Tripped Up

I had the pleasure of spending most of my week training and evaluating other professionals in Minneapolis. Playing a part in creating a learning environment and seeing life long learners pick up new skills is truly rewarding.

I personally did final evaluations with 16 people and most did a great job, took constructive criticism and received steps to work on to be even better. Being managers from around the country I have confidence that they will go back and spread the impact to hundreds of people.

Out of 16 people there were three that got tripped up. Tripped up by making excuses. Three people after not meeting the expectation in their presentation either blamed a lack of sleep, lack of prep time or not understanding the time limits of the event.

After quietly interrupting their excuses I asked them to explain to me as a professional how lack of sleep, lack of prep time or failure to understand the objective had anything to do with their poor performance?

To their credit, every single person confronted by the emphasized word professional stopped, re-thought their excuse and replied in like manner. Their excuse was no excuse for their poor preparation because as a professional there is a demand to rise to the occasion and produce great results no matter the situation.

Although this was not the specific outcome of the training for the week I feel that sometimes the learning that can take place after a trip up that is unplanned and unseen can be the most productive of all.

Being tripped up is never fun. What you learn in hind sight can sometimes allow you to be thankful for the lesson.