“I hate my job. I thought working here was going to be great, but my attitude gets worse every day that goes by.”
“I am trained to be an accountant. You know, make ledger entries, draw double lines at the end of the month, explain variances, and help people understand their budgets. But all I do is check other people’s work and grind out reports. A robot could do it.”
“The company is making decent money, but none of it ever flows downhill. I don’t expect to make as much as the CFO, or even close, but a little extra every now and then would sure be appreciated.”
“Too many of the people around me don’t do an honest day’s work. They have been here a long time and feel like they are entitled to the job no matter what. Us newbies are doing more than our share.”
“My supervisor is a jerk. He doesn’t care about us individually—except for his golf buddies—and everything is a last-minute crisis with him.”
“There are a lot of things we could do more effectively and more efficiently, but new ideas aren’t really encouraged. We could actually do with less people, but our boss is always complaining about how understaffed we are.”
Sound familiar? There are two ways to look at this:
Either #1 or #2 could be true. If you are the leader, it’s your job to know which it is and fix it. And if you are the problem, fix yourself first!
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
A leader’s performance is continually on the line and on display. There is pressure from above, and from below. Boards, bosses, employees, customers, congregations…they all have expectations, all the time. It’s a heavy weight to carry, and the more leadership responsibility you have, the heavier it gets. It’s exhausting, which is why leaders need rest. Actually, leaders need more than rest, sometimes they need to escape—at least I do.
The following excerpt (revised) is from my book, 16 Stones.
ESCAPE: I have found, at least for me, fully restorative rest only comes with escape. My body, soul, and spirit all need occasional escape from the everyday world. For years, my escape has been either the North Georgia mountains or the coast of Downeast Maine—a week of nothing but coffee, a good book or two, eating catfish or lobster, and listening to the creek or watching the waves. There is no doubt in my mind that without escape, the stress of running a large company and later serving a large church would have produced burn-out or worse in my ability to lead.
From 16 Stones
One mistake leaders make is equating different with escape. Let me clarify. Taking your office to a different place is not escape. An open briefcase and ringing cell phone at the beach is different, but it is not escape. Senior pastor, you can round up a couple of pastor buddies, play eighteen holes and then have dinner, all the while talking about your church problems. That is different, but it’s not escape. Business leader, you can take your team to an offsite leadership conference to be inspired and challenged. That is different and worthwhile, but it is not escape. Escape is leaving it all behind, emptying your mind of your ordinary work as Exodus 20:9 calls it, and letting God repair and refresh you from head to foot. In my own experience, I have found that I can get physical rest in a couple of days; however, mental and emotional rest usually takes a week or more.
You need to escape, but who you escape with is also important. My wife, Dottie, is wired much like I am. She doesn’t need to be entertained; she doesn’t need to be sightseeing all the time; she doesn’t need to be talking all the time. A day of nothing but sitting on the porch with a good book or working a puzzle is fine with her. She is a great escape partner. Once a year, I spend a couple of days alone, intensely seeking God, but most of the time I escape with her. My point is, choose your escape partner carefully. Remember, the purpose of escape is to detox from the stresses of your ordinary life, not just drag them to a different place.
By the way, Dottie and I are off to Maine in a couple of days. Two weeks of escape!
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company.
…and if you can’t handle that, leadership isn’t for you.
In chapter 2 of 16 Stones, I talk about five passions that leaders must have if they want to lead effectively. The third is:
#3—Passion for people. You don’t lead machines, you don’t lead software, and you don’t lead buildings. You lead people. Leading is always about people. So if you are going to lead, you better have passion for people. If you don’t really care much about the people you are trying to lead, they’ll know it and will only follow you kicking and screaming because they have to. You will have to drag them along, and you’ll be worn out long before you get to the finish line.
From 16 Stones
If leading people was easy, anyone could do it. But it’s not because:
Taking on a leadership role is taking on a people role. If you don’t want to deal with people stuff, then leadership isn’t for you. But that’s okay. There are a lot of great ways besides leading that you can contribute to your organization. Leading may not be for you, but something of value is. Find it and be excellent at it.
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company.
I love Auntie Anne’s soft pretzels (upper level at Cool Springs Mall, and in airports everywhere). You can get them plain, with salt, with cinnamon, dipped in mustard, and so on. My favorite? Plain. (Those of you who know me well are not surprised.)
