We’re now in the Advent season in the run-up to Christmas. Last week’s focus was on hope and this week on peace. For those who are still job searching, those whose company is considering an additional round of layoffs, and those accelerating in new roles, the thought of having hope for the future and peace at the moment is a welcome reminder.
I know personally this week has been anything but peaceful. We’re wrapping up baseball season, in the thick of basketball season, doing some college research, traveling for a college showcase, and attending many end-of-year school events. We’ve been double and triple-booked every evening after work this week, leaving piles of dishes, a smal mountain of laundry, and scrambling to get lunches together each morning. Thankfully, we are looking at next week being a lot more relaxed. We’re leaning hard into the hope that next week will be much more restful, helping us recharge before the Christmas holidays.
On the work front, I’m now booking contracts for 2024 and completely oversubscribed. There is so much opportunity for additional work beyond what I can do in my limited workdays. For now, I’m turning down work to maintain some balance on the personal front. There are so many great teams and projects, and I’d love to spend more time with all of them.
Hope is contagious
Hope in the workplace is often a foreign concept. Many organizations think about vision, joy, and other attributes. This HBR article (6m read) shows how impactful hope is on organizational morale. The concept of “emotional contagion” – the transfer of moods amongst team members – was a great way of summarizing what I’ve seen and experienced. Teams that focus on the positive impact and future opportunities perform better than those that focus on misses and mistakes. There’s a place for reviewing mistakes and learning from them, but the use of blameless post-mortems and shame-free five whys can be done in a way that extracts learnings without demoralizing the team.
Saying no brings peace
As mentioned above, this week has focused on saying “no” to contracts. It feels strange to leave money on the table and say no to work that I know I can do. But, coming from a larger organization where I could time slice my project load and delegate to my competent team and now operating as a solo operator has been a significant shift.
Additionally, coming out of my first holiday week as a contractor forced me to reevaluate how I communicate timelines around time off. I felt like I didn’t get enough time to get the work I needed done, and simultaneously, I felt that I was working more than I wanted during the holiday week. That’s an entirely normal feeling for contractors, I’m sure, and for startups as well. It’s just an adjustment that I’m in the process of making. Ultimately, saying no to things has brought me more peace as I focus on delivering a great product for the teams I’m already working with.
Fun
