Park Road Plaza: Lessons in Life, Leadership and Generational Diversity

By Jeff Ireland

Generational diversity has always existed, but it has now intensified due to the recent technology explosion, the early entry of younger generations into the workforce, and the late exit of Baby Boomers from the workforce. Many mangers have to deal with several generations on the same team. It requires a deeper understanding of management and better understanding of people skills to handle a diverse staff. In order to get the best from the entire team, it is important to satisfy their needs while retaining individual talent.
Surveys indicate that fully 60% of employers report tensions between employees of different generations.
Join Alex Steele as he uncovers the challenging differences between these generations and develops a game plan to lead a better team.
Along the way, he discovers not only the skill to lead, but the skill to live. The journey is deep-rooted in pain and darkness at times. In the end he emerges, not only with a better understanding of people, but a better understanding of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496902771

Jeff Ireland

Jeff Ireland has been the retail service industry for over 20 years. He lives in Concord North Carolina wife and three children. Jeff has given motivational and informational speeches on national and international stages. His honest approach in life and his other writings are both educational and inspiring. For more information or comments are welcome he can be reached at [e-mail]

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© 2014 Jeff Ireland. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/01/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-0279-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-0278-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-0277-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014906268

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedication

Preface

Prologue

Outer Journey Chapter 1: The Challenge

Outer Journey Chapter 2: The Traditionalist

Inner Journey Scene I: The Joker

Outer Journey Chapter 3: The Shoeshine Man

Outer Journey Chapter 4: The Baby Boomer

Inner Journey Scene II: Refugee Running

Outer Journey Chapter 5:

Outer Journey Chapter 6:

Inner Journey Scene III: Badlands

Outer Journey Chapter 7: The Second Step in Leadership

Inner Journey Scene IV: You Wear It Well

Outer Journey Chapter 8: Generation Y

Outer Journey Chapter 9: The Third Step in Leadership

Inner Journey Scene V: Enter the Jester

Outer Journey Chapter 10: Motivating Yourself

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Dedication

To the Memories of:

My Dad

My Mom

My Sister Sandee

You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply and with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.

—Woodrow Wilson

Preface

After months of research on the topics of Generational Diversity and Leadership (both pretty hot topics in the business world today) a friend and I put together a well received presentation. My wife Arlene told me I should write another book using the speech as the starting point. I began the journey of writing a business book, one that could help people of all ages understand not only their work environment better, but also their life in general. Regardless of what we do we all deal with people of all ages.

But my journey like all journeys took not only some expected turns but also many unexpected ones. If you look up journey in the dictionary one of the definitions is: passage or progress from one stage to another. Life’s journey is summed up that way just like this book; we go from stage to stage with changes along the way. What started out to be a business book began taking on a life of its own and took me down not only a spiritual path but also a human path. The inner journey in the book is representative of every persons struggle. We all have demons of some sort in our head. We all have a background going on in our minds, hearts and souls as we approach our work life. All of it has an impact on the people we become.

As the chapters progressed one thing became very clear; this was more than a business book. I believe it is a story not only of business but of life, since it deals with human struggle as well.

In business, conventional wisdom tells you that there are lines you should not cross. The common refrain is don’t mix business and politics or business and religion.

I have discovered though my own journey that one of the hardest skills to master is the understanding that we’re not in control of many things. I have learned to approach what the Lord puts in my path with confidence, optimism and faith, and to do the best I can with every situation using those principals as my foundation.

Things in life may not always turn out the way we like, and seldom the way we planned, though they always turn out the way they are supposed to, based on the decisions we have made along the way.

It is in that spirit then, that I believe this book is what it is supposed to be. I give you this journey for your enjoyment; this work that I call a spiritual business book. I present it with confidence, optimism and faith that God will get it to the people who will enjoy and benefit from the journey.

Jeff Ireland

Prologue

It was a cold, night on a weary Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I was driving home to spend some much needed time with the family. The cell phone rang. It was my boss, Phil.

Well, you had better get some rest tomorrow and enjoy it! he abruptly began. You have to be at work first thing Friday morning to start interviewing people. I sold part of the company today and we are forming a dedicated customer team that you will be running. It is a great day for all of us and especially you.

It was a shock to my system. The first I had heard—and it wasn’t much—of the possible merger came to my ears two days before. It all happened very quickly. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. To be honest, I did not comprehend the magnitude of the change that was about to happen in my life.

The company Phil had started 14 years prior was an organization of 50 people, 8 of which reported to me. We were a sales company and I managed a few people while still carrying a bag. A bag carrier is industry lingo for a salesperson. The new dedicated customer team we were forming would consist of 350 people. All of them would report to me. This was a pretty big shift for my thinking and managing style, needless to say, my bag carrying days were over.

We needed to get the new enterprise up and running in only 30 days. Thirty days! A mere month to complete hiring, set up the office (including phones and computers), and put in place a workable infrastructure! Finalizing the structure promised to consume all energy and thought for the next six months. After that, things should settle down to a manageable level. Then I could start to wrap my brain around planning, managing, and on running the business like I should.

Things would have to move along so fast that I would scarcely have time to think, let alone focus. It was an enormous task and I knew from the get-go that it would be a titanic struggle, requiring a Herculean effort on my part. I knew something was missing… something huge.

What could it be? What was bothering me? There was a critical piece missing. I sensed it. Felt it in my business bones and being. What was it, exactly?

Modern life moves at warp speed. We are continuously hyperconnected as a society. How—precisely how—could I manage, connect, and bring it all together?

I was being pessimistic. I could do this, I coached myself. I just needed that push in the right direction. Like an ancient general about to go into battle, I had made all the necessary preparations, but I still required some type of a sign, something to make my way seem even more sure and certain of success.

