An Act of Kindness Changed A Career Trajectory

Two Business People Casually Walking

One of my previous blogs, Being Kind In An Unkind World, talked about becoming a kind person ---- we all have opportunities to improve our kindness skills.

Today’s story is about how an act of kindness changed a career trajectory for one of my former co-workers.

Many years ago, I had a good friend and peer working in Alpharetta.  With another good friend, we were sort of like the Three Musketeers.  The leadership of our organization was in Holmdel, NJ and not real keen on the skills and abilities of the technical teams in Alpharetta --- though we were aptly qualified.  We seemed to always be fighting for the chance for another step up the managerial ladder.  Those positions were elusive and always seemed to be given to the NJ team. 

The Three Musketeers were on the promotable list but never seemed to get a break.  The promotable list was somewhat of a misnomer --- people got placed on it but positions never seemed to develop. It was extremely frustrating, but living on the list was more palpable than relocating to take a NJ slot (though some years later, I took that course).

At some point, there was an effort to really trim down the promotable list to something that was more realistic for the positions that were available, but that was met with much consternation and lower morale for the people that had been on the list and received promises seemingly forever.

One of the Musketeers, let’s call her Angela (not her real name), understood that she was not likely to be on the promotable list the following year as the list was being purged --- primarily because she was not open to relocation due to family constraints --- spouse and child considerations. 

One day she was at a meeting in downtown Atlanta with several executives in the CSO and IT organizations.  It was an all-day meeting.  Angela represented herself and her team well in the discussions. When the meeting broke for lunch, everyone walked to the cafeteria to get some food.  Angela noted that the Senior Vice President CSO, let’s call him John, was slowly making his way there and was navigating with a slight physical impairment.  The others walked ahead, but Angela decided to fall back and walk with John.  They had a nice conversation along the way, nothing important but it certainly made John less uncomfortable with his impairment issue. 

It was a random act of kindness on Angela’s part, but John saw something in her that perhaps the NJ team did not see.  The casual conversation led to a friendship and mentoring relationship.  When Angela did get purged from the Labs promotable list, John took it upon himself to use one of his organization’s slots and placed her on his promotable list. Organizations giving up a slot on their list to cover someone in another organization was unheard of in those days. There was nothing inappropriate about it, but HR was not happy.  Regardless, Angela stayed on his promotable list for a couple of years before a slot opened for her --- in Atlanta.

Angela’s career took off after that. There was a succession of promotions within the Labs.  She eventually became the Senior Vice President of Program / Capital Management within the Labs, responsible for setting the capital budgets, prioritizing the programs and projects that were funded, and tracking the progress of the program deliverables within the Labs. She worked extensively with her peers in other organizations who were the recipients of the Labs program / project deliverables.

At some point, she left the Labs and became a C-Suite officer at two different technology companies and eventually the CEO of a Technology Development Organization.

I have always loved this story.  I believe that there are multiple learnings from it for leaders in organizations

1.      Leadership has many facets.  Being able to relate to people and being empathetic to their needs is a skill that can differentiate you to become a great leader.

2.      Mentoring is a key to developing exceptional leaders.  We can all play it forward.  On my own journey, I volunteered to mentor people in many other organizations. I continued to mentor some of those individuals after they left our employer. We have a responsibility to help to develop the next generation of leaders

3.      When you identify someone with leadership potential, be willing to do the unorthodox to help them progress in their career.  A good recommendation or a heads up to a peer / contact in another organization costs you very little, but can open the door for someone else

4.      Most organizations have some sort of promotable list as they look at future organization structure and succession planning.  Take the time to really get to know the people on your organization’s list.  Not just the work stuff, but their other interests, hobbies, and passions too. 

5.      Work with your mentorees to identify strong skills and areas for improvement.  Identify opportunities for them to take on challenging assignments that will highlight either their strong skills or develop / strengthen weaker ones.

6.      Be willing to give your potential leaders timely, honest feedback.  This involves both positive feedback for well done achievements, but also constructive feedback for areas to improve. Deliver the constructive feedback in a manner that does not crush them.  Coaching is a skill; make sure you use yours.

Every day is an opportunity for you to help someone along on their career journey. Identifying potential leaders can happen anywhere --- even in the most unusual circumstances.  You just must be present and open to see the potential in others.

In this case, a random act of kindness changed a career trajectory.