Frontline Leadership Lessons From the Lake

By Jules McVey, MS, PhD(c)

One thing I rarely talk about is that I am an Industrial and Organizational Psychologist. I chose this field because I wanted to help create better workplaces for my daughter.

But here’s the thing.

The more time I spent inside organizations, the more dysfunction I saw thriving because companies were taking advice from people who had never actually worked inside the environments they were consulting on.

Experts with academic credentials but no real‑world experience. Brilliant on paper. Disconnected in practice.

I remember saying in one of my grad classes that organizational psychologists should have residencies like medical students - go into real workplaces, experience the chaos, feel the emotional labor, understand what it’s like to be screamed at by a customer and still show up with grace the next day.

It fell on deaf ears. “Residencies for org psychologists? Pfft. Not needed.” 

(or is it?)

I’ve worked in teaching hospitals, private labs, restaurants, state agencies, federal organizations, entertainment, real estate, high‑profile tech, a law firm, and a handful of random jobs that taught me street smarts and emotional intelligence - two things that often predict success better than IQ.

Most changemakers (the real leaders) emerge from the frontline staff.

Why?

Because they know the people. They sit in the trenches.

Those are the people transforming cultures.

Leaders with titles should be bringing them into the room with the academically trained facilitators. That’s how you bridge the gap between theory and reality.

Anyway. Stick with me – there’s a duck coming.

Yesterday, I got back on the water for the first time in 13 years.

I grew up on lakes. I don’t know why it took this long. At one point, I had the fear that a horror‑movie plant was going to grab my ankle and that would be the end of it. Once I paddled past the tall reeds, I laid on my back and closed my eyes. The sun was warm.

Moments later, I got that sense of doom like someone was watching me.

I opened my eyes to see a duck swimming toward me at full speed. (wicked fast)

It circled my board like it was deciding which end to hop on. I thought, “Absolutely not. We don’t know each other like that.”

Long story short, I sat up and I paddled. The duck paddled with me. We explored the lake together.

Here’s why I share this:

You can’t understand the water from the dock. You can theorize it. Diagram it. Publish it. But until you’re in it - past the plants and fear - you don’t actually know the lake. 

You have to get in. Feel it. Move with it.

The duck is your frontline staff.

They're already in the water. They know the plants. They know which end of the board will flip you. The people who change workplaces aren’t the ones shouting instructions from the shore. They’re the ones who paddle alongside others instead of telling them how to row.

And those are the people I will always bet on.

Stay saucy ✌🏼

Jules

P.S. One way I recognize natural leaders is when they give others an extra 5 minutes, or a “hey, can you go grab me a coffee and buy one for yourself too…” and give them their card cause they saw they were about to break in front of others and they got them an out without disclosure... these are amazing people IYKYK.