I recently had a conversation with an office manager who really seemed to be struggling with the “Glass-half-empty” syndrome. I know that we all can struggle with this from time-to-time, but this manager really had a bad case of it.
He had been working hard with his staff over the past couple of years and felt that no matter what management strategies he tried he still could not produce the “Super Team” he wanted.
I asked him to tell me what successes they accomplished last year as a team. He began to tell me that they did finish a much-needed protocol manual, which took much longer to do than he expected. They also achieved making a Facebook page for their company and to date have 156 followers, yet he thought they could have accomplished more.
And finally, they had reached their monthly financial goals 3 months out of the year. This was good, but not great since they had never reached them before.
When he finished, I told him that he and his team had accomplished a lot to be proud of this past year and if he continued to focus on what they did not do he would pass his negative feeling along to his team and then good luck in trying to motivate them to be successful this year.
His hard work with his team had paid off. He was just missing it because he was looking at the wrong thing.
He was leading them down the right road, it was just a little bumpier than he expected. I encouraged him to keep moving forward even if he and his team are moving at baby step speed. Little accomplishments are better than none.
“Success is not a destination, but the road you are on.” ~ Unknown
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