Friends and readers, I am alive and well, but its looking like I need to take a break from blogging for a little while longer. Our 1500 mile move from Virginia to Texas went great and now its time to focus on settling into our new home.
Don’t worry…there will be more WorkPlay coming soon, doubtlessly better than ever. Look for new posts, a new look, and a renewed purpose in late August/early September.
Until then, keep playing.
I’m feeling kinda rowdy today.
Arnie Herz at Legal Sanity has a great post with a slew of links on the subject of balancing one’s work and life. At issue is the fact that most American corporations, consulting and law firms, and even non-profit organizations practice a modern type of indentured servitude. And most of us American employees just settle for it thinking this is the only way to make a better living. Okay, maybe that’s stretching Arnie’s post and point a bit, but let’s consider a few things.
Are you taking a vacation this summer or at another point this year? If you’re roughly one out of three American employees, you’re making a decision to forfeit your vacation time. That’s according to a survey conducted by Expedia.com. I used to work with a woman who was allowed to rack up 225 hours of vacation time (for those of you scoring at home, that’s nearly a month). When she transferred into the department I managed, I was strongly encouraged by my own director to get her to take leave. Thinking it would be easy to get her to take two or three weeks in the slow summer months, it was more like pulling teeth. She was a support specialist and felt she was needed too much to be away even for a couple of days. She was concerned that something would fall apart and she wouldn’t be there to handle it. She felt responsible for the working group. Sound familiar? She was also so burnt out of her job that she was constantly on edge, always a whisker away from a good cry.
What she failed to realize is that her “dedication” was slowly killing her or at least robbing her of joy in life. And you could also make some arguments that there was more going on here than just wanting to be a great support staff. Make no mistake…workaholism is just as addictive, damaging, and soul-consuming as some of the other “-olisms” like alcoholism.
Here’s a challenge to you if you’re a manager or an exec…tell your people to get lost at some point this summer. If the summer is a particularly busy time of year for your organization, then make it known that each person is going to need to take some time off when it slows down. If they don’t know how to take a vacation, confiscate the Blackberry and block their access to email and voicemail. Call it “tough love” because it’s an act of love to help another person reconnect with their full life.
It’s such a good idea it makes me wish that I thought of it first. We all know how important that 30 minute second elevator speech is when it comes to introducing our work or our company to a potentially interested person. We know how it has to grab that other person by the shirt collar and shake into them a clear recognition that you are just the individual to solve their problems. But how do you know whether your pitch is any good or not? You could always try it out on a friend or a family member and get feedback. Or you could try it out on a potential client and see how it lands.
Or you could submit it to Your Elevator Pitch, a website that allows you to post your pitch and receive ratings and feedback from others. In some ways, its kind of a self-help group for microentrepreneurs. One upside of the site is that it gives you access to others who are fine-tuning their pitch and you can gather ideas.
Right now, the site seems a bit new. For that reason, there are a few downsides. Your Elevator Pitch makes it easier to give quick, knee jerk ratings than actual comments to help you improve your message. I tried to add a message to one of the pitches and I’m not sure it actually posted. And there’s not a very good way to search all pitches which will be problem if the site scales too far beyond the 78 pitches there today.
With that said, the site has a lot of potential and here’s hoping that it can be a successful way for those of us working on selling our work or companies to craft a dynamic message. Give it a shot and let me know what happens. You’ll probably find my pitch there in a few weeks.
When God wants you to follow a particular path, God will clear all obstacles from your way.
This belief has occupied my mind these past few weeks. In this short span of time, we managed to get our current house under contract and have an offer accepted on our top home in Austin, TX. So, as of August 1, we will be official Texans and Austinites.
Yet, even though most of these things easily fell into place, we did (and still do) experience some nail-biting and gut-wrenching episodes surrounding financing and repairs on our present home. I must admit that there have been more than a few times when my wife and I looked back on our decision to move and asked whether it was the right decision. Was our determination to move to another state 1500 miles away justified? Or was it a semi-delusional dream for new adventure and a better way of life? Of course, these are the questions we ask in our darker hours…but, when we reenter the light we know that this is the right path and that Austin has always been preparing to accept us. In the end, we recognize that these past few months have been an exercise in faith.
Still, it’s almost impossible to not obsess over all the details and the potential areas where things could go wrong. Fortunately, I received a trackback from Halina Goldstein who writes a blog called The Inner Travel Journal. Wandering through her blog, I discovered a post called Obsessions that really spoke to me. She writes of how we neglect the present by overfocusing on the past and the future:
Each moment is potentially exploding with energy, creativity and significance. Exactly how this I cannot say — but I know that it’s true. And the more I’m willing to let go of empty thoughts about something in the future that may or may not come true (and they will never come true exactly as I’ve imagined them anyhow), the more I’m willing to simply RESPECT THIS VERY MOMENT, NOW, the more I will enjoy my journey.
It’s a beautifully stated reminder for us to slow down, breathe, and get present. After all, that’s all we really have that’s real.
My wife brought me a lesson yesterday evening that really hit home. She was chatting with a friend from a past job who had some interesting news about a former co-worker. Turns out he got fired for both not adhering to clearly communicated working policies and thinking he was above those rules as an assistant manager.
Well, that’s really not why he got fired…that’s merely why he landed himself in some pretty hot water. What got him booted from his job was being defensive and indignant and rather unapologetic about his actions.
As an assistant manager or senior director or any position of organizational authority, we are all leaders. And as leaders with power, we have a greater set of expectations and must model a higher set of values for those around us. As Uncle Ben famously tells Peter Parker, “With great power comes great responsibility.” That’s responsibility that cannot be abused.
However, we all stumble from time to time…it’s human nature. How we react after those stumblings reflects on our own sense of leadership character. What should we do when we fall?
Take full responsibility. Not a little, not three-quarters, but full responsibility. Leaders don’t shirk their own accountability. If you crossed a line or broke a rule, come clean about it. And even if you feel partly justified in your action, ask whether that justification comes from your own pride and ego.
Ask for forgiveness. As hard as it is to say “I’m sorry,” there are few words in the language that have as much power. Make it honest and sincere, make it from the heart.
Seek to understand how to earn trust and respect back. This is usually the part that gets missed and yet can be the most valuable.
Act. Now, show your contrition by making the most of the moment. Your character is on the line. How will you respond?
Bailey WorkPlay © 2012. All Rights Reserved.
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