Work and Careers

He just drank

He just drank

I watched my dog drink water this morning.

Not sip. Drink.

He didn’t ask if the bowl was the right temperature. He didn’t check Yelp reviews. He didn’t form a committee.

He just drank.

I’m 47 years old and I’ve been in product management for 22 years. And it took a 4-year-old golden retriever named Biscuit to teach me what every Fortune 500 CEO is missing.

EXECUTION.

Biscuit doesn’t have a roadmap. Biscuit doesn’t have OKRs, KPIs or worry about CAC. Biscuit has a bowl and the audacity to believe he deserves what’s in it.

When did we lose that?

When did “thirsty” become a 14-slide deck?

I went into my 9am standup and I told my team: “Be the dog.”

Three people cried. One person quit. My VP asked HR to “check on me.”

But Karen from marketing? She got it.

She drank the water.

Promoting her tomorrow.

#Leadership #Authenticity #BeTheDog

Joe Ditzel

Joe Ditzel is a keynote speaker, humor writer, and really bad golfer. You can reach him via email at [email protected] as well as Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn.