Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Counting the Different(s)

I read an article on the Harvard Business Review site this morning titled "How do you know a great person when you see one?"
I think part of this article says that great leadership or greatness is often times context dependent... right? Different situations call for different skill sets. Different people will shine in different circumstances. And how many times can I use the word, "different"?

This also made me think of the different temperaments: sanguine, choleric, melancholy and phlegmatic (definitely Choleric with a melancholy secondary)... combined with the 4 letter personality type (I'm an INTJ) and all of the other personality tests and things out there that are made to be tools to understand yourself better.

I was going somewhere with this.....

Oh right. Different skill sets shine in different places. I'm having a real problem with that this week.

See, I am the type of take charge, make a spreadsheet, get it organized kind of gal - when it comes to jobs and professional matters. The organizational state of my desk and bedroom leaves a bit to be desired, although I could tell you were everything is- just don't move it. Anyhow, when it comes to things that require a product, or schedule or payment, I have learned to be more diligent and cover my bases and try not to overschedule, double book or most important over extend myself. I've learned my lesson. The hard way. And I don't really feel the need to learn it again (we'll see how this goes after the month of July).

The problem I'm having is that this person in charge of one of my summer activities is driving me bonkers because he/she uses a different leadership style.


This normally isn't a problem. We have to deal with people who do things differently every day. But I can't let go of this. As you can see.

I am having a hard time just letting this person do part of their job.... even though I (big emphasis on I) would do it in a completely different way. This person has a great skill set and its being displayed in many other ways. But something about the way things are being done is making me a little crazy on the inside.

("Different" Count is up to 10)

We need people to do things differently (#11)? Yeah.

Do I have to like it? No.

Do I have to respect it? Yeah I do. But I can do that.




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