Charlie B. was his team’s best ‘tactical thinker’ and doer. In the team, personal accountability (results oriented) was a trait of everyone. But, he was definitely the ‘focus and finish’ guy. What made him stand out, and be the one chosen for mission-critical troubleshooting?
Here are some tips to overcome the self-sabotage of procrastination, low self-esteem, boredom and depression.
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Charlie stood out, because he did the job. Anytime. All the time. Sometimes, the rest of us would spend time on the ‘fun’ or interesting aspects of our job. When we had hundreds of courses to migrate to a new system, he started with the ‘easy’ ones to learn the new development language. Others of us, got mired in items more complex and difficult. We also had other tasks, which diverted our time and attention. Sometimes I too procrastinated, because I feared boredom, and didn’t like repetitive work, hour after hour.
Three things were part of Charlie’s work ethic.
Accountability.
Focus.
Persistence.
These are learned behaviors.
1) ACCOUNTABILITY.
DO. Charlie took personal responsibility to work a certain amount of the day on the task at hand.
DEFER. Other routine work happened later.
DELEGATE. He tag-teamed with a partner, who would insert videos, while he did the rest.
When others would make excuses for not completing the job, he would gently remind us, “Get ‘er done”.
2) FOCUS.
We knew not to disturb Charlie when his headsets were on. We would compile notes and email them periodically, so he batched his work. Focus is short-term, and means ‘to avoid distractions’. He asked his co-workers to support him in his good habits. When focus is needed, Dopamine is triggered to create short-term focus, and tune out distractions.
3) PERSISTENCE.
Over the course of weeks and months, Charlie was a productive worker in course mitigation. Persistence is actually a different psychological behavior, than focus. It is more long-term. It is a hallmark of well-disciplined people, who have learned ‘delayed gratification’ (reward comes later).
Another example is shown in a 2008 NPR article, children in Asia were scoring higher in math than American and European of the same age. Was it do to intellect? Culture?
After extensive testing and research, it was determined that those who planted rice in the fields, or had extensive chores or work, were better in math, because they simply had the persistence to work through the problem, to the end. (Malcom Gladwell, 2008, NPR).
Endorphins ‘runners high’ may also be associated with persistence, the ability to go long distances, overcome pain and stress, to feel relaxed, even euphoric. Endorphins are also triggered by laughter, food, sex, exercise, and ultraviolet light.
Have you ever met a person who does not take accountability for their actions? When we ask “Who is in charge of your career? Finances? Schedule?” They may respond “My boss, my spouse, my kids soccer games.” They are quick to point fingers at others for why their work is late, incomplete, or not good quality.
One co-worker replied that she was not going to take the company sponsored training, because it was off-hours. Unless she was paid to learn, she would not. On the next layoff, she was gone and another was given her job. She did not understand the connection between her habit of complacency and lay off. She blamed everyone but herself, all the way out the door.
Jeff Kelley told his team to own up to their mistakes. He said that it was a lot easier to work with managers when you stepped up, identified what had gone wrong and worked to fix it. In the highly charged atmosphere, where senior management tended to get upset, people had been covering up for themselves and others, working quietly to fix things before they were noticed, or passing blame on to others. However, it was a life-long good advice, to become better at foreseeing risks.
Taking accountability, seeing risks, and fixing mistakes, is a highly-prized attitude of success.
One way you can show if you have ‘focus and finish’ and persistence is if you can complete the tutorials ‘Overcome Self-sabotage’. These are found in the overview of Change Champions GET UNSTUCK.
You can do this for free!
On the Right menu, select R+ Tips.
In the Categories section in the right side-bar,
filter on the category, Speed Success.
With your mentor, or study buddy, answer these interview questions.
What is the difference between focus and persistence?
Which do you prefer and why?
People pay you to do tasks (take responsibility) that others don’t want to do:
(Simple) complete tedious, repetitive work.
(Complicated) work with difficult people or people of differing viewpoints.
(Complex) handle many parts, with uncertain or unknown interactions.
(Chaotic) take action in unpredictable situation, no clear path.
Accountable. Responsible. Patient. Dependable. Do what I say I will do. Attention-to-detail. Persistent. Focused. Trustworthy. Integrity. Honest. Determined. Single-minded. Compulsive finisher. Obsessed with quality. Perfection-oriented. Repetitive. (Math, Accounting, production line work). Tactical. Doer. Lynch-pin. Key. Mission-critical. Get It Done.
Over time, Charlie had a significant impact on the behavior of his co-workers. From time to time, one could hear us remind each other, ”Get ‘er done”.
A sign appeared outside the the team’s cubicle appeared:
Get ‘r done
A major self-sabotage is Boredom, Anxiety, Fear of failure, and Depression.
The way to overcome self-sabotage is to
BE RESPONSIBLE. Accept responsibility,
FOCUS. Avoid distractions, and
FINISH. Don’t stop until you get it done.’
SITUATION
I (Jaye) asked my boss if the other team members got jealous that I got all the good assignments. He leaned on my desk with his arms folded, “Define ‘good’ “. I gave examples, like “Find a new technology to get around the fact the new building doesn’t have enough outlets for the network requirements. We can’t add wires. We move in 8 weeks.”
ACTION
I asked other engineers if there were any new technologies being invented. I researched and then cold-called and visited new vendors. I wrote up specification sheets, and worked with external developers to write code to allow us to use one network card for many different protocols (mainframe, LAN TC/IP, Digital, Windows, UNIX, VAX etc.)
RESULT
I was responsible for ensuring that 2,300 computers could be moved in a single weekend to another city. It was the first production environment of this new technology, in the manufacturing industry.
My manager replied, “We found out a while ago that you love gnarly problems. The other team members think they are giving you the grunt work, they don’t want to do. You think you get a challenge. And the customers are delighted they get their most pressing problems focused on and completed on time.”
MISSION
I am a dependable, trustworthy person.
VISION
My team members gave me their ‘grunt work’, because I love to use investigative, analytical, problem solving skills to find solutions. I see the better future, and I will persist until I get benefit for myself and others.
SABOTAGE.
IF I don’t take accountability for my actions, then my boss is responsible for my career, my spouse runs my finances, or my kids are in charge of my schedule. It is easy to become complacent, and then point fingers at everyone else as contributors to my problems.
The result of self-sabotage is fear (procrastination), boredom, and depression, feeling of helplessness, loss-of-control, low self-esteem.
