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BY COL. STEPHEN T. MESSENGER
Commander, Fort McCoy Garrison
As the locals know, Warrens is a small town in Wisconsin with a population of about 500 people. Yet every September, it swells to over 150,000 as they host the Cranberry Festival, also known as CranFest.
I attended this event and took a tour of the cranberry marshes, ate some cranbrats, had a cranshake, and stood in waders while raking those red berries.
During my cranberry education (cr-eduaction?), I learned that the way to tell the ripeness of this fruit is by what’s on the inside, not necessarily by what it looks like on the outside. It’s the same with leadership — the inside matters most.
The two-faced side of leadership
In my career, I’ve seen a number of great and not-so-great leaders. The ones who really puzzle me are those who treat people differently. You’ve seen the type.
In an extreme case, they interact with their bosses in a very professional and deferential manner, coming across as the perfect employee.
But when they’re around the people who work for them or peers, they can be demanding, crass, and sometimes unbearable.
There’s a Bible parable where a man couldn’t pay a large debt, and he begged forgiveness from his boss. This boss showed compassion and completely forgave what was owed to him.
The man turned around to one of his employees who owed him 1 percent of the debt that was just forgiven, and instead of similarly forgiving it, the man threw his debtor in prison.
This two-faced side of leadership is completely opposite of how we should lead. Leaders should treat everyone the same way from bosses, to peers, to employees. If you’re one way with your boss but a different way with your employees, you demonstrate inconsistent leadership — and everyone sees it.
The inside of a cranberry
Cranberry growers use the bounce test to sort the ripe from the unripe. As the fruit matures, the enzymes convert into simpler sugars in the cell walls, making them soft and transparent. A ripe cranberry will make a “bong” sound when dropped on a hard surface. It will splat if overripe.
In days past, farmers would use this bounce test on millions of cranberries to sort out the good from the bad. From the outside, it’s often hard to tell if they’re good. But the inside never lies.
The inside of a leader
In the same vein, it’s often hard to tell from the outside if a leader is genuine or not. We sometimes see only the side of people they want us to see.
A simple example is that if someone comes over to my house, I’m probably going to clean up before they arrive. Their perception is that the house is always spotless.
The reality is that houses are made to be lived in, and it’s not continuously perfect.
People are the same way. They’re going to show their best side to those they seek to impress. For some, that would be bosses or clients. For the great leaders, that would be everyone.
The true measure of a leader and a person is not how they treat those in positions of power, but how they treat each person. A servant leader seeks to not only serve those they work for, but for those who work for them.
They go out of their way to show their best to those who are doing the hard work, and not just their bosses.
They remove obstacles from their employees’ paths and ensure they have the right tools to perform. They focus on completing the mission and achieving organizational objectives by supporting the people who are working hard in the trenches. or cranberry marshes.
Be the cranberry
Much like a cranberry, you often can’t tell the true nature of a person by what you see on the outside. It’s what’s on the inside that counts.
Our best leaders go out of their way to treat everyone the same, from the CEO to the janitor.
We need leaders who focus on lifting others up, regardless of their position, and treat everyone the same.
As any good cranberry farmer knows, the inside is the important part.
| Date Taken: | 10.12.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 10.12.2023 16:16 |
| Story ID: | 455655 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 130 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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