2021 Year in Review: Michael Cullen, CFO, Connolly Brothers Inc.

What was the biggest lesson you learned while working during the pandemic? The pandemic has brought many challenges to our work environment over the past two years. The two most important things in my mind, as a manager, and as a company you need to be flexible and prepared. With one phone call you can have an entire department moving from being in the office to being remote. You need to have in place a procedure to deliver work to your employees and provide them with the technology to work seamlessly from remote locations. Not an easy task but with the proper planning it can be done!

How has your working environment changed over the last year? Obviously the most overreaching change to our work environment has been the pandemic. As a company we have had to create new policies and revise those continuously as things change. We need to be prepared to be working remotely without missing a beat and keeping all departments on task and working as efficiently as possible. As difficult as this has been it has allowed us to grow as a company, see where we had procedural deficiencies, and correct those allowing us to strengthen how we process workflow.

What is the best advice you have received, and who was it from? A family friend of mine who had vast experience in growing a company told me the most important thing to know as a manager is that people want to be managed. It is imperative that you consistently meet with your employees on a set schedule and give them feedback both positive and negative on what they are doing on a daily/monthly basis for short term as well as long term developmental goals. You should have these recorded somewhere and refer to them during every meeting. By doing this each employee knows where they stand and how to improve.