Guess what’s on my bathroom sink, neatly lined up with all my shampoos, soaps, electric beard trimmer, and dental floss:
A nice bottle of Tabasco Sauce.
It’s true. My housekeeper puts it there for me every week and ensures it’s fresh.
What the hell do I need Tabasco sauce in the bathroom for? Beats me.
But it seems Helena thinks I must indeed need it, because it’s there every week. And the thing is, she’s a VERY bright, alert, hard working, sweet woman.
Turns out a few months ago I was rushing around and suddenly realized I was late for an appointment while I was eating my lunch (Amy’s organic black bean soup). Apparently I didn’t want to stop eating it (it’s REALLY good) so I dragged it upstairs with me to the bathroom before I took a shower. Not the most grown up thing I ever did, but que sera’ sera’.
Anyway, since I work at home, my housekeeper tries to bother me as little as possible. She just tries to anticipate what I need and please me. And apparently she thought that henceforth I’d be using tabasco sauce in my bathroom routines.
And me, mister brilliant, educated doctor that I am, fell right into the routine thinking it was so neatly lined up, it looked like it really belonged there… maybe I AM supposed to do something with it. Of course, I kept meaning to say something, but I was just too busy.
So for months there’s been a bottle of tabasco sauce, needlessly sitting on my bathroom counter, for no reason at all, and my housekeeper’s been wasting time and effort thinking this is an important way to please me.
Which got me to thinking…
In total, there are over a dozen people who work for and/or with me, many of whom have probably developed ridiculous and superstitious routines in their efforts to please me.
And the truth is, there ARE certain things I’d like to have set up in the bathroom in a very particular way each day for myself, I just never bothered to write out the system and communicate it.
Similarly, how many OTHER things am I dismissing as trivial while people around me scramble to read my mind and make me happy?
If you’re going to outsource effectively as an entrepreneur, it’s something worth thinking about!
Do the people working for you REALLY know what it takes to please you, or have you allowed them to develop their own “Tabasco Sauce” superstitions? (Don’t answer too quickly now!)
Dr. G 🙂
PS – On January 1st, 2016 I’ll be opening my coaching practice to NEW students for perhaps the last time. This will be for one day only, and because very few people ever leave me I haven’t opened for almost three full years. (Actually, I think it will BE three years on January 1st). If you’re even remotely interested in working with me directly, read this letter and get on the priority notification list at the bottom… then watch your email on New Year’s morning at 9 am. The rest of the list gets notified at 10.