Hey Team,
I'm shaking things up a bit this week.
Twice a week I train my dad via FaceTime. We’ve been doing it for about three years now.
Two undivided hours with him each week is something I cherish deeply. It’s not only extremely rewarding to help him maintain strength as he progresses into later stages of life, but it’s given us the gift of having the same relationship we had many years ago before, well, life happened.
I do my best to listen intensely to what he has to say in our hour as we work on increasing mobility, opening up his anterior chain or addressing a nagging injury. I listen intensely because there’s always a gold nugget buried when you have a conversation with my father.
Recently he dropped a story from decades ago, and boy is it applicable to so many facets of life.
For the last 35 years my parents have owned and operated an excavating business. They take immense pride in what they do and make one of the best duos I’ve yet to see. What one lacks, the other carries, and vice versa. Coming from a blue collared household and having small business owners as parents has contributed more to my life than any degree or resume ever could.
About two decades ago my dad was working on a rather large site. Every piece of heavy equipment he owned at the time was sitting on this job and being operated to complete one piece of the puzzle.
One day my dad heard the site operator and another department lead getting into a heated conversation. The site operator was explaining to the department lead that if he wanted the answer he was looking for, he would need to find the lead excavator, my dad.
“That’s the problem!,” exclaimed the department lead. “The guy’s never here! I’ve never met him! This isn’t going to work.”
“Huh”, said the site lead. “Follow me.”
The two proceeded towards one of the machines that wasn’t operating correctly that day. My dad heard footsteps grow closer.
The site lead calls my dad’s name.
He slides out from under the machine, covered in oil and dirt, tools hanging from his belt.
The site lead says to the department lead, “Here's your lead excavator.”
The department lead is speechless for a moment.
“YOU’RE the head excavator for this site?”, he asks my dad.
“Yes I am,” he replies, wipes his hand, and reaches out for a handshake.
“I thought you were just a hired laborer. You OWN this company and all of these machines?”
“Yes sir I do,” says my dad. “How can I help?”
The site manager leaves them to converse and move forward on resolving what needs attention.
Oftentimes as we progress in life and gain further experience and expertise we’re forced to make a choice on what kind of leader we’re going to be.
You can be one who points their finger and demands things get done in a certain way and by a certain time. You can rate someone’s value by hierarchy and deem certain tasks as below you.
Or, you can be a leader who gets their hands dirty. You can work together with your team, side by side, no matter how small or big the task. You can look at people as equal humans whether this is their first year or second decade.
Choose the latter.
Until next week. 👋
Danielle Bitts
VP of Brand, Bodybuilding.com
