5 Leadership Lessons for Trade Business Owners from Credit Protect’s George Dib

Guest: George Dib

Episode: Season 2, Episode 3

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George Dib is a former accountant turned Senior Commercial Manager at Credit Protect, where he’s spent years helping tradies chase down unpaid invoices, work that’s taught him as much about people and communication as it has about money.

Here’s what he’s learned about leadership for trade business owners:

Lesson 1: Servant Leadership in the Trades

George points to leaders throughout history and business who led from the front rather than hiding behind layers of bureaucracy: Jim’s Mowing’s founder handing out his personal number to every franchisee, or his own CEO working the floor alongside sales and development teams.

For George, that’s the whole model: never claim to know more than you do, and never ask someone to do something you haven’t done yourself.

“For me, leadership is very much a servitude more so than being served,” he says.

Lesson 2: What Bad Leadership Teaches You

George is candid that his leadership style was shaped as much by the terrible bosses he’s had as the great ones, and he’s grateful for both. Rather than dismissing poor leadership he experienced, he treats it as a reference point for what kind of leader he refuses to become.

“I always like to say I’m always grateful for the great leaders and just as much for the not so great ones,” he says, “’cause they all shaped the type of leader I have become.”

Lesson 3: Understanding Your Customer's Real Problem

Working in commercial credit could easily stay narrow and technical, but George says the real value comes from understanding what’s actually blocking a tradie from getting paid, rather than pitching a product.

Sometimes the fix isn’t sophisticated software, it’s simply asking whether every job has actually been invoiced.

“It’s about understanding where does the actual pain point lie,” he says, describing his approach as stepping out of a comfort zone rather than staying siloed in one specialty.

Lesson 4: How to Avoid Unpaid Invoices as a Tradie

George’s core message to tradies is clear: completing work before payment is effectively extending a line of credit, and most trade businesses do it with none of the due diligence a bank would apply.

Running basic checks and keeping the ability to lodge payment defaults gives leverage most tradies don’t realise they’re missing.

“A bank is not gonna give you a credit card before they run their credit checks… why do you not respect your own work to do the same?” he says, framing it as a five-minute habit that can protect your business, rather than a burden.

Lesson 5: Curiosity Beats Assumptions for Managing Conflict

When a payment goes quiet or a conversation turns tense, George’s first move is always to find the real reason rather than assume bad intent. A customer might be dealing with a death in the family or a divorce, not deliberately dodging an invoice.

“There’s always a reason. Whenever someone deviates from the normal, it means something happened,” he says.

That mindset, he’s found, applies just as much to workplace conflict and performance conversations as it does to chasing money.

George’s Advice on Everyday Leadership

George’s closing advice is simple: let your work speak for itself. In an industry full of noise about skill shortages and bad experiences, doing a job as if it were for your own family is still the fastest way to stand out, and eventually, the fastest way to charge what the work is actually worth.

“If you are the light in an industry full of darkness, you’ll stand out,” he says.

Catch the full conversation with George Dib on Tradies Who Lead for more leadership lessons for tradies, out now wherever you listen to podcasts.