Published in my Tumblr 2013
I’m forever amazed by humans. There’s good news and bad news in that statement and I promise I will try to stay on the good news side. Our very human tendency to protect ourselves at all costs, no matter if we lose our integrity, is absolutely baffling.
Today, of all days, I decided that I just needed to close my office door for the morning and get some projects started that required the “Do Not Disturb” sign. It was a productive morning. That very same productive morning turned into a rather odd afternoon in a flash. (The lesson obviously was to keep your door closed!)
Avoiding issues is not generally the best case scenario when you work with people. Sometimes you just have to recognize that people protect their own best interests. It hurts my very soul to watch people destroy themselves, along with the team that tries endlessly to support them. Over time those relationships become more and more broken and soon it is difficult to even endure the day-to-day work with that team member.
Coaching employees and leaders to know when to say when is the hardest part of leadership and it’s even harder when you confuse management and leadership. I’ve struggled to know the “when” because I believe in people and the concept of forgiveness and renewal. I’ve learned to balance the team and the individual and serve their best collective interest. Today was a day, a really good day, I knew the answer and needed to simply say…“ when”.