Show Up and Suffer Together

This article is excerpted from Five Frequencies: Leadership Signals That Turn Culture Into Competitive Advantage (Logos)

Jose-Luis Bretones-Lopez, founder and managing partner of Linar Advisors, once worked as executive vice president of a global, publicly traded metals distribution company, overseeing a vast (and troubled) supply chain operation. “When I came in, one of the problems was that nobody knew how much inventory we had,” he says. So he made the dramatic decision to stop the normal flow of materials in and out of the company for a long weekend in order to conduct a physical inventory.

Unfortunately, it was August, and three of the company’s warehouses were in Houston. It promised to be no fun. “Even though I didn’t know the difference between a fracking pipe and a drilling bar, I knew I had to go there and help with the count,” Jose-Luis said. In fact, he took his whole team. Working alongside the Houston-based Sales and Ops teams, they put in 16-hour days. And it was as bad, or worse, than anticipated. “Spiders, snakes, humidity…the trifecta of misery.”

But Jose-Luis understood the trade-off. If he didn’t visibly show up for this painful but critical undertaking, he wouldn’t have any credibility the next time he called down to Houston asking for something. After the physical inventory was finished, the newfound credibility was palpable. “And after suffering together,” he says, “my team became a better team.”

Another collateral benefit: Houston’s Sales and Ops teams had a history of pointing fingers at one another. But after suffering together for three days, they learned they liked each other more than they expected. And as a merged tribe, they became in the weeks and months that followed exemplars of effective collaboration for the rest of the company.

In summary: As humans, we’re hardwired to monitor who is in-tribe and who isn’t. That instinct helped our primitive ancestors survive. We’ll trust and work harder for those with whom we share our camp. When you show up and suffer together, it sends the subtle signal that you’re all in the same tribe.

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