By: Steven Andrew Schultz

Leaders grab the broom. My first act in a positional leadership role was when I was seventeen years old coaching my little brother’s 8^th grade basketball team. We practiced twice a week at Ellis Park which was walking distance from my house and half the team’s homes. Twice a week, well before any of my players showed up, I walked my broom and brushed all the pine needles that sprinkled the court from the trees that gave us shade and walked the broom back and returned before any player ever arrived. One slip on a single pine needle could sideline a player with a season-ending injury and so it was my job as the leader to ensure our teaching environment was optimal and they could train at the speeds necessary for success.

No player or parent ever thanked me for it because no one ever knew I did it (And if you have spent any time in youth or high school athletics, you know even if they were aware any thank you is rare). A truth about leadership that those not in positions of leadership don’t understand is that the leader’s job already started before you even show up to begin yours. As leaders, we must have already been there to survey the environment and remove anything that could hurt or hinder our people’s ability to perform to their absolute best. If you want your team to show out, you have to show up and perform tasks that will never be seen and thus never be appreciated.  

What are the “pine needles” in your organization? Where are they located? Most of us won’t have access to chainsaws, so cutting down the trees where the pine needles are produced is not an option, but all of us can grab the broom and start sweeping. If you want to be a leader you must be ready to sweep every single day because those darn pine needles always return tomorrow.

Two of my favorite leaders grabbed a broom before every practice. John Wooden of UCLA and Eddie Courtemarche of Los Alamitos High School, who would each push the broom across the hardwood before every basketball practice to get rid of the dust so their players could move more efficiently on the court. In Coach Wooden’s case, this was before Pauley Pavilion was built and the Bruins practiced in the old men’s gym where the gymnastics team also practiced. At Los Al, the floor was often like a slip-n-slide. Each day as the players stretched, Coach Courtemarche would grab his broom and sweep. He deliberately did it in front of the players. He wanted them to see. He was teaching a lesson. He wanted them to know that even the person is the highest position of power still grabs a broom. If you want to get to the top nothing can be beneath you.  

Eddie had his broom before practice, and I had my towel throughout practice. I served as his assistant for seven years. Los Al Basketball players sweat! Anytime little puddles formed or streaks of sweat from a loose ball dive sparkled on the wood, I ran, got on all fours, and mopped up their sweat. In the beginning of each season, the varsity players found it funny. Some would chide me or joke and say, “Hey, Schultz! There is a spot over here.” Instead of putting them in their place and reminding them of my power, I got into position, running over there and kneeling down on my hands and knees and moped up the spot with a smile. I was modeling after the example of my master and instilling in them the principles of our head coach: no one is too big to do the smallest job. At Los Al, even the Athletic Director picks up and puts out chairs. After each basketball game, our players are assigned bleacher duty where they go and pick up all the trash the fans left in the stands. Some parents complain and say, “isn’t that the janitor’s job,” but we are teaching them ownership. The better you care for your court, the more care you’ll play with on the court.

There is more to winning than X’s &O’s. Winning organization culture is built on XOXO (the love and affection demonstrated by those at the very top). Part of love is tough love too. In basketball there is a phrase called “riding the pine,” which means being benched (no playing time). Riding the pine is the worst place to be as a player. Coach Wooden called the pine “A coach’s best friend.” The pine is the place you send players who aren’t performing on the court or aren’t being the person you expect off of it. The tough part of coaching is you have to love tough. And when you put someone’s child on the pine, their parents could care less about all the pine needles you sweep up each day serving the safety and moral development of their kid. Sweeping the pines and getting ridiculed for making players ride the pine are the tragedy of leadership. But like a Shakespearean tragedy where power serves a purpose, you will get remembered. If you are to be effective as a coach you will have to send your players on a set-of-four (sprints they hate but makes them better) and you will have to get on all fours, with your servant’s towel mopping up their aftermath of the running.

