Weather Tite Windows has spent more than two decades serving Florida homeowners while building a team that reflects the business’s standards. Led by owner Michael Hollander, the company provides replacement windows, doors, hurricane protection, and other home improvement services across Tampa Bay and surrounding communities. Behind that customer work is a leadership approach built on being present, helping choose the right people, staying involved in training, and giving employees continued guidance as they grow.
For Hollander, leading a trusted Tampa Bay window company means more than setting goals from the top. It means staying close enough to the people doing the work to understand their needs and help them improve.
That leadership approach became a central part of Hollander’s PowerChat conversation with Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100. The discussion explored how leadership inside home improvement has changed, why older command-based management styles may no longer connect with today’s workforce, and why business owners cannot allow success to make them invisible to their teams.
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that recognizes and elevates the top leaders and most impactful companies in the home improvement industry. Through conversations with proven operators like Hollander, Power100 brings forward practical lessons on leadership, culture, training, customer service, and the people behind strong home improvement companies.
One of the hardest changes for a growing home improvement company does not happen in sales, marketing, or production.
It happens between the owner and the team.
When a business is small, the owner often knows almost everyone personally. New employees meet the person who started the company. Questions can be answered quickly. Training feels direct. The leader can see how people work and where they may need help.
Growth changes that.
More customers bring more jobs. More jobs bring more employees. Managers are added. Hiring may move to another person. Training may be handed down through several layers.
Before long, the owner who once knew every employee can become someone the team rarely sees.
The company may still have rules.
It may still have processes.
It may still have goals.
But employees can begin to lose the connection between those standards and the person who sets them.
Michael Hollander believes that creates a leadership problem.
Michael Hollander, owner of Weather Tite Windows
During his conversation with Greg Cummings, Hollander looked back at the management style he experienced earlier in his career.
“When I came up in this business, I worked for a boss,” Hollander said. “He would scream, yell, holler.”
He explained that this type of management was once common in construction and home improvement. The boss gave the order. Employees followed it. Harsh correction was often accepted as part of the job.
Hollander believes today’s workforce expects something different.
“People don’t want to work for a boss anymore,” he said. “Nowadays people want a leader.”
That difference is important.
A boss can give instructions.
A leader has to create connections.
A boss can tell people what needs to happen.
A leader helps them understand the standard, learn the work, and know where to turn for help.
For Hollander, that starts with presence.
“You have to be around,” he said.
He acknowledged that Weather Tite Windows operates from a single main location, which makes it easier to stay close to the team. Still, his larger point reaches beyond where the owner physically sits.
Leadership cannot become invisible.
Hollander said he wants to be at the company and involved in what is happening. He believes leaders should remain connected to the hiring process so they understand who is entering the business. He also believes they should take part in training so new employees do not only learn tasks. They also learn the expectations behind those tasks.
“I want to be here. I want to be involved,” Hollander said.
That involvement continues after someone gets hired.
Hollander described employee development with a simple phrase.
“You’ve got to keep polishing that stone.”
The idea is that a single interview and a single training session cannot create a fully developed employee.
People need time.
They need coaching.
They need experience.
They need chances to make mistakes, receive direction, and return to the work with a better understanding of what is expected.
That lesson is especially important in a window installation company, where employees can have direct contact with homeowners and their properties.
The customer may never meet the owner.
They may never see the hiring process.
They may never know how the salesperson was trained or how a manager learned to handle a problem.
But they can feel the result of those leadership choices.
They feel it when an employee explains the project clearly.
They feel it when someone takes responsibility.
They feel it when different departments understand the same standard.
They feel it when the team in their home acts as if the company name matters.
That is why Hollander’s idea of being around is not about controlling every small choice.
It is about staying close enough to keep shaping the people who carry the business forward.
A leader does not need to stand over every employee.
But employees should be able to see the standard in the way the leader hires, trains, responds, teaches, and remains involved.
For Hollander, that is the difference between simply having authority and actually leading people.
As a company grows, the leader may no longer be able to know every detail.
