Father was waiting for them by the cafeteria entrance checking his phone. Sevs and Markus were a few steps from the doorway when he looked up. Father spotted them and quickly covered the steps left between them. He swept Sevs up in a huge hug. Laughing, Sevs returned the hug.

“We were only gone for a few hours!”

“I know, but it’s good to see you. You weren’t too bored, right? How did it go?” The last question was directed at Markus. After setting Sevs on the ground, he offered his hand for Markus to shake. Noticing the hand, Markus seemed to snap out of his slightly sheepish mood.

“It went smoothly, no issues at all. I’m sure you already know, but you’re raising a genius,” Markus responded.

Father looked at Sevs, “I sure am, but I’m also sure every father thinks that.”

“No, I don’t think you understand. We can talk later.”

Father shot Markus a quizzical look but nodded and turned to Sevs. Resting his hand on Sevs’s shoulder, he led them inside. While entering the cafeteria, Father asked Sevs to tell him everything that happened.

As they walked in and got in line at one of the stations, Sevs started telling Father about his morning. In his eyes, there really was not much to tell. Markus had done some work. His meeting got moved back as they had some extra time to spend at the office gym. He, of course, left out the part where they bent the broom. Overall he had a good time and enjoyed getting to know Markus better. Meeting new people was pretty fun.

Father didn’t seem to think the morning was all that normal and shot Markus a few confused looks while attentively listening to the story. When Sevs was done, Father asked a couple of clarifying questions. “So what were you doing when Markus was working, he was programming, right?”

“I was just asking him questions and offering suggestions.”

Father was used to treating his son as an adult in most cases. However, Father still had a bit of trouble picturing his very young son giving suggestions to an experienced engineer that would not be quite annoying. He had never considered Markus a patient man, but that started to change. Sevs was very insightful, and not just for someone his age. However, having a good grasp of programming fundamentals was an entirely different task than having an intuitive understanding of people and the world. Besides that, anything Markus would need a suggestion on would be far beyond a fundamental concept.

Giving Markus another quizzical look, Father nodded, accepting Sevs’s story at face value. Stepping up to the front of the queue, he ordered his sandwich and motioned to the cashier that Sevs and Markus were with him. Sevs stepped up and rattled off his sandwich request. While Sevs was distracted, Father whispered to Markus, “Okay, what really happened?”

“It's as the boy says.”

“We’ll talk later,” Father promised. Markus just shrugged in response, giving off no apprehension. So maybe things were that simple after all. Markus stepped up to order next. Sevs spoke up. “So, how was your morning, Father? You heard about ours. Now tell us about yours.”

Father took the ticket with their order number and led them to a nearby open table. Sitting he considered what he could say. There was some confidential information that he could not convey, especially in public with all these people around in the semi-busy cafeteria.

“Well, I had some strategy meetings. We also went over some confidential quarterly reports. Honestly, it would be boring unless what those numbers say had an outsized impact on you.” Father considered. “Or if you really like that kinda thing.”

Sevs made a face. Truly, there were very few people that found accounting interesting. As they ate, they chatted about random things. Markus was trying to get Father and Sevs interested in his new TV show. Neither was quite biting. However, they both seemed to enjoy running Markus in circles as he tried to sell them on it. Father wondered what really had happened when they were hanging out. He had never seen Sevs so confident and relaxed. Normally his son was on the reserved side. When he talked, it seemed that everything was a question. Now that is not expected of someone his age. Sevs was often right and seemed to understand so much it was odd. But here he was, not only speaking up more than usual, but he was also teasing Markus. Many of his quips were quite clever too.

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It was good to see Sevs loosen up a bit. Learning to have a casual teasing conversation is an essential part of socialization for kids his age and maintaining adult friendships. It might make it a little harder to make friends his age, but Father was not worried about that. Sevs would figure it out. He was just loving seeing the new confidence.

As lunch wrapped up, they said goodbye to Markus. Who offered Sevs a fist bump and handshake for Father as he made the turnoff to his building and Sevs and Father returned to his office for the rest of the day.

***

After a couple meetings, when Father had a chance to get some of the busy work done, Sevs looked away from his book. Sevs spoke up for the first time in a while. “Father, why does Markus not get along with his boss?”

This surprised Father. Markus was not the kind of man to complain. He complained all the time but not about real things. It was unexpected to hear him talking bad about a superior. Father would be surprised if he said anything like that to a kid he had just met. “Why do you think that? Did he say something?”

“No, I could just tell from his attitude about the meeting he was supposed to have. Also, from some comments on the work he was doing. It seemed that he was frustrated that his team was in the situation they are. As you said earlier, that is always the boss's fault.”

“Well, that might be a bit of a stretch of what I meant. I was saying the boss should always consider it their fault. Maybe outsiders can as well. It doesn’t always mean that, realistically, they could have done something about it. It’s mostly a tool for improving. But in this case, it is quite literally his boss’s fault.” Father paused to think about how to explain it better. “See, his boss is named Mellisa. She is a decently capable person but not great at leading. She tends to think she understands more than she does rather than listen to the people who know better.”

“Like Markus?” Sevs cut in.

“Yes, like Markus. Through a series of decisions that seemed fine in isolation but meshed into a bit of a mess. She got her team in an awkward position. From what I know she is working her way out of the hole she has dug, but it is still a long way to go. It will take a while for her to build trust with her team. Even still we won’t really know if she has learned yet. I hope she has.”

“Why not find someone else to do her job and move her?”

“Finding good leaders is hard, she still has potential, and that is not easy to replace. You see, leadership is a rare skill to find, maybe one in a hundred come to it naturally, and another five or six can pick it up completely. Just being a leader isn’t enough. It's best if you have some understanding of the work you are doing. You don’t need to be the best at what you do. For example, think about a military platoon, there is, say one officer and a couple NCOs, and a bunch of enlisted. That officer may be pretty good with a gun but doesn’t need to be better than every man in the squad. His skill set is different. But he does need to know how to shoot. If he can't hit a target at 5 meters the men would never respect him.”

“Not only shooting, right? He has to be good with maps, writing, reporting, and everything else.”

“Exactly, they don’t need to be able to do all of the things the enlisted do but they need to understand how and when it is used.” Father thought about how to bring this conversation around to his original point. “See now, I’m leading a bunch of leaders. I might be the best at leading a team but, I would not have to be. Melissa was a capable engineer but nowhere as good as Markus. However, she showed the ability and initiative to lead. So we are giving her a chance.”

“Sounds like she has a ways to go.”

“She does, leadership is hard, and she is still new. I made many mistakes when starting out as well.”

“Like what?”

“Let’s talk about that later, it's a long story.”

“Okay, one more question then, before I will let you get back to it.”

Father nodded his acquiescence. “Shoot”

“So is it best for a leader to be a jack of all trades?” Sevs asked.

Rubbing his chin, Father thought a bit. “Not necessarily, there is something to be said for specificity as well. If you are asking about yourself, I would say yes. You still need to find your passion. Also, you have no idea what you will be doing later in life. I have a feeling you will be a leader no matter what. It is a good idea to learn the basics of leadership while you can, but that’s not enough to be a leader. When you are young, it is the time to try everything, including things you might not like.”

Sevs nodded and continued to read his book while Father looked back to his computer.