September 10, 2009
Okay, I get that for our avid readers this is going to seem like a very strange post, especially following my last post about Productivity, but bear with me here as this was a lesson that I learned the hard way.
I once worked for a very wise man (don’t tell him I said so) who told me when I was still very young and very green in this business that sometimes inaction is the best action. “What?!” I would scream. That is just an excuse to not do work is all I could think. Every siren in my body went off flashing PROCRASTINATOR…SLACKER….the worst kind of enemy in our business. Boy, was I wrong.
What he was simply trying to tell me was that you don’t have to jump every time someone tells you to do so. Your answer does not always have to be YES. Believe it or not, you can simply say, “let me look into it,” knowing full well that the request is unrealistic, outlandish, or downright foolish. But this will keep you from:
1. Wasting your time on it, and
2. Offending or upsetting the requestor.
Chances are, they will have moved on to the next request, having forgotten the fire drill they wanted to put you through in the first place.
Think of all the unnecessary tasks and drills you have gone through where the outcome was irrelevant. Now, this is not your manifesto to tell your client or boss NO. It simply means to give pause to those things that are not do or die. It means to prioritize. It means to balance and give credence to that which matters.
To that boss of mine so many years ago that must have just smiled at me and thought, “She will learn, someday.” Well, someday, I did. And thanks! Now, I hope all of you will learn the easy way from some of my difficult mistakes.
Questions, concerns…think I am crazy???
Dream Big.
M.
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