Rows: 2 (but low level)
Coffee: 2
Wine: Nil…but took willpower of Aung San Suu Kyi
Decibels: 30 (Like Black Adder reasoning with the troops before they go ‘over the top’)
Today looks set to be one of negotiation. Battle lines are already being drawn up and it's only 830am. Monday normally means my diplomatic skills are somewhere between Attila the Hun and Cruella DeVille but today it's time to ditch the dalmatian coat, put on a mask of the Dalai Lama and try and get the week off to a good start.
As much as I love my kids and enjoy them as friends, I regularly have to pull the Mum card. You know, the ‘do your room, no you’re not going out until 11pm on a school night and unload the dishwasher NOW’ card. Because as much as I like them, as much as we get on like a house on fire, I am Mummy Dearest before anything else.
Same goes for The Office. Running my own business I mostly get to choose the people I work with. Arguably I spend more time with the Employees than I do with The Family so it’s nice that we are friendly. But before anything else, I am Managing Director. And I regularly have to pull the ‘where are the reports, I think you’ll find that’s in your job description and why are you late’ card.
As MD’s, the skill we have is to see all the pieces of the jigsaw. Individual decisions, taken in isolation, may not make sense to the person they are communicated to. And we don’t have time (nor inclination) to explain the why’s and where fors. Family and Employees have to trust that your judgement is fair and understand these decisions are made as part of a bigger picture. Of course, this is how I see it. The Teenagers think I have the volatility of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano and the Employees think I have the temperament of Stalin on a benevolent day. Although that may be something to do with my new moustache.
So when Daughter is told that, no, Boyf can’t stay over midweek, she riles at the injustice. But I see no sleep for her, then two days of knackered Teenager before she limps to her weekend lie in, which impacts on her college work, the general ambience of the home etc, etc.
Similarly, when Controller changes his work mobile phone number due to his stalker ex-girlfriend, he is somewhat perturbed when I take him to task. He sees the phone number as the issue – I see the new business cards we have just had printed, the 24 hour divert which is programmed to his old number and the 20 clients that have his number if our rural phone lines go down.
My job is to see the bigger picture. I do try to lead by co-alition and negotiation but in the end I am a bit like David Cameron (minus the Eton upbringing and smug expression on his noticeably hairless chin). We have to work together but the buck stops with me, a decisive hirsute leader. That also means it’s my fault if it all goes tits up. Be warned, David. Luckily 90% of the time I get it right. The other 10% is fuel for this column!
Showing posts with label Managing Director. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Managing Director. Show all posts
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Sunday, 13 June 2010
Mondays are………for multi tasking
Rows: Nil (V.Good)
Coffee: 1 (on recommendation of blood pressure nurse!)
Wine: none (as yet but day is young)
Voice Decibels: 40 (subdued yet persuasive) with small peak (after breath freshner incident – see below)
Genius Levels: Dumb and Dumber
Feeling benevolent today I decided to give Teenage Daughter a lift to college. This was my first mistake, adding this to an already unconquerable ‘Things To Do List’. My TTD List’ has 4 columns – work, kids, home and me. I’ll let you guess which one of the 4 doesn’t ever get done. Put it this way, I have had pedicure and eyebrow wax on the list for 2 months now and my feet still resemble a yaks and Dennis Healey would be proud of my mono brow.
However, still I do not learn and over commit myself daily – denying the undeniable fact that there are a mere 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week and 52 weeks in a year. And in this absolutely finite time frame I have to be Super Mom, Wonder Director, Daughter to loving parents and Friend to many. So in order to fit it all in I multitask.
Multitasking has its perils. My normal morning routine is shortened by 15 minutes (by agreeing to aforementioned lift for Daughter) leaving me feeling less than fresh mouthed - my penchant for red wine leaving my breath this morning not unreminiscent of a camels. Whilst listening to Daughter do her 'OMG I so totally can't believe you just said that' routine, I forage in my MD handbag for my breath freshener – by-passing all the normal Mummy Dearest detritus – tissues, baby wipes, a cereal bar – plus Managing Director detritus – calculator, latest tax briefing from my accountant, my Dictaphone, Iphone - to find the small bottle of minty loveliness in the form of breath freshner. Recent additions to counter my mild hypochondria in the face of the flu epidemic include a small bottle of antibacterial hand cleanser. The bottles are spookily similar. Same shape. Similar smell with lid removed, same pump actions. Different consistency – but good ole me always gives a pump a second go just in case the first one was just a bit clogged up so I consequently had not one, but two mouthfuls of antibacterial hand cleanser as I sped Daughter towards college.
