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Solutions 21 Weekly Insights
If you can only read one thing this week...
Taking control vs. taking over
by Albert Ciuksza | Posted on November 10th, 2016
In my bios on social media, I include “serial mistake-maker”. I make ’em early and often, some repeatedly, and I feel like people should know that about me ahead of time. My most oft-repeated mistake?
Taking over instead of taking ownership.
I began my career working for a company that was transitioning from a tech-oriented start-up to a buttoned-down division of a very large corporation. Hired on full-time after wrapping up an internship in my last year of college, I was tasked with making improvements to bad processes in a group that was decidedly a red-headed stepchild.
Long on education and want to, and painfully short on self-awareness and EQ, I started the role with the ferocity of a thousand suns. Progress was made. Solutions were proposed. Some things actually got fixed. Along the way, I frustrated almost every teammate I encountered. The problem? I thought I was hired to take over when I was really hired to take ownership.
Taking over
Taking over is the process of muscling through to accomplish a goal (for those familiar with DiSC personalities, this can be a classic ‘D’ trait). It’s a take-no-prisoners, leave-nothing-in-your-wake way of getting things done.
In this case, I was solving a specific process problem. My vision was mine and mine alone, based almost entirely on my own assumptions and perspectives without looking at the implications or getting feedback from the people impacted by the change. Getting my colleagues on board consisted of a half-day one-man show masked as an interactive dialogue in which I shared my grand vision without any external input. Any progress that I did make was entirely dependent on whether or not colleagues were willing to put up with me at that moment.
The results? Read the rest at the Solutions 21 Blog >
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