. He enjoyed reading
the book called In Thin Air about hiking
Mt. Everest and how people face challenges.
His advice to leaders is, engage your people. Leadership isn’t
demanded; it’s granted.