Frustration Elimination

Last month we talked about the pain of drain. By doing the Gain or Drain exercise you took the first step in NOT being sucked into the ringer- identifying patterns of behavior that take you into the vortex. Now that you know a few things that drain you- how do you move on?

Sara had me do a day of offsite team building with her development team at a small tech firm. She had just taken over a new role and wanted to use CoreClarity to get to know her team better as well as see how they could better leverage their collective talents to optimize their productivity. Sara told me about Joseph, who was a hard worker on the team but constantly overcommitted, overworked, and overstressed. At first sight it looked like he was a high performer with tendencies to bump into the burnout zone. But as the day progressed it was clear he was in a role that required him to work outside his talents. He needed to eliminate some of his frustration for himself and the effect it was having on the team.

During a break I had a candid discussion with Joseph and Sara to identify some of the things that he really enjoyed about his current role. His response was a mixed bag of things he liked and things he just pushed through. As we dug deeper it came out that he struggled with change, which was at the heartbeat of the team culture. Their primary focus was to be a group of change agents for products and processes within the company. This went against the natural flow of some of his talents. Putting these pieces together led Sara to a life-changing idea – for Joseph. Sara reached out to me a month later to share what happened.

“When Joseph was sharing things that engaged him and brought him energy it began to sound like a description of a role we were trying to fill in process ownership. We had been searching for a while to find someone to fill this role. After our discussion I met with the director of that department.  After bringing him up to speed on Joseph’s unique talent set, we decided to transfer him to that role. He has been thriving in his role and loving life. We have been able to bring someone in to replace him on our team that is a better fit as well.”

Helping Joseph understand what he shouldn’t do turned into a win-win for him, two teams, and the company. Two years ago we introduced a tool dedicated to the Joseph in all of us called Frustration Elimination or your “What not to do list.” Be it your professional or personal life it will help you avoid a current drain or two that can create space for more gain.