Lead like you know what you are doing

March 2020

Have you ever been asked to accept a mission-critical, high-visibility assignment, the likes of which you have never handled before and for which you have never been trained? If given a choice, would you jump at the chance or decline?

As a kid, I wasn’t much of a dare-devil when it came to doing anything dangerous, but offer me the chance to run for class president or Miss Newport Beach and I was first in line to sign up. It didn’t matter whether I won or not. I just wanted to see what it might be like to try. I’d jump at an opportunity to be in front of an audience or lead the way. I found thrill in that kind of challenge back then and still do!

Yet, there was a brief period, just after graduate school, during my earliest days in the Fortune 100 world, when for some silly reason I was a bit reluctant to take on big, bold, audacious assignments. Maybe I wasn’t sure I would measure up. I certainly didn’t want to undermine my reputation or that of my up-line management. My inclination, at that point, was to play it safe.

About a year into my first corporate job as a systems engineer at Pacific Bell (AKA “the phone company”), I was tasked to backfill a position where the prior systems engineer had so totally botched an important assignment, he was fired. He had been responsible for the implementation of a first-of-its-kind customer service call center system (still in beta test mode from Bell Labs) for a large cable TV company in LA. The installation was so poorly managed the cable company was unable to handle customer calls for days. The company immediately filed a formal complaint against Pac Bell with the California Public Utilities Commission and they were now suing us.

It all seemed quite daunting to me. I didn’t know anything about call center systems, nor did any of my peers (and apparently my predecessor didn’t either). In my naivety, I figured our senior management had selected me for this opportunity because I was the most junior, and therefore most expendable, systems engineer on staff. On the other hand, I couldn’t do any worse than my predecessor. I only knew I had to act fast to get the system up and running. So I jumped in and hoped for the best.

Looking back now, I realize our executives were in a desperate situation, especially given the very public law suit and terrible press coverage. There was no way they would have assigned anyone they weren’t confident was their best, most tenacious, and most trustworthy engineer on staff. Their jobs were on the line. I should have realized it was an honor to have been selected for this high visibility mission, but I had no clue. I didn’t want the job, but I had no choice. So I determined to not fail and simply hoped to keep my job when all was said and done.

I will admit I was scared. But I dug in and immediately set about convincing the customer I would do whatever it would take to get them up and running ASAP. Next, I called the brightest call center R&D scientists in Bell Labs. Over the phone from New Jersey, they talked me through performing on-site test procedures while they ran diagnostics on their end. Working all night, they developed fixes and overnighted replacement parts. I learned a heck of lot in a very short period of time. Together, we saved the day.  

This episode turned out to be the most career enhancing opportunity I could have asked for. Literally overnight, I became the field expert on call center technology. Thankfully, I shined like a super-star when every senior executive was watching. I was promoted in short order.

Admittedly, I could just as easily have failed, as my predecessor did. But, honestly, I had never failed at anything before and I didn’t have time to give failure a thought. The job had to be done right now and there was no one else to do it. So I simply did the best I could and didn’t stop until everything was in ship shape and the customer signed off on the installation.

Would you have taken on such as assignment?

I recently came across a news story about a 21-year-old college student named Satchel, in Beaumont, Texas. He was hailed as a hero after running a hotel solo for 32 hours, with 90 guests trapped inside, during a flood. 

His day had started out like any other. His dad had dropped him off for his 3 to 11 pm shift manning the front desk. But then tropical depression Imelda moved into the area and unleashed torrential floods that prevented his co-workers from getting to work. When no one else showed up to work, Satchel had no one but himself to turn to when it came to performing the duties of hotel chef, maintenance man, room service attendant, and anything else that needed to be done.   

When the episode was over, Satchel received numerous glowing reviews from the guests. He told the news reporter, “I’d never worked in a kitchen”, and “I’m not really a good cook”. But he was resolved to cook anyway and recruited some of the guests to assist. They banded together and did whatever had to be done during the marathon shift.

So there you go. Sometimes we don’t have a choice, sometimes we do. But here’s my advice: whenever you have a chance to take on a challenging, high visibility, beyond your comfort level job opportunity, take it, and do it to the best of your ability. If you’re smart, you’ll find you already have what it takes to figure it out.  Just do it.

You never know. It might turn out to be the best opportunity you may ever have to let your brilliance shine.

I’ll bet Satchel got promoted. Maybe you will, too.