Built to Lead: Issue 01

Intro

I’ve learned something the hard way:

You can’t lead a team you never see.

If you don’t know your night crew, your early drivers, or your floater subs—you’re not leading the whole department.

There was a stretch where I barely left my office.

Meetings. Emails. Projects.

I’d look up and it’d be 4:30. The night crew clocked in as I clocked out.

They didn’t see me. I didn’t see them.

Not because I didn’t care. But because I was busy.

And busy doesn’t lead.

The first time I walked into the middle school at 9:30 p.m., I felt like a stranger in my own department.