Happy Sunday Everyone:
My team has a daily team meeting, we don’t miss except my coaching days, in which case I’m the only one not there. The meeting has a set agenda for everyday of the week and everyday we go through individual “big rocks”. Big Rocks are 3 primary tasks each person on the team needs to accomplish in the day. Of course, there are more than 3 things to be done in a day but outlining the big rocks ensures the most important items don’t get missed, it also forces all of us to focus on what needs to be done. It allows us to dictate our day vs. the day being dictated to us.
Brigitte, my administrative assistant, is responsible for the daily agenda, writing down the big rocks each person provides, and then reviews they were completed the following day and resets new ones. I noticed Brigitte would read her own big rocks loud and proud and then when it came to the other team members, she’d fall into more of a shy/whisper. I finally commented on it and asked her to be louder. She was for a couple of weeks, and then it tapered off again. I asked her at lunch one day, “what’s up with you quieting down on big rocks?”. Her response blew me away. She had it in her head that the other team members might be thinking “who the hell is Brigitte to be confirming/holding me accountable for my day”. Brigitte has an incredibly important role on the team, but the other members are more technical, more involved in the loans we do, and in Brigitte’s head, possibly more important.
My team is tight. I’m not a naive boss that sits in the clouds, I know my team. My team loves Brigitte and my team supports each other like no work group I’ve seen….so what’s my point? Yet another example of “don’t believe everything you think”. We all need to get out of our own heads, me included. I asked Brigitte for permission to bring up her thoughts the following day, the team was speechless. No one could comprehend how Brigitte could be having this feeling. No one has ever come remotely close to showing any sign of resentment whatsoever. This was 100% made up in Brigitte’s own head.
When I think through this exercise with Brigitte, I think of a few lessons learned for me:
1. Consider your own head, especially when it’s in a negative place, and question the true reality of the situation. Having a personal gut check is important. Brigitte’s example will forever help me with my own gut checks, which I need to consider often.
2. When you’re doing the right things most of the time, and you work with the right people, error on the side of pushing the limit vs. being timid. As you drive forward, you uncover more skills and get more confident. What was hard today becomes easy tomorrow. Brigitte will never have a nerve again on reviewing Big Rocks, onto the next challenge.
3. If you truly trust someone, and they deserve your trust, and they say “get out of your head”…the quicker the better. Side note-don’t let people who are negative w/ limited beliefs get into your head. Have alarm bells for those types and run.
4. Keep asking questions and show people you care. I’ll toot my own horn on this one…I’m glad I pushed the questioning of what was going on. It uncovered something that needed to be discussed, and the whole team learned from it. Had I just kept saying “speak up” vs. “what’s up”, we never would have come to this. You have to ask questions to understand people, and you have to listen.
5. Brigitte is a superstar. She gave me permission to share this with a fairly large audience, so “thank you” to Brigitte.
Stay positive this week.