November 2007 Archives

I am a workaholic. I know this because Dictionary.com defines the word as follows:

work·a·hol·ic [wurk-uh-haw-lik, -hol-ik] "a person who works compulsively at the expense of other pursuits."

It just so happens that both my blogging and my daily work are two things that I greatly enjoy, but I often make choices that will benefit my professional life while making sacrifices in my personal life. I have suffered the loss of relationships, hair pigment, personal contacts and hobbies. I do not, however, feel bad about this fact. Each day of your life is your whole life, in a manner of speaking. Basically, your whole life is made up of the small things you do each day, and I wouldn't change anything about my past.

"Why is he rambling on about his past and workaholism? Where's my Youtube shortcut button?"

I draw this picture for a reason; To illustrate the fact that over-devotion can sometimes not only destroy that which is sacrificed, but that which is sacrificed for. Today I will be talking about any manager's favorite situation, the Human Resources Intensive Scenario.

"Oh, Lordy, you mean the one I have every other day?"

Yes, that one.

There have been many times that I have become angry with an employee. Not frustrated, not perplexed, but pissed off and ready to say some emotionally very appropriate but professionally very inappropriate things. It's why I'm a good Operations guy and a good executor; The instinct to react quickly and decisively to forces working against your cause. Read that last sentence again, please. The instinct to quickly and decisively to forces working against your cause. Remember this as point A.

Now, an alcoholic's cause is the consumption of alcohol. Thusly, if you were to reach your hand to remove a decisively-acting alcoholic's glass of whiskey from him, he would likely act because the threat you represent is real to his cause. This is where point A works into the definition of workaholism.

"Sweet Zeus' Beard, this article is starting to make sense!"

As a workaholic, my cause and that which I draw a great deal of happiness from is my work and the success of whatever business it is that I'm engaged in at the time. That being said, an employee who acts in a way that is contradictory to the growth and progress of my business is, in a sense, reaching for my glass of whiskey. I've known this about myself for some time, so it's become a habit of mine to take a five-minute break to re-assess any situation in which I could be terminating or disciplining someone. It's very easy to look only at the facts in a scenario and to then act on them, completely forgetting the human element. It's too easy, in fact, and can often land a manager in the same seat of the person he just fired. Nothing in my career has been more valuable than the five minutes I take before making a decision that will affect another person's life, regardless of the severity of the change I'm about to sign off on.

As you go about your business day, think about the bridges you are building. No matter what you're doing, you're establishing connections, even If only one brick at a time. The idea is to build bridges that will last through the fires of life. For instance, if you were to leave your company unexpectedly tomorrow, would your relationship with Phil what's-his-name (strange, men don't usually hyphenate their names when marrying...) in receiving continue? Considering that you talk to Phil once a week and you don't know Phil's last name, it's doubtable. The "fires" would wipe that bridge out and your connection would be gone. Think now, however, of someone who you would keep in touch with after an unexpected leaving of the company.

Is this person someone you look forward to communication with? It's very likely. Is this person someone you communicate with on a routine basis and with whom you feel a bond? Yes. That bond is the bridge I'm talking about. Some people are natural bridge builders, throwing up lasting connections wherever they go and maintaining those bridges in ways that would leave the greatest engineers scratching their heads in awe. The vast majority of us, though, are not innately built for connecting, and could benefit from a few exercises in visualization to prevent us from ending up an island after a fire...

So take a given day when you're not going to be super-ultra busy and imagine each conversation, each contact, each email as a varying amount of structural integrity that you are putting into that bridge. Some people are farther, requiring a much greater expenditure of energy and time to reach stably. However, much like the longest bridges in the world, once they are built they are rock solid and a pleasure to drive across.

The idea of bridge flammability is extremely useful in personal life, but becomes imperative in professional life. The contacts that you are creating today, the bridges you can walk across each day, can be the way you escape disaster. It is widely held that more than 70% of upward mobility is gained through familiarity with those making the decision rather than prowess alone. 70%!!! When the merger comes, the layoffs happen, the natural disaster strikes, the economy tanks, those iron-clad, unbreakable, act-of-God bridges will be the ones you can escape on in order to survive. Then again, there's always the chance that you'll be the one saving a friend, which is often even greater than being saved.