The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in (15 page)

“Actually, behaving like that in the period of such disruption in business will probably get you fired. So you’re right: refusing to change and grow is the most unsafe place you could be,” Ty noted supportively.

“It’s pretty powerful to hear that embracing the deepest of change out on the edge, under the most challenging of conditions, is actually the safest place to be. What a paradox,” I offered candidly, as I bit into more of my salami sandwich.

“Dude, that’s the paradox of change. Most employees and most businesses avoid dealing with change. They really do stick their heads in snow and hope it’ll just go away. They pretend everything’s going to be okay if they cling to business as usual. But it won’t. Normal is gone. Business unusual is the new usual.
And complacency has now become the primary enemy of victory
. The safest, most intelligent place to be is out there on the edge of that cliff. Loving all the changes. Using them to your advantage to grow as a leader. I love the scary runs, man. Like I say, makes me feel most alive. Reminds me of what the great high-wire walker Karl Wallenda once said: ‘Life is lived out on the wire. The rest is just waiting.’ What if you were most alive when you were out on that growth edge? Why would you possibly avoid it, man?”

“Makes sense,” I responded, taking another bite from my sandwich.

“Mario Andretti, the race car driver once said, ‘If everything’s
under control, you’re going too slow.’ And I need to repeat something again because it’s so important: things really do need to fall apart before they can be rebuilt. Deep change is a purifier of sorts. Yes, it can tear down the very foundations on which your thinking and way of operating have been built. But just maybe those old foundations need to come down to create space for even better ones to be installed. And during the transition process that lies between the old structures coming down and the new ones being put in place, it’s a really stress-filled, uncertain time. But just maybe it’s like the transition of the caterpillar morphing into the butterfly. It looks like a mess, but something even more beautiful is being created. ‘What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls the butterfly,’ said the novelist Richard Bach. Disruption is usually the beginning of real improvement showing up. The old needs to be cleared out before space for the new and better can arrive.”

I thought about my grandfather. When I was a kid, he once told me that when he was young, he used to love playing with butterflies. One day he watched a caterpillar shedding its cocoon. But it seemed to be having trouble and wasn’t making any progress. So, in an effort to be helpful, he pulled out his penknife and cut off the remaining pieces of the cocoon. But rather than emerging as a precious butterfly, the caterpillar quickly died. My grandfather said that he later learned that it needed to experience the struggle of moving through the cocoon to grow into a butterfly. And by preventing this from happening, he denied the caterpillar the chance to fly. It seemed from what Ty was telling me, that turbulent times and periods of struggle in business are, in truth, similar opportunities to grow wings. And express our best.

“I remember when, as a ski instructor, I’d be teaching someone a lesson on the mountain,” Ty continued. “Let’s say they were a pretty good skier when they first arrived. Then I’d take
them through some exercises to teach them to ski even better. I’d share a few new concepts and offer them a bunch of advanced techniques. Well, guess what would happen to their skiing after my lesson?”

“Obviously, they’d improve,” I replied.

“Nope. They’d actually ski worse.”

“No way? Seriously?”

“Yup. But just for a short while—until the new learning had been integrated. See, Blake, part of the process of changing and growing is going from where you currently are to breaking down all you’ve known so you can rebuild in a way that’s even better. Once again, skiing’s a great metaphor for this. My client would learn all these fantastic new skills, but they disrupted the way they’d been skiing before they had their lesson with me. They needed to think differently and act differently in order to get to their next level of excellence as a skier. So they inevitably went through a period of transition filled with confusion.”

“Breakdown,” I repeated.

“Exactly. Their technique broke down and fell apart. It looked terrible, and some students would get frustrated. But they needed to
be patient with the process of change
. And to stay at it, even though they felt like giving up and going back to the old way they thought and the old way they skied. Nothing was wrong. Everything was right. And when they did persevere, it was amazing to see how fantastic their skiing became.”

