One of my favorite quotes is from James E. Casey, one of the founders of UPS. James said, “One measure of your success will be the degree to which you build up others who work with you. While building up others, you will build up yourself.” When I was first introduced to that quote, I really didn’t understand the meaning or thought behind it.  I guess I just couldn’t relate to it, so early in my career. Sometimes, and event always have to occur in one’s personal or professional life for the light bulb to switch on.

If you recall in Lesson 1: Want and Accept More Responsibility, I talked about an opportunity of a lifetime early in my career; being asked by the manager of the Mainframe System Programming to come up to his group as a trainee.  What I didn’t tell you is that initially, my senior manager denied the request even when he knew it was a great opportunity for me personally and professionally. So, just imagine how hurt and devastated I was. I felt I had worked my butt off, enhanced my skills and far exceeded any of my peers.  In fact, I became the standard for which Console Operators measured themselves. So, clearly, I felt I deserved the opportunity and the promotion.

When I finally met with my manager later, I learned one of the most important lessons of my career, although I did not know that at the time.  You see, my manager agreed that I deserved the promotion, he wouldn’t deny that. However, he had a dilemma: He had to decide between his business needs versus my own personal needs and ambitions. He had to ensure that from a business perspective, he was staffed with the right skills and talent within Computer Operations to ensure continuity. Unfortunately for me, he and other senior managers were more comfortable with me leading the team in a time of crisis versus my peers. Initially, I could not understand why I was being penalized because my peers skills didn’t match mine. Nonetheless, my manager said no.

After a few days of letting off some steam and slowly trying to move on from the hurt and disappointment, I started thinking.  I realized that I was at fault for me not being able to move on.  I realized I spent all that time developing my skills but as the leader, I failed my team.  I never shared my knowledge or demanded that the others do more to build themselves up. All that time, I was just being selfish. I didn’t think about my team; our customers; nor our business. Because of my selfish thinking, I was personally responsible for not being able to move on. Once I realized that, I got refocused, apologized to the team for my lack of leadership and started training them like crazy. It was like Computer Operations boot camp.  They hated the new me but they appreciated the sharing and the skills they develop.

A few months later, I was again offered that same opportunity to go to Mainframe Systems Programming and this time my manager said yes. He felt the team was now up to speed and that there would be a level of comfort and continuity when I moved on. In fact, if I recall correctly, he actually came in on his day off to insure all my paper for the promotion and move was swiftly taken care of.

The Lesson: “When you build up others, you build up yourself.” Holding on to information and not sharing with your team or others who may benefit can ultimately cause you to miss opportunities. If you are always the only one that knows something, you will always be the only one that can do the job. That doesn’t help you progress, it keeps you where you are.