The first thing that I would say about myself is that I am just a regular guy who happened to write a book! I have shared for years that I am just "a worker", and I genuinely mean that. My dad told me something many years ago that has always stuck with me, and that is… in most cases… we all bring to the party about the same number of assets and liabilities. Some people’s liabilities are just more visible than those of others and some people’s assets simply garner more public acclaim. That doesn’t mean that one of us is more important or more valuable than the person beside us. As Ken Blanchard penned in The One Minute Manager, “Everyone is a potential winner. Some people are disguised as losers. Don’t let their appearance fool you.”

I think most of us would rather learn something new and useful as a byproduct of being held spellbound by an engaging storyteller rather than extract that same knowledge from a spreadsheet or a report. A few years ago, I read about a newly named leadership approach called “Narrative Leadership”, i.e., leadership by telling stories. I’m not sure that I would classify narrative leadership as a science, but it has gathered momentum and notoriety in recent years as a valid and effective way to get people to grasp new cultural and social paradigms and recognize emerging market opportunities that may not be obvious to the casual observer. It is kind of a lost term these days, but in the south, and maybe in other environs, gifted and entertaining storytellers were historically known as “raconteurs”. I don’t think my grandfather on my Dad’s side… Gramp… and any of my uncles, ever knew the word “raconteur” even existed, but man… could they tell some stories! From the time I was about 7 years old until I went to college, there was nothing I enjoyed more than taking a trip or fishing with my dad, my uncles, or my grandfather, not because of what we were doing or where we were going, but because hanging around them was pure entertainment. Maybe that is why I began to mentally catalog all of the unexpected situations I encountered and blunders I made, and when recounting them, just naturally put a humorous spin on the tale to make it a little “larger than life”. As my uncle Max used to say, “There’s never been a story worth telling that’s not worth embellishing a little bit!” And as I many times tell my audience at the beginning of a presentation or a speech, “Everything I am going to tell you today is generally true!” Yep… every story needs a little room to “breathe”!

I was born and spent the first eight years of my life in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which was an interesting phenomenon and existence in itself. My Dad was a maintenance supervisor at the K-25 plant in Oak Ridge, which was the plant that enriched the uranium used in one of the two “atomic bombs” that brought the curtain down on World War II. Now my Dad started work there in 1952, 7 years after the conclusion of the war, but the three “nuclear” plants in Oak Ridge… X-10, Y-12, and K-25, were still very active, and the work performed behind the walls of those facilities was very clandestine and mysterious. This period of time was dead square in the middle of the era known as “The Cold War”, and the operations at Oak Ridge were still very much at the heart of America’s defense program. Furthermore, the serious and secretive nature of the inner workings of those three plants extended to everything and every person that lived in Oak Ridge. In fact, even when I started the first grade in 1961 at Willowbrook Elementary School, I had to wear to school every day on a chain around my neck two personal information “dogtags” just like I was in the military! And we didn’t participate in “tornado drills” like other students in other parts of the country, but instead we had ”atomic bomb” or “nuclear attack” drills. When I think back about all of that now, it strikes me as equally funny and foolish, as we would be instructed to crouch under our desks as if somehow that was going to protect us from the 3600-degree temperatures and 600 MPH winds that a nuclear weapon generates! Alas, I survived these rituals without a scratch, not even a splinter from the death grip I had on the top of my desk to make sure it didn’t blow away!

Moving on to my adult life and my sojourn as a “developing” professional across a 40+ year career, I would classify myself a “nuts-and-bolts” leader. By a “nuts-and-bolts” leader, I mean someone who truly engages in the “hard slogging” of dissecting all aspects and assets of the organization and the market to identify and clearly define the few things that the organization needs to deliver… not simply do… that will make our customers’ lives better. For all of us, within our domain of expertise, our mission as leaders is to help those around us successfully address their most pressing challenges and capitalize upon their most lucrative opportunities. By encouraging and convincing our team members that they can conceive and bring to life truly innovative and counterintuitive approaches and solutions, we learn to project… to “think beyond”… which enables us to identify and capitalize upon emerging market opportunities that are not obvious to the casual observer, the untrained eye… or the competition. The objective is to craft and deliver products and services that are 1), unmatched by the competition and 2), unexpected by the customer, and that when presented to the prospect or client, generate a response akin to “Wow! We would have never thought of that, but that is exactly what we need!”. That is how an organization and its personnel carve out a market niche that is uniquely theirs and establish their position as a “market maker”.

In short, our responsibility as leaders is to impart a sustainable, positive and productive culture, help our leadership and team members identify and capitalize upon transformative opportunities, and improve operational efficiencies. If we do that, we make better decisions faster, successfully leverage our strengths for a sustainable competitive edge, and maximize financial performance.

To close, I’m a Clemson Tiger, having graduated from there in 1977 with a degree in Financial Management. I am fortunate to have been married to my wife, Susan, since 1979, and our children, Taylor and Evyn, have forged their own way in the world, having become well-respected leaders of businesses and people in their own right. The final word? People and life have treated me better than I deserve… and for that… I am genuinely grateful.