Auntie Anne’s founder was Anne Beiler. Her husband’s parents loaned her $6000 in 1988 to buy a pizza/ice cream/pretzel store in a Downingtown, PA, indoor farmers market. The first store opened in February and the second came only five months later. After deciding to specialize in pretzels, the first-year sales were $100,000—not too bad for a $6000 investment. The rest is history. Today, Auntie Anne’s (now owned by Focus Brands) has more than 1500 locations worldwide.
As the story is told by Dinah Eng in her article, Soft Pretzels out of Hard Times (Fortune, July 22, 2013), Anne Beiler’s success formula was p1 + p2 + p3 = P:
Actually, according to Beiler, there is an important F in the formula (p1 + p2 + p3 + F = P) because one of her foundational values is her faith in God.
Is your enterprise floundering a bit? Why don’t you try the 3p + F formula?
p1 (purpose greater than self)
+p2 (product/service excellence)
+p3 (people you count on and count on you)
+F (faith in God)
Focus on three little p’s of your own choosing—augmented with some F—instead of worrying about the big P. Not only will you enjoy leading more, but you’ll also be more effective, and the big P will come if you get the little p’s—and the F—right.
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
More accurately, she is a heroine. I first wrote about Elinor Otto in 2013 when she was 93 and still working a regular five-days-a-week, eight-hour shift at the Boeing plant in Long Beach—not in an office, not as a receptionist—as a riveter on the C-17 assembly line—just like she did back in 1942 during World War II.
According to the LA Times (This Rosie Is Still Working by Samantha Schaefer, 9/18/2013), she “is out of bed at 4 a.m. and drives to work early to grab a coffee and a newspaper before the 6 a.m. meeting. In the Boeing lot, she parks as far from the plant as possible so she can get some exercise. Every Thursday, she brings in cookies and goes to the beauty parlor to have her hair and nails touched up after her shift ends.” According to coworker Craig Ryba, “She’s an inspiration. She just enjoys working and enjoys life.” She continued on the C-17 line until 2015 when C-17 production ended. Today, she is 101 and still “going strong” according to Station KLAS in Las Vegas.
In Chapter 9 (A Hard Hat For Everyone) of my book, 16 Stones, I shared my own thoughts and experience with Rosie the Riveters:
It is common today for women to work in heavy industry factories. They do all the things men do on assembly lines, in machine shops, in quality labs, and stockrooms. But that hasn’t always been the case. It started during World War II when the men were off fighting, and workers were needed to produce airplanes, tanks, rifles, jeeps, and bullets. Women stepped up and were immortalized in a hit song, “Rosie the Riveter”:
All day long, whether rain or shine, she’s part of the assembly line.
She’s making history, working for victory, Rosie the Riveter.It’s not an exaggeration to say that without thousands of Rosies, the war would have dragged on for years longer than it did. The women had no experience, but they were motivated to get the job done—and they did.
I had my own Rosie the Riveter experience in the late ’80s. While serving as VP of Finance for a midsize aerospace company, we were confronted with a crippling thirteen-week strike. At least it could have been crippling, but it wasn’t. Why? Because accountants, secretaries, engineers, buyers, vice-presidents, and even the lawyers all “went to the factory floor” to keep production going. Since they didn’t trust me with anything that moved or made noise, I was a wing wiper, meaning I took a rag, squirted Trike (trichloroethylene) on it, and cleaned excess adhesive, oil, dirt, and grime off of aluminum surfaces before they went to the paint shop. We were organized, inspired, and well-led by our president, John Kleban. For thirteen weeks, our motley crew, by working hard with enthusiasm, kept the production lines moving and our customers satisfied. That is when the value of a hard hat for everyone was indelibly imprinted into my leadership DNA.
I have always said, “I want to work as long as I can, and when I can’t, drop dead at my desk.” Today, my desk is in my home office and Dottie (my wife) will be the one who finds me. Of course, I am aware that I don’t get to prescribe my future, but as long as I can, I am going to stay on the assembly line of life, doing something useful in a way that honors God.
Elinor Otto reminds me of one my biblical heroes, Caleb, who, when 85 years old said:
I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in. Now then, give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the Lord will be with me, and I will drive them out as the Lord has spoken.