But the team should never have to wonder whether the leader still knows them.
Michael Hollander’s view of leadership is rooted in something simple. Employees should not only hear what the company stands for. They should see it in the way leaders hire, train, coach, respond, and stay involved. His PowerChat conversation with Greg Cummings showed how that idea moves through every part of the business. Leadership begins with presence, strengthens through hiring and training, grows through loyalty, and ultimately reaches the homeowner through the team’s actions. For Hollander, building a strong company is not about standing over people. It is about staying close enough to help them understand the standard and grow into it.
Hollander came up in a very different leadership culture.
He described working for a boss who would “scream, yell, holler.” At the time, that kind of management was often accepted in construction and home improvement. The boss gave the order. The employee followed it. The position itself carried much of the authority.
Hollander believes that has changed.
“People don’t want to work for a boss anymore. Those days are done,” he said.
Employees still need direction. They still need clear rules. They still need to know when their work is not meeting the standard.
But Hollander believes people also want to understand the person leading them.
They want to know whether that leader is involved.
They want to know whether the leader sees the work they are doing.
They want to know whether the person setting the standard understands the pressure that comes with meeting it.
That is where presence changes the meaning of leadership.
When employees only receive instructions, company rules can feel distant. When leaders stay connected, the team can understand why those rules exist and what they are meant to protect.
The standard becomes more than a list of tasks.
It becomes part of a shared way of working.
That matters within a trusted Tampa Bay window company, where employees must work together across sales, service, management, and installation while still giving the homeowner a single, clear experience.
Presence does not remove accountability.
It gives accountability context.
Learn more about Weather Tite Windows and the team behind its services.
Hollander’s clearest advice in the interview was also one of his shortest statements.
“You have to be around,” he said.
For him, leadership does not live only in meetings, reports, or company goals.
It also lives in the small moments.
An employee may need an answer.
A manager may need support.
A new hire may not understand part of the process.
A problem may be easier to solve because the leader saw it early instead of hearing about it weeks later.
Hollander acknowledged that operating from one main location makes direct contact easier for him.
Still, his lesson is larger than physical location.
Not every CEO can stand inside every office each day. A growing business may have several branches, teams, or markets.
The challenge is to create access.
Employees should know how to reach leadership.
Managers should feel that their questions matter.
New people should understand that the owner is not only a name on the website.
For Hollander, success has not become a reason to disconnect from the company.
“I want to be here. I want to be involved,” he said.
That creates an important question for other business owners.
As the company becomes more successful, does the leader use that success to move farther away from the team or to lead the growing team with greater purpose?
Hollander’s choice is clear.
He wants to remain close enough to understand the people who are helping build the business.
That kind of access can matter inside a window installation company, where customer needs, employee questions, and daily project decisions can change quickly.
Leadership is more effective when it responds to what is actually happening.
Discover more about Weather Tite Windows and its service across Florida communities.
Leadership presence begins before an employee receives the first assignment.
It begins with hiring.
Hollander said he believes leaders should remain part of that process.
“You have to be a part of, I believe, the hiring process,” he said.
The reason goes beyond checking a resume.
A person may have the technical ability to complete a job and still struggle inside the company.
They may not communicate well with customers.
They may resist the process.
They may not work well with the rest of the team.
Or they may have qualities that are difficult to teach but very useful once the right training is added.
Earlier in the conversation, Hollander talked about hiring former athletes.
He said he likes the competitive nature they often bring.
He even spoke about having professional golfers on his sales team.
That gives a clearer view of how he thinks about hiring.
He looks at the person, not only the past job title.
Competitive people may bring drive.
Others may bring patience.
Some may be natural teachers.
Another person may be highly organized or calm under pressure.
The leader’s job is to notice those qualities and decide whether they support how the company serves customers.
That is especially important when hiring people who may represent the business inside someone’s home.
For a Tampa window replacement company, the employee is not only doing a task.
That person may become the face of the business during one of the homeowner’s most important interactions with the company.
Hiring, therefore, becomes an early form of customer care.
