341: Lessons in Leadership

"My goal for SSLLC is to have a company that doesn't provide stress to somebody's home life or them personally. So the only way that can happen is to teach leadership and lean into those stresses {to find a solution}..." Join Devon as he chats with Scott Sypniewski Sr. & Jr. about leadership! SSLLC was founded on August 1, 2021, by Scott and Kathleen Sypniewski. Scott and Katheen operated a plumbing business in Chicago, from 2000-2018, while raising 4 children. Scott grew up in his father’s multifamily plumbing business. In 2018, as their youngest was graduating high school, Scott and Kathleen gave their business to a trusted employee and moved to Colorado. In May of 2021, Scott read the book Extreme Ownership. The book impacted his life and gave him the knowledge necessary to run a large scale business. When the opportunity was presented in July of 2021, Scott was ready for the challenge. With the support of Kathleen, they formed SSLLC and began to assemble their team. As of April 2024, SSLLC has 20 people on their management team and 50 plumbers. Extreme Ownership has provided the foundation for success. They have built a strong culture that people believe in. That foundation allows them to develop processes that structure their operation, i.e., project manuals, 3 week look a heads, quarterly customer reviews, QA/QC implementation and implemented safety procedures, to name a few.  A testimonial from their Leadership coach and advisor, Marcus Aurelius Anderson: “Working with SSLLC as a Leadership Advisor over the last year, I can say that I've never seen a company that genuinely values culture as much as SSLLC. Their employees don't just talk the talk, they walk the walk and lead by example daily. They've made culture the cornerstone of all they do, it's the foundation upon which they've built everything from the ground up. There are plenty of companies that say how important cultivating relationships, caring for their people, and culture are but then fall flat when it comes time to execute. SSLLC has used extreme ownership and self leadership to be great problem solvers through teamwork, simplicity, prioritizing execution, and building every member of the company into better leaders. All of these skills have made SSLLC a tremendously successful company in a short amount of time.” A testimonial from the leadership group, Echelon Front: One of the things I really respect about SSLLC plumbing is that they’re consistently looking for ways to improve as leaders.  A good leader understands that you must make time to educate and train your team, this starts with the leaders making time to educate and train themselves.  One of the areas the SSLLC leadership team is very strong in is continuing to develop as leaders and most importantly taking action with implementing this same concept with their team. A really good attribute with any leader is having an open mind to new ways of doing things or different perspectives, The Sypniewski’s are always open minded with new ideas and concepts, especially when it comes to taking care of their team and people. ~ Steve Ward. Former U. S. Navy Seal, Combat Leader, and Leadership instructor at Echelon Front.