The Sanford Berenberg Experience: Message of the Day

Good Morning,

This past Saturday evening was the 19^th Annual Burns Night Supper hosted by the Scottish Society of Louisville. It is a formal get together where Scots and Scots enthusiasts celebrate the life and legacy of Robert Burns, Scotland’s Immortal Bard. At the end, the event was a success and pretty much everyone had a great time.

Behind the scenes, there were the many miscues, like sending out tickets with the wrong date and location on them. Or like finding out that a reservation for a table of eight was missed less than 24 hours prior to the event. Or several of the key program participants had to cancel due to illness or injury, after the program books had been printed.

Years ago, these issues would have sent my blood boiling, my nostrils flaring and steam coming out of them. I have often tried to control each aspect of the different events I worked at or led. And when something came up, or someone dropped the ball, I would get all sorts of angry and usually try to fix the problem myself. All the time muttering of how upset I was.

In these last few weeks as everything was coming together, and the miscues happened, I was able to grin and bear it. In some cases I even chuckled over the challenge which reared its ugly head. It was times like these that I am happy to have calmed down, and matured in how I face adversity.

The transition from being a hothead took place as I reflected on many of the times that things went wrong and I went off. I realized that often I tried to go it alone and do it all. Nowadays I am a delegating fool, eagerly handing out tasks to others. Giving each of them what they can handle and helping groom others to take on more and more with improved accuracy and quality.

If you are a hot head and get bent out of shape by the smallest hair being out of place, please know there is hope for you too.

First remember that you are never alone. There is always someone around who can help, often if you just ask. Lone Rangers tend to have more challenges than teams ever do.

Next, when something goes awry stop and think what will be the impact in a few days, months or years from now. Like my Burns Night, I knew that even if we had to change our speakers, the attendees would still have a good time. The impact of the error or challenge we face now may seem a lot greater than it really will be, and there is where our anger gets the better of us. We need to put it into perspective.

Another key is to learn and grow daily. Expand your capabilities, experiences and knowledge, and you will find that less and less will throw you for a loop when it happens.

Even though we may still be hotheads at times, those times are diminishing every day for those working to improve themselves. And that is good news!

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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