Choose the right people first, then give them the tools to grow.
Explore Weather Tite Windows and the home improvement services its team provides.
Hollander used a single phrase to capture his approach to employee development.
“You’ve got to keep polishing that stone.”
Terry & Oliver, Weather Tite Windows Installers
It is a simple picture of what training really looks like.
A company can give someone a handbook.
It can hold an orientation.
It can explain the process.
But none of those things mean the person is finished learning.
Real development happens over time.
Employees meet real customers.
They hear questions they have never heard before.
They make mistakes.
Products change.
Market conditions change.
New situations appear that were not covered during the first week.
That is why Hollander believes training has to continue.
Teaching has also been part of his own career for years.
Before becoming the business leader he is today, Hollander said he enjoyed training other salespeople. He taught them how to give homeowners a real consultation and explain the installation process, rather than reducing the conversation to a price.
That history matters.
His belief in training is not something added later as a management idea.
It grew from his own experience as a salesperson who studied the work and then helped other people learn it.
Ongoing coaching also protects consistency.
One employee may be naturally strong at explaining products.
Another may need more help describing what the installation will look like.
Regular training helps employees return to the company’s standard without forcing them to become the same person.
For homeowners comparing replacement windows in Tampa, that consistency can shape the whole experience.
The person answering questions should understand the work well enough to provide clear, useful information.
The training room may be far from the customer’s home, but the homeowner eventually feels its impact.
Learn more about Weather Tite Windows replacement window services.
The Great Resignation gave Hollander a new view of the people who had stayed with the company for years.
Some employees left for work-from-home opportunities.
New people had to be brought in.
Existing systems helped the business continue, but new employees still needed time to learn how everything worked.
Hollander called that period a rebuilding year.
It also showed him the value of long-serving people.
“You might get on my nerves once in a while, but I’m glad they’re here,” he said.
That comment feels light, but the lesson behind it is serious.
An employee who has been with a company for many years carries knowledge that cannot be written into a quick training guide.
They remember past challenges.
They understand how the business responds when something changes.
They know what customers often ask.
They understand why certain processes exist.
They can also help new employees learn the culture faster.
Hollander spoke about team members who had remained for ten years or more. Others had served for six, seven, or eight years.
That kind of time creates more than experience.
It creates memory.
And when a company goes through change, that memory can help keep the business steady.
Hollander also said long-term employees were being recognized with significant bonuses.
That fits his larger message about leadership presence.
Being around means seeing problems, but it also means seeing commitment.
A leader should know who has stayed.
Who has helped?
Who has carried the business through hard seasons?
Who has earned recognition through years of work.
For an established local window and door company in Tampa, long-serving employees can also give homeowners additional confidence.
Experience inside the team helps the company carry knowledge from one project to the next.
Learn more about Weather Tite Windows and its long standing presence in Tampa Bay.
Most Weather Tite Windows customers will never sit in a hiring interview with Hollander.
They will not watch him train a new employee.
They may never see how a manager is coached or how an internal mistake is corrected.
But they can still feel the effect of those choices.
They feel it through the employee who arrives prepared.
They feel it when questions are answered clearly.
They feel it when someone explains that the project may create dust, rather than pretending the installation will be invisible.
They feel it when different parts of the company give the same information.
Hollander explained that a leader cannot personally speak with every customer.
That makes training even more important.
“You’ve got to educate your team to make sure that that message is being relayed to the client,” he said.
That statement connects his leadership philosophy directly to the homeowner.
The goal of being present is not to make every customer dependent on Hollander.
It is to create a team strong enough to carry the standard without him standing beside them.
A salesperson should know what to explain.
A manager should know what to check.
A team member should know when a customer needs more information.
The homeowner should feel connected to the company, even when several people are involved.
That matters for customers seeking professional window and door installation for Florida homeowners, because the quality of the experience depends on more than the product.
It depends on people.
It depends on how those people were chosen.
It depends on what they were taught.
And it depends on whether leadership stayed involved long enough for those lessons to become part of the way the company works.
