THE GREAT STREET CAR RACE

On a recent trip back to Colorado, we stayed with our son and his beautiful little family. The trip's purpose was generally to attend grandchildren's birthday celebrations, and to allow Ingrid to visit her mom in the nursing home. It was also 118 degrees here in AZ.

The trip provided several memories I hope to blog about, but the choice for today is the street car race we witnessed. I guess you could say the thing was our fault in the first place, since we got the grandkids these little electric cars over the last couple Christmases. I say "little" but that is a bit of a misnomer. Two of these things fill up one bay of PJ's garage. This is the first year that both of them have been in full use, as Colt was a little young to really handle one by himself until this year.

Chloe got hers first, an adorable pink Cadillac Escalade complete with working radio, four wheel drive, and a horn. I remember Karin and Jenn helped assemble it in my shop. This was a several hour process that involved about 400 decals that had to be precisely placed. Colt's came at Christmas last year: a blue pickup with mag wheels, working doors, and also all kinds of car racing decals. Oh, I almost forgot the "four on the floor" gear shift. 

Anyway, the kids live on one of those idyllic cul de sacs with great neighbors, many of whom have kids of similar ages, most of whom also possess some kind of electric vehicle. It was one of those perfect summer eves; you know, when the routine rain shower has cooled everything down and moved on and all the moms have declared it safe to play outside. Either that or they just can't stand having all the kids stuck inside any longer. 

We went out and sat in lawn chairs to witness the proceedings. It was almost dusk, and Suki, the 87 year old grandmother of the kids across the street pulled up in her car and parked what seemed to be a safe distance down the street. She got out and slowly ambled up the walk to take her normal seat in a lawn chair inside their garage. I've never heard her say anything but she seems to control her grandkids by mind waves or something. Meanwhile, traffic cones were being placed, ice teas refilled, garage doors opening to allow all the dads to drag out their respective vehicles. 

As usual, Karen was working in her yard while Jeff supervised from a seat on the front porch. Their kid, Alex, was the oldest of the neighborhood and functioned as a kind of referee and master of ceremonies. He really is a great kid, and looks out after all the little ones. 

The warmup laps started. Each of these little cars has hard plastic wheels that are hollow to make them sound loud like a drum. The effect of driving them on asphalt is a roar that must surely rival any NASCAR event. The warmup was a little disorganized at first, since several drivers were traveling in opposite directions around the cul de sac, hollering at each other as they passed that the other guy was going in the wrong direction. At some considerable personal risk, Alex somehow got in the middle and got them all going in the same direction, and the race was on, although there was no official starting flag or anything like that. 

The fireworks started on the first turn when Carter decided to run Brock into the wall (curb), having achieved an inside position.
The collision forced him to lose just a little speed and Chloe leapt into the lead by deftly avoiding the crash and whizzing by on the infield. Colt was closely following his big sister about 12 inches off her rear bumper. They made a couple more laps and by then Brock was back in the field, bound for vengeance! By now, there was lots of screaming (from both kids and grown ups) on top of the thunderous noise of the wheels. 

It was getting a little darker, and the one thing all the racers lacked was headlights. However, each racer was wearing a glow-in-the-dark device cleverly supplied by Kelly, who explained to me that she routinely made the kids wear them so she could see where they were in the dark around the neighborhood. The effect was pretty surreal.   

On about the 93rd lap, Colt suddenly turned into the infield, nearly taking Alex out by surprise. In an effort to recover from the skid, he whipped the wheel too far the other way and stuck his foot in the carburetor to get back on the track. Low and behold, now he was going the wrong way! This did not seem to faze the other racers at all....in fact, they deftly got out of the way as he whizzed in between them. Then, however, they all decided he needed to know he was going the wrong way, so they simultaneously slid into U-turns and began chasing Colt! It was so smooth, it reminded me of some of those internet videos where all the fish in a school suddenly turn in the same direction at once. Of course, this was much more noisy.

So there they all were, Colt in the lead, and all the rest bearing down on him, screaming at the top of their lungs to be heard over the roar of the wheels. Perhaps never having been in this position of leading before, Colt seemed interested in watching what everybody else was doing behind him, craning his head around to better hear what they were all yelling.

At that instant, 

time.....seemed......to......slow...................downnnnnn......

Every grownup in the area started screaming at once: "COLT! COLT! TURN AROUND!!! LOOK OUT!!!" Alex started sprinting after him, but it was too late. KAWHOOMP!!!! He ran square into the front left tire of Suki's car at full speed. He hit it so hard the rear wheels lifted up into the air!

