A Front Seat View of Living Leadership

One fall Saturday years ago, my dad and I were running errands together. I was a high school student still trying to figure most things out, the fourth of five children and the second son. My dad was a senior manufacturing executive with J.I. Case (i.e., what is now Case IH). Someone who had been reporting to him had recently left that part of the organization for an opportunity that could lead to that person going higher on the org chart than my dad. I asked my dad how that felt. He had hired this man. He had led him, given him opportunities. I figured it might be discouraging to my dad or might feed self doubt. I still am not sure what drove me to be that bold with a question to my dad that morning. For whatever reason I asked.

My dad's answer that Saturday morning surprised me. He said his job was to find good people, pour into them and help them succeed whether that meant they stayed in that team, moved to another team or business unit or left Case altogether. It was his job to help these people develop even if it meant that man or woman went higher or farther in their career than my dad did. I didn't know what to say. So I said, "That must be hard." My dad replied, "Yes, it can be hard. But it is my responsibility to help them." Now I really did not know what to say. I was quiet.

My dad's answer was candid. He did not deny that living out that purpose could be hard, really hard. But he did not let the hard stop him from being a people developer. My dad's answer that fall morning shaped the type of man I would become. I wanted to be a leader. I wanted to help others develop.

I never told my dad how much that short but poignant conversation impacted me. I wish I had told him. His earthly life came to an end 21+ years ago just 3-1/2 weeks after being diagnosed with liver cancer. Hopefully he saw it. I trust he did see it. I say that because my dad practiced the same approach with me. He had high expectations. He was in my corner. He listened to me. He helped me plot my university and career plan. He was my biggest cheerleader. While I missed the opportunity to tell him about the impact of that conversation, I still have opportunities to be a good steward of Dad's investment in me. I welcome those opportunities. I choose to help people develop wherever I can.

My dad's answer that Saturday changed my definition of success. It still drives the type of leader I strive to be.

How to Peel a Banana

Bananas are a staple at our house. Many days I grab a banana and throw it - make that gently place it - in my backpack on the way out of the house to catch the train into the Loop. As I went to peel that banana one day - I did a good job of placing it in the backpack that morning so no bruises on the banana – I was reminded of a conversation my wife and I had. She saw an article on her home page about the best way to peel a banana. The article said the best way was to pinch the end – not the stem – of the banana between two fingers and start peeling down toward the stem. By leaving the stem, you have a natural handle at the bottom of the banana. I heard the same advice on the Paul Harvey radio show years ago (a good example of the vast changes in how we get our information). Before hearing that from Paul Harvey, I peeled bananas starting with the stem, which after all is the "natural" or "default" way. But I tried the new way that day and never switched back.
My question is not "How do you peel a banana?" Rather my questions are:

• Why do you peel a banana or do other things the way you do? Where/when did you learn that?
• Are you open to doing something you have always done one way - like peeling a banana - another way?
• Better yet would you or do you think of different ways of doing things that have always been done a certain way?

It comes down to cultivating an eye for continuous improvement and always asking questions about why things are done a certain way and maybe even whether that step or process or report even needs to be done.

(That reminds me of another conversation I had with my sons and my wife about the best way to eat a grapefruit – cut in half, sectioned, then bite by bite with a spoon or peeled and sectioned like an orange – or an orange – peeled and sectioned or with the peel (yuk!) – but I digress.)

I encourage you to look for a different, more efficient way of peeling the banana going forward.

Make the Move Sooner

Early in my career, I made a move that meant leaving a role after less than a year and moving from the IBM R&D lab and manufacturing plant location I had "grown up" in to the client-facing IBM marketing organization. News of that move elicited two responses from my co-workers at the lab and plant. Some were excited and congratulated me on the move and the new opportunity. Others struggled to figure out how to politely ask me why I was making the move. The second group, certainly the more vocal and probably more numerous, thought I was making a mistake.

