Born as the oldest of three boys in a household of a single mom, before the
single mom was a social norm, we struggled on welfare. Mom proclaimed me to
be the head of the house. While mom worked, sometimes holding three jobs at
once, I looked after my brothers. I was basically raised as the head of the household. After a short series of teenage jobs, I joined the military. To be exact, it
was the United States Army. The Army is a culture steeped in leadership. In the
Army, there are formal military classes on leadership. There are less formal weekly classes on leadership. It is very much a culture steeped in leadership.
After the military, I became an overall repairman. However, I was a ‘tank mechanic’ in the Army, which is something that does not translate to civilian life.
I needed something that would translate to civilian life. I then went into a trade
school to be an HVAC service technician. I have done various versions of that
for the last 25 years.
During this transition into civilian life, I noticed there was a culture change.
Many people in leadership positions did not know how to lead! I honestly believed that I could change that just by being who I am, letting others see by the
power of observation in the people, in this case, the people around them. However, I found that while some people absolutely loved who I am and how I am,
some people actually hated my natural and trained leadership ability. Of those
who did like my ability,
There were conversations about how I should write a
book on leadership, give leadership classes in the form of public speaking, and
tutor people in leadership. Of those who did NOT like my traits, there was, shall
we say, discord. Here are some examples….
I got called into the Operations Manager’s office to file his complaint that I spent nearly 40% of his parts budget. Having access to the same report, I responded with, “But I have done 63% of the work accomplished in the mainte- iv nance department.” He refused to acknowledge anything other than his budget. Out of 17 people in the department, I was completing 63% of the work and getting reprimanded for it. His actions are, and probably still are, conducive to inhibiting motivation. The bigger question is, why would a ‘leader’ even bother to call out someone who is hard-working and does so without any guidance for improvement?
While in the position of Maintenance Director at an apartment community, the Property Manager that I hired to work with moved to Colorado. We got a new PM. During her ‘attempt to gain full control’ phase, she ordered me to mitigate black mold in an occupied apartment. As the Director, it was my job to inform her that 1) We were not obligated to maintain the cleanliness of someone’s apartment. And 2) Black mold requires proper personal protective equipment, also known as PPE. She was not even trying to hear it. She then gave a, in her words, ‘direct order’ to take care of the black mold NOW! Guess what! My assistant and I both got black mold poisoning. Yes! Bad leadership LITERALLY made me sick. For 20 months, I dealt with shortness of breath, fatigue, and occasional fever and chills with a prescribed regimen of antibiotics and breathing treatments. Furthermore, she brought in the Regional PM to administer a ‘counseling session’ with me for my ‘insubordination.’ This counseling session consisted of the two of them badgering me from both sides while I was obviously suffering from illness; so much for professionalism.
While employed as a Building Engineer at a prestigious hospital, I was part of a great team. The Engineer who was present during the hospital’s construction proclaimed that it was the ‘greatest team ever.’ However, as time went on, the team members moved on as well. The key position was the DFM, Director of Facilities Maintenance. The people serving in that position went from great to bad to Beelzebub. I will skip the bad and go straight to Hell’s incarnate…. First of all, the engineer who was present during construction lasted 3 days with this new DFM, then put in his two weeks’ notice. The ‘DFM’ then proceeded to bring in a person of his choosing who was not only less than quali- v fied but would also take time off of work whenever he so desired, sometimes for an entire week at a time. What this new engineer did bring was racial slurs, threats of violent behavior, and the ability to perform even minor repairs with neolithic incompetence. The DFM then began to throw all of the tools into the dumpster. He did so while I was tending to my father’s health issues in Las Vegas. The DFM also used this time to dig up dirt on me. When I presented the shortcomings of his and his followers to HR, he presented the dirt. He had a well-prepared counterargument to his actions. I had watched the great team of this hospital go to the worst team ever. I had enough. During my course of moving on, the DFM had slandered me everywhere that I had applied for a job. But I did persevere. I had a friend who used to work at the hospital with me who worked in the service industry. That’s how I got my next job.
While working in the service industry, I watched something similar happen. This time, it happened organically. The good people slowly but surely left, only to be replaced by morally bankrupt people. These guys would milk jobs for a time, basically ripping off our customers. They would lie to and manipulate the supervisors. They would like to try to manipulate me. I drew the line when people started stealing my tools. I brought all these things to the attention of leadership within the company. But nothing was actually done to mitigate these problems, with the exception of a partial tool replacement. I got a better-paying job at a prestigious company elsewhere. When the word got out that I got a different job, I got fired. Six days before Christmas, the moral stand-out got fired. I’ll let you do the math.
In truth, people leave jobs for greener pastures. Sometimes, it’s for promotion
or better pay. But also, it’s because they’re leaving bad bosses, bad jobs, and/or
bad situations.
Companies and corporations are realizing that there is a need for leadership
training within their ranks. They put together leadership programs and training. I have attended a few of these. But you can tell they were esoteric at best.
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Talk about communication being the five Cs or the 4Ps. In plain, simple English, effective communication is still the six WH words. The who, what, when,
where, how, and why are the six WH words of effective communication. We’ve
known this since we have been speaking the language of English. These corporate trainings tended to complicate things it seems. They fail because they don’t
keep it simple and plain. But, they would rather complicate it to make it look
and sound fancy.
I used my firing after Christmas to write this book. Overall, it took me five
days to put together the pre-existing beginnings of this book and have a manuscript in the publishers’ inbox. I was just that motivated to see improvement in
the world around me. That is why I wrote this book.
