"They Are Not Here For Us...We Are Here For Them."

"They are not here for us...We are here for them."
John Susan, (God rest his soul), shared these words when he was mentoring me in leadership.

"Leadership is giving", John would say, "As leaders we need to give our wisdom so that others may grow. Our young team leaders are not here to make us look good, we are here to make them look good."

I asked John, "So how do we know it's working?"

"You will know Bob, yes... you will know." John replied in soft confidence.

Several years later my leadership lessons from John were put to the test:

---- It was a year of change. Giant Eagle had a new CEO with a new vision. He created awards for store teams based on seven Key Performance Indicators.
 Then all of a sudden, I was asked to take a temporary assignment, which meant leaving my store right in the middle of a banner year. (I had been Store Director there for the last 2 years).
AND,  we were running 3rd and 4th place in all the performance categories.  The company was not sending a replacement for me, my senior team and co-manager would be in charge...this would truly be a test of trust and leadership.

My team all joked with me... "Well Bob, I guess we will be hearing from you several times a day while you are away. We all know you need to check in on us."
They were all surprised by my answer. "How about this... If you need me, what I mean is, if there is problem you can't solve as a team, then call me."
With surprised passion several of them asked... " what about the 4th quarter strategies for all the KPI's?! we are so close to winning!"
"And you will." I replied with soft confidence.

Off I went to Ohio on my special project.
The weeks went on. The only communications I received from my team was an occasional friendly hello or how are you doing?

RESULTS

Fast forward...The year came to an end. The 4th quarters results were in and the year-to-date KPI's,  along with the winners, were published company wide.

This was the most gratifying day of my leadership career... the team I empowered and trusted were champions:
# 1 in Safety
# 1 in Customer Satisfaction
# 1 in Sales increase over budget
#1 in net profit improvement over budget
#1 Most profitable Bakery
#1 Most profitable Kitchen at Giant Eagle
Tied for #1 in Employee Satisfaction

Did my team struggle during the last 3 months? ABSOLUTELY!
Did they learn from their struggles and pressed forward as a team? YES!
Did I learn a lesson? I sure did...during those 3 months I can't tell you how many times I wanted to pick up the phone, how many times I wanted to make sure they were implementing my strategies...
...but I didn't.

CELEBRATION

A month later the new CEO as well as several other company officers held an on-site celebration at our store.
Darlene spoke on behalf of the store team-
".. Bob is a leader in the truest sense of the word. He taught us, inspired us, challenged us, held us accountable, empowered us, and most of all he trusted us. We are champions today because Bob Gambone is a champion. We are leaders today, because Bob Gambone is a leader."

FINAL THOUGHT

Leadership is giving. Giving people the opportunity to do things they may not necessarily want to do, but need to do...including ourselves.
Did I want to "let go" of the control over my team in that final 4th quarter, hell no!...but I needed to.
Like John Susan said, "You will know Bob, yes... you will know."

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Worth Repeating

*** Top Rated Post***

Several decades ago, I was a young cocky manager who thought I knew it all.

After all, I just won manager of the month, scored a great bonus and received an awesome promotion.

An associate of mine, we will call her Mary, reached out to me at my awards celebration and said if I ever needed her help, just let her know.

Mary was my hero; keyword here is “was.” She was a leader, my mentor… but in my eyes, I had no need for her anymore.

“Thanks for the offer Mary, let me think about.”

Some twenty years later, I ran into Mary. She had left the company, started a new career and in my eyes, she was very successful. I of course boasted about my success and never even asked Mary how she was doing. Once again, she reached out to me and offered her help. Really, I thought… “Thanks for the offer Mary, let me think about it.”

Fast forward to today.

I was attending a business event, when out of the corner of my eye I saw Mary walking towards me. She seemed distraught. We engaged in conversation and it turns out that Mary was struggling with her business, had been for years and needed help. Help that I knew I could offer.

“Mary,” I said, “please let me help you.”

She looked at me and said, “Thanks for offer Bob, let me think about it.”

I left the event very frustrated and confused.

Lesson learned:

Leadership is giving, and when Mary offered me help, I shut the door before I had a chance to see what was on the other side, denying her the opportunity to give. Years later, she reciprocated…I think not to be revengeful, but since I never accepted her help, she probably thought my offer was not genuine.

Songwriter and poet James Durst once wrote:

“Help one another; there’s no time like the present and no present like the time.”

No matter how successful you are in business, when someone offers you help, accept it…help is giving…help is a gift.

This is my 124^th blog posting
museahaw

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*** Top Rated Post***

Several decades ago, I was a young cocky manager who thought I knew it all.

After all, I just won manager of the month, scored a great bonus and received an awesome promotion.

An associate of mine, we will call her Mary, reached out to me at my awards celebration and said if I ever needed her help, just let her know.

Mary was my hero; keyword here is “was.” She was a leader, my mentor… but in my eyes, I had no need for her anymore.

“Thanks for the offer Mary, let me think about.”

Some twenty years later, I ran into Mary. She had left the company, started a new career and in my eyes, she was very successful. I of course boasted about my success and never even asked Mary how she was doing. Once again, she reached out to me and offered her help. Really, I thought… “Thanks for the offer Mary, let me think about it.”

Fast forward to today.

I was attending a business event, when out of the corner of my eye I saw Mary walking towards me. She seemed distraught. We engaged in conversation and it turns out that Mary was struggling with her business, had been for years and needed help. Help that I knew I could offer.

“Mary,” I said, “please let me help you.”

She looked at me and said, “Thanks for offer Bob, let me think about it.”

I left the event very frustrated and confused.

Lesson learned:

Leadership is giving, and when Mary offered me help, I shut the door before I had a chance to see what was on the other side, denying her the opportunity to give. Years later, she reciprocated…I think not to be revengeful, but since I never accepted her help, she probably thought my offer was not genuine.

Songwriter and poet James Durst once wrote:

“Help one another; there’s no time like the present and no present like the time.”

No matter how successful you are in business, when someone offers you help, accept it…help is giving…help is a gift.

This is my 124^th blog posting
museahaw