My wife Maggie had asked me to stop by and pick up a prescription the way home.

As I pulled into the Park Road Plaza, a favorite Churchill line drifted up from the depths of my thought: A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

As I got out of my car and headed to the pharmacy, I saw coming my way one that many folks would call a bum. He was very thin, long, and lanky. Clearly, he never ate much and perhaps drank overmuch. His scraggly beard covered a kind face with a wry smile and bright eyes. I couldn’t help but notice the strangest mole just below his left eye. It was really big.

I looked like a kind soul. A kind soul with a big mole.

From the looks of him, he had no car, no home, no clean clothes, and no money. Of course, I thought about helping him, but I must confess that, at that moment, I didn’t want to be bothered. There are times that you feel generous and will take the time. Then there are times like this when you just don’t need the distraction. I am afraid that this cold, rainy, weary night filled with the crisis of a sudden seismic shift in my career was one of those. It was an, I’m sorry, and I hope you understand, but I just don’t want to be bothered, time.

I hope he doesn’t ask for money, I thought. He didn’t. He did say something, though.

That’s a very pretty car, buddyro, he said.

Thanks, I said quickly, only glancing at him while trying to walk on by. Oddly, he then asked me the year. That certainly slowed my thoughts.

I paused and told him, expecting the plea for money to come. But it didn’t.

For some reason, I stood there and as the silence between us widened. Then, something inside said, Ask him if he needs any help. I was sure that he would say Yes. I didn’t want that, but I obeyed the inner voice. Long ago, I had learned through hard experience to trust my gut, my conscience, God, or whatever that small, but strong, voice is.

Do you need any help? I offered, doing my best to awaken the angel of my better nature. He was a slow riser.

The mole with the soul answered in three simple, but profound, words. I’ll never forget them.

Don’t we all? he said.

Too often we look for wisdom in highly esteemed men and women—the reputedly great ones—and rarely from those of a lower station. Certainly, most of us would not consider a homeless man wandering by to be a hidden fountain of wisdom.

Surely I was blinded by the subtle illusions of pride, feeling so high, mighty, successful, and important, far above a bum in the street, until those three words blasted me like a twelve gauge shotgun.

I had reduced this man in my mind to an epidermal flaw, then I got blown away by the gentle voice of truth.

Don’t we all?

I needed help. I might not have needed the sort of assistance requiring bus fare or a safe place to sleep, but I surely needed help of another sort.

Trembling a bit from the fall off of my high horse, I reached in my wallet and gave him not only enough for bus fare, but enough to get a warm meal and shelter for the night.

I thanked him for the great advice and wished him well. He just shrugged and smiled.

What is your name? I inquired. People need names when they become real to you.

My name is Ben, he said. Ben Hooton. I’m just hitting a rough patch and I appreciate your generosity.

He walked off toward the bus stop with his long, gangly stride. He still wore that face-spanning smile.

I marveled at the wonderful spirit he seemed to have for a man who appeared to possess only a grateful soul.

It was kind of haunting, really, as I walked to the store with those words I had echoing in my head, Don’t we all? Those three little words, lowly chanting! Yes, we can all use help. Maybe in a different fashion, but we all—yes, oh yes, we do—need help.

Why was I being so proud, so egotistical? Maybe I could use some help, too.

Perhaps I could try what Otis Redding sang about: a little tenderness.

Just because I got the big job meant little to Wisdom. Maybe I could swallow my pride, I thought, soften my heart and my hard head, learn from other people, and get some true understanding.

I stood there in the parking lot of the Park Road Plaza in the cold drizzle, humbled and stricken by sudden crisis and insight, peering through the darkness into the Endless. Rooted to that mundane, but sacred spot, aware of only the cold wetness of my face, I was transfixed by the silence and emptiness that always precedes true vision and illumination. There, where Wisdom arrested me, my most incredible journey began. It was an amazing path to understanding, a road that was like a river where you must be careful to keep your feet as you are carried—even bidden—to ever higher insight.

I didn’t know it at the time, but an old homeless man with an endless smile and a long, gangly gait would be my guide down Wisdom’s river. Ben Hooton would change my life forever.

His name had become real to me. And that name had power.

Outer Journey Chapter 1:

The Challenge

With each passing day, the realization increasingly grew within me that I didn’t have a clue on how to manage as large a business as the one coming straight at me. I had been running a team of nearly 10 people in a small organization. The team I was now being asked to run was more than 30 times that size. I would be in charge of a team of 350 people.

How in the world, I wondered with growing trepidation, would I manage that? How in the world would I succeed?

Don’t we all? Ben’s words haunted me as I walked over to the book store in the Park Road Plaza a few days after our fateful initial encounter.

The morning breeze carried within it an early winter chill that went to the bone and I gathered my topcoat about me as I crossed the lot. I intended to buy a book on leadership and management styles, hoping to achieve a better understanding on precisely how to manage such a large, complex, and diverse team.

I entered the store and moved straight to the business section. With a trembling hand, perhaps from my determined desire, perhaps a residual effect from the weather, or both, I grabbed the first book that seemed promising. As I scanned its contents, though, my mind went away from it, back to what was bothering me and a phone conversation I had the day before with an old friend.

We were running at a pretty fast pace, I thought. It was mostly structure stuff, though, and the team was composed of seasoned professionals. We all basically knew what we were doing, so we could keep the business running for the time being. I consoled myself with such thoughts. But I knew that we had to be more. That was certain. And what might prove most difficult, is that we had to gel. Getting leaders to work together is like herding cats.

The day before, I called my old friend Dave Tutor back in Michigan. Ol’ Dave was always good for a proverb a quote or advice. We all have a friend or two like that. I have known Dave most of my life. What bound us together