Day: March 8, 2016

I’m busy

by dougpete, posted in Education

Just a continuation of my thoughts about the leader that I described in yesterday’s post.  So many things have stuck with me.  

Here’s one of them.

There’s are two words that I don’t recall ever hearing from him.

“I’m busy.”

The bizarre thing was that I knew that he was.  When there was a lull in the action, he set out to find more things to do in his quest to make everything that he could influence that much better.  He always was busy.

Yet, no matter how much paper was in front of him on his desk or how many windows/applications that he had open on his computer, I just had to stick my head in the door or tap on it to get his attention.  A wave brought me into the office where everything was stopped to hear what I had to say.  In the big scheme of things, my thoughts or wishes or concerns were miniscule.

The attention that I got and the instant advice made me feel like it was the most important thing in the world and, together, we were going to solve it.

The result was, of course, that we would do so much.  There was never time wasted wondering whether or not Doug’s latest idea had merit.  I knew right away that I was enabled (or not) and life went on.  I will admit that the process made me come to the table better prepared with a complete proposal and not just a concept.

For that moment in time though, my concerns got his full attention.  You know the old adage about not remembering the content but remembering how you felt?  That was me.

Based upon this modelling, I tried to make it part of everything I do.  I suppose that the practical answer is that traditionally the approach would generate another meeting to go over the details.  And yet, by giving it full attention at that moment in time, I walked just a little bit taller and moved forward more confidently.

In your leadership position, as established yesterday, do you enable at the moment?  Why or why not?

Would such an approach work for you?

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OTR Links 03/08/2016

by dougpete, posted in Links

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.