My family celebrated my dad’s 90th birthday this month and we had our company’s annual meeting around the same time. I had moved meetings around so that I could enjoy the family weekend, but the result was that I chose not to attend our company meeting – a first in 23 years!
At first, I started working on how to do everything: be fully present at our company meeting, travel to another out-of-town meeting where I was the speaker, get all the birthday party things arranged and executed, and oh yeah – how about being calm and unstressed?
As I juggled the actions needed, I could feel a sense of dread coming on. If one domino fell, like a missed flight, it might lead to me missing several things. So, I made a choice and asked the team to handle our company meeting without me, lowering the odds of a ball dropping on my to-do list and resulting in a sense of peace. I slowed my roll a bit and ignored the guilt that tried to get in my head about needing to be at the company meeting.
There was a time when my presence was necessary; not anymore. I am so proud of the team that has made that happen: very little depends on me. I’m not implying that I’m ‘The Mommy’ of our company, but just like my dad had played a certain role in our life, there came a time when we needed him in a different way. He showed up at his party but didn’t need to plan and execute it like he had done for so many moments in our life. He got to be a part of things without being the conductor. And thanks to my team’s generosity and understanding, I got to experience a special event with my family without worrying about work things.
The beauty of this experience was the capital letter T trust relationship I am privileged to have with my co-workers. I was honest with them about what I wanted to do and they were honest with me about me not really being needed, which neither hurt nor offended me but instead made me feel relieved and appreciative.
The company meeting was successful, even though the team had to deal with some dominos, like the hotel moving venues and a speaker having their dates mixed up. They managed every snafu and enjoyed the time together. I am glad that they got to experience the positive feeling of resolving a problem on their own.
Leaving my dad’s birthday weekend, he took the time to thank me for all the work that had gone into the celebration and I knew the choice I made was the right one.
– Becky Sharpe, CEO
