Shaping my Engagement

As you might imagine, my engagement experiences revolve around someone who inspired others to lead and follow. I’d like to highlight three leaders who shaped my engagement. All three of these leaders had traits in common that I’ve learned and practiced throughout my professional career – they:

• Set reasonable but challenging expectations
• Provided feedback (both when I did something wrong and when I did something right)
• Took a genuine interest in those they were leading

Carl

Carl was the first high school football coach I worked under in my early years in coaching and many of his lessons translated directly to engaging employees in the workplace. Carl was a master at knowing what to say and the tone to set for the message. I remember a particular early game of the season when our young quarterback made terrible mistakes in the first half. Coaches I played under might have yelled and benched him. Carl knew better – just before we went back out on the field for the second half, Coach pulled him aside, put his arm around him and quietly told him, “This is a new half, what happened in the first half is behind you and doesn’t matter, you can to lead this team to a win. I believe in you.” As you can guess, the quarterback had one of the best games of his life, and an all-star season. I believe that moment was a turning point for him. It was definitely a life lesson for me about the true meaning of leadership and engagement.

Carl was inducted into the Colorado High School Coaches Hall of Fame in 2014.

Randy

It was the perfect storm – the product hit the mail order market and the consumer bought. We were quickly receiving thousands of orders per day and over the first few years this new division experienced 30 – 40% growth. Randy was the founder and director of this business unit. From the very start it seemed that we were in catch-up mode, working many weekends and solving problems in real time. So what made Randy unique and engaging in the chaos of extraordinary business growth?

• Trust and empowerment – Randy let his staff make decisions and solve problems without the need to seek his approval first. He praised successes and coached challenges.
• Listen and provide direction – Randy had an extremely busy schedule running a business and managing corporate connections, but he always found time to listen to his staff and provide guidance.
• Develop skills – Randy believed strongly in the ‘teach a man to fish’ concept. Learning was a key component of working with him, both formally and more often informally.

When Bob Kelleher talks about discretionary effort, I think about the time my staff and I put in, above and beyond, to make the business successful. Randy didn’t ask or demand that we do that, we did it because Randy made us believe in the product, the company, and ourselves.

The corporate world lost big time when Randy retired to work on his next passion, making classical guitars.

Anita

Anita used to say, “Most people will meet your expectations, even if those expectations seem unreasonable”. Her staff did just that, and then some. Anita expected a lot from her staff of Quality Analysts and she clearly articulated her expectations. Anita taught me the meaning of treating people the same but different. She got to know everyone who worked for her, their strengths and challenges at work as well as about their lives in general. She knew that not everyone was motivated by the same thing and provided a work experience that drew from that information. And, she was fair – everyone was held to the same high standards she held herself. Anyone unable to meet her standards were given every opportunity to do so, or coached out of the team – like Steve Jobs, she believed that ‘A’ players like to work with ‘A’ players.

Anita was also deeply caring about her staff. When one of her team members became seriously ill, all the talk of standards and getting the job done was replaced by a deep compassion and desire to support in her recovery. Holding people accountable and demonstrating compassion is a balance Anita was successful in maintaining. She is one of the most engaging leaders I’ve worked for.

Last I heard, Anita is an author working on a book of fiction.

Written by John Konselman, VP of Content Development

Who engaged you? We’d love to hear your story – please share in the comments section!