Have you ever poured bad milk into your cereal, tasted meat that made you squirm or heard all you ever needed from a Kardashian?
Has your boss ever lied to you?
Read about getting screwed over
Have your company ever let you down?
Read about not demoralizing your team
One of the most popular chapters in my book where I described an army experience that ended with us running up a hill, seemingly, to our death. It was a terrible experience of being wet & cold and sore & miserable, yet exhilarating because of having to dig deep and lead my team Into the unknown
Success meant leaping off of the edge of the cliff into thin air.
I jumped that day, jumped into the unknown because I trusted my leaders, had faith in myself and didn’t want to let down my team. I did not die on that hill, and we all succeeded.
Many years later I did find the proverbial hill on which I would die. A hill piled high with loss of trust, being let down by an organization I loved and took great personal value.
Unethical behaviour is insidious, and eventually, it oozed into my world and began to impact my conduct.
What once insulated me was gone.
A new boss and a series of organizational changes brought me more and more in contact with conduct that did not sit well with me. That hill I could once ignore grew into a mountain in front of me and began directly impacting my team and me.
We faced an organizational change – the goals of which I agreed – that was being implemented in a way that was upsetting. I witnessed unethical & unprofessional behaviour, was asked to be silent about these transgressions and was instructed to fully support these people.
I began to distrust my beloved organization and the feeling that my Best Before Date loomed near.
Read my blog about Moral Courage Here
In full disclosure, my temper demonstrated itself more than once, and my conduct was not always as professional as I hoped. But I did what was required of me and transitioned my people to new supervisors.
As much as I loved my team and the organization, my situation was untenable, and I was failing the organization’s mission.
I chose to manage my demise by negotiating an exit and finishing up my work with as much style and class as I could muster.
What did I learn from this?
- Know your ‘best before date’ – Like all relationships, there is a time to call it a day. My best before date had passed and I should have left months earlier.
Read about ‘Should I Stay Or I Go Now’
- Past behaviour is 100% predictive of future conduct – A system that allowed and supported unethical conduct will allow and support the unethical conduct
- You are not that important – An old boss once told me that to put your arm into a bucket of water and pull it out and then he asked how long did the hole last? I knew that I wasn’t integral to anything and my replacement would come along and do a good job.
- Care about your people, but look after yourself – You, your dignity, health and family are paramount. Hire a good labour lawyer, talk to your spouse and get good counsel because organizations are big, large and can purposely or inadvertently crush one person.