Dropped right in it

Sometimes I ask people to look back over their careers to a time when they were most fired up, exhilarated, excited about their work. The most common answer I get back is “when I was dropped right in it”.

Looking back over my 40 years in the construction industry that certainly is the case for me and still is now.

I recall times when I was in way above my head; promoted into a role I was not ready for, or that’s how it felt, or challenged by my boss to deliver something that was way beyond me. Initially I’d be fazed by the enormity of it. Then I’d gather myself, get curious thinking ‘well how might I actually do this’ and then the adrenaline would kick in and I’d be off.

I would throw myself into it, quite often heading off in the wrong direction. There would be false starts, mistakes, self-doubt, help from my boss, words of encouragement from those who care, a little bit of progress, then more progress, a sudden realisation that I was learning and growing, a few backward steps, mounting pressure to deliver, more self-doubt, a tantrum, regrouping, more progress, encouragement and on and on. Then over time I would realise I was operating at a higher level and I would pinch myself and wonder how I got here. Looking back they were the times when I was most energised and when I did my very best work.

The times when I was coasting or bored are now my nightmares – periods of vacant time when I pretended to be busy and felt too sluggish to move. Maybe I should have loudly declared “I’m bored” and handled the consequences?

It’s still the case that I am at my best when challenged beyond what I initially think is possible. I have one client who only ever calls me when he is facing his toughest ask, which becomes my toughest ask. The last time he called me he had set up a series of dates for conferences with industry leaders to iron out the Government’s next big roll out and he wanted me to design and facilitate them. My first response was “when?” to which he replied “the first is next week then at fortnightly intervals”. “Any flexibility?” “No”.  I have a book on my shelf called Tips for Organising Conferences and it says ‘allow six months for briefing, preparation and organising’ and here we were from nothing to doing it in one week. It turned out to be an amazing piece of work, maybe even industry changing.

So when managers tell me they are the only one who can do this thing cos their staff are not ready for it or their staff seem too busy to take on more, that is when I ask them to look back over their careers to a time when they were most fired up and excited about their work. And mostly they ‘get it’ and reply something like “it was when I was dropped right in it”

What can you delegate right now? If you are doing it yourself then you are probably denying someone the opportunity to learn and grow. And if you insist on doing it yourself then don’t be surprised if before long your people seem like they are ‘busy’ and yet too sluggish to move.

Effectively delegating is liberating for all concerned. Holding on to things that your staff could grow into is limiting for you and your organisation and disempowers your people

 

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