I published my most viewed blog, Lessons Learned from a Lifetime in Business, almost exactly two years ago. It was a list of simple lessons I learned along the way from my father, from leaders I admired and from my own experiences along the way. They were pretty basic lessons, at least basic and simple to state … much harder to live out daily. (https://thoughtsfromthemiddle.net/2017/01/23/blog-post-title-2/)
Almost as soon as I posted the blog, I felt I could push a little deeper, but wondered what my unique perspective was that would be any different than any other leadership blog or book out there. It occurred to me that most leadership advice is positioned from a top down perspective. In other words, what should those select few, who lead organizations, do as leaders to drive performance, or build culture? However, I have never led a company. I’ve led teams within large organizations. I’ve led myself. I’ve led cross functional project teams, and, I have contributed to teams my entire career.
So, this blog is intended for people like me, who will spend a lifetime in the middle, or maybe “upper middle.” I haven’t read many articles targeted at this group, even though that’s the vast majority of people having long careers in the corporate world. You race to the middle in your early years, and then move laterally through the enterprise for your mid and late years. How do you stay excited? How do you continue to learn and contribute? Here is my advice for enjoying a career in the middle.
Delegate EVERYTHING!
Admittedly, I’m trying to grab your attention early. Obviously, you can’t delegate your entire job. However, delegate as much as possible, and delegate projects of value! The reason for delegating, however, evolved for me over the years.
I think there is a natural tendency for new managers to not delegate much at all. They either feel uncomfortable with the act of delegation because they are new to it, or they are still in the mindset of proving their worth by doing the work themselves. It took me some time to get comfortable delegating. Then, there were times early in my career as a manager, I delegated just to test the waters and see what it was like, and, in all candor, to see what I could get away with. I mean, let’s take these manager wheels out for a drive, you know?! There were times in the middle of my career when I found myself delegating just because I could, and I was looking for some relief. None of those motivations sound very inspiring, do they? They are not! They also do nothing to help you in your career or to help your company.
You should delegate as much as possible for the benefit of your team. In my experience, delegating projects to your team builds confidence, capabilities, engagement and quality of output. Let’s look at each one.
Delegation builds confidence. While you may not volunteer this outwardly, getting projects given to you by your boss makes you feel valued. As a manager, however, you have to handle this properly. Don’t give away work that has no value. Do the opposite! Delegate work of great value. Empower your team and let them shine! When individuals are allowed to do work of value, and contribute to the success of the organization, they will grow in confidence and the output of each subsequent project will improve. Everyone improves with this approach.
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Delegate everything … Not to diffuse work, but to build team capability, engagement and quality output
Delegation builds capability. Think about a time when you literally felt yourself learning. It was likely uncomfortable. It was likely a little bit scary. And it was likely a pretty great feeling! You learn when you are stretching your abilities, and you do that when you are challenged. Providing your team opportunities to stretch is one of the key benefits of proper delegation.
Delegation builds engagement. I’ve often discussed the value of the team triangle … performance, enjoyment and learning. All three must be in equilibrium in order for a team to be operating at the highest level. Providing your team with relevant and high value work can help in all three areas. This is one of the key benefits of delegation.
And finally, delegation improves output. If you frequently delegate high value work, your team will adapt and begin to generate better and better work. They will feel empowered, and trusted, and they will feel a sense of obligation to produce great work. Why? Simply put, because they want to deliver for you and for the organization. When someone puts trust in you, most people want to deliver greatness to prove worthy of that trust. You’ll learn quickly if that motivation isn’t developed in a person. At that moment, you’ll know what you need to do!
Everyone can teach, so ask them to!
I was attending a leadership seminar at a college once. It was a fairly small group in attendance. A professor was leading the seminar, and he opened up the day in a very strange way. He asked each person to stand up and teach a brief lesson to everyone else in the room. This was not a homework assignment. There was no warning or disclosure in the pre-read. He just sprung it on us! Teach us something!
