Leadership Lessons Learned

Last week my ~270k Tundra took its final ride.  Good time to pause and reflect.  It reminded me of family trips it harbored us safely through, family and friends transported, and colleagues who endured riding in a weathered old truck.  It brought memories and photo recall of my weekend companion Max always tucked under my arm as we drove together for seventeen years until our last journey together a year ago.  Memories of trucking took me back to a photo of my dad and mom near one of their log trucks on a wintry northern NY day.  Nostalgia, reminiscing, and at times longing for yesterday can be healthy if used for being grateful, for centering, for balance, for learning, or for future improvements.

When looking back, we must always look forward though.  Regrets are wasted emotions if not utilized for measuring, analyzing, and improving our future selves.  So, while we appreciate 38 Special might “want you back where you belong”, we also understand that although Eddie Money might “wanna go back and do it all over”, he knowingly states “I can’t go back I know”.  So how do we balance yesteryear with future seeking, avoid mudslinging at millennials or “okay boomer” eyerolls?  How do we bring forward the best of what was simpatico with the best to be?  The parallels between personal and professional hold true.

A belief in many of a concept sometimes described in books and conceptually as Delegate & Elevate resonates.  In general, give history, learning, stories, and opportunities to the lesser experienced, and allow them to rise to take action, responsibility, accountability, and even ultimately take over.  We must all be open bidirectionally to the provision and reception however as giver or as receiver, with recognition that if nurtured appropriately we will find ourselves rotating from side to side fulfilling both giver and receiver at times.

This delegation and elevation fosters growth for teacher and student.  Allows practices and performances of yesteryear to be understood, but also emboldened and improved upon by fresh or nuanced new thought, creativity, or even idealism.  A great example of this can be found in writings of @Erica Keswin, the Founder of The Spaghetti Project and author of Bring Your Human to Work, Rituals Roadmap, and most recently The Retention Revolution.  The understanding of long held traditions such as fire professionals eating spaghetti together in earlier works balanced with new learnings and writings on how RTO and other current occurrences impact employee retention has been great to follow over her releases.  Growth gained by her and growth shared.

So, darn you Eddie Money for reminding that I can’t go back and do it all over regardless of how much I wanna.  Hopefully in reflecting on my career to date, I have learned a few things that can help make things better for some people at some time.  Just like I did from Mom & Dad, from Max, and even from my Tundra.  Here’s to the next 270k.

#itmatters #leadershipdevelopment #goldenretriever #nostalgia