Here's a story many of you can related to: A high-volume operation, already down one person, loses another key team member (for non-work-related reasons, no less) at a peak moment of production. The void left behind seems almost insurmountable, as every person on the team is already stretched to (or past) his or her capacity. And the bigger problem: Customers don’t care; no one wants excuses. There’s a deadline and it needs to be met.
Sounds familiar, right? So, what do you do? Well, I can tell you firsthand; this story is about our team at FenderBender over the last month or so. A lot goes on behind the scenes here to produce this publication each month, and honestly, we prefer to keep it “behind the scenes.” But I bring up this story for a very specific reason, which I’ll get to a little later.
First, our solution: Just as you would likely do, we divided up the remaining work; everyone took on more and everyone pushed forward. But it’s never quite that simple. You can’t tell people who already work extremely hard to just work harder, put in more hours and figure it out. It’s not fair to them, and it’s not realistic. Instead, everyone decided to work smarter—and work together. They shared interviews, they tag-teamed stories, they picked each other up when they needed it. And, in the end, they got it done.
Now, here’s my reason for sharing: This was a major victory for us, and I want to recognize my team for it. I am incredibly proud and constantly humbled to work with such selfless, motivated and talented people. At the rapid-fire pace we work at (and all of you do, as well), it’s easy to take success for granted. It’s easy to focus only on mistakes. Don’t. Celebrate success. Appreciate the wins. Recognize performance. No amount of words here will likely do it justice, so I’ll just leave it with two more: Thank you.
