Caterwauling

I guess part of being a manager is, well, managing. And this morning, I came up with the best solution. I am not necessarily a genius, but today marks the day I grew up and let go.

I think I have a good solution to my time management situation, and it means giving up a project I love but also one that I do mostly because it helps me to feel like I’ve actually achieved something in a day. But I will achieve more — and bigger — things if I free up the energy to do them.

It just took (not) sleeping on it to push me in the right direction.

I just talked with the fabulous person whose project I am to give up, and he gave me a genuine, “I’m sorry to lose you.” And I explained that he’s easy. He’s a joy. He’s amazing. Which is why I feel good about giving his project away — I know I will never have to worry about him coming through and doing a kickass job.

There are other projects that require more of me to tame them — some that will kick my ass till the end of time, and others that need my immediate efforts in order to guide them down the “right” path.

I’ve picked up a new external team of experts, and all they ever really wanted was some attention and someone to show that they care that they are on board with making the project — and all 40 of its moving parts — a success. And I have been named the person to make magic for and with them for a reason. Because I will. I have a real opportunity to make something incredible happen here.

And I see where others have approached it all wrong — as “yet another obligation.” I need to put the kibosh on that before it even begins. As I’ve said, they’re home to stay now. And it’s time to do some major renovations. This may be one of the hardest projects I’ve picked up, because we’re starting a new one and improving an old one simultaneously. But if there’s anyone who can make it work, it’s your girl right here.

I also spoke with another external person (yep, it’s not even 9 a.m. and I’m kicking ass — already put up three Web pages and sent a broadcast) who said he’d be sorry to see me move onward and upward but that he’s happy about it. Is that not awesome? How can you for a moment hate being me? And all my men refer to me as “Goddess.” I tell ya, it’s the best job title ever!

My original hiring manager promised he’d only call me “goddess” if I proved I was worthy of it. Now after three years, no one calls me by my given name anymore — everyone liberally bestows the worship upon me accordingly.

Life is good. And getting better.

Once again, it’s good to be me.

I sort of retain all these half-assed rants because I want to write a book someday on thriving in your chosen vocation. And up till now, I’ve been anything but an expert on that topic. I’ve been hoping that collecting all my notes throughout the years would make me smarter. And I think that will ultimately be the case — sometimes it just takes a brick wall to fall on me and the occasional nervous breakdown to put things into perspective.

I just can’t WAIT for vacation season to be over so that I can stop covering for everyone and get my own load manageable enough that I can con some folks into covering for me. 😉

I admit, I’m sort of proud of the fact that it takes an army to cover my essential duties and that it would take a world army to cover my non-essential ones. But pride ain’t worth nothin’ if I’m going to be too fried in a year to do any of it.

Apparently, there’s hope for me yet!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 8:11 AM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.