The small cement block training room was filled with 21 superintendents representing branches of police, immigration, prison, and senior leadership. All in uniform, looking strong, serious, sitting straight up in their individual desk/chairs. Their length of service averaged 20 years with the Jamaica Constabulary Force. I was in Kingston, Jamaica, facilitating a two-day Leadership Challenge® program covering The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®.
These participants were no-nonsense types on the outside. Over the two days, I learned what reached some of them on the inside. And, you know, leadership comes from the inside.
On the afternoon of day two, when I said we were moving on to the fifth practice, “Encourage the Heart,” a few groaned. They had been engaged with the four other practices: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, and Enable Others to Act. But when they heard “Encourage the Heart,” a few actually squirmed in their seats. Someone said, “We don’t do soft stuff.”
I pointed to the word ENCOURAGE, underlined COURAGE, and told them, “It takes a lot of courage and heart to do what you do every day. Someone in your career, hopefully more than one, encouraged your heart along the way and it helped you get where you are today.” That kindled some interest, even a few nods.
Stories always help, so I told them what some leaders had done to encourage the hearts of their people and the difference it made. They were getting it. A number of them asked questions and some offered what they’d experienced when someone encouraged them. Then it was quiet. A hand went up in the back of the room. A superintendent in the back row against the wall who hadn’t said much, said he wanted to say something to one of the superintendents sitting in the front row. (They all had chosen their seats and sat in the same place both days.) The gentleman he named turned around to see who was talking, wondering what this was about. We were all curious. The one in the back then told us about a time 24 years prior when the two of them were peers working for the same leader. The one speaking had been in his role about six months. He was still learning the ropes, unsure, uncomfortable, but holding his own. Their leader called the two of them into his office and gave them an assignment to investigate an incident and write a report for him to pass on to the senior leaders.
As they walked out of the office the one in the front row said to the other, “I’ll do the investigation, you write the report.” Annoyed, the other responded “Why do you get to do the investigation?” His peer said, “You are a good writer, your reports are always clear and thorough. You’ll do a better job with the report.”
The speaker in the back row said at first he was angry that his peer told him what to do – who was he to assign me the role of writing the report, while he gets to do the investigation, he thought. But, when he thought more about it, he swelled with pride that someone had noticed that he was a good writer. And now he was given the assignment to write the report that would be read by senior leaders.
From that day forward, whenever he had to write a report, particularly a difficult one, he always thought of those words: “You are a good writer, clear and thorough.” He said it changed the way he viewed himself and made him enjoy writing more. He always made sure his writing was clear and thorough.
Now, 24 years later, he wanted to thank his colleague for the words he said because they had sustained him all this time. Wow!
Everyone turned to the leader in the front. He was silent for a moment and then said, “I have no recall of that situation.” Most of us never know what impact our words have on others.
At the end of the program, I asked everyone to tell us at least one thing they would do or or do differently as a result of what they got from the program. One said, “I’m not going to wait 24 years to tell my people I appreciate something they said.”
P.S. If you’re interested in reading about The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, Kouzes and Posner have written numerous books.
