A few days break for Easter and our training director is contemplating 'no email Fridays'... now there's an idea.
Another week goes by and what has happened...
Well first off, my quest for a senior trainer/consultant has now been completed and I have found someone who can really add value and energy to the team and relieve me of some of the burden. He is intelligent, articulate and knowledgeable and immensely likeable – I think I read somewhere that people recruit in their image! So that is sorted, my next quest is for a junior trainer – hopefully that shouldn’t be too much of a problem (bar trainee conductors - remember my earlier entry?).
Other exciting events include trying to get a tender in on time - a few stressed people and some late nights - still, it has led us to become more focussed and project based for the completion of tenders in the future (and more select).
I had a trainer on holiday this week, which was great for my trainer (he needed a break, to be honest), not so great for me as a couple of other trainers fell ill with the dreaded bug. Combine this scenario with the tender and the usual ‘stuff’ and it gives you some idea of what the week was like. I must admit it felt at times like being a bumble-bee in a florist, here, there and everywhere.
Still my two days off and Easter break were fantastic - helped to restore the batteries and no emails! I read an article last week about people who check their inboxes every 40 seconds - mine takes 40 seconds to open - how do they do anything? Sounds like an obsession to me, glad to say I find I am leaving my laptop untouched more and more and getting more time to talk to people – now that’s a thing. Anyway going to draft a new job description today for a quality person and see if I can implement a no e-mail Friday.
It never ceases to surprise me when visiting clients and delivering training (or when working in the office) how many people email their colleagues, even more worrying is that they email the person sitting opposite or next to them. What happened to talking to each other? Yes, I have heard the arguments that they might not be there (you can see them if they are near you) and it’s for the record (I can prove I did my bit) but the reality is we need to be able to talk to each other - that is where ideas, motivation and inspiration come from. I am becoming more and more aware that I get better results when I talk to people - try it, it works (oh and it makes life more interesting too).
To read the last installment in the Dear Diary series click here
