06/21/2026
What Owning a Plumbing Company Has Taught Me About Leadership
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about leadership.
Not because I read a book or attended a seminar.
It’s because my son Ryan has been taking on more responsibility in our company.
For most of my career, if there was a problem, I was expected to solve it. If a tough decision needed to be made, it usually landed on my desk. If something went wrong, I felt responsible for making it right.
That’s part of owning a business.
But as Ryan has stepped into more of a leadership role, I’ve started to see leadership a little differently
For a long time, I thought leadership meant being the one with the answers.
For a long time, I thought leadership meant being the one with the answers.
Now I realize leadership is also about knowing when to step back.
That’s not always easy.
When you’ve built something over many years, your first instinct is to jump in. You want to help. You want to fix it. You want to make sure things are done the right way.
But if you never give people room to make decisions, solve problems, and learn from experience, you’re not really leading them. You’re just managing every outcome.
Watching Ryan grow into more responsibility has reminded me that one of the most important jobs of a leader is to help other people become confident enough to lead themselves.
That applies to family. It applies to employees. It applies to any business that wants to last.
In the plumbing and heating trade, we solve problems every day. Some are simple. Some are stressful. Some happen at the worst possible time.
But the work has never just been about pipes, boilers, drains, or water heaters.
It’s about people.
It’s about showing up when someone needs help. It’s about doing the right thing when no one is watching. It’s about standing behind your work and your word.
That’s why the values we try to live by at Bottis Plumbing & Heating mean so much to me:
Have hands that solve problems.
A heart that serves others.
And integrity that never wavers.
Those words aren’t just a slogan to me. They’re a reminder of what this business is supposed to be built on.
The hands are the work. The skill. The willingness to get involved and solve the problem in front of you.
The heart is the reason behind it. Serving customers, supporting employees, helping families, and being part of the community.
The integrity is what holds it all together.
Because at the end of the day, people may forget the details of a job, but they remember how you treated them.
They remember whether you showed up.
They remember whether you cared.
They remember whether your word meant something.
The older I get, the more I realize that leadership isn’t about being the person everyone depends on forever.
It’s about building something strong enough that others can carry it forward.
I’m proud of the business we’ve built.
But I’m even more proud to see Ryan and our team continue to grow, take ownership, and carry those values into the future.
I’m still learning every day.
But if owning a plumbing company has taught me anything about leadership, it’s this:
Lead with hands that solve problems, a heart that serves others, and integrity that never wavers.
Everything else starts there.
What Owning a Plumbing Company Has Taught Me About Leadership Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about leadership. Not because I read a book or attended a seminar.
