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I share a story about a lapse in my leadership that resulted in me reacting to a situation in a way that was beneath me.
It almost doesn’t make sense for me to say I’m glad it happened, because I wish it hadn’t.
But if it hadn’t happened, I might still be searching for the lesson it provided.
I worked with Randy for half a dozen years or so. First at one company and then at my own.
We had a complex relationship. He was a safe driver and dependable, especially if dependability was evaluated solely on his desired schedule, rather than mine.
For example I always wanted him to start work early, and he always wanted to start work later.
My logic was sound. I needed him to start early to meet the appointment times we set with our clients – and by starting early his days would be more efficient and shorter.
A mutual win-win in my mind, but not in his – based on the consistency with which he disagreed with my logic and set his own schedule.
Another complexity to our relationship centered around how different our personalities and outlooks were.
Maybe it was the way we were each raised. I can’t say for sure as my experience with him occurred at time in my life before I put much thought into those kinds of things.
I perceived him to be a glass half empty guy, a conspiracist, who blamed others and the world for things in his life that weren’t working out the way they could, or more specifically the way he thought they should.
He wasn’t always like that. Sometimes he was funny and engaging, cooperative, and even pleasant.
These positive moments gave me hope that things were clicking.
Ultimately, Randy ended up getting the best of me, one the phone one night, when I was giving him his schedule for the next day.
I don’t remember exactly what he said, but I’m sure it wasn’t worth the reaction that I attached to it.
Find out what Mike said to Randy on the phone that night (and the lesson Mike learned)… by listening to the rest of this “.5 project” on the How’d It Happen Podcast, where every Tuesday Mike shares a story that relates to his entrepreneur experience starting a business in 1992 and growing it to a $50 million company over 22 years.
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