So I used to be actually aggravated with the yard man.
He was not slicing the grass close to my hostas, so that they have been getting actually weedy. Then the subsequent week, he clearly tried to minimize the grass, however shredded a bunch of hostas with the weed whacker within the course of.
Once more, I used to be NOT glad. I really like my backyard. I’m grateful for assist with it, however not when stuff will get wrecked, you recognize.
However right here’s the factor. It actually wasn’t his fault. I’m not paying him to get on his fingers and knees to select grass from in between hostas like some type of grasp gardener. It is a show-up and cut-the-grass-fast type of deal. And this border, with a mixture of quartz rocks, hostas, and the dang grass, was not clearly outlined. It was actually a no-win for him.
So I mounted the border. It’s now a really clear thick line of brick pavers with grass on one aspect and hosta on the opposite. NOW I can count on the grass to be minimize and the hostas to survive intact. I did my half by setting a transparent boundary and he can do his half by slicing what he’s being paid to minimize and leaving the remaining undamaged.
Do you see the place this newest backyard metaphor goes?
So many occasions we as communications professionals suppose now we have set boundaries for our coworkers. We suppose now we have been clear. However let’s be trustworthy. More often than not we’ve left an entire lot of wiggle room in there. It’s simple for others who don’t dwell and breathe out work to be confused about precisely what the boundary is and what is going to occur if it’s crossed.
We make it even worse as a result of we’d discuss a giant recreation (even in our personal heads) about imposing boundaries, however then somebody crosses them, on function or by accident. After which we cave, relent, work late, and accommodate the boundary crosser, as a result of we simply need to get the work executed.
Then we really feel like they’re benefiting from us. We predict they don’t respect our boundaries or us when half the time, they actually didn’t admire that the boundary existed within the first place or it’s moved so many occasions they aren’t really positive the place it’s.
That’s on us.
Boundaries solely work when they’re unmistakably clear. Boundaries are both YES or NO; they aren’t MAYBE or I GUESS SO or OK, THIS ONE TIME.
It’s time to put your proverbial backyard gloves on and rebuild your boundaries so everybody can see them, clear as day.
I’m doing one other certainly one of our Bounce Starter programs on setting boundaries this Thursday. I’ll stroll you thru a number of the varieties of boundaries you would possibly want to set (or re-set!) and the way to go about doing that.
You may additionally discover these posts useful:
Setting Boundaries So You Don’t Get Doormatted
Boundaries You Want to Be Productive
How Boundaries Can Encourage You (one other backyard metaphor!)
