I Am Who You Say I Am?
If you attend church, you may recognize the title of this post as lyrics from a Hillsong Christian worship song. Don't worry, I'm not turning this into a religious blog, but my faith is a part of who I am and has contributed to my belief structure and attitude. What you may not know is that I am a bassist and I volunteer regularly on my church's worship team, so I've played this song dozens of times.
Recently, someone asked me the old question, "What do you do for a living?". I answered his question. I told him I worked as an IT Solutions Architect and was in a pre-sales role selling datacenter and security solutions to our clients. His response, "oh, you're in sales". No. Technically I'm "pre-sales". Then he says, "so you work on computers?". No, I create solutions for clients. As the conversation continued, I got this knot deep in the pit of my stomach because none of those things are what I really am. It's what I have to say I am.
With nearly four decades of experience working in the information technology field along with the years spent helping my Dad run his business, I have a wealth of skill and experience across business, IT, leadership, project management, and more. Early in my career I was promoted rapidly as I love technology. I still get excited when a new gadget comes out. I love to see how it works and what I can do with it. Eventually I landed a role as an IT Manager with a great company. I had a great boss. I had the opportunity to take Six Sigma classes and study at the American Management Institute. I was already a graduate of the Dale Carnegie Course. Leadership became my new passion. It was a lot like technology. Figure out how something works, then make it better. I combined my knowledge of IT, logic skills, and love for people into a job I truly loved.
My boss at that time was a great guy. He taught me a lot about leadership by being a great leader himself. He listened. He asked me "what do you think". He tapped into my years of experience. He'd call me to "bounce an idea off me". It was less of a boss-and-employee relationship and more of a "trusted advisor" relationship. We both enlisted each other's help on various things. Even personal decisions. I never felt constrained to my role. I never felt like my role was defined in absolute terms. I had multiple opportuities to utilize many of my skill sets. I began teaching Team Leadership courses for employees. I became a Certified Meeting Facilitator and began transforming how our company ran meetings by doing training sessions. I was still performing my IT Manager duties and doing such a good job that I was promoted from being over just the East region of our company to the entire United States. I was traveling about 50% of the time all over the country, from Hawaii to New York. I felt like I was a valued part of the company. My annual bonuses were fantastic. Then the buyout came. My role was duplicated. All my activities outside of my defined role were stopped. I was what they said I was. No more. No less. No one listened to me anymore. I was once a "Company Man" and now I was just a guy getting a check. The entire mood of the company changed. We were being merged in and losing our identity. Two years later, I was given my severance.
For many employees, the experience post-buyout is how they feel every day. Pigeon-holed into a role. They have talents, skills, and abilities that go untapped. They feel like their company has defined who they are inside the confines of a job description. Because, as the picture at the beginning of this post says, they were chosen and not forsaken by their employer, they feel a debt of gratitude in this challenging economy to just have a job. The hardest part of a job for some is keeping their mouth shut. They want a bigger role. They want to lead. They want to teach. They want to share their decades of experience. They want to examine processes and make them better. They want to challenge the status quo. They want to be the one who asks, "why do we do it this way" or "how can we do this better"? They want to work in an environment where everyone has the opportunity to make the company better by investing in it with their talents, abilities, and skills. They want the to feel like they are more than just the hired help, but that they are connected to the entire company mission, not just their small piece of it.
But as employees, we are often who they say we are. As a leader, what are you doing to foster the culture of what Jim Collins wrote about in his book "Good to Great"? That is, getting the right people on the bus, then finding the right seat for them. The worst thing you can do as a leader is bring someone into your team that has vastly more skill and experience than the job requires then hold them underwater. Like trying to hold a beach ball under in a swimming pool...eventually...it's gonna come up or it's going to go flat as the air slowly leaks out and it becomes deflated.
Recently I had a call with a client. He is an extraordinary young man who is full of great ideas and you can tell he's a natural leader. As someone who hired many team members, he's a guy I immediately recognized with high potential. He has excellent emotional intelligence, he's an effective communicator, he's methodical, and he has great ideas. He's working for a large company that recently hired new leadership from outside the company. Passing over this gifted young man. He said to me that he had not been given much opportunity to meet with his bosses one-on-one. This leadership didn't see his potential. He said he had to practically beg his boss to meet with him. No one will pour into him. No one has recognized the exceptionalism he posses. He is who they say he is. Nothing more. Nothing less.
My guess is that he has that same knot in the pit of his stomach.
