The boredom you feel when you think you know it all and standing up when you’ve been wronged
Welcome to the Perfect Manifesto Sunday Reflections.
This post is inspired by the week note format that many professionals use to reflect on their working week, except in these reflections I’ll be sharing various observations from all parts of my life, covering a range of topics, in short snippets that don’t quite justify fitting a full post.
Consciously Competent
“Consciously skilled” – we know we have the skill (Mindtools)
In the title I am referring to the “Conscious Competence Ladder” – unfortunately being “Consciously skilled” makes you more prone to boredom because you’ve been doing the same thing for a while.
All the jobs I’ve ever had, I always begin to struggle when I get to this stage because I like to be challenged. Symptoms that show I’ve got to this stage include – completing all my tasks with hours to spare, coming up with wacky side projects to make my working more even more efficient, looking at other jobs without intent to apply, and writing.
I’ve been doing my current job as a communications and engagement lead for 2.5 years now, and in many ways I’m happy because this was the level I wanted to get to and I like what I do, and the people I work with – but that competency itch can’t be ignored.
Over the last few months I’ve being doing sole searching on my purpose, taken on new hobbies, and setup the small workplace side projects that no one asked for but can make things better, some days are good, some are bad.
For the latter my solution is to walk more, and while out with the dog I had an epiphany, about how I could make our social media messaging more blended so it was more organic and connected rather than sounding like seperate subjects.
Then I was reading a post on my workplaces community forum, and from the discussions I spotted a direct opportunity how our messaging could tap into people’s emotions, and fulfil a need (while increasing our own brand awareness).
I’ve been reading lots of things over the years from social media gurus about the importance of appealing to people’s emotional needs, despite explaining it, I never quite felt I truly got it, until that day.
A final break through came from understanding the importance of insights to inform communication insights. I’ve been collecting email addresses from our target audience for the last couple of years and never been quite sure how to use this data to the teams advantage. I did some Excel wizardry, and was able to get data on who was interested in a particular topic.
Using this I then sent a direct email promoting a webinar, the result? We’ve already achieved the same number of registrations with 5 weeks to go as our largest attended session.
Consciously competent? May time to allow a bit more boredom and frustration has helped me one small step towards mastery!
Kindness or Weakness?
I’m an easy going person.
At times I wonder if I’m being too much of a pushover in the interest of keeping the peace.
Some of my decision are simply because I don’t think it’s worth putting my energy into a particular battle.
Others are a simple act of kindness, agreeing out of kindness because it makes the other person happy.
“Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness.”
However, this week in my job in the NHS (National Health Service), I did have to take a firm stance against someone whose tone I felt was disrespectful.
In my job I coordinate my colleagues speaking gigs, and in discussion with an organiser they described their event as discussing issues around my organisations inability to provide funding to support innovation.
This was a major red flag, I could not sit back smile and pretend everything was cool. The healthcare speaking gig circuit in England is heavily built on trust – public servants give up their time, often travelling across the country quest of an organiser wanting them to speak.
In return the unwritten expectation is that organisers don’t deliberately brand to encourage a divisive response, and humiliate speakers to those volunteering their time to speak for free.
They did respond that the the failings of my organisation was “a well known industry fact” whether valid or not, I could not ignore any sign that my colleague was going to be disrespected.
I’ve setup a meeting to discuss more how they positively brand the event without building it around digs at another organisation, if we can’t agree, I then make recommendation to my colleagues whether we withdraw our commitment.
Either way they will find out kindness and weakness are not the same thing.
Throwback of the week
My throwback of the week has some relevance to this week’s reflections: From Pushover To Powerhouse How to be More Assertive
From Pushover to Powerhouse: How To Be More Assertive
Back in the day Perfect Manifesto was used more as a place I would use to document and keep accountable on a wide range of goals. One of those big ambitions was to improve my assertiveness, this article I wrote way back when – How not to be a pushover discusses this problem. As I…
Thank you for reading
Wishing you the best in your success
James @Perfect Manifesto
Perfect Manifesto 