Early in my career I worked in an advanced-concept engineering group. One of my co-workers was an exceptional artist by the name of Joe Keogan. Joe was a mentor to me in both leadership and technical drawing. Joe would produce wonderful paintings of both aircraft for work and still life for personal sale. After showing a group of people one of his recently finished paintings someone asked, “how long did that take you”. Joe responded, as he always did, with “a lifetime”.
What Joe meant by that comment is that the time required to do his painting was not just the time to physically paint, but the lifetime of experience behind it. The experience of making errors, figuring out best practices and learning how to perform his craft the best way possible.
A few weeks ago, I was speaking to someone about some material I created for a class I was about to teach. The person was very complimentary of my work and asked me “how long did that take you?”. I was instantly reminded of Joe! It also got me thinking about how we as leaders should use our experiences.
I am fond of saying, and truly believe, that anyone can be a leader at any level. Regardless of level, all those leaders bring different and varied experiences. Experiences that helped them be better workers, better performers and leaders.
So, what experiences can we bring to our people as leaders?
– Our mistakes (hoping to minimize their overall mistakes and remind them no one is perfect)
– Our processes (there is a way we became leaders, help our people understand the path)
– Our support (remember how we were supported, or not, by others)
The bottom line; experience alone doesn’t make us leaders, utilizing our experience makes us better leaders!