Setting the right tone from the head office

Clearwater Beach, Fla. — Leadership was in focus for Maureen Steinwall and Cathy Dodd at the 2024 Plastics News Executive Forum.

Both have held leadership positions during their careers in plastics. They shared lessons from those careers at the event, March 11-13 in Clearwater Beach, Florida.

"The hardest skill is communicating clearly," said Steinwall, CEO and co-owner of Steinwall Inc., an injection molder based in Minneapolis.

Steinwall is a member of the Plastics Hall of Fame and author of Managing with Optimism, a book released earlier this year. Steinwall Inc. won the PN Processor of the Year Award in 2011.

"You need a clear vision and clear communication to empower employees," Steinwall said, "and empowered people are optimistic."

She added that "bully behaviors" and "prima donnas" need to be avoided because they "don't belong in your organization."

Steinwall bought the molding company from her father, Carl Steinwall, in 1987. Her professional career started at Honeywell Inc.'s Micro Switch division.

"My dad asked me 'Why would a girl want to get into manufacturing?'" Maureen Steinwall said. "I said, 'For the same reason boys do.'"

Dodd is CEO of Formerra, a resins and compounds distributor based in Romeoville, lll. In the last couple of years, she's had to lead the business as it was sold from materials maker Avient Corp. to financial firm HIG Capital.

"We had to carve away and get new IT systems, a new owner, everything," Dodd said. "It was a question of how to keep things simple for our associates."

"We had to give them permission to focus on the customer," she added. "We had to communicate and be available."

Dodd joined Avient in 2014 and had been president of the firm's distribution unit since 2020. She described Formerra as "a startup that had been around for 20 years."

Dodd also referred to the message on her favorite coffee mug: Don't be a jerk.

"As leaders, we can set the tone well or badly," she said. "You don't want to add stress or complexity and that starts with setting the tone."