Leap Day Learning

Every so often my boss does a thing called a “skip level” – he meets with each of our teams without us to take a temperature check and see how they feel about their supervisors.  It’s a good idea. A successful business is more than just the numbers.

Predictable Chaos

The testing that I do for a living has to be pretty structured. To deliver consistent, repeatable results, we need to have a clear, documented process and follow it as consistently as possible. The further we stray from that process, the less reliable our results are. And since there’s several companies looking to our results to make their business decisions, we need to give reliable results.

My partner has a different take on this. While it’s a given that I can be more rigid and rule-bound than I need to be, and that’s something I’m learning to modify working with him, I still think there’s a lot more room for order in his approach. 

Performance Art

I think of my work as a kind of performance.

At heart I’m an introvert (on Meyers-Briggs tests, I’ve been consistently INTJ for years). I’d rather not be the center of attention, and I often think the ideal job for me would involve me sitting in an office doing analysis and managing projects rather than people. 

Be More Better! We Are Businessing Here!

That’s going to be the title of my best-selling management book, by the way. So don’t steal it. You can use it in everyday conversation, though. I do. Because I invented it. Because that’s how I business – more better every day.

I’m working late again. I haven’t done that voluntarily in years. At my last two jobs, I couldn’t get out fast enough when my shift was over: if I needed to stay late to finish something I would, but I wasnt going to spend more time there than was strictly necessary.

Another Shot

I hated the fact that my team got laid off at the bank four years ago. Absolutely hated it. I loved that team. They were great performers and they were like family. When we left, I told them I’d come looking for them as soon as I could find someplace we could work together again.

One of them I missed more than the others.  I’ve developed and mentored a few people in my career, but she was a standout. So much potential: smart, creative, hard-working, and very eager to learn. She’s a Marine, and a little rough around the edges, but she could have been doing my job in a few years. And I was working on grooming her with that in mind. She was my go-to, my right hand.