Blogging has been on my mind for many years, if I wrote all the excuses I used down it would make an impressive list! We all have personal obstacles in our lives, some we create ourselves, as managers we not only need to tackle our own but help our team to tackle theirs. Identifying them is often the biggest challenge as we often put up a self denial barrier stopping it being considered. This blog is more about my own obstacles though than others.
What could I say that would really make a difference to anyone? I certainly don’t doubt my ability as a manager, but the little voice in my head says no one will care what you think. There are managers out there with popular blogs covering everything any manager would need to know. Look at Rands in his blog, what can I say on top of this?! He has a healthy number of followers, experience off the chart, two books, in fact…I might just stop now…
…ok the little voice has gone again now! Yes, there are good managers out there, great managers even, but so what! Does that mean I don’t have anything of value to say? Everyone has an opinion, if you’re a manager I’m sure you probably not that too well! Everyone has different experiences too, we have different backgrounds, different needs. It’s not for me to decide if anything I say will be of value, that’s up to you! I’ve listened to many presentations and when I chat to others after they have different takeaways. This is the same with blogs, readers will draw what they need, I learnt you don’t have to be the most influential person to be of value to someone else.
So, I’m past one obstacle and believe that many can benefit from what I have to say. Now the next one….literacy skills! Sure, I can write and it makes sense (some of the time) but I always compare myself to others and when it comes to writing that’s authors, journalists, etc. <understatement>From that aspect I’m not the greatest wordsmith!</understatement> Maybe I don’t need to be, I’m only scrambling random thoughts together, not trying to be the next Shakespeare. It’s a personal obstacle for me though, a fear that this weakness will be exposed!
To improve a weakness you need to tackle it head on – so start blogging! Sure, I will make mistakes, sentences could have been structured better, I could have used better words but if I don’t put the work in to improve, I will never get better! You only get better at something by practising and learning. With my trusted sidekick, the thesaurus, I will aim to make my words flow together like Greek yogurt and honey!
What is the point to all this? Well, if we want to be better managers, or anything for that matter, we sometimes need to be honest with ourselves. That might mean confronting a fear or trying overcoming some laziness, but in order to help our team we have to know how to help ourselves! Our team members may have the same obstacles, they could even be afraid of what you think! Allowing the team to express themselves freely, without being afraid of failing can change the complete dynamic in your team. Sometimes this needs to start with the manager!
I find that usually the biggest obstacle in my life is myself…
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