Naturally Managerial

I have a dog and she is a mix of two different herding breeds. She is bossy and can’t help but round up everything in sight. This annoys everyone in my family including me, but I identify so strongly with her nature that I can’t help but love her.

I manage projects. I manage teams. I managed processes. I managed companies. I manage my family. I manage my attention. I manage for money and I manage because I can’t help myself.

I went to a pottery class recently and we were instructed to clean up our things which included a 4 step process. We all grabbed our things and lined up at the sink (just like kindergarten class). I stood in line for about one minute surveying the possibilities for improving this process. I suggested that we all break up the tasks in different areas and get them done faster. Everyone agreed and nobody rolled their eyes (where I could see them). We had fun and got done quickly.

Once when I was registering for my classes at college (this was something that used to be done in person), and I noticed that a line had formed diagonally from the door to the first station at the registration table. This was odd because there was so much unmanaged and unutilized space in the room and everyone was stuck in this dumb line that turned into a crowded spiral where all semblance of order was lost and getting worse as people continued to come into the room and the line. At the time I worked at the YMCA after-school program which meant, I spent a significant amount of time helping people get into lines. This was a problem I could solve and I did. I used my camp counselor voice and asked people to back up to the walls and then I asked someone for the tape to help mark a path on the floor to shape the line. A guy asked me if I worked there and I said no. He made a weird face. I get it.

Last week someone asked me to organize some workshop attendees into jobs based on preference and some other logistical considerations. I had to think about people as individuals but also people as part of a team doing a job together. I had some information about some people from a form they filled out stating information about identities and geography, etc. I made a database so that I could sort based on multiple variables.

When I worked at Job Portraits, someone asked me if video was a good medium to communicate about employer branding. I made an epic chart showing the employment funnel and all of the activities that occur there and what tactics may occur in those spaces.

Some may call this behavior a little extra and I don’t think I could fight that, but I also call it, “seeing to it that everything goes well”. Sorry not sorry.