How do You Re-ignite Your Enthusiasm for Your Job?
Everyone gets down in the dumps. The trick is not to stay there. Especially when you’re the leader. So, how do you re-ignite your enthusiasm? I call my grandson Quinn. At the time I’m writing this he’s twenty-one months old, and his favorite word is WOW! (The caps and the exclamation mark are deliberate–you can hear them both in his voice.) When I call, no matter what day, what time, my son Paul says, "Quinn, do you want to talk to Grandma?" I can hear him running to the phone saying "WOW!" I really wouldn’t need the conversation (and truth be told, at twenty-one months it isn’t much of a conversation) to go on. My spirit is lifted from whatever pushed it down by a simple word delivered with enthusiasm, "WOW!"
What about you? Do you take a walk around the plant? Substitute a session at the gym for lunch? Meditate? Pray? Call your mother or your favorite uncle? See, it doesn’t matter what you do. It does matter that you have something that you know will work, that you do right away. Something you can do without thinking, and that works about 98 percent of the time. Something that doesn’t take much time, expense, or equipment. Because you’re the leader. Your team needs you to be enthusiastic. It’s a big part of your job.
Please don’t relegate this to some of that silly "Life is just a bowl of cherries" nonsense foisted on a gullible population by overpaid motivational speakers. This is about hope, an overlooked attribute that should be a leader’s stock-in-trade. Leaders owe their people hope at the same time they’re providing the truth about tough situations. It’s their job to be role models for re-igniting enthusiasm when times are difficult.
So you need a plan. What fires you up? A day off to re-group? A vacation to re-create yourself? A conversation with your favorite customer? A talk with your newest employee? An e-mail to your mentor? A phone call to Quinn? I’ll be glad to share the number.