A leader cannot be inside every customer’s home.
But good leadership can still arrive there through the team.
Michael Hollander’s hands-on leadership has done more than shape the team inside Weather Tite Windows. Over time, it has earned attention from industry groups, national publications, manufacturers, and the communities the company serves.
Michael Hollander (3rd from the right), among the recipients of the Legends of the Home Improvement Industry Award
One of the strongest signs came in 2025, when Hollander was named one of only 6 recipients of the Legends of the Home Improvement Industry Award. The honor is especially meaningful because nominees are put forward by people within the industry, while past recipients and members of the H.I.M.S. group help decide who receives the award. Qualified Remodeler credited Hollander’s hands-on approach, mentorship, and commitment to his team as important parts of the company’s growth.
That recognition continued in 2026, when Hollander was ranked #13 among the nation’s top home improvement CEOs. His Power100 profile points to more than two decades of industry experience, customer-focused leadership, strong window and door expertise, and the growth of Weather Tite Windows in the Tampa market.
Those honors sit beside a longer record of recognition. Weather Tite Windows has been named a Door & Window Magazine Dealer of the Year, earned JLC Remodelling Big 50 recognition, received repeated “Best Of” honours in the Sarasota market, won Tampa’s “Best of the Bay,” and earned PGT Industries Diamond Dealer status. The company has also appeared among the largest home improvement companies in America during its years of growth.
Together, those awards tell a larger story.
They show that the leadership Hollander discusses in the PowerChat is not merely an idea. The business has been recognized for the results it has built around it. Staying close to the team, developing people, protecting customer service, and building a recognizable local company have helped Weather Tite Windows earn respect well beyond its Tampa headquarters.
Hollander’s impact also extends beyond sales, rankings, and business awards.
Qualified Remodeler highlighted his support for organizations, including the Florida Holocaust Museum, Children’s Cancer Center, and Work for Peace Tampa. That community involvement adds another layer to the story of a leader who has spent years building a highly visible company in Tampa Bay.
For Hollander, being present has value inside the company, but it also carries responsibility outside of it.
Weather Tite Windows has become a familiar name across the region. Hollander himself has become recognizable over the years through local marketing and community visibility. With that recognition comes an opportunity to use the company’s reach to support causes that matter to the people who live in the same communities the business serves.
That is what makes these honors important to this leadership story.
Awards can recognize growth. Rankings can show industry standing. Manufacturer distinctions can reflect product and service standards. Community involvement shows what a company chooses to do with the position it has built.
For Hollander and Weather Tite Windows, the wider record points back to the same idea at the center of his leadership approach: strong companies are built by staying involved, investing in people, and understanding that leadership carries influence far beyond the owner’s office.
“You have to be around.”
Michael Hollander’s words are simple, but they become harder to live by as a company grows.
Growth brings more people, more managers, more customers, and more demands on the owner’s time. It can also create more distance between the person setting the direction and the people carrying it out each day.
Hollander’s message is not that a CEO should control every choice or remain involved in every small task.
It is that leadership still has to feel real.
Employees should know who is setting the standard. New hires should understand what the company expects from them. Long-term team members should know that their work is seen. People who are learning should have someone willing to guide them, rather than only correcting them after something goes wrong.
That kind of presence gives meaning to the company’s culture.
In home improvement, that culture does not stay inside the office.
It reaches the homeowner through the salesperson who explains the project. It shows up in the manager who handles a problem. It can be felt in the way an installer treats someone’s property and responds to questions.
The owner may never be in that home, but the team’s leadership can still be present.
As Weather Tite Windows continues to grow and considers adding more space, employees, and capacity, the next stage will present a new challenge. Hollander will not need to be part of every decision. He will need to make sure the people joining the company understand what the business stands for and how they are expected to carry it forward.
New hires will bring fresh energy.
Training will help shape that energy.
Experienced employees will help pass down what they have learned.
Leadership will keep those pieces connected.
For Hollander, growth need not make leadership disappear. It can make leadership more intentional.
