Driving Cultural Change at an Industrial Furnace Manufacturer

When Ashleigh Walters took over as general manager of Onex, a family-owned manufacturer of industrial furnace supplies and services, she says that the company had lost its way.

The Pennsylvania-based company had been running in a command-and-control style. Employees were working in silos. The result was a company that was full of mistrust and struggling financially.

Walters says that she felt that it was important to take the company back to a more people-oriented culture.

Today, Walters, now CEO and President of Onex, leads a thriving company that she has helped steer through the Covid-19 pandemic. She says that there’s no comparison today to the culture that she found when she took over little less than a decade ago.

She has written about the journey in a new book called “Leading with Grit and Grace.” In this interview, Walters talks about the journey to people-centric management, leadership lessons along the way, and what it means to lead with “grit and grace.”

Diana Davis, IX Network:  Before we get into the details of Onex’s transformation, I wanted to ask you about your background. I understand that your family has a long history in manufacturing. What made you decide to continue that legacy?

Ashleigh Walters, Onex: It all started with a plant tour. At the age of 13, I was allowed to tour my father's paper mill. He was a back tender on a paper machine there.

I remember those double doors swinging open from the offices into the plant and what a change in the environment. It was just so exciting!

There was all this equipment. It was going fast. It was loud and crazy. Everybody was busy. I think it gets in your blood when you see how things are made. For me, it all started with that plant tour, and I've wanted to be in manufacturing ever since.

Diana Davis, IX Network: There's a lot of concern right now that people are turning away from careers in manufacturing. What do you think manufacturing leaders can do to draw people in again?

Ashleigh Walter, Onex:  I always talk about experience and exposure. We all want to get more people interested in manufacturing, but they don't know what's going on behind these walls.

Many manufacturers stopped doing plant tours and holding family days, perhaps for safety reasons. I think if plants allow the families to visit it just it helps the children and the rest of the family understand somebody’s job. It can also get them interested in pursuing those careers.

I remember taking my boys on their first plant tour to a rolling steel mill. They were in shock and awe; they were standing so close to me and holding on to my pant leg as if they were little toddlers. It’s loud, it’s fast, and it’s hot. There’s all this energy that you haven’t ever felt before. When we left, the boys turned to me and said “Mom, that was the best experience.”

There’s nothing at school that can provide them with that same experience. As an engineer, I can't go into the school and give them that same exposure. They just have to live it.

Diana Davis, IX Network: Turning to your story now. I understand that when you took over as general manager of Onex back in 2013, you said that the firm had lost sight of its mission and its family centric core values. Can you take us through the journey you've been on to recenter your company on people?

Ashleigh Walters, Onex: We’re a family business and in September of 2013 we were struggling as a company. The CFO had just resigned, and our financials were not looking good.

My father-in-law phoned me and asked if I would lead the company. At the time I was a stay- at-home mom with two young boys.

I had planned to wait until my boys were at school before going back to work but it seemed like an important time to step up.

Onex is a small, family business. But it had been run like a big corporate.  We lost our mission, and we lost those family-centric values.

The CFO had led with a very command-and-control style based off spreadsheets. There was a lot of fear in the organization, and a lot of silos. People didn't know what the other departments were doing.

That style of leadership wasn't effective for our company and for our business.

If you have ever been in a relationship where trust has been broken, it takes a long time to repair it. For us, it was a journey of getting back to our values, getting back to our roots, repairing that trust that we had broken as a family.

I had 50 families depending on me to get this right.

A lot of the things that we did to address this were based in lean principles.

We started with value stream mapping. It was a great way to get all the parties to the table, cross collaborating, talking about what they did, and talking about the struggles they were having in their work.

When I met with people, I would say, what is your biggest headache? What frustrates you the most? What takes up most of your time? That's how I found the inefficiencies in the company.

As we began to fix those things that were very frustrating for the organization, we began to rebuild that trust. The more we fixed, the more contagious it got. People started getting excited about helping others fix problems.

Diana Davis, IX Network: Why was it so important to you to recenter on the people?

Ashleigh Walters, Onex: When I graduated from Auburn University with my chemical engineering degree, my dad said, “well, that's great, but you don't know much.”

It was tough love at my house, but it was probably the best advice I’ve received in my career!

He said that you need to go to the people who are doing the work. They already have the solution to the problem that you're trying to solve. If you just ask them, they'll tell you and they will help you.

