Your work probably has several hard parts, and one of them is almost certainly other people.
If only they would…
… do their jobs properly / be vaguely professional / relate to each other as grown-ups / take responsibility / have a little consideration / not bring home issues to the office / leave you alone …
… you life would be much easier.
But if you didn’t have to work on any of these these things…
… they’d probably be bored / you’d have a too-exclusive team / they wouldn’t be people / they wouldn’t need you.
If you’re a manager or leader, these things are at the centre of your contribution:
- Helping people do their best work
- Creating a culture and ways of working that enables your colleagues to manage themselves and each other
- Knowing them well and supporting them personally
- Taking time to help them with the abstract and emotional and with the nitty-gritty of their work
- Finding training, tools, relationships that will help them to thrive
- Having uncomfortable and very specific conversations about what needs to be done and by when and what is and isn’t working …. and dealing with the fact that people don’t always like being told
- Doing it regularly – being accountable to yourself for your responsibility
If you’re not having fairly regular “Why do I have to deal with this crap?” moments, you might be very lucky, but it might be a sign that you’re not doing something very hard.