renew what is already Bent?
“My proudest accomplishments are the names on the back.”
I thought it was a gimmick honestly. We needed a new Senior VP to consolidate our business unit leaders into a group so our current boss would become the Executive VP of most of the business. We were thrilled for him, but very nervous about this handover, and this new guy. Everything on the front looked right – speeds, feeds, numbers… but the back?
…the thing you were going to renew, and never did…
This week asked you for 6 things. A name said out loud. A calendar marked. A call made with no agenda. A page of what only you know. A meeting you did not attend. Something handed over for good. How many got done, and which 1 did you skip because it was the one that mattered?
The skipped one is the answer. It usually is.
their only Hot 100 number 1, and it is about 2 people who do not work properly
Bent was the first single off Mad Season in 2000 and went to number 1 in America for a single week. It is the only time Matchbox Twenty ever topped that chart, which is a strange fact about a group that had already sold 12 million copies of its debut. Thomas has described it as a love song and a rock song with a hopeful tone to it, about 2 people who are both a mess and work anyway, because each one accepts what is bent in the other.
Mad Season is also the record where they stopped being 5 men and a set of guitars. A string section out of Nashville plays on 4 of its songs and a brass section on 2 more, with Serletic scoring the orchestra. A band that wanted to last made room on its own record for people who were not in it.
…and 30 years on they are still standing on the same stage…
Look at the shape of it. A rhythm guitarist gone in the mid-2000s with no reason ever given. A drummer who did not know whether he wanted to come back. A lead player who left in 2016 and returned in 2017. A singer who became famous on somebody else’s record. Not 1 clean line anywhere in it. Thomas, Yale, Doucette and Cook are still the core of the band, the debut is still selling, and the catalog outlasted most of what came out beside it.
Succession is not a document. It is a name you have said out loud, to the person it belongs to, early enough to be useful.
…which is a better account of Succession…
Nobody hands over to a finished product. The person who takes your work will be Bent in the places you are straight and straight in the places you are Bent, and they will do half of it worse than you for a year. That is the actual condition of every handover that has ever worked. Leaders who hold out for a Successor with no bend in them hold out until the decision gets made for them by a calendar they do not control.
It was real. As he came on board, this man taught everyone around him about leadership – the real lessons, the real tools, the real asks, the real Succession plan of stepping away… and expecting you to step up. And… most did. I was fortunate to eventually report to him as his head of global engineering… a disaster, but… one that he had confidence I could fix… and mostly did. And, when I decided that this was a good exit ramp, he graciously helped me do that… AND, was the first person to hire me in this new world. Scared to death, he again came through in ways that didn’t feel like a gift, but an honest ask for help… from a peer… something that I would have never imagined…
What would you renew first, if you started tomorrow?
Go back over the week. The names you wrote down, the marks on the calendar, the page of what only you know, the list of what is still in your hands. Read all of it in 1 sitting and look for the name that turns up more than once. That person is your answer, and they have been waiting for somebody to say so.
Your “Simple… Not Easy” move: read the week’s lists back in 1 sitting and name the 1 person whose name shows up most. Start there on Monday.
Helping a leader read their own week back and see who is actually standing next to them is most of what I do now. Schedule time with me here.
Start with the one whose name kept coming up, bends and all… Bent
