April 9, 2012
Marta Ruggles, District Manager
Some of you may relate to this – what I consider to be one of my strengths is also one of my weaknesses…..what I’m talking about is multitasking.
I have always enjoyed doing more than one thing. Through the years, that natural inclination has developed into what we call "multitasking." We all know what this looks like – keeping an eye on the dining room at the end of lunch while finishing that write up, cooking off something while chopping something else, and yes…checking emails while in meetings, working on the computer while on the phone or conference calls. And the benefits of multitasking…wow!!! We get so much more done in a shorter period of time!! Right?
Somewhere along the way, multitasking took over and I began to see/feel the downside of doing this inappropriately. Most often the downside meant I was not paying full attention to someone. – missing what was being said, and sometimes just plain being rude. Doing what I thought was a good thing really began to have some negative side effects especially where people were involved. I realized that multitasking is called that for a reason – you do several tasks at a time. What I lost sight of is that people are not tasks, they are people and need our undivided attention, and ears, and thoughts.
I have had to "retrain" myself to assess what is good multitasking and what is not. When thinking about our April core value – Be the Best Partner, my mind jumped to this. When I am interacting with people (Love Food, People, Serving Others), I can not be "with" them, fully, if I am multitasking. If I am not engaged, completely, I am not hearing, listening and processing what is going on. So then, how can I be the best partner – to client, to each other, to family?
I still have some work to do on this, but I am committed to being the best partner to all of you. How can I do this? For starters, I can be totally in the moment wherever I am, and whomever I’m with. I invite you to join me in the moment.
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