From Management’s Point of View ~Support the Success of Your Teammate – Leader's Edition ~

January 22, 2025

In the previous column, I outlined the three main stages of growth in supporting coworkers’ success:

· Stage 1: Understand one’s own role and execute the relevant responsibilities

· Stage 2: Show less experienced coworkers how to do their jobs

· Stage 3: In addition to one’s own job, support the boss in theirs

I think it’s fair to say that this is generally how people grow in the workplace and that traversing these three stages leads upward on one’s career path. And yet, I find that there are surprisingly few organizations that foster this culture of teamwork.

Various factors get in the way of teamwork, but I think the number one thing is internal politics. Some examples would be, “My boss is likely to take the credit for something I did,” “My colleague may get promoted before I do,” or “If my subordinate performs better in their job than I do in mine, I may slip in my position.” I imagine that such thoughts have occasionally crossed the minds of my readers. In my case, in a previous job, political jockeying was so important that members of top management derided their own company as a “political association.”

After about six or seven years at that job, I was doing my work as a manager without any problem. Being a technically minded person, I actually liked difficult jobs. As my skills developed, I also became fairly good at project management; even during the busiest times at an infamously demanding accounting firm, I was on my way home by 9:00 in the evening.

While I was a manager at that time, there were two senior managers who were four or five years ahead of me in the organization, and when things were at their busiest, these senior managers would work until all hours of the night for days on end. On the one hand, I felt sorry for them, but on the other, I felt like they were getting what they deserved. Both of them worked behind cluttered desks buried by mountains of paperwork and appeared to have inherently disorganized approaches to their work. Furthermore, prior to the start of the busy season, when it would have been best to identify any issues from the previous fiscal year and consult with clients about possible improvements so as to nip potential problems in the bud, they never seemed to do that. Consequently, they were always scrambling after the fact so that they had even more work just when things got busy, resulting in extra demands placed on the team members around them, as well as on their clients by requesting extra materials at the last minute.

If the best way to solve a problem is by taking action before it happens, then the worst way is by emergency response afterwards. I would wonder if these guys ahead of me just didn’t understand how to do their jobs, but I never stepped in to help and simply went home as soon as I was done with my own work. I myself put at least ten hours a day during busy periods, and I figured that my reputation at the company would be boosted by the fact that these senior managers couldn’t do their jobs as well as I did mine – I thought of myself as being politically astute. Now, however, I realize that the narrow mindset was the biggest factor holding me back from becoming a leader at that company.

Pretty much everyone will proactively work to support others when it is in their own best interest. Most bosses overseeing projects will help out their own staff members. You could say that’s because they expect that their own projects will end up going more smoothly by doing so. Meanwhile, it’s not that difficult to help out your colleagues when you yourself have extra time. It really doesn’t cost you anything.

The reason I didn’t help out those senior managers was because I didn’t see what was in it for me. In other words, I was focused entirely on my own situation, and I wasn’t thinking much about the people working above or below me or even about the customers. And even if I felt a little guilty deep down, I told myself that I had already put in longer than ten hours.

And because of that small-mindedness, I was viewed as merely “one of those guys you find everywhere who’s not bad at his job.”

What I should have done was, prior to the busy season when I had gotten my own project all set up, to take the time to politely share my ideas with the senior managers. Then, when things got hectic and they were working super late, I should have stayed another hour each night to help them. What is it to a 20-something guy, for just a few months out of the year, to stay on until 9 or 10 at night? If I had spent an hour of my time helping them, they could have gone home a little earlier. If I had tried to ease their burden, we might have developed more mutual trust and reliance.

Instead, I prioritized an easier working situation for myself and took pride in my own ability, failing to sufficiently consider those senior managers and the other people around me. I think I was probably a competent worker, but I also think that others would have seen me as a calculating type of person.

True leaders are not people who base their actions on calculations of benefit and loss, or on appearances, but rather seek to aid the people around them even at personal cost. They have the courage to jump right in. It is unfortunate for an organization, I feel, when it is led by someone who lacks this courage. The reason that I did not become a leader in my previous organization was that I didn’t have that level of commitment, and I was more concerned about my own personal convenience.

A person I respect says, “Everyone really has a great charisma. The only difference is whether you use your charisma in a big way or a small way.” I was basically using my charisma the smallest way I could.

Nearly two decades have passed since that time, and I now find myself running a small accounting firm with a little over 20 full- and part-time staff members. We don’t have a huge number of employees, but they are all people of excellent character who are also quite capable. Therefore, I need to have the commitment to being a leader who encourages these wonderful people to work enjoyably, while also guiding the growth of our company.

Leadership is not something that is demonstrated at particular points in time. To be a leader is to be committed at all times to jumping in for the good of the organization. And as the president of the company, I have come to the realization that my job is to prove throughout my life that I am indeed the company’s leader.