How many times are you called back home when you are wanting to lead and do more than just solve the problems of the day. You have strategy and goals that you must do to advance your career and objectives, but are constantly hijacked and derailed by expectations that you are the "only" one who can get it something resolved shortly. Is this a curse that we bear? Self imposed or historically grown?
It comes back to saying no, but the issue is that you can't say No to a Yes that you created a solution around previously can you? I consistently have the problem of building solutions that can't be maintained by one individual and to knowledge transfer the moving parts and rational is near impossible. Most times it returns and I am putting other matters aside to tend to another one of my inventory items. One of a kind. If there was another me we could tag team. If there was a junior me, even better. I would mentor and train them up with my creations. I've tried and it seems that everyone that has been hired are specialized and narrow in enterprise aptitude. My challenge to organizations is to intentionally hire some Orbitals into the mix to augment the specialized work being done by the majority. If going on hiatus means heading back to where I started with no forward movement path, I might consider vacationing instead of going out on the front lines.
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For the majority of my life I have done as much as I could on my own. Music: I only played originals that I wrote. House: I have done the majority of electrical and plumbing work as well as added walls and renovated. Work: From my beginning days as a 20 year old in a consulting company I wrote entire packages, database to front end. This continued on until I reached a threshold a few years ago to where I could not continue to effectively develop and support the business appropriately. I acquired a few "misfit toys" and over time I assisted them in learning new skills and technologies as I became a "manager". For the most part this was a success, somewhat.
Where I am now is that unfortunately I still have my arms around the breadth and those individuals that I brought on are specialized, some with more span that others, but I still cannot back away and let it advance naturally. Some feel that I raised the bar too high and when I am absent progress slows or is at a standstill. Today I was flipping through old presentation slides from 2011 and had a painful realization that we haven't progressed very far from what I had created at that point in time... and it is now five years later. I felt like I just woke up and realized the amount of time that had passed. I'm not patting myself on the back for what I was able to achieve by myself, but more the recognition that I had failed at some points. In analytics, analysis, and data work there are constant complexities and business to support, but something is nagging me. I share knowledge to grow my team, but in ways where I hand something off knowing the answer in full, only giving a hint. I'll let them work on the task for 30 minutes, two hours, a day, something that should take 10 minutes. After allowable points of time I stop by to check in and guide/instruct and step back. Once I give the answer, the response is "of course" and they get the job done. How long and how much patience until either it is determined that a resource isn't the right fit or is this just how it is and my expectations are too high? I've watched many teams and individuals through the years and know that every organization would love to have teams filled with Orbitals... or would they? There is a balance. You need the heads down get the work done individuals, the specialized innovators, the hardened experts, and the Orbitals all working in harmony. The situation that most organizational areas fall into is that they have too many of one type and too many that just don't have the aptitude to be filling the position they are in. |
For much too long standards and formalities, while inherently positive in themselves, have hindered the true value of passion, creativity, and innovation. Hopefully through the topics presented new ideas and ways to change the culture and world around you will jump off of the pages reinvigorating you to take action and lead.
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