Gargoyles vs. Concierges

I had a foreign language requirement in college so I enrolled in a German 101 class. German was not as popular as some of the other languages in the university so the department was fairly intimate. After having the same professor for German 101 and 102, I decided I would like to continue my German studies because he was really that great of a professor. He often would grade a little easier than he needed, he would grant extensions for questionable excuses, and he would always go out of his way to ask about life outside of his classroom. I asked him after a German 201 class about his willingness to be so helpful to his students. He replied that most people are either gatekeepers or doormen. He went on to explain that a gatekeeper will force you to run through a gauntlet to get ahead, deservedly so or not. Often the gatekeeper had a poor experience to get where he is at so he feels the need to make you suffer as well. In contrast, the doorman is there to open a door for you and to help you go through. A doorman does this because he realizes that he didn't get to where he was at on his own. And to pay back those who helped him, he pays it forward to the next person coming along. My German professor explained that he tries to always be a doorman.

As I've explained in previous posts, most of us have toiled under bad leadership at some point.  But that is no reason to be a bad manager when it is your turn. Don't be a gatekeeper. Job security is one of the benefits to government employment. I mean, it can be damn near impossible to get rid of us! But that also leads to stale management that swears that it took them 25 years to get promoted and they had to kayak across the Potomac to get to work before the metro made it easy for today's lazy gen-xers millennials! So instead of opening doors to help people walk through them, they turn into scary gargoyles and try to punish you for daring to try to advance.

My German professor went on to explain that he knew I would never be very good at German, but he also knew I was just taking his class as a means to an end. Rather than being unnecessarily difficult he made sure that I took his class seriously and held open the door for me and thousands of grateful students.

So be the doorman, you'll be a better manager and you'll get to wear a cooler hat too.