Next Steps...

Today should have been a much better day, but after what took place at the office, I've concluded that work is a big reason for the stress and depression I've been feeling in recent days.  I'm going to be participating in a training workshop over the next few days, something endorsed by my boss for each of the management teams in our organization, and I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with the managers who work for me.  There are eight gents who make me look good, and I hope the workshop is beneficial to all of us.  However, because the workshop will be two full days, we will be missing several other meetings.  I surmised that my boss would allow us to make the workshops a priority over the other meetings we have scheduled, so I sent messages to my colleagues leading those other meetings letting them know that we would not be able to join them because of our workshop.  The result was a power struggle over whose meeting was most important.

I really tried hard to be as polite and understanding as possible while pushing forward with our workshop, and as it turned out, I correctly surmised that my boss would support us making the workshop a priority.  However, she took it a step further by making it clear that the other managers should not have questioned me on the importance of the workshop.  The result was resentment from my colleagues.  I did not anticipate this.  I just don't get why some people get so upset over stuff like this.  So, even though I did nothing wrong, I'm kind of in the doghouse, at least in the eyes of a few colleagues.

Anyway, we're pushing forward with the workshop and I'm actually looking forward to it.  It has its basis in the StrengthsFinder assessments that Gallup developed.  From the Gallup website:

Gallup research proves that people succeed when they focus on what they do best.  When they identify their talents and develop them into strengths, people are more productive, perform better, and are more engaged.

Gallup's Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment is the first step in helping people identify their talents.  Clifton StrengthsFinder results give people a way to discuss and develop their unique combination of skills, talents, and knowledge -- also known as strengths.

So all of the managers have already been through the assessments and know their strengths, so this is the next step in the process.  Our workshop will be facilitated by TAG Consulting, and the gentleman working with our Group has been my "executive coach" for almost two years now.  Using our strengths as the foundation, my management team will discuss ways that we can work together to take our organization forward and begin improving the culture to make us all more successful.

I hope that we're successful, and that the carryover will result in a much better mood and outlook for myself.  The past week has been very challenging for me personally, and I'd like to think that improving the peripheral stuff will have a positive effect on me.  It certainly can't hurt.

So that's my story for the day.  The only negative is that I had hoped to join the Hoco Bloggers this evening for an event at Jailbreak, a local brewery.  With my daughter on "vacation" with her grandparents this week, I have a lot of available time to spend on myself.  My introvertedness always seems to get in the way, though, and this time I had a double whammy of that and being overcome by depression.  It was easy to talk myself out of going, and since I'm a bit of a teetotaler, I ended up spending some extra time at work preparing for my workshop tomorrow, and then going straight home to crash for the evening.  I promise that I will make more of an effort to participate with my fellow Hoco bloggers at a future event.

With that, have a great evening, everyone!