Everybody raced to the scene of the accident to see if everything was ok. PJ naturally won the race, with Kelly close behind. Yeah, he was shook up and a little sore from the steering wheel smashing his chest, but all right apart from being scared everybody was mad at him. (It's apparent to me those things need seat belts). 

At that point, it was mutually decided the evening's activity was over, and we all put things away, went back inside, and had some ice cream to make Colt's chest feel better. I finished the night all the richer for the memories I had gained. What a wonderful life!

LEADERSHIP

Awhile back, my son asked me if I had any "leadership books" left over in my retirement, as he is studying for a promotional exam at work and thought they might be helpful. I happen to believe my son is one of those "natural" leaders; he just hasn't had the need to think about or explain what he does in the context of being a leader. Having recently moved to Arizona and downsizing considerably in the process-if I have any such books, I can't find them.

This is not to say I never had any; I probably read a couple hundred over the span of my career, as well as working with many of the best leadership consultants in the business. I remember when I took my first job and had a hand-me-down desk with a broken leg--a couple of leadership books held up that corner of the desk just fine. As I was trying think how to be of some assistance, it occurred to me that it might be useful to just summarize the philosophy I came to be comfortable with. It's kind of a collection of things I found from one source or another:mostly just observations of different kinds of leaders over the years. I will leave it to others to judge whether I was a successful leader, but I think we were able to do some good things where I worked.

The single most important factor is a positive organizational culture. Leaders create the culture. Employees that feel good about where they work are more committed and creative, they work harder, they provide better customer service, they attract better employees and they stay longer. What does it take to make employees feel good about where they work? The organization has to have a sense of credibility, competence, and compassion. Everybody should display these traits in a consistent fashion. Even if one's higher-ups don't model the best behaviors, one can still instill a good culture in his/her part of the place.

An organization’s credibility flows from the actions of its leaders. People in those positions simply must do what they say they will do, and there must be no hint of unnecessary secrecy,unfairness, or dishonesty. Rules, procedures, etc. are established and well known.  People know what the consequences of an action are supposed to be, and it is reliably carried out. There are no surprises. Something that begets a slap on the wrist in one case should not result in termination in another case, given similar circumstances. Otherwise, people immediately suspect ulterior motives, personal vendettas, etc. and never trust what those leaders have to say again. 

Decisions and policies are explained. Questions are answered in a consistent, respectful fashion. People are willing to accept an autocratic approach in some obviously time sensitive situations, but generally they want to know that their leaders considered options and chose a direction for a set of specific, logical reasons. They may not agree with the various value judgements involved, but at least they will know the process was not arbitrary or aimed at some personal agenda. Never make promises you aren't positive you can keep.

Competence is more than just knowledge and experience of a job. It is the ability to get things done, by communicating well and often. Leadership competence also encompasses a willingness to learn and a sense of judgment. It includes the ability to make a mistake, learn from it, and continually get better. 

It is a very rare person who can be promoted and immediately know exactly what should be done in every situation that might arise in their new position. However, a person will quickly be considered competent if they know when to ask a question and demonstrate willingness to learn. When there isn't time to ask a question, there is an element of "judgement" that obviously varies from place to place. In some places and situations, good judgement calls for weighing potential actions against things like safety or cost. In others, it might be customer satisfaction or political reality. A competent person instinctively knows which factors should be considered in most situations.

Last, but not least, is the trait of compassion. Far too many organizations in the world today obviously value profits or performance statistics over people. Those few places that do demonstrate that they care about their employees are overwhelmed by job applications from the very best and brightest. Sure, pay is a factor, but much more important is the ability to work with someone to help them get better. To be able to make a mistake, learn from it, and go on. An organization that gives people the benefit of the doubt will ultimately get more from its people than it could possibly hope for otherwise.

Another aspect of compassion is simply that of building a bit of a relationship with others. Recognizing what someone else does well, or asking about the family once in a while makes it easier to occasionally deliver bad news. In any event, people want to think their leaders care enough about them to occasionally listen to what they think, and then to respond with a sense of respect and consideration.

I could probably write about this stuff for quite a while longer, but I think it would just be embellishing the basics I've laid out above. Out of all the books I've read, and all the courses I've taken, it pretty much boils down to these three things. In any event, I know a person who has these traits will be thought a much better leader that someone who is missing one of them.