Leadership is the eb and flow of whipping them into shape and wiping up their sweat after the sprints. If they trust you with the towel, they will let out more of what’s inside of them. If your bosses are grabbing brooms, setting up chairs, and getting on their hands and knees to wipe up your sweat, your team is going to sweat more. Meaning, they will work harder and give greater effort because greater love is on display by you. The greatest failure of leadership is failing to show your team that you love them and failing to teach them how to love each other.

After a few weeks of the players ribbing me for my towel work, the lesson starts to work and soon players start bringing their own towels or asking to borrow mine, as they get on all fours themselves and wipe up the sweat for their teammates. Not one single time, in any year, did I ever explicitly ask a player to do this, I just did it and made sure they saw me do it with earnest and enthusiasm. And I learned it from Wooden, from Courtemarche, and from Jesus. When Jesus said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be last and the servant of all,” I picture him with his broom. But instead of wiping away pine needles, Jesus was on all fours washing the feet of his team, an act that was considered only reserved for the lowest status people in society, the ones without any power, the servants.

Here is an evergreen truth: if you want to lead your team to the top, everyone at the top of the organization better be in touch with the bottom by grabbing a broom and getting on all fours with their servant’s towel. As Pat Williams, co-founder and former vice president of NBA Orlando Magic once told me, “Leaders who don’t want to serve should not serve as leaders.”

Being a loving leader is a balance between the work you do that your people never see and the work you do that you purposely want them to see. Often, we need to see someone do something first before we know we can do it too. People are influenced more by what they see from you than what they hear from you.

If you want to see something from your team, let your team see it from you first. A cardinal rule in leadership is if you don’t follow the words you say than the words you say won’t be followed. You have to be what you want your team to become.

All these years later after walking my broom to Ellis Park to sweep up pine needles so my basketball players could play their best, I’ll still get a text or call from time-to-time from some of them. This is another tragedy of leadership, no matter how much you give, some will never care and never reach out to you again. But some will. And they never knew anything about my broom, but they knew I cared. I was tough on them but I made it clear I loved them. At the time, when receiving tough love most players can only just see the tough, and they’re mad at you for it. But, in time, they start to see the love behind the tough, and they love you for it. They love you for the times you made them ride the pine, and they love you for all the pines you never let them see, so everyone else could see their absolute best.

And the real success of your leadership comes years later, when they step into positions of leadership of their own, and they grab their brooms, break out their towels, and although they might have to say “Set of four. Go!” They get on all fours wiping up the sweat from the sprints they sent their team on, and unbeknownst to their players then, for some reason they can’t figure out yet, even though their coach drives them crazy, they have this urge to want to run faster for him, because of what they see, and all the pine needles they never will.

Steve Andrew Schultz

LeadLoveElevate.com

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By Steven Andrew Schultz

The bathroom at the Gerald Ford International Airport in Michigan sought more feedback from me than the company I’ve worked for the last fourteens years ever has. As you exit the restroom there is a color-coated sign I’ve never seen anywhere before with three buttons at the bottom. The sign asked: How satisfied are you with the cleanliness of this restroom today? There is a green button with a smiley face, a yellow flat face, and a red sad face. It’s created by www.feedbacknow.com  and gives instant data to the airport staff and communicates to me that the airport cares about my customer experience. My second thought was: I wish companies and organizations sought feedback like this not just from customers experience, but from their employees working experience.  

I walked out, impressed, but also saddened, as never once, in my entire career, have any of my bosses ever sought my satisfaction with the cleanliness of where I work, or the friendliness, or welcomeness, or safeness, effectiveness, or any “ness” word you want. I’ve never been asked: Is there anything you need? What can we do better? How can we serve you? Or any other form of earnest feedback seeking that would show a modicum of care.

I often get emails from companies I have purchased products or services from. Just yesterday a company called to see how the AC repair service was. I recently received an email from Hoag Hospital to see how my experience at their Urgent Care facility went. Also, some companies I purchased some clothes from want to know how I am enjoying the product and the buying process. Why isn’t leadership in every organization also seeking this kind of data from their employees about the effectiveness of their leadership?  

