If you’ve done the “work required to have an opinion,” then you’ve done your job.
After that, it is your responsibility to say “I don’t know.”
If you don’t, you are harming your team. Get vulnerable. You have the opportunity to raise a question that helps the team.
Teams celebrate “I don’t know” if the leader has laid the foundation of a healthy culture.
That’s the type of growth that creates great teams.
Sunday,
9:30 AM. No Alarms, no to do list, no scheduled work. I wake up, put on some slippers and walk downstairs to the corner store to pick up a bacon egg and cheese and some gummy worms. Get back upstairs, argue about the status of Kirk Heinrich with my roommate for 20 minutes(If that sounds ridiculous, it should. If it doesn’t, then you are either watching too much NBA or not enough) and cut on the XBox. Make some jokes about what is on the front screen, fire up the video game I am playing at the time(now, Rouge Nation) and play for 3 or 4 hours. Swear I am going to the coffee shop later. Put off the list in front of me.
2:30 PM.Get up, go back to the corner store, pick up a sandwich and come back to my apartment, argue with my roommate about whether Wesley Snipes is an action star for 30 minutes. Text some people, waiting responses back with no conversation aim, put on something on Netflix and prepare a movie marathon. Kick my feet up on my coffee table and text while the movies are playing back to back. Cook dinner in between to “save time”. Miss some of the scenes, but go to Wikipedia after and hope that I can pick it up later.
10:00 PM. Start my process for bed. Try to start cleaning but puts one of the three items I need to clean (Kitchen, Living Room, Bedroom) off till tomorrow. Take out the trash but don’t look for any trash around . Fire off some emails, just reactive. Save anything of substance for Monday morning. Look at the books in the corner of my bed, say I can read them tomorrow, go back out and argue with my roommate about the use of boots in the winter and make a few jokes for about 45 minutes. Go back to my room and play some games on my iPhone. Stare at the ceiling and get to sleep around 2 AM.
This looks harsh, but it is my typical Sunday. It is a reminder of why I need some habits to get involved with. Hopefully, when I look at a Sunday at the end of the month, some of this can change. Except the arguing. That won’t ever stop – some battles you can’t wait to engage in.
From the desk of Adam Thomas 