The “Bumpy Ride” of Knowledge

And the end of blissful ignorance

I don't normally write about my sobriety. My work generally consists of looking at the world from a moral and biblical perspective. Sobriety wise, I am past the 15-year mark, and as much as humanly possible, I try to live my life by the above objectives. If sharing my sobriety story can help others, I will use my experience, strength, and hope for that purpose. For today's post, I will use a sobriety analogy to make a case for tolerance, or lack thereof, of weak leadership.

Like many alcoholics, my first shot at sobriety did not take. I had gone into a treatment program and managed to stay sober a mere 90 days. My failure to stay sober led to seven of the most miserable years of my life, as I continued to “drink up” while falling ever deeper down the addition hole. Upon reengaging my sobriety, I once lamented in a meeting with other alcoholics, that going to treatment really wrecked my drinking. You see, up until the point that I acknowledged that I was an alcoholic and that I had a problem, I stumbled (sometimes literally) through life blissfully ignorant of my condition and the pathway to recovery. After I gained knowledge of my alcoholism, I knew every drink of alcohol would lead to another. I knew why I couldn’t drink like “normal” people. Worst of all, I couldn’t deceive myself with the foolish notion that I could quit anytime I wanted to. The alcohol, which prior to going to treatment was my daily crutch, became my wicked wedge – the vice that separated me from my work, my family, my God, and myself.

Acknowledging these immutable alcoholic realities took every ounce of joy out of drinking. Every drink, post treatment, brought misery because I knew a better life was out there and it began with dropping the alcoholic rock. Ultimately, I chose to follow the sober path and began the process of regaining my soul. In that endeavor, I took Plato’s axiom, “For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories,” to heart. As a result, I have enjoyed 15 years of “victories,” 24 hours at a time.

This, hopefully heartening, story about my overcoming addiction has a parallel to the business world. Many people stumble through their work cultures in quiet desperation, showing up, doing the job, and returning home feeling no joy for their labors. Maybe what zapped their joy was a seemingly endless workload, a cramped, poorly lit workspace or perhaps, it was watching a co-worker get away with no or low work output while they themselves labored extra hours. As that kind of working relationship continues, the perks (call it the quick shot at the rail) of the job delivers less pleasure. The comraderies of co-workers lose luster, the satisfaction of a well complete project receives few if any accolades and even an earned pay increase derives no intrinsic gratification. Leadership looks at this situation and scratches their head, “that person is in a rut,” says one manager. “They must be having trouble at home,” pipes in another. Then, maybe a DEI manager speaks up and responds, “this company is not inclusive enough, and that is why that person unhappy.” What none of these leaders conclude, is that their troubled employee is not “in a rut,” is not “under compensated,” is not “having trouble at home,” and most certainly not struggling with a lack of “diversity and inclusion” in the workplace. Our despondent worker is suffering from poor leadership.

As my faithful readers know, I am in the process of writing a follow-up book to Restaurant Management, the Myth, the Magic, the Math. This next work will focus on applying the principles of my prior book to growing a restaurant organization. I am now at the stage of writing about leadership. As such, my desk is cluttered with these contemporary business leadership books:

·       True North, by Bill George

·       The Heart of Business, by Herbert Joly

·       Traction, by Gino Wickman

To learn more about business and my relationship to the work I do as CFO of a medium sized restaurant group, I recently attended my first Small Giants Community conference. At that event, I met many wonderful business leaders who have moved beyond Milton Friedman’s economic view of pure capitalism by adding “purpose” to the business model. At the Small Giants conference, I also had the honor of meeting Bo Burlingham, author of the book, Small Giants, that inspired the conference and growing community of businesses leaders doing great works.

My point to all this is, the more I study good leadership, the more difficult is to coexist in organizations where positive leadership is lacking. It is analogous to my drinking days. Prior to learning what my condition of alcoholism was, I instinctively knew something was wrong, but had no knowledge of what it was. I lived the life of quiet insanity, preforming the same “double fisting” routine each day, expecting different results. Because of my current work on understanding leadership, I find myself in the same quagmire. Just like going to treatment forever wrecked the use of alcohol as my daily dose of courage, reading about individuals and organizations that are performing great leadership is wrecking my ability to tolerate dysfunctional leadership situations. This toll on my work, first and foremost, is upon my own conscience.

Once one discovers what true leadership is, continuing to consume the daily elixir of troubled leadership, even if it is served in a hollowed-out pineapple garnished with a pink umbrella, fails to enlighten the soul. My work on this next book is wrecking my ability blissfully and ignorantly stumble through my daily tasks.

Recently, as I perused my social media feeds, I encountered the adage, “leadership is 75% of who you are and 25% of what you do.” I wish I could remember who posted it so that I may credit them, but the truth of this statement is now permanently affixed to my work on leadership. Because, if that statement is true, then the bumbling leaders in my above fictional analogy, are hopeless at solving why their worker is so unhappy dilemma. And worse, as ineffective leadership is a self-fulfilling prophesy, my example of the bad unit leader will most likely be promoted to division manager and the self-licking ice cream cone of myopic leadership woes will infect a greater portion of that organization.

Not to worry though, the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion department has the cure for this leadership lacking quandary. All the organization needs to do is serve a double shot of “shareholder” values and “climate change” nihilism to organizational managers and all leadership shortfalls will be magically disappear. On second thought, pass me that pineapple drink, “it’s going to be a bumpy night.”