Some days we just don
‘t feel like it (whatever “it” is). We are too discouraged to tackle getting our team trained. We are too busy to stop and systemize things. We just don’t feel like taking that extra step to improve.
Well, you are NEVER going to wake up and feel like it. Not really. You might have days when you wake up ready to tackle things, do it better, different, right this time. But it’s so easy to quickly lose motivation (and heart) when:
– Half your team is out sick so you can’t have the meeting you wanted to have to work on things;
– A client called upset about something and now you have a crisis on your hands;
– School calls when you are halfway to work to say your kid has a fever, so you turn around to pick her up;
– You get to the office and your computer won’t boot up.
Whatever it is.
I remember when Jenny got promoted from key assistant/legal assistant (with no previous legal experience) to corporate legal assistant/paralegal/whatever. (You know that role, where she has been told she is now going to be the Queen of our corporate work.) Our attorney promptly put five files on her desk that had been getting dusty on his credenza, all in need of LLC filings, revisions to Buy-Sell Agreements and corporate book reviews. To Jenny, this sounded like “aldkjfalkjdfdksjflkdsjflksdjfasj.”
Oh, and she was supposed to systemize the processes.
Well, sarcasm aside, it was a great opportunity for Jenny. Small-business planning was the hot new growth area for our firm, and she had the opportunity to be a key player in that growth. However, she had no idea what the heck she was supposed to be doing.
She courageously (motivated by panic) expressed this to the boss. No worries! He gave her 16 hours of a business planning CE program he had taken months before on CD, and a Florida Bar corporate law book. Awesomeness!
So there things stalled. The boss and Jenny bumped through these cases, Jenny feeling stupid and overwhelmed and the boss meeting her every question with “have you listened to those CDs yet?”
She came to talk to me about it. I asked her why she hadn’t listened to the CDs yet. She said she hadn’t had time. She intended to listen to them on her commute home, since it was about 40 minutes, but by the end of the day she was exhausted and heading home to be mom to a 2-year-old. She didn’t have it in her. So, I asked, why not listen on the way to work, when she was more fresh? She said she preferred to listen to a local radio show. I get it – who wants to listen to corporate legal training instead of music and jokes? But guess what? You probably aren’t ever going to wake up and “feel like it.” You probably aren’t ever going to say, “Oh my! Today I’m early, not rushed, fully rested and in the mood to tackle these training CDs.” But if you can tackle them, they will take you less than a month, and how much stress would that take off you? Not only will you be better trained for your job, but your boss will also stop questioning you (and silently judging you) for not listening to them.
The sacrifice you make by doing what you don’t feel like doing will more than pay off in what you get from completing it – the stress reduction, the crisis aversion, your growth.
You aren’t ever going to feel like it. Do it anyway.
Need help hiring intrapreneurs or supporting your employee in becoming one? Contact us at info@yeschick.com.
By Laney Lyons-Richardson
