What is the real work at work?
I have very few coaching sessions about the actual design work. It’s all about people.
In this week’s coaching reflections video I invite you to consider that all that people and relationship stuff that seems to “get in the way” of you doing your work is actually the work, especially as you move into management and leadership. Considering it this way can help alleviate the sense of frustration and, instead, replace it with curiosity.
Transcript
Intro
[00:00:00] Andy Polaine: Companies, aren’t really real. They’re really just an idea and they may have a legal entity, but actually what they really are is a collection of people just doing their jobs.
My name is Andy Polaine. And every week I spend my days coaching design leaders and in these videos I reflect upon the common themes and questions that come up. And this week, I want to talk about this people aspect of the job.
Companies are ephemeral
[00:00:21] Andy Polaine: I said, companies are collections of people and really, they are quite ephemeral. For example, Toys R Us at one point controlled a quarter of the world’s toy sales. But they lasted 60 years, they went into administration with billions of dollars of debt.
So really people come together just for a short amount of time. And this thing that we think is this large entity with solidity, in fact, isn’t. And it’s the same with projects and any kind of work initiatives you have. Really, most of the work that you’re doing is not the actual work– the design work or producing things.
The work is the people
[00:00:55] Andy Polaine: Yes, of course. There’s that stuff and we make stuff. But certainly in the leadership role and management roles 90-95% of the work is the people stuff. And if you feel like you’re having this frustration, well, why don’t they just let me get on and do design properly or whatever flavor of design you are doing. You’re kind of missing the point.
It is a bit like a firefighter complaining that they are getting burned, and smell of smoke. And why do people keep lighting fires all the time? I wish they wouldn’t. Where actually, that’s your job. And really getting your head around how people tick, how you tick and what pushes your buttons and understanding the relationships and in another video, I’ve talked about this idea of fear and anxiety being everywhere. That is really the work that you have to do.
I’ve found the reframe around that of understanding it that way that, "Oh, this is actually my work and not the thing that’s the impediment to my work" is very, very useful and takes away some of the frustration. And instead gives you a much more of a human curiosity lens to the process.
Whether it’s about relationships, whether it’s about how you think, whether it’s about how you communicate or whether it’s, how you understand yourself.
Outro
[00:02:03] Andy Polaine: I hope that’s useful for you. If you’d like to check out my coaching practice, it’s at polaine.com/coaching. And I’ll put the link below. If you’ve got any of your own thoughts, please post a comment below. I’d love to hear them.
Thanks very much. And I’ll see you again soon.
