Have you ever just stopped and paid attention to what was happening around you? Have you ever been so wrapped up in stuff, you forgot the reality? You were trying to meet “x” and then “y” got in the way and then you took a pause and then there was “z”?
You have one of the toughest jobs in retail. You do. You have to move a bunch or maybe just even one person into great performance and you feel pulled. I get it. I had a moment today. You see, my daughter asked me to build a PowerPoint presentation for a Patriot (Veterans) concert. It is celebrating those who served. I have been collecting pictures. Easy enough. I have been cutting and pasting. I have been working and re-working the sound and picture sequence. Today I stopped just doing…I faced my “z”. I, in this last moment, realized my family is in the sequence. A grandfather who died way too early. Another that I get…I get you now and I you miss so much. Another family member and his son I want to live up to. A son who is expecting his first son. I am in conflict. I am just doing it for ‘doing it sake” and am missing every possible opportunity to engage what this means.
Managers, how often has something else clouded your ability to get it (whatever the objective) done? How often has your own personal (incredibly important) life got in the way of the company’s agenda? When has the “it” been in conflict with the “other it”? I have had that moment today. Life gets in the way of management sometimes and we have to be OK with that. We have to sit still and let it all…kinda…happen. It is not right, nor is it wrong…it just is.
So here is the quick message, management is important. Leadership is important. So are you.
What happens to you, what makes you…you, what is important to you and what you might miss and even what you might leave out is critically important. Pay attention to what is YOU.
I have found…
It is OK to cry, even out loud.
It is OK to sing in your car, even though anyone else in the world would not vote for your singing voice.
It is OK to miss someone you care about.
It is OK to have someone on your team you would love to smack in the face and yet still know they have something else in them you want to try and move.
It is OK to think your boss is full of…
It is OK to think they also chose you.
It is OK to know that no matter what happens, there is always hope.
It is OK to know failure does not make you a failure.
It is OK to know that success does not make you a success.
It is also OK that you can be just OK.
Nothing in life is perfect. I watch the pictures slide by in the PowerPoint and qualify my own…well, frankly existence. I know I have a perspective…however imperfect and I am OK with that. They mattered and so do I. Stand up. Ruck up. Get over it and move forward. It is OK.
Cheers