I ate lunch with my boss today. It was a good lunch – Taco Tuesday, in fact – but the food wasn’t what really struck me. It was my boss’s ability to really listen to me. Over small talk and shared bottles of Cholula, the subject of my work on Social Media came up. He was intrigued to find out that, despite my obvious pleasure in doing it, that it wasn’t quite living up to my expectations. We started talking about it. I voiced my opinions and he listened. After I was done explaining what I felt we were doing wrong, he said he would speak to his counterpart and something would get done.
A few hours later, when I was in another building on campus, I ran into his counterpart. He stopped me and asked me what my boss’s email was about. We talked, briefly, and that conversation wasn’t a win, but it was something. It was the manifestation of the fact that I have the support of the people around me to take the plans that we’re developing for Social Media. It won’t happen overnight and we’ll probably have to convert some staunch detractors – but ultimately, I think the program is going to be a huge success for the company. I’ve been so excited about it that I haven’t been able to stop reading about various SM stuff, and had an hour or so long conversation with Gwen Bell about various SM stuff.
It’s nice when your passions and your work can intersect. It makes you excited to go into work (although I do have a 5 day weekend). It makes you so excited you email your co-workers various thoughts you’ve been having. Sure, it’s 12:36am and I’ve been reading/writing and talking about all this since 6pm – but I’m happy. And there’s something to be said about that…