But that move propelled my career in a lot of ways. It took our young family to Chicago, a world-class city where I have been blessed with opportunities with some of the best organizations in the world. My thinking in that early decision -- actually "our thinking" since these big decisions have always been made with my wife -- was to make a move while I still enjoyed my current role, organization and company/firm and was succeeding. In that instance, I wanted to the challenge of working in IBM's marketing organization at a time it was considered the best in the world.

Sounds good, right? Problem is I forgot or did not prioritize these same factors in the next job. That job never turned into what I thought it could. I could go into detail, but suffice it to say that I stayed in that role too long.

Eventually I realized I needed to make a move. The expectations for a Systems Engineer at IBM were changing and changing drastically and I needed to get in front of it. So I raised my hand and asked my manager to help me (more on the value of asking for help in a future post) find a role -- even an opportunity to shadow another system engineer -- on a consulting engagement knowing that I would be stretched and could be in an uncomfortable position for a while. Within weeks, I was staffed on IBM's largest reengineering project to date and was out at a client site in a small southern town a couple weeks after being staffed. My concern about being stretched and even uncomfortably out there was well-founded. Still the experience I gained in what became a 1-1/2 year engagement after the client extended my time on the engagement was foundational to the next two career moves for me.

Fast forward to my most recent career move 2 years ago which saw me leaving a global leader, an organization I had been with for years and where I had been promoted to and entrusted with a senior management position. When an incentivized, time-boxed opportunity came up to leave that organization, I initially asked myself, "Why would I leave?" The change in the playing field, especially the time element, prompted a quick shift in my thinking. On the second day after hearing about this opportunity, the question became "Why wouldn't I leave under this program?" So I aggressively analyzed the decision while starting to prepare as if I might leave. By the end of that week, after praying through the decision and getting counsel from a small group of people I trusted, I decided to make a move.

Four months later, with a much-appreciated, six-week break between companies, I started as a Senior Product Manager in Deloitte's global IT organization responsible for a large product portfolio across two major technology initiatives in a Global Tax transformation program. The move was energizing to my career and continues to provide opportunity and challenge.

With this most recent move, a time-boxed opportunity forced me to think in a way I hadn't thought in a while. The challenge for me now is to remember the thinking and approach that led me to make that first bold career move and my most recent career move and then make my next move -- whether internal to the network of firms or external -- sooner.

How about you? Do you need to think through your next career move? If your answer is "I Don't Know" or really anything this side of No, I encourage you to get going so you can make the next move sooner.

My Commentary on Commentary

With 24-hour news, 24-hour sports news, 24-hour entertainment news (is there such a thing?), the publish-your-own landscape of the internet, and the legitimization of social media and instant messaging as business tools let alone our own "personal" social networking, we all have become commentators. The commentary starts before the actual event, carries on alongside the event and lives a life of its own long after the event. The commentary can be interesting and thought-provoking. The commentary can be refreshing, funny, entertaining. But sometimes the commentary is really more than just commentary.

Commentary or Complaining?

Sometimes our comments alongside the event or afterward fact are not commentary. Instead, we are complaining. Let's be clear about what complaining is. Complaining is focused on the circumstances. Complaining takes the form of "This is hard" or "This stinks." And while those might be accurate assessments of the situation, repeated over time, they quickly become unhealthy.

Unchecked complaining goes from occasional comments to the soundtrack of that part of your life -- and a negative soundtrack at that -- to emboldening yourself in this "life is hard, this isn't fair" thinking by enlisting others in that complaining. Instead of this running commentary -- er, complaining, we need to make a choice:

• Accept the circumstance (because the good, the pay, the benefit outweighs the bad) and cut off the complaining
• Change the circumstance (the old "you are either part of the problem or part of the solution")
• Leave the circumstance (e.g., changing jobs, employers, organizations because the ups no longer outweigh the downs for you).

Commentary or Criticism?

Sometimes our comments alongside or afterward are not commentary and are not complaining. What is really going on is criticism focused on a person or a group of people.

Criticism can quickly ramp up from one-time or occasional comments (e.g., the "Can you believe this? Why don't they get it?" conversation alongside the conference call) to a low buzz (e.g., the "here we go again" IM or email conversation alongside or after the conference call or meeting) to an all-out attack (e.g., the flat-out argue like you would never argue if you were face-to-face with these people Facebook or blog post which is the modern version of talking behind someone's back at the water cooler).  

