Lessons learned are lessons worth sharing!
I have received some great advice from many leaders over the course of my career, but the advice I received at the beginning of 2002 was a game changer and remember it like it was yesterday. One morning sitting in my office as the new operations manager, I called my brother to tell him about the mess I just took on at a new company and how I hadn’t been able to identify anyone on my team with passion or even a little bit of positive energy that could help me turn our operations around in our company. He asked if I knew anyone outside the organization that I could bring on board and I said there is a guy that I know that is not only positive, but is filled with passion and was someone I knew that could trust if I could get him to come on board. My brother shared that if I didn’t pick up the phone and call him this afternoon to recruit him on my team that he was going to call him and hire him.
He said in order to move a company forward, you have to start by surrounding yourself with people that you can trust and exudes passion to model for others for maximum impact. If you don’t get the right people on board, you will be destined to not only fail, but have a lot of stress and misery during the entire process. That afternoon I called my friend Heitor and the rest was history. Not only did we make our operations profitable, but we changed the culture from mediocre to a culture of excellence in less than 24 months. Heitor helped transform our operations by hiring the right people, setting expectations, and holding each person accountable along the way. He exuded positive energy that was infectious and made our team feel like they were valued and part of something special… like family.
A few years later when I decided to make a career change and move to a new company, my brother hired Heitor and he transformed his company operations too. It’s always about people and always will be about people! People that have passion, people that you can trust, people that care and people that want to make a difference.
I love watching Jimmy Valvano’s infamous speech about supporting the Jimmy V Foundation back in 1993. He was so passionate and full of life! During his speech, he shared there are three things we all need to do every day as people. First, we need to laugh. Second, we need to love, and third, we need to be moved. When go home at the end of the day after laughing, loving, and crying, we know we have had a full day! That is a sign to know you have the right people on board. They exude these traits to make every day a full day! Every day was a full day with Heitor in the workplace!
When we find these special people, we need to hire and empower them as quickly as possible and watch our department / organization accelerate. The best part of all is they will become lifelong friends that we can always count on in both our career and our personal life. I will always be thankful to my brother for sharing this sound advice for me as a young leader.
In my upcoming book, Life in the Leadership Lane; Moving Leaders to Inspire and Change the Workplace, I am planning to share some “best of advice” from guests that have been on my show. There are so many lessons worth sharing! I admire people that are willing to share, especially when is includes vulnerability. …and real world advice from high performers can inspire acceleration and often help us “skip steps” in our career from applying in our every day. I can’t wait to share these stories in the near future because any lesson learned is a lesson worth sharing!
Quote of the Day: “Never give up, never ever give up.” Jim Valvano
Call to Action: Who is on your team that makes moves you with their energy and passion? Make sure they know how valuable they are and give them the reins to keep going!
This has been A Relocation Minute on “Lessons learned are lessons worth sharing” with Bruce Waller, for more information, call 972-389-5673, or email bwaller@goarmstrong.com or check out my social media Facebook and Twitter page. Also, check out www.BruceWaller.com to review my leadership book “Find Your Lane” and journal “Milemarkers” both available on amazon. Be sure to subscribe to my YOUTUBE channel for weekly messages to encourage you and others in the workplace! Looking for a Podcast? Check out “Life in the Leadership Lane” on APPLE PODCAST as I talk to leaders making a difference in the workplace! Interested in a book club? Join CLIMB (Connect, Lead, Inspire, Mentor, Build) on Facebook. March starts a new book called HR Rising!