One of the earliest leadership lessons I learned in life came while spending time with my grandfather as a child. I used to look forward to going to his house as he would always let my brother and I build things or do projects. He would show us how to use his tools like hammers, saws, and drills. One of the earliest things I remember building was a wooden car with oversized rear wheels and a chiseled out seat that we would push around his basement. However, to be able to use my grandfather’s tools, he had one rule - leave things better than you found them. At the time, I didn’t think much about it. It literally meant, regardless of how I found things, making sure you cleaned up the workbench, cleaned up the tools, and put things away in their proper place. It wasn’t till a little later in life that I realized how powerful those few words really were.
Whether you are just starting out your career or a seasoned professional, leaving things better than your found them should be a goal for all of us. If you are doing your job right or serving your organization right, everyday we should be thinking about things and doing things to make that company or organization better. It might be recommending changes to do things more efficiently or identifying areas where waste that can be eliminated. Perhaps it is putting in a new system or technology that is going to drive more sales or give you a competitive advantage. However, as a leader we need to take that a step further.
Leaders need to be looking beyond themselves. They also need to look at how they are making their teams better and how they are making their entire organizations better. When you step into a new role, ask yourself how you are going to make this team and organization better a year from now, 3 years from, 5 years from now. There are a lot of factors that go into making you a successful leader and people can debate what success is, but if you can look back and say you are making your team and organization better than you found it, it is hard to argue you are not being successful and bringing value to your organization. It may not be as easy to see what kind of impact this will have if you are just starting out your career. However, as you grow, and your roles change, and companies or organizations change, if you have this mindset from the start, that impact will become more apparent. No matter what role or what career stage we are in, there are always opportunities to get better and keep learning. The moment we stop learning is the moment we stop leading.
In my own career, I have been in a wide variety of roles and situations. Some where the explicit intent of my hiring was to come in and drive improvement where we needed to get X, Y, and Z better. In other cases, there was already a high performing team in place, and I was there to continue to bring new ideas, insights, and perspectives on how do things to help the organization grow. Early in my IT career it was about my inner drive and wanting to learn more about the business and how my role in IT could help the business. I put that knowledge into projects and activities that helped drive growth, efficiency, or innovation. That led to promotions and new leadership opportunities, even a new role to lead a business group outside of IT. When you make things better, people will take notice. Even now, being involved in various alumni groups or volunteering for community organizations, one of my primary focuses is how can I leave things better than I found them. After 20+ years of working or volunteering in various roles, businesses, or community groups, I can confidently look back and know that I made each of them better in some way by being there.
Leaving things better than you found them should really become the rallying cry for appreciating the opportunities before you and making the most of them. It means working hard to improve every situation you find yourself in.
My grandfather may not be around to see the fruits of his wisdom so many years later, but its legacy does live on. Several years ago when I was doing work on my house, my retired neighbor was gracious enough to lend me a tool or two that I needed to complete the job I was working on. When I was done, I was sure to clean everything up, vacuum off the miter saw, and sweep up the area where I returned it to his workbench. He said to me afterwards, he was happy to let me borrow his tools anytime because I always returned it better than I found it.
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