Back To The Basics / Building A Strong Foundation

Back from the land of Virginia and enjoying home!  I am so glad to be back that I officiated a basketball game 6 hours after I landed yesterday and two more today (more on officiating in my other blog).

While my trip to Virginia was fun (seeing various people I don't see often), there was a lot of information that I learned.  Most of this was work related and really not applicable to be shared in my personal blog.

However, there was one thing that I could share with people.  During my meetings with my Sales Engineering team Thursday, we were asked to share one bad and one good thing that occurred during the 2010 year and what we learned from the each of them.

While most of my co-workers shared incidents that occurred with customers, I shared the struggles I had at work that started in April.   There were complaints about my job performance and that led to some discussions with my manager.  The result was that I was put on a development plan to work on improving.

That was quite a challenging time for me.   It's never fun to be told that you aren't doing your job.  I took it pretty hard and didn't know exactly what I was going to do.  

After coming to terms with the situation, I dug in and followed the development plan the best that I could.   I studied my company's products and services to as much detail as I could.  I took online courses on communication, listening and other skills.  I listed to my fellow teammates on their calls.   Nine months later, things have quieted down.  My managed indicated there were no further complaints that he was aware of.

The point in all of this?  In everything we do in life, a strong foundation is needed.  For my work situation, going back to the basics helped me build a stronger foundation for me to do my job.  This was NOT my ideal situation but yet it was what I needed.

In the future, if you run into any struggles personally or professionally, try going back to the basics.   Somethings things aren't as complicated as they seem and focusing on the basic things will get you back on the path you are trying to go.   If you don't have a strong foundation, then going back to the basics will also be helpful as well.