In my previous blog post, as well as on other pages on this website, I’ve introduced myself — at least my name and some historical information about me along with some professional-related factoids. If you haven’t read that post yet, you can here. If you’ve already read that, then I’m going to, hopefully, offer some more insights into who I am and what credentials I may or may not have that warrant you listening to me.
You see, I’ve been in the professional workforce for 40+ years now. Certainly, that alone doesn’t really give me credentials or credence but keep reading. I’m going to provide additional, specific information that may explain what I have to offer.
In the early years of my career, I was very idealistic, thinking that I could “fix” the world, other people, and, later, systems and processes. This, as you would imagine, led to some challenges and frustrations…and some progress. During my tenure at the Juvenile Court, I was literally “blazing a new trail”. My position had been created as a result of a court case that changed how the local Juvenile Court was operated. My role was created as a formal part of the local General Sessions Court under the presiding General Sessions Judge.
So, I reported directly to the General Sessions and Juvenile Court Judge. I didn’t replace anyone, I was in a brand new position. So, with the assistance of experts from the state juvenile commission as well as from other County Juvenile Court Officers and Administrators, I worked to put together processes and procedures for the formal and informal operation of the Juvenile Court and Youth Services Office. This was very empowering, and a little overwhelming, realizing this was real stuff, not a college course or academia. There were real lives that I was dealing with, with real people and real names and real problems and serious issues.
After some minor bumps in the road, the operation began to gain a rhythm and rhyme. The Judge was a fine mentor as were others in the local law enforcement agencies (I took a lot of responsibilities off of their plates regarding juvenile offenders), local social services executives and counselors, and a few civic leaders. With this guidance and mentoring, I began to feel somewhat comfortable in this new role. In most organizations, “customer” growth is a good thing, but no so much in Juvenile Justice. That means there are more youth and juveniles entering the system and in need of services. The number of intakes increased so much every year that at the end of my second year, we needed to add an assistant to fill clerical and administrative needs. This position became a deputy General Sessions Court clerk who maintained all of the official court records for the Juvenile Court.
Point to Note: Idealism is great place to start and a good guidepost but you live and operate in realism. Find the balance that works for both.
I continued in this position for a total of four years and, after earning a computer science degree, left to take a position in computer technology and programming. After leaving the Juvenile Court, I began to realize just how much I had learned and how much great experience I had obtained. I had learned, grown, and professionally matured through all of the interactions that I had with the Judge, local Sheriff and Deputies, city Police Chiefs and officers, civic leaders, elected officials, state organization leaders, and more. I was even asked to serve on the statewide Juvenile Justice Commission during my tenure there. Quite a honor! Having the day-to-day responsibilities of the Juvenile Court operation and administration, I was required to make many public presentations and talks. All this gave me confidence when speaking in public and prepared me for the upcoming opportunities and challenges.
So, as I began the new chapter of my career, I focused on honing my skills as a computer programmer. Within the first year, I was given primary responsibilities for several major software applications — payroll, accounts payable, store inventory reporting, and more. By the end of my second year, I was promoted to manager of the team I had originally been hired into as a team member. My former manager now reported to me, and did so willingly! I think that was directly attributable to the skills I had gained during my time at the Juvenile Court, as well as my natural inclination to migrate toward a “jack-of-all trades” status.
During my fifth or sixth year in my computer programming career, I was given multi-departmental systems responsibility, which simply means, in addition to Accounting and Payroll systems, I was given responsibilities for Supply Chain and Distribution systems, and Special Order Parts systems — tripling my span of control and size of my team. This catapulted me from being a hands-on team leader to being fully responsible as a Manager of people who did the programming and support work. I was now responsible for budgeting, prioritization of projects, planning with the functional departments on their needs and gained my first responsibilities for technology infrastructure and hardware — for the first warehouse automation systems in the company history. This involved millions of dollars of expenditures among the then five (5) distribution centers (warehouses), my first introduction to this scale.
Point to Note: The next career road sign might indicate a corner, or change of direction, that you didn’t expect that can have positive outcomes.