Again, instead of ongoing, escalating criticism, we need to take action in one of two directions:

• Accept the person or people and their behaviors as is ... and stop talking about it.
• Go to the person 1:1 to give him the feedback (e.g., opportunities to improve), to confront her (i.e., if the behavior is actually harmful and needs to stop) and/or to better understand where the person is coming from and what is driving the behavior.

I have been focusing on less running commentary -- whether just in my head or with others -- and an accompanying growing gentleness and commitment to invest in people by providing feedback and confronting them when necessary. I encourage you to do the same.

As you prepare for another week, step back and think through where you are carrying on a running "commentary." Ask yourself whether it is really just commentary. Is it complaining? Is it criticism? If so, stop talking about it. Do something about it or be quiet.

Your Very Own Utility Belt

It seems lame now -- and honestly it probably seemed somewhat lame then -- but there was something cool about Batman's and Robin's utility belts in that campy, 1960s, Adam West version of Batman. What tool or gadget would they pull out of their utility belt each time that would be just what was needed to avoid something dangerous (e.g., the exploding shark) or to escape the overly-complicated, criminal "genius" plan to do away with the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder? Think what would have happened if Batman and Robin always pulled out the same tool from their utility belts in response to every criminal plan. We wouldn't have had to wait to "tune in tomorrow -- same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!" to find out if they would once again escape the harrowing death-trap plan of that episodes "special guest criminal." While it might be a long and weird leap from the campy, 1960s "Batman" TV series to your office, I would argue many of us are guilty of pulling out the same tool day after day, hour after hour in the work world. You know it. You love/hate it. Everyone now ... email!

Why do so many of us pull out that same over-used, email tool in 99% of the situations they face each week in the work world? After all, email isn't the only tool in our utility belts. We have many productivity tools available to us -- IM, text, OneNote, EverNote, Outlook tasks, not to mention all those other programs loaded on your laptop/tablet/phone. We have many meeting/communication tools available to us -- WebEx, Instant Meeting, Lync calls, Lync IM chats, video calls, Skype for mostly free! Email typically isn't the most efficient tool in our utility belts. We have faster tools. We have tools that do the job in less time. We have tools that are lighter weight. Email often isn't the most effective tool in our utility belts. We have tools that are more fit for purpose.

But we use email. Why?

• We use email because we are comfortable with email. After all, we have been using email for -- brace yourselves -- decades.
• We use email because we are addicted to the sense of accomplishment, of a task completed, of putting the ball in someone else's court when answering and filing or deleting email.
• We use email because it is less confrontational than an in-person meeting or a discussion over the phone.
• Finally, perhaps most annoying of all, we use email because we can include lots of people in email with -- ugh! -- Reply All (which by the way is not always a benefit or positive).  

Here is my challenge to you. When you get back to the office Monday, check out all the tools in your tool belt -- even some older ones like meeting in-person -- whether planned ahead or ad hoc -- or calling someone on the phone (or updated to a Lync call). Dust some of those tools off and give them a try. Go crazy and "reply" to an email with a phone call or in-person discussion. My gosh, even try using those tools that your company's processes say you should use like a risk log, an issue log, a defect tracker, the change request system. Actually think about which tool you should grab from your utility belt. Don't just grab the same old, worn-out, dulled email tool. And save yourself, those you work with and your customers from the long-running, harrowing, tune in tomorrow, tune in next week, tune in next month, tune in next year, same email-channel to see whether we can all escape the stranglehold of our inboxes and the send button. "To the Batcave!"

Career TPOV #2: It Isn't About Comfortable

Have you ever had to learn something multiple times? I am not talking about a math equation or a definition. Rather I am talking about a life or career lesson that you had to learn more than once. The second point in my Career Teachable Point of View (TPOV) is one of those lessons for me. My job and my career isn't about being comfortable. The same goes for your job and your career unless you have determined to settle in.


