DEDICATED TO EXCELLENCE: SERVICE • QUALITY • INNOVATION
ESTABLISHED 1953
At All Metals Fabricating, leadership runs in the family. Today, the company is guided by the third generation of Thrailkill family leadership, with CEO and majority owner Lance Thrailkill and fellow third-generation owner Will Rushing at the helm. Both men are grandsons of Bill Thrailkill, who purchased the company in 1978.
For the Thrailkills, success has always been about not only a strong work ethic, but clear values, as well. They believe their approach to business is what has led to satisfied customers and satisfied employees.
As CEO, Lance believes in a philosophy of servant leadership, an approach centered on putting others first and empowering your team to grow and succeed. Learn what servant leadership means to him, which leaders have shaped his outlook, and how he lives his faith as CEO.
For Lance, servant leadership begins by choosing the right people for critical roles throughout the company and supporting them with everything they need to thrive. Servant leadership flips the traditional organizational chart upside down, in some ways. Lance sees his role as one of responsibility and stewardship, ensuring each person is placed in a position to succeed. And he puts it into practice whenever he can.
“In practice, I try to stay connected in simple but meaningful ways,” Lance says, “whether that’s personally handing out paychecks each Friday and saying thank you, or sitting down for one-on-one lunches where I ask, ‘How can we better serve you?’ or ‘What do you need to grow?’ My job is to make sure our entire leadership team models this approach so that servant leadership becomes embedded in the culture at every level of AMF.”
“Servant leadership” might sound paradoxical to some business leaders, but Lance says he believes that “true ownership demands servant leadership.”
“As the owner, I feel a deep responsibility, not just for the success of the business, but for the well-being of every person who chooses to work here,” Lance says. “I start with humility and recognize that this company isn’t just about me, it’s about the 75+ people who come here every day and give their best. My job is to support them and create an environment where they can grow, both personally and professionally. That means making tough decisions when needed, but always through the lens of what’s best for the team long-term.”
Lance’s values stem, in part, from his family and his mentors. His parents and grandparents practiced quiet humility and tireless sacrifice for others in everything they did, and those values drew him to AMF. His spiritual mentors, including Jonathan Pokluda, taught him the power of humility, seeking conflict resolution and asking for forgiveness even in leading a business.
Above all, though, he notes that faith is the ultimate source of his leadership values.
“Every person who has shaped my leadership journey has been following the greatest leader of all time: Jesus. God Himself came to earth not to be served, but to serve. He modeled that by laying down His life as a perfect sacrifice for the sins of anyone who puts their trust in Him as Lord and Savior, regardless of their past.
“This style of leadership works because it aligns with how we were created: to serve others. When you lead like Jesus by humbly serving others, you build trust and you build people up. After that, everything else follows.”
When he became CEO of All Metals Fabricating, Lance took over a business with a long legacy of caring deeply for its people. From there, he only hoped to continue building upon that groundwork, and he’s led several initiatives to ensure these values are cultivated throughout the business.
“One of the most important steps we took was forming a leadership team that represents every area of the business and empowering them to collaboratively define our core values,” Lance says.
“Those core values aren’t just words on a wall. We hire by them, we review performance based on them, and when necessary, we make the hard call to part ways with those who consistently fail to live them out. That clarity and consistency have strengthened our culture tremendously.”
As a leader, these values can be especially helpful in guiding him to make the difficult decisions that place employees first. One memorable example came at the end of a financially challenging first quarter in 2021.
“After Q1, we were told we might qualify for a government tax credit due to the drop in revenue compared to 2020,” he remembers. “Meanwhile, our employees were struggling; morale was low, and overtime hours had dried up. Despite being in the red that quarter, we made the decision to give a Q1 bonus, believing we would eventually be reimbursed through the credit. It was a risk, but we believed that ‘we care more’ isn’t just a saying; it has to be lived out. That gesture made a huge impact on our team. It showed them that we’re not just with them in the good times, we’re with them in the hard times too.”
Lance notes that “our mission at AMF is ‘to serve others with the highest degree of excellence,’ and that influences everything we do.” We hope that comes through in the small details too, like when we catch a customer’s PO with a mistakenly high price and proactively correct it.
We aim to serve our customers in the same way we serve our employees. When you partner with our sheet metal shop, your experience will be guided by our core values. Whether you need metal fabrication, precision machining, or any of our other capabilities, we seek to serve with excellence.
Request a quote today or contact us to discuss your next project!
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