Do you have a bad connection?
I hosted a software entrepreneur this morning. He had contacted me requesting an opportunity to demo his product to a small group of small and medium-sized businesses.
He showed up an hour early to make sure he had plenty of time to work through any IT glitches that might show up. Sure enough, after everything got connected up, what the A/V system was displaying on the screen was the wrong resolution, out of focus and had interference lines running throughout it. After playing around with the entrepreneur’s laptop settings a bit, I called our building’s IT support person.
Long story short, it ended up being nothing related to the laptop, the software or even the A/V system. A computer cable, used to connect the entrepreneur’s personal laptop into the control system, had been lengthened to reach a desk at the front of the room. The IT person simply jiggled a connecting point along the cable and the problem immediately cleared.
That got me thinking about how while we are all the connecting cable for most activities in our lives, we tend to look first at the things we are connecting when problems come up.
Career not headed in the direction you’d like? It must be the employment market, or your recruiter, or your employer. Right? Well, maybe. But what would happen if you jiggled your connection a bit? Maybe your attitude needs some brushing up. For that matter, maybe your wardrobe needs brushing up. Maybe you could use some new skills. Maybe you’re not making the right connections.
Project not on schedule, or over budget? It has to be unrealistic management expectations, unproductive staff or scope creep. Right? Try jiggling your connection again. Are you motivating your team and getting them into a mindset to deliver? Do they clearly understand what is being asked of them? Have you connected the analysts to the end users so everyone’s on the same page? Are you sending the right message with your own work ethic?
Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not suggesting that every issue we encounter in life, whether personal or professional, is somehow our fault. Rather, I am suggesting that we should not forget that we are the “connecting cable” or common denominator between everything and everyone we deal with on a daily basis. If something isn’t working out as you expected, don’t forget to look in the mirror as part of the resolution process.
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