A Lesson in Leadership

We all witness moments at work that stick out in our minds and stay with us our entire careers. These moments are powerful. You know one when you see it.

I was recently at a conference attending a presentation. This particular organization had a Vice President, a technical manager, and a consultant presenting. The VP kicked it off talking about all the benefits to the organization that the software implementation would provide. I noticed right away that he was very charismatic and engaging speaker. He was confident and grabbed the attention of the room right away.

The consultant’s turn was next. It was clear that he had spent about five minutes on his slides and really had no talking points. The slides had only a few bullets, and at times, what he was saying had no relevance to what was on the slides. It was all over the place and missed the mark completely.

The technical manager was last. We’ll call him “Greg” (I’m obviously not using real names for this post). Greg was from the same organization of the VP who had kicked things off. Greg was very nervous. I could not tell to what level he had prepared, but his speech was fragmented and I could not make much out of what he was saying. I scanned the room to see if it was just me or if others were hearing what I was hearing. Confused looks and uncomfortable faces were abound across the room.

Greg finally made it to the end of the presentation which went directly into an awkward round of Q&A. After the Q&A, the VP came back up on stage to summarize. It was how he wrapped it up that stood out to me and gave me hope for leaders everywhere. At the end, he said something to the effect,

As he said this, he gestured ceremoniously toward Greg and simultaneously a huge smile spread across Greg’s face.

Some bosses, after witnessing a train wreck of a presentation by an employee, may have responded in a number of different ways. But, this VP ended on a high note (for the audience and Greg). He took Greg’s low-point and made it an opportunity to showcase his full support for Greg to both him and the audience of industry peers. Both parties really needed it at that exact time! He showed Greg that he had the utmost confidence in him and his abilities to deliver this challenging project. You can also bet that Greg will now do everything in his power to ensure that the project is a success AND that he will fully support his VP into the future.

We all know those bosses that remove confidence instead of instill it. This VP did not miss the opportunity to build up his employee’s confidence at his time of need. Confidence ebbs and flows throughout one’s career. A person’s boss may build it up or remove it. A boss who decides to remove confidence often does this for self-serving reasons that are completely counterproductive to the entire organization. This type of behavior by a boss is what causes people to leave. I’m sure we’ve all seen the viral post with the quote,

This is so true.

What I witnessed at this conference was a powerful and memorable lesson in leadership and made me think that this is the type of leader that we all should aspire to be.

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