It was during the ensuing years that I made my first significant professional mistakes or missteps. Getting so much responsibility so quickly was a bit overwhelming. I retreated some in my new areas of responsibilities, not being as proactive with the new team members as I should have, letting them flounder some. I was still a little naïve and unsure of my leadership abilities. One of the new team members was bold enough to take me to the side and basically just “coach” me some, telling me that I just needed to interact more with the team members who were new to me — give them some attention, ask them what their responsibilities were, what I could do for them to make their jobs easier and better. This little gesture was enough to “break the ice” for me and them. It helped me overcome some of my uncertainties and be more proactive. From that point, I resolved to always be more proactive as a Manager or Leader. I may not always have the answer but I will rally the troops so we can get the answer together or I will seek the answer from the right people.
Point to Note: The best coaching you receive may not be from your management but from your team. Always be open and receptive to it.
I was fortunate during these years to encounter a number of strong mentors and advisors for me. This mentoring and advising wasn’t always formal. Many times it was informal. I watched the examples of leaders and executives that I respected and admired. I also watched some leaders and executives that I didn’t have as much respect and admiration for. I’ve summarized many of the lessons I learned into my list of “what not to do as a leader” as well as weave all of my experiences, positive and not so positive, into my management and leadership toolbox.. (A future blog post will list and discuss some of these.)
Point to Note: You need to know what your philosophies of managing and leading are based on, including what you resolve to never do.
Before I reached my tenth anniversary in the computer and information technology (IT) profession, I was promoted to Director. Most people would probably think that this is when “you’ve arrived”. You’re in executive-level management. You manage people who manage the people who do the actual work. Wrong! I quickly discovered that not only had I not “arrived”, I don’t think I even had a ticket. Really though, what I discovered is that I was just beginning to learn and discover what it really means to lead people, teams, and, in many situations, have the accountability without the complete authority to make it happen.
Point to Note: Be careful what you ask for / strive for, you just might get it.
One of the most impactful things that I learned during my second decade in IT was that senior executive leadership relies on people who know how to get things done. I know this sounds a little basic but it’s astounding how many people in the professional ranks think and perform like what matters is how many degrees they have, how many years they’ve been working, what new skill they’ve acquired, and more. Now, all of those are valuable and important…as long as they help get the goals and objectives of the team, the department, and the company or organization accomplished. The company or organization, to be successful, must operate as smoothly as possible. This means everyone must do their part and get their stuff done to lay the foundation and the blocks that build the desired outcomes.
So, I used this principle on many, many occasions. I would volunteer for the “unpleasant” opportunities, the projects and responsibilities that most didn’t want. The ones that weren’t the most visible, the most glamorous but the ones that kept the machine working and humming along. What I found that would happen is that the executive leadership respected that and thought of me and my teams when new opportunities presented themselves. So, I once again became a “jack-of-all trades” and I was quite happy with that reputation.
During my years in corporate IT, I was afforded the opportunity to lead IT teams responsible for all major functional business areas within the company, from accounting and finance to human resources and payroll to distribution and supply chain to merchandising to retail point of sale to data center, database administration, and infrastructure to project management office, software quality assurance, and software releases to data security and compliance. Whew! I jokingly told people that the company was trying to find something that I could be successful at but, in reality, I believe it prepared me for the coming next phase of my career — my encore career — as an entrepreneur!
Point to Note: Understanding your path may not happen until you have the chance to look back and see how everything has worked together to get you to where you now are.
So, now the questions, “Who am I?” and “Why should you listen to me?”, I think can be answered, or at least, addressed. I’m certainly not a guru or any kind of expert in the truest senses of the words, but I think I have experiences that have served as building blocks for my career. They’ve actually progressively built on the foundation of my beliefs, principles, philosophies, and values…and experiences and education…to provide insights and expertise that I can share.
If you don’t see the value, I’m okay with that. I didn’t listen to everyone that tried to tell me things over the years, sometimes to my own detriment and sometimes to my benefit. Your call to make. But maybe, just maybe, someone can get a nugget or a principle or some affirmation that you don’t have to necessarily have a perfect roadmap. Sometimes, a good old “road trip” is in order. And, sometimes you need to make a hard right turn. Sometimes, you need to turn around but when you get to a destination and look back, you might just find that the path makes sense.
Post any questions or comments below that you might have. I’d love to engage in a dialogue to compare notes or to respond to questions.
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