I started working more than three decades ago. Since then I have moved through government, consulting, telecommunications and printing. Different offices, different industries, different job titles. The people problems, strangely enough, have remained remarkably consistent.
When I was younger, I thought work was mainly about proving that I was capable. Do good work, meet the deadline and the rest would take care of itself.
Competence matters. It is simply not the whole story.
Being right is not enough
You can have the correct answer and still fail to move anything forward. People need to understand the answer, trust the person delivering it and see where they fit into it.
I used to become frustrated when a sound idea did not gain support. With experience, I learned to ask a less flattering question: had I done enough to bring people with me, or had I merely announced that I was right?
Most problems survive because conversations are avoided
Organisations can spend weeks designing processes around a conversation nobody wants to have.
Poor performance becomes a new reporting template. Confusion becomes another meeting. A broken working relationship becomes a restructuring exercise.
Sometimes the kindest thing a leader can do is speak clearly, early and privately. I learned that later than I should have.
A title gives authority, not respect
Job titles open doors and put your name higher on an organisation chart. They do not make people trust you.
Respect is accumulated in smaller moments: whether you keep your word, whether you take responsibility when something goes wrong and whether you behave decently toward people who cannot advance your career.
Titles are temporary. People have surprisingly long memories.
Good people can be trapped inside bad systems
It is easy to blame individuals for every failure. Sometimes that is deserved. But I have also seen capable people working inside processes that almost guarantee delay, duplication or confusion.
Telling people to work harder will not repair a badly designed system. It may only exhaust the people who care most.
Before asking who failed, ask what made failure likely.
Leadership becomes less comfortable as you improve at it
I once thought seniority meant having more answers. In reality, it often means carrying decisions for which there is no perfect answer.
You listen, weigh incomplete information and make the best decision you can. Then you accept responsibility for the result. The uncertainty does not disappear because your office became larger.
Good leaders are not fearless. They have simply learned not to outsource every difficult decision to a committee.
Learn the numbers
For much of my career, finance felt like somebody else’s department. That was a mistake.
You do not need to become an accountant, but you should understand how your organisation makes money, where it loses money and what your decisions cost. A strategy that ignores the numbers is usually just an expensive wish.
Do not confuse being needed with being effective
There is a particular satisfaction in becoming the person everyone depends on. It can also be a warning sign.
If everything stops when you are away, you may not have built a strong team. You may have built a queue.
Real leadership creates capability beyond the leader. That means sharing information, trusting people with meaningful work and allowing them to solve problems differently from you.
Work will take everything you give it
There is always another email, another target and another problem that appears urgent at 5.30 in the afternoon.
Work matters. Providing for a family matters. Building something worthwhile matters. But a job will not notice the years you surrendered to it. The people at home will.
I am still learning this one.
What I would tell my younger self
Be useful. Be curious. Learn to speak clearly without humiliating people. Understand the numbers. Do not mistake activity for progress. Build relationships before you need them. Leave every role with your integrity intact.
And remember that a career is part of a life. It is not the whole of it.