Show Up. Show Out.

Every time.

It isn't easy though, is it?

At least for me, it isn't in my nature to make myself visible, but sometimes, in order to make the intended impact, it is necessary.

It is the end of day two of the sessions, but it is day three for me and as I was discussing with one of my colleagues earlier and I mentioned last night, there is no "personal space" between. From an early breakfast to the small hours of the night, the time is spent with people, often in a capacity that I have to be either switched on as a host, or concentrating and contributing as a participant. It is tiring.

And I am relatively social.

For those who are not, this must be quite draining, however I think that sine the majority are sales people, they are used to this kind of event, schedule and lack of personal space. For the few who are here from other functions, they are probably less "booked" that I am for this event.

What has been a highlight for me personally, is discovering how many talented people we have working in the organization and in many ways for me, it has illustrated how limited I am, even if they do not realize it. It could be that I expect more from myself than others do from me and when I look in the "social mirror" - all I see is shortcomings and inability, even though I know that this isn't entirely true.

I wonder though, is it better to feel not enough, or is it more useful to overestimate ability, to be overconfident. For example, my sister is a confident driver - no matter how many accidents she had. But, that was her for the few years after she got her license and I don't know if she has started listening and learning from her experience. I know people who go their whole life not learning from the feedback life provides.

Like the title of this post,

Show Up. Show Out.

I know people who "show up" consistently, but instead of bringing anything to the table, they expect to be provided for, like young children and daycare, waiting for their lunch to be served and having someone wipe their butt for them.

I also know people who "show out" and then expect that they should be rewarded for their result, even though it is a single point in their timeline. They aren't consistent. They filled in a ticket and expect to win the lottery.

It is rare that there are people who show up and show out consistently and as much as I would like to say I am that person, I definitely can't. However, I do try to maintain an above average "average" where I can feel that I am holding myself to a higher standard than I hold others. I don't expect anything from anyone, yet this doesn't stop me from forming baselines and making evaluations, because this is what humans do. However, I don't expect anything more than I expect from myself and, I generally expect less from others and attempt to take their own profile into consideration.

For example, there was a competitive analysis professional giving a presentation and whilst they weren't the most engaging presenter, that is not their job. Their job is to provide information and tools that enable sales professionals to better do their job and, they do that. It is silly to expect people to perform well outside of their nature, like the proverbial judgement of a fish's ability to climb a tree.

I think that one of the challenges in the world today is that there has been a consolidation of skillsets through tool development as well as cherrypicked examples of the best of class. This means that we are presented very high bars of what is considered "good" without consideration as to the specialization of the person. A presenter is meant to be like Steve Jobs, whilst also delve into the numbers like the mathematician John Nash as after all, Leonardo Da Vinci could do it.

See the problem?

Not so long ago, talent was localized, meaning that the competition was lower at a local level and, there were far more "gaps in the market" meaning space for individuals to do well, even if they weren't the best in the world at something. Now however, we are all competing against a cross-section of 7 billion people and in many cases, quite directly if the skills are digitally enabled, like a lot of work these days. Being considered good at something is hard, when what people's expectations and models for what is good are taken from the cream of the crop.

This sets up other challenges too, which is part of the reason that cancel culture is so ridiculous, especially from people who want to be treated as individuals. As individuals, it is highly unlikely that we are going to be the best at anything, let alone multiple things in comparison to what we are being held up against, so in a world where people are cancelled for making even slight errors, it is a very abusive culture. Of course, those who participate in this don't think or care about this, because they aren't the ones putting anything out there, they are the ones showing up to criticize, not develop solutions.

But, this will have to wait for another day to dive down this rabbit hole, because I have 7 minutes to cleanup, change and show up to dinner, though hopefully, I won't have to show out too much and I can just chill in the background.