Crybaby

I had the "opportunity" a few years back in my career to perform a loan-out leadership role for an organization that was building a product for one of our avionics platforms.  The team was behind schedule and over budget so they wanted to put a lead on it that understood earned value and could embed with the team to ensure our interests were being met.  Sounds like a fun job, doesn't it?  It was like being a spy without the gee-wiz-bang gadgetry that comes along with it.

I had been in this role probably about 10 months and we were fast approaching a very major and very known deadline.  The structure of the organization was such that the systems people were all in one dedicated team, while the team I was leading was on another.  Of course, in software development, systems people are kind of an essential part to getting anything done as these are the folks that write the requirements that the software people develop.

As we approached this big deadline, there was a one critical artifact I needed a systems person to review/sign off on.  After multiple attempts through the manager to get someone to support and getting nothing but delays and reroutes, I finally just decided to walk down the row to the 8th cube away from mine and ask the systems guy directly if he could find time to help me with the task.  He said he would and I thought nothing of it and went back to my work.

The next day, the same systems manager who never made time to get me an answer or provide timely support called me into his office.  The meeting started off with pleasantries for about 10 minutes and then I got "educated" on how things are done in that organization.   I was told to not ever go directly to anyone on his staff again but that all requests should route through him going forward.  This was then followed by some further "mentoring" to coach me on my career journey.   He ended the meeting with giving me a sucker, and on the side of the sucker was the following statement, "Doing our best with every request."

I walked out of his office and down the hall 50 feet to my cube, where I fumbled around to find my purse and I walked out, tears already starting.  I was so incredibly furious, it took every iota of willpower I had not to go right back in and punch him in his condesending face.

This is the one and only time I've ever cried at work.

When I calmed down enough to breathe again, I called my boss and let him know I was done with this loan-out assignment if he wanted me to keep working at Rockwell.  Within the month I'd moved back to a leadership position in my own organization.

You know what I did with that sucker?  I taped it to a sticky note that reads the following: "Practice what you preach."

This sticky note has moved with me through 5 different roles and an equal number of offices since this incident.  You know what I do EVERY time I move and unpack?  I post this sticky note up somewhere I can easily see it and remember.

#lightthefire #makeitbetter #rightkindofleader