observe… Yep – that is a wrecked car in a LinkedIn post. I lived through it. Mostly. Now that I have your attention… who is the one person on your team you have quietly stopped really seeing? Keep them there… for Thursday, empower, observe…
Owego, New York, a winter afternoon. I was late for the family Christmas card photo, of course, rushing the hour home to Ithaca where 3 small kids were waiting, 6, 5, and 2. The snow and ice had other plans. I slid, and I totaled my beloved 1981 VW Scirocco.
I called home, shaken. And the first worry on the other end of the line was not whether I was alive. It was that my wife had just gotten all 3 kids into their outfits.
I laugh about it now, because it is the most human thing there is. Under pressure, we lock onto the thing screaming for our attention, the outfits, the deadline, the release… and the thing that actually matters slides right out of the frame.
Which brings me to Tony Bennett, and a song he made his own, “The Shadow of Your Smile.” The whole thing is built on 1 small detail most people would rush right past. Off the stage, he was a painter, Anthony Benedetto, and he spent 70 years training himself to see. Singers perform. Painters observe…
… the muscle you are best at, and least deliberate about. You are running hard, shipping the release, hitting the date, quietly carrying the team. So here is the question the crash asked me: what was I so busy delivering that I stopped noticing the people I was doing this for?
That name you have been holding since the first line. Here is your “Simple… Not Easy” move: before your next 1:1 with them, write down 1 thing you have noticed that they have never told you. Then let them know you see it. 5 minutes, and it changes everything.
And tag the 1 leader who needs to look up from the deadline this week. Save this for the next time your observe is too narrow.
The outfits made it. The Scirocco did not. And I am still here for the photos, which turns out to be the only line item that ever mattered. If the frame has gotten narrow and you want a human across the table for the calls that matter, schedule time with me here. Let’s map a path together… driving slowly towards what matters to you… with the knowing Shadow of Your Smile.
