You See What You Are Looking For

When I was a young man, I played a lot of baseball. I mean a lot of baseball. I worked out in February, started playing high school baseball in March, American Legion baseball through the summer and more baseball in my street in the Fall. The rest of the year, I often could be seen practicing my imaginary swing using anything that resembled a bat around the house, at school, even at church. How much does my heart smile when my grandson says he wants to be a baseball player or a singer when he grows up? Think Justin Timberlake playing shortstop for the Cubs.

Growing up in Camden, NJ, I was blessed to live in a diverse neighborhood. I had friends of all shapes and colors from many countries. That being said, some of the suburbs were not as fortunate.

Many of my ‘baseball’ friends played for towns like Audubon, Mt Ephraim, Cherry Hill, Gloucester, Brooklawn, etc. Although most of these were no more than 10 miles from Camden, sometimes it felt like they were hundreds of miles away.

I recall playing an All Star game in one of those towns. I remember hitting a line drive single to right field. While standing on the base, the first baseman asked me what I thought was a weird question. He looked at my teammates in my dugout and asked, “Why are you friends with those black guys? I questioned him back, “You mean, Billy, Darrell and Ralphie? He said, “Yes’. I looked at him with a puzzled look and said, “You mean they’re black?” On the next pitch, I stole second base.

Later in life, whenever I replaced a former leader at a new company. I decided not to listen to whatever the leader told me during the transition. Many wanted to vent about the insurmountable problems I would be facing or complain about the weak leaders under him, or brief me on the problem-employees, etc. Instead, I decided to give everyone a chance. I decided to see it for myself.

In most cases, I found the commentary was inaccurate. As an organization, we were able to overcome most, if not all, obstacles. And many of the ‘problem team members’ turned out to be some of the most reliable and conscientious ones.

I always wondered what I was missing. How could we have such different views of the company, of the people, of the future?

I think in most cases, we can find the strengths in people and grow them from there. I think we can help them to recharge, refocus, believe in themselves, re-kindle their pride and their hope. But to do so, we need to look for those strengths.

I also believe that ‘you see what you are looking for’. I think successful leaders visualize success. They ‘Begin with the End in Mind’. And then they provide that same vision to their team.

Thanks for reading this and have a great weekend.

With a goal to “help the next guy in line”, Glen Cavallo, a 30+ year healthcare executive has chosen to share the many lessons he has learned with others. Glen does this by serving as a coach/advisor to leaders at all levels of organizations, as a board member and as he presents inspirational speeches at regional, national, annual and awards meetings.