My grandpa Hill used to say to me: “If you see something wrong, see to it that it’s made right.” Too often, executives aren’t able to make things right because they refuse to see anything wrong in how they’re leading. When I started coaching high school basketball when I was nineteen years old, I gave anonymous feedback surveys to all my players to see what their experience was like and how I could be a better coach next year. When I started teaching English classes at the high school, I continued that tradition with my students. When a veteran teacher found out, he asked why I would do such a thing and recommended I stop. When I asked what’s wrong with it? He replied, “Teenagers can be so blunt and brutal. That stuff hurts. I don’t want to hear any of that?” I replied, “Yes, but how else do we get better?” He said, “I’m fine the way I am” and he walked away.  

Praise makes us feel better, but critique makes us become better. In my feedback forms there was mostly praise, but also, I asked specific questions to garner feedback on ways I could be better. A big part of growth is learning what to listen to and what to ignore. Some people are just rude, yes, but the truth only hurts because we aren’t used to hearing it. And any winning culture seeks the truth. Instead of leaders thinking it will hurt to hear this, think about how your people have been hurting every day because you haven’t heard and keep doing behaviors that make their work experience red button sad face.

A few years into teaching I realized my feedback survey was coming too late. I was giving it the last week of school. While that helped me reflect and reform things for the next school year, it did nothing for the students who just spent a year in my class. So, I started giving out the surveys at the end of the first semester so I could make adjustments in the middle of the year and have a blue mailbox in my classroom where students can drop an anonymous note any time for ways they think I can improve my teaching/leading of them. Now just because one student or one employee has a complaint or makes a suggestion doesn’t mean you need to make major changes, but it is worth at least considering. The key is not to take it personally, but see it as an opportunity to become a better person. The better person you are, the better leader you are.

The truth of leadership is this:

1.       Bad leaders ignore all feedback.

2.       Good leaders listen to feedback.

3.       Loving leaders seek feedback.

I had a principal once who told me he had his wife read all his end of the year evaluations he has his staff do and remove any negative comments so when he reads them, he only reads positive praise. I asked, “So, the point of your survey is not to improve yourself but to flatter yourself?” He responded, “Why would I want to read negative comments?”  I said, “It’s not a negative comment if you become better from it. Feedback that shows how you can improve and thus makes this organization more prosperous because your employees are happier is a positive comment. By having your wife remove all constructive feedback, you can’t begin construction on building something better. Both you and your people are hurting by your fear of feedback that might momentarily sting. Look at it like a shot at the doctor’s office. It hurts for a few seconds, but makes you stronger forever. Take a shot and start seeking out constructive feedback so construction can begin on becoming better. That’s not negative, but always positive.” I keep a hard hat and a fake toy shot on my desk to remind me to seek feedback and sometimes have to give feedback that momentarily hurts, but makes me and them healthier long-term and remind me that there can be no construction to build better without seeking constructive feedback first.

All too often bosses look at feedback as something they give, instead of something they should be receiving. Feedback is not just what you say, but what you seek. When I was in college, I mailed a three page letter to a former high school basketball coach of mine. I was letting him know I had started coaching and seeing the other side opened my eyes. The first two pages were praising him and thanking him. Half of the third page was some things he did that I did not like, that hurt me instead of helping me, and how I hope he could make it better for his future teams. He ripped off that half page with my feedback and mailed the torn half page back to me with the message: next time you write to me I only want the praise. Throw this part away.”

We never spoke again after that and a few years later we both applied for the same job. I got it and he did not, and he has been bitter towards me ever since. Imagine if one of his players said to their coach when their coach was telling them how to get better: “I only want to hear praise, throw the rest away.” Most bosses don’t have the Gerald Ford Airport Feedbacknow mindset and thus they don’t grow. I had a CEO hire me once to do some leadership coaching for him because his team was in disarray and morale was low and he could not figure out why. He told me he was doing the things he always had done that used to work but his employees weren’t really responding to him anymore and the tension was rising.

The first thing I did after listening to his perspective on what he thought the situation was and what his goals were was to meet with his team without him in the room. He asked, “Why can’t I be in the room?” I said, because you are their boss and so they won’t be open and honest with what their issues are if you are in the room. You have to be open to the feedback I will bring you, but I can’t bring you the truth if you are in the room. He agreed.

