The Bear Behind the Cub

The Bear Behind the Cub

There's a scene from the 1988 movie The Bear that has stuck with me for years.

An orphaned bear cub comes face to face with a mountain lion. The cub is tiny by comparison. But instead of running, it stands up on its hind legs and faces the mountain lion head on.

Then something happens. The mountain lion backs away.

For a moment, it looks like the cub scared it off. Just this small, helpless orphan, somehow standing its ground and winning.

Then the camera pulls back and gives us a different angle.

Standing directly behind the cub is a massive adult grizzly.

The cub wasn't alone. It never was.

That's leadership.

The Room Doesn't Care Who Prepared You

Over the course of my career, I watched a lot of people walk into rooms they weren't excited about walking into.

Presenting a budget. Defending a recommendation. Explaining a bad month. Making a hard call. Standing in front of senior executives and answering questions nobody wants to answer.

I could have stepped in every time. Taken the meeting myself. Handled the tough question so they didn't have to. Some days that would have been faster. Some days it would have been easier for everyone in the room, including me.

But they wouldn't have grown.

My job wasn't always to stand in front of my people. Sometimes my job was to stand behind them, and make sure they had the knowledge, the preparation, and the confidence to handle the room on their own.

Why I Built TS Business Coaching

That idea is a big part of why I started TS Business Coaching.

When I teach someone how to read a P&L, manage cash flow, build a budget, control labor, manage up, or communicate with executives, I'm not trying to make their decisions for them. I'm trying to give them the business knowledge and the confidence to stand in that room themselves. To answer the hard question without looking over their shoulder for someone to save them.

Teach them. Coach them. Prepare them. Then let them stand.

And make sure they know you're standing behind them the whole time.

That's the kind of leader, coach, and mentor I've always tried to be. Not the one in front taking the credit or absorbing every hit. The one behind, making sure the person in front never has to face the mountain lion alone.

Your Turn

Who stood behind you at a point in your career when you needed the courage to stand on your own?

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