“So the very process of change is a chaotic one. But if we are persistent and patient, we’ll get the breakthrough we all want?”

“Yes.
Change is always messiest in the middle
. And it can look like nothing’s working and zero is happening. But if you are doing your best to learn and make things better, you’re actually moving closer to the breakthrough we all want. To master change, you absolutely must be persistent and have patience. As my clients practiced what I taught them and gave themselves
some time to integrate the instruction, they never failed to get to a place where they saw stunning improvements in their technique. They always finished far better than they started.”

“I’ve never realized how great change actually is for us as people and for organizations in general, whether we’re talking about businesses or schools, communities or even countries,” I mentioned.

“If you choose to
allow
it to be good,” Ty informed me. “It’s always about choice. You can be a victim about the whole thing and feel the change is something being done to you—that’s it’s some external force that you have no control over.”

“Or I can use my natural power and step up to being a Leader Without a Title,” I interrupted.

“You got it, dude. And move from victimhood into leadership: exercising the choice that will make
all
the difference. You then arrive at the mind-set where you embrace all the change and disruption and
use it to your advantage
. You leverage it to promote your leadership abilities. You exploit it to do your part to build a better business, regardless of whether or not you have the formal authority that a lofty title brings to do so. And you capitalize on all the change to help you step up to full self-expression, so you grow into a greater—and happier—human being.”

“Very cool way to look at it all, Ty.”

“
Problems are only problems when we make them problems
. Victims cry, ‘Why me?’ Leaders, on the other hand shout, ‘It’s up to me!’ ” Ty suggested with a quick smile. “And then they hunt down superb opportunities to dedicate themselves to realizing exceptional results. ‘This time, like all times, is a good time, if we know what to do with it,’ observed Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“Hey!” he shouted. “I almost forgot. I need to share my five rules with you. These are the five things to do—starting now—to really practice the lesson
Turbulent Times Build Great Leaders
. As you know, Blake, this is the second of the four principles that
make up the Lead Without a Title philosophy. I’ve got an acronym for you.”

“You guys and your acronyms,” I said warmly.

“Yeah, we love them, dude. But there’s a reason behind them: acronyms hook into your mind like a catchy pop song. Ours will make the five practical rules each of us are teaching you stay really sticky. So you’ll never forget them.”

“Perfect, Ty. So what’s yours?”

“SPARK,” came his succinct reply. “Leading Without a Title has so much to do with being a light in a dark and turbulent world. Everything’s so negative during these times of high-velocity transition. Everyone’s so worried. Everyone’s walking around in a state of real fear with no idea what the future will bring. What we need in business right now are more people who are truly bright lights. Who show others a clear and hopeful way. Who are real sparks in all that they do.”

“Love the acronym,” I stated sincerely.

“Dude, I’m happy you’re happy. So let me get right into it. The
S
in SPARK stands for Speak with Candor. Leadership Without a Title has so much to do with being a pristine, truth-filled, and inspirational communicator. In topsy-turvy times, there’s a natural tendency to hold back on candor, speak in vague generalities that mean nothing but preserve the status quo, and essentially talk in a way designed to protect your turf. But the problem with communication like that is that it breeds mistrust. The people around you would rather hear the truth as to the way things really are than some plastic sloganeering that you do to avoid confronting reality. And let me also ask you, how can you leverage the opportunities that massive change presents without speaking clearly about what’s no longer working, where you all need to go as a team, and the direction you need to move in general as an organization?”

“You can’t,” I responded easily.