After about an hour with his team, trust had been built and people really started opening up and breakthroughs were being made.  Evidently, unbeknownst to me, the boss has been listening in behind the conference room door and burst into the room and started ripping into an employee who was in the middle of explaining how his feelings were hurt by something the boss had said to him in public and how he kept regularly mocking him in front of the whole team going on two weeks now. The boss, in a rage of defensiveness, starts ripping into this guy, and cussing out other people and yelling at them that he doesn’t need to change, but they need to change. He just ruined all the gains I made in starting to heal his team. What he didn’t understand, is acknowledging and listening to someone’s feelings is not the same as endorsing or agreeing to them. But only after someone feels heard, can they heal.

The work I had been doing was just sabotaged and ruined. The CEO and I met privately after his broken promise to me by coming into the room and I told him how his behavior was out of line and not only hurting his team but eroding any efforts of mine to help him. He yelled at me, “I didn’t hire you so you can go in there and have my team tell me that I am the problem. I sent you in there so you could tell them that they were the problem.” Needless to say, there was no helping this guy or his poor team. He, like far too many CEOs, suffer from not having a CFO Chief Feedback Officer.

Any leadership team that doesn’t have a Chief Feedback Officer is not serious about building a better organization, but only wants obedient workers who will do what they’re told and not question power. That kind of mindset might build the ego of the CEO, but it won’t build the business into something better. You can’t neglect the voice of your people and claim you care you about your people. The first act of leadership is listening. The highest act of leadership is loving those you lead. Mister Rogers once said, “Listening is where love begins.” In all the ways you will fail as a leader (and we all have failure points) never let it be a failure to show those you lead that you love them. Lead by listening. Seek out their feedback. Put on your hard hat and be ready for construction and remember the power of taking a shot (Doctor’s kind). If you don’t listen to them, why should they listen to you? Be better than a bathroom. 

Steve Andrew Schultz

LeadLoveElevate.com

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Steve Andrew Schultz

LeadLoveElevate.com

The post Major League Leadership appeared first on Lead Love Elevate.

By: Steven Andrew Schultz

It was the phone call I had been longing for ever since my aunt Audrey died when I was just an eleven-year-old boy. My uncle Mark (her husband) commented on my Facebook post inviting me to come visit him that summer and I enthusiastically accepted. His final comment was saying he was going to call me to go over dates for our reunion later in the week. I immediately started looking at flights and even went to the garage and got my suitcase cleaned out and ready.

My aunt Audrey was my angel, and my uncle Mark was my idol. They lived in Estes Park, Colorado with my two cousins Rebekah and Brooke and we lived in Fountain Valley, California. Every summer we drove to Colorado and every Thanksgiving or Christmas they came to stay with us in California. It was a beautiful family dynamic until my aunt died after battling Lupus for several years. My uncle would remarry, and the yearly visits ceased once my aunt was deceased. I would see my uncle one more time a few years later when we brought his new wife to California when I was fifteen, but from that point on I would never see him again until this Facebook invitation sparked the hope of another one of his infamous bear hugs.

We would exchange a few handwritten letters over the decades, but mostly sporadic Facebook comments were the extent of our relationship. Losing my aunt became like a double death because I lost my uncle, too. But now, the crushed little boy hidden inside my thirty-six-year-old frame was blossoming back to life like one of those squeeze toys that expand back out to its original shape. After all these years I would see my boyhood hero in just a few weeks and hear his voice in the next day or so. We hadn’t even spoken on the phone all these years, so him telling me he was going to call me was a delight as well.

I slept in that next morning, maybe because a broken piece of my heart was finally at peace. I grabbed my phone and saw the icon for a DM (Direct Message) on Facebook. Still not fully awake, I noticed it was a message from Brooke, my uncle’s daughter. I thought maybe she was reaching out so she could fly home too when I came to visit. I clicked open Facebook to see a message of a totally different kind of homecoming. My cousin informed me that while riding his bicycle last night, my uncle had a brain aneurism and died.

