WE RISE BY LIFTING OTHERS
Khalil Gibran memorial across Boston Public library. Photo By Luisa Shah
Point to Ponder: You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. - Khalil Gibran
Story Line:
I accepted an offer from Intel Corporation in March of 1984. Soon after joining the Arizona Campus, I had my first meeting with the new hire integration program manager. She informed me that as part of their new hire integration program, I would be assigned a buddy, veteran employee, to help my smooth integration into the unique culture of the company. To that, I requested Jon Slusser as my buddy, the very person who had convinced me to join the company.
She politely explained that it was not possible because Jon Slusser, a senior manager, was a very busy man and the normal process involved the company assigning a buddy depending on the level of the new hire. New hires typically did not get to select their buddy. I asked if she might consider my request. She called later and happily informed me that Jon had said, “I would be glad to.”
From what I heard later, she brought up my request, more in jest, during the executive staff meeting. As mentioned, Jon ended up accepting and thus began my relationship with Jon Slusser. Jon not only helped me integrate into the company but also continued to be a mentor and a friend even long after I had left the company.
Initially, during our 1:1 meetings we discussed many subjects. A few of the many things I learned from him were; establishing proper systems and structure to prevent problems down the road, essence of constructive confrontation, in certain situations how to ‘agree to disagree’ but not make it personal and go and have a beer with the other person, how to extract positive learnings from seemingly negative situations, even people who are higher up or seem very successful have also fallen flat on their …. And how they got up and rose again, accepting feedback and extracting improvement opportunities from performance reviews and how to energize and enlist people for your vision.
But what I found most amazing was the way he answered my questions. He would share personal experiences of success and failures from his career and in some cases from life outside work. He was very candid and at times would say things that one wouldn’t expect to hear from people; especially ones in the upper echelons of the corporate hierarchy. He was very open in sharing his failures, mistakes, and their consequences. In the competitive world, people are advised not to expose their weaknesses, air out their dirty laundry to outsiders, and open up about their vulnerabilities. I came out of those meetings feeling energized and reaffirmed- realizing that I was not the only one having similar problems- as Jon, such senior level person, had also been through such challenges and shared how he had overcome them.
Reflection: The most profound lesson I learned from Jon is that sharing our failures is not a weakness. It is a strength when we learn from failures and when they motivate others to persevere. For stories of success we often look to famous people's stories but often the stories that truly stick originate from someone who is directly in our sphere of work and life.
Having adopted this philosophy in my life, and candidly sharing my triumphs and tragedies with friends, coworkers and family through the years has been enlightening. One cannot change his/her past but if it can help change someone's future, then the, “Things that are given away are never lost.”