Guest Blog - Tania Fowler
Memories on Leadership Learned as a Child
Posted on October 24, 2012
I love this little anecdote: I have been interviewing leaders for some research I am doing and one of the people I interviewed told me this lovely story: He grew up in San Francisco, the son of a well-known butcher at a well-known market. One evening (when this leader was about 10 years old) his father got a phone call at home from one of his clients, Mrs. Smith. She said, “Tom, I have 8 people coming for dinner this evening and I called in an order to the shop for a roast turkey to serve. I never heard from anyone and now I’m worried that you didn’t get the order. Did you get my order?” His dad said, “no I did not receive your order and we don’t have any roasted turkeys ready to go. Would you be fine with a roast?” She said she would. So his dad opened the oven and took out the roast he was making to serve his three young children that evening and delivered it to Mrs. Smith. The leader I interviewed said it stuck with him all his life – his dad taught him that you do what it takes to make the client happy. He had a great dad with lots of integrity. Oh and BTW, the kids were still fed a good dinner.
Posted on October 24, 2012
I love this little anecdote: I have been interviewing leaders for some research I am doing and one of the people I interviewed told me this lovely story: He grew up in San Francisco, the son of a well-known butcher at a well-known market. One evening (when this leader was about 10 years old) his father got a phone call at home from one of his clients, Mrs. Smith. She said, “Tom, I have 8 people coming for dinner this evening and I called in an order to the shop for a roast turkey to serve. I never heard from anyone and now I’m worried that you didn’t get the order. Did you get my order?” His dad said, “no I did not receive your order and we don’t have any roasted turkeys ready to go. Would you be fine with a roast?” She said she would. So his dad opened the oven and took out the roast he was making to serve his three young children that evening and delivered it to Mrs. Smith. The leader I interviewed said it stuck with him all his life – his dad taught him that you do what it takes to make the client happy. He had a great dad with lots of integrity. Oh and BTW, the kids were still fed a good dinner.
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