“positions and title means absolutely nothing. They’re just adornments; They don’t represent the substance of anybody. every person and job is worth as much as any other person and any other job.”
My professional career has been full of challenges, hard lessons, and TONS of accomplishments for which I give God all the glory. Without him, none of it would have been possible.
Today I want to share with you an important lesson I learned along the way that changed the way I think about what it means to be a leader.
From a young age, I knew that I was called to be a leader.
However, even though I kept applying for new opportunities with different companies, I needed help to land a leadership position.
I was qualified and did a great job at everything I was asked to do, heck even the managers and supervisors loved me, but I just couldn’t ever land the position with a leadership title.
That didn’t stop me though. I kept going after being a leader and moving up the ladder because I KNEW that’s where God wanted me to be.
Fort the longest time I thought God wanted me to be a leader in a business, working for somebody else. That meant that I needed to become a manager.
What I didn’t realize was that being a leader, and being a manager were two completely different things.
I give God the credit for always being there for me even when I mess up (and boy do I mess up!). He’s taken me down paths that I’m so grateful for. He’s the sole reason I have an amazing wife and a beautiful family.
Little did I know how God had actually been using me in leadership roles the whole time though.
Looking back I was a leader in every single position I that I ever held.
I just didn’t realize it at the time because it didn’t come with the title that I thought you had to have to be a leader.
This AHA moment really came to me when I stepped into a job with absolutely no authority. I was tasked to figure out how to get people from across the company to do what I needed. Like completing paper work and following rules that I didn’t put into place.
To top it off we were a nationwide company! So it wasn’t like I just pop in on every person and ask them to fill out this form. Oh yeah and while I’m here would you please just follow these extremely complicated rules?
It took me forever to figure out how to get what I needed. Mostly because by that time i figured out that I was a leader, it was a few years after I had taken over this new position.
This position was where I was shown that you don’t have to be in charge to be a TRUE leader.
I remember there was this one time I was in East Texas. And this guy jumped in a CDL rig and I knew he didn’t have a CDL.
When I calmly asked him WHAT THE HECK HE WAS DOING??????
He tells me his boss told him to do it, and that he’s going to listen to his boss, not me!
So I had a really nice conversation with the boss about why he needs a CDL and the boss turns around and tells me he doesn’t care about anything I’m saying. He is here to make money and get S#!& Done!
I was furious. I was so pissed off at the guy I wanted to scream. But that wouldn’t have gotten me very far. I had to figure out how to get them to change their thinking. They had to see what it was so important that they knew and followed the rules.
I had to figure out how to LEAD from the middle of the pack.
Over the past years, I have learned through putting myself out there, that you can change the world without the title.
Long story short, in that position I was able to impact the company and take them from being one for the worst in the nation to one of the best in the nation in less than ONE year.
This created a huge transition in my professional career. I went from ‘I got to have the title’ to ‘I don’t want the title!’
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not about denying the title, but knowing that you don’t need it to make a difference.
So many people get this idea wrong, that you need to be in a specific position like a manager, or have a specific title calling themselves leader, to make a difference.
News flash. YOU DON’T. And I’m living proof of that.
That’s what I want to get here. I used to be a guy nobody wanted to be around. Striving to be a leader, while acting like a boss.
I had to change my thinking and actions. Changing them from wanting authority to getting people to do what’s right.
Once I made that shift in my mindset. Once I got rid of the title crap that I really wanted. I was blessed with leadership role after leadership role after leadership role.
Look at where we are today.
When I talk about Eclipse DOT or DOT Docs. it has always been and will always be WE did this.
It used to really bug me when we first got started. People would ask about the business and I would say something like, “Yep we sure have built something amazing here!”
Their response was, “We? Who are you working with?”
As a GREAT leader, it is your job to lift your team up, not to take credit for what they do. Give them praise. When they are there, and even more when they aren’t there.
One thing to remember is Titles don’t matter to get the job done. Take it from the guy who wanted all of them.
Now I can’t wait to give my title to a more deserving person to run our business!
