Run a Good Race
Posted by debrahelwig on April 4, 2013
Spring has sprung! Easter is past, warm weather is on its way, the flowers are beautiful…
…and for my friends in public accounting, the April 15 deadline is looming like a BIG LOOMING THING.
Every industry has something like this – the project deadline that can’t be moved, that comes with a workload so crushing it hurts just to breathe. Everyone is focused on URGENT and MOVE IT THROUGH and GET ‘ER DONE.
When the churn comes around, you’ll run into people who get hyperfocused on the work on their desks – and ignore everything (and everyone) else around them. If it doesn’t directly affect their projects, they don’t care. They can’t. They’re too busy. And God help you if you have a situation that affects your handoff to them! Watch them go from pleasant to surly to snarly in about 2 seconds flat.
It’s a constant litany of MY work. MY deadline. MY performance review. ME oh MY oh ME ME ME ME ME…it’s all about MEEEEE!
(Sounds pretty awful when you read it that way, doesn’t it?)
But it’s just that tendency which makes stories like these resonate so strongly when we read them:
Ivan Fernandez Anaya, Spanish Runner, Intentionally Loses Race So Opponent Can Win – a true story! Kenyan athlete Abel Mutai thought the finish line of a race was sooner than it actually was, so he stopped running. Anaya, who was a clear 2nd place, chose not to sprint to the finish and instead slowed down so Mutai could win.
Contestants in a Special Olympics Race Link Arms and Finish Together – a strong exaggeration of a true story, this tale of 9 Special Olympics race contestants who stop to help up a fallen companion and finish the race together is powerful, even if it’s not especially accurate.
‘Cause here’s the truth: as deadlines approach, work is like a race. Getting to the end as efficiently and effectively as possible is important. But paying attention to the people we’re running with, and helping where we can, has a much greater positive impact than just getting to deadline day with finished stacks of work on our desks.
I experienced this truth first-hand last Fall. And it changed my life.
Last September, we were in the critical stages of launching one of our association’s most important meetings, and I dropped the ball. Big time. Just as I should have been building and launching a complex marketing campaign, my father became critically ill.
I didn’t do the campaign. I couldn’t do it. My father died. I planned a funeral.
And my fabulous, awesome, amazing colleagues? They did my work for me and never said a cross word. They put in extra hours. They did things that aren’t in their comfort zone. In that race, they picked me up and carried me across the finish line.
And I will be grateful and loyal to them, and to my company, forever after.
Offices are full of people. Folks with lives that have nothing to do with work – folks with sick kids and sick parents and broken down cars and bills and snow to shovel and God knows what else. Sometimes those non-work commitments mess with deadlines. Sometimes they destroy those deadlines.
It’s up to us to pay attention. To see when our colleagues are struggling and help them across the finish line.
In my Twitter feed yesterday, leadership guru Ken Blanchard said “Life, leadership, and business are all about giving people opportunities to be the best they can be.” Sometimes that means stepping outside of ourselves to carry our friends and colleagues when they can’t manage on their own.
Especially when the deadlines are looming.
Service Minded 
Melinda Guillemette said
Debra, thank you for this post. It is sorely needed these days, as our CPA friends struggle with deadlines, clients, and co-workers. The deadline will come and go. The work will get done, because it has to. All that stuff will fade, starting about April 16th. What remains, though, is how we have treated one another. Let’s hope all of us remember to handle each other with care and, dare I say, love.
Baddest Mother Ever said
Well said! Now get back to work.