Questions of a Leader
/I had not been on Twitter all day and typed a quick tweet before I rushing out the door to pick up the kid:
|
|
What does that tell you about my day? I was having a tough one. I was out two days last week with a sick little girl, and the e-mails, phone messages and requests for my assistance piled up. We were facing a national credentialing deadline coming due today and a bunch of employees not yet finished in the credentialing system. There were more meetings than I had expected, and every one of them ran longer than they were scheduled for.
Meanwhile, I was reviewing staff actions that were not in line with changes I had requested, discussing appropriate responses to employee misconduct, planning for a meeting Wednesday morning (I am out again Tuesday), preparing an employee message about the upcoming holiday schedule, and trying not to think about the to-do tasks in my right hand drawer.
All in all, it was a typical day in a busy HR office. But the way I worked through the day was not typical at all. It was more than typical for me. Typical tasks, yes. Typical insights, no. I don't like the way the day went today. I was delegating tasks to staff at the end of the workday, while heading out the door to get my child to guitar lessons on time. My first reaction is to look to see where others are not measuring up to my expectations but then I stop myself from that line of thinking. I look back over the past 5 1/2 years in my role as an HR Officer. I see where we started, and I see how far we have come. Even more clearly, I see where we are going and what we can be.
I have to wonder, why are we not there today? Did I get in the way? Have we stepped off the path that would lead us to our objectives? Should it be taking this long? I don't know. I do know that I am not moving the department as fast as I'd like enough for me and I have a hunch that it is because of the work that's piling up on my desk.
My department runs the way that is does in large part because of me: my decisions, my interactions, my communications, my staffing selections, my priorities, my shortcomings, and my strengths. What can I do differently to provide leadership to my staff to get us to where we need to be?
I will be asking that question to Abigail (my executive coach) tomorrow when I see her.
