How can leadership be this hard? One year ago today was the happiest day of my life. I had arrived! Only four years out of college, and my company had moved me into a leadership position: director of corporate client services for the southeast sales region. I knew I could handle the job, because I’d started from our catalog call center, fielding customer requests and complaints. Then I was promoted to a project manager, working closely with sales and our corporate clients. Whatever the salespeople promised our customers, I delivered. And if I do say so myself, I was good at getting our corporate clients what they needed, when and where they needed it. I got all kinds of kudos for developing outstanding relationships with clients. ... The following Saturday, Debbie’s husband, John, invited her to play tennis with friends, but she bowed out so that she could work on the mentor-ship application.
“Thanks for the invite, honey, but I don’t want to miss the Monday deadline on this paperwork,” she said. The application contained all the usual demographic questions but didn’t stop there. There were quite a few personal questions and several unexpectedly challenging ones about why she wanted to be in the program. The final question was the one that made her really stop and think.
Debbie suspected that a good answer to this simple, straightforward question would help her get into the program. She worked for quite some time trying to articulate her reply. ... That night John met Debbie at the door when she got home. “How was it?” he asked excitedly. “I’m sorry I forgot to call you,” she replied in a stressed tone that spoke volumes about her day. “The meeting was very good. But when I got back to my office, the place was on fire, and I didn’t have a moment to call.” “What advice did he give you?” “None yet.” “Nothing?” John asked in disbelief. “Nope. He said he wanted to get to know me and give me a chance to know him. He said we would have time in the months ahead to find the answer to my question about what makes a great leader.” “So you asked him?” John wondered. “Yeah. He said it was an outstanding question, and we would explore it together later.” “So you spent how long getting to ... Over the next few weeks Debbie worked very hard to serve her team members, although she was not always sure how to do so. Even though many of her attempts seemed insignificant, she could sense a change in her approach to her leadership responsibility and possibly even a change in the team. She made a list of her experiences to share with Jeff at their next meeting.
One of her encounters was particularly noteworthy. Charles was still hanging on for dear life. His performance had improved only slightly since his first month. Debbie felt it would probably be only a few months before she would be forced to let him go. She decided to meet with Charles, ask some open-ended questions, and look for ways to serve him.