Your Five

 

There is a concept out there that states, “We tend to become like the five people we spend most of our time around”. Makes you think about who you are hanging out with. Consider that for a minute regarding your work world.

 

It’s easy to think of this concept in regards to our good friends that we hang out with after hours and on weekends, or even more so our family and others whom we consider close. But, we spend eight hours a day in our work environment. Annually, that is 2080 hours. That is more time than we spend with most other people in our lives. How are those that you work with influencing you? What good or bad habits might you adopt from the people that you spend eight hours a day with? 

 

We should work someplace where the people we work with make us better. Think about that for a minute. Are the people you work with daily making you a better person? Are you learning and growing because of the people that you hang out with between 8:00 and 5:00 every single workday? The concept of who our five closest friends are is a powerful one, but it needs to be viewed within the context of our work environment. You may not be great friends with the people that you work with every single day, but you do spend at least eight hours a day with them. That’s a lot of time. Their habits, their behaviors, their responses, cannot be ignored.

 

Do you work with people who make you better?

Don’t Just Wait

When the pandemic started a lot of us thought that we could wait it out.  I can remember discussions with friends and clients about getting this behind us by summer or at least by the fall.  Here we are one week from September and it is far from over.  It is clear now that we cannot simply wait until this is over.  I do believe that it will be over, however, that will not happen like a light switch being turned off.  Even when COVID-19 is largely behind us things will not be the same.  I don’t care for the term “new normal”, but things will definitely be different.  People’s habits have changed, we live differently now.  We shop differently, we eat out differently (or not at all).  Folks are not traveling and likely will not return to the same travel habits quickly.  Social gatherings and entertainment venues will look very different. 

We cannot wait for things to return to normal.  As leaders we need to take action.  If your initial reaction for personal plans or for your business was to wait it out before adapting, you need to re-think that strategy.  If your business is dependent upon things returning to a pre-COVID-19 status you need to change your plans.  We simply cannot afford to wait; we need to be making decisions now.  I understand that there is a lot of uncertainty.  I realize you might not have all the data you would like to have to act.  In time like these taking some action is better than no action at all.  If we want to come out of this smarter and more successful, we need to be deciding how to go about that now!

There are two great times to plant a tree, thirty years ago and today!