Run With the Bulls Without Getting Trampled by Tim Irwin

Author:Tim Irwin [Irwin, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harpercollins Leadership
Published: 2018-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

HIGH PERFORMERS GROW THROUGH ADVERSITY

Over the years I have frequently asked successful executives about what most contributed to their effectiveness in leadership. Without exception, effective leaders report that they grew through facing challenges, solving difficult problems, correcting mistakes, and enduring hardship.

One brilliant leader with whom I worked had a favorite saying, “Everybody ought to get fired once.” He had been fired from a job earlier in his career and went without work for a number of months. During that time he came to grips with who he was: an arrogant, dictatorial, detail-obsessed micromanager for whom people hated to work—and he deserved to be fired. When he finally landed his next position, he was a changed man. Still brilliant but now humble and gracious, he focused on helping others to be successful. The hardship refined him and made him a servant leader.

Some of my most enjoyable and challenging consulting assignments over the years have been with family-owned companies. Frequently I’ve been asked to help identify and develop talent in a succeeding generation of the family. I often discover that the founders and even the second-generation leaders are smart, resourceful, mentally and emotionally tough, and great at generating customer loyalty. They learned their business from the ground up. The children of these business builders sometimes grow up in families with more money and greater advantages. Their summers are spent at the lake or traveling.

When the children or grandchildren of the founder eventually enter the business, their position in the company does not rest on their work experience or upon the accomplishment of difficult goals. Their position was attained solely by virtue of membership in the family. As a parent I understand how we want our children to have more than we did, but I also have observed the pitfalls.

What is missing here? The first generations didn’t get tough and savvy by going on vacation. They grew strong through working and solving the normal problems that occur in any small business—for example, mowing neighbors’ lawns. They learned that if you didn’t take care of your lawn mower, it would let you down at key times. In the businesses they eventually started, the machines became bigger and more complicated, but they knew the value of preventive maintenance through the hard lessons of their youth.

One of my favorite movies of the ’90s was Tommy Boy. After Tommy’s father dies of a heart attack, it is apparent to everyone in the company except Tommy, played by Chris Farley, that he is completely incapable of running the manufacturing company his father started. To save the company from bankruptcy, Tommy and the company’s financial manager, played by David Spade, go on a road trip to sell their products to distributors. At first their sales efforts are a disaster. Then the adversity they experience begins to benefit Tommy as he discovers more about himself and learns how important the business is to the workers in his hometown. Character and emotional toughness are not built through ease but through the hardship that life deals very freely.

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