Honoring our Leader
I worked side by side with your father for the past several years at IBM. Please forgive me as I could not be there at your father’s memorial service, but I was there in spirit. You may not understand all of my comments right now, but you will as you grow older and work at your job someday.
Kelly was a true and original leader with his people. He always was in the moment and present with us, and believe me that is hard for a leader to do given all the responsibility they have. He never ignored you or made you feel inferior, although he was a superior performer than most IBM sales people. I would call him humble, but confident.
Kelly recognized good performance and made us feel good about ourselves, no matter if you worked for him or side by side with him. I was a guest in one of his meetings and he remembered to publicly honor me with a comment about something small that I did to help his team. He did not need to do that but he knew I would feel appreciated.
The leadership traits that I saw often were that he was decisive, enthusiastic, wise, just and unselfish. Not a day goes by that we don’t miss him and his leadership dearly, but we honor him each day by striving to be a leader like him. I was blessed to have known and worked with Kelly.
May our good Lord bless you and bring you peace.