When army reservist Joe Witte was activated in November 2003, he
had just co-founded CentricSource, an image-building company that
creates logos, websites, stationery and more, with partner Zaheer
Dodhia, whose office is in Pakistan. Witte, 32, and Dodhia, 33, had
three employees at the time, including Witte's wife Moira, to
pick up the slack when Witte was deployed.
In the short time between Witte's activation and shipping
out, the partners had to quickly come up with contingency plans.
Witte divided up his tasks for the employees at the Yardley,
Pennsylvania, office, doling out marketing, tech issues and office
management. "It was pretty brutal," says Witte. "I
think it was hard on everybody, but they managed to hold the fort
down and do a good job while I was away."
While the company survived his absence and is expecting 2005
sales of about $1 million, Witte notes that the company did lose
some logo design business-but they managed to make it up in other
areas, like web design.
Content Continues Below
Returning from war in February, Witte found it challenging to
get back into his leadership role at the company, as some changes
had occurred in his absence. Not only were there new employees to
get to know, but some of the procedures were different from when he
left. "I tried to impose my vision on them immediately,"
recalls Witte, which was a mistake. He says, "Don't
'storm the beaches' when you return-ease in, and observe
what has changed while you were gone."
Says Dodhia, "Joe has great leadership qualities, and it
did not take the others long to understand that with Joe in
control, they would be able to handle their own responsibilities
and allow him to resolve and develop administrative and decisive
processes."
If changes are necessary after your return, be tactful, and
thank your staff for keeping things running. Preparing your staff
well beforehand for any leave of absence is ideal, but when you
return, easing back into your leadership role will make the
transition much smoother.