I grew up hearing the phrase, “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself!”  It was usually said in frustration, while re-doing something that had been botched.  It was often said by one of my early employers who was trying to show me how NOT to do something.  The funny thing is, the people espousing this ill-fated philosophy never seemed to be happy with anyone else’s work, including mine!

Thankfully I also had the opportunity to work for people who understood the value of teaching.  They seemed to understand that to get something done right by others, they needed to demonstrate how to do it themselves and then coach them until they knew when a job was well done. Now, everything I’ve written here is pretty fundamental stuff, and I think you might agree. But it was by observing and participating in these two vastly different mindsets that I began to see the value of training people by example.

As leaders, this process never ends.  There is never a point at which we no longer need to train or model the behavior we desire to see in our coworkers. In fact, the more elevated a leader becomes, the more symbolic every decision and every action becomes.

During my company’s 30^thanniversary celebration, our staff, significant others, and long-time free-lance partners were brought together from all over the country to share in the accomplishments we at Douglas Shaw & Associates had achieved together.

There was a point in the evening where folks were invited to step up to the microphone and share a memorable experience.  One of my Senior Vice Presidents approached the mic and proceeded to tell a story that I had long forgotten.  He spoke of the impact it had on him, when a production snafu was going to cause one of our client’s fundraising mailings to be late.

With only a few minutes to go, two thousand letters had to be hand checked to correct the fact that the envelope, letter and reply device did not match up. Donors were going to receive an envelope with their name on it, but a letter addressed to someone else inside. This would have been a disaster for our client as well as for our company.

My Senior Vice President, who had been a Production Manager at the time, relayed how impactful it was to see the entire company’s top leadership come hurrying through the production shop doors to personally hand-check the direct-mail packages, to make sure everything was put into the correct order.  He said it communicated to him that we were all in this job together and that no one was above getting their hands dirty.  It had spoken volumes to him and contributed significantly to the way he began to lead from that day forward.

The retelling of this company story continues to build into the curative culture we have tried to create.  I was reminded of that day, and how, upon hearing of the problem, I had adjourned our Leadership Team meeting and hurried downstairs to the production shop and my entire Leadership Team followed. The symbolism of this moment still bears fruit today.