Joshua 14 :11-12 NIV
Eighty-five and taking on the Anakim giants! Driving rivets until age 95!. That is living life to the fullest. My bucket list can wait. I have all of eternity for it.
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
My friend, Leon Drennan, grew up on a 160-acre Kentucky farm. Along with tobacco and hogs, they had a small dairy. The cows had to be milked every day, twice a day, 365 days per year, every year. So before school and after school, in rain-sleet-snow, on birthdays and even on Christmas, it was trudge through the mud and manure (have you ever seen a dairy farm?) to the barn to milk the cows.
I asked Leon what happens when you don’t milk the cows. Best case, they dry up and quit producing milk. Worse case, they get mastitis that if not treated can lead to death. That’s why milking is an everyday job.
Sound familiar? Life works the same way. Life is an everyday job and there are some things that have consequences if you skip a day or two—sooner or later you dry up, or worse.
Leadership is an everyday job. Leaders can’t have bad days at the office or store or church or wherever. Your team expects and needs you to bring your A-game every day.
Relationships are an everyday job. They dry up easily…or worse.
Your health is an everyday job. Just have a double cheeseburger, large fries, large shake, and fried pie, and see what the scales say the next morning. (I’m headed to the gym in about an hour because I had fried catfish and fries yesterday.)
Your relationship with God is an everyday job. Do you think “I’m too busy today for you, God” actually works with Him?
Your ________________ (you fill in the blank) is an everyday job.
In every dimension of life, if we start taking days off, we begin to dry up, or worse…. And yes, that means some days we have to trudge through the mud and manure to get to the barn or office or church or dinner table or whatever.
Now, I am not trying to make life all drudgery and all work. There is great joy and satisfaction in a job well done when the cows are milked, when a relationship is fulfilling, when your health is good, and when you feel the smile of God’s favor on your life. But these things don’t just happen—they take some time and effort. So rather than dry up or worse, milk your cows every day; you’ll be glad you did.
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
In my book, 16 Stones, I wrote about the importance of vision: “It wasn’t a Saturn rocket that launched Apollo 11, it was a vision.” President John Kennedy cast the vision on May 25, 1961. It was fulfilled eight years and fifty-six days later (July 20, 1969) when the Apollo 11 Lunar Module landed on the moon, announced by Astronaut Neil Armstrong’s historic statement: “The Eagle has landed.” Though President Kennedy deserves immense credit for casting the vision, the real story is what happened during the eight years and fifty-six days.
The cost of Neil Armstrong’s “…one small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind.” was $24B and three lives—the entire crew of Apollo 1 was killed in a cabin fire during a 1967 pre-launch test. More than 400,000 people from 20,000 companies and universities were involved in the project. There were thousands of tests, changes and retests in the systems and flight vehicles. There were the six Mercury and twelve Gemini/Titan launches, plus six unmanned Apollo launches and four manned non-lunar Apollo launches, all before Apollo 11. It is truly said that every good idea is a lot of hard work for someone.
There are a lot more visions unfulfilled than fulfilled. Why? Poor execution. In their best selling 2002 book, Execution, Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan made it painfully clear:
…unless you translate big thoughts into concrete steps for action, they’re pointless . . . Many people regard execution as detail work that’s beneath the dignity of a . . . leader. That’s wrong. To the contrary, it’s the leader’s most important job.
The leader’s most important job? Yes, and Warren Bennis agrees:
Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.
I love these quotes because I admit I’m a leader more than a bit biased toward action. Without action, the “next big thing” soon becomes the “last abandoned thing.” So don’t fall into the trap of believing that just because you may be great at casting vision, you are a great leader. Great leaders may or may not be good at casting vision. However, they will always be great at getting things done. Leaders are remembered for great accomplishment, not great dreams.
If your organization is floundering and you’ve cast vision until your vocal cords are worn out, it’s time to focus on execution—“…the leader’s most important job.”
By the way, if you are a leader, think you are a leader or want to be a leader, Execution should be on your required reading list.
© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
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There aren’t many jobs less fun than slopping hogs. But it has to be done. If someone doesn’t slop the hogs, then calamity will strike: NO BACON! What could be worse than that?
