Doug, project manager for a Portland roofing company, told Session 10 of the Leadership Development Lab (LDL):

“Over the past ten weeks that I have been participating in the LDL, I have been continuously attempting to apply all 15 Leadership Principles with one of my foremen and his lead man. They were the pearls that I have honestly tried applying, as appropriate, everything we have been learning. I have applied the 15 Leadership Principles with an emphasis on becoming genuinely interested. I have had some successes and some failures with my “pearls.” It has felt like two steps forward, one step back. My foreman is a good man, although a little rough around the edges, to say the least. He definitely has some resistance to authority. This past Friday, this foreman and the President of our company got into an out of control argument. He almost quit and our President almost fired him. It was pretty ugly. The following Monday I went up to his office, met with the foreman to discuss all of the problems between him and the company. He jokingly said to me that I have become the ‘company counselor’. He said he appreciated the effort I had taken to teach some of my co-workers skills that helped them improve their ability to communicate with each other. He went on to say that he didn’t feel that he could discuss his problems with the owner, but seemed to be comfortable telling me his concerns.

He said, ‘I need someone to talk to and I really appreciate the fact that you have become such a great listener.’

The lesson I learned from this experience is the importance of continuing to build relationships through thick and thin. Even though there are ups and downs in relationships, I need to keep continuously applying all 15 of the leadership principles, and when I do, I can trust the results to them.

The action I call you to take is to never give up on people, always treat associates with respect to the best of your ability and apply all 15 Leadership Principles. You may never be sure of the impact you are making. Keep leading from high ideals. The benefit you will gain is creating the kind of relationships people need to trust you and feel that they can come to you with their problems and concerns. You will build trust, help diminish the high cost of turnover, productivity will continue to improve, and you and your firm will be increasingly successful.”

Check out this link to see an article about Larry’s children’s book, The Great Baseball Cap.