Leadership 1 – Management awareness

“Human behavior flows from three main sources:

desire, emotion and knowledge”.

– Plato

Summer of 1981. I become one of many assistant managers in the Hershey Park gaming division. It was my first real management position and I remember it like it was yesterday.

For the past two summers, I’ve worked every game position as a barker, you know the job, “Go ahead and try it!” and was required to wear a bright crayon yellow shirt with rainbow bars on the shoulders, navy blue pants, and to indicate my rank, a white name tag with black capital letters to identify my status. No title, no last name, just me and a blue Hershey Park logo. All Hershey divisions were required to wear a different uniform to determine their section: sanitation and food preparation was a blue pinstripe shirt with navy blue pants, security was a tan shirt with chocolate pants, wrinkle division was also blue but with a different style. . The ubiquitous sweepers, all girls, were allowed to wear shorts with white socks, but the boys had to suffer through the summer in long pants.

Within each division, there were managers: green tags were assistant managers, blue tags were managers, and brown tags worked directly for Hershey. If a brown tag told you to jump, you asked how high. One’s label color was the rigid plaster system we were working under. Who knew “Hershey Park Happy” was built on sound management principles?

Over a slow two-year period, I demonstrated that I am trustworthy, exhibited a strong work ethic, and exemplified leadership skills. I applied for the green label covered assistant manager position. Going from being a worker bee in a uniform with a white name tag to rising through the ranks to the first rung of management was a leap, and a very rare one. I was only 18 years old, but I wanted everything that came with that little green bar on my left tag: respect, freedom, better pay, and the power that comes from management.

It was a big mind shift. Last week she was wearing a uniform and now she was wearing the ubiquitous casual look of all Hershey Park managers: a well tucked-in polo shirt, khaki pants and extremely comfortable dress shoes. No hat. Nothing screams Preppy louder than a blonde-haired guy in khaki pants.

Due to a mix up, my green tag didn’t show up for about 2 weeks. So there I was, out of uniform, in what appeared to be a manager’s clothes, but without a badge to prove it. Oddly enough, the people I had worked side by side with all those years while in uniform disrespected me once I showed up outside a booth in normal clothes. No one listened to me, nor did they do anything I asked without rolling their eyes. Beyond the frustration of having to do everything myself, I was working twelve hours a day in sweltering 95-degree heat.

Today I understand what I would have done differently, as my wife always says: “We teach others to treat us”, and I would have been much more firm. She was 18 years old and inexperienced, but at least she had a small amount of wisdom. I asked my fellow managers how to handle the situation, and their suggestions have proven invaluable over the years.

Eventually my green tag came along and those who had been insubordinate suddenly found a new respect for me. Over the next two years, I learned the basics of leadership, never connecting the dots until years later, which came in handy running my own companies.

I know what it’s like to rank up. It can be rewarding and rich in experiences. It can inspire jealousy in some, admiration in others. Either way, things never stay the same, and whether you like it or not, the decisions are on your shoulders. But always remember that it’s a two-way street between management and work staff: you can’t get any work done without them, and they trust you to see the big picture. Quid pro quo.

So what advice can I give to those of you who are moving up to management positions from within your own organizations? Here’s a quick tip through 30 years of hard knocks:

First: Realize that just because you’re a manager doesn’t mean you’ve magically gained the skills to lead. That takes time, effort, and a bit of humble pie. To be a leader you have to carry the conscience of a leader. That means you have to own it.

Second: Although you may be good at the job that earned you the promotion, you may not be the best leader for that department. Everyone knows your weaknesses and secrets, so respect in the new position can take a long time. That’s why the military moves a newly promoted soldier to a different platoon. Peer groups do not see their former colleague as part of the hierarchy.

Third: To gain knowledge of leadership, start studying it. I read books like How Great Generals Win, or The Art of War, or Leadership 101. Emulate the leaders you admire… Jack Welch, Carly Fiorina, Steven Jobs, etc… read their books and learn. Some act like entrepreneurs and some act like executives and you can learn from the best while doing it.

I hope that helps. I have made many mistakes over the years, but I have dedicated myself to learning more.