I was recently driving down the road when a driver in a plumbing company service truck flashed his blinker and safely pulled in front of me. Painted on the back of the truck in large bright red letters was the following statement:

 “To report unsafe driving, call (phone number).”

My initial thought was, “I’m sure the phone number doesn’t belong to the driver of the truck.” Surely, the plumbing company didn’t want someone to personally contact the driver and immediately let him know that he was driving in an unsafe manner.

Instead, the infraction was intended to be reported to a third party who would probably have a conversation with the driver at a later date. I’m guessing that instead of immediately receiving a phone call from his company, at the end of the day, when Bob pulled into the plumbing company’s garage after a hard day of working on clogged toilets and leaky water pipes, his supervisor would confront him.

“Hey Bob. We received a call from a lady this morning that said you cut her off in traffic when you changed lanes. Pay more attention to your driving because it directly affects how people view our company.”

So what’s my point? It seems that the plumbing company is missing the point when it comes to evaluating their employee. Given the fact that the main purpose of a plumbing company is to provide excellent service in the field of plumbing, it would have seemed more reasonable for the bright red letters on the plumbing truck to say something like this:

“If you have received unsatisfactory plumbing service from our employee, call us at (phone number).”

After all, Bob’s primary job is plumbing, not driving. I doubt that the plumbing company has ever paid for or required Bob to take a defensive driving course. If Bob drove a taxi, then the admonition to report unsafe driving would make sense.

Bottom line: When you’re evaluating employee performance, make sure the evaluation matches the primary responsibility of the employee. Also, be sure to provide training for any area of the job that you plan to evaluate.

I recently noticed a monarch butterfly as it softly landed on a bush across the street from my house. My curiosity got the better of me and I did some poking around to see what I could learn about butterflies. I discovered that butterflies and caterpillars have a lot to teach us about leadership.

First, letting go is a necessary trait of leadership. A butterfly emerges from the cocoon because a caterpillar let go of something in order to become something else. Times of uncertainty are a normal part of becoming a leader. During these times, we must let go of that which would restrict us in order to embrace that which would enable us to soar to the heights.

Second, solitude provides space and time for transformation. When the caterpillar is full-grown and stops eating, it becomes a chrysalis and suspends itself under a branch or hides in leaves. During times of change, leaders need to go “dormant” and give their body and mind a transformational environment. Outwardly, it may not appear to others that anything is happening. However, immense change is happening within the leader. This stage may last a few weeks, a month, or even longer.

Third, everything we consume will nourish our new form. During the first “feeding stage,” the caterpillar’s job is to eat enormous amounts of food, which is used for transforming itself into a butterfly. In order to experience continual growth and transformation, a leader must be continually consuming knowledge and pursuing new experiences which will feed the future development of the leader.

Fourth, if nothing changes, nothing changes. In order to develop into a new creature, a butterfly goes through a process called metamorphosis, which has four stages. Each stage is fully dependent on the other. While change can at times feel painful, if leaders do not allow themselves to go through the stages of change, nothing will ultimately change and they will never experience the joy of flight.

Recently, a friend sent me a text message requesting some information. I replied with the information and I received an emoji reply, which was a smiley face with big eyes and shiny white teeth. I assumed this was my friend’s way of saying, “Thank you for taking the time to reply to me. I am very pleased with the information you sent to me. It will be of great help to me.” At least I think that’s what my friend was trying to say, but I couldn’t be sure.

Traditionally, people wrote books and letters using words to convey their thoughts. Using these two means of communication, the writer had a lot of time to carefully choose his or her words and review the sentences in order to convey the right emotion and achieve the right tone.

As the twenty-first century has dawned upon us, many people now supplement their communication with emoticons (a typographic display of a facial representation) and emojis (actual pictures of everything from a smiley face to a whimsical ghost.)

Now don’t get me wrong. I enjoy receiving a message interspersed with an emoticon or an emoji or two. For some people, writing a paragraph that clearly describes their thoughts is more difficult than simply drawing pictures. However, I wonder if we might be reverting to our earlier days of living in caves. You have no doubt seen photographs which depict drawings that early cave dwellers used to tell a story of a significant event. However, how much more might we have learned from these early spelunkers if they had communicated their thoughts in writing? Perhaps we would understand the underlying motive for their actions, their dreams for the future and how they faced and overcame daily adversity.

Yes, a picture may be worth a thousand words. However, I doubt that pictures will ever replace the written word when it comes to communicating matters of the heart.