Nitty Gritty of it all

J. Stiles 11.15.22

Do you ever really think about the people we employee? The traits and personalities that make each person work the way that they do? I was recently watching a Ted talk with Angela Duckworth, which got me to read her book about Grit. This is an interesting trait. To define Grit – Courage and resolve, strength of character.

I started thinking about how my children work and interact. My children show an excellent example of nurture in the world. 6 children all raised in the same household impacted with the same environment and parents. Yet they have different work ethics. Semi similar, but not quite. We raised them all to follow the same beliefs, with the same set of rules and habits. But some are better workers than others. What changed? How do you apply this to the work force that you hire?

My rules have been very simple. Never lie to me. It doesn’t matter how bad the situation is honestly will always be better, because you will have integrity. Without integrity we are nothing. I in return will never lie to you. That is not always going to be pleasant. Sometimes the cold hard truth hurts. But we do need it. Work the problem. If you get stuck step back and reassess it. There are always ways to untangle things, you just have to start. Life is a journey- it is not a destination. Stop trying to get to some grand finale. Enjoy all the time in the middle. Then the hardest rule most of my kids and employees have had trouble understanding; you can only control one person’s actions, at the end of the day, you are accountable for your own, stop worrying about everyone else’s.

It's not so hard once you figure out those things. I figure out even when I managed a team that if I could get my team to hold themselves accountable for their own actions then things would start moving better. Why are we always worried about other people’s actions? We all have so much baggage, why are we trying to take on other baggage too? Life is not fair or balanced, don’t try to measure what you have with someone else. It will not add up. You cannot see the whole picture and you never will.

However, we all go one foot in front of the other one step at a time.