Last week I gave myself an A+ for productivity. I was clicking things off my mile-long-to-do list with amazing speed. And of course, when I completed something that wasn’t on my list, I put it on there so I could mark through it. Does anyone else do that? Pretty silly, I guess, but it gives me a real sense of accomplishment.
I didn’t read much last week. If I did read something, like the great HBR article on why fair managers don’t move up the ladder as fast as ruthless ones, I didn’t take time to reflect on it. Just checked it off my professional development to-do list and moved right along. I didn’t wander around the office looking for colleagues to give me feedback. What if they suggested a better way? That would really slow me down. Didn’t daydream about new ideas or about new ways to accomplish some of my other ideas. At one point I had a really great idea on how to improve the membership quality audit process, but then I decided to just file that for later – otherwise I was going to miss my deadline to finish them by Friday.
All my expense reports got submitted, copied and filed. All my calls and emails returned. I was by most supervisory standards a real star.
There are times when we need this kind of focus, both internally and externally. Internally because all the big picture stuff is hard to quantify a percentage complete so we are never sure if we are making progress. Sometimes it feels like we are running fast, but just on a treadmill. Externally we need get-er-done days, because, our organizations demand it to keep the train moving.
But let’s face it, creativity, innovation, relationships, and leadership tasks are hard to check off a list. They require us to have the insight to know what they are and the flexibility to work on them when the right moment presents itself. (Yeah, sounds like a commercial for you know what, but you know what I mean.)
Now that I think of it, I’m not nearly as proud of my work last week. I think I’ll pull those quality standards out for another look, and give my friend a call back to really listen to her ideas for the hospital collaboration.
But first things first, got to check this blog off my list. Check!