Strong companies do not need a boss standing over every employee. They need leaders who stay close enough to keep helping good people become better.
Power100 Inner Circle gives home improvement leaders access to the platform’s PowerChat episodes, feature interviews, expert insights, and AI-supported business coaching. Power100 says registration is free and that it gives members access to its broader leadership content library. The goal is to help contractors move beyond simply seeing who ranks highly and learn from the business ideas, leadership choices, and operating lessons those leaders share.
An Expert Contributor is not simply someone who submits an article. These leaders and specialists are vetted and approved through Power100’s proprietary ranking system before joining the contributor platform. They can then publish original insights, take part in feature interviews, and share lessons from their experience in the home improvement industry. Michael Hollander is currently listed among the platform’s Expert Contributors.
No. Hollander’s point is not that the owner should personally manage every project. His approach is to stay involved enough to help shape the people and processes that serve customers.
During the PowerChat, he explained that leaders should remain connected to hiring and training while making sure employees understand the message that must reach the homeowner. His goal is to build people who can carry the company standard without needing the owner beside them at every step.
For customers choosing a trusted Tampa Bay window company, this matters because a growing business needs a team that can deliver clear service even when the owner is not at home.
Yes. Weather Tite Windows lists both impact-resistant and non-impact options, including vinyl and aluminum products. Its window selection includes PGT WinGuard impact windows, Energy Vue non-impact windows, single hung windows, picture windows, casement windows, sliders, and custom window styles.
That gives homeowners searching for replacement windows in Tampa the ability to discuss different product types instead of assuming there is only one window solution for every property.
Yes. The company offers entry doors, patio doors, sliding glass doors, impact-resistant doors, fire-rated steel doors, French doors, decorative glass options, and other residential and commercial door products. Its listed materials include aluminum, vinyl, steel, fibreglass, and glass.
Customers looking for door replacement in Tampa Bay can explore several door types based on the opening, appearance, security needs, and required level of storm protection.
Weather Tite Windows also builds custom sunrooms, comfort rooms, porch enclosures, and patio enclosures. Its Eze Breeze options include vertical panels, horizontal sliders, and garage screen systems designed to make outdoor areas easier to use while reducing problems from insects and Florida weather.
For homeowners searching for custom sunrooms and patio enclosures in Tampa Bay, this means the company’s work can extend beyond window and door replacement into creating more usable living space.
Because customers usually experience a company through its employees, not its owner.
Hollander told Greg Cummings that leaders need to remain involved in training and must “keep polishing that stone.” He also explained that employees need to be educated so the correct message reaches the customer.
That training can affect how clearly a salesperson explains the project, how well a manager handles questions, and whether different people inside the company understand the same customer expectations. A homeowner may never meet Hollander, but they can still experience the result of the leadership system he helps shape.
Weather Tite Windows identifies itself as a family-owned and operated certified general contractor that has served the market since 2006. Its official site lists PGT Diamond Dealer status, inclusion on Qualified Remodeler’s Top 100 Remodelers list, an A+ Better Business Bureau rating, and repeat Angie’s List Super Service recognition.
Those distinctions do not replace a homeowner’s own research before choosing a contractor. They do provide additional context for a company offering professional window and door installation for Florida homeowners, especially when customers want to look beyond advertising and understand the brand’s operating history.
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that recognizes and elevates the top leaders and most impactful companies in the home improvement industry. Led by Greg Cummings, Power100 provides proven home improvement leaders a platform to share the lessons, systems, and experiences behind strong companies, while helping contractors, partners, and homeowners better understand the people shaping the industry. Through its national rankings, PowerChat conversations, original industry stories, and leadership features, the platform works to bring greater visibility to CEOs and companies that are raising the standard for leadership, customer care, company culture, and long-term growth.
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Power100 is the nation's premier CEO ranking and media platform for the home improvement industry. Using a proprietary 5-layer evaluation system, Power100 identifies and celebrates the top CEOs, companies, and strategic partners driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and leadership excellence across the country.
