Ice Cold Leader

CHAPTER 16Element Three—Guidelines for Behavior

MOST PEOPLE CAN AGREE THAT BEING A NAVY SEAL AND an FBI Special Agent are two exciting jobs. But one of my favorite jobs was the one I held after I left the SEAL Teams and before I entered the FBI: selling copiers. I took the job because, like most people who take a job, I needed a paycheck. As I explained in Part 1, I left the SEAL Teams after an injury that cut my career short. I had every intention of staying in the Navy as a SEAL, but it wasn't to be. I got into sales on the recommendation of a friend. The same friend recommended copier sales as a start because, as he put it, “It's the Vietnam of sales. If you can sell a copier, you can sell anything. Plus, they'll take anybody.”

Not surprisingly, I was not excited about this job at first. I played all the typical mind tricks to convince myself I was adding value to society and that my job mattered now as it had before. I was losing that battle. I never did, and never will, care about copiers.

What I found that I loved, however, was the environment the leader created. The environment was safe because it was predictable. Because the environment was safe and predictable, I enjoyed going to work. Because I enjoyed going to work, I did good work. We did good work. Our team always outperformed other sales teams throughout the country, but not because we loved copiers. It was because we loved the environment. And because we loved the safe and predictable environment, and because ...