Who Carries Your Dirty Work?

Do Not Sweep Your Messes Under The Rug

Every single one of us can think of a list of problems we learn to live with in our lives.  We have some challenging things that occur to us that we need to figure out how to manage.  Not one of us gets to escape this part of living our lives.  Some people may be able to develop some good perspectives that help them deal with the pressures of anxiety, frustration, anger and depression that occurs in a lifetime.  Each person has a separate way they manage the challenges and problems they face.  It is how everyone navigates their way through life.

One of the best ways to view how well we manage our life challenges is to make sure we see who owns these problems.  Try to picture each problem as if it was able to fit inside a small bag.  If the problem is a sour relationship with a spouse, try to imagine how to place all of the components related to that mess into a small imaginary bag.  Picture those challenges wrapped up inside that bag.  Now picture yourself carrying it.  How heavy is that bag?  How many hands are helping you to carry that bag of mess?  Where do you leave that bag every night?  When do you pick it up again?  What other things will you be placing into that bag?  How rough are you on moving that bag around from place to place?  Do you throw it around or do you set it down gently?  Do you zip it up or do you leave it wide open so all of its contents can spill out over everyone else?  How do you manage the contents of that bag?

Did you know that one of our own problems can also become a problem others will need to endure?  We are connected.  No man is an island.  In some strange way, the contents in that imaginary bag that is carrying our problem is also part of the contents that can easily spill over into the bags of others.  We carry that bag way to close to the other important people in our lives who cannot always avoid the spilled stuff we carry in our problem bags.  Eventually, some of the bad contents in our problem bags will end up spilled into the bags others are carrying.

I have met some people who will actually reach into their problem bags and pull out a whole bunch of debris and begin throwing it all around so everyone else near them has to wear some of the problems they throw out.  I see people like this all of the time.  Their problem bags need to become a problem to everyone around them.  They are determined to share their junk.  Some people just need this kind of attention.  They are the ones who feel like their problems must become forced onto the front porches and tossed freely into the bags of other peoples lives.  Other people will be forced into carrying portions of this ugly stuff.  You know what I mean.

Some people need others to witness how badly stuffed their problem bag is filled.  They want other people to touch their bad junk.  In many cases, they expect other people to also live around their bad stuff.  They actually expect others to carry some of the bad contents in their bag.  They want someone else to help carry their dirty work of life.

Who carries your dirty work?  If you manage a business model, who carries your dirty work?

Every business leader has challenges.  Every business leader runs up against some very challenging problems from time to time.  When these kinds of things occur, who carries your dirty work?  Who mops up the lions share of your routine problems?  How many of those problem bags do you expect your staff to carry for you?  Do you delegate your dirty work to be managed by your employees and staff?  Who carries your dirty work?

I have been asked by supervisors to make a tough customer phone call for them because they were having a difficult time dealing with that person.  They were placed in a tough spot to deliver some very bad news to a tough customer.  Instead of making the call themselves, they delegated that duty to my desk.  It was done creatively, but the fact remains, they had someone else do their dirty work.  Do you do this kind of stuff?  If you do, your leadership is lost.  If you creatively pass-off the dirty work from your business bag and place it into one of your employees routine work bags to perform, you are not protecting your leadership role properly.  You may not know it but you have lost your leadership.  It is at an end.

Carry Your Own Mop And Broom

I recently had one of my supervisors ask me to call a customer to gather some important information about a lost product order he was managing.  This customer purchased a variety of items and the manager did not write up the sales ticket when he delivered the items.  A couple of months went by and that customer brought back some of the items for credit.  No records were found and the clerk took the items back and told the customer they would credit their account.  At the same time, the customer took some more products as that customer left the store and that same clerk told that customer they would charge those items along with the credit they applied for the returned items.  The customer left happy.  This clerk knew that the manager forgot to write up the first sale.  She felt that these returned items would help the manager remember what was sold the first time.  When they got together, they still could not remember what items were sold the first time.  After they shared this transaction experience with each other, they still did not know exactly how to write up the original sale.  In further checking out this customer account, they see it was closed by the accounting office.  That customer did not have an account anymore.  The main accounting office had closed that account the year prior.  Oops.

