This obtuse title needs a little explanation. One of my favorite novelists is the late Canadian writer Robertson Davies. Perhaps his most famous work is the first book of the Deptford Trilogy, Fifth Business. The author explained the book’s title as a theatrical term – a character essential to the action but not a principal, “called the Fifth Business in drama and opera companies organized according to the old style.” In the spirit of full disclosure, Davies later admitted that he invented the term. However, I think it is a great term and my total immersion in the Minneapolis theater scene triggered a memory trace of Davies’ and the fifth business role in any production.
I also believe it has some applicability to organizations. In any organization, we typically know who the “leaders are because they are the ones with the titles – the principals as Robertson Davies would say. However, there are others in the organization – “characters that are essential to the action – whose absence would be extremely obvious. They are the ones who don’t just get work done. They are so tuned into the organization and how things work that they can really make things happen.
For example, I recently facilitated an off site leadership team meeting. We had an extremely successful session that would not have been nearly as productive if the person assigned to handling all of the logistics and meeting arrangements with the hotel were not there. Not only did Mary have things running like clockwork, she brought the whole event in under budget!
So take a minute to think about the people who play those fifth business roles in your organization and send me their story.
Lessons From Living a Public Life
Let me be clear. I am not a celebrity. If I am famous – which is not for me to say – I am unaware of that fact. From time to time, I have received kind notes of gratitude for my work and that feedback is always great to get. However, I have always led a very public life. Not because I purposely sought to do that; it just seemed to turn out that way.
In the village where I grew up in NJ, I participated in a lot of activities that kept that public side in view including baseball, theater, music, public speaking, and elected office in school. So people knew who I was even though I did not know them. In my current life, I have been working with one client for pretty much my entire freelancing career. During that time I have met well over a thousand people in just this one company. A very common occurrence is that someone will say, “Oh, I saw you at the grocery store or in the hall or at such and such a play last week.” When I hear comments like that it makes me realize two things: Others are observing me without my seeing them; and I better pay attention to my behavior because others are!
Last week I was in the left-hand turn lane waiting for the oncoming traffic to pass so I could enter the parking lot of my favorite coffee shop for a caffeine fix before my next meeting. There was a driver behind me honking to seemingly get me to turn into the traffic. I am wondering “who is this person?” as I looked in my rear view mirror. Fortunately, I remained calm. I turned into the parking lot, and noticed the other vehicle following me. We both parked and out pops a client with who I am currently working, who was just excited to see we went to the same coffee shop and was only trying to greet me! Had my behavior been different, I could have really blown it.
The point of this blog entry is this. I have learned a lot of lessons in my life. Some of the learning has even been painful; fortunately, most has not. I wanted to share this lesson especially with Millennials. More and more people – particularly Gen Y – have a more public persona online than ever before . Between blogs, Twitter, FaceBook, and LinkedIn we are all more “public” than we know. And I am stunned by how much some people reveal about themselves. As an example, one of my favorite blogs, http://www.askamanager.com had a post about a resume that listed that person’s personal blog on a behavior best left to the privacy of ones own home. Now most of you who know me well recall that I make it a point to be as nonjudgmental as possible in all of my interactions with others. So what people choose to reveal about themselves – particularly online – is up to them. I would just encourage everyone to think about the future consequences of revealing that personal tidbit. People – some of whom you will never know – will notice.