Leadership & Learning

 

From a profile on Jay Goltz in Inc Magazine (bold for my emphasis)

Education aside, Goltz says he has matured as a boss. "I'm proud that when we moved to this facility, I didn't do much," he says. "I was barely here, because we were moving three companies at the same time. We have a new truck that we bought for the move. One of our employees, Armando, and his wife were backing it up over there." He points toward an indoor loading dock. "He hit a beam, and it came down and crushed the roof of the truck. When I arrived, Armando was beside himself. He said, 'I'm so sorry. I'll pay for it.' His wife was freaked out, crying. All I can say is, I'm glad I'm older now. I knew I had to come right out and say it was okay. They'd been putting in 14-hour days and now this. You can imagine what they were thinking: 'Omigod, we totaled the boss's new truck.' Before, I wouldn't have yelled, but I would have looked disgusted. I've learned that one of my biggest responsibilities is letting people off the hook in situations like that. I told both of them, 'Don't worry. I could have done it myself.'

"That has a big impact. There were a lot of other employees standing there. They see how you behave. You could be doing bonus plans, holding rallies, having parties to build morale. Then you scream at someone and throw it all away. Did I scream when I was younger? Yes. I didn't understand the role of the boss. I had to learn the difference between a mistake, which I can live with, and haphazard conduct. Backing into a pole is a mistake. A crooked label is careless."

Via Phil who pointed this out on Mary Schmidt's blog.

I wrote previously on what a great leader needed to be. The quote from Inc. above gives us confirmation in a leaders own words of what he/she also needs to do; that is, they need to learn.

 

The Ho'ohana Community previously spent some time looking at "life long learning" so we can come at this in a number of ways.

 

As Team Synergy continues to develop the conversation around leadership, I think we will find consensus that leadership requires the ability to learn.

 

Bottom line: did you learn something today?

 

 

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