The Hidden Power of Professional Relationships

Just a few months before accepting the position I started immediately after getting married, I interviewed for a role with responsibility for the behavior-based safety process that I had been involved with for a year or so prior on a volunteer basis. In addition to performing the observations that process was built around, I had started helping with some aspects of training while I still ran a stamping press on the manufacturing floor. Even with all that involvement, I wasn’t selected. The gentleman who was had been a supervisor for a few years and had quite a bit more experience (at least on paper) with the office work required by that role, and he had a earned an associate’s degree just before he became a supervisor; I didn’t have a degree of any kind at that point.

After falling short, and being more than a little let down by the decision, I solicited feedback from two of the folks on the interview panel. I wanted to understand what they saw in the candidate they chose and learn what I could do to have a better chance the next time threw my name in the hat for any similar role. Both provided me with powerful feedback, but the conversation with one of those men changed the course of my life. Neither stood to gain from the time they carved out for me; the one who had been in the role for the year leading up to that point was taking a position at a facility in another part of the country and the other had responsibility for a specialized group of employees that I’d never be a part of. To this day, I deeply appreciate both of them providing me with that time and their guidance. That said, my initial interaction with Terry Ward not only helped prepare me to interview successfully just a few months later, it started the process for what’s become one of the strongest and longest latest professional relationships in my life.

As the maintenance manager at that point in time, the only business related reason Terry would have had for blocking time to talk with me in his office would been if I’d damaged the machine I operated each day. Although he stood to gain nothing and had an extremely full schedule, he took a half hour to give me tips on how I could make a better showing in an interview, but the most impactful thing that came from our conversation was the realization that I didn’t have to learn everything on my own; there were actually people who would be happy to guide me IF I was willing to listen.

Not long after that first one-on-one interaction, Terry accepted responsibility for the entire engineering department for that facility. I remember congratulating him on that, saying “you must be a brilliant engineer!” He shut that idea down immediately by explaining that every engineer on his team was better in their specific area of expertise than he was. He told me that his job wasn’t to be the best engineer, but to know exactly who was the best in every area and to make sure they had everything they needed to do the best job they were capable of. That alone was a powerful lesson, and we’ll dig into it more later on, but it also served as an example for how I would soon need to recognize who had the best skills for the support I’d need to get results in my own roles.

Looking back on that half-hour conversation in early 2000, I’m still amazing by all that’s unfolded since. He provided an example of building relationships to serve other people - that’s exactly what he did for me because I couldn’t have done anything to help him at the time - and he also helped me start to understand that hard work alone would eventually result in me hitting a ceiling, so we’ll pick up with that next time.