Just Lead
The Brilliance of a Simple Message
Changing Network
I was chatting with my friend R last night, a good friend who I’ve gotten to know really well over the past seven years. He was someone who was really there for me, as a friend, when I went through my darkest period, the summer that they’d found a brain tumor in my head, and I was experiencing chronic vertigo attacks every ten days. His friendship was a key factor in me keeping my sanity about me as I went through that awful time.
I’d texted him about our pending move to Fredericksburg, wanting to keep him in the loop. We generally only talk about once a month or so, and it had only been a few weeks since we took a long walk together. We had a good hour-long chat when he called last night.
I was explaining how this move came about, suddenly, and all the signs pointing to how it will be beneficial for us. “Your network is going to be different.” It definitely is. Fredericksburg is not Northern Virginia, both geographically and otherwise. It’s an hour further south, and very much more southern than around here.
A Very Good Reason
I’m good with that. I believe that when we’re called by the universe to change, it’s not just for a reason — it’s for a very good reason. We just don’t always know exactly what that is when we are answering the call. We just follow the energy that leads us to the change and trust that the universe knows what it’s doing.
It’s funny that it was R who shared that observation. Later in the call, as he was describing a new job he started recently, he mentioned, “I’m pretty much done with Linked-In. They want me to be doing all this networking, getting to know people and building up this network. I don’t want that. I just want to do my job, then come home to my family.”
How Networks Just Happen
I get that. I get him. I’m essentially the same when it comes to work, and networking. I don’t go out of my way to build networks. They just happen. I try to treat each person I encounter with dignity, respect, and kindness.
Work brings enough stress as it is, without me adding to someone’s daily dose of it. So, I see a part of my job being, to simply be a source of “un-stress” for those I encounter.
Just because I’m in a high-level executive position, doesn’t mean I have to be a dick to everyone. I came up with the “servant-leader” philosophy. The higher up you go, the more people you have to serve. I’m there to provide meaningful guidance and direction, then to stay out of the way and let the people under me do their jobs, remaining ever ready to provide whatever support they need to do it well.
Lessons From the Bad Ones
I’ve probably learned more from the poor leaders I’ve worked for. You know who I’m talking about. You’ve worked for them, too. The ones who want to pick apart everything you do, who want to get their fingers into all of the details, and leave you feeling that whatever you do, however you do it, it will never be good enough for them.
Yes, I’ve learned a ton about good leadership from these lousy leaders. I’ve never forgotten what it felt like to work for them — how I dreaded going into the office because I knew all that awaited me there was more verbal abuse or more of the feeling that I was “not good enough.”
So, I do my best not to be that leader. The really good ones, the ones I absolutely loved to work for, were the ones who acknowledged and honored what I was bringing to the table and then let me bring it.
The Best Boss
My favorite was the one who hired me to a director position, leading a very troubled division. I had previously worked for him as his CFO, a position he had recently left to go to the higher executive position he was presently in.
While I already liked him as a leader, being in the position he had previously held, the CFO job I was in, was no fun. He couldn’t help but get his fingers in my business a little too much, but I could tell he was trying hard not to do that. But, even when he didn’t say anything, I could always feel him silently judging my methods.
I was only in that job temporarily, as I’ve never aspired to be in finance or budget, and the CFO covered both areas. Way too much stress, in an agency with over a billion-dollar budget. I did it as a favor to him. He’d asked, and while I didn’t think I wanted to do that, I stepped up, sucked it up, and did it.
Making My Move
When I saw an opportunity to move to a position that played more to my strength, the previously mentioned division director job, I offered to make the switch. I’d even come up with a suitable replacement for myself in the CFO position. He appreciated that. After going through a competitive process, he selected me for the director job.
A Simple, Yet Powerful, Message
Expecting him to be as detail interested in that position as he’d been with the CFO job, and wanting to make sure that what I had in mind jived with his ideas, I met with him before going out to Beltsville to take over the highly dysfunctional division. I was just starting into laying out my plan but could tell that he was distracted and not really listening. So, I stopped, and said, “Maybe the better way to do this would be, why don’t you tell me what you want me to do out there?”
He smiled, looking relieved (that he wouldn’t have to sit through my full-blown, carefully developed plan), and said two words. He looked right at me, with a knowing look, and said, simply, “Just lead, Pete. Just lead.” I got it.
Those two words were the most efficient message I ever received from a boss in my career. It said, “I trust you, I know you have a wonderful plan, I don’t need to know all the details, I just need you to — LEAD! I know the results will speak for themselves.”
And I did just that, feeling fully supported by my boss, but also, fully empowered. I led, and made my mark turning that division around. I did it in record time and had it running like a well-oiled machine within ten months.
When I met with him, three months into my tenure, he said, “You know, nobody ever comes to me with problems about your division, anymore. It used to be a daily occurrence. Keep it up!” That was one of the best “atta-boys” I ever heard.
He personalized it. Instead of blowing smoke up my rear about this and that, with nebulous platitudes that leave you feeling “what exactly does that mean? Does he really mean all that,” he put it in terms that I knew meant a lot to him. He didn’t have to worry about my division while he dealt with bigger fish. It was a brilliant piece of leadership. I was taking notes!
Since no good deed goes unpunished, I was subsequently asked to lead three or four more increasingly dysfunctional divisions out of chaos over the next five years, which gave me all the examples I needed to demonstrate that I was senior executive material. At that point, I got promoted to the highest ranks in the senior executive service.
It all started with that two-word request from that boss — “Just lead.” I’ve always tried to remember that when I am working with someone coming up. Sometimes, the simpler the message, the better.
