The Week of Work

It was an awesome week of work. Yes, awesome. It was stressful, fast pace, highly critical, highly visible, full of challenges, opportunities, meetings, and rewards. This is my definition of awesome!

It started at 7am on Monday morning and did not end until 5pm Friday night. I am tired yet energized for the progress I and my team has made this week. I kept my Gremlin under control and, as I was reminded by one of my followers, ate the elephant one bite at a time.

There were two thoughts of the week that I wanted to share with you all.

The first is when you have an amazing amount of work to do, ask for help. This does not make you weak, rather makes you a leader. If you are willing to give up the "kudos" and take team members with you through the process you relax, they learn, and people begin to see leadership and teamwork at its best. This week was all about this thought. I could have done everything myself and been more than tired this week, but my choice was to ask for help and begin to have others experience my world of work.

I saw new people jump at the opportunity and tenure staff excited about a new opportunity. I saw how teamwork and leadership can make others successful. I saw learning and I saw hard work. The best part is that I wasn't the only one that saw this.

My last meeting on Friday was with the leader of my area and his comment was "you did a great job LEADING this week and you got a lot of great press for your efforts and skills". How can a week end any better.

My second thought is when you are faced with a job, think big and remember the details. I learned a lot this week about that statement. At times I was only thinking big and long term and forget that others may be starting with the details. It does no good to think big if the people you are communicating and working for are stuck in the details. Remember the details and remember that part of leadership is figuring out what someone wants - big or details. This is a learning that I know will continue as I move forward.

So that was my week of work, awesome, yes awesome. Purposeful work created a positive attitude and advanced leadership. Awesome, yes truly awesome.