I mean … what the hell? What can I teach this group? I didn’t prepare anything. I have no PowerPoint slides or handouts! And, amazingly, I didn’t need anything.
When it came my turn, I pulled out a relatively simple acronym I had learned in a selling class early in my career that provided a way of overcoming objections from buyers. The acronym was LAER. Listen – Acknowledge – Explore – Respond. (1) I don’t know why that one part of that sales class stuck with me so, but it did. And it’s worked pretty well for me over the years. But that’s not really the point here!
The point is, that I had learned something along the way that I was able to teach to several of my peers on the spot! While it was unsettling to have it sprung on me that morning in the seminar, it was impactful to me that everyone there had these little lessons that they were able to retrieve and share with others. That’s when it occurred to me … Everyone can teach, so ask them to!
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Build team unity by having your team teach one another.
I frequently start my staff meetings with what I now call “Leadership Energizers”. I assign a person to start the meeting with a brief (max 5 minutes) lesson they would like to share with the team. It can be an inspirational video they’ve seen, or an article they read. It could be something they learned from a parent, or coach, or previous leader. It can be business related or it can be personal. One young lady on my team once shared some advice she was given once to never order anything at a restaurant that you can make at home. I loved that, and it stuck with me. I try to live by that and it’s made eating out infinitely more fun!
Everyone can learn from everyone on the team. And THAT is the point. Everyone can contribute. There is no hierarchy or corporate structure to learning.
Trust in the genius of your team
This past year, my team had a terrific year. We exceeded our business plan targets on all metrics and were one of the top producing teams in the company. It was, by all counts, a terrific year! Unfortunately, the business environment was challenging, and our full division, while growing and winning in the marketplace, fell short of our company’s high expectations. This happens at times. Extraordinary events can put stress on the best laid plans. While I feel great about how my team performed, it’s a bit of a Pyrrhic victory when the division, as a whole, fell short.
In all honesty, I’m a little disappointed in our senior leadership. The shortfall was predicted early in the year, but our individual team plans were not adjusted. In my opinion, the time when things are the most challenging is the exact time to engage the genius of the broader organization. We should have re-planned the year and allocated incremental plan goals to each team. It would have been frustrating and stressful for sure. Individual teams like ours might have fallen short of their new, more aggressive goals. I know, however, that we would have finished the year as a division stronger with a re-plan than where we did with our status quo approach.
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Engage your team when problems are the most complex
You need to trust in the genius of your team. Challenging problems should not be solved by the elite few. They should be solved by the collective whole. Your team will learn. They will gain insight into the business, and will become stronger leaders themselves, which will lead to greater results for years to come.
Build and spread culture by telling stories
In 2004, E. Neville Isdell, a long-time international leader in The Coca-Cola System, was coaxed out of retirement to lead The Coca-Cola Company as Chairman and CEO. The company was in transition coming off a first major restructuring, and significant leadership turnover. In his first address to our U.S. leadership, Isdell challenged us to create and spread the Coke culture by telling stories.
I remember liking the sentiment as he said it yet being unclear as to what exactly he meant and how it would work. For starters, “what exactly was the Coca-Cola culture?” Right behind that question lingered, “what stories am I supposed to share?”
As I progressed through my career as a leader, my feeling on this area of advice has evolved significantly. Let me address the two questions I posited earlier. First, what was the company’s culture? For years, we as an organization have espoused leadership behaviors and growth behaviors that we believe in. There is value in this as it creates opportunities for us to discuss the meaning of those values. What does “Drives Innovation” mean, or “Act Like an Owner?” The value comes in the discussion, not the words, and the easiest way to bring the values to life is by sharing examples of when the words were realized. … telling a story about a person or team that positively drove innovation in process or product, for example. It occurred to me over time that the culture of the company varied completely by the team you were on, and who your leader was. The examples each leader shared varied, or the extent to which they shared stories at all varied. My conclusion, then, is that the culture of the company is an aggregation of the micro-cultures created by each team leader. When you realize this, you also quickly realize the critical role team leaders play in the company. Effective leadership training combined with strong recruiting become absolute necessities to create the culture you want in a large organization. Great doers do not necessarily make great leaders. Find the effective story tellers and teachers in your organization, and your culture will benefit.
