Lost & Found The Story of How One Man Discovered the Secrets of Leadership...Where He Wasn't Even Looking

Why Me? "Welcome back from the leadership workshop, Larry." Startled, Larry Parks bolted up from his painstaking inspection of the blueprints for KGO Worldwide Conveyance Company's major project in Singapore. The plans involved an intricate web of moving ground-level and elevated walkways, escalators, and elevators throughout a stretch of central Singapore. Larry's boss in the Excalibur Engineering division, Chloe Hall, was leaning in his doorway. He set down his mechanical pencil and mustered a half-smile. "Hey, Chloe. What's up?" "Just wanted to know how the workshop went." "Great," Larry said, trying to feign enthusiasm. "Really good." "Can you stop by my office in about fifteen minutes to talk about it?" Chloe was turning to leave as Larry managed, "Sure." To himself he thought, It's 7:15 Monday morning. Can't she at least let me deal with my e-mail before demanding an audience? Larry rubbed his closed eyes with the cool fingers of both hands. He leaned forward, elbows on the gel wrist pad in front of his keyboard, and held his face in his hands while his inbox opened, revealing a torrent of e-mails awaiting his response: "Need your help." "Problems with permits." "URGENT . . . supplier financial troubles." "Timeline revision." "Staffing shortfall." "Technical glitch." "Spec change. . . . " Larry had tried to keep on top of e-mail during his absence. Even so, he counted two dozen new messages from Singapore having to do with the project--or, as he'd come to refer to it, "The road to hell." There were another ten from members of his domestic team. Of the thirty-four total project-related messages, twelve were marked URGENT. And all had arrived since he'd left the office the previous afternoon--Sunday, when people were supposed to be with their families. Larry let his head hang down and massaged the back of his neck, tracing along the spine to soothe the tension building there. But when he looked back up at his computer screen, he felt his jaw tighten again. "Oh, brother," he muttered through clenched teeth. "How can there be this many new e-mails on a Monday morning? Doesn't anybody around here take a break? Can't anybody think for himself? Do I have to personally handle every single detail?" Larry turned toward the wall behind him and caught his reflection in a large framed photograph of his father straining to reel in a huge marlin on a charter boat in the Bahamas. He considered all the time he'd wasted attending that leadership-development workshop the previous week, and the additional pressure it had put on him. The circles darkening under his eyes reminded him of how badly he wanted one really good night's sleep. Larry put aside the project plan and pulled out his workshop notes to prepare for his meeting with Chloe. Looking at the sparse pages from the workshop, Larry recalled the trouble he'd had paying attention. He knew its focus was developing leadership skills and self-awareness. But he'd had other things on his mind. Larry had brought the project plan to the workshop, plus the work breakdowns, Gantt charts, resource-allocation tables, and a bunch of component drawings he needed to review as well. He'd hoped to find a seat in the back of the room where he could be left alone to do his work while "getting his dance card punched." But the tables and chairs in the room were arranged in a horseshoe that had left Larry no place to hide. He'd resigned himself, about halfway through the first of the three days, to being an active participant in the workshop. But he still found it hard to care. The training was all soft: talk about the importance of process, caring for youSussman, Lyle is the author of 'Lost & Found The Story of How One Man Discovered the Secrets of Leadership...Where He Wasn't Even Looking', published 2004 under ISBN 9781400050857 and ISBN 1400050855.