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Reflections on the last month


I have had a ferociously busy - but really fun - few months. Prior to going into my huddle I had been reflecting on doing a blog about being let down. I am glad that I waited since I can now also talk about being helped tremendously.

First to ponder the being let down part. Leaving corporate life and setting up two businesses has been a fantastic learning experience for me. It has also been quite a personal journey of discovery. Things that you take for granted when in one particular groove just don't follow in a different one. Being let down in terms of work is not something that really happens in corporate life, or at least not when you get senior enough. If your team do not deliver this is not personal, it is time or capability; it is your responsibility to help them and manage it (luckily something I very rarely had to do - thank you ex-team!); if other people do not deliver you deal with it or help their manager deal with it. It is Business and it feels like Business.

When you are running your own business it starts to feel much more personal. I have had to catch myself a couple of times and remind myself that this is just business. But the sense of disappointment is considerable and for me this was coupled with a reasonable degree of confusion - 'why was this happening', 'it did not use to be like this'. And, worst of all, 'I do not understand this, I would not do this to someone'.

I believe that mostly people are well intended but clearly the reality is that your particular concerns are not necessarily top of mind for them. Thus time passes (I see this from the gap in my blogs) and more time passes. Eventually it just feels too long and you let it slide away in the hopes that it has been forgotten. I also think that some people are genuinely disorganised, or busy and whilst well intended at the point of offer of help sort of get sidetracked before delivery of that help. And others, of course, just have different interests or values.

Whilst it still may be Business, it can feel like much more because it is Your Business.

However, having said this I can count on one hand the number of people who have disappointed me in this way since setting up mlh and HireScores.com. And this is far, far outweighed by the people who have gone out of their way to help me. Not bad really.

As I said, these last few months have been really busy but they have also been filled with great examples of help and support.

HireScores.com has released its new website this month - at the beginning of June. The site is fantastic. It works like a dream, has all sorts of great features, and an admin system and database that is truly awsome. Prior to this is was an extraordinarily stressful site to own. My new web developer - Creospace - has been just fantastic. My developer's personal quality standards and dedication is something that fills you with joy and reminds you that the world is essentially a good place. I had already been bowled over by the creativity and skill of eagleimagery my graphic designer. Combined we have a site that makes me happy every time I load it. And to make matters even better, I recently took on a new PR firm - 10Yetis - for HireScores.com and they have proved a fantastic find. I had never met them, signed them up for a trial run of two press releases and a media sheet (beautifully designed by the way) and then on Tuesday fell onto a potential opportunity which required PR support and they pretty much dropped everything, gave me a huge chunk of time and helped me achieve something that would not have happened without them - amazing. And these are just three examples of the many people I have met and worked with this year who have considerable skill, great values, high standards. [and to top it off I had delivered this week some hand crafted tables we ordered 3 years ago but the guy doing them became ill and thus struggled to complete - they are quite beautiful]

So my faith is restored, my equilibrium rebalanced and I am ready to conquer the world of blogging again (and promise not to do too many of these somewhat self indulgent ones). Back to some real HR stuff soon, I promise!

Published by: Lisette on 15/10/2007 - Add a comment

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