The Perfect Leader Does Exist!

I don't know about you, but I've had the best leadership career, nothing ever went wrong, and the boss always loved me and everyday was a perfect day hitting all goals and personal objectives...

How about we just stop right there, if you think this article is about the perfect leader then exit now and forever enjoy your peace of make believe... This article is not about the perfect leader but about the leader who is perfect for the situation and even then, that is a far stretch. However, leading through extremely difficult times and these days that word "difficult" has grown vastly in the times of covid and everyone challenging everything, and new rules being made up just about every 20 seconds. With all that being said though there is still one key rule that you cannot exclude, you cannot dismiss and cannot hide... being a leader through difficult times.

I have had my fair share of difficult times as a leader and some of those times challenged everything, I had in me not to give up and not to give into the environment that was at hand. The hardest times came from when I knew my team and my employees needed to go in one direction and the leaders above me were directing another. This never happens right? Now, we need to always be fair and remember that your boss has directions and emails, agendas that they are responsible for, we cannot dismiss that fact. We must be fair and true to the fact they have a job to do as well.

When covid hit, the world was rocked and shocked with how we were to live our day to day or what we considered "normal lifestyle" in a matter of a week. Fast forward two years later it still feels like a bad dream, right? Like, one day we will wake up and all this will be over and there will be no more 2-hour long media coverage about covid and so on and so on... The worst thing about reality is no matter how far we go to ignore, to meditate, to sleep, to try and just feel calm and not panic about every situation we end up back in the real world. With all that being said, it's not always a bad thing.

What does any of this have to do with being a leader during difficult times? Well, it does involve 1 important component... YOU!

The funny thing I always had to remind myself was that "hero" of make believe that I always enjoyed as a kid growing up. You know what I am talking about or at least have an idea. Growing up I often laid down at night and dreamed of that superhero (me) that was fearless and always stood tall when everything fell short. I loved those dreams and those fantasies because it made me feel like I mattered.

Fast forward 20 years, when I was blessed to become a leader and start to lead teams, I always made sure in my mind that I was the "hero". Now, to clarify and make sure this point is understood, I wanted to be the hero not to be praised. In fact, I hate compliments and prefer not to even be recognized, but I wanted to be the hero that my team knew they were protected, they were cared for, and they had someone who didn't treat them like a sales number or a "breathing body". I wanted my team to know that when there was a problem work related or not, they could come to me. See, a hero is not always glorified and not always recognized. The word "hero" now takes on many new meanings, we have heroes who are battling covid in heavy populated areas, we have heroes who serve this country bravely, we have heroes who run toward danger instead of away. I don't want to get too far off subject, but I felt it's important to touch those few areas.

This is more focused on being the hero in the workplace, so back to those tough times. There were many times when I would receive a visit or an email about something that had to be done quickly or tracked. We all know those right? To be honest, sometimes I deleted them and didn't follow through. Word of caution, please be advised you need to take your own risk and I do not condone ignoring your boss nor important emails. The point I am making is sometimes I needed to lead my team to focus on an area more so than the quick flavor of the second task. My team always respected that because it gave them a sense that I had a clue as to what was going on, many of them often would say, "thanks for not having me change my whole day just to get that one thing done". Again, use caution but remember that when your team comes to work, for the most part all knew the goal and wanted to be successful. They have the same level of feeling good when they meet the goal just like yourself. In fact, sometimes that one task you derailed them on took them away from a far future goal they didn't meet. Always stop and look at everything and make the best call on what a "hero" would do. Keep in mind, you'll more than likely need to explain why you didn't follow through.

Over the years of working with larger teams brought new challenges from location to location and some those challenges were death. This is the toughest part to write about because most people, not all don't think about death. I know it is not the first thing I wake up and ponder about but it is something that the wealthiest man shares in common with the poorest man... we all die, and we experience death as we age. The reason I am adding this is because over the past 10 years I've lost a few employees to sickness, car wrecks and other causes. All of these events happened while I was in a leadership position, and I can tell you it personally shook me. The toughest part was the very first time it happened, I thought I had to be the "hero "and make sure everyone felt peace and stand like a brick wall to show at least someone was standing strong... Let me tell you, if I ever had the chance to re-do it that would not be the route, I'd take...

It took being a young and naive leader to realize that people work for people and people respond to people not robots. I came across as a robot or even to some I am sure I came across not caring. I quickly found over the years that showing your emotions (when it is appropriate) as a leader actually connected me to my team even more. I made sure to attend every viewing and funeral that I could if the family wished for it, and I made sure that my door was always open when a team member needed to cry or vent about the situation. Being a hero as a leader is crying with your team, hugging them or just simply sitting down and letting them vent during the hardest times.

So as the world continues to go crazy, and things seem to keep spinning in new directions and opinions now a days sometimes trumps common sense. I do challenge you to remember that you can be the HERO of your situation and your team. Do not look for the praise or the glory and the fancy title or all that crap. Titles are just a quick reminder of something someone has to call you... we all are born the same and die the same. What matters most is that person behind the title, that person who is willing to share and show that they cared more about then an email or quick task. I promise that when you let down your guard and show your team that you are there for them then more often than not, your results will reward you always.

Get out there and start being the HEROS in the world that our teams need!