Roosters, Peacocks, and Leaders Who Smell Like Sweat
Pretending success is easy deceives your team and destroys your highest points of influence.
Let people smell the sweat.
Pretending success is easy feeds the lie that you can sip margaritas while making meaningful contribution.
Effortless success offends potential.
Unglamorous stories:
Tell people how you fell in the dirt when the race ended, not how you cruised over the finish line. Victory without sweat is cotton candy.
Unglamorous stories – you might prefer to forget – are your highest point of influence. We want to know what you learned when your face was in the mud.
The only connection between “glamor” and “leadership” is L, A, and R. The only connection between “glamor” and “management” is M, G, and A.
The thing that makes you glorious is getting up after falling on your face. The ridiculous idea that magic pills solve problems insults aspiration and dilutes resolve.
Roosters and peacocks:
The leader who never sweats wears a mask.
Aren’t you sick of rooster-leaders crowing about easy success? Aren’t you tired of peacock-leaders who flaunt their feathers and hide their weaknesses?
Roosters and peacocks want to fix you because they’re so glorious.
Frauds offer easy success to impress novices and take money from the gullible.
When someone wants to know how you achieved success, they really want the secret to winning without effort. But easy success rots the soul.
Splash the sweat:
Everyone who makes a difference – over the long haul – smells like sweat.
Tell sweaty stories about your journey. Gullible novices find purpose when you show them there’s something more than glamor to leading.
Beginners learn they need others when you talk about getting up with a muddy face because others helped you.
Unglamorous stories mean most when told with gratitude and optimism.
What struggle helped you learn to lead more effectively?
What struggle helped you learn to lead more effectively?
In my Sophomore year of high school I was on the Cross Country team JV’s group, came home from race and Dad said; ” What place did you come in” I said 31 proudly and he said “oh you were an also ran”. I said Dad there were 50 some runners, “Doesn’t matter you were an also ran”. Humbled I said okay I guess I have work to do. My Coach instilled the values of ” learning to run relaxing and pushing” techniques especially on hilly courses, eventually to become my strong point as I matured. Needless to say I put in the sweat equity for 2 more years to become Varsity and the fifth member of the team to make the critical placements in scoring for a Team score.
The lesson of “relax and push” has guided me for a lifetime. “Thanks Coach Samuel Belle for believing in all us also rans”, to become better at what we did and do till this day.
So no matter what you are you can all finish the race.
Thanks Tim. Isn’t it wonderful to have someone in your life who taught you something that has stayed with you over the years. Sports is an important part of many of our lives.
Cross Country is one of the most grueling sports!!
Your first peacock is amazing; the 100th one is just meh. Your first rooster is loud; your 100th is just background noise. And if you know someone is a rooster or a peacock, you tend to ignore them.
Thanks Jennifer. So true. When you first meet these folks you are encouraged/motivated. As time passes, you either think something is wrong with you, or you realize it’s just smoke and mirrors.
Well put
“What struggle helped you learn to lead more effectively?”
For nearly a decade, I worked for a government agency that was devolving (due to political influence) into organizational stagnation and increasingly offered little potential for advancement for the politically unconnected. This situation was masked by a facade of civil service rules that were largely ignored to take care of the well-connected.
Leadership within the organization was mostly poor, with a few glaring exceptions. I gravitated toward these authentic leaders and learned much from them, just as I learned from their counterparts how NOT to lead. I worked hard and worked smart, took on any assignment I was offered, and my reviews told me that I performed well, but I was nonetheless passed over for a couple of big career opportunities despite my efforts to prove my potential and prepare myself for “bigger and better things” in the organization.
Just about the same time that I finished my graduate degree, the light bulb finally went off in my brain flashing “GET OUT!” I had finally realized that all my education, training, dedication and proven ability would never balance the scale in my favor for opportunities in that agency. I took a ten percent pay cut to accept a promising position with a nearby county.
When I “jumped ship” to another agency, I found that all my prior experience, preparation and hard work had value after all! I had anticipated that things would be better, and given the opportunity, I found out that I had indeed learned the basic skills of leadership. I continued to learn how to lead, rising through the ranks. One of the hallmarks of my leadership style was to constantly look for unrecognized and untapped potential and develop it. I learned that “What is lived in the halls is more important than what is written on the walls.” I was honored to serve with the “new” organization for twenty-seven years, and had a great career there, retiring in 2014. I continue to contribute to the organization in a small way as a volunteer part-time consultant, or “Policy Advisor” as my agency ID card now says.
The toil and frustration of those early years were only an apprenticeship for eventual success. Formative (and transformative) experiences often involve struggle. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” goes the quote attributed to Edison. I believe it!
Wow…thanks Jim. It’s so difficult to keep pressing forward when the deck seems stacked against you. I just received an email from a person who wants to advise someone who has a boss who steals the credit for her work.
It’s easy to seek revenge by pulling back. But that strategy is self-sabotage.
I found your story inspiring and challenging.
To Jim’s comment “The toil and frustration of those early years were only an apprenticeship for eventual success.”
This is powerful! I’ve learned a great deal from working in poorly lead organizations.
“Unglamorous stories – you might prefer to forget – are your highest point of influence. We want to know what you learned when your face was in the mud.” I do this in small and large measure with many as the need arises. It helps the “young-ins” understand that “stuff” happens and it’s more about how one responds than the “stuff” itself. You published one of my “stuff happens” stories Dan a few years ago. My lowest but highest story was that night on 11/16/95 but it was the response I took that was more important and more effective. It set up everything else that came from that night and my decision.
Part of the value of the unglamourous stories is that a new person may see the peacocks, roosters or even the quietly competent folks and get into a mindset of “I could never be as good as that person. Even one unglamorous story provides more encouragement than ten “ain’t I grand because i did this” stories.