Greetings all - I’m starting to get my thinking cap on about seeing folks in Denver at the SLA Conference in June.
Last year was great in Baltimore and I enjoyed meeting some other bloggers. Hopefully I’ll be able to reconnect with them in Denver and network further! Never been to the Mile High City before, so that should be fun too!
Greetings Sports fans!
No - I’m not going to talk about sports - I don’t know enough about any of it. I enjoy watching a game on occasion - especially if WVU is playing. Or I’ll gather with friends to watch the Super Bowl and enjoy the commercials. My best sporting moments fall really close to “The Agony of Defeat” from the old ABC Wide World of Sports.
So - 2007 will be an interesting year. Hopefully not in the way the Chinese curse May you live in interesting times is supposed to instill fear. My boss is retiring in early May. There is a goal of getting his replacement started before he leaves so there can be a smooth transition. Who knows - maybe I’ll end up being his replacement. That would be interesting.
The January issue of the Harvard Business Review has a good article titled Becoming the Boss by Linda A. Hill. It is quite good to point out the differences between the expectations and the realities of first time bosses and managers.
Some time ago I learned that the key to enduring, surviving, or enjoying many of life’s events is related to our expectations. A mildly pessimistic outlook can be helpful - one is rarely disappointed and often surprised. I tend to be generally optimistic (see earlier post), but I learned to relax my expectations of films and theatre and not rely on the hype of ads and marketing.
In other ways many folks set themselves up for disappointment. How many of us thought our Senior Prom would be a magical night? How many of us were disappointed that it was just a dance where everyone was really dressed up? Many people expect New Year’s Eve to be a mystical event and generally it isn’t. So for Prom night or New Year’s Eve, I try to approach it as “this will be fun!” and leave it at that.
That doesn’t mean that I’m not ever blown away - but it does mean that I am usually having a good time.
And that is my approach to the changes ahead this year. My boss is leaving - I may get his job and I may not. Whoever the new boss is, some things will be different, some will stay the same. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to attend the SLA Conference in Denver in June. I’m looking forward to hearing Al Gore and Scott Adams speak. Okay - I’m hoping that Al will be in good form and not get too bogged down with technicalities.
There will be changes at work and changes in my personal life too. I’ll be president of a non-profit performance group and that group has a full calendar too. I hope I’ll be a good leader there and enable others to accomplish our goals.
And maybe in January 2008, I’ll be able to say that last year was a really good year!
sla2007