What is in my job description and what is not in my job description?
I have come to an interest roadblock with an expert. I asked in an email on Friday afternoon if he would like to do a “blog jam” on Monday after lunch sometime. I told him we could make it a quick 20-30 min call to help him brainstorm blog topics or to finalize whatever he might be working on. I said that the January deadline is fast approaching for our company email newsletter.
His response was “No thanks. That is not how I write. I don’t like ‘forced content.'” What a jerk. I was trying to help. He promised we would have a blog for December’s newsletter and that never came. Now it is mid January and we still have not seen even a draft from him. I must learn to practice the principles that I have learned in recovery.
ACCEPTANCE is the key to all my problems today; And, LOVE AND TOLERANCE is our code. If I cannot love him or his behaviors, then I need to tolerate him. Once I move past tolerance, then I need to learn to RESPECT where he is at, no matter how sick I think he might actually be…that is not my issue and I don’t have to solve it. I don’t have to rescue him nor call it out.
I am now reevaluating my roll in all of this and determining what is my part going forward. If so many routes have not worked in the past, who do I think that I am coming in here and going to ‘make it happen.”
Apparently the Business Development person before me tried the “crack the whip” approach. She figured out how to just put stuff on their calendar and when they did not do it, they would have to report to Jeff about why it didn’t get done in the next Monday morning meeting.
Jeff offered to incentivize experts to write blogs by offering to pay them 1/3 of their normal billing rate to help us, help them market themselves. That still didn’t work. So, it is not a money thing. These guys are not incentivized by money.
Last year, I kept a mind map of blog topic idea starters so that when they had an idea or mentioned something they might write about, I made an effort to write it down. As I would come up with an idea, I would put it on that mind map too. My whole philosophy with that brainstorming mindmap was so that they could say “No, I’m not going to write about that…but, I’m going to write about this. Or, I’m going to twist it in a different direction.”
Today, this is where we stand. I can recycle content, wait until we have new content, or I could just scrap it all together. Knowing that I tend to go towards extremes, I think scrapping it all together is probably a bad idea for the company as a whole. However, I’m not going to continue to get abused about it. If the expert wants more work, he can produce a blog or three. If he is happy with his workload, then I’m not going to force him to write a blog.
I’m trying to stay in my hula-hoop, as I have learned in recovery. I need to realize daily that “I need to be the actor in the play, not the director.” When I start telling people how to do their part in the play, then I get myself in trouble and I get stressed out.
OPTION 1 – Don’t bring up or nag anyone about a blog. Put the preliminary schedule out there, which was set at the beginning of the year and approved by my boss and the president.
OPTION 2 – Reduce our newsletter to maybe one or two pieces of content instead of the 3 blogs we normally send.
OPTION 3 – Work with the people who want to get their name out there. If we don’t ever get a blog from one or two people, then we don’t get a blog from them. Their bottom line will be effected, not mine. If the stakeholders of the company want to push or force these experts to write a blog, they will or can try. It is not my job to upset, or force them to write a blog. I’m trying to help them.
OPTION 4 – What if I commit silence about blogs and ‘give in’ to not even bringing up the newsletter, one day at a time? I’m not going to get my paycheck docked or lose my job over it. In fact the opposite has happened. Because I have been nagging one ‘special’ person, my boss actually said yesterday that that guy might or might not show up to work today. So what he was saying was that my method of trying to get him to produce content has so far pushed him away that he has shut down and closed up the valve of producing content for us. So be it. If that expert is going to quit over me poking him about a blog…actually quit over me offering to help him brainstorm, then he probably isn’t a great fit anyway.
You see, what is so amazing to me is that we are really only talking about one person here. This guy is the same person who I cringe when he works with a client because he has a regular history of pissing the clients off. I have dubbed it simply a “marketing challenge” for trying to sell him. I have to just understand and accept that he is not going to get that client’s repeat business.
What is amazing about this is that we are not signing him up for workshops or coaching on how to retain clients for life. We are not trying to build up his communication and customer satisfaction skills. We are not even telling him that he has to write content for marketing. We just want him to be there so that when we have a case come in through osmosis, we have someone there to do the job.
If that is what “the director” of the play wants to happen, who do I think I am to try and change that? I’m just an actor in the play called work. I’m not God today. In fact, I quit trying to be God back when I surrendered to recovery. All I want today is peace and serenity and this issue of blogs, monthly newsletters and pushing, or even editing, expert content is not my job. I’ll leave that to the person whose title is Marketing Coordinator. If they want my help with a blog, they can ask me to read it and give input.
I commit today that I’m starting a day count around this change of habit. I’m not going to control the blog schedule. I’m not going to bring up the fact that we need regular content. I’m just going to use what I have in inventory. I’m not God. I’m not the director. I’m not even a manager on the org chart that is actually over ANYONE. So, why am I so obsessed with this. Is it because it makes me look good? Is it because it give me something to post on social media? Is posting on social media for work something that is healthy right now or is it something that has turned into an intrigue? …I’ll be watching for that.
