Leading in the Shadows

Leading in the Shadows

Panic, Catastrophe, Chaos. These thoughts flew through my head as our situation deteriorated. Our deadline was coming up, and we still had a lot of work to do.

This was the fourth project that the small personal service company I started had accepted. A respectable engineering company hired us to paint their office building. My company had already performed various tasks, such as lawn care and clean-up jobs after construction, but this job was our first major project. To me this job represented an initial step towards my business becoming more than a bunch of teens looking for summer work. And, unfortunately, we were behind schedule.

We had only one week until the deadline we set would come to an end. I felt determined to meet this goal, but my three friends I recruited to work for me didn’t appear to share the same tenacity towards completing the project. Every time I turned my back, someone was throwing paint or indulging in a water break. My frustration mounted. I reassigned them positions, redirected their focus, and reminded them of the deadline. Unfortunately, their productivity did not improve, and soon I became so furious that I barked orders at them. Before long, the same friends that I laughed and played with only days earlier resented me. By the end of the day, none of them would look me in the eye with less than a sneer.

That night I told my parents of my desperation. They must have noticed how rattled I was, because, before they did anything, they attempted to calm me. Then, my father told me something I will never forget, “Sometimes the best way to lead is in the shadows.” That night in bed I pondered what my father meant. How can someone lead a group without being at least partly in the spotlight? Then, I realized what I had done wrong. The more I pressured my employees to work harder, the more they resented me and their duties. Maybe if I gave them more of a leadership role in our project, they would become more ambitious in their goals.

The following day I came with a new attitude. I started the day off by gathering everyone together in a circle. Then, I asked for everyone’s opinion of the project. To my surprise it seemed that everyone was getting just as frustrated as myself. The brain storming session not only gave a chance for everyone to give constructive criticism, but also a chance for everyone to vent some steam. I actually received some good input and saw flaws in our process I had not recognized before.