Five nails I pounded that weren’t nails at all..

Geplaatst op

I pounded them, but they didn’t go in at all. Or they went in all skew and crooked. The problem, of course, must be those nails, right? For all the other nails that did go in perfectly, are testifying my pounding is excellent. Let’s examine them together, one by one.

Five nails:

  1. That one employee I manage
  2. That one dish I cooked
  3. That one wife I married
  4. That one strategic problem I fought
  5. That one heart I have

I pounded:

  1. It takes three years to become a great project manager, I told that one employee I manage when I hired her. That’s what I’ve told all the project managers I’ve trained in my years. And I was always right. But we are 2,5 years in, and I pounded all I could, but she still messes up budgets and deadlines and so on. It must be her, for all the other nails are testifying it’s not me.
  2. I’m a star at cooking spaghetti. But this one dish I cooked didn’t look like spaghetti and it sure as hell didn’t taste like spaghetti. I feel embarrassed, what will my wife think of it? It can’t be my fault though. Just ask all the spaghetti’s I cooked that were awesome.
  3. About that wife of mine: she does not see what I do for her. I try to excel in life so we can grow and do the stuff we love. But lately, she has been nagging that I spend too much time at work, and when I’m at home, she feels like my head is not with her, but with my work. It must be her that changed, for my ambition was one of the things she loved about me when we got together.
  4. Well, she doesn’t know about that one strategic problem I’m pounding. I’ve tried all the tools and frameworks available at my company, but the nail won’t go in. It can’t be me. And it can’t be the tools. Because for years me and my tools have tackled every problem in our way.
  5. When I started this job, that one heart I have, was an engine that spewed out mountains of power and motivation. It was my sledgehammer, pounding me through every wall in my way. But nowadays, especially in the mornings, it struggles to pound me out of bed. I tried the things that motivated me back then, but it’s not working. It seems like I lost my mojo.

That weren’t nails at all:

  1. I had an assessment interview with that one employee I manage. I said she was failing miserably as a nail. She needed to improve on nearly all the topics I assessed. She said: I have developed a new way for the IT-department to cooperate with operations. I said: tell me. She told me. I said… please excuse my pounding. You might never be a great project manager, but you will be a brilliant change manager. She smiled like I had never seen her smile before.
  2. That one dish I cooked was not spaghetti. The shops were closed and we did not have the ingredients needed. So I used what we did have and tried to make spaghetti. It was the worst spaghetti ever. But my wife loved it, she named it myghetti.
  3. About that wife. I decided to make her my priority. And the funny thing is, the more I do, the more she feels like she’s not competing with my work, and now she is actually curious about work and is championing me on!
  4. She suggested to drop the tools and frameworks and look at that one strategic problem I fought without preconceived ideas. I spent a lot of time really getting to the root of it, and have developed a new framework that has not only solved this problem, but is starting to bring in some promising results in other parts of the company.
  5. I’ve been trying to pound that one heart of mine in the direction of the people I admired most when I joined this company. But the world is changing. Now it’s time to step out, take what I’ve learned from them, and do something groundbreaking only I can do.