How a cup of coffee changed my professional life (and then some)
When I started at the company back in 2010, I was pretty sure that I knew everything there was to know about my line of work – recruiting, sales and marketing – and about my own self. I should have known better.
A couple days after I started working at the company, I was about to meet with Roberto Martinez, the CEO, a young man in his thirties, to discuss some job-related stuff. As he sat there, I headed towards the meeting room, cup of coffee in hand. Roberto looked towards me, and I asked, “may I come in?” I expected something like, “… yes, of course”. Contrary to my prediction, Roberto responded, to my surprise, in the least conventional way possible, “… I don’t know, can you?”
Wow. It was up to me to decide whether I could or could not come into the meeting room with a cup of coffee in hand!
Roberto’s response was far from conventional, it was reminiscent of a gentle “whipping,” the way a Zen master does with his pupils. A cup of coffee in my hand helped me discover what empowerment truly was.
Do you empower your team to decide what they can, should or want to do?
