Today I had a lot of insights. So many that I figured I should blog about them lest I forget them. That and maybe they’ll help someone else. Most of these musings are related to the management audio books I’ve been listening to of late. (I’ll blog about that later.)
What follows may seem obvious until you’re in that strange position where its not obvious.
- If you’re not going to add something to a meeting, instead of attending ask the organizer to contact you via email, IM, or phone if something comes up that you will add value to. Then work on other things till the meeting is over. There is no point in attending a meeting that you won’t add anything to. Instead spend the time working on stuff that will add value, even if its cleaning up your inbox. No point in helping the construction worker with the stop sign do his job while trying to do your’s too. One of you has too much free time.
- Take pride in your accomplishments even if the credit is given to someone else. Credit every now and then is a good thing. Realizing that you want credit for shoveling the biggest pile of dung can sometimes put things in perspective. The pile still stinks and you have flowers to plant. Take credit for the flowers and don’t forget there may be opportunity on the other side of the pile.
- No matter where you’re at in the food chain, credit is always nice. If it weren’t for the small fish the big fish would starve. The saying is “nice guys finish last.” You can still be nice and get credit for what you have done it just takes more work for it to happen. If you want the credit you’ll have to work harder for it. If its not worth working harder for its probably like the 6 month old kid that the parents bring to a party, when the kid starts to stink give him back to his parents its their problem now.
- If you have more content than time put it on a web site and send people there. If you have more time the content go browse some websites. You can take a presentation and try and cover everything or you can make everything available and just hit the highlights of it. You can call and call for a dog with no legs but nothing you’ve got to say will make him come.
- If you’ve got skills use them even if you get an I don’t know how this is going to work. And if it requires a blink tag to make it work then do it! I’m getting known for my “bat shit crazy” approaches and ideas. No one has ever done it that way can be a huge asset. It means you’re in uncharted territory, blaze the way. There is probably a mound of flowers waiting for your. And if not it could just be a high point so you can look around and see where to go next.
Those are some of my musings for today. Hopefully they help or are at least funny. Now I think I’m going to try and find my next mound of flowers.
