Plus Delta’s staff has a long-standing history of inviting our four-legged canine friends to work with us. In fact, that’s one of the many reasons why Our Blog was honored as one of the top consulting blogs by OnlineBusinessSchool.org. Well, Plus Delta’s Founder and CEO recently adopted a new dog into the firm, and we’ve been fortunate enough to have him entertain – and teach – us in the office for the past few weeks.
As best we can tell, Nigel is a 7-year-old part Pit Bull, part Labrador mix. And even though he weighs in at close to 70 pounds, he is a lap dog through and through (so he thinks!). He’s actually one of the sweetest, most docile dogs we’ve ever met and a pleasure to be around, which is a good thing since after spending the last year and a half living in a “no kill” animal shelter in Santa Barbara he loves nothing more than just hanging around with us.
So why would a management consultant be writing about his dog you might ask? Or asked differently, what lessons can we possibly learn from Nigel?
For starters, Nigel doesn’t ask for much from us. All he wants is some one-on-one attention from time to time. When that isn’t possible, he’s quite happy to be left alone in the corner, knowing that he’s not getting in the way.
Another interesting tidbit about Nigel is that he loves his bed. He actually has four different beds throughout his two homes and office, so it’s more about knowing his place and feeling safe than the bed itself. You can actually move his bed anywhere you want – including outside in the sun – and he’ll happily curl up in a ball with the comfort of knowing everything is OK.
Maybe the most important lesson we’ve learned from Nigel though is his sense of accountability. I’ve met many a leader – and especially an employee – who denied responsibility for his or her actions. Not Nigel! If you catch him laying on the couch or even worse after a rare accident in the house, he doesn’t try to get away by declaring, “What? I didn’t do it!” Instead, Nigel takes responsibility for his actions and admits when he’s done something he isn’t supposed to do.
Nigel is a great living example of several leadership fundamentals I’ve been learning an teaching for years. The only difference now is that this “leader” loves to roll over and have his belly rubbed too!
