Leadership

I Just Want To Do My Job!

Multiple times in my career I have either said or thought that I just wanted to be left alone to do my job. I “didn’t have time” to lead or mentor my subordinates much less other people’s.

Uh excuse me, Stephanie, that is your job. You are a supervisor, that includes leadership and mentorship.

Yes it can be hard to manage your time but is necessary. Everyone talks about the necessity of having a work/ life balance, but no one talks about a task/ lead balance.

This perfect even balance is not reality

To dive into this I first have to go into the idea of work/ life balance. This is a not the type of balance that stays even on both sides at all times. This is about making sure that you don’t focus on one side of the scale all the time to the detriment of the other. Some times your personal life needs to be your focus. These times are different for everyone but a few examples are when there is a death or even birth in your life, family issues/ struggles, when you are struggling with your physical and/or mental health. While other times work will need your focus. Again we are all different but a few examples are when you are deployed (duh), awards and promotion seasons, work trips, short turn around taskers. The important thing with work/life balance is about not focusing on one side all the time. Each has a season and seasons end.

The same idea can be used for your task/lead methodology. Sometimes you have to turn in a project quickly but other times you can choose to mentor someone else through that project. Or your subordinate might need you to listen to them; whether it’s about their mental health, awards, their performance or feedback about their performance. Again though you can’t ignore the tasks to mentor, but the flip side of that coin is that you can’t ignore mentorship to the detriment of your tasks.

I don’t have the answer of what this looks like in your life, or even my life. I am constantly working on this. My comfort zone is completing tasks, mentorship is scary and hard. The main thing for us to do is to acknowledge the different parts of our job and life really; and ensure they are both given your time. Know when you may be constantly ignoring one side of your job. AND CHANGE!

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58 thoughts on “I Just Want To Do My Job!”

  1. I have been checking out many of your stories and i can state pretty good stuff. I will make sure to bookmark your website. Bella Karoly Chas

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