City Manager Question:

To me, you can’t be a good leader if you’re not willing to also do the work. While I set tasks for my team, I always make sure they’re not tasks I myself wouldn’t be willing to do. I was supervising a shop that was responsible for cleaning and testing float monitors used in storage tanks when we got a call from a business that had several of our products in a sewage tank. The sensors weren’t reading properly, and he was concerned. We did some research and realized the sensors were due to be replaced. It was a miserable task, but someone had to do it. On top of that, we were short staffed in the shop which meant that the team doing the task would be down one man and it would take two days instead of one. Rather than make the employees suffer any longer than they had to, I cleared my schedule, threw on a hazmat suit, and joined them in the tank. We were able to get the whole task done in one day and the client was satisfied. After the work was done the two employees each approached me individually and expressed how grateful they were to have me in there helping them out and that it made them really respect me as a leader and teammate.