All I could do was stare at my empty suitcase I had brought up from the garage the day earlier. Its emptiness and uselessness were a perfect metaphor for how I felt. I carried it downstairs to the garage. Unbeknownst to me, my roommate was following me down. In the garage I dropped the suitcase and noticed my roommate’s presence. From the paleness of my face, he knew something was wrong. I said, “My uncle is dead!” I collapsed to the cold floor and my roommate Jake picked me up and held me as I cried on his warm, still beating chest.  

Because of Covid restrictions, I could not attend my uncle’s funeral. I watched it on Facebook livestream. I went and got a turkey meal like we used to eat together on Thanksgiving and a piece of his favorite pie: Rhubarb. As I sat there eating, crying, and watching, I clicked back to my DM’s to read our old correspondence. Shockingly, there was a new Facebook message from my uncle. How could a dead guy be sending me a DM? He had sent it a week earlier, but I never noticed the blue circle notification. He was responding to a message I had sent him a couple weeks prior expressing how I was considering running for School Board but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to run an election campaign. I was watching my uncle’s funeral while reading a message from my uncle. Here is part of what he wrote in the DM:

            “Buddy. You are loved and treasured. GO FOR THE SCHOOL BOARD!”

It was the only sentence he put in all caps. He went on to tell me about the work he was doing as a minister with the homeless and how proud he was of his daughters Rebekah and Brooke and how him and I were a lot alike in how we served our communities and invested in peoples lives by leading with love. His finals words were, “I am very proud of you. I love You, Steve! -Mark”

The way I grieved and honored him was to get over my fear and signed the papers to run for school board. Our campaign began a few weeks after his death. There were two spots open with both incumbents running for reelection. Neither had ever lost and always won by high margins. Those next few months as I walked to over ten thousand homes dropping of fliers with my message and vision for a better way to do school, I carried my uncle’s confidence in me to every door.

Even though I had an all-caps DM from Heaven saying, “GO FOR THE SCHOOL BOARD!” I was doubtful on election night and thought maybe at best I could squeak in and get the second-place spot. Instead, I got one of my uncle’s famous bear hugs with the news that not only did I win first place, we swept every single precinct in the two different cities the school district represents and set three records for highest numbers of votes ever, largest margin of victory ever, and the youngest person to ever win.

Nobody knew of my uncle’s death or his encouragement to me to run, and on the day I was sworn in and took the oath of office, in my suit pocket was one of his handwritten letters and tiny pocket knife he gave me when I was a boy.  

On the year anniversary of my uncle’s death, I got another DM, this time from a former student of mine named Charlie with a photo of a dozen handwritten letters he was sending to his coworkers. Charlie was letting me know he was now giving out handwritten letters like I gave to him and all my students and how the lessons I taught him live on. What Charlie didn’t know is the lesson of handwritten letters I got from my uncle, who would write them to all his employees.

Our words create our world. While I didn’t get my reunion, the words Mark Roskam gave me created a union that can’t break. We should add an ellipsis after our death date on tombstones. An ellipsis signifies a long pause and then a continuation. Death is just a pause. Our love continues when our life can’t. My impact on students like Charlie and every child my leadership on the school board will elevate, is also my uncle’s impact. You never only elevate one. You also elevate everyone that each one also impacts. Our impact grants immortality…through love you live forever…my uncle and my aunt, continue…

Steve Andrew Schultz

LeadLoveElevate.com

The post DM From Heaven appeared first on Lead Love Elevate.

To be the best leader you can be you need to know what the best person, place, thinking, giving, and living is. Here is the quick study guide:

The best kind of person to be is a kind person.

The best place to be is being there for someone else. 

The best kind of thoughts are when you’re thinking kindly of others.

The best way to give is without receipts because you never expect them to return the gift. 

The best life is one that elevates others to feel more loved and to love others more.

You’re a teeter totter leader because you know who to be, where to be, what to think, how to give, and the way to live that leads to Immortal impact. 

Steve Andrew Schultz

LeadLoveElevate.com

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Steve Andrew Schultz

LeadLoveElevate.com

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