“Leaders aren’t born, they are raised,” Tom Leahy told the Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association 41st annual convention. “Raised through time, touchpoints and experiences, both good and bad.”

In his STAFDA president’s address, Leahy shared how points in his career raised him to leadership.

“My leadership foundation started like most,” which includes “growing up in a good home” with parents focusing on morals, ethics and responsibility.

At 16, Leahy started working at a local hardware store where he met his first mentor, store manager Sam Cassius.

“Dad and I had been shopping at the hardware store for years and I pretty much knew where everything was located, making it easy for me to direct customers to their needs.” 

Cassius quickly made Leahy a service rep on the sales floor. He “always found time to spend with me and preach ‘Become Valuable.’”

“Learn everything you can about the products, the business, and most of all, the customers and you will be employable,” Cassius advised Leahy.

Leahy’s first post-college job also was in the hardware / lumber business. He walked into Denver’s DIY-oriented Hugh M. Woods and asked a manager behind the counter if they were hiring and was told ‘No.’ 

“I remembered Sam Cassius’ words, ‘Be Valuable,’ and offered to work for one week for free. “If I am not ‘valuable’ we can part ways and you don’t have to pay me!” Leahy recalled telling the manager. “The manager smiled and told me to come back tomorrow and he would get me started.” 

Leahy got the job and “always showed up to work early, volunteered to stay late, and filled in whenever needed. Soon, they entered me into their management training program.” 

Another Woods’ manager, Brent Broekeiemier, taught Leahy the budgeting process, including points such as ratio management and selling the budget to the boss.

“Brent was never in a hurry or a rush to get out of spending time with anyone, but always kept the meetings content rich,” Leahy recalled.

Leahy was promoted to management and sent to a location Denver store. At one point, Leahy went to the office where the store manager sat behind a desk cluttered with annual budget paperwork. Since Leahy had company training in budgeting, he offered to help craft the budget. His boss credited him to the district manager – paving the way for advancement.   

Leahy progressed through leadership positions within Hugh M. Woods – later owned by Payless Cashways – for 13 years. 

“Through those years, every imaginable situation arose that provided me additional insight and experiences shaping my leadership” from record to difficult financial years and a fire that made national news.”

In 1997, Leahy joined the privately-held Border Products as the company’s operations manager.

Border “was a true distribution model business to the contractor trade; I loved it!”

The second generation owner “taught me a great deal about tax planning and foundations of private ownership while introducing me to the industry.”

In 2002, Border acquired Marvel Masonry and Leahy asked to share in ownership. “It was the first time a non-family member was an investor in Border,” and Leahy rated it as another ‘Raising Leadership’ point.

Even during the recession, “we stayed assertive and opened a Government/GSA division, selling product into every state in the Union and overseas.” Border added an Industrial Division focusing on power, mining, and flooring.   

“We added product lines, kept aggressive with credit, focused on the customer, and continued to invest in training and our people – we were and are a sales organization and planned on continuing to act like one!”

Leahy cited STAFDA programs – including Inside Sales & Service Pro, University of Innovative Distribution, 45 online video training tools, eight training manuals, monthly webinars and surveys – for Raising Leadership.

“If there were a simple recipe for Raising Leadership; the key ingredient would be ‘time’!”

And thus Leahy said he has spent entire days trucking or fabricating rebar and in warehouse, counter and back office roles.

“A couple years ago I took a warehouse manager to STAFDA’s UID and spent three days together learning from one another’s experiences, shared business concepts and enjoyed the UID presenters. Today this gentleman is a branch manager for our company. I took my management team on a field trip, to tour, the Tony Lama Boot Factory in El Paso to gain perspective and appreciation for another business in a different industry. It was eye opening!” 

Leahy quoted the sixth U.S. president, John Quincy Adams, in defining a leader: If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. Web: STAFDA.org