We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Holly Gotfredson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Holly below.

Holly, appreciate you joining us today. The more we talk about good leadership the more we think good leadership practices will spread and so we’d love for you to tell us a story about the best boss you’ve had and what they were like or what they did that was so great?

I was grateful to have had several wonderful “bosses” over the years who inspired and influenced my leadership style in a positive way. One in particular really stands out – she taught me many things, but one of the most important lessons was to lead humbly and empower your team. She gave me the opportunity to grow- learning much more than just what I was hired to do and gave me the freedom to pitch new ideas, try different marketing campaigns, and invest in new skill sets and personal growth. I never had the mindset that I was “working FOR someone,” but rather was working WITH someone and that really stuck with me. My leadership style was heavily influenced by her example – I delegate and empower my team members – creating an atmosphere where we all take ownership of our production process and product output – doing our absolute best and taking pride and joy in what we do.

As President of two companies, my job as a business owner is to raise up and empower management, creating a safe place for them to give me feedback, suggestions and new ideas to improve our process with emerging technologies and equipment capabilities. With a wonderfully capable and talented team in place, that allows me to focus on business development and a growth plan for today and the future.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

American Metalcraft, Inc. was started by my father-in-law, Gary Gotfredson in 1986. AMI was a small fabrication shop located just off Howell Mill Road that offered engineered, architectural aluminum products. Slowly over time, American Metalcraft was providing rainscreens, barrier plate wall systems, perforated panels, sunshades, fins, column covers, brake metal and custom architectural elements to customers all over the country. Our products are primarily on the exterior of commercial buildings such as hospitals, universities and trade schools, K-12 schools, corporate headquarters, government projects, high-rises, stadiums and retail/storefronts.

In 2004, Gary saw the need for a metal coating facility – the one that had been servicing the Southeast had just pulled up stakes, so he started Finishing Dynamics to fill that need. His son, Erik Gotfredson had been raised in the metal industry, doing everything from sweeping the floor as a teenager to welding, operating machines, becoming a project manager and eventually the Vice President of both businesses.

I started with both companies in 2004 part-time – doing small office and marketing projects as needed, with very little experience in the metal or construction world. I worked hard with what I was given and had a natural curiosity to learn more about the architectural aluminum manufacturing and coating process as well as the industry. With a background in art, marketing and accounting I learned creative, critical and analytical thinking which are key skills in the A/E/C and manufacturing worlds. Both my husband, father-in-law and key leaders of our companies, took time to mentor and educate me about the businesses.

As the years went on and continuing to learn, I began to become more involved in business development, shaping the mission statement and vision for American Metalcraft, Inc as well as its sister company Finishing Dynamics. As I moved up into several leadership roles, I realized how much I had fallen in love with the industry. The artistry in what we do and just the whole process from design to delivery is fascinating. I also love being a part of projects all over the country such as Fort Bliss Hospital in El Paso, Mercedes Benz stadium and headquarters right here in Georgia, Philly Live Casino in Philadelphia, San Franciso State University, Purdue University and more. In 2017, I decided to become a permanent part of the business and purchased American Metalcraft Inc. from my family. As a second generation owner in a family owned business, I knew I had big shoes to fill and took that responsibility very seriously. Forging long term relationships with architects, designers, installers and general contractors has been key to our long term success.In considering how to nuture those relationships even more, I created accredited classes for tarchitects, as well as presentations/training classes for the installers and GC’s that want to learn more about our products.

In 2017 after the company purchase, my team and I worked together to devise an aggressive marketing strategy and business plan to really put our company brands at the top of everyone’s material supplier list. Upon implementation, we saw record breaking sales – the largest sales we have ever had in the 36 year history of our companies. That was definitely a proud moment and with that momentum we’ve experienced continued growth and expansion.

Last year, I purchased the majority ownership stake in our sister company Finishing Dynamics. It was a big leap given the supply chain shortages especially in the paint world, but I have absolute faith in our teams, our process, our customers and what the future holds.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Let them do their job. I’ve crossed paths with many different folks throughout my life that work for all types of companies. It seems like the single biggest challenge for their team members across the board is management that uses a “command and control” mentality – micromanaging every aspect of their job. To me there are two Steve Jobs quotes that sum up effective leadership – It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do: we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” And the other is “Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.”

Lead in a way that offers open communication between you and your team members. Offer genuine care and compassion for your team members – share in their victories and losses. Make time to have a meal or volunteer together – it makes such a huge difference when someone feels comfortable enough to share a personal loss or struggle – as a leader you can meet them right in that moment, offering them support and encouragement.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

American Metalcraft is celebrating it’s 36th year in business – as you can imagine we’ve seen many ups and downs over the last 3 decades – with the latest challenges surrounding COVID, we’ve been quick to think in new and creative ways. As an architectural metal fabricator, we have ridden the waves of economic trends and industry -it’s a huge testimony to our commitment to relationships with customers and supplies alike, as well as our teams’ adaptive talent across a variety of conditions. When the economy crashed in 2007-08, we had our companies in separate facilities – to save money, time and shipping, we combined facilities which helped us weather the storm of the down construction market at that time. In turn, combining facilities also saved our customers money as well. With the onset of the metal tariffs in 2018, we were able to get ahead of price escalations, in part due to our long term, trusted relationships with our suppliers,. This enabled our customers to stay on budget and avoid encurring large escalation costs. Same holds true for the supply chain and labor shortage – communication, good relationships and effective leadership with our company’s team members has been key to succeeding in a volatile environment.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.americanmetalcraft.com and http://www.finishingdynamics.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/American-Metalcraft-Inc-267415630720843 https://www.facebook.com/FinishingDynamics
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/american-metalcraft https://www.linkedin.com/company/finishing-dynamics

Image Credits
Abstract Photography, Inc.