Defining the In Business For Life company: Humbling Serving Others (part 2 of 2)

By Brad Lindemann

In Business For Life, by Brad Lindemann. Coming January 2017. Sign up for news at http://www.pumpjack.me/brad-lindemann.html.

The following is an excerpt from from Brad Lindemann’s forthcoming book, In Business For Life: What Being In Business For Life Has Taught me About the Business of Life.

As an employer, I’ve found servant leadership to be an invaluable and essential practice, though by no means an easy one. To keep my bearings, I simply try to avoid asking employees to do anything that I’m personally unwilling or unable to do.

Pedestrian examples would be:

• If I want folks in the office by 8:00 a.m., then I should be there by 7:59 (I fail miserably here).
• If I expect everyone to take care of their own dirty dishes in the break room, then mine should never be left in the sink. Better yet, while tending to mine I’ll also take care of the dishes others have left behind.
• If I need to bum an occasional ride from an employee when my car’s in the shop, then I should be willing to return the favor.
• You get the idea.

Some years ago, I crashed and burned while attempting an act of servant leadership. Tom, our CFO, was going in for oral surgery and his wife was out of town. He asked if I’d mind giving him a ride home after the procedure. He couldn’t drive due to the anesthesia’s after-effects. Since all of my financial affairs have been in Tom’s able hands for eight years at that point, agreeing to chauffer him home was as much about self-preservation as it was servant leadership. Tom was appreciative nonetheless.

Tom came out of the dental office looking like he’d been on a three-day bender at a Grateful Dead concert still very much in need of a miracle. (For all you former “deadheads” who got the miracle reference, where were you when I was trying to scalp tickets in my younger days at our local amphitheater?)

Did I mention Tom’s a teetotaler? That’s why I took such pleasure in the rare opportunity to see him completely schnockered. I think I quipped something like, “I’ll have what he’s having,” to his dental assistant escort. She handed him off to me along with his briefcase, telling me to be sure to hold onto him because he was a bit wobbly.
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“Ya’ think?” I said as we walked out the door and into the hallway. Tom instinctively reached for his briefcase and just kept right on going, doing a full face plant on the hallway floor. Had it not been carpeted, we would have gone straight from the dental surgeon’s office to the ER. I felt terrible, but ole Tom never felt a thing. Much to my chagrin, the next day He did remember falling. But hey, I said I only practiced servant leadership. I never claimed to be very good at it.

Brad Lindemann is represented by PumpJack.me Speakers Bureau. For more information visit http://www.pumpjack.me/brad-lindemann.html or email Brad.Lindemann@PumpJack.me.