The Fine Art of Showing Up
The Essential Intangibles Part 3
A film director once said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” This is the essence of one of the essential intangibles: the fine art showing up. People spin around on the hamster wheel of success but still undercut much of their work by simply not showing up when it counts. Showing up at just the right moment can make you, and missing it can break you just as surely. Why?
This is part 3 of the series “The Essential Intangibles,” the little things that can make or break a leader. These intangibles are essential, but thankfully, they can be learned by anyone.
When you don’t show up…
You may be a great leader in a bunch of other tangible ways. Your resume may include accomplishments and awards and fancy titles. But when people talk to others in your org about your leadership one of the first things that comes to their minds is how well you show up.
If you’re not around when you’re supposed to be, no matter what your results are, people will privately wonder about your work ethic. If you have a “clock in—clock out” attitude about work, and you never show up to put in some extra elbow grease, the team around you will wonder if you really believe in sacrificing for the mission. If you only show up to your own events and meetings, and rarely support someone else’s events by showing up (and showing up on time) then they will begin to believe you are in it only for yourself.
If you never have time to go out to lunch spontaneously, or you forget someone on your team had major surgery, then the team will treat you like a one-dimensional robot. And if you’re not around to strike when the iron is hot, if you didn’t show up when the organization was at a major turning point, well, you can’t take that back. You have not learned the fine art of showing up when it counts if any of these are true of you. If you do not show up you get shown up by those who do.
When you do show up…
Sometimes it is not what you say or do, it is the fact that you show up. My neighbor when I lived in Michigan was the postmaster for a large city. She rose to this prominence in the Postal Service in training other leaders to respond to the new Post 9/11 world. Later she traveled all around the country to consult others. One day while we were working in the yard and chatting, she mentioned that she had just been to a funeral. “Who for?” I replied, assuming it was one of her distant family members. “It was for the parent of one of our line workers” she told me.
I was surprised. Having served many years as a local church pastor, I’ve shown up to a whole lot of funerals. (Pastors are as common at funerals than flowers.) It is a part of the expectation for us. I was a bit amazed that this woman who had hundreds working for her, and who traveled to Detroit, Chicago and Washington D.C. to train others every month, had taken the time to show up at a funeral like that. But it’s because she has this intangible. She knew that was a moment to show up.
She also knew that it is not really what you say, it’s that you show up in the first place. I have never been able to say something at a funeral that “makes it all better.” In fact, trying to say something profound at that time usually does more harm than good. Instead, just being there is what warms the heart of the hurting.
There are several categories to showing up that demonstrate how it expands and multiplies your leadership influence in an organization:
The Minimum Show Up
You don’t have to be an “office rat” (always there like a gym rat on the basketball team). However, accessibility is easy to underestimate in an organization. You may work remotely from the main office, but can people reach you by email or cell-phone when they need you? Do you show up late to all your video-conference calls even though your desk is in your bedroom? When you’re not available do you tell those who should know where you are so they don’t have the chance to assume you’re at the beach? The bare minimum show up is different in each organization, but if you are in the top half of the “show up quotient” in an org then you will be more respected and counted on when the chips are down.
The Extra Mile Show Up
Then there’s going beyond the bare minimum, showing up for that little extra bit of work that shows you care. Others will know that you are giving it your all. I am not suggesting that you need to burn the candle at both ends in order to have this intangible. I am suggesting that if you just show up for the bare minimum then over time others will question whether you are committed or if you are coasting.
The Supportive Show Up
The funeral my neighbor-friend went to was a supportive show-up of the most heart-felt kind. But other kinds of supportive show ups count too. When someone else puts on an event or holds an informal meeting, if you show up “just to show support” then it gives you much better clout with that person and the others at that event. They “appreciate you coming” to show your support. They feel your presence, even if you’re not doing anything other than being another positive supportive presence in the crowd. As a point leader or manager in an organization these supportive show ups can go a long way. Just coming at the beginning or end of an event can do a lot to show your selfless ownership (like the first intangible) for that other leader’s area.
The Relational Show Up
Beyond your job description it’s important to show up relationally. If you’re available to grab a bite to eat, or to go out for a movie from time to time with co-workers, then the relationships with your co-workers will be more than one-dimensional. It’s not like you have to be best friends with those you work with, but it does help to really be a human every once in a while, not just a title.
The Right Timing Show Up
Sometimes your org goes through a crisis or a significant decision making season. There are a variety of ways to show up during this season that can make or break your future with the org. Leaders who have mastered the fine art of showing up make sure they apply this intangible during these seasons like no others. When the going gets tough it takes something intangible to get going and you never really know who in your org has it till they need it. This resilient attitude often amounts to simply showing up and taking orders from the “org bunker.” Other times it is seizing the moment to take your organization to the next level. they “strike while the iron is hot.”
Shakespeare explained this kind of season in Julius Caesar (Brutus’ speech in Act IV:)
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
This fortune tide, as my father called it in his Strategetics leadership lessons, helps someone who knows how to show up the most. They are the ones you always seem to end up being at the right place at the right time.
How to develop the fine art of showing up:
If you’ve determined you could really work on the fine art of showing up within your organization here are some starting tips:
Who is hurting or in need in your organization right now? How are you showing up in their life? Send them a card, drop by their office this week, or text them right now.
If your work gives you flexibility, don’t abuse it. Let people know where you are. Put a post-it note on your door about where you are or be accessible by phone or text if you’re working but not where people might expect to find you.
Sacrifice personal or work time every once in a while to show up to a significant event in someone else’s life in your org.
Come in early or stay late every once in a while.
Don’t schedule a lunch every day, sometimes keep one open and spontaneously go out to lunch with anyone free that day (CEO’s take note of this one!)
Consider the key seasons in your organization in the past? Who “showed up” and delivered in those times best? What’s coming up that might be that again?
How to spot & reward someone who shows up:
When I was a very young leader in my 20s I worked with a guy who seemed to show up like few others I’ve met, and I learned a lot from how he modeled this intangible. His name is Dave Horne. He worked with Global Outreach at our church, so his work had little to do with the everyday lives of most of us. He was working to send people, money and prayers to places on the other side of the planet in missionary work. However, few people were more “present” in our organization than Dave. He seemed to “add value” to our team in a way that his job description and résumé didn’t show. That’s because he had mastered the art of the show up. He had that intangible ability to show up and make his presence felt in supporting what’s happening or making things better with just a bit of encouragement or a bit of help. He didn’t go overboard, in fact, I’d say he seemed exceptionally balanced with his family and work. He didn’t do everything, but he did do the things that count.
Rewarding a guy like Dave who adds value to the organization in ways that don’t show up on paper as well is crucial. He should be coaching others, making decisions, participating in major projects. And he did all these things on our team. An outside consultant might not suggest those things, but anyone on the inside knows that this intangible goes a long way toward making all the pieces in an organization fall together.
