One brutal week
Was glad to just make it through the days without disappointing people or making too many mistakes. I had 32 different conference calls, a boat-load of work, a dentist appointment and planning for my mom’s 70th birthday. Apparently, the military uses an expression which was entirely appropriate last week: “Embrace the suck“, which simply means that situations go bad. . .and you need to deal with it.
Two nights of 2am or later = suck
- Yes, lots of reasons to be up at 2am. None of them good. Yikes.
- As I told my friend – “I must be a really inefficient and slow worker”.
- Two photos from different nights, not pretty.
Consulting workload is lumpy
It is not linear. There is no “average” workday. Times of madness followed by stretches of ennui. When people I interview ask me about work-life balance, I have to bite my tongue a little bit. What is balanced? Rather it’s a question of where are you in the S-curve of your career, and life.
Sheryl Sandberg talks about the fallacy of work-life balance for driven people in grueling, innovative, and client-service roles. There is no punch-clock. There is no union telling you to not work past 37.5 hours a week. We are engineering our own work schedule and expectations. We are molding the work around our lives.
Last week, I was the most productive I have been in a long time. Forced between 4-5 “must do” proposals and work-streams, I just triage the situation. There is a witty expression which I believe is very true. . . “if you need to get something done, give it to someone who is busy.“
Embracing the suck = Lots of truth-telling
One of my gifts is to give direct feedback to people, project manage a situation, without offending people (too much). In other words, I am a friendly truth-speaker. A few of the direct things I said last week:
1. “Don’t let me get in your way”
You do not need another manager on this. You tell me where to plug into your work?
2. “No, I don’t really need to know”
Unless you want me to take action on it, I don’t want to know. Don’t need updates right now.
3. “I am rolling myself off of this assignment”
Seems like you are in good hands with A & B; they have the passion, content, and logistics covered.
4. “Cover me on the call – you know my opinion”
The client has had the data request for 3 weeks, so there is not really any apologizing we need to do on our part.
5. “Okay – I am getting off the phone”
I need to get back to work.
6. “Yes, AND it’s #10 on the list”
I agree – but in the list of things to worry about . . .that is #10 on my list. Not under our control, and out of scope.
7. “This is not any better than 2 days ago”
Okay, so my happiness level is low. This has not made progress and we are running out of time. Let’s triage this.
8. “My bad for being late on this call”
I owe you a beer.
Do great work everyone. . .
This week I am traveling, facilitating a workshop, submitting several proposals. In the hunt to win business. .
Related note about meetings (from Tomm in comments):
When organizing a meeting myself I stick to Dominc Barton’s advice which I find very helpful: each item from the agenda is labeled into one of 3 buckets: ‘for information’, ‘for discussion’, ‘for decision’, so we’re all super clear in terms of what outcome shall be expected at the end of the meeting.
Workload in consulting is not linear, but nowadays more and more industries operate on ‘as required’ basis, often at the expense of personal life of workers. In my opinion the widely criticized ‘9-5′ model is not bad, as it enables business planning and introduces some stability into employees’ lives, but it works only if people deliver what is expected of them with minimal supervision. With ‘I’m here only to do my 8 hours’ mentality it’s a waste of resources. Probably that’s why I’m so frustrated when need to co-operate with clients’ employees who operate on that basis, because nothing can be done on time, and you need to constantly check if any progress was made.
When it comes to business meetings I attend only essential ones these days, as I noticed that majority of meetings are unproductive discussions and exchange of opinions. When organizing a meeting myself I stick to Dominc Barton’s advice which I find very helpful: each item from the agenda is labeled into one of 3 buckets: ‘for information’, ‘for discussion’, ‘for decision’, so we’re all super clear in terms of what outcome shall be expected at the end of the meeting.
Great blog, keep up the good work.
Like that thinking a lot. Thanks for contribution. Will add the Barton comment into the body of the blog, if okay.
Please go ahead, I found many of his insights valuable.