Let Them Know You Care

Dan, for me you're one of the most natural mentors I've ever met. To me, it's a state of mind for you. What makes that possible in your leadership style?

Survival (chuckling)

In order to have a high-performing organization, I believe people need to know you care. And I can't come up with a better expression about caring than not telling someone what to do, demanding what they should do but kind of quietly help them get there themselves. That to me is the ultimate in mentoring.

There was an occasion that caused me, early in my career, to recognize that. I didn't understand the balance between human touch and production, we were building a very high-powered communication system to prove the economic viability of direct broadcast TV from space. And we only had a team of 35 people and I was driving these people, to budget, to schedule to technical excellence.

One day in the fall in Redondo Beach, California, there was a mist that formed on the window of my car and about 8:30 at night, I was the last one there and I went out to my car. And right in the mist of the window of my car, there someone took their finger and wrote, “Shit on you.” I was crushed when I saw it.

It was transformational in my life. In that short moment, I understood that leadership is balance between production and understanding people. And boy, did I start learning and I read and I talked to people. I sought out mentors to help them. I wanted them, people who knew me, to tell me, tell me what am I doing wrong. And boy, it was crushing. For about a year I found it hard to breathe, but it changed my life.

It seems like such an inflection point. I know you're a very deep emotional person, by the way when you talk about something that means a lot to you, it's a balance between heart and...

I just had a tear now because I thought of how crushed I was.

I can see it!

This is what other people thought of me. But they were right and I was wrong, absolutely wrong.

And you know, because it's happened to me many times, I've come to realize that's the penalty of leadership. The mere fact that you're in a position of leadership. Arrows are gonna fly, you know. And by the way, I always say, don't let it change who you are inside. Act, don't react.