how did your first weekly challenge go?
as we talked about last sunday, i chose to focus on presence last week, specifically on how i conduct myself in the workplace. the beginning of the week started out slow, because my boss was out, another person who i consider to be like a second boss was out, and i didn’t have a whole lot of meetings. later in the week, though, i really had some good opportunities to practice presence. one of those opportunities was when i received a phone call from someone our company partners with who was not handling a situation appropriately and i had to be very confrontational and stand my ground, even when he did not make it easy for me to do so. i [luckily] managed to stay calm, collected, and professional even when he did not. not the most fun ever, but it happens.
in another instance, i was introduced to a large group of people unexpectedly, and i consciously focused on what impression i was giving, both verbal and nonverbal, as i said hello to the crowd and let them know what i do at our company, which is something that does not always come easy to me. i get intimidated easily by those types of situations, and i can be self-conscious of my public speaking skills and how young i am. i was nervous, but i do think i handled myself better than i would have had i not been thinking about presence.
and finally, during the time that my boss was out, i went to my former boss for advice on a problem that i was trying to solve, and while giving her the background of the situation, i suddenly realized that i was not being deductive and giving way too much detail, and that she just needed the top line information. i was able to reel myself back in, and although it was not an example of how i succeeded at maintaing the presence that i desire, i was glad that i recognized it so i could make improvements going forward.
for this week’s challenge, i’m going to organize my desk at work and try to keep it that way. paperwork is something that i really struggle with in terms of staying neat – all my electronic files stay pretty organized, but when it comes to my desk, the papers just stack up. tomorrow i’m going to go through them and either file them all or throw them out, and then i’m going to work on keeping it that way for the entire week [and longer, hopefully!]. i also have a bookshelf that is full of papers that i haven’t looked at since i moved cubes, so those need to go. it will be so refreshing to have a neat and clean desk, and i’ve been meaning to do this for a while, so i can hardly wait to get started!
{so i looked a lot better this morning when i was dressed for church and breakfast. but oh well. welcome to the real me!}
have a great week, friends!