A Moment of Realization
So… Sometimes we get going and we just can’t stop. This episode was supposed to be a Five-Minute Friday. Oh, well. It’s important stuff.
We recently posted on LinkedIn about how difficult detailing is. Clearly, we tapped into a deep reservoir of discontent. Dozens of people shared about the results of stress they experienced as a detailer.
Employees are human. Humans make mistakes. Even the best detailers will occasionally miss something.
If you get 100 things right and miss one thing, the one thing is what you’ll hear about.
Eddie discusses two movie scenes and a recent NFL incident that serve as analogies for effective and ineffective leadership in reaction to failures:
In the movie They Were Soldiers. One of the younger soldiers makes a mistake while calling in coordinates for a strike. This mistake results in the death of some of his fellow soldiers. Immediately, his superior officer comforts him and tells him to keep doing what he’s been trained to do.
In The Pacific, a similar situation occurs. As the soldiers are examining the results of this mistake, this supervising officer fails to lift up the soldier who had made the mistake.
In the Chiefs-Bengals AFC Championship game, Joseph Ossai pushed Patrick Mahomes just after Mahomes had run out of bounds. (Trigger warning - If you’re a Bengals fan, we don’t recommend watching this clip.) In the press conference, one of Ossai’s teammates serves as the watchdog, ensuring that reporters don’t hound him excessively about that mistake.
In each of these situations, the leaders and the peers of the person who had made a mistake. The fellow player in the Bengals press conference and the superior officer in They Were Soldiers made the same crucial decision: They chose to recognize the vulnerability of the person who had made the mistake.
We all know this. We know that personal encouragement is important. But acting on that knowledge requires effort and resolve.
Change comes one person at a time. One mindset at a time.
It’s tricky because a competitive atmosphere can sometimes be helpful. If it’s only competition, though, that’s a recipe for trouble.
Eddie comments on the number of overseas detailers who chimed in on that LinkedIn post. We discuss how workplace conditions may be even less hospitable in some of the places that handle offshored work from US companies.
We discuss the shifts that have taken place over the last several decades–specifically as it relates to the amount of face-to-face human interaction within our physical spaces. And all of this is now accessible to us 24 hours a day. Many detailers have gotten up during the night to check something that’s keeping them from sleeping.
Today, the velocity of the industry and the amount of information we have to deal with daily have increased significantly. Our mental bandwidth, however, has remained the same. That increased volume in a pipe with limited capacity–that’s where the anxiety comes from.
So what can we do about it? We discuss a few simple steps that can help:
Be disciplined about your morning routine. Set a mindset that reduces the likelihood that you’ll turn to junk food, caffeine, drugs, or alcohol to cope with the inevitable stress.
Be that teammate that stands up for the guy next to you.
When you see stress ramping up and can tell you’re about to lash out at someone, detach. For just a short time, step away physically from the workspace and cool down before you speak.
We mirror the behavior of the people around us. If the atmosphere of your workspace is miserable, make a difference. Treat people the way you want to be treated. If you want the benefit of the doubt, then give your coworkers the benefit of the doubt (as Wally says).
If you’ve really screwed up and mistreated a coworker, consider attempting to address that situation.
So, anyway… There’s today’s 40-minute Five-Minute Friday.
Have a good week, and treat somebody awesome!
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