As I reflect back over my forty plus years as a leader in the world of work, I have many regrets. Let me tell you my biggest one. Before I do, let me explain what I most enjoyed as a CompuServe leader from 1985-2002. I am most energized by the fact that I had a hand in building teams filled with friends. I can honestly say I loved my work and loved my team. My sense is most of them felt this. Never fell out of love with the team. Never. I stopped loving the work somewhere before we sold to Worldcom in 1998.
Not good.
My biggest regret is not my friendships. Yes, it is quite dangerous to work with friends. I believe it worth the risk. My biggest regret is I was NOT tough enough with my friends/team. I did not challenge them nearly hard enough. I wanted to be liked. I was too weak to be tough on me and my own team; other teams, not so much. I had not learned how to be tough and tender. I was too weak as a leader, period.
Had I been tougher, the team would have been exponentially better. We looked down on our sister division and thought too highly of ourselves to help. Extinction could have simply been evolution. CompuServe is extinct because we failed as a leadership team. End of story. F&%$# me.
Take a moment. Slow down. What do you regret about your leadership? Why? What are you doing about it going forward? What would your team regret about not having you leading them? Why? Why is regret powerful for deep change within you? Why is regret so rare in modern leadership thinking? Why is our world filled with politically correct leaders who suffer from a failure of nerve? Why?
Want a better team? Become a better, tougher, leader, my friend. TOUGH and tender. In a word – Truer. Want to be truer? Remember the simple formula. Regret. Repair. Resolve. Damn.
Live hard. Love ❤️ harder…
Shared (long distance) prayer with Mom and our family during our Christmas Eve service last night (celebrated early due to travel). We honored Nick & Hope, Gayle, Steve, Jim, and Greg. Zero regret taking time for this. Wonderful food prepared with love by my Miss. Exquisite. Beautiful memories shared. New ones made. Amen…
BUILT TO LEAD 