What My Dog Taught Me About Leadership

I understood him 12 years after.

Year 2007, I was 21 years old and going through my last year of Psychology. It was a cold autumn morning, a Thursday at 06.30 am. I remember very clearly that it was cold and dark.

That day, before going to the bus station, I proceed to do my sacred routine every day; go to see my dog and say goodbye. He was sick, so during those days, I had him in the house with a blanket to keep him warm.

But that Thursday was different, that morning I saw in his eyes that was the last time we were together, the last day that we will say goodbye. I sat next to him and immediately knew he was dying.

Leon look at me a few minutes like if he was trying to tell me something. I hug him crying like a child, saying that I love him and that please, I need him in my life. After a few minutes, he passed away.

I have always thought that during that night, he was suffering, and just maintaining the last piece of energy waiting to the morning to say goodbye.

Leon was a fourteen years old German Sheppard. He was part of my life since I had seven years old. He was my best friend during my childhood. We used to play every day, go for holidays together, and every time that I went out to play with my neighbourhood friends, he always was there with me, sitting in a corner waiting for me to call him.

He was well known in the neighbourhood. The bus stop was at two blocks from our street. Sometimes he would go out of the house a few hours, and if he saw any neighbour going out to the bus stop, he will go with them and wait until they take a bus, and then go back to the house.

Today, while I was cleaning my desk, I found one photograph where we were together during a holiday, and I started to remember all the things we lived together.

Doing that, I started to realize that there are some abilities and way of lead that I have that probably I learnt it from him.

Us is more important than I

Since the beginning of my career, I have never used the word I when I am talking about my work, receiving some congratulation, positive feedback or anything. I will always say us, doesn’t matter if there were more people involved or not.

The same way if there is something negative, a problem, or an issue to solve. I never look for the people that made a mistake, I just go ahead to help found the solution.

When I was a boy, I did everything with Leon. I never leave him alone if I was going out to play, or a family trip on weekends. I always wanted him in the good parts of my life; even when I was just in the house having fun, I will always bring him with me.

Same way, every time we were playing and something happened (let’s say he broke something with his body or the classic hose that he loved to chew), I never betrayed him, and I will always say to my father that “we” were playing, “we” broke that, or that even was my fault leave the hose outside.

We were a team, and teams need to put a shield between the members to build a trustful relation. If I trust my leader and my team, I will follow them to the end of the world.

Take care for your people

There is nothing more important as a leader than taking care of your people. Even if that means leave the work beside, stop doing something, delay a milestone, anything. People is always the most important.

Leon used to walk with everyone to the bus stop, wait for them to take the bus, and then go back home. I even remember an opportunity that my sister’s boyfriend went back to his home walking late at night, let’s say near 11 pm, and Leon went with him the entire journey. And we are talking about a 30 minutes walk, no less.

Revenge is a waste of time

Being a kid, sometimes I treat him wrong, I hit him, or I sent him to his kennel. He never betrayed me or attacked me back) like some other dogs we had in our family house).

I like to think that he was more mature than me, and probably he understood that some of my reactions wasn’t a personal thing, was just an emotional act.

In my experience as a leader, sometimes you will be in that pint when you want to say to someone in your team “you are not good for this”. Or maybe, in a high tension moment, someone says to you something aggressive, not polite, and intense.

You can’t take that personal. One of the most significant problems people have with their bosses is that they do not have the confidence to speak up, they have a fear of what can happen to them if they say something wrong, or provide negative feedback.

I am open to that, and I embrace those moments because it is there when you grow the most.

When someone is not ok, walk with them in silence

In 2000 my mother had a brain accident, and she was near five months in an intensive care unit in the hospital. I was fourteen years old. That day I started my first job as “pool cleaner”, and I vividly remember when a friend went to let me know that my mother was in the hospital in the emergency room.

I lived that entire experience becoming more introvert. I preferred to be alone than with more people. But it was weird, in somehow I wanted to be alone, but also I was waiting for someone being with me in silence. I just needed someone by my side, not talking, just being there.

Leon was that person. With me in silence, quiet. It was like if he knew something was going on. He just stayed there with his head between my arms, peaceful.

As a leader, you need to be able to realize when someone in your team is not having a good time and help them. But, we need to be careful that people do not need for us act like bosses saying “I think you need to…” and give them options, or advice. They need someone to be there, in silence by their side.

Sometimes we think we need to be always fixing everything, and rather than be there for support, we try to provide solutions to circumstances that are out of our hands.

Be patient, the opportunity will be there

So far, my career has been excellent. I had times where important roles have been offered to me, and I had rejected. Not because I think I can’t do the job, but because I feel it is not the right time.

Every time Leon went out with me to play with my friends, he wasn’t the kind of dog that will be bothering everyone or running behind the ball. He just sat behind a tree waiting for me to call him at the right moment.

In our role of leaders, we need to be able to provide feedback in the right moment and place.

I know some people can think that my learnings as a leader probably are part of my own experience and process. In some part, that is true, but the examples above are characteristics of my leadership that I had since I was in High school, and I improved it with time.

Thanks Leon, for being the first friend, buddy, and coach that I had in my life.