Each day upon arrival in your work environment new challenges show up. Even though there are current challenges in process...new ones pop up. For example, maybe an employee conflict between two staff members has been lingering in the halls for a little while. Although simple to understand why this stuff flirts with continuing issues here and there, the conflict between the two just never seems to go away. It occasionally takes control of your desk time when you least expect it. You finally decide to nip this one in the bud today. As you examine the facts and get the details to settle the score between these two nagging challengers, it leads you to some new areas of issues and determinations related to this challenge. The bickering between these two employees is larger than you first imagined.
News takes over. A new discovery becomes more important than the issue you first began to solve. Now you discover the problem is much larger. Time for more digging. The need for more accurate information is pressing. Sometimes these issues cannot be solved immediately. Many of your daily challenges cannot be resolved and removed on the same day they arrived. This one may be one of those continuing issues. Time is not always in your favor when news of new challenges arrives.
Then another day gets started. Yesterday's challenge between two bickering employees is still waiting for some answers about more details. The search for additional details to help resolve that issue is in progress. Yet another somewhat related employee issue comes to light in the research process spent on this issue while gathering more facts. Now a third employee challenge of similar nature is on your table. A line up of brand new news! Work is all about processing news. What once was nothing a couple of days ago is now a building pattern of possible problems in your system of employment. Some unfriendly stuff is happening in the rank and file of employment sharing. News is driving your day at work.
Before you know it, another day goes by. With both feet firmly placed in the middle of this employee issue, you arrive to work to get this challenge finally resolved. As you sit down at your desk, one of your major supplier representatives has notified your business that they plan to change the terms on some fees they charge for delivery. The cost of delivery will increase 3%. It appears as though they are making a policy change in this income stream. This is how they plan to add income to the streams they currently share with you. Unfortunately, you are one of their largest customers and this small increase of 3% means quite a bit of money to your business. You ask your staff to gather some information to prepare for the phone call you plan to make with your representative from this supplier. News again, takes over.
You quickly forget about the employee challenge on the top of your pile. An annual increase of about $30,000 in cost just showed up with this 3% supplier adjustment news. Thirty thousand dollars down the drain trumps a tiff between disgruntled employees, easily. You shift gears and begin the work to prepare to salvage as much of that $30,000 increase in cost. The news of that increase moves front and center.
At the end of the day, the employee issue was placed on hold. Too many other supplier related challenges consumed your time. While trying to resolve that increase in fees it was discovered that your alternate suppliers were not able to fill the gap of orders if you cancelled using your main supplier. Your trump card to cancel vanished from your hand. This was brand new news!
Switched suppliers is not an option. Not yet. The rest of your day was spent looking for a better supply line to fill your needs. Your focus was pointed in the direction of saving $30,000 in the coming year. It was work that was filled with a lot of news. Some of your department leaders are not doing the kind of work to protect this business from issues and challenges facing the security of competitive supplies. Again, new news. Work becomes news.
At the same time all of this stuff is occurring some new information is coming in from your secretary. She informs you that the president of your board of directors has requested a special executive session with you and your other board members. The new subject for discussion in that session will be the idea of closure for one of your neighboring facilities. It happens to be a facility that relates to the employee issue that has recently surfaced. The news on that subject goes from bad to worse. She sets the meeting time with you.
As you meld through the news on your employee challenge, the possible board proposal and the supplier increases in cost...you request the agenda for the up-coming executive session subjects. Your secretary does not have that information. You call the chairman of the board to gather that news so you can prepare the materials they plan to discuss. The chairman shares the information with you. The board is considering the closure of one division that has been a part of your strategic plan to dovetail into another department. You have been working on this plan for a couple of months to bring the working concept of this idea to the board. It is also part of the internal riff that is suddenly unfolding with your employees. All of this news is channeling itself down a familiar path. Stuff is happening that was not planned or anticipated. It has become part of the daily news.
Work becomes news. We manage news. Every business leader is faced with news that unravels in each moving day. News is how we see our working plans. News is how we find the paths that work. News is where the best discoveries find the surface. What makes work become news? Everything.
A great business leader has a firm grip on how to manage brand new news. It simply is the thing they do best. The business leaders who manage news in the best fashion are the ones who make the best decisions. They are also the ones who come out with the best results. Work becomes news. They accept this role. News becomes work. This is usually how a day unfolds in a fast moving business model. News travels parallel with the duties of the day.
Let's examine the alternative.
Page two.
Leadership is not a place warmed up for the weak of heart. During the previous two weeks the news coming in about these new business challenges did not appear friendly. The leader who allows bad news to dominate their emotions may be the leader who finds more negative alternate results. Bill Gates describes this process as the art of learning how to treat bad news as good news. Work is news. Every day brings in new news. Good or bad news is still news. News is what leaders learn to manage well. They become artists at moving about in the thick of all the news.
Cancelled meetings, re-arranged schedules and fleeting challenges are sometimes the best part of a leaders day. As frustrating as these changing issues can become, they deliver a ripe opportunity to bump into some new news. In this new news comes new ideas, new opportunities and possibly new solutions. New solutions that otherwise might never come to mind. Learn how to treat work as news.
Changes, challenges and unwanted discoveries can easily lead to anxiety. I get that. However, I also fully comprehend how these elements of new news can work in the favor of a seasoned leader. Controlling the positive direction of a business path is an artful undertaking. Correctly managing new news is one of those important things that a great business leader learns to perform well. All of this kind of effort becomes news for their working day. It is in the news that they find the best solutions. Everything becomes a matter of stringing news next to news. Sooner or later, you discover that your day at work becomes linked closely to managing news. Work becomes news.
The faster the pace of the business model, the more news arrives in the minutes you work. Each day is filled with managing news. Most of that news is more than quiet. Most of that news is building its story fast. If you skip taking in the news, you may skip controlling what is truly going on. As a result, you develop an information flow of permitting more news to arrive more quickly, as well as early enough to be more manageable to direct. This style of management opens the door to more news flow.
Work becomes news. Learn how to embrace this process instead of trying to reduce or buffer its power. Certainly do not become afraid of bad news. For in the bad news comes good ideas, better solutions. This is exactly how the best leaders secure their future. They have learned the art of controlling their approach and response to new news. They are artists painting the front page of their leadership news. They work overtime printing their replies.
Be a great news maker. Be a great news manager. Then be a great news reader.
Everything makes work become news.
Until next time...
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