Why “Don’t Take it Personally” Is Terrible Work Advice
Every week the officers in our command get together and spend 20 minutes on personal and professional development training. It is a time of discussion where we view a short video or read a short article and then discuss how we can use that information to make ourselves better, our command better, and our Navy better; in that order. The training also gives me the opportunity to learn from the collective and share my thoughts and prospective from 20 years of hard won experience.
This week we read “Don’t Take it Personally” is terrible work advice by Duncan Coombe. The article argued against the popular notion that we need to divorce or personal lives from our professional lives.
- Have you seen someone who has totally depersonalized work? How does that person act?
- What are the benefits to making our work, leadership and followership personal?
- What are the costs to making our work, leadership and followership personal?
- Which one do you want to choose?
- At what point to we need to take it personally and start to change? (ie. When one person tells us we are a terrible speller, or when 100 people tell us we are a terrible speller)
- How can you or the command apply this information this week?