What makes matters worse, the manager was doing some other personal business with that customer at the same time.  The customer and the manager were wrapped up in the middle of a sales transaction on some personal property.  Apparently that personal property transaction had recently run into a troubling snag.  The issue between the manager and the customer was running very bumpy at present time.  That manager came to me and asked me if I could call that customer up and sort out the purchases he made, including the returns he had brought back.  He also asked me to call the accounting office and figure out what to do with that closed account.  I love leadership.  I love to watch people kill it.  I asked him to share all of the details he could remember and took the note out of his hands and walked away.  I almost called the customer on the spot, but I thought better of it.  That would not allow that pseudo leader to save face.

I had the problem solved in about ten minutes.  It took one phone call to the customer and two calls to the accounting office.  The accounting office was not very happy about the deal and was wondering how I got involved.  My answer to them, "I don't know, someone with weak legs gave it to me to do."  The second call to the accounting office was to let them know which account the customer wanted to use to bill out the final statement.  That customer had a business account in another name and wanted to use that account for the purchases he made.  All ended up good.  I learned later that the real estate property deal between the manager and the customer fell through.  Gee, I wonder?

Who carries your dirty work?

Great leaders do not make these kinds of simple mistakes.  Great leaders do not 'pass-off' the tough stuff they need to perform.  They dig in and get it done.  Are you the kind of leader who delegates the dirty work to your staff?  Make sure you isolate them away from having to do your dirty work.  You need to learn how to become a better leader.  Make sure they are not given the dirty work to do, especially if you managed to make the dirty work appear.  Learn how to wear your own messes.  Learn how to protect your staff from having to deal with the junk in your personal bag.  They should never see the bags you carry.  They should never see you unzip those bags and go to work on the problems you are dealing with at the time they share in your business place.  Your personal junk is not their business duty.  Learn how to separate the two.  If you are having a serious challenge with your spouse, it has absolutely nothing to do with a lost purchase order on some imports your business ordered.  The two issues are completely separate issues and should remain separate.  As a great leader, learn how to carry your bag of problems.  Know when to zip one up and when to dump one out.  And for goodness sakes, certainly know when to refrain from forcing someone else to carry your dirty work bag.

Be honest, who carries your dirty work?  Get very serious about this common human flaw.  It will quietly kill any type of leadership you may need to develop to run the business you manage.  Do not make sure your leadership is at an end.  Do your own mop ups.  Repair your own messes.  Learn how to lead more effectively.  Do your job.

I have been hired a few times to repair broken business models.  When I come aboard a broken ship the first thing I tell the employees on that ship is that I will never embarrass them.  I also tell them that I will never ask them to do something taller than anything I need to be doing.  I continue to share with them that my office door will never be closed.  There is nothing so private in the business world that needs to be shared that has been elevated to the point where a closed door remains the only choice.  If anyone reaches the point in this business model that requires a closed door bit of privacy, they have taken their personal wills beyond what the business responsibilities are.  Business is business.  We all know what those duties and responsibilities are.  Anyone practicing outside of those parameters is someone playing with the wrong kind of stuff.  Great leaders need to make it very clear what is and what is not allowed to become part of who carries what.  Do not allow anyone else to perform this tall order of dirty work.  You are the leader.  You own this business.  Make sure everyone is very clear about that fact.  It has nothing to do with arrogance.  It has all to do with clarity.  Great leaders learn how to handle the junk in their own bag.

Who carries your dirty work?  You may need to learn how to be counted as a great leader.  Work harder on doing your own dirty work.  Your staff knows when you dumped on their heads.  You may actually try to sweep that truth under the rug.  They will see your broom.

Until next time...