I subscribe to Jason Kelly’s newsletter, something I signed up for years back when I was still working for he-who-must-not-be-named.I enjoy Jason’s style of writing and have continued my subscription even though I have put the financial industry in my rear-view mirror. Jason moved to Japan (from Colorado) many years ago and was there when the Earth shook a few weeks back. You can read some of his blog posts which are great first-hand accounts of what it was like to be there as events unfolded.
But the reason I am writing this today is because of socks. See, Jason saw that the victims of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami needed help with something very, very basic. They needed socks. So he started Socks for Japan in order to fill that need. Last week he wrote about the Angels of the Earth, the people that were helping him to distribute socks that they were being donated from all over the world. And in that blog post he said something that struck me as wonderful, something that transcends any job, any industry…anything, really. I wish everyone, especially those of us in supervisory positions, to read and understand the following sentence:
“The best way to handle somebody who knows what they’re doing and never misses a deadline is to leave them alone. I love these kind of people and am making it my mission to surround myself with them!”
That sentence really spoke to me. I wish more people in corporate America could understand the difference between the right and wrong way to treat other professionals. I am a person who understands deadlines, and I would like to think that I know what I am doing, but sadly I can recall all too many times where I was simply not left alone to do my work. The constant interruptions, the continuous requests for “status updates” just makes you less productive. If I have to spend 15 minutes to prepare a status update then that is 15 minutes less I have to “work the problem”.It also means I have to shift gears twice; once to slow down and once to speed up again.
If you know you have good people around you then just give them a task, a deadline, and leave them alone. Either they get it done, or they don’t. If they do, great! If they don’t then you take the time to find out why and make corrections at that time.
Wow, great cause!
One of my previous employers was somewhat of a hover boss, and it made me constantly anxious about wasting time or being inefficient. It did not, however, make me more productive. I’m definitely one of those people who works best with only occasional monitorings, and I’m lucky that’s par for the course in this office 🙂