“Right. And so communicating like that isn’t showing any leadership whatsoever. Like I say, people in business right now want to surround themselves with people who tell it like it is. Who are candid. Who are forthright. Who are spectacularly honest. Delivering
the naked truth
, and nothing but the naked truth, promotes trust and respect for you. Your customers know that they’ll get straight talk from you. Your teammates know that you won’t play games. And you’ll know you’re behaving with integrity and courage. Yes, that kind of bold communication is rare these days, but amid all the uncertainty, people do want to know where they stand. And they really do appreciate people who are willing to be courageous enough to speak their truth—even when it’s difficult. A Leader Without a Title always has the difficult conversations that weaker and less excellent people shy away from. They always communicate in a way that’s strikingly direct and stunningly real. They are always the first ones to speak their truth, even when their voices shake and their palms sweat.”

“They lean into difficult conditions like the skier on the mountain peak,” I noted, reflecting on Ty’s main metaphor.

“I do like this one, Tommy,” Ty said. “And by the way, simply because the person you need to speak clearly to might not like what they’re hearing—or even really understand what you’re saying—is
no
excuse for not expressing yourself truthfully. An important part of showing leadership is to be more committed to speaking honestly than receiving the approval of others.” He then glanced toward his friend.

Tommy was looking pale again. He began to have trouble inhaling. Then he started to cough. I grew worried about him. This was the second time in a matter of hours that my mentor looked unwell. At our first meeting, at the bookstore, Tommy radiated vitality despite his advanced age. At the cemetery, early this morning, he was in the greatest of spirits and seemed to
glow with good health. But at this moment, in the Ty Boyd Ski Shop, Tommy looked frail. And sick.

“Everything okay, Tommy?” I questioned quickly and carefully.

“I’m not actually sure what’s going on, Blake,” he admitted hesitantly.

Ty looked concerned. “We can stop if you’d like to, Tommy.”

“No. Thanks, gentlemen. I’m grateful for your thoughtfulness, but I’ll be fine. I want Blake to learn everything he needs to learn today, Ty. I really think he’s the one who’ll do some spectacular things with the LWT philosophy and get our little-known method to all the people in business and in society who have to hear it. He promised me he would. And so it’s really important that we continue.”

“I’m a man of my word, Tommy. I learned the importance of commitment when I joined the armed forces. And I’m going to honor our pact,” I confirmed.

“I know you will, my friend. Please just make sure you tell as many people as you possibly can about the Lead Without a Title philosophy. That way, they not only awaken their inner leader but they, in turn, will inspire others to do the same. So let’s continue. I’ll be fine.”

Ty nodded. “Okay,
an organization that has a culture where everyone’s afraid to speak candidly is a place where people live amid delusion and fantasy
. As I mentioned, how can you build a great company if no one’s talking truthfully about what needs to improve? And especially in tough times, it’s essential not only to communicate impeccably, but also to actually
overcommunicate
with each of your stakeholders. Overcommunicate with your teammates. Overcommunicate with your suppliers. Overcommunicate with your customers. Listen intensely to how each one of these constituencies is feeling. This prevents rumors from starting and gossip from spreading. It keeps all your relationships
flawless. Problems don’t fester. Misunderstandings don’t grow. And people feel that you actually care about them and their concerns. By the way, related to all this is the importance of ‘face time.’ ”

“Face time?” I questioned.

“Yes. Never send an email when you can meet someone in person. Leave your work area and go talk to your teammate when you need to discuss something or even to just reconnect. Break bread or at least spend quality time with your customers as much as you can. Don’t hide behind technology when the personal touch is called for. And the final thing I’ll say about communication and speaking with candor is that
if something’s important to someone important to you, it should become important to you as well
.”

“I like that idea, Ty. ‘If something’s important to someone important to me, it should become important to me as well.’ ”

“It’s a great practice to follow, dude. It has helped me so much in running this shop. Some of my customers have been coming here for over twenty years. They’ll drive an hour out of their way just to give me their business. Loyalty’s like that. Anyway, I guess all I’m really offering to you is that in times like these, you just can’t communicate too much. And that one of the most important jobs of a Leader Without a Title is to share accurate information, an abundance of hope, and an inspiring vision for better days to a scared organization. Be a professional communicator. That’s just part of what you get paid to do.”