Nevertheless do I take heed, delete half of my TTD List and sort it all out? Of course not. Instead I head to The Office where the job of MD has a more detailed version of the TTD List – with four more columns – which would be fine if it’s just this weeks list – but it’s perpetual, never ending.
I used to get enormous satisfaction when faced with a completed a list – striking masterfully through each onerous task as it was done. But every Monday – regardless of how clear I am by Friday – there’s a new, fresh list. It starts to be over whelming. So I multi task. Whilst speaking on phone, I utter instructions to awaiting staff member and read through my email. Consequently I managed to send an erotic email to a similarly named work colleague when it should have gone to my husband, have baffled my new staff member by calling them someone else’s name for 2 days and have tried to order stationary from my osteopath. Must do better.
Buddhists call it mindfulness – I call it just doing one thing at a time. Eat and only concentrate on eating, organise and only concentrate on organising, drive and concentrate only on that. But then, I hear you say, what happens to the to do list??
No solutions I’m afraid – or I’d be a very rich woman. Now...how long to Wednesday?????
Coffee: 1 (on recommendation of blood pressure nurse!)
Wine: none (as yet but day is young)
Voice Decibels: 40 (subdued yet persuasive) with small peak (after breath freshner incident – see below)
Genius Levels: Dumb and Dumber
Feeling benevolent today I decided to give Teenage Daughter a lift to college. This was my first mistake, adding this to an already unconquerable ‘Things To Do List’. My TTD List’ has 4 columns – work, kids, home and me. I’ll let you guess which one of the 4 doesn’t ever get done. Put it this way, I have had pedicure and eyebrow wax on the list for 2 months now and my feet still resemble a yaks and Dennis Healey would be proud of my mono brow.
However, still I do not learn and over commit myself daily – denying the undeniable fact that there are a mere 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week and 52 weeks in a year. And in this absolutely finite time frame I have to be Super Mom, Wonder Director, Daughter to loving parents and Friend to many. So in order to fit it all in I multitask.
Multitasking has its perils. My normal morning routine is shortened by 15 minutes (by agreeing to aforementioned lift for Daughter) leaving me feeling less than fresh mouthed - my penchant for red wine leaving my breath this morning not unreminiscent of a camels. Whilst listening to Daughter do her 'OMG I so totally can't believe you just said that' routine, I forage in my MD handbag for my breath freshener – by-passing all the normal Mummy Dearest detritus – tissues, baby wipes, a cereal bar – plus Managing Director detritus – calculator, latest tax briefing from my accountant, my Dictaphone, Iphone - to find the small bottle of minty loveliness in the form of breath freshner. Recent additions to counter my mild hypochondria in the face of the flu epidemic include a small bottle of antibacterial hand cleanser. The bottles are spookily similar. Same shape. Similar smell with lid removed, same pump actions. Different consistency – but good ole me always gives a pump a second go just in case the first one was just a bit clogged up so I consequently had not one, but two mouthfuls of antibacterial hand cleanser as I sped Daughter towards college.
Nevertheless do I take heed, delete half of my TTD List and sort it all out? Of course not. Instead I head to The Office where the job of MD has a more detailed version of the TTD List – with four more columns – which would be fine if it’s just this weeks list – but it’s perpetual, never ending.
I used to get enormous satisfaction when faced with a completed a list – striking masterfully through each onerous task as it was done. But every Monday – regardless of how clear I am by Friday – there’s a new, fresh list. It starts to be over whelming. So I multi task. Whilst speaking on phone, I utter instructions to awaiting staff member and read through my email. Consequently I managed to send an erotic email to a similarly named work colleague when it should have gone to my husband, have baffled my new staff member by calling them someone else’s name for 2 days and have tried to order stationary from my osteopath. Must do better.
Buddhists call it mindfulness – I call it just doing one thing at a time. Eat and only concentrate on eating, organise and only concentrate on organising, drive and concentrate only on that. But then, I hear you say, what happens to the to do list??
No solutions I’m afraid – or I’d be a very rich woman. Now...how long to Wednesday?????
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