Drubber Originale

How do you eat an Elephant? Jimmy Sitz knows.

This guy, Jim, has used every ounce of leadership he possessed to drag me kicking and screaming into a more stable career path.

There was once a time when I questioned every directive. I would obstinately state my opinion on every matter. I yelled. I yelled a lot. I was on a quick track to failure. Every "leader" I came in contact with threw authority at me. They forced me into submission, and it only made things worse.

I remember watching Jim saunter into work his first day. Quiet, unassuming, I instantly hated him; a feeling that would quickly change to admiration and respect.

The group of guys I had been working with had been through a lot together. We had faced every obstacle together, and we survived.

Jim was not happy with survival. He wanted us to be the best. He wanted every single person to envy our success. He wanted our supervisors to sing our praises, and he had a plan on how to get there.

Every new boss had tried to break us down and build us back up to their own standards. They wanted to force change on us and we would have none of it. We made them earn every single inch that they gained.

So what was one more boss?

Jim came in, reviewed our records and watched us. For a week or so he sat back and observed. Then he sat us down and pointed out our strengths. Bob was amazing at drawing samples, Dustin had an incredible program, Nick knew more about this than anyone else, Dave knew all the requirements. Then he showed us where we needed help. While we didn't like it, we went along with it.

We still had our share of fights. I distinctly remember openly yelling at him on numerous occasions, all because I didn't want to to x, y, or z. Still he stuck at it, trudging an up hill battle against us.

The day I came to respect him as a man and as a leader was a normal day. I had openly shown him some form of disrespect (probably more than once), and I was going about my life. Some time during my romp into insubordination someone at the top of the totem pole came and found me. This supervisor pulled me aside and was completely honest with me, a novel approach for his class of people. He said that I was in significant danger of punishment. In fact, he said, the paperwork has been written, and rewritten several times.

Each time I had been on the cusp of implosion, Jimmy had stepped up and taken responsibility for me. He expressed his belief in me. He told the higher ups that he saw small changes that were becoming bigger as the days passed. He didn't want to destroy all the time and effort he had invested in me with something that would send me back to my old ways.

I looked inside myself that night, and what I saw scared me. I saw that I was truly changing. I saw that I was becoming a better man. Not just better at my job, but a better man!

I would love to say that I became the man Jim hoped me to be the very next day, but the sad truth is that it took some time. I did, however make up my mind to learn everything I could about my job, and moreover how Jim elicited such a change in me.

While my study was never fully completed, I can look back on my time with Jim and see a direct change of course. I went from the guy who was destined for punitive actions to the guy who ran the show.

The most important thing I learned from this man is the need for compassion and empathy. Without those two things I would have been lost, and because of them I am back on the right path. Without a doubt Jim has had a huge influence on my life (even today he critiques my beer recipes), and it was all won with baby steps.