Lon is a non-visible Native American that was classified at our workshop as a white middle class, older male. The younger female manager described her perceptions of Lon as ‘being wise’ and she hoped to achieve his level of wisdom someday in order to have many of the answers she perceived his sage years had brought him.
Lon is a man that has come from a grass roots world of experience. A Vietnam Vet flying Marine jets over the jungles, an undercover motorcycle gang cop in southern California and a high tech entrepreneur that learned his technical craft from the direct lessons of people much younger than he was. His street smarts experience translated into an emotional intelligence that became apparent to all the participants.
When asked by Lon what gave the young female manager the impression that he was wise she described him as older, grayer and observant, somewhat like a father figure. She also said that he didn’t say much and the key body language signal she noticed was his smile. He would smile on occasion and she saw the smile as acknowledgement or agreement without the need to verbalize anything.
Lon does have a captivating smile. His nickname, given to him by the Mexican gangs when he was undercover, was Smiley. And Lon was middle aged, showing the signs of the wear and tear of life. Salt and pepper hair and moustache along with the wrinkles on his face and traditional expanding middle gave him an almost grandfatherly appearance. We discussed further the key characteristic that seemed to dominate all the others she had defined as sage. That appeared to be that Lon sat mostly as a quiet observer during much of the workshop, speaking sparingly, mostly relying on asking clarifying questions and the occasional wry smile of acknowledgement. Group discussion followed raising question to the concept of quiet observation as a key tool to the sage leader’s repertoire.
Lon shared that he has many of the same concerns as everyone else in the room. He said he is just as scared on the inside as they are. He feels that the wisdom of age has likely given him more questions to ponder than it has answers to the questions that he had as a young man. He finished by acknowledging to the younger leader that he saw all the gifts in her that she was hoping to gain with age. The sage wisdom of leadership was not confined to the gray hairs of his generation. He shared his gratitude to be in a room filled with leaders much younger than his obvious years that showed the promise for the future of leadership in their organization.
Are you recognizing the sage leaders that populate your organization irrespective of age, race, gender or any other judgment that may cross our radar screens? And are you putting their best assets to use? I often wonder why organizations spend so much money drafting new players from outside the team while a quality player may sit unnoticed on the bench.
