I have been working for over thirty years, and I am still learning plenty about myself every day.  It may sound odd but in general I like to keep to myself and would rather not deal with people.

But you get older and realise you can’t be the kid wonder technical guru for every (well maybe some can but I certainly couldn’t) so you made the move to management.

For me it is work.  Hard work.  I have little patience normally but you have to practice like everything.

I still remember getting on a call with my team when of them had become very excited after their development training we had sent them on.  They figured out that basically I am an introvert but learned to overcome that with time and energy.  Some the team members who didn’t go on the training didn’t buy it but I was open enough to share with them why that was right and how it shows you can learn just about any skill.

So back to managing.  I often have more of a challenging managing up of late.  I enjoy coaching and mentoring and love it when the lights come on in the team and they get to figuring stuff out.  I am almost happy to spend the extra effort to let them nut it out for themselves.

Conversely I tend to lose it with those higher up the chain of command which at times has put me in the penalty box for acting.  Fortunately I had some good managers who put me onto a great coach who help me learn how to manage that fairly obvious contempt.

So I guess the point of this snippet is that we are who we are but managing our reactions, learning new skills can help us in our careers and get things done.  We are who we are… this is not about being something else just tempering the outlying behaviors.

So if that’s you and you have someone on your team that needs to learn how to manage themselves help them out.  It can turn one of your challenges into a productive resource.

later