Monday Motivation: Do More of What You Love.
Here’s a sure thing I love. Being on site with my team, supporting them with a permit, a company coat, a home cooked meal, and a smile!
I have reached a crossroads when it comes to my role at T.Scherber.
I think I have found myself where most owners find themselves 5 years in: dabbled in a little bit of every role, surviving through each daily task they take on, doing a so-so job at everything, and not doing a great job at one thing. This complex of “doing it all half-ass” has left me feeling that I’m not doing anything well on a daily basis. In some cases/areas, I am even feeling like “I’m a failure”. This is not a good mental state for a leader to be in. Ever.
I did what I always do when I hit these difficult moments as a leader. Call Kristina. She’s been in marketing and business strategy for over 15 years and worked on many sides of the construction industry. More important than that - she is a calm objective voice in a storm.
What I realized in my conversation with her is that “the more I do the things that I am not good at or don’t enjoy doing the more I am going to feel like a failure each day”. Examples of this for me are accounting, pricing, dispatch, logistics and day to day operations for the dumpster company, maintenance calls for both companies, etc. She asked me to spend this week defining every single thing I don’t love doing. From there we could break these tasks up into categories and come up with DELEGATION PLAN.
I feel strongly that this is an important list that we all make to get identify daily activities that create internal frustration so we can ultimately get them off our plate where possible.
Next came the part of our conversation where I started to feel free from my frustrations.
“Lets talk about the things that you love doing and the accomplishments you are most proud of over the last 30 days, doing this will begin to define what your role should look like as a leader.”
“Lets talk about the things that you love doing at the business and the overall accomplishments you are most proud of over the last 30 days, doing this will begin to define what your role should look like as a leader.” I’m still working on that list but the first tasks that came to mind are: marketing, business development, sales, client relations, being an active member of associations and networking, managing our give back program, and cooking for my team. Start listing out the things that you really love doing. Do you arrive at the same conclusion as I did, “I’m doing very little of that.”
There’s one more thing I love to do and I didn’t want to admit it because I have taken a lot of heat for being passionate about this. I believe Aaron Witt said the shattering words I’ve heard many times best on our “Dirt Talk” Podcast Interview:
“A lot of people think you just ‘hang out’ on Instagram all day but what is it that you actually do.”
We got into what I do on a day to day basis. A list that made me sound like a Bad Ass Businesswoman and was likely more acceptable to the masses. But the truth is, I hated doing most of what I said. Bigger truth bomb is that I would actually love to spend half my day on Social Media consistently connecting with the construction community, sharing our story and our journey, and making a difference in their dirt world. Some may call that hanging out, I call that support.
Social Media is not a swear word and spending my time there with intention is not wrong. It’s actually right. Really right. And I needed to give myself permission to say “I love it.”
“ Social Media is not a swear word and spending my time there is not wrong. It’s actually right. Really right. And I needed to give myself permission to say “I love it””
We hit the accomplishments I’m most proud of part of the conversation and this is when I knew something about my role really had to change quickly. The moments I have felt most proud in the last 30 days were: attending the ribbon cutting ceremony at ConExpo where the first tradeswoman statue in the history of the show was revealed, shining the spotlight on Women In Construction on Wednesdays and having USA Today do a feature on that movement in March with the headline “She’s building something great for women in our industry”.
I was also really proud of T.Scherber’s latest marketing initiatives - a COVID Mask Drive with a give-back twist and a new Safety Series that I’m working on with Caterpillar. I feel strongly that both of these initiatives support our staff, clients, community, and truly set us apart as a contractor.
The last thing I felt really proud of was my relationship with AEM /ConExpoConAGG. Our efforts on their Podcast not only supported the construction community in a new way through compelling conversations but it also supported their social team by driving up engagement on AEM’s social accounts and increasing registrations for the show.
Hmmm, that word support keeps coming up.
I started this conversation crying. Feeling down. Feeling like a failure. I ended this conversation pretty damn proud of what I have accomplished and compelled to do more of things.
What’s interesting about the list of things I love to do and am proud of is that I spend the least amount of time doing them. I’m so busy drowning in day to day operations, accounting, staff and dispatch calls, etc. that I’m doing very little of what I love.
The good news is I hit my breaking point. Kristina talked me through it. And now I’m on a path of being brave and redefining my role so that I can do more of what I love and in turn be a better leader. I’m excited to share that journey with you.
I would love to hear how this article hit you in the comments below. I would love even more if you’d share your lists of the accomplishments you're most proud of. I hope that will instill a sense of pride in you and lead you to do more of what you love.