Yesterday at London Admin User Group #LAUG, Abigail Julian asked me about a mistake that still stays with me.
I shared how my projects got easier since starting my Samaritans volunteering journey 17 years ago – where I learned to listen better.
I coach my team to listen better to each other, to our clients, and to the people who matter. And to always be kind, because we don’t know what someone else is going through.
But the thing about high-pressure projects is that… they’re always high pressure, right?
Always not enough time.
Always doing more with less, faster, quicker.
When we’re in a rush, when the pressure is on, we tend to lean towards unkindness.
Not purposefully, but when we’re not mindful, that’s what happens.
It’s just human nature.
The mistake I was talking about?
I was on a project, under a lot of pressure as usual.
One of my teammates was supposed to be building a PDF from Visualforce (that tells you how long ago this was!) and he just wasn’t nailing it and I couldn’t understand why.
And I wasn’t as kind as I should have been.
Later, I found out that his family had a tragedy and suffered a loss.
I should have been more understanding, and just taking the time to find out what was going on with him. 😔
Since then, I made sure that no matter how stressy a project gets, I always, always make time for every one of my team to find out how they’re doing.
Are they finding things difficult?
Is there anything I can do to make their work and their lives better?
Because the thing is…
Humanity, kindness, connection, people – they are far, far, far more important than projects, deadlines, or the stress of trying to get everything done.
It’s just not worth it.
People are what matters.
Anyway, that was the biggest lesson I learned, and I try to make sure I do not repeat that mistake ever again.
I thought it was worth sharing.
It costs nothing to
#BeKind. 🌹