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How to Step into Shoes Bigger

Than Yours

by Glenn Shepard

Because of what I wrote last week, I thought it was only appropriate to share the rest of the story, as Mr. Harvey would say.

In Wind Beneath My Wings, Bette Midler sang, “It must have been cold there in my shadow”. I thought about that at exactly 10:07 AM on August 3, 2008. The outside temperature was probably somewhere in the nineties, but the coldest place on earth had to be standing in the shoes of Cliff Wright.

I’d never met him before, but I disliked him from the second I first laid eyes on him. It had nothing to do with his appearance. He looked like a pretty likeable fellow, and reminded me of actor Scott Bakula (Murphy Brown, Quantum Leap, Boston Legal).

It had nothing to do with who he is, just what he is. He's the new pastor at Brentwood United Methodist Church, which means that he replaced Dr. Howard Olds, who I wrote about last week.

Every year, hundreds of new managers ask me how to start their tenure when they’re stepping in to a position previously filled by a weak manager that let people walk all over him or her. That’s tough, but what’s even tougher is stepping into a position previously filled by a leader who was larger than life.

This is the challenge that Harry Truman faced when he succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, and George H.W. Bush faced when he succeeded Ronald Reagan in 1989.

It’s the same challenge that Steve Ballmer faced when he succeeded Bill Gates as president of Microsoft in 1998, and that adult sons or daughters face when they take over a family business that their parents have run for years.

I watched closely to see how Reverend Wright (not to be confused with Reverend Jeremiah Wright) would handle this. It was clear that he had spent considerable time and effort preparing, and had developed a three-prong approach to tackle the challenge.

First, he showed humility, which I’m sure he would have exhibited even without the extenuating circumstances. There are 38,000 Methodist churches in the U.S and BUMC ranks #12. That’s a big enough challenge in and of itself.

He used humor extensively and was intentionally self-deprecating. As a professional speaker of 17 years, I immediately recognized this tactic. Zig Ziglar and Stephen Covey do the same. It’s hard to throw daggers at someone who throws daggers at themselves.

Next, he showed empathy by addressing the fact that Dr. Olds had baptized or presided over the marriages of many of the people in the room, as well as preaching the funerals of their loved ones. This was the 800-pound gorilla in the room that Reverend Wright had to address, and he did it beautifully.

After he made it a little less easy for people to dislike him, and let us know that he understood and felt our pain, he moved on to stage three.

This is the big one, and it's where true leaders show what they’re made of. Stage Three is getting people to reaffirm their commitment to the organization’s mission.

Reverend Wright said, “This church is not great because it’s been led by great leaders, or because it’s had so many great lay people supporting it. It’s great because God is great, and He’s still great. He will still guide us if we’re wise enough to let him.”

He then wrapped up with, “Well folks, I’ll be back again next week. I hope you will be too”.

Whether you’re the new leader of the free world, or a new shift leader at McDonald’s, this is exactly how you should handle such uneasy transfers of power.

Fight the urge to try and change everything at once. You can’t lead if no one will follow you, and it takes time for that to happen.

Start humbly and give people a chance to get to know you before you ask – or demand – anything of them. Then empathize with their concerns and uncertainty by letting them know that you’re not going to try to replace your predecessor, but you are going to pick up where he or she left off.

Finally, reaffirm your organization’s mission. No matter how obvious it may seem, it needs to be stated and reaffirmed out loud.

This applies regardless of whether your organization's mission is to make billions, win a Superbowl, stop terrorism,  or cure cancer.

Then, start laying out the course, gently and subtly, of where you intend to steer the ship now that you’re the captain.

No matter how eager you are to hit the ground running, you won’t be remembered for how you started. You’ll be remembered for the results you achieved throughout your tenure as a leader.

To Your Success,

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