A few quick thoughts that I wanted to share with you…
Last week, I wrote a post titled, “Don’t Ignore the 80%,” which focused on ensuring that you spend significant amounts of time on the people who want to improve and grow. (You can read the whole post here.)
About a day after reading the post, I read this quote from the book, “Good Boss, Bad Boss” by Robert Sutton, which had me feeling validated on what I shared last week:
“Most bosses can’t place such energy suckers in splendid isolation. When you can’t avoid them, just work on not letting them get under your skin. I’ve urged people who work for nasty bosses to practice the art of emotional detachment, so those creeps wouldn’t touch their souls. Similar advice holds for bosses: If you can’t escape the deadbeats, downers, and *jerks you supervise, go through the required motions to manage them, but train yourself to care less about them and their destructive ways.
Save your passion and creativity for those people who will benefit from it and who leave you feeling charged up rather than drained.”
Robert Sutton
I substituted “jerks” for the swear above, but you get the gist.
This quote, specifically though:
“Save your passion and creativity for those people who will benefit from it and who leave you feeling charged up rather than drained.”
Robert Sutton
Love it.
Sutton also goes on to share the following about “energy suckers.”
“Protect Yourself from the Energy Suckers.
Part of being the boss is that when something bad happens, or someone is unhappy, it is your job to deal with it. Yet, as the research shows, the more time you spend around rotten apples—those lousy, lazy, grumpy, and nasty people—the more damage you will suffer.”
Robert Sutton
Over the last few years, I have embraced this advice professionally and personally. Sometimes, the best response to deal with “rotten apples” is with either no response or, my personal favorite, “Ok.”
This has been paramount to improving my mental health.
The second thing I wanted to share is the power of putting something out there and realizing what comes back to you.
Immediately after I wrote last week’s post, I read the passages above. It reminded me of what I wrote in “Innovate Inside the Box” on the importance and power of being “Observant.”
“Becoming Observant in a World Full of Noise Is More Valuable than Ever.
As more and more information is thrown our way and the “noise” becomes louder, the ability to slow down, listen, find great information, and make deep connections is becoming much more essential; for example, if you are new to a social media platform, finding relevant and meaningful information feels a lot like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It seems impossible and overwhelming.
The skill of finding nuggets of wisdom and powerful links to information is one that you develop over time.”
George Couros, “Innovate Inside the Box”
I wrote a whole chapter with Katie Novak on this very concept in “Innovate Inside the Box.”
The idea I shared and what Sutton shares in “Good Boss, Bad Boss” is connected.
When you a) put things out there and b) cut out negativity in your life, the things you seek tend to find you.
This is a good reminder for myself that hit me on the head this week!
