What I learned from my Dad.

My father passed away peacefully on May 9, 2022.?He was 89.?

My Dad was a cross between Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, and Dirty Harry.?Principled, fair, thoughtful, reserved, respectful and respected, he only spoke when he had something meaningful to say.?He was direct and blunt; he didn’t suffer fools easily. He was a real hardass.

I never saw him lose his temper. He was consistent.?He was the most honest person I’ve known.?He believed in duty. He believed in generosity.?He believed in integrity.?He believed in loyalty.

The degree of grief I’ve experienced since he passed has been significant, and has been surprising.?He wouldn’t understand that.?He took life as it unfolded.?He wasn’t afraid of dying.?For him, dying was part of the bargain of life.?He would have expected me to move on more easily than I have.

I am a version of him.?Not an exact copy, but my mind works the way his mind worked.?I hold true the values he held true.?I resemble him physically.?We had many of the same mannerisms.

He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and became a pilot and lieutenant after a brief semi-professional career in both pre-CFL football and basketball.?When he discharged from the RCAF, he worked for and received his business degree at what was then Ryerson as part of a veteran’s education program. He eventually became a senior bureaucrat in the Canadian Government.?He worked for three prime ministers.

My Dad wrote five books. He retired three times, the last time at age 75 after a challenging post in Cameroon, in Central Africa.?“That’s it, I’ve had enough”, he said when he came home. ?

Much of what I learned about leadership, I learned from my Dad. In his words:

-???????Your credibility is your greatest asset.?

-???????You need to get on a plane and go and see people. You can’t understand people, you can’t see what they see, through a phone or a telex machine.

-???????Respect the administrators, the executive assistants, the secretaries – they’re the ones that really run the organization.

-???????The front-line people, the people in the field, the people delivering the service or the product, they’re the ones who know what’s going on.?Everyone else is guessing.?

-???????Don’t put up with assholes.?Even if they’re highly capable, they’ll kill the place.

-???????Learn to write, learn to present – these are acquired skills and you only get better by doing.

-???????Remember things about people.?Their wives and husbands’ names, their kids' names, where they went to school – remembering things about people helps them know you care, that you see them and that you hear them.

-???????Hire people who are smarter than you.?If you can’t deal with people being smarter than you, if you can’t stand to be around people that challenge you, you’re not going to be a very good leader.

-???????Your job is to support the people under you.?It's not about you, it’s about them.?Without your people, nothing happens.

-???????You don’t know everything. Stay curious.?Have resolve, but always be willing to having your opinion changed.

-???????Never ask anyone to do anything that you wouldn’t do yourself.

-???????You own the mistakes; your team owns the wins.?

-???????There is no ‘quit’.