Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

As a manager, I once believed that life could not occur without my presence. I killed myself to be at everything. I learned that was false. This was a blow to my ego that I was around people who were competent enough to work without me.

The biggest college basketball game of the year was played Monday night. And I didn’t watch a minute of it. The game happened without me.

I used to watch every NCAA basketball championship game. It didn’t matter how much sleep I lost and what was to happen the next day. The game couldn’t go on without me.

Then something strange happened: I missed a championship or two because of inattention or travel. The games went on anyway. How dare they play without me watching.

It was a big blow to my ego to realize that people could do big, important activities without me. As the years passed, I found more and more big, important activities occurring without me. One year, they played the Super Bowl without me watching! Imagine that.

Then I started noticing this at work. Critical meetings, tests, and milestones happened when I wasn’t present. The other people at work were smart enough and capable enough to do things when I wasn’t around. How could this be?

Well, it could be just fine. I could even leave a job, be replaced by someone else, (a nice someone else, but surely not as capable as me 😉 and the building would not collapse due to the vacuum of my absence. Amazing.

I learned – slowly, but I learned – to stop worrying about everything. I learned that my two eyes didn’t have to witness something for it to occur. I learned to trust other people to be competent and do a fine job.

I became much happier.

I would still like to watch the NCAA basketball championships. But I wake early in the morning and they play those games so late at night.