Dig your own ditch…..
Early in my career, I recall sitting with the CEO of our company somewhat complaining about something someone else was doing. At my diplomatic best, I shared my concern and the impact to the company. I sincerely had the best of intentions. Nonetheless, our CEO leaned back in his chair and began rubbing his hands together as though he had just applied lotion. He looked at me and spoke very calmly – sharing a story of a manager he had early in his career when he had approached in the same manner I had. He explained that his manager told him to “Dig your own ditch”.
It was calm and powerful. I took it to heart. The following year, I was maniacally focused and had what was one of the most successful in my career. I clearly established our corporate market differentiation based on the level of service we provided. Our CEO was quite proud and expressed his pleasure in my performance at my annual review. I shared that his “dig your own ditch” conversation had been the source of my enhanced performance.
I could see his pride in his body demeanor and smile. I fear that was short lived though as I shared that while it had been brilliant advice for me, I could not give him a glowing review of this aspect of his prior year performance as CEO. I told him that in this process He had given me that advice, but had failed to instruct the rest of the team so wisely. My job would have been far more difficult than it should have been because the entire year he had allowed others to shovel dirt in my ditch on a regular basis.
This is not intended to criticize this specific CEO. I learned so much from him. Not the least of which was to influence not only how I performed when working for him, but also the role I felt I played as a CEO. It taught me that perhaps one of the most important roles for a CEO is to ensure everyone stays in their own ditch or at the very least does not disrupt a colleagues ability to efficiently succeed. Setting a clear and definite systemic manner in which their roles intersect is critical.