My friend, Leon Drennan (see last post: What Happens When You Don’t Milk The Cows), grew up on a 160 acre Kentucky farm. They raised hogs, cattle, and a few small crops (including tobacco). Leon’s first job on the farm was hog slopping. It was the worst job on the farm. One step up from hog slopping was feeding the calves. It was a big day when his father trusted him enough to move from the pig pen to the calf pen. He had earned that trust by doing a great job at slopping hogs. And that is the same way any of us get out of the pig pen—we earn our way out.
If you or someone you know is stuck in the pig pen, the way out is:
Escaping the pig pen happens at the intersection of opportunity and preparation. When opportunity knocks, be prepared! Leon was ready to feed the calves when the opportunity came. Much later, he was ready to lead a major division of HCA when the opportunity came.
If you are a mediocre hog slopper, why should anyone give you a chance at something else?
Never forget: the most important job you’ll ever have is the job you have now. (Chapter 4 of 16 Stones has a lot more on this subject.)
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
Our current house has a bedroom door that opens directly to our screened porch. When we first moved in, I decided one night to sleep with the door open, looking forward to some cool fresh air as I had sweet dreams. About midnight or so, a passing skunk decided to turn my sweet dreams into a smelly nightmare. After closing up the house, it was back to bed, but the foul odor lingered through the night, spoiling my cool fresh air and sweet dreams.
Per Wikipedia, four-legged skunks stink up the place by squirting a liquid from “two glands, one on each side of the anus. These glands produce a mixture of sulfur-containing chemicals such as thiols, traditionally called mercaptans, which have a highly offensive smell.”
I have seen two-legged skunks do the same thing in conference rooms and offices. For example…
Gossip really stinks. That is why the Dave Ramsey organization has a rigid “no gossip” rule.
Arriving late to meetings really stinks. It is rude, sending a message that your time is more important than others’ time.
Talking too much really stinks. It is arrogant, sending a message that your opinion is more important than others’ opinions. (I am often guilty of this mercaptan.)
Laziness really stinks. If you don’t do your job, someone else will have to.
Self-focus really stinks. Your kids are cute, but they are not the cutest kids on the whole planet (my grandsons are), and not many people really want to hear a minute-by-minute account of your weekend.
______ really stinks. What did I miss?
If you are the leader, it is your job to keep “mercaptans” out of your workplace. Skunks aren’t easy to reform, so you may have to get rid of them.
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company.
The WSJ has a lot more than business news. One of my favorite past editions included features about students building model bridges out of spaghetti, pessimism, toenail fungus, and Alabama coach Nick Saban. (I wonder how he felt sharing space alongside toenail fungus.)
That same edition had an article about “mean bugs”—the stinging kind. Bees, wasps, hornets, and fire ants, all got some space, but yellow jackets are the most aggressive, sometimes chasing their victims out of pure meanness. Having been run down by a mad yellow jacket, I heartily agree. Dottie and I have also been chased by biting flies (in Maine) and have stepped on stinging scorpions (in Texas). According to the article, about “200 people in the U.S. die from stings every year” (Mean Bugs by Sumathi Reddy, WSJ, 7/15/14).
Sadly, a lot more deaths occur every day because of stinging tongues. According to James in the Bible, the tongue is a “restless evil…full of deadly poison” (James 3:8 NASB). The deadly poison of the tongue strikes everywhere: homes, businesses, churches, schools, and _______ (you fill in the blank).
Morale is killed every day by stinging tongues. Initiative is snuffed out every day by critical tongues. Relationships are damaged every day by angry tongues. Lives are destroyed every day by gossiping tongues. I’ve been on the receiving end, and too often—especially at home—I’ve been the mean bug myself.
As a leader, one of your jobs is to set the guidelines—and the example—for the conversation that takes place in your organization. It’s up to you. You can allow an environment that discourages and tears down or promote one that encourages and builds up. You can participate in gossip, or stop it. You can snap at everyone as a bully leader, or you can cut it off and insist on respect for everyone. One of my many hard lessons in leadership was allowing a chainsaw tongue to remain on my staff for too long.
You can spend a lot of money on training, consultants, seminars, or coaching, all trying to improve your work environment. How about trying bug spray that will eradicate stinging tongues? It is cheaper and much more effective. Spray yourself first, then….
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
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