Have you ever been playing softball with a bunch of your chums from work, go up to bat, hit a line drive right back to the pitcher, and hurt the pitcher a little in the process? Then you realize the pitcher is the one direct report you haven't met yet and your first interaction is when you scare the bejezzuz out of her and make her take a ball to the knee?Yeah, me neither!
She's okay and we had a good laugh about it. However, I have a feeling it'll be water cooler talk tomorrow morning!**
I played my first softball game of the summer tonight. We won (a first, we had a perfect record of no wins last summer) and actually played a pretty good game. I played shortstop and fielded a couple of double-plays and line-drive catches. Yes, I'm patting myself on the back here because I HAD to make up for my crappier-than-crap batting. It was awful.
I've always had problems hitting that slow, arching pitch. I like fastballs; the fast the better. I just can't hit these slow pitches. I struck out my first two times at bat, popped out in short center, then snuck a grounder by the second baseman (another one of my employees).
I've always had problems hitting that slow, arching pitch. I like fastballs; the fast the better. I just can't hit these slow pitches. I struck out my first two times at bat, popped out in short center, then snuck a grounder by the second baseman (another one of my employees).
It's very weird to play ball with your staff, especially because I'm so young. I seem to catch people off guard when they meet me, like my phone voice or email style doesn't match my appearance. I've had two directors ask Elvis if they can report to me. I don't know if I should be flattered becuase they think I'm good or offended because they think I'd be easy.
I'm earning my stripes, though. The managerial thing is already going full-tilt. I've already had an HR situation with an employee, received rogue invoices to approve, received positions to approve, been asked to help redesign the surgeons' block time (really?) and had one of the newer managers ask me to sit in on the interviews when she tries to hire a new RN.
I'm just internally shrugging my shoulders and pretending I know exactly what is going on.
Confidence, right? It's all about confidence. But it might help if I didn't try to beam my employees, either!
**It occurred to me that I need to figure out pseudonyms for my direct reports (in case things happen that are blogworthy). What about Sesame Street characters? The Shirt Tales? The cast of Disney's Aladin? The girls from the Babysitters' Club?
I'm earning my stripes, though. The managerial thing is already going full-tilt. I've already had an HR situation with an employee, received rogue invoices to approve, received positions to approve, been asked to help redesign the surgeons' block time (really?) and had one of the newer managers ask me to sit in on the interviews when she tries to hire a new RN.
I'm just internally shrugging my shoulders and pretending I know exactly what is going on.
Confidence, right? It's all about confidence. But it might help if I didn't try to beam my employees, either!
**It occurred to me that I need to figure out pseudonyms for my direct reports (in case things happen that are blogworthy). What about Sesame Street characters? The Shirt Tales? The cast of Disney's Aladin? The girls from the Babysitters' Club?
I suggest Smurfs.
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