December 16, 2024. One year ago today, I learned something about leadership I couldn’t have learned any other way.
At the time, I knew this day would come.
In fact, I had been preparing for it for two weeks. Over the past few months, we had fallen short more than once in delivering all the packages required to meet our contract. Sometimes we didn’t have enough usable vehicles. Other times, too many people had called off.
I hadn’t been able to right the ship yet, and with Christmas approaching, I knew it would happen again. The volume was off the charts.
I didn’t think of it this way at the time, but this was another moment that called for ownership. Instead of waiting for the next failure, I made a move. I certified my vehicle and completed my DOT medical exam so that, when the day came, I could deliver packages myself.
We were down two trucks. Two hundred packages were sitting on the floor. The terminal manager’s voice echoed across the dock as he tried to keep things moving.
“I’m ready to drive. What can I take?” I asked Zeus.
He hesitated and glanced around, clearly trying to make this as easy on me as possible.
“We’ve got about thirty-five packages for a hospital and a school in Madison,” he said. “It’s two stops. You want to do that?”
I can’t fully explain why, but in that moment, I felt a deep sense of pride. Not because it was easy, but because I was finally doing the work alongside them.
I loaded my pile box by box. Nothing too heavy to handle.
Another driver walked by and glanced at my car, sitting among the sprinter vans.
“The boss lady is driving,” he said with a grin. “We’ll send out a search party if you don’t come back.”
I laughed, but I also noticed something shift. In that moment, I wasn’t a visitor or an observer. I was part of the work.
An hour later, I backed into the loading dock at the hospital, wearing my corporate parka, and rang the bell. From there, I navigated the school bus line and delivered the rest of my load to the rural elementary school.
When I showed up at the terminal the next morning, the mood was lighter.
“You driving again today?”
“You just might be able to get a job here!”
I didn’t save the day on December 16. The metrics would prove that. But the rubber had met the road, and something important had shifted.
Leadership doesn’t always show up in results in the short term.
A long time ago, my mentor told me, “You can’t manage results. Only behavior.”
That day, I did the only thing I could control. I showed up. And sometimes, that’s what leadership looks like.