My old leather jacket
I have an old leather bomber jacket hanging in my closet.
In 1990, I started working for Kith Mackie, one of the best leaders I have worked for. Keith , as head of the Western Region, took a gamble, and rather than having a managing Director for each of his three districts, he decided to have a team of three managers run each district as a self-directed work team.
It was an amazing experience, and a significant opportunity for those of whose he selected. Key to making this work was Keith's resolve and conviction that a high-performing team can deliver great results, results greater than the sum of its parts. Through the first years, we became such a team, through hard work, risk-taking and excellent leadership.
Keith invested in us, and I'm sure others in the organization criticized how often we travelled to meet as a team, and the team-building events that Keith incorporated into the meeting agendas. But we delivered results. And as we worked together, as we became a team, we developed a team identity and pride that made us trive and take risks to achieve results. We learned from Keith that above our individual accountabilities, we have another, more important job - that as a team member we were accountable to manage the region with him, and this often meant putting our interests behind those of the team.
At one such team meeting, as we headed off to a team dinner, Keith handed each of us a leather bomber jacket, imprinted discreetly with our company logo. it was our team jacket , and with it he cemented the identity and comraderie of the team. We wore it proudly - it was a high quality jacket, unique - something we would enjoy wearing to the office and outside of the office. It became a symbol of our team. I think its fair to say that others might have viewed Keith's gesture as "over the top", perhaps even wondering why they did not receive gifts like that.
But for us, that jacket was less a gift, than it was recognition by Keith that we had become a team and we should be proud of it. It symbolized that, together, we delivered.
I still have that jacket. It reminds me of so many things - what we accomplished as a team, the hard times and good times. It reminds me of Keith's leadership style and how he tok risks with us and spent an inordinate amount of his time developing that team. it reminds me of all the things I learned about motivating people, working with the team to deliver results.
Most of all, it reminds me that a team is so much more than a collection of people that work together, a team depicted on an orgchart. It is about people having collective goals, working together to achieve those goals. Its about building trust amongst each other and opening up with weaknesses to ask for help; its about transparency. And its about reaching our goals together.
And I bet that every member of that original team still has their jacket.
In 1990, I started working for Kith Mackie, one of the best leaders I have worked for. Keith , as head of the Western Region, took a gamble, and rather than having a managing Director for each of his three districts, he decided to have a team of three managers run each district as a self-directed work team.
It was an amazing experience, and a significant opportunity for those of whose he selected. Key to making this work was Keith's resolve and conviction that a high-performing team can deliver great results, results greater than the sum of its parts. Through the first years, we became such a team, through hard work, risk-taking and excellent leadership.
Keith invested in us, and I'm sure others in the organization criticized how often we travelled to meet as a team, and the team-building events that Keith incorporated into the meeting agendas. But we delivered results. And as we worked together, as we became a team, we developed a team identity and pride that made us trive and take risks to achieve results. We learned from Keith that above our individual accountabilities, we have another, more important job - that as a team member we were accountable to manage the region with him, and this often meant putting our interests behind those of the team.
At one such team meeting, as we headed off to a team dinner, Keith handed each of us a leather bomber jacket, imprinted discreetly with our company logo. it was our team jacket , and with it he cemented the identity and comraderie of the team. We wore it proudly - it was a high quality jacket, unique - something we would enjoy wearing to the office and outside of the office. It became a symbol of our team. I think its fair to say that others might have viewed Keith's gesture as "over the top", perhaps even wondering why they did not receive gifts like that.
But for us, that jacket was less a gift, than it was recognition by Keith that we had become a team and we should be proud of it. It symbolized that, together, we delivered.
I still have that jacket. It reminds me of so many things - what we accomplished as a team, the hard times and good times. It reminds me of Keith's leadership style and how he tok risks with us and spent an inordinate amount of his time developing that team. it reminds me of all the things I learned about motivating people, working with the team to deliver results.
Most of all, it reminds me that a team is so much more than a collection of people that work together, a team depicted on an orgchart. It is about people having collective goals, working together to achieve those goals. Its about building trust amongst each other and opening up with weaknesses to ask for help; its about transparency. And its about reaching our goals together.
And I bet that every member of that original team still has their jacket.
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