What is important to me – thinking through change.

I enjoy a challenge because it means I’m being pushed.  A challenge is a good way to find yourself growing as a person, often in ways you never expected.  In my case the challenges have pushed me to think about how I deal with colleagues day-in, day-out.

In interactions with people I’ve historically wanted to be liked by others.  Being considered a bad guy is not something I have handled well mentally traditionally.  I would go out of my way to go the extra mile and make sure people understood that even when I was saying no it wasn’t personal and explain all of my reasoning. My default position was to trust people.

Over the past year I’ve found I can’t be successful with that mentality.  There are far more people I’ve found I cannot trust than I ever expected.  However the reasons I can’t trust people are highly varied and usually not because someone is not themselves personally trustworthy.  For the most part I’ve lost trust in people because their motivations are different than those that benefit the business.  Often these actions occur behind the scenes and without letting others participate in processes that they are in charge of or impacted by.

This isn’t about trust – it is about overcoming challenges.  From a personal growth I’ve had to stop being friendly at times when people begin negatively impacting the business.  It’s not something that comes naturally to me.  But for me to be successful I have to try and make others successful with me.  Sometimes that means helping make them successful even though their actions go against it.

All of this has made me a better manager (both up and down the organization chart).  I’ve learned to make my motivations clear and be open and honest about the drivers of my decisions.  Honesty is the ultimate way to overcome bad behaviors because it is hard to argue with transparency that proves proper decisions are being made.  I’ve always been a fan of the idea of transparency but lately I’ve gotten a practical education in the real impact of it.  It’s an amazing tool.