I've used that advice all of my career.

As leaders sometimes we feel like we have to know everything. But you have to be able to admit that you don’t know everything. Even if you think you know how something is working, it’s usually not how it's working.

So, if you can go to the front lines and ask for help, people are so willing to help you and it makes them feel respected too. Their opinion truly does matter.

Diana Davis, IX Network: What does this actually look like in practice? A lot of companies talk about being people-centric, but how do you live it?

Ashleigh Walters, Onex: I’ve got two examples that are related to COVID. I think a crisis can really reveal what it means to have a people-centric culture.

As the COVID crisis started, there were a lot of unknowns. We didn't really know what was happening and everyday something was changing on us.

I ordered these silicone bracelets that our people could wear. They could choose a different color depending on the day or their circumstance.

The green one meant, let's get on with life. We can hug, we can shake hands. I'm good. If you chose a red one, maybe that meant you had an underlying condition or someone in your family was ill or you were just scared and nervous about the whole situation. You wanted people to mask up and stay away from you.

It gave us a visual cue as to where others were on this journey so that we weren't overstepping bounds unintentionally.

The other example, for which I’m really proud of my team, occurred after our governor here in Pennsylvania shut down all businesses and sent people to work from home.

We were an essential business. We had production personnel still here and our management team split so that we weren't all here at one time. Anybody that could work from home did go to work from home.

My shipping and receiving manager said to me, “what about the truck drivers?” And I said, “what about the truck drivers?”

He explained that they come in to use the facilities. As we were locked down to only essential personnel, I didn’t think it was good idea for extra people to be coming in. But he said that the truck drivers didn’t have anywhere else to go. All the gas stations, truck stops, and rest facilities were closed at that specific time period.

So, he really challenged me, and we decided to designate a women’s restroom on the plantroom floor as an area where the truckers could go. But my manager took it one step further. He set up a table with waters and snacks for the truckers because he knew they didn't have anywhere else to eat.

I think that manager really demonstrated people-centric leadership. He challenged me as a leader because he was really looking out for the welfare of others. It wasn't just our team. It wasn't just our company, but a wider humanity too.

If you’re willing to think of other in the midst of a crisis - when you would normally be thinking about yourself - then I truly believe that you also bring that to your daily work.

Diana Davis What have been the biggest challenges along the way in leading this transformation?

Ashleigh Walters, Onex:  For myself, personally, the time that it takes to rebuild trust and the small steps you need to take along the way was really the hardest part for me. I am a high energy, type A, overachieving personality and going slow is not something I like to do!

I really had to understand that I could not fix this in a day. I had to have patience. I was going to have to meet people where they were right, not where I wanted them to be.

Each person needs a different path. Each person needs something different. They have different obstacles and need different resources.  I needed to make sure that I met each person as an individual and helped each person become a better part of the team.

Diana Davis, IX Network:  Taking a broader perspective - it's been a difficult few years for the manufacturing industry as a whole. There's rising inflation, there's labor shortages, supply challenges. How do you keep your teams motivated and continuously improving amidst all this uncertainty?

Ashleigh Walters, Onex:  There is always going to be uncertainty.  If it wasn't COVID, it was the housing crisis.

The biggest thing that we've done as a company is to really focus. Each year we pick a wildly important goal.

Then every department manager says, “OK, this is what our group is going to do to help the company meet this wildly important goal.” Then each individual chooses what they're going to do.

In that way, in the midst of chaos and your hurried days, you focus on that one goal. What is the one thing that you can do to advance towards that goal? What is the one battle that you can fight to help win the war?

That has really settled our organization. We used to do the whole goals cascade from top to bottom. It was frustrating because whatever goal I set in January was irrelevant by March. That's not only frustrating for the leader, but that's frustrating for the entire organization for the goal – or goals - to always be changing.

Diana Davis, IX Network: What leadership advice would you give to other manufacturing leaders?

Ashleigh Walters, Onex:  I really believe that you have to lead with both grit and grace. For me, grit is all about  determination, persistence, and resilience. You have to make those hard decisions. You have to stick by them.

At the same time, you must balance that determination with grace. Empathy and compassion for others is just as big a part of leadership. If others aren't willing to follow you, then it doesn't matter how gritty you are, or how right you are. Your people won’t follow you.

You have to get the balance right.