Thanks Jimmy Eat World.

Never call me Jimmy. My cousin was Jimmy. He died and the name died with him.

Now for something completely different.

The Torres shelter has a staff that truly gives a shit.  Most of them have been homeless.  They get what we go through.

The supervisor has my eternal thanks. She is tired of having to wait for the directors to make up their mind about the ebike and escooter thing.

I’m a special circumstance. I get to plug in my scooter. I can go to Bidwell park and sit by the creek.

I can’t explain what that does for me.

There are several of the staff that are the only reason I’m sane after 7 and half months, including my case manager and the woman who is my therapist and even the kitchen staff.

I don’t use names because I actually care about these people.  No one needs to see their name in my writing. 

I’m grateful for those staff members that actually care about their jobs.

We all know what it’s like to work for a paycheck and that’s it. It takes something out of you when all you care about is the check.

I wrote a leadership book and at one point I was working to get consulting gigs. I know leadership inside and out.

When I used to do interviews, I gave one question that told me everything I needed to know.

Define a customer.

Here’s what I was looking for.

A customer is any and everyone you interact with.  How you serve them, is your customer service.

Most people look to be served and rarely do people look to serve.

I look to serve.

I serve God, the Gyre Field, the universe whatever helps you sleep at night.

There’s a story in that leadership book.

The term landlord came from lord of the land.  The lord was responsible for caring for the land and the people. 

The lord of the lords was the king. The king was never found in a palace and he wore no crown.  Instead he could be found wandering through the kingdom looking for someone to help.

As he helped them, he got the story of why they needed help.

Had they been good and decent people, something wonderful would happen after he left.

Had they been douche bags, something horrific would happen after he left.

It’s the anonymity that protected the king.

He got to see people for who they were, and they saw him as he was. Had they known the king was there, they would behave differently and the king wouldn’t have gotten a good look at his people.

The king serves all and is not looking to be served.

Trade queen in for king and it still works.

Work at being kings and queens.

Always look to serve and never be served.

Now look at the business landscape.

Elon, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg and others are too busy being served and they like being served by all of us.

This is why they are not leaders.

Anyone who has billions is not a leader.

The janitor has more leadership than all of them put together.

When I worked as a manager, I worked with my staff and I had a title that meant it was my job to tell them what to do. However, they were a reflection of my leadership. 

When I gave my team of 13 supervisors and 350 phone reps to another manager, after a few days he said I had built a strong core of supervisors and should be commended for that.

That’s what a leader does.