Sometimes, leadership demands us to make the hard calls. In this particular story, Travis Vap was faced with a difficult decision on how to handle an employee that put himself at serious risk—and thus put the company in a tough position of how to handle an interdisciplinary situation. Should the company have terminated an employee out of a severe safety violation? Perhaps. But the path and decision chosen by this company not to terminate this particular employee shows leadership at its finest. How was the event handled? The worker sat down and wrote a letter to his family in the event he would not be coming home from the jobsite.
Case in point: I had the honor of speaking with Vap at BUILD23 about a serious safety issue he was faced with as the head of his company, South Valley Drywall. I was so moved and inspired by how Vap handled the situation. I believe everyone in this industry could learn from this situation and ultimately how this turned out to be a positive outcome as an employee learning from their mistake(s).