How to Become a General Manager
After achieving a P. Eng designation, Aujla began looking for a new opportunity.
“I think I applied for a thousand jobs,” he says. “Either I was overqualified, the money wasn’t right, or the move wasn’t good.”
It was at this point that Aujla received an unsolicited call from Goldbeck Recruiting Senior Recruiter Jessica Miles. He wasn’t interested in the sales engineer role she had in mind for him, but managed to convince Miles to propose him as a candidate for a GM position she was also recruiting for at that time.
He knew that his lack of direct experience made him a longshot, but he was given an opportunity to pitch himself to the Enermax shareholders. He highlighted his eight years of experience working closely with the GM at a previous role, and stressed his commitment to proving himself.
“I told them that no seasoned GM would put in the kind of effort that I was willing to put in,” he recalls. “I also told them that I wouldn’t initially take a salary or overtime pay, and that I would fire myself after ten months if I hadn’t proven my worth.”
The pitch worked, and he was given the opportunity to travel from Edmonton to Vancouver to participate in a six hour interview. Soon after, the job was his.
Trust is Key to Success in Business
“In my wildest dreams I didn’t think that I’d wind up buying the company,” says Aujla. Nonetheless, that’s just what happened. After six years in the organization, he was convinced that the team and the model were worth investing in.
Today, Aujla describes Enermax as a company that is driven by safety, defined by quality, and built on trust.
“If you can deliver those three things to the customer, they will follow you,” he says. “You won’t have to run behind them.”
Aujla believes that personal attention and good service are the keys to success in his line of work.
“If somebody makes a phone call to me, they know they’re getting an answer,” he says.
Should Companies Hire for Fit?
Aujla also credits his strong crew. While he acknowledges the importance of basic qualifications, he is more concerned with adding team members that possess the right work ethic and fit well with his team.
“I think
anything can be taught to anybody, as long as they have the right attitude,” he says.
With that in mind, would Aujla the company owner have hired Aujla the underqualified candidate who walked in the door seven years ago?
“Absolutely!” he responds. “A candidate that tells me that he doesn’t want a salary, and that he’s willing to relocate from Edmonton to Vancouver and potentially fire himself? That’s bold confidence.”
Delegating Responsibility While Remaining Aware
Pressed about his management philosophy, Aujla says that he’s happy to delegate responsibility, as long as he remains in the know. He shows me a document related to the company’s production process.
“Every week I sit with people from all of the departments and go through this line by line,” he says. “We look at jobs, order dates, delivery dates, revisions, customers, project information, drawings, and other information. I’m always looking out for trip points and addressing them in advance.”
Rewriting Job Descriptions
One initiative Aujla and Enermax’s Controller undertook was to rewrite the company’s job descriptions.
“It was like a mom and pop shop when I got here,” he recalls. “With no particular responsibilities for each person, how do you hold people accountable if something goes wrong?”
To fix this situation, the pair assigned responsibilities to each role and gave the positions to those who were best suited. He believes that it was an important step toward strengthening the company’s process.
Allowing Employees to Make Mistakes
“When somebody starts at the company, I tell them they have one year to make as many mistakes as necessary,” says Aujla, “but don’t repeat your mistakes, make new ones. It’s also important to learn from the mistakes of others.”
He tells the story of a new team member that made a budgeting mistake which stressed the company’s bottom line on a particular project.
“I told him that it was OK, we just had to find a way to recover from it,” says Aujla. “He’s worked diligently and we’re getting very close to evening out the loss.”
Employee Appreciation
While Aujla’s confidence has served him well, he displays no signs of arrogance.
“I’m not a wisdom guy,” he tells me, despite having shared a considerable amount of it during our interview. Effectively managing a team is just one area in which Aujla provides sound advice.
“Employees look for appreciation,” he says. “They need to know what they need to perform and what the parameters are. When they have targets to meet or exceed, not only will others appreciate them, but they’ll be able to appreciate themselves.”
Cited Sources
1 Direct communication with Baljit Aujla
