Each of us, I am sure, has come into contact with people who have made an impression on our lives in a substantial way. Sometimes these individuals are with us for a prolonged period of time and sometimes their tenure is short. The impact can be immediate or it might take time for the lessons to be learned and to become part of who we are.
More than 25 years ago I had the pleasure of working for and with such a person. At the time he had some impact on my life but it was only years later that what I learned from him made a significant and lasting impression that still is with me today.
It was not an auspicious start. He was suspicious of my intent, he had a temper and his patience was short. His impatience was legendary. We both had the same goals but his natural distrust and history of the department I worked in made it all that more difficult to do my job in such a way that he could see that we were on the same side.
After more than a few chewing out sessions, I started to understand what he was trying to accomplish, and I did my best to explain it, in advance, what tactics I was trying to employ to achieve certain things. He liked the fact that I ran ideas by him and that I sought his input. Apparently, that had not been done often enough in the past and when it had been done, he feedback was ignored and that fueled his distrust, which skyrocketed over time, resulting in those explosions aimed directly at me.
What he taught me, over a period of six years, was nothing less than remarkable. As it turned out, I surfaced as one of the few individuals he could see that had potential as a student. His subject was business.
Mitch Lison is his name, and he now is a partner in Bay Area Coffee, a large coffee roasting company that sells to well known retailers including Sam’s Club.
Thomas Huxley wrote, “Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man’s training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.” That was my boss.
The first thing I noticed about Mitch was that he set boundaries in his life. When he was at work, he worked, and he worked very hard. At the end of the day, he went home to his family and spent time with his wife and two sons. He wasn’t a workaholic; he understood how important the living part of life is.
But he did what needed to be done at work as well, catching early morning flights, arriving home late at night from a trip and working weekends when he needed to.
One late afternoon I walked into his office and he wasn’t working; he was reading a magazine. I thought at the time it was rather odd behavior, just sitting there wasting time. Little did I understand that Mitch was “sharpening his saw” trying to get better at his job by staying abreast of what was happening in the industry and the marketplace.
The third thing about Mitch that was unique was that he went by the book. I don’t mean that he followed policies and procedures, because I witnessed him talking a few short cuts along the way. What Mitch did was a direct reflection on his Jesuit educational upbringing: he followed the process of writing a business plan each year, and he stuck to it, despite numerous opportunities to stray off course.
It might have just been my perception, but I watched most of the leaders and managers at our employer jump from strategy to strategy, searching for the silver bullet, the one trick that would solve every revenue, client, production and profit problem that existed. Not Mitch…he wrote a plan and long after everyone had abandoned theirs, he was busy executing.
The fifth thing that I learned from Mitch was focus. I don’t just mean staying on plan; I mean he stayed focused on his plan each and every day. That meant not getting caught up in the crisis of the day (and there were plenty to chose from) and not getting distracted trying to handle every piece of paper once or returning telephone calls at the same time each day.
While Mitch could have taught time management, his system and style were so unorthodox for a leader in Corporate America that his students would have laughed at him once they learned how he operated.
His mail went into a three drawer file cabinet that he did not open until it was completely full. (He then emptied it and addressed only the key pieces in a single afternoon). He did not answer his phone unless it was a call from someone higher up in the organization; his rationale being that if it was important, the person would come and see him (and given his reputation related to his temper that was rare).
Most of his time was spent in meetings with his direct supervisor, on trips to see potential clients, and dictating memos to others to execute his plan (he assumed that people would read his memos).
What did I learn from Mitch? Everything that was important for being in business. I wish everyone could have a mentor like I did.
