Holly’s Taking Over
Our BD Associate Holly and I go on a weekly walk&talk that always starts the same way: with coffee (iced or hot, depending on the season) from Acola, the best coffee shop in downtown Columbia, Missouri. And while Acola isn’t fiercely independent, it’s independent enough, and somehow that means that despite having fantastic coffee, if you ask for to-go cups, you get the worst lids in the world. Everyone knows this and yet somehow we all keep ending up with them…and so if you are going on a walk&talk with Acola coffee (iced or hot, depending on the season), because the lids always leak in the place your hand isn’t, by the time you’ve rounded the block, either you or the other is likely to be wearing your Americano.
As that walking&talking (and spilling) was happening on a recent walk&talk with Holly, Holly – casually – almost offhandedly – offered to start leading our weekly Investing Team meeting. I said, “Yes, go for it, of course.” Not only because she is organized and would do a great job, but the whole point of leadership is to be able to put other people into positions of leadership and this was an opportunity to do that.
Now, I’d be lying if I told you that I didn’t feel some uncertainty about how that first meeting with Holly in charge would go. Because when you’ve been the one setting the tone for a while in any sort of confab – deciding what gets talked about, what gets skipped, how to gently redirect our CLO Taylor before he starts talking about Springsteen – handing that off, even to someone capable, creates uncertainty. But also if handing something like that off feels comfortable, it probably means you (I!) waited too long to do it.
The takeaway is that if something feels easy, it’s too late. So it follows that if something feels hard, you should do it now. Because the best part of being in charge of something is to not have to be in charge of it any longer. And it also means that you’ve hired well. Which feels good, too.
Have a great weekend.
– Tim
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