Glorious cold sunshine

The weekend arrives with some fantastic sunshine, just none of the warmth. The need to do some cleaning has finally caught up with me, so to the bleach it is I went. Now much happier that things are clean and sparkly.

This week has been something of a trudge for me, it really has had some low points, but it definitely has had some highs. Must make more of an effort to remember those. I realised the other day that I should make sure I am playing to my strengths than to my weaknesses. The more time I get to spend with the team, the better I feel, the more I get to see what a great job it is that they do. Otherwise, there's a sad tendency that the only time they get to speak to me, and I them, is when something's gone wrong.

That creates a horrible expectation on their part that every time they have a conversation with me, it's going to be a negative thing.

The casual negativity and the ignorance of my requests has caused some problems before. I find it hard not to take such things personally, but what I have noticed this week, is that as I have started to challenge these things, and let people know how that is coming across they have responded well to it (the challenge). For sure this isn't always the case right at that moment, but in every situation they've gone away, thought about it, and come back with a different approach.

What strikes me from that is that it isn't a personal thing, it's just the nature sometimes of human interaction that we don't know how it is we are perceived by others. It is only when someone tells us that we have the chance to change that. Because they are responding in that way, it also becomes apparent to me how much they do actually care not just about how they are seen, but also about how they effect me.

It's been a tough couple of months getting these guys onboard, shaping them into a team of people (that came originally from other teams), and getting them used the different ways in which I work to other people they may have worked with before.

Sometimes you get in any group of people, someone that works against the common good, that creates an aura or wave of negativity that has to be worked round in order to achieve anything. These guys are sometimes difficult to get onboard, but that's because they are passionate about what they do, and want to be the best at it. It at times can make it harder to manage them, but I would rather have that any day than a team of 11 robots who just did everything I said. (I've gone and committed to text that I am okay with the 'push-back' there haven't I ? Oooops).

These people that I work with, are just that, people. They are not a statistical group of averages, they are individuals that all need to be helped, coached, encouraged or even chastised in a specific way to have the best effect for them.

It's a shame that the response at the offer of a pizza based celebration and the flat warming was so cooly received, because we certainly need as a group the opportunity to get out, let our hair down (those of us that still have some) and be silly together. Work can be so serious, and rightly so, but no one can survive being focused and official all the time. Work hard, play hard.