I have seen that lesson play out -- both in a positive and negative way -- at a few key points earlier in my career. Perhaps I will share more on those in another post. For now, let's focus on the last few months of 2010 as I was going through my latest career move -- a major move where I left a company that I had been with for a number of years. When the company offered a voluntary separation package, the element of being comfortable -- as comfortable as you can be in the corporate world these days -- was upended for me. It raised a number of questions (e.g., What was driving the company to offer this package? What follows a voluntary separation package? Should I take the package?) which forced me to move comfortable down in my priorities as I made the decision first to take the package and then to work through a career transition.

The result now a year in with a new position at a new firm is a great opportunity partnering with a major global function on a multi-year transformation initiative. I own delivery of all technology projects in one of the two largest programs within that transformation initiative. That, of course, comes with challenges. But aren't opportunity and challenge two sides of the same coin? The newness -- even a year in -- plus the program, project and organization challenges keep me learning, stretching and, honestly, uncomfortable.

Clearly comfortable remains lower on my list of priorities. As strange as it sounds, my goal is to keep it there. I recommend the same to you.

Career TPOV #1: It Probably Won't Come from Where You Think It Will

Last August, after a number of years with the same company, I decided to take an incentive package to leave the company. I was blessed to not only have a generous payout but also to have 2-1/2 months before my last day with the company. In the job search journey that started last August and ended just weeks after my last day with that company in mid-November, I learned some things and was reminded of some others about making a change in your career, whether that change is to another company or within the same company. This post is the first in a Teachable Point of View (TPOV) series on those things.

Within a few weeks of making the decision to take the program and leave the place I had worked for 15+ years, I reached out to a co-worker -- a Product Manager who had worked for me a couple years before -- to see what his plans were for the new fiscal year and to see if/how I could help him, only to find out he was leaving. We agreed to have lunch the following Monday.

It was at that lunch, within the first five minutes of our conversation that I got the information that led to my current job as Senior IT Product Manager in the global IT organization of a Big 4 firm. I could simply wrap up this post by pointing out how I got the lead and the help that led to my new job when I thought I would be helping a co-worker. But there is more to this "It Probably Won't Come from Where You Think It Will" point.

A year ago as I considered what to pursue in the job search, I focused a lot of attention on opportunities with much smaller organizations that would have me in roles very different than what I had been doing. The newness and the unknown intrigued me. I was thinking that if I was going to make a change, it was going to be a big change. However, this journey wouldn't play out that way.

Move ahead a month or so. I remember an October 2010 phone conversation with a consultant at Right Management (http://www.right.com/) -- an organization that was very helpful to me in this career transition. As we discussed three opportunities that were in front of me, she made the analogy of of my current company at the time being a green apple and the Senior IT Product Manager opportunity at a Big 4 firm being a red apple then suggested I needed to figure out whether I even liked apples. There was no point in just trading green for red. I was going to have to really think about what I liked to do, what was a good opportunity and fit for me.

Even though I spent a lot of time thinking about, asking about, discussing, praying through and trying to get ready for a role that would be very different and would be with an organization  of a different size and shape, I was drawn to the Senior IT Product Manager opportunity. If you know me, you know that is what I chose and that I started that job with a Big 4 firm at the beginning of 2011.

Fast forward to now, early September 2011, just over a year after I made the decision to take the package and leave the company I had worked at for several years. I enjoy the new role which has forced me to learn a lot -- about the firm, the global IT organization, Global Tax (i.e., my client), the member firms around the globe, etc. -- and has taken me out of my comfort zone. This new role has also given me the opportunity to have more autonomy and to make a larger impact, aspects that had been missing for a while.

Had you asked me a year ago what I would be doing now, my answer wouldn't have matched this. The lead, the help and this opportunity all came from people and places I wouldn't have expected. It doesn't look like I thought it would then. But I am grateful for the opportunity and how it came to me even though it definitely did not come from where I thought it would.

So be open in career moves. Don't think you have it figured out. Look to other places. Listen to people. And watch for something different than what you have pictured now.