Last week my teenage son was at a ski competition at Taos Ski Valley and he brought home a ski hat with “Janitor” across the front. While the hat was nice, I was really curious about why it said “Janitor.” My son shared that the founder of Taos Ski Valley, Ernie Blake, used to wear a similar hat with “Janitor” emblazoned on it to emphasizes the importance of helping out wherever necessary. The tag on the hat explained how Ernie saw his role:
“Hello, Janitor Speaking.” This is how Ernie Blake, founder of Taos Ski Valley, would often answer the office phone during off-duty hours, presumably wearing his favorite hat that had “Janitor” in big letters knitted into the design on the front. But Ernie was only half joking: he was a janitor as much as he was the ski school director, snow reporter, maintenance department, tour guide, parking attendant and founder of the Ski Valley. There was no job too small or too large for Ernie and that is a culture that he instilled in his employees at Taos Ski Valley that still rings true to this day.
On one hand, I love the idea of the founder jumping in and helping out. There is a sense of entrepreneurial spirit, inclusivity, servant leadership, and respect that comes from role modeling these behaviors [“There’s no job to small or too large for Ernie.”]. On the other hand, many leaders struggle with letting-go and spending too much time doing the work of others. At best this behavior from leaders can be seen as gracious but inefficient, and more often as micromanaging, unfocused, and potentially hindering the growth of direct reports. The failure to let-go, often leaves leaders feeling that their team is overly dependent on them, a sense of being overwhelmed and disconnected from work, and that they are so busy doing someone else’s job that they are not truly adding value to the organization. This begs the question, “As a senior leader, do you want to spend your time doing $10,000 an hour thinking, or doing $10 an hour tasks?”
What do you think? Do the cultural benefits of a senior leader doing “janitorial” work outweigh the potential negative impacts?
Inciting Leaders 