GarthBox

There’s no shortage of information out there.

As a result, it’s obvious that no risks need to be taken without a bit of research to start.

ChatGPT can help with a marketing plan framework.

YouTube can help with understanding how to remove your dishwasher.

A Q&A with recently published authors at the local bookstore can help you understand all the steps of getting your novel published.

With great knowledge, however, comes the responsibility of having to determine when it’s your turn.

Your turn to launch the marketing campaign; your turn to disassemble the dishwasher and discover what’s different about yours than the YouTube video; your turn to hit the publish button and figure out what you’ve missed specific to you.

Because there’s one truth about learning; doing is always different. Always.

Stay Positive & Speed To Doing (Because There’s More Learning To Be Had)

Whether you’ve been hired by someone else or you’ve hired yourself, you’re hired for you.

Which means that the goals you have should be yours.

Which means that the leadership style should be yours.

Which means the one to take accountability whenever one can…that one is you.

Which means what makes a project yours is you.

Stay Positive & You’re The Differentiator

It’s great to have an elephant in the room.

It gives you something to break the ice with; gives you something to get on the same page with; provides clear focus on what needs to be addressed.

Meetings without elephants are subject to distractions and disconnects.

Stay Positive & Don’t Run A Meeting Unless It’s Clear What The Elephant Is

It doesn’t take much energy to complain. But over time, that energy certainly adds up.

Role-playing here, if you took all that time someone complained, do you think they could have impacted the thing they are complaining about?

And because, dear reader, you’re unlikely to be the one complaining… a question for you.

Do you think you could have impacted the thing they are complaining about with all the time you’ve invested in them listening? Or given them actions to take the moment they start complaining?

It can be easy to shrug it off as their problem because it is. But lest we forget that we can have everything we want if we help enough others get what they want.

Stay Positive & What If, For The Sake Of Role-playing, You Did Make Their Problem Yours?

Is the drama you bring.

Drama can’t be given, it can only be produced.

Implying that it’s a choice.

“They didn’t hold up their end.”

“I’m getting crushed and thrown in a bunch of directions.”

“No one is available to help.”

^ those are statements that build the drama.

v alternatives that make you look like the professional you are.

“Next time we’ll bring him into the meeting sooner.”

“What do you need my #1 priority to be.”

“We need two people. I have one locked in. Can you help me get the second?”

If you’re rambling, heart is racing, pointing blame, frazzled… you’re creating drama.

The alternative is a choice you can make at any time.

Stay Positive & The Calm That’s There Is The Calm You Bring

There’s a floor broom at a restaurant. It has been there for four years. It doesn’t look pretty; some of the fabric on it is torn, but it works.

When should they replace it?

The answer actually has a lot less to do with the broom and more to do with the people using it (or, often the case, not using it).

If it’s not getting used during service because of the optics of guests… if it’s not getting used by staff because they think all its doing is dragging four-year-old-dirt around on the floor… if it’s not getting used simply because its perceived as old/broke/unsanitary…

The magic of buying a new car is that people treat it like they just bought a new car. Same for a house and other big purchases.

Let’s not fall into the trap of thinking that only applies to the big purchases, though.

It behooves many a leader to purchase something new regardless if it’s broke or not.

Stay Positive & Look Around, See Anything That Works But Needs Replacing?

I’ve always been a fan of going first.

I was the first to raise my hand when the opportunity arose in school. The first to graduate college in my family. The first to speak in a meeting or participate in a game or pitch an idea.

There are two reasons why.

The first is that someone has to go first. There’s no denying that.

The second will sound selfless at first, but I’d argue it’s equally as selfish: it makes it easier for everyone else after. They either learn what to avoid by my mistake or they can build off the success and make it better. Either way, the followers win.

(Of course, the selfish part of this is that 99% of the time if I started with a mistake, no one remembers it but if I start with a success and set the bar high, everyone remembers it. I’m still not sure why this rings true; perhaps a blog post to ruminate on the future.)

Stay Positive & If You’re Not First….