The Power of Paying It Forward

So far, we’ve looked at why relationships are the key to unlocking our potential (there’s no such thing as a self-made leader), how harnessing the power of candid conversations builds strong foundations for those relationships, and steps we can take to maximize the return on investment from each relationship we cultivate. If we only put these in place, we’ll quickly see a measurable difference in the results we achieve in our professional lives. But the most effective leaders I’ve ever known focused as much on developing their team members as they did on what they achieved personally, and that was crucial in unlocking the power of paying forward. To be completely honest, I’ve experienced more professional growth through the process of developing others, most of which was based more on survival than intentionality - and I’ll explain that more soon, than anything that only benefited me. To paint this picture, I’ll share a few lessons I learned from the amazing mentors I’ve had in my life. I’ll also detail a couple that I’ve stumbled onto myself…

I don’t think I’ve ever felt completely qualified for any job I’ve been offered, mainly because I wasn’t. Earlier, I shared how the work ethic I learned in my teens opened some of the first doors to bigger and better opportunities. As the responsibility involved with each new position increased, the gaps between what I was prepared for and what I would need to achieve to be successful grew too. Never being one to let my current ability get in the way of a chance to take on something new, I pushed forward; daring at times, often ignorant to the consequences I was opening myself up to, and nearly always under the assumption that I’d somehow figure things out on the fly. Each of the mentors I’ve listed so far, and many others that I’ll attempt to give credit to moving forward, helped me keep from drowning each time I jumped into the deep end of the pool. Interestingly enough, I always seem to learn the most from the lessons those mentors had shared with me when I found myself in a spot where I had no choice but to convey that message to someone else. I’ve often heard Albert Einstein quoted as saying, “If you can’t explain it simply then you don’t understand it well enough.” While there’s some debate as to whether he actually did, the statement holds true here.

When I was first asked to travel to another facility to provide training on the behavior-based safety initiative I was responsible for locally, I had been involved with the process for close to five years but had been in the facilitator role for less than two. Like most everything else, I was learned as I went and felt ill-equipped to offer that kind of support on my own - especially for another site within the company that had floundered after receiving the training initially from someone who was likely far more qualified than me. I went anyway. Surprisingly, whatever I offered seemed to hit the mark, and that soon resulted in me being asked to support a few other locations across the United States. Within the next year, I found myself in a formal conversation with the man who led our company’s behavior-based safety initiative globally and his boss, the corporate safety director, detailing how they wanted me to officially provide support to all our sites in North America that had active behavior-based safety processes.

Once I agreed in that initial conversation, things got more serious - quickly. Since this wouldn’t be a full time position, we needed my boss and his boss (Kevin and Rod) to sign off. They did, but under the stipulation that my local duties would remain my top priority and the very limited overtime (I was an hourly employee the entire time) would be billed to the corporate office. Like I had done so many times before, I assured them that I could live up to all that to get the deal inked. Not only did I underestimate how tough juggling all that would be - my local responsibilities, traveling across the country two or three times each month, and preparing for and delivering training in manufacturing plants I had never set foot in - I didn’t have perspective early on for just how unusual it would be for a guy with a high school education who was operating a press just a few years prior to be making recommendations to the executive team as I wrapped up my time in each location. Developing others certainly is a path to earning leadership influence and there’s tremendous power in paying forward the lessons we learn from our mentors, but being forced to teach others is what really sharpens our edge - I’ll share a few ways I experience that next time.