I had just had my booklet THE DIGITAL JOURNEYMAN printed. After an Apigee I Love APIs Conference (as outstanding as ever), we found ourselves in a beautiful bar on the East River in New York, where I had my very first Manhattans. Fitting, really.
The setting was perfect – and then there was an encounter. At some point, Chet Kapoor (Apigee’s CEO at the time) and I crossed paths. As far as I remember, he asked how I was enjoying it – and how I was doing. Nothing particularly unusual or remarkable about that. Except – it was! He had a way of asking that made me feel, for those thirty seconds or so, like the most important person in the world. That has stayed with me to this day.
Dear Chet – this isn’t flattery. That is how I experienced it. Perhaps you had no idea what you did in that moment. It stayed with me :)
Another encounter from my time at Swisscom has stayed with me just as vividly: meeting the then CEO, Carsten Schloter (who died in 2013), on Genfergasse in Bern. Preparations were underway for an event for new employees. He had an incredible presence – yet he was one of the crowd. No airs or graces. We joked around for a moment.
But this isn’t about name-dropping.
I also remember the kitchens in countless start-ups, where you never felt that a conversation (about whatever) was considered wasted working time. In those kitchens, nobody asked whether this was work or a break. Perhaps something emerged in thirty minutes that would never have emerged during an entire day at a desk. And yes – perhaps it was simply a pleasant conversation.
I remember the mailman on the ground floor of the Swisscom Tower, whom I often chatted with over a quick coffee. We worked in two worlds, eight floors apart, and in that moment we had so much in common.
HOW WE SEE PEOPLE
To me, how we see people comes down to the fundamental assumptions we make about them – often before we even know them. Those assumptions shape what we believe people are capable of, how we treat them, and the conditions we create for them.
How do leaders like Chet Kapoor and Carsten Schloter see people?
Let me venture a guess:
Perhaps I’m wrong. But I believe people like them ARE on equal footing with others. Truly. Unguarded. Direct. And for a moment, there is no CEO, no consultant, no role. Just two people.
So why isn’t this article simply called “On Equal Footing”? Because I believe something deeper becomes visible in those moments: how we see people.
And before this starts sounding too lovely: sometimes I catch myself placing myself above others. I hate that about myself. But it happens. In those moments, I’m a long way from meeting anyone on equal footing.
What happens when I lead from that position? When my assumptions about what others can do, what they want, and what they deserve determine how much trust they receive? What freedoms they have? What they’re allowed to do – and what they need my permission for?
Then how I see people is no longer my private affair. Then it becomes other people’s everyday reality.
How much leadership people need varies. How much dignity and respect they deserve does not. Our fundamental regard for people should be unconditional. And at the risk of repeating myself: unconditional means unconditional.
How this article came about:
I discussed the topic with ChatGPT while riding my BMW F900XR between Bern and Zurich.
Memo from the conversation: ChatGPT
Article: written by me, revised together with ChatGPT
Time spent: around 6 hours