From C to See Ya Later

I have been working since I was 11 years old. I had a paper route for the Coop city times at the start of it all. They would drop literal bales of papers for me to cover 3 apartment buildings with 12 apartments on each floor and 30+ floors of drop offs. I would get 35 dollars for all that and it would take at least a half a day to do it. I’d also hold up one of the elevators, so let’s say the people weren’t happy with me on Sunday mornings.

As a child, I didn’t do a great job and I wasn’t the most loyal and dedicated worker. Truth be told, I did a poor job of it and as time went on, I tried to find ways to get the job done without actually doing all of it. I roller-skated down the hallways sometimes. Towards the end, I placed papers near the elevator thinking that if the people wanted them, they could get them as they went in and out of the building. Made sense right? Except, many people were elderly and they didn’t leave the house. My young self didn’t account for them or the others who expected the paper at the door.

In my youth, I didn’t consider some of the more important aspects of leaving a newspaper at a person’s door. I didn’t have the experience or understand the ramifications. I also didn’t care too much about it. I couldn’t see an impact to even know to care.

Now all these years later, looking back, I know better. I should have gotten up and gotten those papers out as soon as they hit the ground. I should have made sure they were in front of every door. I should have made sure that I did a good job because the people who needed the news and information were more than likely the people who couldn’t leave the building. Regardless, I was paid to do the job and it should have been done right.

Over the years, I have reflected on what it means to do a good job. I have thought about the investment in time and the difference between right and wrong. Thinking about consequences and results of my actions and understanding what these mean in context of the decision before me.

I have grown to believe that this line of thinking is not simply about youthful thinking. It is about the depth in which we invest in our understanding of how our work, effort, and energy has an impact on others. The understanding of caring or not about the results of our behavior and actions.

This is why I recognize older men and women demonstrating bad behavior like leaving all the newspapers at the door in front of the building. This isn’t an attack on them or their character as much as an identification of behavior.

So, this brings me to my Sunday morning thoughts on a recent job I’ve taken. While I haven’t announced it formally, I have taken a role with a company as an individual contributor. I thought of it as sort of a way to continue learning, growing and advancing but without all the burden of managing business.

Over the course of my career, I have seen very senior people take on consulting and advisory roles after they retired from reporting to the board or leading billion dollar companies through IT or other business areas. It is a rare occurrence for me to have seen someone taking on a role in the same way that I have chosen. I chose to take a role in an IT shop where I would just “do the things” as opposed to “lead the things.”

Running a company or leading an organization is very stressful. There is so much riding on the decisions that we make. We can win the day or lose and if we lose, everyone may suffer. The burdens of those at the top are heavy and it can be for many a very lonely place. At the end of the day, even with all those who have opinion or advice, the decision rests with you and what you decide can and will be the factor. Frankly, I didn’t want that burden anymore. I didn’t want to lead a company or a team or anything. I just wanted to get up and do the thing. What can I make? What can I build? How can I be creative? How can I be more available for my family and still make a few bucks?

It doesn’t feel like that long ago that I had the experience of being invited to the table. I mean, the big table. As a younger person, I shared my opinions with senior leaders privately or in writing. When I was invited to the table, I had to learn all about when to speak, how to speak and the idea that what makes sense doesn’t always make for the best outcomes. All that to say, it was years of experience and education on learning to operate at this particular level in an organization.

When I chose to take on my current role, I knew that I wouldn’t be at that level and that I wouldn’t have a seat at the table. I didn’t want to have that burden and responsibility, and I believed that I could just operate without caring about more than just my particular function.

What I am sharing with you today is that it is much more difficult than I thought. I am also living and learning about the world as it is today in business as opposed to what it used to be not so long ago. What I have come to discover is that as much as I believed things are similar to what they used to be as I was coming up in my career, they have dramatically changed in ways that I could not have estimated.

The war on talent is a real thing. The pressure on individuals and teams today is something that doesn’t even seem real. The new normal is something that looks and feels more like insanity. I started to consider my frame of reference and perspective. Looking up through the organization from the bottom was familiar. It wasn’t long ago that I asked questions and thought that decisions didn’t make logical sense. What is different now from then?

One thing I can say as an observation is the idea of slowing down to think about things and then speed up leveraging thought and process is seemingly a past concept. Today, the speed is warp x times x. It is essentially the speed of action without thinking. The net result of whatever action is the undesired outcome. It means that we value speed of action as the result vs the actual result.

Over the past few weeks, I thought of it this way. Imagine, you were going on a road trip, you know the place you want to go and you have most of the resources to get there. A long time ago, you could go to AAA and get a map. You could think through the stops, the timing, the fuel, all the things. Who is coming on the trip? How much space do I have? How much room do we need in the trunk? Do we have money? Do we have snacks? Is Grandma coming?

Technology has advanced and we don’t need to go to AAA anymore. We don’t even need a GPS device; we have our phones. Our phones and even some of our vehicles can take us to our destination with little to no effort. The challenge that we have today is that we don’t think at all about any of it. We just know or believe we can hop in the car and go without care.

Can we though? If it is an electric car, do they have all the required energy sources to get us to where we need to be? If it is a gas powered car, have we considered the new cost of fuel? Did we call ahead to make reservations with anyone? Did we think about any of the trip? Did we make room for Grandma? Do we even care about Grandma?

Most likely, no.

Top leaders in organizations are going to events where they are discussing the latest trends in technologies. It is so easy to hop in the car today and go. In my analogy, the people who are leading companies are told, they don’t even need to drive anymore. They just get in the vehicle, pick a place and everything will be done. Also, you can get rid of any checks and balances, you can sell your old car, you can get drones to meet you along the way, they will bring you food. Anything you can think of, there is an answer. Some technology exists for you and it will all be done. On top of this, other companies that provide staffing and services, they will implement all of this for you ahead of time. They are the new experts.

Now, you don’t need to think about anything, just pay and go.

Finally, just trust the machine and you’ll be fine.

Here is the result, the C-level leadership tells the board the vehicle will pick them all up. It will be a beautiful ride on a day of days. It will be sunny and comfortable as they go on their way. The board will see and enjoy individualized entertainment, they will seamlessly without friction get to their destination in comfort they’ve never seen before with all the new technologies and experiences. Except for a few problems, the service for the GPS isn’t working right, no one calibrated, coordinated or planned, no one knows what is going on. All the C-levels who made the promises don’t know enough about anything to even speak about it with any real intelligence because they are too busy looking at their phones while AI reads and writes their emails and slides.

When the destination was picked and the vehicle came around, the board wound up at the wrong location with no resolution. Why? Because this is what is happening in the world today.

So, here I am, just saying, I can see it and I am not sure I can stomach it. The other problem here is that when things go wrong, someone will need to be blamed, and I can guarantee you that the new stock of leaders have no problem telling everyone that “it wasn’t their fault” because accountability and integrity seem to be something of the past.

I recognize the need to be competitive and move quickly. I also believe that people are willing to pay for quality services, products and a brand they can trust. When companies choose to move at break stuff speed it diminishes trust. This in turn destroys brands as long as there are choices in the market for customers.

At the end of this day, I am thinking about how challenging it is to be in this position. I wonder if others tried to do what I am trying to do how they would feel. One of my take aways is that we are on the edge of a business tipping point. I am not sure what will happen from here, I think this may be a problem set left for a younger generation of leaders.