Under-Qualified and Under-Whelmed
I failed at a task that I was ill-prepared for. My training had been insufficient. Instead of advocating for myself and seeking proper resolution, I enabled a poor experience to taint my reputation.
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Date night was ruined. I was not mentally present. I couldn’t give my wife the attention she deserved. My mind kept going back to work. The company’s Vice President was upset with the work I had completed earlier in the week. It was a Friday evening and I knew that he was working late into the evening to ‘fix’ everything.
Come Monday morning, the VP would be walking into a client meeting. He had asked that I put together some materials for him to present to the client. I was still new to the company. This had never been taught to me before. A more senior employee was asked to show me what to do. I followed the instructions exactly as they were presented to me. The senior member reviewed my work and ‘signed off’ on it. I shared the materials with the VP for him to review. He was not able to take a peek until end of day Friday.
Once he realized the materials were not prepared to his satisfaction, he got very stressed. He went into ‘fix it’ mode. He let me know that my work was not even close to completion. I had a surprised tone as I told him that I had completed everything as I was taught.
It fell on deaf ears. He was too focused on preparing the materials, that he didn’t even realize that I had been poorly guided and trained to fulfill his request.
I asked what I could do to help. But without any further training or direction on what was needed, I was not much help. Since we were not located in the same city, I couldn’t show up at the office to observe and learn.
So here it was, Friday evening. He was working and I was ruining date night worrying about how ‘unhelpful’ and ‘disappointing’ I had been.
Come Monday, he didn’t even present the materials to the client that we had collected. Their conversation went a different direction. But my reputation was still tainted.
Leaders: If you have delegated responsibilities, please ensure that those who have received the delegation are well trained and prepared to complete the task. If the task is mishandled, make sure you understand where the disconnect occurred, and then fix it. In some cases there is correction that needs to be made and addressed quickly. In other cases, the problem may lie with you specifically. Recognize the error, take responsibility, and correct it. Don’t put blame on individuals that were never given proper training. That responsibility lies on you.
Non-leaders: If you find yourself in a position where you feel ill-trained or ill-epuipped to complete a task, speak up for yourself. What I should have done was wait until after the Monday meeting had passed to reach out to the VP and talk about the situation with him. I had tried talking with him in a moment when he was stressed, with a short time frame to complete his work. That was not an ideal time to reflect on the situation and discuss together. I failed to follow up afterward and advocate for myself, seek better training, and ensure that I was better prepared for the next time. Because I failed to do that, my reputation was tainted in the eyes of this VP, and the thought of this moment still bothers me all these years later. Don’t be like me. Advocate for yourself, and seek resolution at an appropriate time.
Please hear me out as I ‘advocate’ for Cubicle Farm. If you have not done so already, please give this article a “like”. Make sure to “share” it with someone, and please hit the “subscribe” button below!