As for what stories are appropriate to share, I think the answer is to use stories that best demonstrate how you see effective teams operating. You can do this by sharing stories of work in the past that match your image of great teams. You can also do this by sharing examples of poor performing teams as opposites to emphasize the desired team approach. You have to use stories, however, that you have a connection to and that you personally believe. To do otherwise will be seen as disingenuous.
To figure out how often to use stories to build culture, think about it as a school teacher. If a teacher only stood in front of a class and told stories, kids might enjoy the class, but they wouldn’t get much done and wouldn’t learn enough to move on to the next grade. Missing from a story-telling only curriculum is practice, discussion, application, debate, group projects and other proven methods of learning. Stories should be used for impact, and when other methods are not as effective for sharing ideas.
It’s Not About You!
So, this one is a bit controversial, yet it may well be the primary reason why I’ve spent a long, and successful, career in the middle! You see, when I sincerely contemplate my personality and my belief system, making things not about me is directly at the core of who I am as a person. I fervently believe this specific advice to be a key to fulfillment in a career in the middle! It’s not about you. It’s about the company, or the team, or the enterprise.
Growing up, my father always had a plaque on his desk that said: “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.” I didn’t know the origin of the quote, but he didn’t just set the words on his desk. He taught this to me, in how he carried himself, and in how he coached me through life. It turns out the quote was from a plaque on Robert Woodruff’s desk. Robert Woodruff was the legendary CEO of The Coca-Cola Company from the 1920’s through the 1950’s, and my father looked up to him. Later on, Ronald Reagan would take ownership of this same quote, and carry the same plaque on his desk. The actual origin of the quote is much muddier and significantly deeper in history. And yet, those words have been with me almost my entire life. I have a coffee mug on my desk to this day with the same quote on it (a plaque is definitely classier, but hey, that’s me!).
There are scores of books and articles on humility in leadership, and on servant leadership. I’m not going to try to create a new one here. Finding joy and meaning in making the whole better, though, is likely the biggest key to finding satisfaction in a career in the middle. Taking action against process improvement, for example, or in doing the little things and helping out no matter how small the task is meaningful to the organization and to the team as a whole. They are not the things that people brag about in interviews, or write out on resumes, but they matter so much. I often stay after to clean out a conference room of trash, or to help people carry things back to their desks. I like to get to meetings early to make sure all of the a/v equipment is functioning. Sexy stuff, huh!? It makes others enjoy their days more, however, and it makes the meetings more productive. More productive and happier people do better work, and we get stronger as an organization.
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A strong career is built by making the company look and perform better, not by focusing on making yourself look and perform better.
You will read more books and articles on the necessity of establishing your leadership voice, and on defining your brand. You will find many more videos about the need to stand out and make your own path. There is absolutely a need for all of that. In the end, however, estimates are that only 1.5% of people over the age of 15 earn $200K or more per year. How many people will become senior vice presidents, or presidents of companies? A clear majority of people in the workplace will work in the middle! You can choose to languish there and long for more day after day, or you can find joy and worth in helping the enterprise, and others around you, succeed. Choose your own attitude and find joy in the pursuit of team betterment.
Life in the Middle
Creating a successful career, and a happy life are not at opposition to one another, if you can find joy in both. Consider the following quotes:
“For it is in giving that we receive.” – Saint Francis of Assisi
“The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.”- Leo Tolstoy
“We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”- Winston Churchill
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” – Paul McCartney
Engage your team. Trust them with valuable work. Let them teach you and one another. Build an amazing culture by sharing stories of worth, and make everything about the team. Do these things and you can enjoy a career and a life in the middle!
Thoughts from the Middle 