Yesterday, I explained that leadership is not management – and management is not leadership.  But, that did not take the conversation far enough.   Too many leaders extol those wonderful values and ideals to their teams- but never get involved in the nitty-gritty of getting things done.  Followers- and other leaders- trust leaders who have ‘done it’.  And, one of the best ways to develop trust is to show folks how it’s done- once, twice, thrice.

We learn things, typically, after three tries.  And, that means one should also be using different modalities- one of the best combinations is hear, see, do… Which means the leader should show folks how it’s done.  I learned that lesson early on (remember Harry and Cary?), and practiced it when I was placed in positions where I was the one who needed to show the way.

I admit that I am a self-starter.  I have been self-taught in a variety of things.  I’m sure there were easier ways to learn some of them, but it also meant I needed to find someone to do so.  How to write a great paper- that skill was one I learned from Ms. Katzman, my hero teacher from 7^th to 9^th grade.  (If you are still around, Sue, I think of you often- and not just for this one little item that you taught me.)  How to do research- believe it or not, Mr. Wizard, and the Gilbert and Lionel-Porter chemistry sets (yes, both).  But, that’s not what this post is about.

At Arlee Cleaners, with its expensive equipment, Harry and Cary showed me the ropes.  They sent me (yes, at the ripe old age of 14) to the International Dry Cleaning Institute, so I would know everything about the business.  And, then gave me free reign (not totally unfettered, but pretty much so).  I learned how to deal with clients/customers from them.  And, I learned how to work with employees.  (I did not press the clothes, but I had to get the best efforts from our two great guys- both of whom went on to start other businesses themselves.)

At the various skunkworks with which I was involved, I also worked in the labs from time to time.  I didn’t just sit in my office thinking up new ideas for others to test out.  I went out to the field to see the prototypes, speaking with users, doctors, nurses, repair folks, and the like.  I brought various team members with me- so they could see the end users and know how critical our actions were- and to get ideas from them, as well.

I never told anyone to just “get it done”.  We wrote manuals of procedure- for answering the phones to billing clients to shipping products to making medical devices to … You get the idea- everything we thought important.  We went over the process with everyone involved.  We took questions- and if we didn’t have the answer, we promised to get them one (and credited them with bringing up something we clearly omitted)- and did.

We held practice sessions. Even as a small company, we flew in our managers from all over the place four times a year for such sessions.  And, then we flew out to their sites to run practice sessions with their staff twice a year.  It sounds expensive- but it made us “extra”ordinary- and our clients/customers knew it from their experiences with us.  And, as MasterCard says: “Priceless”.

So, we employed training and repetition for our folks, with instructions in plain English (we also used diagrams, pictures, and movies/video).  We tried to keep our concepts simple (even if the product were complex, your hourly employees have to understand what to do/why to do it).  And we strove for consistency- not only in our product quality, but in customer/client interactions, and interpersonal relations within the company.  Consistency did not- and does not- mean the lowest common denominator; our standards of performance were higher than most- and we never hesitate to raise the bar to render our competition less likely to be true competitors.

The trick to being a great leader is not just having the vision and developing the strategy.  It’s showing your team, you are part of the same team, too!

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