Learn From Others
I hope you can learn from two different men I spoke with after my speech at a national construction convention last week. My talk was about servant leadership/taking care of people as a core principle of leadership today. Both were having a hard time applying it to themselves. One was a co-owner and remarked he didn’t even LIKE the business anymore. The other a very senior leader, “I just don’t have patience for all the people BS!” I asked both about free time, hobbies, support mechanisms. Both confessed those things had eroded/faded over time. In my executive coaching this is not an unusual theme. Last week I told a client to get his boat on the water for 2 hours and call me after. He had not taken it out all year! I can relate, my wife used to say, “you don’t take days off, you take hours off.” Most of my readers are men. Men suck at establishing new relationships as they age AND suck at raising their hand when they need a hand. In other words, I am writing this for you if you if you are reading it. (Not to say women should ignore the message). Our research confirms that 50% of field leaders DO NOT have a close friend at work. Who/what motivates the motivator?
"I have attended quite a few leadership seminars, and have tried to gather and relate things from each of them, but yours hit all 3 of us with material that relates and for myself commands an internal level of accountability and responsibility in what I do at our company. "
Chris Larente
Construction Superintendent
Park Paving LTD.